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<p>ROCKY HILL, Conn. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Saturday evening's drawing of the Connecticut Lottery's "Lucky Links Night" game were:</p>
<p>03-04-08-09-10-13-17-18</p>
<p>(three, four, eight, nine, ten, thirteen, seventeen, eighteen)</p>
<p>ROCKY HILL, Conn. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Saturday evening's drawing of the Connecticut Lottery's "Lucky Links Night" game were:</p>
<p>03-04-08-09-10-13-17-18</p>
<p>(three, four, eight, nine, ten, thirteen, seventeen, eighteen)</p> | Winning numbers drawn in 'Lucky Links Night' game | false | https://apnews.com/178e7ca6c3a4431cb20546f2cd5f1c01 | 2018-01-07 | 2 |
<p>YORK, Maine (AP) - A Massachusetts man has been sentenced to a month in jail following his arrest for hiding small video cameras in a beach rental to spy on guests.</p>
<p>WCSH-TV <a href="http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/man-who-hid-cameras-in-york-vacation-home-bathrooms-gets-30-days-in-jail/504484504" type="external">reports</a> 32-year-old Joseph McGrath of East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, rented the home in York, Maine, last September and placed four hidden cameras in bathrooms. He was staying at the home with his wife and children.</p>
<p>Police say McGrath placed the cameras inside an air freshener on the top of the back of the toilets. The cameras had clear views of showers. Police say McGrath was convicted of 10 counts of violation of privacy on Tuesday and immediately taken to jail.</p>
<p>YORK, Maine (AP) - A Massachusetts man has been sentenced to a month in jail following his arrest for hiding small video cameras in a beach rental to spy on guests.</p>
<p>WCSH-TV <a href="http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/man-who-hid-cameras-in-york-vacation-home-bathrooms-gets-30-days-in-jail/504484504" type="external">reports</a> 32-year-old Joseph McGrath of East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, rented the home in York, Maine, last September and placed four hidden cameras in bathrooms. He was staying at the home with his wife and children.</p>
<p>Police say McGrath placed the cameras inside an air freshener on the top of the back of the toilets. The cameras had clear views of showers. Police say McGrath was convicted of 10 counts of violation of privacy on Tuesday and immediately taken to jail.</p> | Man gets month in jail for hiding cameras in bathrooms | false | https://apnews.com/93020ed405b2414281e2e64e0107ff15 | 2018-01-04 | 2 |
<p><a href="http://pienews.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/BAGHDADI-IRAQI-MINISTRY-OF-THE-INTERIOR_0.jpg" type="external" />Abu Bakr al Baghdadi Abu Bakr al Baghdadi (Photo/Iraqi Ministry of Interior) (CNSNews.com) - Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), issued a rare audio message back on January 21 in which he flatly stated his group's intention to march on Baghdad [?]</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/isis-leader-usa-soon-we-will-be-direct-confrontation" type="external">Click here to view original web page at www.cnsnews.com</a></p>
<p /> | ISIS Leader to USA: 'Soon We Will be in Direct Confrontation' | true | http://politicalillusionsexposed.com/isis-leader-to-usa-soon-we-will-be-in-direct-confrontation/ | 0 |
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<p>Two major news stories here in the U.S., both chilling, point out how readily U.S. authorities will murder people based on race and the slightest possibility of a threat to those in places of power.</p>
<p>On July 5th Baton Rouge police killed Anton Sterling in a Louisiana parking lot. Sterling was a 37-year-old Black father of five selling CDs outside of a local storege. As captured on widely seen cellphone video, two officers tased him, held him with their hands and knees down on the ground and then shot him multiple times at close range. The officers pulled a gun out of Sterling’s pocket after they had killed him but witnesses say Sterling was not holding the gun and his hands were never near his pockets. The situation might have escalated further but clearly little concern was shown for the sanctity of a human life deemed a threat to officers. In the witness-recorded video one officer promises, “If you f—ing move, I swear to God!”</p>
<p>Police departments in the U.S. often arrest and all too often kill citizens on U.S. streets based on “racial profiling,” Young men of certain demographics are targeted based on their “patterns of behavior” for confrontations in which officers’ safety trumps any concern for the safety of suspects, and which easily ramp up to killing.</p>
<p>And so it is abroad. The week’s <a href="" type="internal">other chilling news</a> involved the long-promised release of U.S. government data on drone strikes and civilian deaths. The report covered four countries with which the U.S. is not at war. From 2009 through 2015 in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya the U.S. admits to its drone strikes having killed between 64 and 116 civilians, although these numbers are only a small fraction of even the most conservative estimates on such deaths made by credible independent reporters and researchers over the same period. With U.S. definitions of a “combatant” constantly in flux, many of the 2,372 to 2,581 “combatants” the government reports killed over the same period will have certainly been civilian casualties. Few eyes in the U.S. watch for cellphone video from these countries, and so the executing officers’ versions of events are often all that matters.</p>
<p>In June 2011 CIA Director John Brennan stated there hadn’t been “a single collateral death” caused by drone strikes over the previous eighteen months. Ample reportage showed this statistic was a flat lie. Marjorie Cohn notes that what little we know of President Obama’s 2013 policy guidelines (still classified) for decreasing civilian deaths is inconsistent even on the point of a known target having been present. Many strikes are targeted at areas of suspicious activity with no idea of who is present.</p>
<p>As Philip Giraldi <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/obama-legitimizes-the-drone-wars/" type="external">notes</a>, a March 2015 Physicians for Social Responsibility report claims that more (perhaps far more) than 1.3 million people were killed during the first ten years of the “Global War on Terror” in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Adding Syria, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen, he finds the current total might easily exceed 2 million with some estimates credibly going to 4 or beyond. He fears the data released July 1st will end up normalizing the drone program, writing: “The past 15 years have institutionalized and validated the killing process. President Clinton or Trump will be able to do more of the same, as the procedures involved are ‘completely legal’ and likely soon to be authorized under an executive order.”</p>
<p>The July 1st data minimizes civilian deaths by limiting itself to countries with which the U.S. is not at war. But the United States’ drone arsenal is precisely designed to project violence into areas miles from any battlefield where arrest, not assassination would before have been considered both feasible and morally indispensable in dealing with suspects accused of a crime. U.S. figures do not count untold numbers of civilians learning to fear the sky, in formerly peaceful areas, for weapons that might be fired without warning. The drones take away the very idea of trials and evidence, of the rule of law, making the whole world a battlefield.</p>
<p>In the U.S. neighborhoods where people like Alton Sterling most risk summary execution, residents cannot be faulted for concluding that the U.S.’ government and society don’t mind treating their homes as warzones; that lives of innocent people caught up in these brutal wars do not matter provided the safety and property of the people outside, and of the people sent in to quell disorder, are rigorously protected.</p>
<p>My friends and sometime hosts in Afghanistan, the Afghan Peace Volunteers, run a school for street kids, and a seamstress program to distribute thick blankets in the winter. They seek to apply Mohandas Gandhi’s discipline of letting a determination to keep the peace show them the difficult work needed to replace battlefields with community. Their resources are small and they live in a dangerous city at a perilous time. Their work does little, to say the least, to ensure their safety. They aim to put the safety of their most desperate neighbors first.</p>
<p>It makes no-one safer to make our cities and the world a battlefield. The frenzied concern for our safety and comfort driving so much of our war on the Middle East has made our lives far more dangerous. Can we ask ourselves: which has ever brought a peaceful future nearer to people in Afghan or U.S. neighborhoods– weaponized military and surveillance systems or the efforts of concerned neighbors seeking justice? Gigantic multinational “defense” systems gobble up resources, while programs intended for social well-being are cut back. The U.S. withholds anything like the quantity of resources needed for the task of healing the battle scar the U.S. and NATO have inflicted on so much of the Muslim world. If our fear is endless, how will these wars ever end?</p>
<p>We have to face that when the U.S. acts as self-appointed “global policeman,” what it does to poor nations resembles what those two officers did to Alton Sterling. We must temper selfish and unreasonable fears for our own safety with the knowledge that others also want safe and stable lives. We must build community by lessening inequality. We must swear off making the world our battlefield and be appalled to hear the U.S. government seem to tell the world “I will kill you if you f—ing move.”</p> | Don’t Move: Two Killings | true | https://counterpunch.org/2016/07/08/dont-move-two-killings/ | 2016-07-08 | 4 |
<p>On the May 7 edition of CNN's American Morning, co-host Kiran Chetry asked radio host Michael Savage about his July 16, 2008, <a href="/research/2008/07/17/savage-on-autism-a-fraud-a-racket-in-99-percent/144072" type="external">statement</a> that "I'll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out." Savage then said to Chetry: "That's an absurd statement that was said in jest. They understand that." After Media Matters for America highlighted his comments, which generated extensive criticism, Savage <a href="/research/2008/07/22/savage-falsely-recasts-autism-remarks-to-claim/144112" type="external">claimed</a> that the comments were "take[n] out of context," a claim Media Matters rebutted.</p>
<p>On the July 16, 2008, broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Savage <a href="/research/2008/07/17/savage-on-autism-a-fraud-a-racket-in-99-percent/144072" type="external">claimed</a> that autism is "[a] fraud, a racket." Savage went on to say, "I'll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don't have a father around to tell them, 'Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot.' " Savage had previously <a href="/research/2008/07/23/if-savage-was-smearing-only-misdiagnoses-of-aut/144127" type="external">described</a> autism as a "phony disease."</p>
<p>From the May 7 edition of CNN's American Morning:</p>
<p>CHETRY: Why don't you clear up some of the misconceptions? I want to ask you about your views on some of the following things. What are your views on homosexuality, for example?</p>
<p>SAVAGE: My religious training teaches me that it's something to shun, and when a society starts to embrace homosexuality and other behaviors, where does the society end up?</p>
<p>CHETRY: And what do you say to people who say, you know, "I was born this way? I didn't ask to, you know, be attracted to one sex or the other and I shouldn't be treated differently?"</p>
<p>SAVAGE: Well, you could be born many different ways -- it doesn't mean this is a -- it doesn't mean that a person has to follow their urges. I mean, there are many urges that people have, and if a society starts to engage homosexuality on an equal footing with heterosexuality, you end up with no society. Where is the reproduction supposed to come from? Have we lost all sense of father, mother, and family?</p>
<p>CHETRY: You once said about autism --</p>
<p>SAVAGE [audio clip]: You know what autism is? I'll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is.</p>
<p>SAVAGE: That's an absurd statement that was said in jest. They understand that. First of all, I come from a family where I had a handicapped brother, which I don't want to go into. And I have given money, I have supported people, I protected the defenseless all my life. There's no one in the media who's done more for the defenseless than Michael Savage, particularly children.</p>
<p>CHETRY: What are your views about immigrants and illegal immigration?</p>
<p>SAVAGE: Illegal immigration? It's in keeping with 80 percent of the American people. They want it stopped, and they want it stopped now.</p> | Savage now says he was joking about autism | true | http://mediamatters.org/research/200905070021 | 2009-05-07 | 4 |
<p>“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”&#160; Genesis, Chapter 1, Verse 27, King James Version.</p>
<p>I don’t remember the first time I heard that verse of the Bible.&#160; I’m sure it was in a Sunday School class or part of a long-forgotten Pastor’s sermon in my little hometown country church when I was a very young child.&#160; It probably didn’t prompt me to deep thinking about the subject matter at the time. &#160;I was likely preoccupied with getting out of my Sunday best and getting back to being a playful youngster.</p>
<p>But I do vividly remember the paintings and pictures decorating the walls of the church, depicting God as a large grandfatherly-looking white man, with flowing white hair and a full white beard, sitting on a throne in the clouds.&#160; And at some point in early reasoning, I began to wonder how we arrived at that particular image of God, and on whose Grandfather it was based.&#160; It certainly wasn’t mine, who was tall, thin, and had no hair to speak of.</p>
<p>Of course, that train of thought led me to reason if we are all made in the image of God, why are we all so different looking?&#160; There were tall men and women, short men and women, thin, fat, white, brown, black, etc.&#160; You get the idea.&#160; Which one of us was really the image of God?</p>
<p>As I got a little older, I started to see images and read stories of prehistoric men that resembled apes more than humans, and the thought crossed my mind, did God actually look like the fossilized remains of our ancestors?</p>
<p>I struggled with that concept through my early years, as I have other Bible passages, and no one in church seemed to address it, at least that I can remember.&#160; Being quite shy at the time, I was almost afraid of bringing it up, fearful I would be deemed a heretic and burned at the stake.</p>
<p>And at some point, I read something about images, and I started to think about how different types of mirrors can distort your own image in strange and often hilarious ways.&#160; I saw myself once in a mirror that was many years old, and had lost much of whatever causes a mirror to reflect an image.&#160; I could barely make my own self out, but I knew it was me.</p>
<p>That was about the time I realized that being made in the image of God did not mean a physical likeness, but a spiritual likeness instead.&#160; The next time I read Genesis, I better understood the next verse, where God charged the male and female he created with having dominion over every living thing.</p>
<p>God created humans to be similar to Him, not an exact copy, but closer to Him than any other living thing.&#160; We have the ability to reason and to create, traits that no other creature on earth can match.&#160; Sure animals can learn and some have even developed the ability use tools, but that comes from seeing a process that works for a reward and adapting their behavior to it.&#160; No animal can brainstorm with others of its species and invent a new way of doing something or creating something as humans do on a daily basis.</p>
<p>God gave us an incredible gift, but He also gave us a choice of how we use it.&#160; Some use the ability to help their fellow man and the planet over which God gave humans dominion, while others use their intelligence and reasoning to develop new and more efficient ways of killing other humans.</p>
<p>The choice is ours, and we are the only ones that can make it as it applies to our own lives.&#160; We even have the choice to believe that God exists and we are made in His spiritual image, or that He is merely a fantasy, concocted to control the human race.</p>
<p>Whatever you believe, you still have the choice.&#160; Doing the right thing sometimes is difficult, but the ability to recognize what is right and wrong is embedded in the human race, a trait that is uniquely human.&#160; Unfortunately, far too many chose not to use it.</p>
<p /> | Was the human race made in the image of God? | false | http://natmonitor.com/2017/03/03/was-the-human-race-made-in-the-image-of-god/ | 2017-03-03 | 3 |
<p />
<p>Image source: Verizon Communications.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Verizon Communications' (NYSE: VZ) stock price jumped16.37% in 2016 according to data provided by <a href="http://marketintelligence.spglobal.com/" type="external">S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence Opens a New Window.</a>on strong customer gains throughout the year as investors looked for safe stocks to invest in among some global economic uncertainties.</p>
<p>Image source: <a href="https://ycharts.com/charts/fund_chart_creator/fool/#/?calcs=id:price,include:true,,&amp;securities=id:VZ,include:true,,&amp;startDate=01%2F01%2F2016&amp;endDate=12%2F31%2F2016&amp;zoom=custom&amp;chartView=&amp;title=&amp;note=&amp;partner=fool_580&amp;format=indexed&amp;recessions=false&amp;splitType=single&amp;scaleType=linear&amp;units=false&amp;source=false&amp;liveData=false&amp;quoteLegend=true&amp;legendOnChart=true&amp;correlations=&amp;securitylistSecurityId=&amp;securityGroup=&amp;securitylistName=&amp;displayTicker=false" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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<p>The stock price started ticking up toward the beginning of the year leading up to Verizon's fourth-quarter 2015 results, reported at the end of January 2016. The company's revenue grew by only 3.2% on a year-over-year basis to $34.25 billion, but it made strong gains in customer growth, adding 1.5 million wireless subscribers in the quarter. Additionally, postpaid churn rate (the rate at which customers leave) was just 0.96%.</p>
<p>The company also added 99,000 new net FiOS wireline customers and 20,000 FiOS video customers, year-over-year increases of 6.3% and 3.2%, respectively.</p>
<p>Verizon's stock price suffered several setbacks throughout the year, mainly due to an employee strike and news of several hacking instances at Yahoo, which Verizon is currently in the process of buying.</p>
<p>But it was likely the company's overall stability, and its 4% dividend yieldat the time, that kept investors interested in the stock. The company's slow and steady growth has been paired with its increasingly strong network position, which was shored up this past year when Verizon purchased the fiber optic company XO Communications.</p>
<p>Going forward, Verizon's network remains strong, and the company is still a great dividend stock for long-term investors.</p>
<p>The company's stock price has taken a bit of a hit since the beginning of the year after full-year results came out in January.Verizon finished 2016 with 114.2 million retail connections -- a 1.9 percent year-over-year increase --while full-year revenue was down 2.7% year-over-year. Year to date, the company's stock is down more than 8%.</p>
<p>In 2017, investors will be looking for more details on the final terms of the Yahoo deal, which is expected to close later this year, and for Verizon to successfully test its 5G network and implement its XO Communications purchase to further enhance its network.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Verizon CommunicationsWhen 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>
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<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of February 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFNewsie/info.aspx" type="external">Chris Neiger Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Verizon Communications and Yahoo. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why Verizon Communications Jumped 16% in 2016 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/12/why-verizon-communications-jumped-16-in-2016.html | 2017-02-12 | 0 |
<p>Seventy percent of Americans believe we should commit crimes against humanity. Not that they would put it that way. They would say something like, in the words of a Pew poll from some months ago, that torturing suspected terrorists is “often justified” (19 percent), “sometimes justified” (35 percent), or “rarely justified” (16 percent). That such beliefs persist, in such numbers, after years of talk about torture, signifies a moral chasm almost too depressing to contemplate.</p>
<p>If hope remains for spanning that chasm, it lies in the possibility—I would even argue the probability—that the better part of those 70 percent are not barbarous, merely benighted. To maintain such hope, it helps to have faith in American ignorance. My faith is pure. I derive immense comfort, for example, from the similarity between the pro-torture 70 percent and the 68 percent of Americans who believe “angels and demons are active in the world.” Surely many of my pro-torture countrymen just need a little more education about torture. Well, a lot more.</p>
<p>There is ample reason to believe they aren’t getting enough to make a difference. As other commentators have described, our educators on such affairs—reporters, editors, producers—have failed us abysmally. They have deferred grossly to hawks (including torture hawks), have dismissed doves as frivolous, have soft-pedaled the worst of tortures as “enhanced interrogation techniques,” have only rarely told us that to torture (or to send captives elsewhere to be tortured, as we still do) is to violate the UN Convention Against Torture (which the United States has adopted as law), and have told us even more rarely that international law regards systematic torture as a crime akin to those for which we executed Nazis at Nuremberg.</p>
<p>I would add one important failing to this list—one almost never discussed, as I found in four years of working on my new book about extraordinary rendition and torture, <a href="" type="internal">A Kidnapping in Milan: The CIA on Trial</a>. To wit: the media almost never describe torture in all its savage detail. They abbreviate, elide, or wholly omit the gruesome specifics that many people need if they are to understand the horror that torture is. The media censor thus, they tell us, because to do otherwise would be too disturbing. Evidently they do not consider that we should be disturbed.</p>
<p>Imagine how few people would have been disturbed by the Holocaust if we had not seen the naked dead heaped in piles higher than the gas chambers that killed them, not read of walking skeletons who were worked until they fell dead in the snow, whereupon their boots were stripped off by other skeletons who might, by their use, survive another week. Only in rare instances has such imagery, visual or verbal, disturbed Americans in the war on terror. (The photos from Abu Ghraib only hinted at the torture that took place there, and the most brutal of the photos were censored by most publications.)</p>
<p>What should we be reading about torture? I venture to reproduce a passage from my book about what it is like to await torture in one of the Egyptian dungeons to which the United States sends its kidnapped victims:</p>
<p>“When pain is about to be endured, it become easier to imagine correctly, which is why awaiting pain is itself an anguish. The anguish will be all the greater if the awaiter lives in a place where torture is common, because he will have heard stories about others’ tortures. He may, for example, have heard of falanga, which is striking the soles of the feet with a rod and which causes an excruciation so permeating that victims have said it is as if someone stuck a knife in their brain stem. The pain may be minutely lessened by arching the feet, but after several blows the feet swell grotesquely and cannot be arched at all. Or the person awaiting torture may have heard of a prisoner who was made to stand barefoot on the edges of jagged cans so that the cans sliced into the soles of his feet until they bled dry. Or he may know of a victim whose hand was placed on a table and smashed methodically with a hammer, first the back of the hand proper, then the knuckles and bones of one finger, then another finger, and so on until no bone was left unshattered. He may also know of a woman who had her head pounded against the corner of a file cabinet until her skull was split and her brain bared. He may know of another woman whose child was dangled out a sixth-story window until she signed whatever her tormentors wanted her to sign. He may have heard of a man who was forced to watch his daughter raped or his father sodomized. Another man will have had ether injected into his scrotum, which feels like lighting a match inside the testicles.</p>
<p>“Another’s pubic hair will have been set on fire. Another will have had cockroaches inserted in his rectum. Another will have shared a cell with a cobra. Someone else will have been made to sit in a chair and have her upper torso shaken back and forth so quickly that she vomited, urinated, and defecated on herself. Another will have endured the same shaking and will have emerged as if lobotomized.</p>
<p>“Another will have had his hands cuffed behind his back, then the cuffs will have been connected to chains, which will have been thrown over a pulley and yanked so that he was lifted into the air until his arms were twisted out of their sockets—torture in its truest sense, since the word is derived from the Latin torquere, ‘to twist.’</p>
<p>“Another will have been dragged on her face over unfinished concrete. Another made to swallow large amounts of salt, then denied water for several days until he nearly died of thirst, then finally given a drink that will have turned out to be urine. Another will have had boiling water thrown on his feet. Another’s feet will have been submerged for hours in ice cubes. There are prisoners who have been soaked so long in vats, with only their heads sticking out, that when they were removed from the liquid their skin fell off and they died slow, painful deaths. There are places where the cat-o’-nine-tails is still used: the prisoner is stripped of his shirt and tied hand and foot to a post, then whipped with a leather scourge that has seven or nine or a dozen ‘tails,’ whose ends are knotted or studded with metal. The first lashes raise horrible welts, and the man will scream ferociously. Subsequent lashes cut through his skin until, slice by slice, his back becomes raw flesh, blood pools at his feet, and his voice fails him. (Thus may have arisen the saying ‘Cat got your tongue?’) If his torture continues, his back will look as if it has been through a meat grinder. If he is lucky, he will pass out.</p>
<p>“In Egypt, beatings, falanga, suspension in the air, and whippings enjoy wide currency. The other above tortures have all been used in recent years, some in Egypt, some in countries not far away. The cat-o’-nine-tails, which may have been named for the cat hide that ancient Egyptians used for the tails, was an official tool of the Egyptian state until the twenty-first century, when it was banned because of international censure. The ban is nominal. All such bans are nominal. The prisoner in an Egyptian cell, waking or sleeping, has much to occupy his mind.”</p>
<p>Exposing Americans to such accounts will not rid us of torture hawks any more than exposure to similar accounts has eliminated Holocaust deniers. But the exposure would make some benighted Americans understand why torture is a crime against humanity—why treating any person with such brutality, whatever he stands accused of, destroys our humanity as surely as it does his.</p>
<p>STEVE HENDRICKS is the author of <a href="" type="internal">A Kidnapping in Milan: The CIA on Trial</a>, just published by W. W. Norton. His Web site is <a href="http://www.SteveHendricks.org" type="external">www.SteveHendricks.org</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | More Torture, Please? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/11/15/more-torture-please/ | 2010-11-15 | 4 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&amp;search_source=search_form&amp;search_tracking_id=AB4QRGnF9GNRorAhqsm1Kg&amp;version=llv1&amp;anyorall=all&amp;safesearch=1&amp;searchterm=online+spy&amp;search_group=&amp;orient=&amp;search_cat=&amp;searchtermx=&amp;photographer_name=&amp;people_gender=&amp;people_age=&amp;people_ethnicity=&amp;people_number=&amp;commercial_ok=&amp;color=&amp;show_color_wheel=1#id=155707895&amp;src=ozFe3UtofU1-ai2EKeZ8sw-1-13"&gt;Amir Kaljikovic&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175771/" type="external">story</a> first appeared on the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a> website.</p>
<p>Given how similar they sound and how easy it is to imagine one leading to the other, confusing omniscience (having total knowledge) with omnipotence (having total power) is easy enough. It’s a reasonable supposition that, before the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/the-nsa-files" type="external">Snowden revelations</a> hit, America’s spymasters had made just that mistake. If the drip-drip-drip of Snowden’s mother of all leaks—which began in May and clearly won’t stop for months to come—has taught us anything, however, it should be this: omniscience is not omnipotence. At least on the global political scene today, they may bear remarkably little relation to each other. In fact, at the moment Washington seems to be operating in a world in which the more you know about the secret lives of others, the less powerful you turn out to be.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external" />Let’s begin by positing this: There’s never been anything quite like it. The slow-tease pulling back of the National Security Agency curtain to reveal the skeletal surveillance structure embedded in our planet (what cheekbones!) has been an epochal event. It’s minimally the political spectacle of 2013, and maybe 2014, too. It’s made a mockery of the 24/7 news cycle and the urge of the media to leave the last big deal for the next big deal as quickly as possible.</p>
<p>It’s visibly changed attitudes around the world toward the US— strikingly for the worse, even if this hasn’t fully sunk in here yet. Domestically, the inability to put the issue to sleep or tuck it away somewhere or even outlast it <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/31/john-kerry-some-surveillance-gone-too-far" type="external">has left</a> the Obama administration, Congress, and the intelligence community increasingly at one another’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/01/barack-obama-nsa-surveillance-foreign-leaders" type="external">throats</a>. And somewhere in a system <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175733/" type="external">made for leaks</a>, there are young techies inside a surveillance machine so viscerally appalling, so like the worst sci-fi scenarios they read while growing up, that—no matter the penalties—one of them, two of them, many of them are likely to become the next Edward Snowden(s).</p>
<p>So where to start, almost half a year into an unfolding crisis of surveillance that shows no signs of ending? If you think of this as a scorecard, then the place to begin is, of course, with the line-up, which means starting with omniscience. After all, that’s the NSA’s genuine success story—and what kid doesn’t enjoy hearing about the (not so) little engine that could?</p>
<p>Omniscience</p>
<p>Conceptually speaking, we’ve never seen anything like the National Security Agency’s urge to surveill, eavesdrop on, spy on, monitor, record, and save every communication of any sort on the planet—to keep track of humanity, all of humanity, from its major leaders to obscure figures in the backlands of the planet. And the fact is that, within the scope of what might be technologically feasible in our era, they seem not to have missed an opportunity.</p>
<p>The NSA, we now know, is everywhere, gobbling up emails, phone calls, texts, tweets, Facebook posts, <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/spiegel-exclusive-nsa-spies-on-international-bank-transactions-a-922276.html" type="external">credit card sales</a>, communications and transactions of every conceivable sort. The NSA and <a href="http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/06/22/usa-security-britain-idINDEE95L00G20130622" type="external">British intelligence</a> are feeding off the fiber optic cables that carry Internet and phone activity. The agency stores records (“metadata”) of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/world/as-us-weighs-spying-changes-officials-say-data-sweeps-must-continue.html" type="external">every phone call</a> made in the United States. In various ways, legal and otherwise, its operatives long ago slipped through the conveniently ajar backdoors of media giants like <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-infiltrates-links-to-yahoo-google-data-centers-worldwide-snowden-documents-say/2013/10/30/e51d661e-4166-11e3-8b74-d89d714ca4dd_story.html" type="external">Yahoo</a>, Verizon, and Google—and also in conjunction with British intelligence they have been <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/11/04/how-we-know-the-nsa-had-access-to-internal-google-and-yahoo-cloud-data/" type="external">secretly collecting</a> “records” from the “clouds” or private networks of Yahoo and Google to the tune of <a href="http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/world/one-month-hundreds-of-millions-of-records-collected/554/" type="external">181 million</a> communications in a single month, or more than two billion a year.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, their <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175757/pratap_chatterjee_big_bro_wants_you" type="external">privately hired corporate hackers</a> have systems that, among other things, can slip inside your computer to count and see every keystroke you make. Thanks to that mobile phone of yours (even when off), those same hackers can also locate you just about anywhere on the planet. And that’s just to begin to summarize what we know of their still developing global surveillance state.</p>
<p>In other words, there’s my email and your phone metadata, and his tweets and her texts, and the swept up records of billions of cell phone calls and other communications by <a href="http://www.dw.de/washington-seeks-to-ease-tension-in-france-over-nsa-spying-claims/a-17174255" type="external">French</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/world/no-morsel-too-minuscule-for-all-consuming-nsa.html" type="external">Nigerians</a>, <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-10-23/news/sns-rt-us-security-20131023_1_prime-minister-enrico-letta-james-mackenzie-edward-snowden" type="external">Italians</a> and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/08/nsa-boundless-informant-global-datamining" type="external">Pakistanis</a>, <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/nsa-spies-on-500-million-german-data-connections-a-908648.html" type="external">Germans</a> and <a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-08-08/world/41198127_1_phone-records-phone-surveillance-program-metadata-program" type="external">Yemenis</a>, <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/08/16/nsa-broke-privacy-rules-thousands-of-times-intercepted-calls-from-egypt-actually-washington-after-confusing-area-codes/" type="external">Egyptians</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/29/world/europe/spain-calls-in-us-ambassador-in-spying-scandal.html" type="external">Spaniards</a> (thank you, <a href="http://www.euronews.com/2013/11/06/spain-s-intelligence-chief-probed-over-nsa-collusion-in-spy-scandal/" type="external">Spanish intelligence</a>, for lending the NSA such a hand!), and don’t forget the Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesians, and <a href="http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/8690-us-embassy-a-secret-listening-post-nsa-documents.html" type="external">Burmese</a>, among others (thank you, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/01/world/asia/australia-participated-in-nsa-program-document-says.html" type="external">Australian intelligence</a>, for lending the NSA such a hand!), and it would be a reasonable bet to include just about any other nationality you care to mention. Then there are the NSA <a href="http://www.matthewaid.com/post/59298850098/nsa-cia-have-80-sigint-sites-in-embassies-and" type="external">listening posts</a> at all those US embassies and consulates around the world, and the reports on the way the NSA listened in <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2013/0826/NSA-may-have-spied-on-UN.-Big-deal-or-business-as-usual-video" type="external">on the U.N.</a>, <a href="http://nypost.com/2013/06/30/eu-officials-furious-over-reports-nsa-bugged-diplomatic-offices-on-both-sides-of-atlantic/" type="external">bugged</a> European Union <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/nsa-spied-on-european-union-offices-a-908590.html" type="external">offices</a> “on both sides of the Atlantic,” <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/25/nsa-surveillance-indian-embassy-un-mission" type="external">accessed computers</a> inside the Indian embassy in Washington D.C. and that country’s U.N. mission in New York, hacked into the computer network of and <a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-09-08/world/41880912_1_petrobras-obama-administration-president-obama" type="external">spied on</a> Brazil’s largest oil company, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57600928/report-nsa-spied-on-brazilian-mexican-presidents/" type="external">hacked into</a> the Brazilian president’s emails and the emails of two Mexican presidents, monitored the German Chancellor’s <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/cover-story-how-nsa-spied-on-merkel-cell-phone-from-berlin-embassy-a-930205.html" type="external">mobile phone</a>, not to speak of those of dozens, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/world/as-us-weighs-spying-changes-officials-say-data-sweeps-must-continue.html" type="external">possibly</a> hundreds, of other German leaders, monitored the phone calls of at least <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/24/nsa-surveillance-world-leaders-calls" type="external">35 global leaders</a>, as well as U.N. Secretary-General <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/02/nsa-portrait-total-surveillance" type="external">Ban Ki-Moon</a>, and—if you’re keeping score—that’s just a partial list of what we’ve learned so far about the NSA’s surveillance programs, knowing that, given the Snowden documents still to come, there has to be so much <a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/jackshafer/2013/11/07/governments-worldwide-buried-in-the-snowden-avalanche/" type="external">more</a>.</p>
<p>When it comes to the “success” part of the NSA story, you could also play a little numbers game: the NSA has at least 35,000 employees, possibly as many as <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/no-such-agency-spies-on-the-communications-of-the-world/2013/06/06/5bcd46a6-ceb9-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html" type="external">55,000</a>, and an almost $11 billion budget. With <a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/06/10/digital_blackwater_meet_the_contractors_who_analyze_your_personal_data/" type="external">up to 70%</a> of that budget possibly going to private contractors, we are undoubtedly talking about tens of thousands more “employees” indirectly on the agency’s payroll. The Associated Press <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/private-contractors-key-role-issue-040233420.html" type="external">estimates</a> that there are 500,000 employees of private contractors “who have access to the government’s most sensitive secrets.” In Bluffdale, Utah, the NSA is <a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/" type="external">spending</a> $2 billion to build what may be one of the largest data-storage facilities on the planet (with its own <a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2013/10/nsas-massive-new-data-center-melting/70274/" type="external">bizarre fireworks</a>), capable of storing almost inconceivable yottabytes of information. And keep in mind that since 9/11, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/world/no-morsel-too-minuscule-for-all-consuming-nsa.html" type="external">according to</a> the New York Times, the agency has also built or expanded major data-storage facilities in Georgia, Texas, Colorado, Hawaii, Alaska, and Washington State.</p>
<p>But success, too, can have its downside and there is a small catch when it comes to the NSA’s global omniscience. For everything it can, at least theoretically, see, hear, and search, there’s one obvious thing the agency’s leaders and the rest of the intelligence community have proven remarkably un-omniscient about, one thing they clearly have been incapable of taking in—and that’s the most essential aspect of the system they are building. Whatever they may have understood about the rest of us, they understood next to nothing about themselves or the real impact of what they were doing, which is why the revelations of Edward Snowden caught them so off-guard.</p>
<p>Along with the giant Internet corporations, they have been involved in a process aimed at taking away the very notion of a right to privacy in our world; yet they utterly failed to grasp the basic lesson they have taught the rest of us. If we live in an era of no privacy, there are no exemptions; if, that is, it’s an age of no-privacy for us, then it’s an age of no-privacy for them, too.</p>
<p>The word “conspiracy” is an interesting one in this context. It comes from the Latin conspirare for “breathe the same air.” In order to do that, you need to be a small group in a small room. Make yourself the largest surveillance outfit on the planet, hire tens of thousands of private contractors—young computer geeks plunged into a situation that would have boggled the mind of George Orwell—and organize a system of storage and electronic retrieval that puts much at an insider’s fingertips, and you’ve just kissed secrecy goodnight and put it to bed for the duration.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608461548/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external" />There was always going to be an Edward Snowden—or rather Edward Snowdens. And no matter what the NSA and the Obama administration do, no matter what they threaten, no matter how fiercely they <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175719/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren,_obama%27s_war_on_whistleblowers_finds_another_target/" type="external">attack whistleblowers</a>, or who they <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/31/john-kiriakou-prison-sentence_n_2590725.html" type="external">put away</a> for <a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-08-21/world/41431547_1_bradley-manning-david-coombs-pretrial-confinement" type="external">how long</a>, there will be more. No matter the levels of <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175570/" type="external">classification</a> and the desire to throw a penumbra of secrecy over government operations of all sorts, we will eventually know.</p>
<p>They have constructed a system potentially riddled with what, in the Cold War days, used to be called “moles.” In this case, however, those “moles” won’t be spying for a foreign power, but <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175733/engelhardt_spying_for_us" type="external">for us</a>. There is no privacy left. That fact of life has been embedded, like so much institutional DNA, in the system they have so brilliantly constructed. They will see us, but in the end, we will see them, too.</p>
<p>Omnipotence</p>
<p>With our line-ups in place, let’s turn to the obvious question: How’s it going? How’s the game of surveillance playing out at the global level? How has success in building such a system translated into policy and power? How useful has it been to have <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/02/nsa-portrait-total-surveillance" type="external">advance info</a> on just what the U.N. general-secretary will have to say when he visits you at the White House? How helpful is it to store endless tweets, social networking interactions, and phone calls <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/08/16/nsa-broke-privacy-rules-thousands-of-times-intercepted-calls-from-egypt-actually-washington-after-confusing-area-codes/" type="external">from Egypt</a> when it comes to controlling or influencing actors there, whether the Muslim Brotherhood or the generals?</p>
<p>We know that <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from-nine-us-internet-companies-in-broad-secret-program/2013/06/06/3a0c0da8-cebf-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story_1.html" type="external">1,477 “items”</a> from the NSA’s PRISM program (which <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from-nine-us-internet-companies-in-broad-secret-program/2013/06/06/3a0c0da8-cebf-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html" type="external">taps into</a> the central servers of nine major American Internet companies) were cited in the president’s Daily Briefing in 2012 alone. With all that help, with all that advanced notice, with all that insight into the workings of the world from but one of so many NSA programs, just how has Washington been getting along?</p>
<p>Though we have very little information about how intelligence insiders and top administration officials assess the effectiveness of the NSA’s surveillance programs in maintaining American global power, there’s really no need for such assessments. All you have to do is look at the world.</p>
<p>Long before Snowden walked off with those documents, it was clear that things weren’t exactly going well. Some <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175732/peter_van_buren_welcome_to_post-constitution_America" type="external">breakthroughs</a> in surveillance techniques were, for instance, developed in America’s war zones in Iraq and <a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-08-08/world/41198127_1_phone-records-phone-surveillance-program-metadata-program" type="external">Afghanistan</a>, where US intelligence outfits and spies were clearly capable of locating and listening in on insurgencies in ways never before possible. And yet, we all know what happened in Iraq and is happening in Afghanistan. In both places, omniscience visibly didn’t translate into success. And by the way, when the Arab Spring hit, how prepared was the Obama administration? Don’t even bother to answer that one.</p>
<p>In fact, it’s reasonable to assume that, while US spymasters and operators were working at the technological frontiers of surveillance and cryptography, their model for success was distinctly antiquated. However unconsciously, they were still living with a World War II-style mindset. Back then, in an all-out military conflict between two sides, listening in on enemy communications had been at least one key to winning the war. Breaking the German <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptanalysis_of_the_Enigma" type="external">Enigma codes</a> meant knowing precisely where the enemy’s U-boats were, just as breaking <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_naval_codes" type="external">Japan’s naval codes</a> ensured victory in the Battle of Midway and elsewhere.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for the NSA and two administrations in Washington, our world isn’t so clear-cut any more. Breaking the codes, whatever codes, isn’t going to do the trick. You may be able to pick up every kind of communication in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/08/nsa-boundless-informant-global-datamining" type="external">Pakistan</a> or Egypt, but even if you could listen to or read them all (and the NSA doesn’t have the linguists or the time to do so), instead of simply drowning in useless data, what good would it do you?</p>
<p>Given how Washington has fared since September 12, 2001, the answer would undoubtedly range from not much to none at all—and in the wake of Edward Snowden, it would have to be in the negative. Today, the NSA formula might go something like this: the more communications the agency intercepts, the more it stores, the more it officially knows, the more information it gives those it <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/02/nsa-portrait-total-surveillance" type="external">calls</a> its “external customers” (the White House, the State Department, the CIA, and others), the less omnipotent and the more impotent Washington turns out to be.</p>
<p>In scorecard terms, once the Edward Snowden revelations began and the vast conspiracy to capture a world of communications was revealed, things only went from bad to worse. Here’s just a partial list of some of the casualties from Washington’s point of view:</p>
<p>1. The first <a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/mark-leonard/2013/10/31/the-nsa-and-the-weakness-of-american-power/" type="external">European near-revolt</a> against American power in living memory (former French leader Charles de Gaulle aside), and a phenomenon that is <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/07/world/europe/germany-considers-having-snowden-testify-to-inquiry.html" type="external">still growing</a> across that continent along with an upsurge in distaste for Washington.</p>
<p>2. A <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/brazil/130906/dilma-rousseff-obama-g20-mexico-nsa-spying" type="external">shudder of horror</a> in Brazil and across Latin America, emphasizing a growing distaste for the not-so-good neighbor to the North.</p>
<p>3. China, which has its own sophisticated surveillance network and was being <a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-06-01/world/39664371_1_obama-administration-defense-secretary-chuck-hagel-china-s" type="external">pounded for it</a> by Washington, now looks like Mr. Clean.</p>
<p>4. Russia, a country run by a former secret police agent, has in the post-Snowden era been miraculously transformed into a <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/12/us-syria-crisis-putin-article-idUSBRE98B0PL20130912" type="external">global peacemaker</a> and a land that provided a <a href="http://rt.com/news/putin-interview-ap-channel1-431/" type="external">haven</a> for an important western dissident.</p>
<p>5. The Internet giants of Silicon valley, a beacon of US technological prowess, could in the end take a <a href="http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2013/08/08/nsa-spying-may-cost-cloud-companies-35-billion/" type="external">monstrous hit</a>, losing billions of dollars and <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_24113175/brazil-wants-its-own-internet-after-nsa-controversy" type="external">possibly</a> their near monopoly status globally, thanks to the revelation that when you email, tweet, post to Facebook, or do anything else through any of them, you automatically put yourself <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/3/tech-giants-take-new-hits-from-fallout-over-spying/" type="external">in the hands</a> of the NSA. Their CEOs are <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/google-ceo-schmidt-nsa-spying-105906105.html" type="external">shuddering</a> with worry, as well they should be.</p>
<p>And the list of post-Snowden fallout only seems to be growing. The NSA’s vast <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175713/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_you_are_our_secret/" type="external">global security state</a> is now visibly an edifice of negative value, yet it remains so deeply embedded in the post-9/11 American national security state that seriously paring it back, no less dismantling it, is probably inconceivable. Of course, those running that state within a state claim success by focusing only on counterterrorism operations where, they swear, <a href="http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/802269-untitled0001.html" type="external">54</a> potential terror attacks on or in the United States have been thwarted, thanks to NSA surveillance. Based on the relatively minimal information available to us, this <a href="http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/802269-untitled0001.html" type="external">looks like</a> a major case of threat and credit inflation, if not pure balderdash. More important, it doesn’t faintly cover the ambitions of a system that was meant to give Washington a jump on every foreign power, offer an economic edge in just about every situation, and enhance US power globally.</p>
<p>A First-Place Line-Up and a Last-Place Finish</p>
<p>What’s perhaps most striking about all this is the inability of the Obama administration and its intelligence bureaucrats to grasp the nature of what’s happening to them. For that, they would need to skip those daily briefs from an intelligence community which, on the subject, seems blind, deaf, and dumb, and instead take a clear look at the world.</p>
<p>As a measuring stick for pure tone-deafness in Washington, consider that it took our secretary of state and so, implicitly, the president, five painful months to finally agree that the NSA had, in certain limited areas, “ <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/kerry-nsa-surveillance-reached-20752578" type="external">reached too far</a>.” And even now, in response to a global uproar and changing attitudes toward the US across the planet, their response has been laughably modest. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/world/as-us-weighs-spying-changes-officials-say-data-sweeps-must-continue.html" type="external">According to</a> David Sanger of the New York Times, for instance, the administration believes that there is “no workable alternative to the bulk collection of huge quantities of ‘metadata,’ including records of all telephone calls made inside the United States.”</p>
<p>On the bright side, however, maybe, just maybe, they can store it all for a mere three years, rather than the present five. And perhaps, just perhaps, they might consider giving up on listening in on some friendly world leaders, but only after a major rethink and reevaluation of the complete NSA surveillance system. And in Washington, this sort of response to the Snowden debacle is <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57610820/kerry-tells-europeans-nsa-will-strike-right-balance-between-security-and-privacy/" type="external">considered</a> a “balanced” approach to security versus privacy.</p>
<p>In fact, in this country each post-9/11 disaster has led, in the end, to more and worse of the same. And that’s likely to be the result here, too, given a national security universe in which everyone assumes the value of an increasingly para-militarized, bureaucratized, heavily funded creature we continue to call “intelligence,” even though remarkably little of what would commonsensically be called intelligence is actually on view.</p>
<p>No one knows what a major state would be like if it radically cut back or even wiped out its intelligence services. No one knows what the planet’s sole superpower would be like if it had only one or, for the sake of competition, two major intelligence outfits rather than <a href="http://www.intelligence.gov/mission/" type="external">17 of them</a>, or if those agencies essentially relied on open source material. In other words, no one knows what the US would be like if its intelligence agents stopped trying to collect the planet’s communications and mainly used their native intelligence to analyze the world. Based on the recent American record, however, it’s hard to imagine we could be anything but better off. Unfortunately, we’ll never find out.</p>
<p>In short, if the NSA’s surveillance lineup was classic New York Yankees, their season is shaping up as a last-place finish.</p>
<p>Here, then, is the bottom line of the scorecard for twenty-first century Washington: omniscience, maybe; omnipotence, forget it; intelligence, not a bit of it; and no end in sight.</p>
<p>Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the <a href="http://www.americanempireproject.com/" type="external">American Empire Project</a> and author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608461548/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The United States of Fear</a> as well as a history of the Cold War, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/155849586X/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The End of Victory Culture</a> (now also in a Kindle edition), runs the Nation Institute’s <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch.com</a>. His latest book, co-authored with Nick Turse, is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0086EF89K/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=tomdispatch-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B0086EF89K" type="external">Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050.</a> To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com <a href="http://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&amp;id=1e41682ade" type="external">here</a>…</p>
<p>[Note: A small bow of thanks to Adam Hochschild and John Cobb for helping spark this piece into existence.]</p>
<p>Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/tomdispatch" type="external">Facebook</a> or <a href="http://tomdispatch.tumblr.com/" type="external">Tumblr</a>. Check out the newest Dispatch Book, Ann Jones’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608463710/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">They Were Soldiers: How the Wounded Return From America’s Wars—The Untold Story</a>.</p> | The NSA Knows Every Detail of Our Lives—So How Come It Misses the Big Picture? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2013/11/nsa-spying-washington-power-omnipotence/ | 2013-11-13 | 4 |
<p><a href="http://www.laweekly.com/informer/2014/06/04/yoga-en-espanol-comes-to-east-la" type="external">Image credit</a></p>
<p>Earlier this year, XOJane published a piece by a white woman who attended the same yoga class as a fat black woman. The piece centered on how worried she was for the poor black woman, who – she assumed – must have felt horribly uncomfortable and unskilled as she attempted to perform the poses the yoga instructor described. It was a patronizing and racist, and an unfortunate reminder that yoga studios are often set up to serve very thin, white,&#160;wealthy, and heteronormative people. <a href="" type="internal">Sesali&#160;</a> <a href="" type="internal">wrote</a> about the piece, noting that “being fat in spaces that are created to bring attention to the body can seem like breeding grounds for microaggressions and hurt feelings.”</p>
<p>Now imagine a yoga studio that explicitly welcomes people of all sizes, colors, and backgrounds, one that works hard to offer classes at an accessible price, and is meant for people to enjoy their bodies and explore their diverse abilities in a safe space.&#160;</p>
<p>Welcome to <a href="http://peoplesyoga.org/index.php" type="external">People’s Yoga</a>.</p>
<p>This studio in East LA&#160;offers classes like&#160;Radical Self Care, Yoga en Asiento (Seated Yoga), or Yoga Seeds, a class for parents and children. Classes are “inclusive and&#160;accommodating,” focusing on self-care and empowerment – not&#160;athleticism or strict adherence to form.</p>
<p>People’s Yoga was founded almost two years ago by&#160;Leah Gallegos and&#160;Lauren Quan-Madrid, who traveled throughout Los Angeles offering donation-based mobile yoga classes in schools, community centers, and churches. The point was to make it accessible to communities who are not often found&#160;“on the mat.”&#160;Today, they run one of the only yoga studios to serve residents of East Los Angeles, most of whom are of color and low-income.&#160;</p>
<p>The most exciting part of People’s Yoga is not only that it&#160;serves communities of color, but that it works to empower them. Woven throughout their website, you’ll find the line “Welcome to the mat, you are all that you’ve been waiting for.” Unlike the author of the XOJane article, People’s Yoga acknowledges that <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=781903615170551&amp;set=pb.481285518565697.-2207520000.1404192731.&amp;type=3&amp;src=https%3A%2F%2Fscontent-b-mia.xx.fbcdn.net%2Fhphotos-xpf1%2Ft1.0-9%2F1969300_781903615170551_1703679478_n.jpg&amp;size=500%2C500" type="external">self-care</a>&#160;and creative movement&#160; <a href="http://www.theeastsiderla.com/2014/01/affordable-yoga-finds-followers-in-boyle-heights-and-east-l-a/" type="external">are not new</a> to people of color. (Who invented yoga again? Not white people!)&#160;</p>
<p>Las Cafeteras <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=800373839990195&amp;set=pb.481285518565697.-2207520000.1404192731.&amp;type=3&amp;src=https%3A%2F%2Ffbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net%2Fhphotos-ak-xpf1%2Ft1.0-9%2F10154385_800373839990195_2135637751703540981_n.jpg&amp;size=612%2C612" type="external">helped prepare</a> the new studio for opening day.</p>
<p>One of the studio’s founders, Leah Gallegos, is also part of the popular musical group Las Cafeteras, which&#160; <a href="http://lascafeteras.com" type="external">describes itself as</a> a band “who is looking for love and fights for justice in the concrete jungle of Los Angeles” by playing Afro-Mexican influenced music. They are perhaps best known for their political take on the old classic “La Bamba,” re-titled&#160;“ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xv-FjbXaqk" type="external">La Bamba Rebelde</a>,” and have also spoken out&#160;against <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd0pLdCcAo8" type="external">deportations</a>&#160;and&#160;in support of <a href="http://lascafeteras.com/tapas-las-cafeteras-on-being-latino-vegetarians/" type="external">vegetarianism</a>.&#160;The band even purposefully left their name as&#160;Las&#160;Cafeteras (as opposed to&#160;los)&#160;to challenge masculinity as the default in the Spanish language.</p>
<p>Clearly, Las Cafeteras and People’s Yoga are doing incredible work to root the movement for social justice in creativity and wellness. Speaking with Leah, she described the success of the studio for me:</p>
<p>“We’ve made it accessible because we’ve rooted in our community. We use language that is accessible as far as letting people know that they are the masters of their own bodies and that they already know a lot of this wisdom. We remind people to listen to themselves and be expressive and creative and unique. I think we provide a space that is very relevant to a lot of different people.”&#160;</p>
<p>Someday, I will take a trip down to LA and take a class at People’s Yoga. Afterwards, I’ll write an article titled&#160;“It Happened To Me: I Took a Yoga Class and Left Feeling Empowered and Ready for the Revolution.” I hope it goes viral.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://d1o2xrel38nv1n.cloudfront.net/files/2013/10/96ee0a3b286e0ab66e722794b16d9276_bigger.jpeg" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/JulianaBrittoS" type="external">Juliana</a>‘s favorite yoga position is Warrior Pose.</p> | East LA yoga studio is for ALL the people | true | http://feministing.com/2014/07/01/east-la-yoga-studio-is-for-all-the-people/ | 4 |
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<p>By Joshua Frank / <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/10/a-crisis-with-no-end-why-flint-is-still-the-issue/" type="external">CounterPunch</a></p>
<p>Last year the water crisis in Flint, Michigan made headlines for weeks, even though by the time it finally did the damage was done. The water that residents of Flint were forced to drink, over 100,000 of them, was tainted with lead, lots of it. Upwards of 12,000 children, most from minority, poor neighborhoods, had elevated levels of the metal in their blood. Today, the lead in Flint's water has taken a physical, as well as a mental toll on those impacted and the water is still tainted.</p>
<p>"I get really emotional about it, because I have no idea about the effects it will have," Sarah Conn <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/return-to-flint-after-tainted-water-crisis-residents-hit-with-rising-water-bills-1.4011235" type="external">recently told CBC</a>. "[My son] could have cognitive problems and behavioral problems when he gets older and I won't know for sure if the lead is why, or not, and it makes me really sad."</p>
<p>Federal regulators announced on March 7 that 90 percent of water samples taken in Flint were now below federal levels for lead content. But these tests are very misleading, if not outright bogus. The official federal level for lead contamination is 15 ppb and Flint's water is coming in at around 12 ppb in most cases. However, this is still not as low as levels ought to be, especially for growing children. The American Academy of Pediatrics? Council on Environmental Health recommends that drinking water for kids should not exceed 1 ppb of lead and the new proposed state standard in Michigan is 10 ppb. To top it off, nearly 28,000 residences in Flint still need to have their old pipes replaced. Thus far the city has only completed 800 homes.</p>
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<p>"There have been constant improvements [in water quality], there's no question about that, but I don't consider that an all clear," retired Brig. Gen. Michael C. McDaniel told reporters at a recent national water infrastructure conference in Flint.</p>
<p>That's not all that comforting to those living in Flint who've been dependent on bottled water for daily needs like brushing and drinking for the past year. Adding insult to injury, water bills in Flint have also skyrocketed. The state's subsidy on water in the city, which cut bills by 65 percent, ended last month. So as of March people in Flint are paying a lot more, in most cases double their previous bill, for water that still doesn't meet the state's proposed levels.</p>
<p>"We can't keep living this. It's killing us. It's literally killing us to live this and it's going on its second year now - I'm living a low standard life," <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/this-week-michigan-stopped-helping-flint-residents_us_58b885d7e4b02b8b584df97a" type="external">says</a> Flint resident and activist Gladyes Williamson. "This is not a third world country. This is the United States of America. This is Michigan."</p>
<p>Flint, of course, is just the tip of the lead-laden iceberg. Across the United States an estimated 10 million underground lead pipes must be replaced, with only a few cities actively addressing the issue. In the Bronx, for example, two public schools, P.S.41 and I.S.158, had staggering lead readings in February ranging from 63.8 ppb to 442 ppb. The nation's aging water infrastructure, if it isn't tackled immediately, could harm an untold number of people, primarily children who are most susceptible to lead's various impacts, like poor cognitive development.</p>
<p>"And in the aftermath of Flint, what we now realize is - that probably we're never going to be able to say that it's safe to drink water from a lead pipe - not only in Flint but in fact, all around the United States," Marc Edwards, an engineer at Virginia Tech, <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-02-26/it-s-been-almost-three-years-flint-s-water-crisis-began-what-have-we-learned" type="external">told PRI</a>. "What we discovered in Flint is that some of the worst houses actually had a lead pipe followed by a galvanized iron pipe. And what had happened over the almost a century some of these pipes had been in the ground is, the iron rust on the galvanized iron pipe sponged up lead at very, very high levels."</p>
<p>The scenario Prof. Edwards lays out is occurring across the country. With weak federal drinking water standards, an understaffed EPA and a Trump administration hell-bent on <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2017/03/here_are_42_of_president_donal.html" type="external">slashing agency funds</a>, the problem of lead-polluted water will only get worse. Sadly, the ultimate toll this catastrophe has on all those vulnerable children in Flint and elsewhere won't be known for decades to come.</p>
<p>JOSHUA FRANK is managing editor of CounterPunch. His most recent book is <a href="https://store.counterpunch.org/product/hopeless-barack-obama-and-the-politics-of-illusion/" type="external">Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion</a>, co-edited with Jeffrey St. Clair and published by AK Press. He can be reached at [email protected]. You can follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/joshua__frank" type="external">@joshua__frank</a>.</p> | A Crisis With No End: Why Flint Is Still the Issue | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/a-crisis-with-no-end-why-flint-is-still-the-issue/ | 2017-03-15 | 4 |
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<p>These are not the kind of days where people rejoice in the great outdoors and cheer because winter is gone. These are the days when we dread getting into a car with a steering wheel too hot to touch and when sitting outside is sometimes more tortuous than enjoyable.</p>
<p>Now we know we shouldn’t complain as people in Phoenix and Tucson have it much worse, but we have a hard time caring when we’re so hot here with our 100-degree temperatures. It feels a bit like we’ve had some kind of convergence this week with extremely hot days, the literal beginning of summer and fires flaring up a little closer to home than we like.</p>
<p>We imagine the swimming pools are crowded with children and adults enjoying the cool water, but we wonder if those parents sitting around the pool watching their children aren’t miserably hot. We don’t worry so much about the children playing outside, because it doesn’t seem like many are enjoying the great outdoors. It’s probably just too hot.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>There is no question that summer is here, and summer in New Mexico also brings fires.</p>
<p>The wildfires we track every year are tragic – tragic for our wilderness areas and the plants and animals that thrive there, and tragic for the people whose lives are impacted so greatly. We watch in awe as the brave firefighters and first-responders battle with nature at its most fierce.</p>
<p>However, it is so much worse when the fires are practically in our backyard. To many of us here, the Jemez area is one of our favorite places to camp, picnic and just enjoy the scenery. When there is a fire in the Jemez, we take it personally and remember the devastation caused by previous fires. We pray for the people whose homes are threatened annually.</p>
<p>So, this past weekend, we not only had a fire in the Jemez to worry about, we also had a 1,200-acre fire on the west side of Rio Rancho. That was really getting close to home. Luckily both fires were contained without a lot of damage and no loss of life, but we know those won’t be the only fires the state has to deal with this year. Again, we applaud the firefighters for their heroic efforts to keep us and our lands safe.</p>
<p>We can say one thing for sure; between the fires and the excruciating heat, people aren’t talking so much about what is going on in Washington D.C. So, even if we’re not getting a break from the weather, we’re getting a break from political talk.</p>
<p>On another note, we want to congratulate A Park Above on its first anniversary. This special park has brought so much to the city: It’s an amazing place that celebrates the abilities of all people and capitalizes on our imaginations, but it is also an example of what regular, extraordinary citizens can accomplish when they have a dream. Congratulations. We love A Park Above, and so do all the children we know.</p>
<p>Contact the Ryans at <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a>.</p>
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<p /> | Summer’s start brings mixed blessings | false | https://abqjournal.com/1022941/summers-start-brings-mixed-blessings.html | 2 |
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<p>SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico could face more than a decade of further economic stagnation and a steep drop in population as a result of Hurricane Maria, experts said on Thursday.</p>
<p>The stark estimates were presented to members of a federal control board overseeing finances of a U.S. territory that is already in the 11th year of a recession.</p>
<p>“The situation is dire to say the least with destroyed infrastructure, lack of power and water and an accelerated pace of migration,” economist Heidie Calero said.</p>
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<p>She estimated that the hurricane caused $115 billion in damage, even without counting business losses.</p>
<p>“We believe that is very conservative,” she said.</p>
<p>The administration of Gov. Ricardo Rossello said earlier this week that it was seeking $94 billion in federal aid for an island where power generation remains at 40 percent and where nearly 10 percent of people are still without water almost two months after the storm. More than 20 of Puerto Rico’s 78 municipalities remain completely without power.</p>
<p>So far, U.S. Congress has approved nearly $5 billion in aid for Puerto Rico.</p>
<p>Economist Juan Lara told board members that the local economy could contract anywhere between 8 percent and 15 percent in fiscal year 2018, depending on the restoration of power, with overall revenues falling by 30 percent.</p>
<p>“We are undergoing both a demand and supply shock,” he said, saying that some 5,000 businesses could close permanently, representing 10 percent of membership of the island’s National Retail Federation.</p>
<p>Businesses that have reopened have been forced to reduce their hours or depend on costly generators.</p>
<p>“We need electric power to be back and to be reliable,” Lara said. “We need roads to be cleared. We need supermarkets to be able to replenish their inventories…. We need to restore basic operating infrastructure.”</p>
<p>Lack of power remains the biggest obstacle, with the island’s electric company struggling to maintain the 50 percent power generation it had reached on Wednesday just as a major blackout occurred for the second time in a week. Rossello has said the company would reach 80 percent generation by end of November and 95 percent by mid-December, goals that many have called ambitious. In contrast, the U.S. Corps of Engineers has said it expects 75 percent generation by end of January.</p>
<p>Before Hurricane Maria hit, Puerto Rico was trying to restructure a portion of its $73 billion public debt load amid a deep economic crisis that has prompted an exodus of nearly half a million people in the past decade. That migration will only accelerate because of post-hurricane conditions, with an estimated population of 2.8 million people by 2030, compared with the current 3.4 million, said economist Jose Villamil.</p>
<p>“What Maria has done in some ways is to exacerbate that situation, made it more intense,” he said.</p>
<p>The drop in population, coupled with a majority of young, talented people leaving, will hit Puerto Rico’s economy even harder, experts said.</p>
<p>Two more meetings remain as the board continues to gather information to revise a fiscal plan to adjust for the hurricane’s impact. It is unclear how much money, if any, will be set aside in the plan to pay off the island’s debt load.</p> | Experts: Puerto Rico may struggle for more than a decade | false | https://abqjournal.com/1093807/experts-puerto-rico-may-struggle-for-more-than-a-decade.html | 2017-11-16 | 2 |
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<p>With the U.S. workforce nearly fully employed and inflation heading toward 2 percent, the Federal Reserve should raise interest rates two more times this year and continue work on a plan to gradually trim its massive balance sheet, Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan said.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>But, Kaplan was careful to emphasize in an interview with Reuters late Tuesday, there is little rush on either score.</p>
<p>"I think we are moving toward a period where we should begin allowing the balance sheet to gradually and patiently run off," said Kaplan, a voter this year on the Fed's policy-setting panel. "But I think we have work to do, probably, to get to that point."</p>
<p>By "work to do," Kaplan was referring to further interest-rate hikes. Kaplan supported last week's interest-rate increase, only the Fed's third since the financial crisis, and said Tuesday the "country will be well-served" by the decision.</p>
<p>"Now that we’ve done it, I think that we’ve got the benefit of a little time here to see how the economy unfolds," he said. "I plan to take advantage of that to assess how the economy is unfolding and be prepared to make a judgment as we head toward the next meetings."</p>
<p>Over a Dr. Pepper and bagel after a morning of meetings at the San Francisco Fed, Kaplan reiterated his view that two more rate hikes this year is a "reasonable" base case, as long as labor market slack continues to decline and inflation continues to rise toward the Fed's 2-percent goal.</p>
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<p>"We are still accommodative and I think it’s very appropriate for us to be accommodative," he said. If inflation rises above the Fed's 2-percent target for a brief period, it is not going trigger faster rate hikes as long as it is not a persistent trend, he said.</p>
<p>Though the current rate of U.S. unemployment, at 4.7 percent, is below the level historically thought to be consistent with full employment, Kaplan said he does not believe it will generate undue upward pressure on prices.</p>
<p>Kaplan also said he is "mindful" that some of the policies expected under President Donald Trump's new administration, including changes to immigration and trade policies and changes to health insurance, could slow economic growth or hurt consumer spending. He and his staff have been trying to figure out why some of the latest readings on consumer spending already suggest some sluggishness, and will keep a close eye on those figures going forward.</p>
<p>But, he said, he will not be factoring in impacts from Trump's new policies, including those like tax reform that may boost growth, until he is pretty sure they will be enacted.</p>
<p>BALANCE SHEET</p>
<p>Last week, in addition to raising rates, the Fed discussed what to do with its $4.5 trillion balance sheet, built up after years of bond-buying aimed at stimulating investment and hiring by pushing down long-term borrowing costs.</p>
<p>Now that the economy is in better shape, the Fed wants to eventually trim the balance sheet to a more normal size. So far Fed Chair Janet Yellen has given few details on the plan, and has said nothing has been decided yet.</p>
<p>Kaplan said he believes the discussion on what to do with the balance sheet should continue throughout the year, and that once rates are a bit higher, the plan should be published and put into effect soon after.</p>
<p>He declined to say when that should be, but said he would like rates to be high enough that there would be little chance of rates falling back to zero any time in the near future.</p>
<p>Kaplan said he would favor a plan to reduce the balance sheet in a way that would not "unduly affect" financial markets. "That for me means gradually," he said, adding that reductions should be kept to a "reasonably manageable" percentage of the daily volume of trading in mortgage-backed securities and Treasuries, among other factors.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Ann Saphir; editing by Diane Craft)</p> | Fed's Kaplan Sees 3 Rate Hikes in 2017 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/22/feds-kaplan-sees-3-rate-hikes-in-2017.html | 2017-03-22 | 0 |
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<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/deeva/480711693/" type="external" /> It’s called the forgotten greenhouse gas. You know, nitrous oxide ( <a href="/washington_dispatch/2008/01/virgin-airlines-pond-scum-biofuel-global-warming.html" type="external">N2O</a>), the magic behind whipped cream. You might not know it’s 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide and represents 9% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Its longevity in the atmosphere provides a potentially more damaging legacy than CO2, reports the <a href="http://www1.uea.ac.uk/print/home/services/units/mac/comm/media/press/2008/feb/homepagenews/Nitrous+oxide+-+no+laughing+matter" type="external">University of East Anglia</a>. Currently, agriculture and wastewater treatment industries account for 80% of global emissions (from bacteria that make N2O from nitrogen-rich fertilizers, and from bacteria in wastewater treatment). Now the <a href="http://www.nitrousoxide.org/" type="external">Nitrous Oxide Focus Group</a> is convening to examine sources and sinks of N2O in the environment, its role in climate change, and to develop techniques to mitigate its effect.</p>
<p>Julia Whitty is Mother Jones’ environmental correspondent and 2008 winner of the <a href="http://www.research.amnh.org/burroughs/medal_award_list.html" type="external">John Burroughs Medal Award</a>. You can read from her new book, The Fragile Edge, and other writings, <a href="http://julia.whitty.googlepages.com/home" type="external">here.</a></p>
<p /> | Whippets No Laughing Matter | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/02/whippets-no-laughing-matter/ | 2008-02-19 | 4 |
<p>Story from <a href="http://www.thetakeaway.org/2011/nov/10/collapse-joe-paternos-grand-experiment/" type="external">The Takeaway</a>. Listen to the above audio for a complete report.</p>
<p>Joe Paterno, the longest serving college football coach in college football, has been fired immediately by Penn State University and will not coach out the rest of the season.</p>
<p>Graham Spanier, the university's president, has also been removed from his position.</p>
<p>"We promise you we are committed to restoring public trust in our university," Penn State Board of Trustee Chairman John P. Surma said in a press conference a 10 p.m. Wednesday night.</p>
<p>The decision was unanimous and in the best interest of the university, the board said.</p>
<p>The two men were fired in a wake of a scandal that saw Jerry Sandusky, a former defensive coordinator under Paterno, charged with sexually assaulting eight young boys on the campus of Penn State.</p>
<p>"Right now, I'm not the football coach, and that's something I have to get used to," Paterno said outside his home Wednesday night, after the board made its announcement, according to the Associated Press and Fox Sports.</p>
<p>The board notified Paterno and Spanier of their immediate termination earlier this evening, but declined to characterize the conversation, other than to say they delivered it via phone.</p>
<p>"The situation we are in today is not in the university's best interest," Surma said.</p>
<p>There is some concern that violence could erupt in State College, Pa., tonight and riot police have been placed on standby.</p>
<p>The board said additional actions may take place this week as the board continues to meet and investigate matters. Late Wednesday afternoon, the U.S. Department of Education announced it had launched an investigation to determine whether Penn State had violated federal laws mandating officials report all crimes that occur on campus.</p>
<p>According to CNN, 12 additional victims have come forward and accused Sandusky of sexually assaulting them.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.thetakeaway.org/" type="external">"The Takeaway"</a>&#160;is a national morning news program, delivering the news and analysis you need to catch up, start your day, and prepare for what's ahead. The show is a co-production of WNYC and PRI, in editorial collaboration with the BBC, The New York Times Radio, and WGBH.</p> | Penn State fires Joe Paterno, Graham Spanier in wake of Sandusky scandal | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-11-09/penn-state-fires-joe-paterno-graham-spanier-wake-sandusky-scandal | 2011-11-09 | 3 |
<p>The Palestinian Authority announced measures Tuesday to calm down street protests. For nearly a week, demonstrators across the West Bank have vented their frustrations at the rising cost of living. The target of their anger has been the Palestinian leadership.</p>
<p>In contrast to a few few nights ago, dozens of protesters in the Amari Refugee Camp blocked the main road, set tires on fire and chanted against Palestinian leaders.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, things were quiet. But the frustration was still there.</p>
<p>Vegetable dealer, Mujahed Yassin delivered a truckload of tomatoes, cauliflower and eggplant to a small produce shop. The price of tomatoes, he said, has almost tripled in the six weeks or so.</p>
<p>"The prices for water and fertilizer have gone up," Yassin said. "Farmers are being hit hard. So, they prefer to sell to Israel," — where people make a lot more money. That drives prices in the West Bank up further. "People here [in the West Bank] just aren't buying like they used to," Yassin said.</p>
<p>The man getting much of the blame is Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.</p>
<p>A mile or so up the hills from the refugee camp, a few hundred protesters gathered outside the prime minister's office late Tuesday morning. Among them, lots of employees of the Palestinian Authority — the biggest employer in the West Bank by far. Ghadeer Oudeh, who works at the Ministry of Labor, said she hasn't been paid in six weeks.</p>
<p>"I live with my my mother and my sister," Oudeh said. "I support them. And therefore, I'm constantly worried about having money to be able to put food on the table. It's an extremely difficult situation for me."</p>
<p>Oudeh went on to blame the Israeli occupation for the West Bank's economic troubles. But she said, "the Palestinian leadership is cooperating with Israel and failing to makes things better."</p>
<p>The demonstration outside the prime minister's office dispersed peacefully early this afternoon. But Salam Fayyad is not taking any chances.</p>
<p>Fayyad said a recent price hike for fuel will be cancelled. Sales tax will be reduced. Civil servants will start getting paid this week. And high-level government officials will take a pay cut.</p>
<p>But what these moves do not address are the more fundamental challenges for the West Bank economy.</p>
<p>The Palestinian Authority is heavily dependent on foreign aid. The US, European Union and Arab states have not delivered some $500 million in promised funding. That has created a budget shortfall and pushed the PA further into debt.</p>
<p>Overall unemployment in the West Bank stands at about 20 percent. It's even higher for young people.</p>
<p>At the same time, the Palestinian economy is also dependent on Israel. Palestinian tax rates are tied to the much-stronger Israeli economy. And the Israelis — not the Palestinian Authority — have control over the West Bank's borders, most natural resources and tax collection from import and export duties.</p>
<p>In recent days, demonstrators have called on the Palestinian leadership to renegotiate past economic agreements with Israel. Back at the Amari refugee camp, vegetable shop owner Mohammed Katry said he's got a better idea.</p>
<p>"All these people running the Palestinian Authority should go," he said. "They are not helping the public. When Israel was in complete control of the West Bank," Katry went to say, "times were better. People had jobs and more money."</p> | West Bank Protests Against Palestinian Authority Continue | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-09-11/west-bank-protests-against-palestinian-authority-continue | 2012-09-11 | 3 |
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<p>A huge fire gripped a skyscraper in Dubai Marina this evening sending flames and burning debris tumbling from the sky.</p>
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<p>Terrifying footage shows the fire quickly engulf the Torch tower, 1,105 ft tall, as the fire shoots up the side of the building in cosmopolitan United Arab Emirates.</p>
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<p>In only a couple of minutes, the fire had taken over one side of the 86-storey high building after breaking out near the top just before 1 am local time.</p>
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<p>Debris fell from the building, sparkling another blaze in the streets below and at the base as terrified bystanders watched.</p>
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<p>The Dubai Media Office confirmed that the building had been "successfully evacuated" but did not clarify whether there have been casualties from the fire or none.</p>
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<p>The tower happens to be one of the tallest buildings in the world. It was also hit by a fire in 2015.</p>
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<p>Witness John O? Nolan filmed the fire from across the marina. He wrote a running updates on Twitter: "Massive fire just started in the skyscraper opposite us in Dubai Marina. Fire in Dubai marina getting bigger and spreading up building. Lots of debris. Can't tell which tower it is. Not many sirens. 2nd fire now started at base of tower- growing very rapidly."</p>
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<p>He also wrote:?Power has been cut to surrounding buildings now. Fire at top seems to have moved to the inside, while lower floors still blazing.?</p>
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<p>People took to Twitter to express their shock and share their footage of the fire. The Dubai Civil Defense also released a statement online: "Firefighting teams in the civil defense in Dubai are currently dealing with a fire incident in one of the towers in the Marina area. Four centers were moved to control the incident and limit its spread."</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/skyscraper-fire-torch-dubai-blaze-10926787?service=responsive" type="external">mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/skyscraper-fire-torch-dubai-blaze-10926787'service=responsive</a></p>
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<p /> | Watch: Dubai Skyscraper Rains Fire from the Sky | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/6068-Watch-Dubai-Skyscraper-Rains-Fire-from-the-Sky | 2017-08-03 | 0 |
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<p>WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — The Navajo Nation is planning to build a police and fire station at its Twin Arrows Casino Resort near Flagstaff.</p>
<p>The Gallup Independent reports ( <a href="http://bit.ly/2gJNIc8" type="external">http://bit.ly/2gJNIc8</a> ) that a Navajo Nation Council committee has approved legislation related to the funding and construction of the substation. Delegates expect that construction will break ground in January and be finished by October.</p>
<p>Gaming Enterprise Executive Director of Compliance Michelle Dotson says all environmental, archaeological and biological clearances needed for the station’s construction have been completed. The 15,000 square foot building will include a 911 dispatch room, a three-bay firetruck garage, sleeping quarters, administrative offices and training rooms.</p>
<p>The Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety will operate the facility.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Navajo Nation approves police, fire substation near casino | false | https://abqjournal.com/906061/navajo-nation-approves-police-fire-substation-near-casino.html | 2 |
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<p>Introducing Microsoft Teams. Image source: Microsoft.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Following a string of rumors that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) was preparing to launch a new offering intended to challenge Slack directly, the company has done just that.</p>
<p>A couple months ago, reports surfaced that the software giant was building a Slack competitor that would be branded <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/09/12/its-good-that-microsoft-didnt-acquire-slack.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Skype Teams Opens a New Window.</a>, after Microsoft decided not to pursue a massive $8 billion acquisition of the hot enterprise messaging start-up (which would have likely ended poorly, given Microsoft's penchant for overpaying for large acquisitions). It turns out that Microsoft is going with Microsoft Teams, and it will be part of the Office 365 suite.</p>
<p>Here's what you need to know about Microsoft's shot at taking down Slack.</p>
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<p>Microsoft Teams has pretty much everything you would expect from a chat app, and naturally integrates with the rest of Microsoft's collaboration tools such as SharePoint, Skype, and OneNote, among others. The app uses the same security protocols as the rest of Office 365. The interface even looks nearly identical to Slack's. There are a wide range of customization options for teams so that they can tailor the experience to their needs.</p>
<p>Microsoft says general availability will be in Q1 2017, although Office 365 Enterprise and Business customers can use a preview version starting today. Detailed pricing information is not available yet.</p>
<p>Video source: Microsoft.</p>
<p>While deep integration with Office 365 is an obvious requisite, much of Slack's success is tied to its ability to integrate with a large number of third-party services. This has been critical to Slack's rise, and Microsoft knows it. The software giant is launching a developer preview immediately in order to get developers building their own integrations with Microsoft Teams.</p>
<p>In a word: yes. Slack even took out a full-page newspaper adwelcoming Microsoft to the enterprise chat party, in a move reminiscent of what a certain company from Cupertino did decades ago. Slack says it's "validating" to have Microsoft jump in, since it confirms Slack's belief that all businesses should use modern collaborative chat apps. The ad is an open letter to Microsoft, and the full text can be found on Slack's website <a href="https://slackhq.com/dear-microsoft-8d20965d2849#.te8d01j85" type="external">here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>It's true that Slack has enjoyed meteoric growth over the past few years, largely driven by word-of-mouth referrals, but in the grand scheme of things, Slack is quite small compared to Microsoft. Last month, Slack said it now has 4 million daily active users (DAUs), of which 1.25 million are paid users across 33,000 paid teams. With paid plans starting at $6.67 per month, that translates into an annual run rate of $100 million in revenue.</p>
<p>In contrast, Microsoft now has <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/10/25/microsoft-corporation-continues-to-crush-it-with-o.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">109 million Opens a New Window.</a> total Office 365 subscribers, which includes 85 million commercial seats and 24 million consumer subscribers. There is inevitably a large overlap between Slack's and Microsoft's customer bases, and Microsoft will attempt to aggressively cross-sell Microsoft Teams. This all comes at a time when Slack's user growth has slowed, which is in part a function of a larger user base.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Microsoft isn't the only tech giant to come after Slack. Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) just launched <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/10/10/facebook-wants-to-take-down-slack.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Workplace Opens a New Window.</a>, aggressively undercutting on price at just $3 per month (larger teams can get prices as low as $1 per month). Facebook has had limited success in the enterprise to date, since most people still associate the company with personal social networking, but Facebook has a strong record of executing once it sets its mind on something. Facebook's experience building social tools naturally conveys to enterprise collaboration.</p>
<p>Combined, Microsoft and Facebook absolutely threaten to take a big bite out of Slack.</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2668&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFNewCow/info.aspx" type="external">Evan Niu, CFA Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Facebook. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Facebook. The Motley Fool owns shares of Microsoft. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Microsoft Corporation Launches Its "Slack Killer" | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/02/microsoft-corporation-launches-its-slack-killer.html | 2016-11-02 | 0 |
<p>Published time: 26 Sep, 2017 16:13</p>
<p>The shocking moment 13 people leapt from the back of moving truck and onto a traffic-filled motorway in England has been captured on camera. Dashcam footage taken on the M1 shows the group dash out of the cargo container of a Polish-registered vehicle.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/362577-calais-jungle-tear-gas-migrants/" type="external">READ MORE:&#160;Calais police deploy tear gas to stop migrant motorway invasion (VIDEO)</a></p>
<p>According to local police, the incident happened close to junctions 15a and 16, just before midday on September 23.</p>
<p>Video of the bizarre incident uploaded to social media shows stowaways leaping from a slow-moving truck and running across one of the busiest motorways in England.</p>
<p>At one point, a man takes a dramatic tumble while springing from the large vehicle.</p>
<p>The footage was shared online by Brexit campaign group Leave.EU.</p>
<p>Thirteen people were subsequently detained nearby, a Northampton Police spokesperson told RT.com.</p>
<p>“Police were called at 11.50am on Saturday, September 23, to the M1 northbound… to reports of people jumping off a lorry,” the statement said.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/404602-california-corona-fire-evacuations/" type="external">READ MORE:&#160;Evacuations as fire rages along California freeway (PHOTOS, VIDEO)</a></p>
<p>“Officers attended, located and detained 13 people who were taken into custody. Immigration officials were then called.”</p> | 13 people arrested after jumping out of moving truck onto M1 motorway (VIDEO) | false | https://newsline.com/13-people-arrested-after-jumping-out-of-moving-truck-onto-m1-motorway-video/ | 2017-09-26 | 1 |
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<p>In this Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017 photo, a lion rescued from a zoo in the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo cuddles her newborn cub in the Ma’wa Wildlife Reserve in northern Jordan. The odds had been stacked against “Hajar,” a lion cub born just hours after her mother Dana, rescued from a zoo in war-torn Syrian, was released into a wildlife reserve in Jordan. Dana and 12 other animals, including four other lions and two tigers, had barely survived under harsh conditions in the Syrian city of Aleppo, once a major battle ground. (Four Paws/Ahu Savan An, via AP).</p>
<p>SOUF, Jordan — The odds had been stacked against Hajar, a lion cub born just hours after her mother Dana, rescued from a defunct zoo in war-torn Syria, was released into a wildlife reserve in Jordan.</p>
<p>Dana and 12 other animals, including four other lions, two bears and two tigers, had barely survived under harsh conditions in the Syrian city of Aleppo, until a few months ago a major battleground in the country’s civil war.</p>
<p>They were transported from Syria to Turkey and then to Jordan by the international animal charity Four Paws, stuck in cages during the three-week journey. They arrived at the al-Ma’wa reserve in northern Jordan on Friday.</p>
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<p>Dr. Amir Khalil, a vet who accompanied the animals, said Sunday that he had been worried during the transport that Dana would give birth while in a cage. In such a case, it’s unlikely the cub would have survived, he said.</p>
<p>Instead, Hajar, Arabic for “the immigrant,” was born sometime in the night from Friday to Saturday, in the tranquility of the wooded reserve. Staff at the reserve discovered the cub when they checked on Dana on Saturday morning.</p>
<p>Khalil said he believes the lioness waited for a safe space to give birth.</p>
<p>“She is a mom, she had the instinct,” he said. “It’s a miracle.”</p>
<p>The cub is white, a color that might change later, and weighs an estimated 1.5 to 2 kilograms (3.3 to 4.4 pounds), said Khalil who hasn’t been able yet to examine Hajar. The gender is still unknown.</p>
<p>On Sunday, the cub was mostly sleeping next to the mother in a cage in the reserve. The mother has been bonding with the cub, nursing and cleaning it.</p>
<p>An ultrasound performed on Dana during the stopover in Turkey showed that she carried two cubs.</p>
<p>Khalil said it’s unclear whether the second cub is still waiting to be born or whether it was born dead close to the time of Hajar’s birth and was eaten by the mother.</p>
<p>The vet said the team will wait for a possible second birth until Monday and, if that hasn’t happened, conduct an ultrasound to determine the next step.</p>
<p>In this Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017 photo, a lion rescued from a zoo in the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo cuddles her newborn cub in the Ma’wa Wildlife Reserve in northern Jordan. The odds had been stacked against “Hajar,” a lion cub born just hours after her mother Dana, rescued from a zoo in war-torn Syrian, was released into a wildlife reserve in Jordan. Dana and 12 other animals, including four other lions and two tigers, had barely survived under harsh conditions in the Syrian city of Aleppo, once a major battle ground. (Four Paws/Ahu Savan An, via AP).</p>
<p>The reserve now has 25 lions, tigers and bears rescued from war zones across the conflict-scarred region, including Iraq and the Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>The birth of the cub is a powerful symbol of hope, said Khalil. “After the dark, there is light,” he said with a wide smile.</p> | Lion rescued from Syria zoo gives birth in Jordan reserve | false | https://abqjournal.com/1047415/lion-rescued-from-syria-zoo-gives-birth-in-jordan-reserve.html | 2017-08-13 | 2 |
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<p>Police surrounds activists standing on the roofs of dwellings in an attempt to prevent them from being dismantled in a makeshift migrants camp near Calais, France, Tuesday March 1, 2016. The slow tear-down of the encampment in Calais continued Tuesday, angering migrants who live there in squalid conditions in hopes of reaching a better life in Britain. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)</p>
<p>CALAIS, France - About two dozen people protesting the demolition of a sprawling migrant camp in northern France climbed onto shanty rooftops on Tuesday, briefly stalling the tear-down.</p>
<p>Bulldozer crews plowed through blustery, damp winds, working around the protesters, who ultimately came down from the buildings. By mid-afternoon, the demolition was proceeding unimpeded.</p>
<p>Earlier in the day, a man and a woman standing together on a rooftop had warned police not to approach. The woman then cut her wrists as officers moved forward. Baton-wielding police beat the man and both were removed from the roof. The woman was conscious, but her condition wasn't immediately known.</p>
<p>The slow removal of the encampment in Calais has angered migrants who live there in squalid conditions in hopes of reaching a better life in Britain.</p>
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<p>France's government has offered to relocate uprooted migrants into heated containers or to centers around France where they can decide whether to apply for asylum, and officials have blamed activists from the group No Borders for the ongoing unrest. But many migrants resist French offers of help, afraid of hurting their chances to reach Britain.</p>
<p>The city bordering the Channel has ferry links and the Eurotunnel rail to England, and is temporary home to an estimated 4,000 migrants, down from 6,000 in December. The camp has become a flashpoint between France and Britain, fueling far-right support in both countries.</p>
<p>"This operation will continue in coming days, calmly and methodically, providing a place for everyone as the government has committed," French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in a statement Tuesday.</p> | Migrants occupy shanty rooftops to protest Calais demolition | false | https://abqjournal.com/733036/migrants-occupy-shanty-rooftops-to-protest-calais-demolition.html | 2 |
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<p>The last hope of halting Israel's steady ghettoization of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and calculated destruction of the Palestinian economy is the imposition of sanctions against Israel, especially the revoking of the $9 billion in U.S. loan guarantees. If we allow Israel to complete its massive $2-billion project to ring Palestinians in militarized, pod-like encampments in Gaza and the West Bank with security barriers, walls and electric fences, we will condemn Israel and the Palestinians to endless cycles of violence that could ultimately, given the mounting rage and despair that grip the Middle East, doom the Jewish state.</p>
<p>There is little dispute about the illegality of Israel's actions. The International Court of Justice has called on Israel to dismantle the security barrier under construction in the West Bank and asked outside states not to render any aid or assistance to the infrastructure. But this call has been ignored, although even the U.S. State Department has gently admonished Israel for its behavior. The U.S. loans that make the barrier and expansion of Jewish settlements possible were granted with the stipulation that if the Israeli government used the funds to build housing and infrastructure beyond the 1967 border known as the Green Line these funds would be deducted from the loans. In April 2003, when Congress authorized the $9 billion in loan guarantees for Israel it said that the loans could be used "only to support activities in the geographic areas which were subject to the administration of the Government of Israel before June 5, 1967." The legislation warned that the loan guarantees shall be reduced "for activities which the President determines are inconsistent with the objectives and understandings reached between the United States and Israel regarding the implementation of the loan guarantee program." The State Department, acknowledging the misuse of the money, has made a symbolic deduction in the amount handed to the Israeli government and reduced the loan guarantees by $289.5 million. But unless there is heavy pressure brought on Israel soon the project will be completed, made possible by Washington's complicity and a callous disregard for justice.</p>
<p>Israel is pumping hundreds of millions of dollars, some reports say as much as half a billion yearly, into its colonization of the West Bank. Since 1967, Israel has spent more than $10 billion on its settlements, and the total estimated cost for the snaking security barrier, which slices deep into the West Bank and connects with settlements and security roads to create pod-like Palestinian ghettos, is at least $1.5 billion. The barrier is being used not only to annex Palestinian land but give Israel control of Palestinian aquifers and at least 40,000 acres of Palestinian farmland. It has devastated Palestinian communities, often cutting them in half or denying farmers access to farmland. Travel, even between communities on the West Bank, has become difficult, especially for men, and many have lost their jobs, plunging with their families into squalor and despair.</p>
<p>The spate of deadly attacks by Palestinian suicide bombers in Israel gave Israel the right to impose draconian measures. A barrier running along the 1949 armistice/Green Line, which demarcates the boundary between Israel and Palestinian-held territory, was Israel's prerogative. But the barrier is being used as an excuse to seize Palestinian land, with 80 percent of the barrier cutting into Palestinian territory, often as deeply as 20 kilometers. The barrier, which costs about $1 million per mile, will eventually be 703 miles long. About 450 miles of the barrier are finished or under construction. When it is done the Palestinians in the West Bank, like those in Gaza, will be caged like animals, with little ability to move, even to neighboring towns, find work or live beyond a subsistence level. The assault on Palestinian society has been accompanied by an alarming increase in Israeli attacks against Palestinians, including the current Israeli offensive in Gaza. Fifteen tank shells landed this month in the town of Beit Hanoun, killing 19 people and wounding 40. Four women and nine children were among the dead. Two Palestinians were killed Saturday as Israel continued airstrikes and ground operations against suspected militant positions in the Gaza Strip, all coming a day after the U.N. General Assembly urged an end to the escalating violence. Israeli leaders, angered over Palestinian rocket attacks, have dismissed calls for restraint, with far-right cabinet minister Avigdor Lieberman calling for Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya and other militant leaders to be sent to "paradise."</p>
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<p>When Yasir Arafat agreed to end his exile to return to Gaza, swallow his pride and formally recognize Israel's right to exist, when he turned his Fatah fighters into a collaboration police force in the West Bank and Gaza, he was broke. The communist states that had once bankrolled him had collapsed. He was humbled to the Oslo peace accord, under which he took the bitter pill of accommodation with his detested Zionist enemy. Unless Israel too feels pressure it will never seek accommodation with the Palestinians, relying instead on increasing forms of repression and mounting violence. These measures, depriving Palestinians of hope and dignity, are the fuel of radical movements and ensure not peace but unending war. Israel has ignored the terms stipulated for the U.S. loan guarantees, and so we have a choice - to uphold our own demands and international law or be a party to Israeli policies that will lead to an unraveling of the region's stability.</p> | Chris Hedges: Bring Down That Wall | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/chris-hedges-bring-down-that-wall/ | 2006-11-20 | 4 |
<p>U.S. builders broke ground on fewer homes in May, but the pace of construction remains significantly higher than a year ago as the real estate sector increasingly reflects the stronger job market.</p>
<p>The Commerce Department said Tuesday that housing starts last month fell 11.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.04 million homes. Economists say that sales increased so sharply in April — surging 22 percent to an annual rate of 1.17 million — that some giveback was inevitable in May.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>There were fewer starts last month in all four major geographic regions: the Midwest, Northeast, South and Midwest, driven in large part by a monthly decline in the rate of apartment construction.</p>
<p>Still, housing starts have increased 6 percent year-to-date, aided by the spillover effects of strong job growth and relatively low mortgage rates. Construction firms appear ready to increase building activity of both houses and apartment complexes in the coming months to satisfy the growing demand for housing. Approved building permits rose increased 11.8 percent to an annual rate of 1.28 million, the highest level since August 2007.</p>
<p>Employers have added 3.1 million jobs over the past 12 months — new paychecks that are flowing into the housing market as more Americans have the income to buy new houses at a median price of roughly $300,000. Sales of new homes have climbed nearly 24 percent year-to-date, according to a separate Commerce Department report.</p>
<p>There are also more Americans renting. Even though job growth has accelerated, the economy has slowly crawled back over the past six years from the Great Recession. The Washington-based think tank Urban Institute estimated in a recent report that 13 million additional households will be renting by 2030, compared with 9 million additional homeowners.</p>
<p>But the increased demand has kept supplies tight, feeding expectations that builders will respond by breaking ground on more houses and apartment complexes in the coming months.</p>
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<p>As of April, the market for new homes had 4.8 months of supply, compared with 5.6 months a year ago. A healthy market generally contains six months' worth of supply.</p>
<p>Builders also have an increasingly positive outlook on sales.</p>
<p>The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index released Monday rose to 59 this month, up five points from 54 the May reading. Readings above 50 indicate more builders view sales conditions as good rather than poor.</p>
<p>Mortgage rates have started to climb, although they remain low by historic standards.</p>
<p>The average 30-year, fixed mortgage rate was 4.04 percent last week, according to the mortgage firm Freddie Mac. That is up from 3.87 percent in the prior week.</p> | US homebuilding falls 11.1 pct. in May, but permits to build at highest level since 2007 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/06/16/us-homebuilding-falls-111-pct-in-may-but-permits-to-build-at-highest-level.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>La versión en español está disponible <a href="" type="internal">aquí</a>.</p>
<p>Pentecost Sunday prompted me to reflect again in my personal relationship with the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.</p>
<p>One of my first recollections dealing seriously and painfully with this doctrine happened in the 1970s when I was in my mid-teens. I was in the living room of my grandparents’ house surrounded by aunts, uncles, great-aunts, grandparents, and cousins. I come from what used to be a large Baptist family, one that was caught in the “second wave of the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement” (Peter Wagner), and that marked the lives of many families, churches, and denominations around the world.</p>
<p>At the time of this incident, a good number of my relatives had joined the Charismatic movement. I remember observing a heated discussion among family members. In fact, at times I feared that the men were going to get physical. The discussion was centered on spirituality, the Holy Spirit, biblical knowledge and, ironically, love.</p>
<p>Does it sound familiar? It does! Years later I realized that it seemed like a story taken from the first letter to the Corinthians. One segment attempting to put down the other one by claiming higher levels of spirituality and knowledge.</p>
<p>I decided to leave this doctrine alone!</p>
<p>It represented too much trouble, conflict, division and pain. In addition to these issues, in my Baptist world, if you wanted to be a good, accepted Baptist, you had to affirm that prophecies had ceased and tongues were stilled (1 Corinthians 13:8b). Of course, my charismatic relatives strongly disagreed!</p>
<p>The understanding and use of special/miraculous gifts (miracles, speaking in tongues, and exorcisms) was not the only issue, although it was a major one. By looking at Baptist history, it is clear to me, that at least in many Latin American countries, and among many Latino/a Baptists in the United States, their Baptist identity was defined antithetically. The 19th century was marked by a strong anti-Catholicism, and the 20th century continued with the same anti-Catholic sentiment plus a strong anti-Pentecostal/Charismatic one.</p>
<p>Basically, this meant a rejection of many of the beliefs and practices that these two groups espoused. Whatever Catholics and Pentecostals/Charismatics did, we (Baptists) did not. This brought many implications for Baptists’ lives.</p>
<p>Regarding the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, it affected Baptist views on special/miraculous gifts, worship, women in ministry, and most importantly, it produced a distancing from the Holy Spirit (at least the doctrine), as well as from other Christians who thought and acted differently than us.</p>
<p>Despite my decision to stay away from this doctrine, as an unresolved issue it came back again and again.</p>
<p>Ten or 12 years later (1988) after the incident in my grandparents’ house, I was assigned to read in seminary Millard Erickson’s Christian Theology, as my primary systematic theology textbook. Coming from my particular background, I found it very refreshing that a Baptist theologian would be willing to write about the miraculous gifts in a solid, responsible, respectful, and biblical way.</p>
<p>I found a good sense of peace with Erickson, and left the issue alone again.</p>
<p>Fast-forward 12 more years (2000); I started to teach theology in my current institution. To my surprise, I discovered that a significant number of my theology students came from Hispanic Pentecostal/Charismatic churches, while the other group came mainly from traditional Hispanic Baptist churches. The issue returned again, as I had to lecture every year in a meaningful way for both sides, and as I was challenged to foster a respectful, productive dialogue between these two very different groups.</p>
<p>However, I must confess that this topic was still painful for me. Every year I opened (and I still do) my lecture on the Holy Spirit’s doctrine with my experience in my grandparent’s living room, and the subsequent division that happened in my church.</p>
<p>Fast-forward nine more years (2009); I became convinced that I needed to find some resolution to my own issues with this doctrine. Instead of continuing running away, I decided to purposely dive into this doctrine’s study. What was the best way to do it? Teach a semester class on the Holy Spirit. Having students from Pentecostal/Charismatic and Baptist backgrounds, it was a challenge to find a text book that could speak to both, and that could foster peaceful and respectful relations among them.</p>
<p>I was so grateful when I discovered Michael Green’s I Believe in the Holy Spirit. When I read in his introduction that he wrote this book because he had experienced the respectful co-existence of charismatic and non-charismatic Christians, and that the fundamental conviction of his book is that “the Holy Spirit longs to unite”(p. 8), I knew that this was the right book.</p>
<p>I have taught this advanced theology seminar several times, and each one has been an excellent, healing experience. By praising and reprimanding both sides, Michael Green has challenged me and my students to deal with misuses of language and concepts that have created conflict, and has inspired us to respectfully find common ground and language to truly “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3, NIV).</p>
<p>This unity in the Spirit is vital for the church as the universal body of Christ that extends throughout denominations. Jesus emphasized in his priestly prayer that believers need to be in unity, so that the world may believe in him (John 17:20-23). This passage seems to indicate that unity is a requirement for effective evangelism. It comes as no surprise that evil powers move the earthly universal church to fight all the time. In this way, we are distracted with our conflicts, instead of fully investing our energy in the work of God’s Reign.</p>
<p>Alluding to unity and love within the body of Christ (I Corinthians 12-14), Millard Erickson challenges Christians to instead of seeking a particular gift, to seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and to live according to the Spirit’s fruit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, Galatians 5:22-23). Once we truly live in this way, the Holy Spirit will reveal/give us the particular gift/s intended for us (Christian Theology, pp. 881-882).</p>
<p>Accordingly, any of the Spirit’s gifts, without the Spirit’s fruit, especially love, is worthless.</p>
<p>This part of my story introduces challenges in a particular facet of the unity that the Holy Spirit longs to bring. What particular challenges are you experiencing regarding unity in your Christian walk?</p>
<p>Whatever you are facing, the biblical call is clear: “Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3, ESV). Is the Apostle Paul talking to all Christians, including you and me? Yes, he is! Wherever we are positioned in our lives and ministries, unity must be a priority … so that the world may believe in Jesus. Amen!</p> | Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit — Who? Me? | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/eager-to-maintain-the-unity-of-the-spirit-who-me/ | 3 |
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<p>Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. joins low-wage workers, some who labor as cooks and cleaners at the Capitol, during a rally to protest what they describe as poverty pay, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)</p>
<p>WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is rallying for an increase in pay for low-wage workers at his day-job workplace - the Senate.</p>
<p>Speaking in the rain in a park outside the Senate on Tuesday, Sanders urged a group of a hundred or more striking and protesting workers to keep up their fight. The event was scheduled on the day of the Republican presidential debate to highlight what Sanders says is the divide between Democrats and Republicans on the issue.</p>
<p>Some of the protesters work in the Senate and were taking the day to strike. One woman who works in a Senate cafeteria spoke in Spanish about not having enough money to buy medicine for her sick child.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Sanders, the Vermont independent, said the workers should make at least $15 an hour and have the right to unionize.</p>
<p>"There are a number of senators who get served by people right here," Sanders told the wet, cheering crowd. "They should know that if you are serving them, they have got to start serving you."</p>
<p>Warner Massey, an employee of a Senate contractor who cleans entranceways and bathrooms in the Capitol complex, said he makes $13.50 an hour but wants to make at least $15. Others he works with make less.</p>
<p>"This is really crazy because of the simple fact that we work for millionaires," Massey said. "These guys are millionaires, they make the laws, they make the rules and regulations. So why is it so hard for us to get just $15 and be part of a union?"</p>
<p>Some food workers in the Capitol make as little as $11 an hour, and have no work during congressional recesses. In April, dozens of Capitol food workers briefly walked off the job to protest their pay and working conditions.</p>
<p>In June, the House changed contractors for its several cafeterias and other food vendors. The new provider, Sodexo, promised to retain qualified workers amid widespread debate about their pay and work conditions.</p>
<p>Maryland-based Sodexo will replace New York-based Restaurant Associates, which has held the House food service contract since 2007. Restaurant Associates still runs the cafeterias in the Capitol Visitors Center and Senate buildings.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Each party is doing its best to control the political optics of a new House panel that will be investigating Planned Parenthood. That includes Republicans naming a woman as chairman, and Democrats countering by making a female their leader on the panel.</p>
<p>According to the House Historian's Office, it's only the second time women have held the two top spots on a House committee. As far as the historians know, the only other occurrence was for several years in the 1960s and 1970s, when two women led the Select Committee on the House Beauty Shop.</p>
<p>Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., is chairing the new committee investigating Planned Parenthood. Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois is the lead Democrat.</p>
<p>In addition, half the eight Republicans on the panel are women, as are five of its six Democratic members. With the investigation focusing on issues like abortion and women's health care, each party wanted to be sure to avoid a perception of an insensitive, male-dominated panel throwing its weight around.</p>
<p>Even the panel's name is the subject of a partisan spin war.</p>
<p>Blackburn has been calling it the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives. Democrats have referred to it as the Select Committee to Attack Women's Health.</p>
<p>The House resolution that created the panel simply called it a Select Investigative Panel of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.</p>
<p>The Republican-run House created the committee last month in response to a conservative uproar over Planned Parenthood's provision of tissue from aborted fetuses to researchers.</p>
<p>Several other congressional committees have also been investigating Planned Parenthood since anti-abortion activists released videos they secretly recorded showing the organization's officials discussing fetal tissue donation.</p>
<p>Abortion foes say they think the group broke laws barring for-profit sales of such tissue, while Planned Parenthood says it's done nothing illegal.</p> | Capitol Hill Buzz: Sanders rallies Capitol workers over pay | false | https://abqjournal.com/673577/capitol-hill-buzz-sanders-rallies-capitol-workers-over-pay.html | 2 |
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<p>Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) announced plans on Monday to move up the date of its fourth-quarter dividend payment to late December 2012 in a quiet move that could save shareholders a bundle if the U.S. falls over the fiscal cliff.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The world’s largest retailer had originally planned to pay its quarterly dividend of 39.75 cents per share on January 2, just as tax rates on dividends are scheduled to shoot up to as high as 39.6% from just 15%.</p>
<p>That means a shareholder owning 3,000 shares of Wal-Mart would owe roughly $472.23 in taxes on $1,192.50 in dividend income -- compared with just $178.88 under current tax rates.</p>
<p>In an emailed statement, Wal-Mart said its board determined that moving up the dividend payment by a few days was "in the best interests of our shareholders" due to the "uncertainty" created by the fiscal cliff.</p>
<p>If Congress doesn’t take action before the end of the year, the U.S. will be hit with a $600 billion package of spending cuts and tax increases.</p>
<p>"Walmart’s board recognized that there are complex fiscal and federal tax rate issues that may not be resolved in the next few weeks, despite the ongoing good faith negotiations between the administration and Congress to resolve details related to the fiscal cliff," Wal-Mart said.</p>
<p>Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart approved a 9% increase in its annual dividend back in March to $1.59 a share.</p>
<p>Last week Wal-Mart posted a 9% increase in third-quarter profits that beat expectations, but also disclosed weaker-than-expected sales and guidance.</p>
<p>Shares of Wal-Mart gained 0.81% to $68.58 on Monday, underperforming a 1.66% rally for the S&amp;P 500.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Eyeing Fiscal Cliff, Wal-Mart to Pay Dividend Before '13 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/11/19/eyeing-fiscal-cliff-wal-mart-to-pay-dividend-before-13.html | 2016-01-26 | 0 |
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<p>Well, absolutely, if you’ve got a bunch of money in the stock market. Which means first you’d have to be an American with savings. Which means you’re a rare American, indeed.</p>
<p>“Dow 15,000” is the perfect time to take stock of an unappreciated part of our national predicament. Yes, we face a jobs crisis, a schools crisis, an immigration crisis, an infrastructure crisis, an inequality crisis and a college affordability crisis (just to name some current favorites).</p>
<p>But the sleeper crisis, the Next Big Shoe To Drop, is the retirement crisis.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>By definition, a retirement crisis begins with a savings crisis. Consider: According to research summarized recently by the New America Foundation, “nearly half of Americans (43.6 percent) do not have enough savings to cover basic expenses if they were to lose their source of stable income. These 132.1 million ‘liquid asset poor’ Americans include many members of the middle class and upper middle class: more than a quarter of households earning between $55,465 and $90,000 per year – the entire range of which is above the median household income of $50,054 – have less than three months of liquid savings. Over 30 percent of all households do not have a savings account at all.”</p>
<p>Let’s emblazon these facts on our collective psyche. Millions of families who earn more than the median income have less than three months of savings put aside. Millions of people with less money are living paycheck to paycheck. Families who at least owned their own houses have had their net worth eviscerated by the housing meltdown, which blew out the backstop on which countless Americans depend.</p>
<p>A 2011 study found that half of U.S. families couldn’t put their hands on $2,000 within 30 days if an emergency struck. As the authors wrote, that $2,000 amount “reflects the order of magnitude of the cost of an unanticipated major car repair, a large copayment on a medical expense, legal expenses or a home repair.”</p>
<p>How do we think these families will fare when they’re not just grinding their way through a short-term squeeze but eventually trying to support themselves in retirement at anything close to their standard of living when they were working?</p>
<p>John Edwards turned out to be sleazy, but the man had a point: We’ve become “two Americas.”</p>
<p>This divide in moods and fates is never clearer than at times when markets hit new peaks. Some of us rejoice. Most of us barely notice. The “good news” is irrelevant. A decade of hype about “the ownership society” hasn’t changed the fact that the vast majority of Americans have precious little saved or invested. Instead, years of wage stagnation, plus soaring prices for the ingredients of middle-class life (such as health care or college tuition) has made the crunch – and the disconnect between the two Americas – stark.</p>
<p>People will say we need to become thriftier. If you’re young, that’s good counsel. If you’re 59 and undersaved or 62 and unemployed, it’s a little late for Ben Franklin-style homilies.</p>
<p>The entire social and fiscal debate ignores this monster of an issue, but it’s only a matter of time. The kids are moving back home when they graduate and can’t find work. Soon, grandma and grandpa are going to be moving in, too. There’s a reckoning ahead that policymakers and the news media haven’t begun to think clearly about – or focus the public on.</p>
<p>What’s the answer? A good place to start is the New America Foundation’s recent report “Expanded Social Security: A Plan to Increase Retirement Security for All Americans” by Michael Lind, Steven Hill, Robert Hiltonsmith and Joshua Freedman. The authors show that the two private legs of the famous “three-legged retirement stool” – pensions and savings – won’t come close to delivering adequate retirement income. (The third leg, of course, is Social Security.)</p>
<p>So they would add a universal flat benefit to Social Security to supplement the earnings-based benefit that exists now. This benefit would roughly equal the poverty line; when combined with the existing system, the average worker would have 60 percent of his or her working-age income replaced vs. 40 percent today. One way to fund it would be through a chunk of the proceeds from the value-added tax that’s almost certainly coming in an aging America.</p>
<p>The New America Foundation plan is a rare Washington example of an attempt to move the boundaries of debate so they’re more equal to the magnitude of the challenge. There are details to debate and refine. But combined creatively with steps that might make traditional Social Security more generationally fair, Social Security “Part B” could become a touchstone in the coming conversation that even a soaring Dow can’t help us avoid.</p>
<p>Miller, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and co-host of public radio’s “Left, Right &amp; Center,” writes a weekly online column for The Washington Post.</p> | Americans not preparing for years after work | false | https://abqjournal.com/199986/americans-not-preparing-for-years-after-work.html | 2013-05-17 | 2 |
<p>DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Iowa's top auditor says she found no evidence of irregularities in Iowa's budgeting when tax revenues came in higher than expected last year.</p>
<p>Auditor Mary Mosiman provided the information in a letter made public Friday, after Democratic Rep. Chris Hall requested a review of the state's books for the budget year that ended in June.</p>
<p>Data at one point showed incoming revenue for Iowa's roughly $7.2 billion state budget could end up below projections by about $100 million, requiring a special session. Revenue officials later said final tax collections greatly reduced the estimated shortfall. Hall challenged those figures.</p>
<p>Gov. Kim Reynolds later transferred $13 million from an emergency fund and avoided a special session. Hall has separately challenged the legality of the transfer in a lawsuit, which Reynolds says is politically motivated.</p>
<p>Hall says he's reviewing Mosiman's analysis.</p>
<p>DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Iowa's top auditor says she found no evidence of irregularities in Iowa's budgeting when tax revenues came in higher than expected last year.</p>
<p>Auditor Mary Mosiman provided the information in a letter made public Friday, after Democratic Rep. Chris Hall requested a review of the state's books for the budget year that ended in June.</p>
<p>Data at one point showed incoming revenue for Iowa's roughly $7.2 billion state budget could end up below projections by about $100 million, requiring a special session. Revenue officials later said final tax collections greatly reduced the estimated shortfall. Hall challenged those figures.</p>
<p>Gov. Kim Reynolds later transferred $13 million from an emergency fund and avoided a special session. Hall has separately challenged the legality of the transfer in a lawsuit, which Reynolds says is politically motivated.</p>
<p>Hall says he's reviewing Mosiman's analysis.</p> | Iowa auditor: No irregularities in Iowa budgeting | false | https://apnews.com/amp/5993bffd51434ea5863b2c146d74dca1 | 2018-01-05 | 2 |
<p>Published time: 7 Dec, 2017 16:02</p>
<p>Two US B-1B supersonic bombers flew over Korea as part of the Vigilant Ace drills with South Korea on Thursday, a defense official said. The aircraft conducted simulated bombing drills over the Yellow Sea.</p>
<p>The Guam-based Lancer bombers trained with more than 20 fighter jets as part of the Vigilant Ace joint exercise with South Korea, which began on December 4 and will continue until Friday. The aircraft entered the Korean Air Defense Identification Zone (KADIZ) over the waters south of Jeju Island and conducted simulated bombing drills over the Yellow Sea near North Korea and China, according to the official, <a href="http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2017/12/07/0301000000AEN20171207009900315.html" type="external">cited</a> by Yonhap.&#160;</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/412228-korea-nuclear-war-established-fact/" type="external" /></p>
<p>The exercise marks the second time this week that the US has dispatched the aircraft as part of Vigilant Ace. On Wednesday, a B-1B bomber was joined by F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters for what South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff referred to as simulated strikes at a military field.</p>
<p>A total of 12,000 US service members are taking part in the annual Vigilant Ace drills alongside South Korean troops. The exercise has been <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/411812-trump-nuclear-war-korea/" type="external">slammed</a> by North Korea, which said the drills prove that US President Donald Trump is “begging” for nuclear war.&#160;</p>
<p>North Korea has long spoken out against joint drills between the US and South Korea. In November, Pyongyang’s ambassador to the UN ruled out negotiations with Washington, <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/410220-north-korea-negotiations-us/" type="external">citing</a> America’s “hostile policy” against his country and continuing drills between the US and Seoul.&#160;</p>
<p>Moscow also believes it is Washington’s saber-rattling and regular military drills in the region that are “provoking Pyongyang into taking some rash action” after months of restraint, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said following the country’s latest ballistic missile test. Threats from various US officials are serving the same purpose, Lavrov added. The foreign minister referenced a comment by the US envoy to the UN, Nikki Haley, in which she said that North Korea would be “utterly destroyed in case of war,” calling it a “bloodthirsty tirade.”</p>
<p>Russia and China remain behind a so-called “double-freeze” proposal, which would see the US suspend joint drills with South Korea in exchange for Pyongyang halting its missile and nuclear tests. However, that plan was swiftly rejected over the summer by the US, which claims it has the right to conduct military exercises with its ally South Korea.</p> | US B-1B aircraft conduct simulated bombing drills over Yellow Sea – defense official | false | https://newsline.com/us-b-1b-aircraft-conduct-simulated-bombing-drills-over-yellow-sea-defense-official/ | 2017-12-07 | 1 |
<p>Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) described President Donald Trump’s prospective administration’s top officials as a "swamp cabinet” filled with “billionaires and bankers” in a <a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1701/22/sotu.01.html" type="external">Sunday interview</a> with left-wing CNN Democrat Jake Tapper:</p>
<p>"First, this cabinet is unusually unique and a lot different than others. We call it the ‘swamp cabinet,’ billionaires and bankers. The number of wealthy people, the number of people rife with conflicts of interest and the number of people who have disagreed with what Trump has campaigned on is so much more than just any other cabinet we've seen, and so that means they need thorough review.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>But we certainly feel that we have to bring to the American people how different this cabinet is, how hard right, how many conflicts of interest, billionaires.”</p>
<p>Schumer spoke without irony of Trump’s “swamp cabinet” - repurposing the president’s campaign slogan of “drain the swamp” - despite holding elected office since 1974 (when he was 24). He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1980 and to the Senate in 1998.</p>
<p>Trump was using “populist rhetoric to cover up a hard right agenda,” warned Schumer. He called on Trump to select “mainstream” nominees to build the incoming administration.</p>
<p>Tapper teed up Schumer to criticize attendees of the presidential inauguration who <a href="http://time.com/4641099/trump-inauguration-chuck-schumer-speech/" type="external">booed and jeered</a> a segment of the senate minority leader's speech which compartmentalized Americans in subgroups, including across the lines of "gender identity."</p>
<p>Schumer was allegedly met with boos and jeering during the following portion of his speech:</p>
<p>"We Americans have always been a forward-looking, problem-solving, optimistic, patriotic, and decent people. Whatever our race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, whether we are immigrant or native-born, whether we live with disabilities or do not, in wealth or in poverty, we are all exceptional in our commonly held, yet fierce devotion to our country, and in our willingness to sacrifice our time, energy, and even our lives to making it a more perfect union."</p>
<p>Although connecting Trump to what he implied were the president's unsavory supporters in attendance at the inauguration, Tapper has not yet connected any Democrats to left-wing violent rioters prior to or following the presidential election.</p>
<p>Tapper has also almost entirely ignored evidence of collusion - both in terms of funding and organizing - between violent rioters and Democrat-aligned organizations.</p>
<p>At no point did Tapper offer any meaningful challenge to Schumer’s assertions or implied narratives of warfare.</p>
<p>Tapper presents himself as an objective, unbiased, and non-partisan political reporter and analyst.</p>
<p>Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | Schumer: Trump Building 'Swamp Cabinet' | true | https://dailywire.com/news/12648/schumer-trump-building-swamp-cabinet-robert-kraychik | 2017-01-22 | 0 |
<p>It’s baffling how $33 million can seem like a relatively small sum lately, but given that it’s all that Bank of America will have to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to inform investors about the billions in bonuses the bank paid Merrill Lynch executives during B of A’s acquisition of Merrill last year, it seems more like a light knuckle-rap than a full-on spanking.</p>
<p>Business Week:</p>
<p>The Securities &amp; Exchange Commission sued Bank of America (BAC) on Aug. 3 for not having informed investors about bonuses the government said the nation’s largest bank agreed to pay to Merrill Lynch executives as part of the bank’s $50 billion acquisition of Merrill last January. While the SEC said that Bank of America had agreed to settle the charges and pay a fine of $33 million, the government’s action gives new ammunition to dissident investors and some Obama Administration officials in their campaign to force out Bank of America’s chief executive, Kenneth Lewis.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/aug2009/db2009083_219413.htm?chan=rss_topStories_ssi_5" type="external">Read more</a></p>
<p /> | SEC Fines B of A $33M for Bonus Bust | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/sec-fines-b-of-a-33m-for-bonus-bust/ | 2009-08-04 | 4 |
<p>Sen. Chris Dodd just put his money where his mouth has been in the presidential campaign, filibustering a nasty bit of legislation the Senate tried to push through before the Christmas break. Here he <a href="http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/18/countdown-senator-chris-dodd-on-the-fisa-victory/" type="external">tells</a> MSNBC why giving retroactive immunity to the telecom companies for spying on Americans is a bad thing.</p>
<p>Watch it <a href="http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/18/countdown-senator-chris-dodd-on-the-fisa-victory/" type="external">here</a>.</p> | Dodd to the Rescue | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/dodd-to-the-rescue/ | 2007-12-19 | 4 |
<p>With only one year left in office, Governor Schwarzenegger has set an ambitious agenda&#160;to salvage what many believe to be a disappointing tenure. &#160;The Governor aims to work with the Legislature and reform-minded organizations to achieve the following <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/capitolandcalifornia/story/2435459.html" type="external">goals</a>:</p>
<p>1. &#160;Balance a budget that is $21 billion in the hole, mainly through spending cuts in strategic areas</p>
<p>2. &#160;Enact long-term changes to the state’s muddled <a href="http://caivn.org/issue/california-tax-reform" type="external">tax structure</a></p>
<p>3. &#160;Establish a more substantial rainy day fund for economic downturns</p>
<p>4. &#160;Advocate the <a href="http://caivn.org/issue/top-two-open-primary-initiative" type="external">Top Two Open Primary</a> in an effort to generate more moderate candidates</p>
<p>5. &#160;Convince voters to approve the $11.1 billion bond to revamp the state’s aging water infrastructure</p>
<p>6. &#160;Reform the state’s public pension plan, which has $100 billion of unfunded liabilities through 2015</p>
<p>Skeptics abound as the Governor attempts to effect yet another plan that promises major political and fiscal reform. &#160;In 2003, Schwarzenegger campaigned as the candidate who would “end the crazy deficit spending” and change the way state government conducts business. &#160;Six years later, the state is mired in massive deficits, political polarization runs rampant, and both the Governor and Democratic-controlled legislature possess dismal approval ratings.</p>
<p>Independent voters are growing tired of the empty rhetoric, broken promises, and ineffective governance in Sacramento. &#160;Enslaved by special interests, the party regulars on both sides of the aisle continue to stifle meaningful economic and political reform. &#160;It will take radical, new ideas, novel solutions, and thinking outside the box to resuscitate a dying state, and it will take a rapidly growing grassroots movement bucking the trend of reelecting entrenched incumbents to fill the state capitol with a slate of fresh, new faces.</p> | Schwarzenegger sets final agenda | false | https://ivn.us/2010/01/04/schwarzenegger-sets-final-agenda/ | 2010-01-04 | 2 |
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<p>Every so often an ad comes along that tries so hard to be hip, and fails so badly, that you have to wonder who the real slackers are . . .</p>
<p>From the December 10th, <a href="http://www.sfbg.com" type="external">San Fransisco Bay Guardian</a> (the venerable alternative weekly in S.F.):</p>
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<p /> | WHAT-ever | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/1997/12/what-ever/ | 1997-12-16 | 4 |
<p>During a discussion about Chris Christie on Hardball, the host played a clip of Sarah Palin on Sean Hannity's Fox News show where they discussed New Jersey Governor&#160;Chris Christie's&#160;likely 2016 run. Both Hannity and Palin stated that Christie is not conservative enough for them.</p>
<p>Matthews then stated,</p>
<p>If you're not a wild, wild tea partier who hates the government, who wants to bring it down, who's ready to just default on the budget, who doesn't care about anything getting passed, votes against everything, if you're not one of them, then you're a liberal.</p>
<p>Guests Michael Steele and Joan Walsh agreed chiming in with "right, right" and Walsh saying,&#160;</p>
<p>...and if you don't dispute, if you don't dispute the legitimacy of Barack Obama and God forbi..."</p>
<p>Matthews interrupted and added, "His existence as an American!" to which Walsh responded, "exactly!"</p>
<p>Later in the segment, Matthews insinuated that the GOP will ask whoever they choose as their nominee if they think Obama is a Muslim before voting for them.</p> | Chris Matthews says Tea Partiers 'Hate the Government' | true | http://truthrevolt.org/news/chris-matthews-says-tea-partiers-hate-government | 2018-10-06 | 0 |
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<p>The city mayor who may go to jail for shady financial deals.</p>
<p>His wife, Connie Britton, who stars as Rayna Jaymes, queen of country music. She can’t decide whether she loves her husband or the guy who fathered her teen daughter. She has a fling with her music producer to help her decide.</p>
<p>Overnight singing sensation Juliette Barnes, played by Hayden Panettiere — think Carrie Underwood without the class — beds the guy who drives her to the studio; her druggie mother’s counselor; an NFL quarterback based on Good Guy Tim Tebow; her guitarist, Deacon, who, coincidentally, fathered Connie Britton’s teenage daughter; and the roadie in charge of handing her bottled water. And that is just the first episode.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>So, OK, I exaggerate. But just a little. The point is, this series is of interest only to we low brows who savor “Gossip Girl” and “Taxicab Confessions.”</p>
<p>Your humble correspondent would like you to believe there is another rationale for his monitoring “Nashville.” It is politically relevant.</p>
<p>This series is a cautionary tale for New Mexico, which lusts for the Hollywood crowd and jiggles her tax system to woo hungry film producers. While the Albuquerque-filmed “Breaking Bad” seems to be a winner, overall New Mexico investment in film hasn’t been a box-office hit.</p>
<p>“Nashville” is indeed a catch for her namesake city. The production provided a $40 million jolt to the city economy in the first year alone. The more important spinoff may be tourism.</p>
<p>Nashville has her ugly side, but you won’t see it on this show. The Nashville portrayed in the TV series is one glamorous scene after another: city towers, splendid river shots, fashionable eateries, lush neighborhoods, happening country music nightspots. They all suggest this would be a fun place to visit.</p>
<p>Here’s the catch. “Nashville,” already the beneficiary of an attractive tax incentive, has served notice that it will not film in Nashville next year unless the state coughs up even more tax breaks. City and state officials have responded by saying they “are open to a deal that would keep the production in Nashville this year.”</p>
<p>This is a classic example of what economists call the race to the bottom, states outbidding one another with tax benefits to film producers who hip hop around the country to the latest best deal. It is tricky and fickle business for both filmmakers and state legislatures.</p>
<p>Perhaps New Mexico could get an inside track if we were to write our own TV show. I am thinking of “Santa Fe!” a totally fictitious story about New Mexico politics, adventure, romance.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In the opening scene, a helicopter provides an aerial view of the governor’s mansion, home of Gov. Suzette Morales and her husband, Jacko. The camera takes us inside the mansion to the kitchen where Jacko is preparing breakfast.</p>
<p>“Oh, Jacko,” Suzette beckons in a singsong voice off camera, “Big day ahead fighting ugly speculation on the Downs deal, but I have a free hour right now, big guy.”</p>
<p>“Hey, pretty lady,” Jacko calls out, “you better get in here quick. My huevos are getting hot!”</p>
<p>I hoped to write myself into the script as a nasty political blogger, but Joe Monahan already landed that part.</p>
<p>Help me out here. What are your plot suggestions for this New Mexico TV soap opera, scenes that might play out anywhere in the state? Name and town, please.</p>
<p>(Ned Cantwell awaits your input at [email protected].)</p> | Next blockbuster television hit: ‘Santa Fe’ | false | https://abqjournal.com/208121/next-blockbuster-television-hit-39santa-fe39.html | 2013-06-09 | 2 |
<p>Sierra Leone is a country ravaged by Ebola. Many have died and cases keep appearing. There is a place, however, where a small group of surfers have found solace in the ocean. At Bureh Beach there is a club of surfers – formed in 2012 – with the intent of strengthening ecotourism and protecting the country’s beautiful coastline.</p>
<p>As reported in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/world/no-moon-suits-just-trunks-and-the-healing-surf.html?_r=0" type="external">The New York Times</a>, Bureh Beach was to host an international surfing tournament last fall but the onset of the Ebola epidemic resulted in its cancellation. The tournament was projected to bring in approximately 1,500 tourists and generate 500 jobs. Despite its cancellation, the surf club continues to teach the art of surfing and offers board rentals and meals to visitors. Surfing lessons are offered for $12 each.</p>
<p>Far more valuable, though, is the benefit of peace found through surfing. Mr. Jahbez Benga, the club’s head coach, said, “When you’re inside the water you shouldn’t be thinking about anything, not Ebola, not nothing, just the waves.”</p>
<p>The surfers in the club remain healthy and fit. The whole country, it seems, is seeking to exercise more, perhaps hoping to ward off sickness. The surfers may have found solace within their club, but the risk of Ebola remains. Each day an attendant uses an infrared thermometer to scan the temperature of each person entering the beach.</p>
<p>Despite the difficult odds facing the country, its citizens continue their daily lives – going to work, having lunch, exchanging greetings, even surfing.</p>
<p /> | Surfers find solace in the waves, despite Ebola’s presence | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/01/12/surfers-find-solace-in-the-waves-despite-ebolas-presence/ | 2015-01-12 | 3 |
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<p>Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, is currently testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he is facing a tough line of questioning regarding his civil rights record and views on <a href="" type="internal">criminal justice</a>. Several <a href="" type="internal">protesters</a> challenging Sessions’ fitness for the position have already been removed.</p>
<p>For live social media updates, follow <a href="https://twitter.com/pemalevy" type="external">Mother Jones reporter Pema Levy</a> who is in the room for the hearing.</p>
<p /> | Watch Live: Jeff Sessions’ Confirmation Hearing | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/01/watch-live-jeff-sessions-confirmation-hearing/ | 2017-01-10 | 4 |
<p>(Reuters) – French asset manager Amundi no longer plans to ask clients to pick up the bill for external investment research when new European Union rules come into force in January, a spokesman said on Monday.</p>
<p>The MiFID II directive leaves asset managers with a choice of whether to absorb the cost of paying for outside research or pass it on to clients.</p>
<p>“In the context of MiFID II implementation, and given the consensus, Amundi has decided to absorb into its P&amp;L the costs of external research,” the spokesman said.</p>
<p>Germany’s Union Investment, Britain’s Schroders (LON:) and U.S. peers Invesco and Janus Henderson in recent months have all changed tack and chosen to absorb the costs rather than pass them on.</p>
<p>Amundi had assets under management of 1.4 trillion euros as of Sept 30.</p>
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<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | Amundi to absorb MiFID research costs | false | https://newsline.com/amundi-to-absorb-mifid-research-costs/ | 2017-12-18 | 1 |
<p>St. Patrick's Day began with a rumble in Los Angeles when a 4.4-magnitude earthquake -- now nicknamed the 'Shamrock Shake' -- rocked the region.</p>
<p>California avoided any significant damage, but the scare was enough to send <a href="http://www.today.com/entertainment/los-angeles-news-anchor-goes-full-earthquake-face-during-morning-2D79383337" type="external">TV anchors diving</a> <a href="http://www.today.com/entertainment/los-angeles-news-anchor-goes-full-earthquake-face-during-morning-2D79383337" type="external">for cover</a>.</p>
<p>The quake, felt by millions, was the biggest to hit the L.A. area since the 1994 Northridge disaster.</p>
<p>NBC News spoke with U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones who said it's important to be prepared for a larger earthquake, even if there's "no reason to think it's a precursor for the 'Big One.'"</p>
<p>"We really like to use this chance as a time to remind people -- you decided to live in L.A., that means living with earthquakes," Jones said. "Are you ready for it? They are all not gonna be this small."</p>
<p>Today's earthquake demonstrated that California's <a href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/earlywarning/" type="external">early warning prototype</a> worked, Jones said. The system gave Pasadena a two-second warning.</p>
<p>Watch "Nightly News with Brian Williams" tonight for more.</p> | ‘Shamrock Shake’ Rocks California: Is ‘The Big One’ Far Behind? | false | http://nbcnews.com/nightly-news/shamrock-shake-rocks-california-big-one-far-behind-n54926 | 2014-03-17 | 3 |
<p>The president has better things to do than look out for the concerns of the people he was elected to represent.</p>
<p>Before heading to Greensboro, North Carolina, this Saturday evening for a fundraiser at the home of a pair of prominent Republicans, the president took a trip to his golf course just outside D.C. in Virginia.</p>
<p>The pace of Trump’s visits to his golf courses has slowed in recent weeks, but that doesn’t mean that the situation overall is any less grim.</p>
<p>As NBC’s Kyle Griffin reports on Twitter, Saturday marks the 69th day that Trump has spent at a golf course branded with his name since taking office, and it marks the 89th day that he has spent at Trump-branded properties overall.</p>
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<p>Sixty-nine days is over two months — Trump has literally hit the golf course for two out of the almost nine months that he has been in office. It’s no wonder that he hasn’t gotten much anything done since taking office outside of stirring up trouble.</p>
<p>The president’s travel is costing the country big time to the point that the Secret Service ran out of funds weeks ago. It’s ironic for this to be the case considering that the most recent high profile departure from the White House, that of the now former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, was over disputes about the size of his travel bills.</p>
<p>As is well known by now, even though estimating the exact costs of a presidential golf trip is difficult — and trips to the president’s Virginia golf course of course cost less than the president’s numerous trips from D.C. to Florida — Trump was estimated earlier this year to be on pace to cost the government more on travel in just his first year than President Obama did in his entire eight years in office.</p>
<p>Trump, before winning the presidency, spent a significant amount of time criticizing President Obama for supposedly taking too much time off, insisting he wouldn’t do the same.</p>
<p>Evidently, that was all nonsense. Trump has paraded himself as a champion of fiscal conservatism, but as evidenced by his incessant travel, he is no such thing.</p>
<p>Check out Twitter’s response to the president’s latest trip to the golf course below.</p>
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<p>Featured Image via&#160; <a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/license/856452626" type="external">Icon Sportswire/ Getty Images</a></p> | Trump Abruptly Disappears & Takes Unscheduled Saturday Vacation; Details Are Deplorable | true | http://bipartisanreport.com/2017/10/07/trump-abruptly-disappears-details-are-deplorable/ | 2017-10-07 | 4 |
<p>A 10-year study of the influence business finds that the billions of dollars ($3.5 billion in 2009 alone, according to the Center for Responsive Politics) thrown at elected officials add up to a whole lot of nothing — that is, the influential spend a lot of time, energy and cash stalemating each other and keeping things the way they are.</p>
<p>Miller-McCune:</p>
<p>The real outcome of most lobbying — in fact, its greatest success — is the achievement of nothing, the maintenance of the status quo. “Sixty percent of the time, nothing happens,” says Frank Baumgartner, one author of the book and a political science professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “What we see is gridlock and successful stalemating of proposals, with occasional breakthroughs. We see a pattern of no change, no change and no change — and then some huge reform.”</p>
<p>But those large reforms — such as health care for 32 million uninsured Americans under President Barack Obama, the scheduled phase-out of the estate tax under President George W. Bush, and the normalization of trade relations with China under President Bill Clinton — are far more often linked to a change in who inhabits the White House than to campaign contributions or K Street hires.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.miller-mccune.com/politics/k-street-and-the-status-quo-20015/" type="external">Read more</a></p>
<p>The health care bill may count as a breakthrough, but it’s also a clear-cut case of the power of lobbyists to corrupt public officials. Lately the stalemating described in the article excerpted above doesn’t seem to be working very well, at least where the interests of the unwashed masses are concerned. — PZS</p> | Lobbying Is About Getting Nothing Done | true | http://truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/lobbying_is_about_getting_nothing_done_20100810/ | 2010-08-11 | 4 |
<p>Less than 24 hours after a Ten Commandments monument at the Arkansas Capitol was installed on the Capitol grounds, a 32-year-old man deliberately smashed his car into it.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2017/06/28/10-commandments-monument-broken-up?platform=hootsuite" type="external">The Arkansas Times</a> reported that Michael Tate Reed, 32, of Van Buren, Arkansas, was charged with defacing objects of public interest; criminal trespass on the Capitol grounds, and first degree criminal mischief.</p>
<p>According to the secretary of state's office, a Capitol police officer on patrol saw Reed drive past the monument before executing a U-turn and driving into the monument, which fell from its plinth and shattered. The officer took Reed, who was “cooperative,” according to police spokesman Danielle Fusco, into custody.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/usworld/man-who-drove-into-oklahoma-s-ten-commandments-monument-arrested/article_bf74e460-a293-534f-bab0-0abb4432feaa.html" type="external">Tulsa World</a> reported that a Facebook Live <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Crunkster430" type="external">video</a> posted on a Michael Reed’s account showed the destruction of the monument. Tulsa World reported, “In the video, the sky is dark and the Arkansas Capitol's dome is visible. Music is heard followed by a female voice, likely on the radio, saying, ‘Where do you go when you're faced with adversity and trials and challenges?’ The driver is then heard growling, ‘Oh my goodness. Freedom!’ before accelerating into the monument. The vehicle's speedometer is last shown at 21 mph and then a collision can be heard.”</p>
<p>Michael Tate Reed II, who is possibly the same man who drove into the Arkansas monument, was taken in for mental evaluation after he crashed his car into the Ten Commandments monument at the state Capitol in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on October 24, 2014. As Tulsa World reported, he <a href="http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/ginniegraham/letter-from-man-who-destroyed-ten-commandments-monument-gives-insight/article_889af960-1d27-5fb2-9332-7057f6947f25.html" type="external">stated in a letter</a> “that his psychotic breaks led to getting inspiration from a Dracula movie, thinking Michael Jackson’s spirit was in meat, believing he was the incarnation of an occult leader and attempting to contact Lucifer’s high priestess he called Gwyneth Paltrow.” He added, “I was hesitant on writing this, but I think it would be a good way to share with others what happened to me back in October … I am so sorry that this all happening (sic) and wished I could take it all back.”</p>
<p>In 2013, Reed locked himself in one of the CityPlex Towers, one of the large buildings near Oral Roberts University; he was taken to a mental health facility, then released later into his mother’s care in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Weeks later, he drove to Kentucky to escape from a storm he thought was evil and following him. He started hallucinating as he returned; he acknowledged later, “The voice had told me if I didn’t stop the cars, people would die. The voice told me the cars were all carrying meat that was infected with the spirit of Michael Jackson and it was a killer virus.’</p>
<p>Resisting the impulse to crash into the cars, Reed released the wheel and ended up in the median, where he was arrested and held for 10 days in jail on drug charges. He was admitted for a 30-day stay in a mental health facility in Arkansas.</p>
<p>Reed was released from an Oklahoma hospital in January 2015 "under an agreement with Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater for continued treatment, therapy and family support. He is diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder."</p>
<p>Sen. Jason Rapert, who sponsored legislation to erect the monument, which was <a href="http://ualrpublicradio.org/post/ten-commandments-monument-destroyed-arkansas-state-capitol#stream/0" type="external">built</a> with private funds by the Heritage Foundation and opposed by several groups, called the smashing of the monument a "premeditated act of violence against the people of Arkansas."</p> | Man Deliberately Destroys 10 Commandments Monument At Arkansas State Capitol | true | https://dailywire.com/news/18047/man-deliberately-destroys-10-commandments-monument-hank-berrien | 2017-06-28 | 0 |
<p>Unless you were on a religious retreat since Saturday, penitently shutting out the brays and bleats of the world at large, you know that a scandal has exploded in professional basketball and, indeed, across a considerable swath of American culture. Of course I’m talking about the disclosure of racist remarks attributed to Donald Sterling, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. In moments of mental frailty, I suppose, we could call it Sterling-gate.</p>
<p>The electronic and print media in Southern California and many other parts of the planet are awash in reports about the controversy, which is elbowing aside that little flap in Ukraine. On Monday, Page 1 of the Los Angeles Times had in the lead position two articles about the Sterling matter, along with a photograph, and on Tuesday the newspaper again had two front-page stories on the brouhaha, plus two related multicolumn pictures. In addition, Tuesday’s lead editorial was about Sterling.</p>
<p>Some skeptics will ask whether, amid wars and plagues, storms and droughts, loss of life at sea and tragedy in the sky, this is legitimate news. The answer, in a single word, is yes. When someone as prominent (infamous?) as Donald Sterling is tied to something so outrageous, it’s news. As Willy Loman said in a vastly different context, “Attention, attention must finally be paid to such a person.”</p>
<p>The public reaction alone — wide and deep — would make the development newsworthy. Barack Obama himself held forth, calling the recorded comments “racist” and “incredibly offensive.” The president went on to say: “The United States continues to wrestle with the legacy of race and slavery and segregation, that’s still there, the vestiges of discrimination. We’ve made enormous strides, but you’re going to continue to see this percolate up every so often. …”</p>
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<p>Obama aired the American dirty linen at a news conference Sunday in Malaysia, a stop on his four-country swing through Asia, when he was asked about it. I suspect he would have preferred not to be speaking about U.S. racism during a trip designed in part to promote the image of our nation, aka the land of the free.</p>
<p>Here’s a short list taken from the long, long list of other well-known people who have weighed in: National Basketball Association Commissioner Adam Silver, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul, Matt Kemp, James Worthy, Clippers Coach Doc Rivers, Jesse Jackson, Snoop Dogg, Arsenio Hall, Russell Simmons, Donald Trump, Al Sharpton, Pulitzer winner Eugene Robinson and Rush Limbaugh, along with masses of other media folk. (Limbaugh plumbed the political depths of the story, claiming that Sterling, a registered Republican, is “a big Democrat” who is in trouble only because “he did not give enough money to Obama.”)</p>
<p>The exchange in question is purported to be part of a conversation between Sterling and a woman whom some have characterized as his mistress. In case you haven’t memorized the poisonous diatribe, I’ve plucked out <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-levin-jd/for-basketball-justice-is_b_5235280.html" type="external">some lines</a> for your consideration.</p>
<p>Man: Well then, if you don’t feel—don’t come to my games. Don’t bring black people, and don’t come.</p>
<p>Woman: Do you know that you have a whole team that’s black, that plays for you?</p>
<p>Man: You just, do I know? I support them and give them food, and clothes, and cars, and houses. Who gives it to them? Does someone else give it to them? I know that I have—who makes the game? Do I make the game, or do they make the game? Is there 30 owners, that created the league?</p>
<p>Man: You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that [social media] … and not to bring them to my games.</p>
<p>Man: I’m just saying, in your lousy fucking Instagrams [photos], you don’t have to have yourself with, walking with black people.</p>
<p>Man: Don’t put him [Magic Johnson] on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me. And don’t bring him to my games.</p>
<p>When the woman calls on the man to change, he says: “I don’t want to change. If my girl can’t do what I want, I don’t want the girl. I’ll find a girl that will do what I want! Believe me. I thought you were that girl—because I tried to do what you want. But you’re not that girl.”</p>
<p>There is no secret sauce that can make this mess anything but revolting.</p>
<p>So, what does it all mean for Sterling?</p>
<p>On Tuesday Commissioner Silver <a href="" type="internal">banned him</a> from the NBA and imposed a $2.5 million fine against the lawyer and real estate developer. In another breaking development, Silver also said Sterling <a href="http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-donald-sterling-nba-lifetime-ban-20140429,0,3465134.story#axzz30FB5hsnS%20" type="external">had acknowledged</a> that it was his voice on the recording.The decision that came down Tuesday has a shimmering ring of finality for a man who has what, at best, can be called a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/29/donald-sterling-racism-history_n_5228992.html?utm_hp_ref=sports" type="external">history of crudeness</a> concerning race. It is a punishment fit for a person who strongly cares about his public image, however many millions he has and will continue to have in his bank account. Over the years Sterling has spent huge sums for L.A. Times advertisements that tout him and his charitable work. Many of the ads — all of which are amateurishly designed — feature dozens of “head shots” of civic leaders and a particular photo of Sterling, apparently one that he feels presents him at his most handsome. LAT readers are accustomed to seeing the Clippers owner gazing back at them from behind a winning smile.</p>
<p>When I think of the Sterling issue my mind drifts to the Cliven Bundy case in Nevada. The rancher was at first lionized as a patriot bravely standing against an overbearing federal government in a dispute over cattle grazing. Later, many of <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-distance-selves-from-nevada-rancher-cliven-bundy-over-racial-remarks/2014/04/24/76a72780-cbe3-11e3-95f7-7ecdde72d2ea_story.html" type="external">Bundy’s supporters</a> moved away from him when his racist sentiments were revealed. He was quoted as saying:</p>
<p>And because they [African-Americans] were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do? They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy?</p>
<p>Bundy and Sterling share a characteristic beyond being wealthy and having deplorable thoughts on race: They are far from their salad days. Bundy is 67 years old. Sterling is 80. Bundy was roughly 18 years old when the 1965 Voting Rights Act was signed. Sterling, born in 1934, was 31 when the legislation became law. They grew up in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws" type="external">Jim Crow era</a>, and their attitudes reflect that benighted time of racial separation and white ignorance of groups and classes that were “different.” The tentacles of Jim Crow were long and powerful and reached far beyond the South. Even in areas of the country where an African-American could stay at the best hotel in town, patterns of discrimination and inequality could be found in abundance.</p>
<p>I was no stranger to Jim Crow. I was a white child in the South in the late part of that era, and I did not know a single African-American boy or girl.</p>
<p>Because I now teach undergraduates part time at a Los Angeles-area college, I’m exposed with some regularity to the social attitudes of today’s youths. The students in my classroom typically are 19 years old.</p>
<p>The course does not focus on race. We spend quite a bit of time talking about news and the students’ opinions on what is being reported. If these young people are racists, they are concealing it well. There appears to be a gulf between their positive attitudes and the attitudes prevalent in the culture of my youth, a time when minorities such as African-Americans, gays and lesbians suffered gravely under the heel of bigotry.</p>
<p>I will not argue that my students are free of discrimination, but I do think they have advanced far along the road that leads away from prejudice. Generally, they seem to accept people as people. And I applaud them for it.</p>
<p>Similar although less pronounced gains are evident in the old-Confederacy state I grew up in and still visit. Even there in the heart of Dixie, whites and blacks of every age associate with each other more freely than in earlier decades. Surely racist feelings remain, but they are much less frequently expressed in “polite society.”</p>
<p>Americans have a long way to go on the issue of racial equality, but we are going. Although some argue that ethnocentric racism is inherent in our species, there are encouraging signs — such as the groundswell of outrage that the telephone comments generated among whites as well as blacks — that race bigotry will diminish and that over generations its venom will evaporate. Except in some backwaters and some urban pockets, the U.S. of 2014 generally is far less racist than the U.S. of 1965, and in another 49 years the nation undoubtedly will have shed more tons of this unwholesome baggage.</p>
<p>Too optimistic? Maybe. But it’s better than believing that bigotry is inevitable, something we will be saddled with endlessly.</p>
<p>Accelerated progress will come with the passing of those whose retrograde racial thinking was formed in earlier periods. This does not mean we should sit back and let time provide all the answers. Minorities should not be asked to wait for pie in the sky, by and by. Social education and practical, progressive government policies must be pursued. As we press for fairness, victims of discrimination and those who champion their cause can take heart in knowing we will have a better country when the old thinking and the old thinkers fade away, as all must.</p>
<p>Editor’s note: A sentence in a previous version of this article incorrectly suggested that the conversation occurred by telephone.</p> | The Biological Remedy for Racism | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/the-biological-remedy-for-racism/ | 2014-04-30 | 4 |
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<p>Microprocessor giant Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is expected to refresh its desktop personal computer processor lineup early next year with offerings based on its Kaby Lake architecture.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Image source: Intel.</p>
<p>Although these parts have yet to be formally announced, online retailer Bottom Line Telecommunications recently listed the various Kaby Lake-based desktop processors for pre-order (something first spotted by various tech press outlets). Most of the chips listed are direct replacements for the current generation Skylake processors, but there is at least one model that appears to be a new product -- the dual-core Core i3 7350K.</p>
<p>For years now, Intel has offered what it has called K versions of its desktop processors. These chips are based on the same designs as their non-K counterparts, but these chips can be run at higher speeds than what they are rated for by Intel.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>This practice, known as overclocking, is not relevant to most PC users, but it is quite popular among gamers and other PC enthusiasts.</p>
<p>Intel had previously offered K versions of its Core i5 and Core i7 processors but not the Core i3 lineups.</p>
<p>Intel K processors tend to command slight premiums relative to their non-K counterparts. That premium is nice for Intel, because it doesn't cost the company any more to manufacture those chips, so margins on these products are a bit higher. Additionally, consumers are willing to pay for it, because they know that they can extract significantly more performance out of the chip via overclocking.</p>
<p>Additionally, Intel is specifying the Core i3 7350K to run at 4.2GHz speed out of the box -- modestly faster than the Core i3 7320 (also listed at Bottom Line Telecommunications) and its 4.1GHz rating.</p>
<p>Not only is Intel allowing users to run these K processors at higher speeds, the company also appears to be rating them at higher speeds from the get-go. This way, even users who have no intention of overclocking their processors may still want to pay the premium for these offerings due to their faster speeds straight out of the box.</p>
<p>I suspect that the reason that Intel held off on putting out unlocked Core i3 processors in the past was the concern that such chips would cannibalize sales of its higher-priced Core i5 processors. Indeed, many games still don't make good use of more than two processor cores, so a super-fast dual-core chip like the Core i3 7350K could be more desirable to gamers than a more expensive quad-core chip.</p>
<p>However, I suspect that Intel's marketing department concluded that people (including enthusiasts/gamers) are going to buy Core i3 processors anyway, so why not find a way to sell those same processors for more money, improving gross profit margin?</p>
<p>Additionally, since the Core i3 chips plug into the same motherboards as the Core i5 and Core i7 chips, Intel might be betting on buyers of the upcoming Core i3 7350K potentially upgrading to Core i5 or Core i7 processors down the line.</p>
<p>My guess is that the net effect of the Core i3 7350K launch will be a slight improvement in Intel's desktop processor average selling prices as a mix-shift up to the 7350K among gamers/PC enthusiasts more than offsets a slight cannibalization of Core i5 processor sales.</p>
<p>Forget the 2016 Election: 10 stocks we like better than Intel Donald Trump was just elected president, and volatility is up. But here's why you should ignore the election:</p>
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<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of November 7, 2016</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/aeassa/info.aspx" type="external">Ashraf Eassa Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Intel. The Motley Fool recommends Intel. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Intel Corporation Is Preparing a Core i3 7350K Gaming Chip | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/18/intel-corporation-is-preparing-core-i3-7350k-gaming-chip.html | 2016-11-18 | 0 |
<p>Investors are certain the Bank of England will raise rates Thursday. They're also certain the central bank won't do it again for a long time. That means there is a potential for surprises to shake U.K. markets.</p>
<p>Derivatives markets assign an 85% probability to U.K. officials raising interest rates this week for the first time in a decade. Over the past two months, the pound has gained 2.5% and 4.3% against the U.S. dollar and the euro respectively, fueled by hints from BOE officials that monetary policy is set to be tightened.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Likewise, yields on 10-year gilts have risen to 1.333% from 1.060% during the same period.</p>
<p>Key for the U.K. currency and bonds now is whether the BOE's rate rise will be read as the start of a tightening cycle.</p>
<p>"That's the crux of the matter, is it 'one and done' or there's more to come?" said David Katimbo-Mugwanya, a sterling fixed-income fund manager at EdenTree Investment Management, who thinks the gilt market is likely to sell off Thursday as sterling rallies.</p>
<p>Some analysts warn that markets show signs of overconfidence. Trading in derivatives called overnight index swaps shows that investors believe the central bank will move its benchmark rate back to 0.5%--where it was before the Brexit vote last year--and leave it there until November of next year.</p>
<p>But officials could signal otherwise, economists said.</p>
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<p>"There's a real vulnerability in the market if they indicate the next hike might come a bit sooner, and that would be good for sterling," said Stephen Gallo, head of foreign-exchange strategy at BMO Financial Group.</p>
<p>Such a surprise could drive sterling up between 0.7% and 1.3% against the dollar, according to a range of estimates by economists. Yields on 10-year gilts could edge up, closer to the 1.5% mark.</p>
<p>Speculators now have a small bet on the pound going up, according to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. It is the first time this has happened since late 2015.</p>
<p>A rise in the pound would dent the FTSE 100, since two thirds of revenues of companies listed there come from outside the U.K.</p>
<p>According to Viraj Patel, foreign-exchange analyst at Dutch bank ING, it is unlikely that BOE officials will be able to deliver the dovish message that investors expect, because it would limit their options to raise rates sooner if they need.</p>
<p>"How would the BOE even signal a one-off rise?," Mr. Patel said. "No central bank will do that, they want to keep it open-ended." He expects sterling to hover around $1.35 at year-end.</p>
<p>Jitters around the BOE's decision underscore an important issue for U.K. markets: Even though most investors are very confident that rate-setters will decide to nudge up borrowing costs, there is a large degree of confusion about why they are doing it.</p>
<p>Over the past few months, the case for raising rates has sometimes been argued in conflicting ways by different officials at the central bank. BOE Gov. Mark Carney has voiced concern about Britain's decision to leave the European Union hampering the U.K.'s growth potential, which would make central bank stimulus ineffective and drive up inflation unless rates were increased as a response.</p>
<p>At the same time, BOE Chief Economist Andy Haldane has often expressed optimism about the health of the British economy, which expanded at a faster 0.4% in the third quarter, official figures showed last week. This may pave the way for higher interest rates without fear of harming economic growth.</p>
<p>As a third possibility, recent research by the U.K. central bank suggests that sterling's depreciation after Brexit could have a more lasting effect than previously expected, as companies continue to pass on the cost of higher imports to consumers in the following months. Some economists believe that policy makers could be driven to offset this effect by pushing up rates and shoring up the pound.</p>
<p>According to Kallum Pickering, an economist at Berenberg Bank, how many of the BOE's Monetary Policy Committee vote in favor of a rate increase will "matter a lot" for markets and how they read the decision.</p>
<p>On average, analysts expect seven out of nine members to vote in favor of increasing rates, so a larger consensus would probably spark a reaction.</p>
<p>"If all MPC members back the hike, markets will say surely it's not going to be one and done," Mr. Pickering said.</p>
<p>Write to Jon Sindreu at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>November 01, 2017 10:42 ET (14:42 GMT)</p> | Investors' Query to the Bank of England: Is This a One-Off Rate Rise? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/11/01/investors-query-to-bank-england-is-this-one-off-rate-rise.html | 2017-11-01 | 0 |
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<p>2008 is dead and gone, and the universal opinion seems to be, from the economy to our government to music: “good riddance.” As Slant <a href="http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/features/2008yearinmusic.asp" type="external">put it</a>, “the cliché that oppressive Republican administrations foster the most compelling music was disproved over nearly each of the last 52 weeks.” Music seemed splintered and aimless, and year-end best-of lists seemed to reflect the confusion, with the same 50 records showing up a lot, but in completely different orders. Some of the year’s most successful and compelling music <a href="/riff_blog/archives/2008/12/11252_nme_best_single.html" type="external">was actually made</a> months, or even years, before the start of 2008. So, 2009, will you be any better? Here’s a quick (and admittedly somewhat fanciful) look ahead at the year ahead’s most anticipated releases.</p>
<p>January 6, 2009 <a href="/riff_blog/archives/2008/08/9296_your_new_favori.html" type="external">Glasvegas</a> finally release their acclaimed self-titled debut album in the US. A hung over nation ignores it completely.January 27, 2009 Scots Franz Ferdinand return with the weirdly-titled Tonight: Franz Ferdinand (left), which is supposed to be “inspired by the heavy dub sound of Jamaican reggae,” a claim exceeded in ridiculousness only by <a href="/riff_blog/archives/2007/07/4984_juego_frio_cold.html" type="external">Coldplay‘s announcement of Viva La Vida‘s “Hispanic theme.”</a> A still-hung over nation’s ignorance becomes towering. February 3, 2009 Initial release date of 50 Cent‘s new album Before I Self Destruct moved to July.</p>
<p>February 10, 2009Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliott and Warren G all release albums on the same day; nation barely looks up from downloading the latest Lil Wayne mixtape.</p>
<p>March 3, 2009U2‘s <a href="/riff_blog/archives/2008/12/11422_u2_set_to_relea.html" type="external">No Line on the Horizon</a> turns out to actually be pretty good, although the 27 Grammys it eventually wins strike even supporters as excessive.April 21, 2009Depeche Mode (right) releases their twelfth studio album and embarks on a stadium tour, at which millions of goth-y teenagers have existential crises when they run into their parents wearing “Blasphemous Rumours” T-shirts.</p>
<p>May, 2009 Forced to come up with new ways to grab the attention of a public increasingly desensitized to her antics, Amy Winehouse makes headlines after the release of her new album Stronger by smoking crack from the skull of a baby seal while attempting to suicide bomb the Taj Mahal. Miraculously, she survives.</p>
<p>June, 2009Eminem, jealous of Winehouse’s publicity, promotes his new album Relapse by making a YouTube video in which he rapes Kermit the Frog. Touched, Winehouse approaches Eminem about recording a duet; their cover of “Up Where We Belong” spends an unprecedented 16 weeks at #1.</p>
<p>July, 2009 The release date for 50 Cent‘s Before I Self Destruct is moved back to November.</p>
<p>August, 2009 After <a href="http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003810526" type="external">announcing in 2008</a> that she will be “operating independently of record labels,” Tori Amos releases a new album by promising to walk to purchasers’ houses and play it for them live. The tour comes to an abrupt end when she accidentally pushes her baby grand into a ditch outside Topeka.</p>
<p>September, 2009Damon Albarn, desperate to return to his far-more-successful Gorillaz project, sabotages the Blur comeback album by convincing the band to record it using nothing but taut rubber bands. However, the album is an unexpected critical and commercial success, inspiring legions of new “Twang-core” followers.</p>
<p>October, 2009Dr. Dre‘s “final” album, <a href="http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1453255/20020403/dr_dre.jhtml" type="external">a “hip-hop musical”</a> called Detox, is released. Unfortunately, the actual live musical version of the album is marred on opening night when lead Clay Aiken is shot by Nathan Lane.</p>
<p>November, 200950 Cent‘s Before I Self Destruct is finally released, and the reason for the delays becomes apparent: in an attempt to jump ahead of the always-edgy Kanye West, Fiddy has spent the last 12 months having surgeons in Paris turn him into an actual French robot. Sadly, thousands are killed when no-one understands his announcement that he will literally self-destruct in “cinq minutes.” December, 2009Party Ben announces <a href="/riff_blog/archives/2008/12/11331_the_best_albums_of_2008.html" type="external">his top ten albums</a> of 2009. A grateful nation is surprised to discover the list includes two electro-house albums everyone will forget in three weeks, something involving Diplo and/or M.I.A., three profoundly depressing albums inspired by krautrock and Joy Division, and a vulgar, sexist hip-hop album that sold 40 million copies. Mother Jones finally fires his ass.</p>
<p>Photos include some used under a Creative Commons license from Flickr users <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/u2005/" type="external">U2005</a> and <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/dakotamorrison/" type="external">Dakota Morrison</a>.</p>
<p /> | 2009: Predictions For the Year In Music | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/01/2009-predictions-year-music/ | 2009-01-02 | 4 |
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<p>BERLIN — Prosecutors are seeking a four-year jail sentence for a train dispatcher accused of negligence that led to one of the worst train crashes in German history this year.</p>
<p>Twelve people died and 89 were injured when two commuter trains collided on a single track on Feb. 9 near the Bavarian town of Bad Aibling, which is 60 kilometers (40 miles) southeast of Munich.</p>
<p>The German news agency dpa reported Friday that chief prosecutor Juergen Branz told the court the defendant had made a series of errors, including playing a game on his cellphone shortly before the crash.</p>
<p>The 40-year-old defendant, identified only as Michael P. in line with German privacy rules, admitted during the trial’s opening to hitting the wrong signal buttons .</p>
<p>A verdict in the trial is expected Monday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Prosecutors want 4 years for train dispatcher in fatal crash | false | https://abqjournal.com/900603/prosecutors-want-4-years-for-train-dispatcher-in-fatal-crash.html | 2016-12-02 | 2 |
<p>A man who converted to a radical form of Islam was sentenced to 17 years in prison Monday for plotting to attack a Seattle military complex in July 2011.</p>
<p>Walli Mujahidh, 34, pleaded guilty in December 2011 to charges of conspiracy to kill officers of the United States, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and unlawful possession of a firearm, <a href="http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2013/04/man-sentenced-to-17-years-for-seattle-terror-plot/" type="external">according to the Seattle Times.</a></p>
<p>"I would like to apologize to my country for my betrayal," Mujahidh wrote in a letter that was <a href="http://www.king5.com/news/Seattle-Terrorist-Iapologize-to-my-country-201973871.html" type="external">read to the court this morning.</a> "I would like to apologize to my religion. My actions were cowardly and shameful. I accept full responsibility."</p>
<p>Federal prosecutors said Mujahidh and co-conspirator Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif plotted to use grenades and machine guns to kill American military recruits at Seattle's Military Entrance Processing Station.</p>
<p>According to the FBI, the pair hoped to become martyrs and inspire like-minded radical Muslims to attack their fellow Americans. The attack was planned in revenge for what they saw as the innocent killing of Muslims oversees by the US military.</p>
<p>"This would have been a devastating attack with a toll of 150 victims," said assistant United States Attorney Todd Greenberg <a href="http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2013/04/man-sentenced-to-17-years-for-seattle-terror-plot/" type="external">in court this morning.</a></p>
<p>The FBI and Seattle police tracked Mujahidh and Abdul-Latif using a paid police informant who secretly recorded their conversations.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/130325/man-gets-18-years-seattle-terror-plot" type="external">Man sentenced to 18 years in Seattle terror plot</a></p>
<p>Mujahidh originally agreed to spend 27 years behind bars as part of his plea deal but that agreement was struck down after it came to light that the confidential informant had erased hundreds of text messages between him and his police handler.</p>
<p>The defense claimed those erased messages could have helped their client's case, <a href="http://www.king5.com/news/Seattle-Terrorist-Iapologize-to-my-country-201973871.html" type="external">reports KING 5 News.</a></p>
<p>Abdul-Latif, 35, <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/130325/man-gets-18-years-seattle-terror-plot" type="external">was sentenced to 18 years in prison</a> last month followed by ten years of supervised release.</p>
<p>Abdul-Latif previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kill US officers and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.</p> | Would-be terrorist sentenced to 17 years in plot to attack Seattle | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-04-08/would-be-terrorist-sentenced-17-years-plot-attack-seattle | 2013-04-08 | 3 |
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<p>Passers-by check out vintage automobiles parked around the Plaza Friday. (Jackie Jadrnak/Journal)</p>
<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — It’s Cruise Night on the Plaza, and vehicles of all sizes, hues and vintages are lining the surrounding streets.</p>
<p>Of course, maybe it should be called Parking Night, since they’re just sitting there, many with hoods open and engines exposed for inspection by the passing aficionados. The traditional cruise nights, with low-riders inching along checking out each other and pedestrians, often with music blasting, have been quelled.</p>
<p>Too uncivilized, apparently, for today’s we-don’t-want-to-offend-any-tourists Plaza.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Cruise Night on the Plaza is so slow, it’s stationary | false | https://abqjournal.com/446820/cruise-night-on-the-plaza-is-so-slow-its-stationary.html | 2 |
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<p>Rising healthcare costs and inadequate retirement savings will likely create challenges for consumers and the retailers that depend on discretionary spending, according to a report from Standard &amp; Poor’s.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Most consumer sectors have gained momentum and ratings stability this year, despite softness in the economy and the slow pace of employment growth. S&amp;P expects that trend to continue through 2014, as long as fiscal negotiations in Washington don’t undermine consumer spending.</p>
<p>But by 2015, consumer-related industries may run out of luck. Healthcare costs for individuals, as well as Americans’ need to increase savings for retirement, are projected to create headwinds for the sector.</p>
<p>Several national retailers, most recently Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) and Kohl’s (NYSE:KSS), have already warned that pressure on household budgets is dampening sales.</p>
<p>“We expect consumption growth will not only slow but may also reverse itself as the population ages,” said S&amp;P’s Michael Scerbo, one of the primary credit analysts contributing to the report. “The lack of meaningful growth in real personal disposable income is constraining consumer spending.”</p>
<p>S&amp;P said sectors related to housing and autos will see the strongest short-term revenue growth compared to other consumer industries. Homebuilders, home-improvement retailers and automakers are projected to enjoy continued momentum through 2014.</p>
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<p>Electronics and department stores, restaurants and discount stores were identified as more susceptible to anemic growth trends after next year.</p>
<p>Healthcare Headwinds</p>
<p>Costs associated with health insurance, and the Affordable Care Act in particular, is seen eroding discretionary income and damaging credit metrics of companies in consumer industries.</p>
<p>The individual mandate will take a bite out of discretionary income, S&amp;P said, and baby boomers will have less to spend due to retirement and inadequate savings.</p>
<p>In addition, consumers over 65 years old may face the possibility of cuts in Social Security payments and Medicare coverage or reimbursement.</p>
<p>“We are already seeing material growth in health care insurance deductibles and co-pays as employers increasingly limit their contributions to workers' health care costs, and as the influence of health care exchanges escalates,” the report said.</p>
<p>Under ObamaCare, “individuals with no health insurance will be required to purchase coverage, which will cut into their discretionary income,” S&amp;P added.</p>
<p>Autos, Housing Out of Steam?</p>
<p>On the positive side, aging vehicles have created a considerable amount of pent-up demand, and consumers are flocking to car dealerships amid low interest rates.</p>
<p>But the S&amp;P report indicated that the sharpest point of the auto industry’s rebound is likely in the past.</p>
<p>Also consider that home prices are significantly lower from levels during the housing boom. Spending is also down when compared to between 2005 and 2007, when consumers felt emboldened by strong property values.</p>
<p>“While home prices are improving, they have not yet recovered enough to allow consumers to again borrow significantly against the equity in their homes,” S&amp;P explained.</p>
<p>While auto loans and new home mortgages have shown “solid growth rates,” tapering at the Federal Reserve could slow things down.</p>
<p>S&amp;P believes the partial government shutdown increased the chances of the central bank waiting until 2014 to begin scaling back its bond purchases. The Fed would then raise its policy rate sometime in 2015.</p>
<p>Without better job and personal income growth, the rebound in housing activity could run out of steam beyond 2014.</p>
<p>“Amid the housing market recovery, new mortgages for home purchases have increased substantially in 2013,” S&amp;P said. “However, the home mortgage refinancing boom, which was helpful for consumer spending in recent years, has largely ended.”</p> | S&P: Rising Health Costs to Burden Consumer Sector | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/11/14/sp-rising-health-costs-to-burden-consumer-sector.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
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<p>Bankrate's monthly survey measures how secure Americans feel about their personal finances compared with 12 months ago. From March 6-9, telephone interviews (on landlines and cellphones) with 1,003 adults living in the continental U.S. were conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. The results of Bankrate's Financial Security Index have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. This month, the index rose to 102.2 from a 99.3 reading in February.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>When was the last time you visited a bank branch or credit union branch to conduct personal financial business? This does not include using an ATM. Was it:</p>
<p>Highlights:</p>
<p>How do you feel about your job security compared with 12 months ago?</p>
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<p>Highlights:</p>
<p>How do you feel about the amount of money you have in savings compared with 12 months ago?</p>
<p>Highlights:</p>
<p>How do you feel about the amount of debt you have compared with 12 months ago?</p>
<p>Highlights:</p>
<p>Please think about your net worth, or your total assets, including any real estate equity, minus your debts. Compared with 12 months ago, is your net worth:</p>
<p>Highlights:</p>
<p>Compared with 12 months ago, do you feel your overall financial situation is:</p>
<p>Highlights:</p>
<p>Editor's note: Percentages may not equal 100, due to rounding.</p>
<p>Financial Security Index</p>
<p>Bankrate's Financial Security Index gauges how Americans feel today versus a year ago on vital financial matters. An index value of less than 100 indicates declining levels of financial security; a value greater than 100 reveals higher levels of security compared to 12 months ago.</p>
<p>Copyright 2014, Bankrate Inc.</p> | March 2014 Financial Security Index Charts | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/03/24/march-2014-financial-security-index-charts.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>Washington Post columnist David Ignatius tells anchor Marco Werman that the tide of battle in Syria has been turning decisively in recent weeks in favor of the rebel fighters.</p>
<p>"This week we've had some major actions, attacks on the airport, shooting down of a plane landing," Ignatius says. "I was just told a few minutes ago of closure of some of the regime's access points to the south, and to the key city of Deraa. So I think now we're entering the decisive phase of this military conflict, which is the battle for Damascus itself."</p> | Despite Infighting, Syrian Opposition Makes Big Battlefield Gains | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-03-28/despite-infighting-syrian-opposition-makes-big-battlefield-gains | 2013-03-28 | 3 |
<p>A Tibetan man set himself on fire today in Delhi to protest Chinese President Hu Jintao's upcoming visit to India.</p>
<p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/tibetan-lights-self-fire-anti-china-protest-081609298.html" type="external">The Associated Press reported</a>that the Tibetan exile, named as Jampa Yeshi, 26, was engulfed in flames as he ran through a rally near the Indian Parliament, where speakers were criticizing China and the visit by Hu. Bystanders beat out the flames and poured water on him, the AP said.</p>
<p>Yeshi is being treated for severe burns at a New Delhi hospital, where he is in critical condition, organizers of the protest told the AP.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=31140&amp;article=Breaking%3a+Tibetan+youth+self-immolates+in+New+Delhi" type="external">According to Phayul,</a> a website run by Tibetan exiles in India, Yeshi, "enveloped in high flames, came out running and shouting from a nearby closed compound" at Jantar Mantar in Delhi.&#160;</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/more-young-tibetans-self-immolate-why-so-many-year" type="external">More Tibetans self-immolate: Why so many this year?</a></p>
<p>Chinese President Hu Jintao is expected to arrive in India later this week for the March 28-29 meeting of the BRICS group of emerging economies, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.</p>
<p>Nearly 30 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in the past year to protest Beijing's rule, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-17509024" type="external">according to the BBC</a>.</p>
<p>Last year a 25-year-old Tibetan exile in India, Migmer Tenzin, set himself on fire outside the Chinese embassy in New Delhi. Tenzin <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/india/111114/tibet-self-immolations-dalai-lama-china" type="external">told GlobalPost's India correspondent</a>, Jason Overdorf, that he wanted to show solidarity with the plight of Tibetan monks and nuns in China.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/india/111114/tibet-self-immolations-dalai-lama-china" type="external">Self-immolations spread from Tibet</a></p>
<p>The Dalai Lama has blamed a "cultural genocide" in Tibet, under the Chinese government's hard-line approach to the region, for the self-immolations of monks and nuns.</p>
<p>China says Tibet has always been part of its territory, but many Tibetans argue the region was virtually independent for centuries, and accuse Beijing of suppressing their religion and culture.</p>
<p>The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in India since 1959 after fleeing a failed uprising against Chinese rule. While the Dalai Lama now insists he seeks only more autonomy for his homeland, not independence, Beijing remains sensitive about Tibet amid continuing tensions.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/120222/self-immolations-database-tibet-turmoil-part-5" type="external">Database of Tibetan self-immolations</a></p> | Tibetan man self-immolates in Delhi to protest Chinese president's India visit | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-03-26/tibetan-man-self-immolates-delhi-protest-chinese-presidents-india-visit | 2012-03-26 | 3 |
<p>Today on the list: The language everyone in the world is learning, YouTube’s original sin and whither the SEC?</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. Newer ones are on top.</p>
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<p>More than a lingua franca, the rapid adoption of ‘decaffeinated English’, according to the man who coined the term ‘Globish’, makes it the world’s most widely spoken language.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/2123372,reality-paychecks-032810.article" type="external">Weighing the cost of reality</a> Is it worth quitting your job or uprooting for weeks or months for uncertain payout?</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Sarah Palin, Neocon Messiah</a> Judge them by their enemies. More evidence that Barack Obama might be shaping up as a good president is that Norman Podhoretz hates him so much.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Is America ‘Yearning for Fascism’?</a> The language of violence always presages violence. I watched it in war after war from Latin America to the Balkans.</p>
<p><a href="http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/03/using-outdated-quotes-from-colin-powell-obama-justice-department-files-brief-to-support-dont-askdont-tell-policy.html" type="external">Milestones in statesmanship, Obama DoJ division</a> Using Outdated Quotes from Colin Powell, Obama Justice Department Files Brief to Support Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell Policy.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2249124/" type="external">YouTube’s Original Sin</a> The video site danced with the devil to get a massive traffic boost. Now it might pay the price.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/views/mclemee/mclemee283" type="external">The Notebook</a> For a long while now I have planned to write an essay about the habit of keeping a notebook, and have even, from time to time, started to take notes on the topic.</p>
<p><a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Journalism-Education-in-the/64814/?sid=at&amp;utm_source=at&amp;utm_medium=en" type="external">Journalism Education in the Arab World</a> Over the last several years, the number and quality of journalism and media programs in Arab countries have sharply increased.</p>
<p><a href="http://readersupportednews.org/opinion/82-economy/1376-fraud-on-the-stree" type="external">Fraud on the Street</a> The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Monday it had begun an inquiry into two dozen financial companies to determine whether they followed accounting practices similar to those recently disclosed in an investigation of Lehman Brothers. Where on earth has the SEC been?</p> | Polyglot Edition | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/polyglot-edition/ | 2010-04-01 | 4 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Deputies are trying to re-unite several pieces of jewelry that they believe to be stolen with their rightful owners.</p>
<p>Deputy Felicia Maggard, a spokeswoman for the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, wrote in a news release that deputies found the items while executing a search warrant in the South Valley in December.</p>
<p>“If you believe you are the owner of any of these items, please contact detectives,” Maggard wrote. “Owners will be required to provide information proving the items belong to them- i.e. photographs, receipts, etc.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Deputies looking for owners of jewelry found in South Valley | false | https://abqjournal.com/1123757/deputies-looking-for-owners-of-jewelry-found-in-south-valley.html | 2 |
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<p>CHICAGO (AP) — Jon Daniel was watching cartoons with one of his sons when he created a spoof Twitter account in the name of the Peoria mayor. Out of boredom, he said, he soon began sending profane messages about sex, drugs and alcohol.</p>
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<p>Daniel never intended for the fake account to be seen by anyone other than his friends, and it never attracted more than a few dozen followers. But within weeks the raunchy parody led to a police raid of his home and ignited a debate about online satire, free speech and the limits of a mayor’s power.</p>
<p>Now Daniel is taking the matter to federal court in a lawsuit alleging the city violated his civil rights.</p>
<p>The 29-year-old, who works as a tavern cook in his hometown, modeled the tweets on those of other fake accounts that lampoon sports stars by tweeting in a voice that appears drunk. He was dumbfounded when Twitter suspended the account.</p>
<p>“I was like, ‘Well, OK, that’s the end of that chapter,'” he told The Associated Press.</p>
<p>Except it wasn’t. A few weeks later, four police officers acting on a complaint from Mayor Jim Ardis raided the home Daniel shares with several roommates, seizing computers and smartphones.</p>
<p>Daniel discovered that the type of spoof that might be tolerated — or even welcomed as flattery — in Chicago, New York or Hollywood can play differently in smaller cities in middle America, like Peoria, a manufacturing center of 120,000 people.</p>
<p>After the April raid, Peoria’s public prosecutor declined to file charges, but with the backing of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, Daniel filed the lawsuit, which he hopes sends a warning to others in power.</p>
<p>The raid unleashed waves of criticism — much of it on social media, where fake profiles of celebrities and prominent politicians have long proliferated.</p>
<p>Authorities sought warrants on the basis that Daniel falsely impersonated a public official. The fake account used the handle @peoriamayor and included Ardis’ official photo, email address and a link to the mayor’s bio on the city’s website. Ardis saw the account as an attempt to steal his identity.</p>
<p>Daniel only added the parody label — required under Twitter’s terms of service — a few days after creating the account when he noticed that people he did not know were starting to follow him.</p>
<p>Even without the label, an account that is clearly a parody is protected, legal experts say.</p>
<p>The tweets — one said, “Im (sic) thinking it’s tequila and stripper night” — expressed a preoccupation with sex and drugs that no reasonable person could have concluded came from the actual mayor, the lawsuit argues.</p>
<p>It would have been a more difficult question if Daniel had been talking about policy issues, said Jack Lerner, an assistant law professor at the University of California at Irvine, though he does say Daniel was “unwise” not to include a clear parody label from the start.</p>
<p>For Daniel, the line is simple. “You can’t do terrorist type of things or threaten people,” he said in an interview at the ACLU office in Chicago. “But a simple joke, a parody, mocking somebody, that’s obviously not illegal.”</p>
<p>Twitter suspended the account after the city threatened to file a lawsuit.</p>
<p>City attorneys insist authorities had probable cause to seek Daniel’s identity from Twitter and to raid his home. They’ve asked a judge to dismiss the case.</p>
<p>Ardis, Peoria’s mayor for the last nine years, said he felt the tweets “went way over the line” and made him “a victim of sexual doggerel and filth.”</p>
<p>“And perhaps I’m guilty of reacting as a man, as a father and as a husband rather than as a government official with whom constituents might disagree,” he told a City Council meeting.</p>
<p>Other parody accounts have drawn scrutiny, although none apparently led to police raids. Police in Starkville, Mississippi, recently subpoenaed Twitter for information about the person behind an account in the name of Vice Mayor Roy Perkins.</p>
<p>In Arizona, state Rep. Michelle Ugenti introduced legislation in 2012 that would have made it a crime to create an online profile in someone else’s name with the intent to “harm, defraud, intimidate or threaten.” Ugenti was the target of a Twitter parody but said her bill, which died in committee, was not meant to affect parodies.</p>
<p>Not all phony profiles are badly received.</p>
<p>When former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was running for mayor of Chicago, a journalism professor crafted a fake, foul-mouthed Twitter version of Emanuel. The real Emanuel acknowledged the tweets sometimes captured his attitude on the campaign trail. He eventually met the man behind the account and even pledged to donate $5,000 to a charity of his choice.</p>
<p>And now, Twitter has at least a dozen Peoria mayor accounts — all fake.</p>
<p>Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</p> | Police Raid Home Of Man Running Spoof Of Mayor’s Twitter Account | true | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/police-raid-home-twitter-parody-account | 4 |
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<p>Looking for something to do tonight? No need to keep looking, because we're here to plan your entire night for you. But before we give you your perfect evening, we need to know how your day has gone so far. Are you well-rested? Have you eaten a lot? All of that definitely matters when it comes to the way you should spend tonight.</p>
<p>And since your plans tonight will probably involve eating, let's see how good your taste in food actually is...</p>
<p>We're going to be real with you. There are right and wrong answers when it comes to food, and in this quiz, we're going to seriously judge your choices. Because some foods are just so much tastier than others. So put your tastes to the test, and we'll let you know whether or not we'd want to go out to dinner with you.</p>
<p>It's really no secret that seafood is totally related to your love life. After all, oysters are one of the most well-known aphrodisiacs. And who wouldn't love a first date at a nice seafood restaurant? That's just a classy way to begin a relationship. But did you know just how much your taste in seafood can reveal? Fill us in on your favorite types of fish, and we'll tell you everything.</p> | Quiz: Here's what you should do tonight, based on how your day has gone so far | false | https://circa.com/story/2017/11/10/whoa/quiz-heres-what-you-should-do-tonight-based-on-how-your-day-has-gone-so-far | 2017-11-10 | 1 |
<p>Jeb Bush had one aim Tuesday night and it was to take down Donald Trump.</p>
<p>After Trump told the CNN debate audience that he would go after the families of terrorists as a way to combat the Islamic State, Bush balked at the proposal as "another example" of Trump's "lack of seriousness."</p>
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<p>"This is troubling because we're at war," Bush said. "They declared war on us and we need to have a serious strategy to destroy ISIL, but the idea that that is a solution to this is just crazy. It makes no sense to suggest this," Bush said.</p>
<p>Bush attacked Trump for a <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/sep/29/donald-trump-let-russia-fight-isis-syria/" type="external">claim</a> he made that the United States should let Russia fight ISIL.</p>
<p>"He gets his foreign policy experience from the shows," Bush said. "That is not a serious kind of candidate. We need someone who thinks this through."</p>
<p>Trump, of course, did not want to back down, but he didn't attack Bush's positions, he attacked his personality per usual.</p>
<p>"We need toughness," Trump said. "Jeb Bush is a very nice person, but we need toughness."</p>
<p>At that point, Bush jumped in to stop Trump from disparaging him and began throwing out the dates Trump discounted ISIL.</p>
<p>"You said," Bush began. Trump jumped in "are you talking or am I talking?"</p>
<p>The exchange ended with Trump taking a final shot at Bush: "With Jeb's attitude we will never be great again."</p>
<p /> | Jeb Bush Goes Straight At Trump: ISIL Strategy Is 'Just Crazy' (VIDEO) | true | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/jeb-bush-knocks-trump-on-islamic-state | 4 |
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<p>Blue Coat Systems (NASDAQ:BCSI) inked a $1.3 billion on Friday to be taken private by a group led by private-equity firm Thoma Bravo in a deal that values the Internet networking and security company at a 48% premium.</p>
<p>The transaction, which is expected to close in the first quarter, is worth $25.81 a share, compared with Blue Coat’s $17.48 closing price on Thursday.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Blue Coat said it will continue to operate with a focus on Web security and wide area network, or WAN, optimization.</p>
<p>“Our partnership with Thoma Bravo will assist Blue Coat in more aggressively realizing the opportunities in its two markets, by providing a platform that enables greater focus on the business that supports the future growth of the company,” Blue Coat CEO Gregory Clark said in a statement.</p>
<p>In addition to Thoma Bravo, the buying group includes the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.</p>
<p>“As a private company, Blue Coat will be better positioned to innovate at an accelerated rate and achieve a higher level of growth,” said Orlando Bravo, managing partner at Thoma Bravo.</p>
<p>Shares of Blue Coat soared 44.62% to $25.28 Friday.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Goldman Sachs</a> (NYSE:GS) advised Blue Coat on the transaction, while <a href="" type="internal">Jefferies</a> (NYSE:JEF) provided financial commitments to Thoma Bravo, which is based in San Francisco.</p> | Blue Coat Sees Green After Reaching $1.3B Buyout | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/12/09/blue-coat-sees-green-after-reaching-13b-buyout.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
<p>Last Thursday, in response to new and&#160;draconian&#160;laws that abridged their civil liberties, several Ukrainian democracy activists tweeted and texted that they now “lived in a dictatorship.” Some Western observers may have been tempted to think that this was an overreaction, given what seemed, then, to be the continued vitality of the&#160;EuroMaidan&#160;movement for civic renewal. The brutal turn of events in Ukraine since then should have made matters clear: Ukraine is, at the moment, a&#160;thugocracy&#160;in which President Viktor&#160;Yanukovych&#160;and his associates are using the veneer of legality to crush dissent and reinforce their stranglehold on power.</p>
<p>No one knows for sure who or what turned the EuroMaidan in Kiev violent over the weekend. The likeliest explanation is that some combination of deliberate provocation and frustration among the dissidents ignited a latent combustibility, such that the world watched live-streaming videos of Molotov cocktails, burning buses, and general chaos. What was not so evident in those videos was the growing fear that, according to those on the scene, has become a dominant emotion among the forces of civic renewal in Ukraine.</p>
<p>Those fears arise, in the first instance, from the continued refusal of the Yanukoych government to engage in any serious conversation with the opposition. That underlying fear has been exacerbated over the past 96 hours by the increasingly vicious tactics of the regime. Yes, rubber bullets have been used by the authorities (so far); but those bullets are being deliberately aimed at protesters’ faces, and some have been blinded as a result. Wounded civic-reform activists have been dragged out of ambulances and arrested. Protesters have been doused with water and then thrown out into sub-freezing temperatures. At 4&#160;a.m.&#160;this morning, a EuroMaidan leader, Igor Lutsenko, was kidnapped from the Zhovtneva Hospital in Kiev, where he had brought another activist for treatment; Lutsenko hasn’t been heard from since. [UPDATE:&#160;Igor Lutsenko was freed after 15 harrowing hours in captivity following&#160;this&#160;kidnapping. He was released in a forest and has told friends that he feared for his life on three occasions during his ordeal. Kidnappings of other activists have been reported.]</p>
<p>One veteran of Ukraine’s decades-long struggle to achieve real independence from the Soviet past made a telling comparison between&#160;then&#160;and&#160;now. Then, he said, we lived under totalitarianism, but everyone knew what the rules were. Now, it’s not quite totalitarianism, but it’s something very bad: The people holding the levers of state power are bandits, without ideology, who believe only in power and money, and who are prepared to do just about anything to hold on to those two false gods.</p>
<p>While the violence that erupted in Kiev and elsewhere over the past weekend (and that has continued, at one level or another, ever since) reflects in part the deep-set frustrations of many reformers, it also reflects the exhaustion many feel after two months of seemingly fruitless protest, and the desperation that some Ukrainians sense about their situation. One close observer pointed out to me that it wasn’t just over-amped teenage protesters who were throwing rocks and burning buses to create barricades against the internal security forces in Kiev. It was also people in their 70s who have concluded that they have nothing to lose by resorting to violent protest and who, facing a grim future, have decided that being shot down by the Berkut is preferable to living miserably under a thugocracy. That sense of desperation was no doubt reinforced by the Ukrainian minister of justice’s announcement that the anti–civil liberties laws passed last week on Black Thursday will go into effect tonight (January 21).</p>
<p>Efforts are being made to call the protest movement back to its original character as a nonviolent effort at long-term civic reform and national moral renewal. Major-Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church issued an eloquent video plea for nonviolence and a resistance strategy of living in the truth (even as the former rector of the Church’s Ukrainian Catholic University was being hauled into court on bogus traffic-violation charges and students at the university were being called in for questioning by the internal security forces). Ukrainian Orthodox patriarch Filaret warned, in a statement today, that “society is on the verge of civil war,” issued an appeal to all Ukrainians to act responsibly, and warned President Yanukoych away from “the path of force,” bluntly telling him that “as you have the most power and authority in the country, so the measure of your accountability is the highest.” Ukrainian protesters in Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk have blocked the transit of internal security forces to Kiev and have been asked by some of those internal security forces to keep up their blockade, as at least some of the internal security forces don’t want to be part of the brutality. Yet while all this is going on, the situation is being made even more difficult by Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov’s comments blaming the violence over the weekend on the United States and suggesting that the Putin regime in Russia would be willing to help calm things down in Ukraine — an offer that only underscores the exceptionally high geopolitical stakes in this increasingly grim situation.</p>
<p>Some observers have suggested that efforts should be made to peel the major Ukrainian oligarchs away from the Yanukovych regime, thus weakening its financial and political power base and making the regime more amenable to a national round table that would consider the country’s future. Yet the oligarchs, to date, have been far more part of the problem than components of any possible solution. One, Victor Pinchuk, is a major beneficiary of the new economic deals that Yanukovych has made with Putin’s Russia. (Or do we now say, simply, Putin, he being Russia?) Another, Dmytro Firtash, has let his communications empire become a virtual mouthpiece for the Yanukovych regime in recent weeks, although his media outlets honestly reported the early weeks of the EuroMaidan movement. But the spin today on the television outlets Firtash controls is one reason that the south and east of Ukraine are not being informed of what is really going on in the rest of the country. The oligarchs would have to make real sacrifices to be part of any coalition capable of wrestling Yanukovych to a serious national round table, and there is little public evidence to date that they are willing to take those risks and make those sacrifices; if that could change, so might much else.</p>
<p>Given the chaos on the streets of a European capital and the risk that the chaos will explode into a bloodbath, some have also suggested that the U.N. Security Council be called into session to propose international mediation and appoint a distinguished mediator or mediators, who would go to Ukraine and try to assemble a round table involving all interested parties. But foreign minister Lavrov’s recent statements — hinting as they do at a Russian interest in letting things boil over to the point where Russian “aid” would be welcomed as a calming presence — suggest that the Russians would quickly deploy their veto to squash any serious effort at mediation by the Security Council.</p>
<p>Which leaves the United States and the European Union; which leaves, in reality, the United States.</p>
<p>Throughout this past weekend, Americans supportive of the Ukrainian democracy movement kept receiving e-mails from what had become the violent front lines in Kiev, pleading with us to “Call the White House!” Yet, as of mid-Tuesday afternoon, the most that has come out of the White House has been a (reasonably strong) January 19 statement from National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden, expressing “deep concern” over the violence in Kiev, blaming the “increasing tension” on the Ukrainian regime’s failure to “acknowledge the legitimate grievances of its people,” and concluding that “the U.S. will continue to consider additional steps — including sanctions — in response to the use of violence” by the Yanukovych government. But surely the time has come for the administration, working with those congressional leaders who have already demonstrated support for Ukraine’s civic-renewal movement, to stop “continuing to consider” and to take specific steps to address this explosive situation.</p>
<p>Define precisely, and&#160;now, what sanctions the U.S. will impose if the Black Thursday laws are not immediately suspended. Appoint a bipartisan team of special envoys to go to Kiev with the mission of bringing Yanukovych and the reform leaders together to discuss the most immediately achievable of the opposition’s demands: stringent electoral reform, repeal of the Black Thursday laws, and a new cabinet of competent technocrats. A firm, unequivocal statement of support for the Ukrainian civic-reform movement is also long overdue from the Oval Office and could, combined with effective work by the bipartisan envoys, lay the foundation for serious international mediation leading to a national round table.</p>
<p>A longtime observer of the Ukrainian scene said to me today, more in sorrow than in anger, that “people who are facing despair and death tend to see clearly who their friends are.” Those people, in Ukraine, know that they have friends in the American NGO community, who have been making every effort to support them. But they do not know that of the president of the United States and his secretary of state. And it is staggering and shameful that they do not.</p>
<p>— George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Grim News from Ukraine | false | https://eppc.org/publications/grim-news-from-ukraine/ | 1 |
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<p>My young daughter&#160;inadvertently&#160;caught a snippet of a&#160;Donald Trump speech, and for days now, keeps asking: “Daddy, do&#160;they&#160;really chop people’s heads off on Christmas and do they drown them in cages? What will happen&#160;if there’s a&#160;President&#160;Trump?” She can’t unthink the images Donald put in her mind,&#160;which is why&#160;Hillary’s new ad hits home for me.</p>
<p>The conventions are approaching, polls are tightening, and Donald Trump is less than 4 months away from an opportunity to bring bullying, bigotry, ignorance and division to the White House. Meanwhile, our national media get giddy at any hint of trouble for Hillary, programmed as they are to undermine&#160;her&#160;candidacy.</p>
<p>Kevin Drum <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/07/trumps-racist-appeal-becomes-more-explicit-every-day" type="external">sets the scene</a>:</p>
<p>Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, foreigners of all stripes: they’re all grist for Trump’s crusade to convince white voters that they’re surrounded by rapists, murderers, terrorists, and assorted other predators who want to take their jobs away and impoverish them. It’s his whole campaign.&#160;This is loathsome. President Obama was right: America is not nearly as divided as the media makes it seem. But the only way for Donald Trump to win is to make it seem otherwise. That’s what he’s been doing for the past year, and the media has been playing along the whole time, exaggerating existing grievances where they can and inventing them where they can’t.</p>
<p>In this&#160;charged and dangerous atmosphere, Hillary’s campaign releases an ad that defines the 2016 election in starker terms than anything we’ve seen to date.</p>
<p>Watch:</p>
<p /> | This Hits Home: Devastating New Hillary Ad About Donald’s Impact on Children | true | http://bluenationreview.com/devastating-new-hillary-ad-about-donalds-impact-on-children/ | 2016-07-14 | 4 |
<p>In this video, the editors of the Cincinnati Enquirer explain to their readership why at long last they feel compelled to endorse a Democrat for President.</p>
<p>The editorial board of the Cincinnati Enquirer never endorsed Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And they had four chances to do it.</p>
<p>They endorsed <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1964/09/29/goldwater-is-endorsed-by-cincinnati-enquirer.html" type="external">Barry Goldwater over John F. Kennedy.</a></p>
<p>They endorsed Nixon twice, <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/The_Cincinnati_Enquirer" type="external">George W. Bush twice, and McCain and Romney over Obama.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/editorials/2016/09/23/enquirer-endorses-hillary-clinton-donald-trump/90728344/" type="external">But Trump is a bridge too far.</a></p>
<p>The Enquirer has supported Republicans for president for almost a century - a tradition this editorial board doesn't take lightly. But this is not a traditional race, and these are not traditional times. Our country needs calm, thoughtful leadership to deal with the challenges we face at home and abroad. We need a leader who will bring out the best in all Americans, not the worst.</p>
<p>That's why there is only one choice when we elect a president in November: Hillary Clinton.</p>
<p>The Enquirer joins the traditionally Republican newspaper <a href="http://beta.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2016/09/07/recommend-hillary-clinton-us-president" type="external">The Dallas Morning News</a> in endorsing Clinton. The even more traditionally Republican newspaper <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/09/15/union-leader-endorses-johnson-over-trump/90394662/" type="external">The New Hampshire Union-Leader</a> has endorsed Gary Johnson in its rejection of Trump.</p> | For First Time In 100 Years, Cincinnati Enquirer Endorses Democrat For President | true | http://crooksandliars.com/2016/09/first-time-100-years-cincinnati-enquirer | 2016-09-23 | 4 |
<p>July 19 (UPI) — <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Kim_Jong_Un/" type="external">Kim Jong Un</a> ordered North Korean embassies to place “psychological pressure” on the United States during the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/G20/" type="external">G20</a> Summit, according to a Japanese press report.</p>
<p>The Asahi Shimbun reported Wednesday the ordinance was sent to diplomatic missions and was aimed at decoupling the United States and South Korea, and to get Washington to agree to recognize Pyongyang as a nuclear weapons state.</p>
<p>A source familiar with North Korea’s internal politics told a Seoul-based Asahi correspondent the message called on North Korean diplomats to “bargain with the United States,” following the Fourth of July launch of the Hwasong-14 missile.</p>
<p>Washington has refused to hold high-level talks unless North Korea agrees to pursue denuclearization.</p>
<p>That policy, however, has not deterred Kim from seeking ultimate recognition as a nuclear power, a goal the state is pursuing through a strategy of building pressure and by attempting to convince Washington denuclearization is no longer an option, according to the report.</p>
<p>Kim’s missive also ordered his subordinates to work toward the settlement of a U.S.-North Korea peace treaty that could replace the existing Armistice Agreement signed in 1953.</p>
<p>Kim is also operating under the assumption the U.S.-South Korea alliance could decline owing to a different approach to Pyongyang being pursued by South Korean President <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Moon-Jae/" type="external">Moon Jae</a>-in, the report states.</p>
<p>“The period of the Moon Jae-in government is the ‘golden opportunity’ for us,” Kim’s message reportedly read, according to the Asahi. “We must realize the task of unification before opposing powers make a disturbance.”</p>
<p>Moon <a href="https://www.upi.com/South-Korean-president-retreat-not-an-option-on-North-Korea/5991498873754/" type="external">has condemned</a> North Korea’s weapons development and has called for the “freeze of nuclear and missile capabilities all the way to complete dismantlement,” but has supported humanitarian aid to the North.</p>
<p>Seoul has also suggested military talks for this week, but the North has yet to respond.</p>
<p>Pyongyang has threatened to take up “follow-up measures” if the United Nations Security Council decides to impose additional sanctions in response to the test of the Hwasong-14, which North Korea has claimed is an intercontinental ballistic missile.</p> | Report: Kim Jong Un pressured the United States during G20 summit | false | https://newsline.com/report-kim-jong-un-pressured-the-united-states-during-g20-summit/ | 2017-07-19 | 1 |
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<p>Former Oklahoma Senator Ralph Shortey was found in March 9th of this year inside a motel room together with a 17-year-old boy and some marijuana. The 35-year-old married father of four already pleaded guilty to the charges of felony child sex trafficking and is now awaiting sentencing. The video showing the police discovering him in the hotel room has now been made public.</p>
<p>At the time, police forces showed up at the motel room because the young boy's family had called them.</p>
<p>In the footage, you can see the former Republican Senator opening the door of the motel room where has was with the underage male when police knocked on the door.</p>
<p>The police officer can be heard asking: "So, what are they saying?"</p>
<p>His colleague then replies: "Well, drug-related, maybe. Maybe was coming here to buy some weed. Either here for narcotics, or prostitution for narcotics."</p>
<p>The first police officer then asks: "Like the kid's prostituting himself out?"</p>
<p>In the room, the officers stated they smelled marijuana and found condoms and lotion found in a backpack that belonged to Mr Shortey.</p>
<p>After the video cuts out so not to show the teenager, the discussion between Mr Shortey and the police officers is shown.</p>
<p>The police officer tells Mr Shorty the young boy is only 17.</p>
<p />
<p>To which the former Republican senator replies "I didn't know that. Can you show me that he's only 17?"</p>
<p>The police officer then states: "No, I can't but I can convince you that he is. I could put you in handcuffs and throw you in the back of a car."</p>
<p>They later tell Mr Shortey: "Whatever you are doing, it's a bad f** idea. Getting high with a young kid is a bad idea, no matter if they're 17 or 20. It's a bad idea."</p>
<p>During the discussion, the police officers seem unaware of being in the room with a former Senator.</p>
<p>Mr Shorty risks between 10 years and life in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.</p>
<p />
<p>Source:</p>
<p><a href="https://nypost.com/2017/12/05/video-shows-oklahoma-senator-caught-with-underage-boy-in-hotel/" type="external">nypost.com/2017/12/05/video-shows-oklahoma-senator-caught-with-underage-boy-in-hotel</a></p>
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<p /> | Video - Oklahoma Senator Caught With Minor In Hotel Room | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/13424-Video-Oklahoma-Senator-Caught-With-Minor-In-Hotel-Room | 2017-12-06 | 0 |
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<p>FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — In a Jan. 7 story about an Iraq war veteran accused of killing five travelers and wounding six others at a busy international airport in Florida The Associated Press, relying on information from the Anchorage Police Department, erroneously reported that Esteban Santiago left his newborn in the car when he went to an FBI office. The child was in the care of the FBI until his mother retrieved him.</p>
<p>A corrected version of the story is below:</p>
<p>Airport gunman charged, US seeks death penalty</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The Iraq war veteran accused of killing five travelers and wounding six others at a busy international airport in Florida has been charged and could face the death penalty if convicted</p>
<p>FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. The Iraq war veteran accused of killing five travelers and wounding six others at a busy international airport in Florida was charged Saturday and could face the death penalty if convicted.</p>
<p>Esteban Santiago, 26, told investigators that he planned the attack, buying a one-way ticket to the Fort Lauderdale airport, a federal complaint said. Authorities don’t know why he chose his target and have not ruled out terrorism.</p>
<p>Santiago was charged with an act of violence at an international airport resulting in death — which carries a maximum punishment of execution — and weapons charges.</p>
<p>“Today’s charges represent the gravity of the situation and reflect the commitment of federal, state and local law enforcement personnel to continually protect the community and prosecute those who target our residents and visitors,” U.S Attorney Wifredo Ferrer said.</p>
<p>Authorities said during a news conference that they had interviewed roughly 175 people, including a lengthy interrogation with the cooperative suspect, a former National Guard soldier from Alaska. Flights had resumed at the Fort Lauderdale airport after the bloodshed, though the terminal where the shooting happened remained closed.</p>
<p>Santiago spoke to investigators for several hours after he opened fire with a Walther 9mm semi-automatic handgun that he appears to have legally checked on a flight from Alaska. He had two magazines with him and emptied both of them, firing about 15 rounds, before he was arrested, the complaint said.</p>
<p>“We have not identified any triggers that would have caused this attack. We’re pursuing all angles on what prompted him to carry out this horrific attack,” FBI Agent George Piro said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Investigators are combing through social media and other information to determine Santiago’s motive, and it’s too early to say whether terrorism played a role, Piro said. In November, Santiago had walked into an FBI field office in Alaska saying the U.S. government was controlling his mind and forcing him to watch Islamic State group videos, authorities said.</p>
<p>“He was a walk-in complaint. This is something that happens at FBI offices around the country every day,” FBI agent Marlin Ritzman said.</p>
<p>On that day, Santiago had a loaded magazine on him, but had left a gun in his vehicle, authorities said. He bought his newborn child with him into the office. Officers seized the weapon and local officers took him to get a mental health evaluation. His girlfriend picked up the child.</p>
<p>On Dec. 8, the gun was returned to Santiago. Authorities wouldn’t say if it was the same gun used in the airport attack.</p>
<p>Santiago had not been placed on the U.S. no-fly list and appears to have acted alone, authorities said.</p>
<p>The attack sent panicked witnesses running out of the terminal and spilling onto the tarmac, baggage in hand. Others hid in bathroom stalls or crouched behind cars or anything else they could find as police and paramedics rushed in to help the wounded and establish whether there were any other gunmen.</p>
<p>Mark Lea, 53, had just flown in from Minnesota with his wife for a cruise when he heard three quick cracks, like a firecracker. Then came more cracks, and “I knew it was more than just a firecracker,” he said.</p>
<p>Making sure his wife was outside, Lea helped evacuate some older women who had fallen, he said. Then he saw the shooter.</p>
<p>“He was just kind of randomly shooting people,” he said. “If you were in his path, you were going to get shot. He was walking and shooting.”</p>
<p>Over the course of about 45 seconds, the shooter reloaded twice, he said. When he was out of bullets, he walked away, dropped the gun and lay face down, spread eagle on the floor, Lea said.</p>
<p>By that time, a deputy had arrived and grabbed the shooter. Lea put his foot on the gun to secure it.</p>
<p>Lea went to help the injured and a woman from Iowa asked about her husband, who she described. Lea saw a man who fit his description behind a row of chairs, motionless, shot in the head and lying in a pool of blood, he said. The man, Michael Oehme, was identified as one of the dead victims on Saturday.</p>
<p>Santiago had been discharged from the National Guard last year after being demoted for unsatisfactory performance. Bryan Santiago said Saturday that his brother had requested psychological help but received little assistance. Esteban Santiago said in August that he was hearing voices.</p>
<p>“How is it possible that the federal government knows, they hospitalize him for only four days, and then give him his weapon back?” Bryan Santiago said.</p>
<p>His mother declined to comment as she stood inside the screen door of the family home in Puerto Rico, wiping tears from her eyes. The only thing she said was that Esteban Santiago had been tremendously affected by seeing a bomb explode next to two of his friends when he was around 18 years old while serving in Iraq.</p>
<p>Santiago will make his first court appearance Monday.</p>
<p>It is legal for airline passengers to travel with guns and ammunition as long as the firearms are put in a checked bag — not a carry-on — and are unloaded and locked in a hard-sided container. Guns must be declared to the airline at check-in.</p>
<p>Despite his mental evaluation, U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler said Santiago would have been able to legally possess a gun because he had not been judged mentally ill, which is a high standard.</p>
<p>Santiago arrived in Fort Lauderdale after taking off from Anchorage aboard a Delta flight Thursday night, checking only one piece of luggage — his gun.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Anderson reported from Miami. Associated Press writers Tamara Lush in Pembroke Pines, Florida; Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Alaska, contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This story has been corrected to show that six people were wounded, not eight, based on new information provided by authorities Saturday morning.</p> | Correction: Airport gunman charged, US seeks death penalty | false | https://abqjournal.com/922968/airport-gunman-sent-panicked-passengers-fleeing-for-lives.html | 2017-01-07 | 2 |
<p>By Dominique Vidalon</p>
<p>PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday unveiled measures aimed at educating the public and schoolchildren about sexism and violence against women and improving police support for victims.</p>
<p>During his campaign Macron, who won the presidential election in May, promised to rethink sexual politics and gender equality, which he made a national cause for his five-year mandate.</p>
<p>The Harvey Weinstein scandal in the United States has accelerated a rethink of attitudes toward sexual harassment in France, a country that cherishes its self-image as the land of seduction and romance.</p>
<p>“Let’s seal a pact of equality between men and women,” Macron said in a speech marking the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women.</p>
<p>About violence and sexual abuse, he said: “It is essential that shame changes camp.”</p>
<p>During his speech, Macron observed a minute’s silence for the 123 women killed by their partner or ex-partner in 2016.</p>
<p>Measures announced include educating secondary school children about pornography and simplifying the system for rape and assault victims to go to the police.</p>
<p>Proposals that could be included in a 2018 draft law include criminalizing street harassment and extending the statute of limitation for the rape of minors to 30 years from 20 years. Macron also said he was personally in favor of setting the age of sexual consent at 15. Currently France has no minimum age for sexual consent.</p>
<p>Planned changes to the police system include allowing victims of rape and sexual assault to make their initial complaints online, before going to a police station to bring criminal charges. Other measures include “on demand” bus stops, where women can stop a bus anywhere at night so they can get home safely.</p>
<p>French feminist group Osez le Féminisme said the measures were going in the right direction but must be accompanied by adequate funding.</p>
<p>“Without funding, any communication, training, awareness or help plan for the victims will be useless,” the statement said.</p>
<p>France has often debated sexual harassment over the past decade following scandals involving French politicians.</p>
<p>Six years ago a sex scandal forced former finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn to resign as head of the International Monetary Fund, provoking a round of soul-searching in France about sexual abuse that goes undetected in the upper echelons of power.</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> | France's Macron unveils plan to curb violence against women | false | https://newsline.com/france039s-macron-unveils-plan-to-curb-violence-against-women/ | 2017-11-25 | 1 |
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<p>WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court has ruled that the former CEO of American International Group lacks the legal right to challenge the government’s bailout of the insurance giant in the heat of the financial crisis.</p>
<p>The ruling Tuesday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned a lower-court decision and handed a victory to the government.</p>
<p>The next stop for the case may be the Supreme Court. David Boies, the attorney for ex-AIG chief Maurice Greenberg, said they will appeal the ruling. The unusual case raised the issue of limits on the government’s power in responding to financial catastrophe.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In a lawsuit filed by his company, Starr International, Greenberg had alleged that the $85 billion bailout of the teetering AIG in September 2008 violated the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment by taking control of the company without “just compensation.”</p>
<p>The previous decision by a judge in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims validated Greenberg’s allegations in principle, though the judge rejected Greenberg’s demand for $40 billion in damages from the government for himself and other AIG shareholders.</p>
<p>Writing the new opinion for a three-judge panel of the appeals court, Chief Judge Sharon Prost said any claims against the government rightfully belong to AIG, not Starr. AIG “has exercised its business judgment and declined to prosecute this lawsuit,” Prost wrote. “The alleged injuries to Starr are merely incidental to injuries to AIG, and any remedy would go to AIG, not Starr.”</p>
<p>Starr failed to show that it, rather than AIG, directly suffered harm from the taxpayer bailout, the judges said.</p>
<p>In a statement, Boies noted that the appeals court didn’t rule on the constitutional issue itself. At the same time, he said, the court asserted “that the shareholders have no remedy and that the government is entitled to retain more than $18 billion in ill-gotten gains.”</p>
<p>“We respectfully disagree and will ask the Supreme Court for review,” said Boies, who has argued landmark cases before the high court.</p>
<p>An eight-week trial in the fall of 2014 brought the rare spectacle of back-to-back courtroom testimony by three former leaders of the government’s bailout — then-Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and New York Fed President Timothy Geithner.</p>
<p>They and other officials asserted that the government imposed losses on shareholders of bailed-out companies that were in proportion to the bad decisions made by their managers. That would appear to explain the big equity stake the government took in AIG and the interest rate on the taxpayer-backed loan, which was set at about 12 percent annually. That was much higher than what other big financial companies paid in the bailout.</p>
<p>Greenberg’s suit, filed in 2011, had been deemed a long shot by many legal experts.</p>
<p>But Judge Thomas Wheeler of the federal claims court ruled partly in Greenberg’s favor in June 2015. He called the government’s conduct in taking control of 80 percent of AIG’s stock an “illegal exaction” and cited its “unduly harsh treatment of AIG in comparison to other institutions.”</p>
<p>New York-based AIG, which had operations around the globe, buckled after making huge bets on mortgage securities that soured. Government officials were concerned that if AIG were allowed to fail it would send shock waves through the financial system, which was already reeling after Lehman Brothers collapsed. The government initially stepped in with an $85 billion loan from the New York Fed. The aid eventually grew to nearly $185 billion.</p>
<p>AIG has since returned to financial health and fully repaid the bailout.</p> | US court: ex-AIG CEO hasn’t right to challenge bailout | false | https://abqjournal.com/1000871/us-appeals-court-holds-crisis-bailout-of-aig-lawful.html | 2017-05-09 | 2 |
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<p>Next to John Travolta, no career comeback has been more surprising than that of plastic. Back in the ’80s, plastic was considered the environmental villain of the material world. But today’s consumers feel good about choosing products made with plastic because they think most plastic is being recycled. Nothing illustrates this change of heart better than shoppers’ responses to the “paper or plastic” question: In 1996, four out of five people chose plastic, as compared to one out of six in 1984.</p>
<p>What Americans may not realize, though, is that the plastic industry has merely recycled its image. The American Plastics Council (APC)—which represents “virgin” plastic producers—spends close to $20 million per year on advertising campaigns exalting plastic’s benefits (such as the recent “Plastics Make It Possible” TV ad, in which a little girl floats heavenward on the handles of a plastic bag).</p>
<p>And a few blemishes have been concealed in the media makeover: The plastic industry is second only to the chemical industry in its generation of ozone-depleting substances; some of the chemicals and metals in plastic can cause health problems (see <a href="/news/qa/1998/03/snell.html" type="external">this issue’s Theo Colborn interview</a>); and despite the industry’s claim that close to 80 percent of Americans have access to a plastic recycling program, most plastic ends up in landfills.</p>
<p>A recent Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) study shows that less than 10 percent of plastic packaging was recycled in 1996. According to APC spokeswoman Susan Moore, some of the blame lies with consumers who “have gotten a little lackadaisical about recycling.” But others point the finger right back at manufacturers, saying they have done little to create a market for recycled plastic. Two-thirds of the national recycling companies that used to recycle plastic have stopped doing so. And many cities have been forced to drop plastic from their recycling programs, saying it’s not economically viable.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the production of new plastic is on the rise. According to the EDF, in the last eight years manufacturers have produced 13 times more virgin plastic packaging than has been recycled. And of the half-dozen types of consumer plastic currently in use in this country, only two are recycled in large quantities by most communities—and those mostly end up in products such as lumber, clothing, and carpeting, all of which are not recyclable.</p>
<p>The industry claims that packagers need several different kinds of plastic for different applications. However, while shampoos are still bottled using four different kinds of plastic, other industries have made efforts to standardize their packaging. Some have even encouraged companies to redesign with recyclability in mind. For example, the paper industry has suggested using labels made with water-soluble adhesives in order to make paper products, such as envelopes, easier to recycle.</p>
<p>“That’s the kind of thing that’s not happening in the plastics industry,” says Richard Denison, an Environmental Defense Fund scientist.</p>
<p>“Some recyclers don’t believe that the virgin plastic producers support recyclers,” says Robin Cotchan of the Association of Post-Consumer Plastics Recyclers. Others say the only thing that could save plastic recycling is government regulation. But the plastic industry actively lobbies against state legislation requiring post-consumer recycled content in new packaging.</p>
<p>Even if the plastic industry isn’t “making it possible,” you can still help: Contact your local recycling program and find out exactly what they recycle; after you buy products in recyclable containers, don’t forget to actually schlepp them out to the curb or drop-off zone; consider reusing plastic containers; stay away from single-serve packaging and try to buy in bulk; if you’re really feeling frisky, call companies and tell them you want to see recycled content in their packaging; and, finally, when the next PR blitz hits, don’t believe the hype.</p>
<p /> | The Vinyl Analysis | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/1998/03/vinyl-analysis/ | 2018-03-01 | 4 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A group advocating for policies to help children and low-income families recommends that New Mexico raise its minimum wage and boost spending on early childhood programs, including child care and pre-kindergarten.</p>
<p>The group, New Mexico Voices for Children, on Monday outlined a broad policy agenda to address findings by a national survey this year that found New Mexico worst in the nation for child well-being.</p>
<p>The advocacy group didn’t recommend a specific amount the wage rate should be increased but said raising the hourly wage to $10.10 would help a fifth of children by increasing at least one parent’s income.</p>
<p>The nonprofit organization also is recommending increasing the payout from a state permanent fund to provide additional money for early childhood programs. Similar measures have failed in the past in the Democratic-controlled Legislature.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Advocates for kids call for higher minimum wage | false | https://abqjournal.com/268680/advocates-for-kids-call-for-higher-minimum-pay.html | 2013-09-25 | 2 |
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<p>Gun control zealots are all about bemoaning the point that the chances of a person needing a gun are remote. &#160;It may suprise many of my readers but I agree with them. &#160;Fortunately the vast majority of gun owners will never have to use their firearm to protect themselves.</p>
<p>But so too will a vast majority of homeowners not have their house burn down yet no one is suggesting that fire insurance is somehow only purchased by pyromaniacs.</p>
<p>Do seat belts make people worse and more reckless of drivers?</p>
<p>I can go on and on with this track of logic, logic of course being the bane of gun control. &#160;And I could highlight gun owners who were raped or robbed or murdered because they were in a “gun free” zone (or non gun owners who never had a chance), then show comparative footage of gun owners who stopped such crimes when properly armed and therefore prepared to deal with the unexpected.</p>
<p>But sometimes belaboring the same point and same accounts numbs the mind, yet as luck would have it, while watching Sportscenter last night I found a perfect real world non-gun related example of the maxim “It is better to have and not need than to need and not have”&#160;and there is video to go with it.</p>
<p>The video that follows is from the aptly named “NOT Top Ten” as it shows what happens when you are woefully unprepared for something that you didn’t think was going to happen.</p>
<p>Freshman Sebastian Saiz was not expecting to play; in a slump averaging only 4 points a game Saiz was expecting to ride the pine. &#160;He thought he knew what was going to happen and put his mind on cruise control. &#160;A state many people find themselves when they just assume nothing out of the ordinary or different from their assumptions will happen.</p>
<p>Well, much like someone who believes the world is all candy and rainbows until they meet a mugger in the night, Saiz was caught unprepared as you can see in the video that follows:</p>
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<p>What does Saiz get for his assumption? &#160;He gets to go and sit back down on the bench as his coach waves the game to continue. &#160;Assumptions are costly. &#160;That cost may be small as missing some minutes of play in a college basketball game or it can be great like losing your life to a murdering rapist.</p>
<p>If Mr. Saiz had his jersey on and his coach never called his name would it have been such crime for him to be PREPARED but not needed?</p>
<p>So too is it better to have a gun and never have need to use it, lest you be called upon to defend yourself and find that you have not the means to do so.</p>
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<p>We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, vulgarity, profanity, all caps, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain a courteous and useful public environment where we can engage in reasonable discourse.</p> | Non-Gun Real World Example Of “Better To Have and Not Need Than Need and Not Have” | true | http://bulletsfirst.net/2014/01/11/non-gun-real-world-example-better-need-need/ | 0 |
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<p>BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres is telling Colombians there is no justification for armed violence following recent attacks by the nation's last remaining rebel group after the expiration of a temporary cease-fire.</p>
<p>In televised remarks Saturday, Guterres said that peace is the only answer to deep-rooted problems like poverty and inequality.</p>
<p>The United Nations' chief is in Colombia for a two-day trip aimed at supporting the country's peace initiatives.</p>
<p>Colombia reached an historic peace agreement in 2016 with the country's biggest guerrilla group to end Latin America's longest-running conflict.</p>
<p>Peace talks with rebels from the smaller National Liberation Army experienced setback this week when guerrillas engaged in new attacks after the end of a temporary cease-fire. One soldier was killed and two people injured.</p>
<p>BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres is telling Colombians there is no justification for armed violence following recent attacks by the nation's last remaining rebel group after the expiration of a temporary cease-fire.</p>
<p>In televised remarks Saturday, Guterres said that peace is the only answer to deep-rooted problems like poverty and inequality.</p>
<p>The United Nations' chief is in Colombia for a two-day trip aimed at supporting the country's peace initiatives.</p>
<p>Colombia reached an historic peace agreement in 2016 with the country's biggest guerrilla group to end Latin America's longest-running conflict.</p>
<p>Peace talks with rebels from the smaller National Liberation Army experienced setback this week when guerrillas engaged in new attacks after the end of a temporary cease-fire. One soldier was killed and two people injured.</p> | UN Secretary General pushes for peace in visit to Colombia | false | https://apnews.com/amp/4c1e03afa2f9486784289c0a50a027b1 | 2018-01-13 | 2 |
<p>President Trump has clearly won the heated debate against the NFL over players kneeling during the national anthem before the beginning of football games</p>
<p>Americans have been outraged over the lack of respect these players have shown for not just the flag, but for the country as a whole.</p>
<p>Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who sees the act of kneeling during the national anthem as an “over generalized indictment of our country,”wishes that NFL players spend a day with him understanding what the US flag truly represents.</p>
<p>I bet if these players take him up on his offer that they will reconsider taking a knee.</p>
<p>For those taking a knee I wish they would spend a day with me when I go to Walter Reed hospital and meet with some of the bravest and most inspiring Americans you’ll ever meet, who have had parts of their bodies that have been blown off because they care so deeply about this country.&#160;</p>
<p>When you kneel for the anthem, you are not just speaking to a specific issue that you would like to see improved, you are saying that the country isn’t worthy of your respect…” –Rep. Matt Gaetz</p>
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<p /> | Kneeling NFL players should take a stroll down to Walter Reed Hospital | true | http://shark-tank.com/2017/10/13/kneeling-nfl-players-take-stroll-walter-reed-hospital/ | 0 |
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<p>By Suzanne Barlyn</p>
<p>(Reuters) – Travelers Cos Inc (N:) is not looking to expand its cyber insurance business and must be “respectful and prudent” about the risks involved, the head of its specialty insurance practice said on Monday.</p>
<p>“We feel like we’re just in the right spot,” said Thomas Kunkel, the company’s president of bond and specialty insurance, during an investor meeting in Connecticut.</p>
<p>Travelers knows it could do more business in the market. “It would not be hard,” Kunkel said.</p>
<p>Insurers have said the growing sophistication of hackers alongside a still-evolving cyber insurance industry makes it difficult to quantify their potential cyber-related losses.</p>
<p>“We manage our limits very closely,” Kunkel said.</p>
<p>Equifax Inc (N:), which compiles credit information about consumers and assigns them scores, disclosed in September that cyber criminals had breached its systems between mid-May and late July and stolen 145.5 million people’s sensitive information. The hack is among the largest ever.</p>
<p>Insurer American International Group Inc (N:) said on Oct. 26 that it was reviewing all types of coverage it offers to gauge its exposure to cyber risk.</p>
<p>AIG will start including cyber coverage as part of its commercial casualty insurance during the first quarter of 2018, Tracie Grella, global head of cyber risk insurance, said at the time.</p>
<p>The move would boost rates but also make it clearer how customers are covered if they are the victim of a security breach.</p>
<p>Many commercial insurers offer stand-alone cyber coverage, but it is not yet a standard addition to most other policies, such as property and casualty.</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> | Travelers says it's in 'right spot' for cyber insurance exposure | false | https://newsline.com/travelers-says-it039s-in-039right-spot039-for-cyber-insurance-exposure/ | 2017-11-13 | 1 |
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<p>FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The final error in a game filled with mistakes helped the New England Patriots to a stunning comeback win. Stephen Gostkowski kicked a 31-yard field goal in overtime after a misplayed punt return by Denver, lifting the Patriots to a 34-31 victory over the Broncos on Sunday night. “We had some plays in the first half that didn’t go our way so it was nice to get a good bounce and we needed it,” said Tom Brady, who helped the Patriots put together a terrific comeback in the second half. Denver’s Tony Carter ran into Ryan Allen’s punt after it landed and Nate Ebner recovered for New England at the Broncos 13-yard line. After Brady ran twice to line up the kick, Gostkowski connected for his 21st successful field goal attempt. The Patriots lost fumbles on their first three possessions, but Brady threw for three touchdowns to lead the Patriots (8-3) from a 24-0 halftime deficit to a 31-24 lead as New England scored on its first five possessions of the second half. Then Peyton Manning threw an 11-yard scoring pass to Demaryius Thomas for the Broncos (9-2), tying it at 31. “You can’t move the ball when you’re losing it,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “You’ve got to hang onto it.” But Carter’s gaffe was the third lost fumble for the Broncos in the second half. “It was really a tale of two halves,” Denver interim coach Jack Del Rio said. “We just had a fluke play at the end.” The early turnovers helped Denver to a big halftime advantage, but the Patriots took the lead when Brady hit Julian Edelman for a TD early in the fourth. Gostkowski’s 31-yard field goal made it 31-24 midway through the fourth. “We calmed down. We played each play one play at time,” Edelman said of the difference in the second part of the game. “We didn’t turn the ball over in the second half.” But Manning, who had thrown for only 73 yards in the first 3½ quarters, led the Broncos on an 80-yard drive. Twice the Broncos were rescued by penalties: First when a defensive holding penalty negated an interception, and again when a pass interference on third-and-7 from the Patriots 17 gave Denver a first down. On the next play, Manning lobbed one to Thomas in the left corner of the end zone to tie it. Brady led the Patriots to three straight touchdowns in the third quarter to cut Denver’s lead to 24-21 heading into the fourth. He was 21 for 26 for 228 yards and three TDs in the second half of the much-heralded matchup with Manning. Brady led New England 80 yards for a touchdown to open the second half, thanks to a 33-yard completion to Rob Gronkowski and a 5-yard scoring pass to Edelman. Montee Ball coughed it up on Denver’s next possession, and six plays later Brandon Bolden ran it in from the 1 to make it a 10-point game. A 6-yard touchdown pass to Gronkowski with 19 seconds left in the third quarter cut the Broncos’ lead to 24-21. Von Miller returned a fumble 60 yards for a touchdown and then strip-sacked Brady to force another turnover in the first quarter, setting up Knowshon Moreno’s 2-yard TD run. Moreno finished with a career-high 224 yards on 37 carries. When New England got the ball back, it held onto it for just two plays before LeGarrette Blount had the ball knocked loose by safety Duke Ihenacho. Linebacker Danny Trevathan fell on it and was ruled down by contact, negating a return that would have had the Broncos at the Patriots 11. Instead, Denver settled for Matt Prater’s 27-yard field goal that made it 17-0. The Broncos added another touchdown when Manning hit Jacob Tamme from 10 yards out for the only score of the second quarter. On a night with a kickoff temperature of 20 degrees and a wind chill of 6, Manning completed 11 of 17 passes for 73 yards in the first three quarters while Moreno ran 25 times for 139 yards. New England had lost five fumbles all season coming into the game and was sixth in the NFL in net turnovers. But Stevan Ridley, who coughed it up on the opening drive, has fumbled in three consecutive games, losing two. Denver had a turnover of its own after forcing New England to punt right before the half. Trindon Holliday let the ball bounce off his leg, giving the Patriots the ball at the Broncos 42 with 5 seconds left. Brady’s Hail Mary was far short of the end zone and incomplete. The temperature made it difficult on the players on each side and also could have been the reason that first the play clocks and then the game clocks went out, forcing the referees to keep the official time on the field. The clocks came back early in the second quarter. Brady and Manning have six regular-season MVP awards between them and three more in the Super Bowl, where they’ve combined to win four NFL championships. It’s the 14th time they’ve met, with Brady holding a 9-4 edge. This time, though, Manning had former Patriots receiver Wes Welker on his side. Brady’s longtime favorite target went to Denver as a free agent and he entered the game as the Broncos’ leading receiver with 61 catches. Welker was a non-factor with four catches for 31 yards. Both teams had players knocked out of the game: Patriots offensive lineman Marcus Cannon had an ankle injury and Denver receiver Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie injured his shoulder.</p>
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<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Chilling rally for Patriots | false | https://abqjournal.com/308587/chilling-rally-for-patriots.html | 2 |
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<p>U.S. wireless carrier AT&amp;T Inc said on Monday it would buy Straight Path Communications Inc , a holder of licenses to wireless spectrum, for $1.25 billion.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The No.2 U.S. carrier said it would offer $95.63 per share, a premium of 162.1 percent to Straight Path's Friday close.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)</p> | AT&T to buy Straight Path Communications for $1.25 billion | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/04/10/att-to-buy-straight-path-communications-for-125-billion.html | 2017-04-10 | 0 |
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<p><a href="" type="internal" />EL PASO, Texas — El Paso police say a man sought in the slaying of a local woman and the shooting of a police officer has killed himself.</p>
<p>Police Sgt. Chris Mears says officers found the body of the man Tuesday morning behind a payday loan store in a shopping strip in southeastern El Paso. Mears says investigators believe he shot himself with a handgun found nearby, but it wasn’t immediately clear if the gun was the used in the other shootings.</p>
<p>An officer was shot three times in a drive-by shooting Monday night. Mears said he was hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday but was expected to recover.</p>
<p>Mears said the suspect also was implicated in the death of a woman whose body was found around early Tuesday at an east El Paso residence.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Suspect in police shooting, woman’s slaying dead | false | https://abqjournal.com/483726/suspect-in-police-shooting-womans-slaying-dead.html | 2 |
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<p>Each subsequent Rambo release is worse than its predecessor.</p>
<p>— Michael Parenti, “Rambo and the Swarthy Hordes”</p>
<p>Just when you thought British movies about Ireland couldn’t get any worse than “Ryan’s Daughter”, here comes “The Foreigner” with Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan as the neo-Leo McKern character playing the PIRA wife cheating scotch gulping Irish sellout informer torturer killer whose paid for treasonous lifestyle of British vassal state luxury in Ireland is repeatedly interrupted by a righteous bombing vendetta seeking ersatz Charlie Chan-cum-Rambo with the most unlikely CV as an American Special Forces Vietnam War Vet sans ear collection of course or at least they don’t show you it.</p>
<p>In short it’s all bullshit.</p>
<p>Now how, according to the movie’s narrative, this 61 year old mercenary grows up in Red China to joining the American Army Special Forces (instead of ARVN) in Vietnam (rather than the USA)&#160; where of course he learned all the technological fine arts of killing native people, aka “terrorists”, struggling for national liberation whom he then (rightly) flees from across the sea to Singapore, instead of just taking an American plane out (since only some of ARVN got left behind), losing everything along the way and then somehow making it to high priced central London where like a Robert Kline joke he-has-no-money-but-he-buys-a-restaurant, are all just Hollywood story line blanks you won’t ever be able to fill in and nor should you even try.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly it’s just enough for this movie to infer that Jackie Chan’s U.S. commando character, like draft dodging Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo character, was fighting “terrorists” in Vietnam as he now has to do in Northern Ireland.&#160; After all the National Liberation Front of Vietnam actually studied and emulated IRA tactics. Tom Barry’s book “Guerilla Days” was their Bible.&#160; Too bad more Irish people didn’t take it to heart, because what few still do according to this movie must continue to be killed off once their “Names please!” are given up by this pathetic portrayal of GFA IRA betrayal.</p>
<p>So you get to watch in the meantime the amazingly unbelievable super geriatric Jackie Chan man flashback to murderous non-political Thai pirates who intentionally killed his wife and two daughters. Sure, just like the present day “authentic” (movie’s word) IRA cell based in London that has now recklessly killed Chan’s only remaining daughter with a store planted bomb while she innocently shopped for her wedding dress.&#160; Hence this film’s spurious and all too predictable revenge plot in obvious service to the British state’s theme of our-commandos-good-you’re-terrorists-bad since we all know only imperialists do collateral damage in the fog of war.</p>
<p>The only thing missing in this stupid Tory flick was the IRA’s mass conversion to Islam and their solidarity marches with ISIS.</p>
<p>Dishonest political conflation like this never makes any sense but when I say “bad imitation” Charlie Chan-cum-Rambo commando know Jesus and Rambo wept.&#160; Because this was an awful movie played by terrible actors!&#160; The only thing more insulting than all this MI6 spin were all the Irish actors who knowingly took the soup to get roles in it to say nothing about the other actors of colonial color who obviously never read Franz Fanon.</p>
<p>And to save you all your time and money know that this new age Charlie Chan as Mighty Mouse saves the day by helping the Brits muzzle the rogue IRA cell via electric tortured tits and summary executions of unarmed British subjects while a bomb is ticking of course in an unfair effort to blow up, of all people, members of the imperial British government.</p>
<p>This is all in keeping of course with the British government policy of Ulsterisation (let the locals do the killing), Normalization (act like there is nothing abnormal going on here) and Criminalisation (always insists that there is nothing political about Irish people trying to end Brit occupation and rule).&#160; After all, those uppity Chuckies are (ahem) just like those non-political Thai pirates out to get your money, wives and daughters.</p>
<p>Maybe if the IRA dropped their bombs from planes, like the Brits do, and droned from afar like the Americans do, they’d be held to the same civilian mass murder as policy standard the Brits and Yanks have held themselves to in among other places the Philippines, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Tokyo, Dresden, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama, Cuba, Chile, El Salvador, Haiti, East Timor, etc.</p>
<p>Instead as per usual there’ll be no such thinking or commentary about Bomber Harris or murderous Brits in Bagdad except for the Irish nephew of Brosnan’s character in this movie, playing a Brit Rambo Commando, explaining to Mr. Chan in their male bonding scene that he did what he did in Iraq for his Irish Regiment not Queen and country.</p>
<p>A distinction without a difference but it’s the apt latent homosexual excuse that gets him off so he can later execute Brosnan’s wife who [spoiler alert] was the god mother all along of this rogue “authentic” IRA cell who understandably hated her quisling husband.&#160; So of course she has to be killed by him to…err….save the British peace in Northern Ireland.&#160; Yeah, that’s the ticket!&#160;&#160; You say peace and I say pacification.</p>
<p>That way Brosnan’s ex-IRA character can continue sleeping with his girlfriend who [another spoiler alert] is also part of this “authentic” IRA cell and for what it’s worth a British subject so understandably is killed with extreme Brit prejudice while lying on her back unarmed, tortured and injured.&#160; Now to borrow a phrase there really are “…no loose ends” to worry about seeing here.&#160; LOL!</p>
<p>In fact, the only cream in this crap was the movie’s portrayal of Peirce Brosnan as the obviously fused and confused Adams/McGuinnes character, replete with salt and pepper beard, being effectively choke-chained like the imperial poodle he is on MI6’s leash.</p>
<p>As such the best line in the movie was by some non-descript Brit babe playing the Overlord of Ireland Minister telling Brosnan’s Ex-IRA character: “When I say jump you’ll say how high.”</p>
<p>Kind of says it all really.</p>
<p>The unwitting moral of this story from Whitehall: take it up the ass like Vadkar paying off British bonds because that’s what you get when you give to Caesar what is Caesar’s since imperial gerrymandering (and any agreement to same) is no stepping stone to national liberation and unification never has been and never will be.</p>
<p>Just ask any Ex-Viet Cong or (ahem) American Minuteman.</p>
<p>So don’t waste your time and money on this pernicious little pro-Brit anti-Irish national liberation film unless like Peirce Brosnan you’re a self-loathing Irish dumb ass or a lying Tory or quasi-Tory who believes their own Orwellian discourse.&#160; And lest you think I am anti-English, know that I am just anti-England in Ireland like I am anti-Belgium in the Congo.&#160; Hate the sin, love the sinner.&#160; And any film by the Englishman Ken Loach, especially “The Wind that Shakes the Barley”, is light years better than this pack of Jackie Chan lies and distortions. My guess is he’d still prefer the Brits in Hong Kong.</p>
<p>Eoghan O’Suilleabhain is an American lawyer and Army veteran.&#160;</p> | Rambo Wept: Our Commandos Good, Your Terrorists Bad | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/10/18/rambo-wept-our-commandos-good-your-terrorists-bad/ | 2017-10-18 | 4 |
<p>Get More: <a href="http://www.cc.com" type="external">Comedy Central</a>, <a href="http://www.cc.com/funny-videos" type="external">Funny Videos</a>, <a href="http://www.cc.com/shows" type="external">Funny TV Shows</a></p>
<p>Previously:</p>
<p><a href="/video/2015/06/18/foxs-steve-doocy-its-extraordinary-that-charles/204043" type="external">Fox's Steve Doocy: It's Extraordinary That Charleston Church Shooting Is Being Called A Hate Crime</a></p>
<p><a href="/blog/2015/06/18/fox-amp-friends-exploits-south-carolina-church/204046" type="external">Fox &amp; Friends Exploits South Carolina Church Shooting To Call For More Guns</a></p>
<p><a href="/video/2015/06/19/fox-hosts-want-to-know-should-we-arm-pastors-an/204059" type="external">Fox Hosts Want To Know: Should We Arm Pastors And Teachers After Charleston Mass Shooting?</a></p> | Larry Wilmore Calls Out Fox News For Denying Racial Motivation Behind Charleston Shooting | true | http://mediamatters.org/video/2015/06/19/larry-wilmore-calls-out-fox-news-for-denying-ra/204063 | 2015-06-19 | 4 |
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<p>Mixon was suspended after punching Oklahoma student Amelia Molitor in 2014. Mixon returned last year and helped the Sooners reach the College Football Playoff, and he has been a standout again this year for No. 7 Oklahoma.</p>
<p>In reversing course, Stoops said he believed that the then-18-year-old Mixon could redeem himself. He said times have changed, and society now has a no-tolerance policy on domestic violence incidents. He said that’s a good thing.</p>
<p>“Two-and-a-half-years later, dismissal is really the only thing that is possible,” Stoops said. “A young guy having an opportunity to rehabilitate and to have some kind of discipline and come back from it is really not there anymore. Hopefully that message goes down even to the high school level, that these things are just unacceptable to any degree.”</p>
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<p>Mixon entered an Alford plea at the time, acknowledging there was likely enough evidence to convict him of misdemeanor assault while still asserting his innocence. He did not serve jail time and was ordered to perform 100 hours of community service and undergo counseling.</p>
<p>In video released Tuesday, Mixon sat stone-faced as he, his mother and police officers watched footage of him knocking out Molitor with a punch, breaking her jaw and cheekbone, at a local restaurant.</p>
<p>The video of Mixon telling his side of the story three days after the July 2014 incident was released by Norman police. His mother, members of his legal team, Detective David Freudiger and Sgt. Gary Schmidt were in the room. The department released the video less than a week after Mixon’s attorneys released video showing the attack.</p>
<p>Stoops said he was shaken by the video of the punch.</p>
<p>“It was horrible,” he said. “I hated it. Disliked it as — I hated it as much as anybody did. Absolutely.”</p>
<p>Stoops said the length of time it took for the video of the punch to come out created problems.</p>
<p>“We expected that video to be released within a week or two or three weeks or within that month,” he said. “We had no idea it would go this long, and that is out of our hands as well. The timeline of it all has not worked out very well for anybody.”</p>
<p>In the video released by police on Tuesday, Mixon said a friend of Molitor’s blew smoke in his face unintentionally, and Mixon stood to avoid the smoke. He then said Molitor walked up and intentionally blew smoke in his face. He told teammate Michiah Quick that Molitor was being “hella disrespectful” for blowing the smoke in his face.</p>
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<p>According to Mixon, Molitor was rude to several of Mixon’s teammates, including tight end Mark Andrews.</p>
<p>Later, Mixon said the male with Molitor called him a racial slur, and Mixon responded with a homosexual slur. Mixon said Molitor dropped her purse and hit him. He then said he lunged at her and said “Watch out.” He said she hit him again, hard enough for his face to start ringing, and he slugged her.</p>
<p>“I was shocked because she hit me so hard,” he said. “It felt like a dude hit me.”</p>
<p>Mixon admitted to police he should have left the situation alone before it escalated, but once the racial slur was used, he lost focus. He said after he punched her, his thought was, “What I got myself into?” and said he thought about how he got himself into a “stupid situation” and started thinking about his future. Video shows him leaving the restaurant quickly after the punch.</p>
<p>Stoops said Mixon has been struggling since video of the punch was released as the Sooners prepared for the Jan. 2 Sugar Bowl against Auburn.</p>
<p>“He’s been really down, for sure,” Stoops said. “He’s deeply affected by it. Knew he would be. But his teammates are picking him up, and he’s been a great teammate to them, and they’re giving it back to him.”</p>
<p>Critics have said the university should have dismissed Mixon back in 2014. They have also noted a Tulsa World report that receiver Dede Westbrook, a Heisman Trophy finalist, had family violence incidents before enrolling at Oklahoma. Two more former Oklahoma players, linebacker Frank Shannon and receiver Dorial Green-Beckham, also were accused of violence against women in recent years.</p>
<p>Among those calling for changes is Brenda Tracy, who says she was raped by two Oregon State football players and two other men in 1998 and has publicly shared her story in hopes of effecting change and raising awareness of about the toll of sexual assault. She has met with players at Baylor and Nebraska, among others, and met with Oklahoma players in August.</p>
<p>“I would propose that you fly me out to Oklahoma after the first of the year and we sit down and create some new policies that will prevent future incidents of violent athletes being recruited to Oklahoma football,” she said in an e-mail she says was recently sent to Stoops and athletic director Joe Castiglione. “I would propose that Oklahoma become the gold standard in football. That your program would become the example of accountability and best practices for recruitment and discipline of violent athletes.”</p>
<p>Tracy said the school had not responded to the e-mail, though Stoops said he had spoken with her a few days earlier.</p>
<p>Stoops said Mixon has matured since the incident.</p>
<p>“It’s hard to give up on these young men that I go in their homes and talk to their families and talk about their opportunities to grow at Oklahoma,” he said. “For those that find that unacceptable, I apologize to those people But I feel like Joe has moved ahead in a very positive way. And believe he’s really grown and matured for it.”</p>
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<p>More AP college football: <a href="http://www.collegefootball.ap.org" type="external">www.collegefootball.ap.org</a> and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25</p> | Stoops: RB Mixon would be off Sooners had punch been in 2016 | false | https://abqjournal.com/913872/stoops-rb-mixon-would-be-off-sooners-had-punch-been-in-2016.html | 2016-12-21 | 2 |
<p>RELATED:&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Britain’s MI5 Connection to Woolwich Slasher Michael Adebolajo</a></p>
<p><a href="http://wp.me/p3bwni-3xM" type="external">21st Century Wire</a> says…</p>
<p>Another day, another horrific public attack, this one made for TV…</p>
<p>Details are still speculative at this stage as to who was the victim and exactly who were the assailants reported to have been shot dead by the police, but the event has already been defined across the national/world media as two “muslim anti-government” attackers killing an “off duty British soldier”.</p>
<p>Oddly, media reports say that the men were shot dead, while Police statement says that the men are being treated for their injuries at separate hospitals. Which is it? If they are dead, then&#160;sadly, police will not be able to question the men believed to have killed the victim so as to learn more about what actually happened –&#160;and why.</p>
<p>Common sense should dictate that this should not be classed as a “national security” event, as it appears to be only a violent crime – but it’s one of the strangest ones ever, spun with an Islamic twist, and where the perps (breathtakingly) are demanding to be filmed and then hang around for police to arrive? Something does not add up.</p>
<p>Whether this is either a real or staged event, rather than be seen as an isolated incident, this incident will – without a doubt, be defined as a ‘disturbing trend’ with the interim details being filled in by the tabloid press, and will be used to bolster any existing domestic security provisions and strengthen police powers of pre-emptive detainment and arrest under national security clauses. The danger is that it will be used to introduce an entirely new set of state powers to be dropped on top of an already bloated security state in Britain.</p>
<p>Video #1 (ITN):</p>
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<p>In fact, beyond the random spectacle narrative, very little about this event adds up at all.</p>
<p>Here’s a question to be answered: Was the assailant&#160;at any time working as an MI5 informant?</p>
<p>READ MORE WOOLWICH NEWS AT: <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire Woolwich Files</a></p> | Footage of Killer ‘Machete Terrorist’ Attack in Woolwich, East London | true | http://21stcenturywire.com/2013/05/23/footage-of-killer-machete-terrorist-attack-in-woolwich-east-london/ | 2013-05-23 | 4 |
<p>Heritage Column for December 8, 2005</p>
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<p>For the better part of a day, the earnest scholar visited the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage &amp; Studies. He marveled at the collection and the way in which Baptist heritage is preserved, shared and showcased.</p>
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<p /> | Living history | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/livinghistory-2/ | 3 |
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<p>CHICAGO — <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Anthony-Rizzo/" type="external">Anthony Rizzo</a> hit a go-ahead double in the eighth inning as the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Chicago-Cubs/" type="external">Chicago Cubs</a> scored three runs to rally in their 3-2 victory over the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/St-Louis-Cardinals/" type="external">St. Louis Cardinals</a> on Saturday at Wrigley field.</p>
<p>The Cubs tied the score in the eighth with <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Ben_Zobrist/" type="external">Ben Zobrist</a>‘s RBI double and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Kris-Bryant/" type="external">Kris Bryant</a>‘s broken-bat, RBI single.</p>
<p>Paul DeJong and Randal Grichuk hit back-to-back home runs off <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jon_Lester/" type="external">Jon Lester</a> (7-6) in the eighth inning to put the Cardinals ahead. DeJong smacked a two-out solo shot to left field for his 11th of the season before Grichuk connected on his 11th.</p>
<p>Cardinals starter <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Adam_Wainwright/" type="external">Adam Wainwright</a> threw seven scoreless innings before being charged with two runs in the eighth. He gave up four hits and no walks and struck out three.</p>
<p>Giants 5, Padres 4 (12)</p>
<p>SAN FRANCISCO — <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Nick_Hundley/" type="external">Nick Hundley</a> drove in Kelby Tomlinson with a single to the base of the fence in left field with two outs in the 12th inning, giving San Francisco a victory over San Diego.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Eduardo_Nunez/" type="external">Eduardo Nunez</a> drove in two runs with three hits and the San Francisco bullpen pitched six innings of one-hit ball, helping the Giants beat the Padres for just the second time in their last nine meetings at AT&amp;T Park.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Wil-Myers/" type="external">Wil Myers</a> homered for the second straight day for the Padres, who posted a 12-9, 11-inning win over the Giants on Friday.</p> | MLB roundup: Anthony Rizzo rallies Chicago Cubs by St. Louis Cardinals | false | https://newsline.com/mlb-roundup-anthony-rizzo-rallies-chicago-cubs-by-st-louis-cardinals/ | 2017-07-23 | 1 |
<p>ABC News host Martha Raddatz on Sunday cut off Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) after he spent four minutes defending a conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was plotting to fill up the United States with undocumented immigrants.</p>
<p>Speaking to Fox News last week, Perry had <a href="http://www.statesman.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/perry-obama-either-inept-or-has-ulterior-motive-fo/ngZdY/" type="external">asserted</a> that the president was responsible for the growing crisis of women and children immigrants coming across the border.</p>
<p>“We either have an incredibly inept administration, or they’re in on this somehow or another,” Perry opined. “I mean I hate to be conspiratorial, but I mean how do you move that many people from Central America across Mexico and then into the United States without there being a fairly coordinated effort?”</p>
<p>During a Sunday interview on ABC News, host Martha Raddatz gave the Republican governor a chance to back away from his conspiracy theory.</p>
<p>"Governor, do you really believe there’s some sort of conspiracy to get people into the United States by the federal government, by the Obama administration?" Raddatz asked.</p>
<p>"When I have written a letter that is dated May of 2012, and I have yet to have a response from this administration, I will tell you they either are inept or don’t care, and that is my position," Perry said, doubling down on the theory. "We have been bringing to the attention of President Obama and his administration since 2010, he received a letter from me on the tarmac... I have to believe that when you do not respond in any way, that you are either inept, or you have some ulterior motive of which you are functioning from."</p>
<p>The former Republican presidential candidate added that his theory was proved by the fact that the president had not responded to his letter, and had not deployed drones to the border.</p>
<p>"Unless we secure our southern border, this is going to continue to be a massive amount of individuals that are coming to the United States," Perry warned. "And, frankly, we don’t have a place to house them as it is. And if we have a major event, a hurricane that comes in to the Gulf Coast, I don’t have a place to be housing people who are displaced because this administration..."</p>
<p>At that point, Raddatz interrupted Perry and ended the interview.</p>
<p>"Okay, Governor, I'm going to have to stop you there," she said. "But thank you very much for joining us."</p>
<p>(h/t: <a href="http://www.politicususa.com/2014/07/06/abc-news-cuts-rick-perry-middle-insane-obama-conspiracy-rant.html" type="external">PoliticusUSA</a>)</p>
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<p /> | ABC Cuts Off Perry's Obama 'Conspiracy' Rant About Immigrants, Drones And Hurricanes | true | http://crooksandliars.com/2014/07/abc-cuts-perry-during-obama-conspiracy | 2014-07-06 | 4 |
<p>It’s that time again! The end of the month is upon us, and like the turning of the seasons, one crop of Netflix picks is dying and another is blossoming anew. This month we will be #blessed with not one but&#160;two Stanley Kubrick films —&#160;2001: A Space Odyssey and&#160;A Clockwork Orange — as well as&#160;The Shawshank Redemption, V for Vendetta, Erin Brockovich,&#160;and, for some reason,&#160;Scrooged(???), all of which will be landing on April 1. Watch out for the second season of&#160;Netflix’s own&#160;The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on April 15, and wave goodbye to&#160;Hook&#160;and&#160;House of Wax, the only two notable departures in my humble opinion. Here’s everything else coming and going in April:</p>
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<p>ARRIVING ON&#160;NETFLIX IN APRIL 2016:</p>
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<p>Available April 1 16 Blocks (2006) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) A Clockwork Orange (1971) Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown: Season 5 (2015) The Ascent of Woman: A 10,000 Year Story (2015) Beat Bobby Flay: Season 1 (2013) Best in Show (2000) Bob’s Burgers: Season 5 (2014) Boogie Nights (1997) Breathe (2014) Chaplin (1992) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) Codegirl (2015) Colegas (2012) Cujo (1983) Cutthroat Kitchen: Seasons 3­-4 (2014) Deep Impact (1998) Dennis Rodman’s Big Bang in Pyongyang (2015) Dolphin Tale (2011) Erin Brockovich (2000) Explorers (1985) Fixer Upper: Season 2 (2015) Frank and Cindy (2015) Giada at Home: Season 7 (2014) The Great Food Truck Race: Seasons 1-­2 (2010) House Hunters Collection: Collection 3 (2001) House Hunters International Collection: Collection 3 (2001) House Hunters International Renovation: Season 1 (2014) Jeremy Scott: The People’s Designer (2015) Kids Baking Championship: Season 1 (2015) Looking for Richard (1996) Lost &amp; Found Music Studios: Season 1 (2016) Love It or List It, Too: Season 4 (2011) The Mask You Live In (2015) Morituri (1965) My Girl (1991) Mystic River (2003) The Next Best Thing (2000) The Perfect Storm (2000) The Phantom (1996) The Princess Bride (1987) Property Brothers at Home: Season 1 (2014) The Ranch: Part 1 ­­(2016) Rev Run’s Sunday Suppers (2014) The Right Stuff (1983) Rising Sun (1993) The Running Man (1987) Say It Isn’t So (2001) The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Scrooged (1988) Something’s Gotta Give (2003) Sunset Boulevard (1950) Transporter 3 (2008) Uncommon Valor (1983) Under the Same Moon (2007) V for Vendetta (2005)</p>
<p>Available April 5 Walt Before Mickey (2015) Available April 8 God’s Pocket (2014) Hush (2016)</p>
<p>Available April 9 Look Who’s Back (2015)</p>
<p>Available April 10 Girl Meets World: Season 2 (2016)</p>
<p>Available April 11 TURN: Washington’s Spies: Season 2 (2015)</p>
<p>Available April 12 AJIN: Season 1­­ (2016)</p>
<p>Available April 14 Moonwalkers (2015) Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine (2015)</p>
<p>Available April 15 Belgica (2016) Cuckoo: Season 3 (2016) Kong King of the Apes (Film &amp; Series) ­­ (2016) Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Season 2 (2016)</p>
<p>Available April 16 How to Get Away with Murder: Season 2 (2015)</p>
<p>Available April 17 Lost Girl: Season 5 (2014) The Messengers: Season 1 (2014)</p>
<p>Available April 22 Catching The Sun (2015) Patton Oswalt: Talking for Clapping (2016) ­­</p>
<p>Available April 24 Minions (2015)</p>
<p>Available April 27 Begin Again (2014) The Fosters: Season 3 (2015)</p>
<p>Available April 29 Danger Mouse: Season 1 ­­(2016) Hellion (2014) Special Correspondents (2016) ­­ Team Foxcatcher (2016) ­­</p>
<p>Available April 30 Sensitive Skin: Season 2 (2015)</p>
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<p>LEAVING NETFLIX IN APRIL 2016</p> | Here’s Everything Coming & Going On Netflix In April | true | http://thefrisky.com/2016-03-23/heres-everything-coming-going-on-netflix-in-april/?utm_source%3Dsc-fb%26utm_medium%3Dref%26utm_campaign | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
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<p>As colleges continue to up the ante for admission, high school students are preparing for college before their senior year by exploring post-secondary curriculum options.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>According to a 2010 study conducted by <a href="http://media.collegeboard.com/homeOrg/content/pdf/One_Year_Out_key_findings%20report_final.pdf" type="external">The College Board Opens a New Window.</a>, only 49% of high school seniors polled report that their school did a good job in preparing them for success in both college and the workplace.</p>
<p>“Many first-year college students drop out of school because they are unprepared to adjust to the academic rigors of life on campus,” says Erin Davis, director of College Solutions at <a href="http://www.mheducation.com/home/index.shtml" type="external">McGraw-Hill Higher Education Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Auditi Chakravarty, executive director of AP Curriculum &amp; Assessment for The <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/" type="external">College Board Opens a New Window.</a>, says that post-secondary choices, or academically-rigorous programs and classes allowing high school students to earn credit for college, can put incoming freshmen ahead of the game as they prepare for college.</p>
<p>“What makes them challenging is not only the amount of work, but also the type of work that students will be asked to do,” she says. “The pace, the amount of reading and writing, the types of lab experiences, and the research and other projects required are similar to what students can expect in college.”</p>
<p>From the additional workload, time commitment, and the cost of post-secondary options, we talked to the experts about what rising college students should consider for getting a head start.</p>
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<p>Different options</p>
<p>There are a variety of ways that students can earn credit for college, such as dual enrollment (students spend half the day at high school, the other at a college campus), direct credit (a college professor or high school teacher teaches college courses), or summer college courses that give students college credit.</p>
<p>High schools are also increasingly offering Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate courses (IB) to students that many colleges accept as replacements to introductory courses if they score high enough on the exam.</p>
<p>“AP and IB courses help students prepare for college coursework by providing a preview of the critical thinking and problem-solving students need during their freshman year of college,” says Davis.</p>
<p>Who should consider post-secondary</p>
<p>The experts agree that students need to assess their capabilities before taking on advanced courses.</p>
<p>“How much time do they have? By taking an extra course or a more advanced course, how much are they going to spread themselves too thin?” says Jon Reider, director of college counseling at <a href="http://www.sfuhs.org/" type="external">San Francisco University High School Opens a New Window.</a>. “The key words are balance, perspective and self-knowledge.”</p>
<p>Before signing up for advanced courses, Davis suggests students inventory their existing workload to make sure they have time and energy for the class. These classes require more study and work time than typical high school courses.</p>
<p>“Students should speak to their parents and/or college counselor about AP and IB course requirements, offerings, and the subjects that may work best for that student. &#160;Ask questions and understand the workload that lies ahead,” Davis says. &#160;&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>Become better prepared for college-level classes</p>
<p>“Research tells us that students who succeed on even one AP exam tend to have better college outcomes—such as [a] higher first-year and four-year GPA—than similar students without that AP experience,” Chakravarty says.</p>
<p>In addition to being more prepared for a college workload, students have the opportunity to rack up some credits to gain some flexibility with their future course choices.</p>
<p>“[You can] get started on courses directly related to your major (the fun stuff) more quickly, which in turn allows you to investigate your real interests while still graduating on time,” says Davis.</p>
<p>Cost</p>
<p>As the cost of college tuition continues to soar, Davis points out that taking college-level classes in high school can significantly reduce a tuition bill.</p>
<p>“By scoring a four or five on an AP or IB exam, students can receive college credit and opt out of taking the course in college, which can save hundreds or thousands of dollars,” she says. “In fact, if a student obtains a four or five on several AP exams, he or she could potentially earn enough credit for an entire semester and/or allow for a student to complete college on-time or at an accelerated pace.”</p>
<p>Although students usually incur exam costs, the <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/school/ap_ordering_help.html" type="external">College Board Opens a New Window.</a> and many states and districts offer fee subsidies. Students should speak with their program coordinator or guidance counselor to learn more about fee reduction options.</p>
<p>Factors to be aware of</p>
<p>Universities’ policies vary for what is accepted for credit, and some don’t accept these classes at all.</p>
<p>Reider recommends that students consider taking classes that interest them, possibly helping to decide on a major or degree program.</p>
<p>“Are you generally interested in the subject or are you just trying to score brownie points with some college? Don’t do it just to get into college--do it because it’s actually valuable to your development.”</p> | Getting College Credit in High School: Worth It? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/01/20/getting-college-credit-in-high-school-worth-it.html | 2017-02-08 | 0 |
<p>Apple says it more than doubled the numbers of women, blacks and Hispanic workers hired in the last year, although that moved the needle only slightly in terms of improving the overall diversity of its workforce.</p>
<p>Like other major tech companies, Apple has been under public pressure to increase the number of women and minorities in a workforce that is overwhelmingly white or Asian males. Apple says 35 percent of its new hires worldwide last year were women, while 24 percent of U.S. hires were black or Hispanic.</p>
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<p>As a result, Apple's global workforce of 110,000 is now 31 percent women, up from 30 percent last year. Its U.S. workforce is 19 percent black or Hispanic, up from 18 percent. That includes non-technical jobs including retail workers in Apple stores.</p> | Apple reports hiring more women and minorities, though overall numbers move only slightly | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2015/08/13/apple-reports-hiring-more-women-and-minorities-though-overall-numbers-move-only.html | 2017-01-02 | 0 |
<p>Gov. Arnold’s May revision of his budget <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-11/schwarzenegger-preps-terrible-cuts-to-close-deficit-update1-.html" type="external">looks to be</a> less fictional than his January offering.&#160;Is Arnold giving up the fiscal fantasies that have consumed him lo these past five years, and gone back to the near-realism of his first two years in office? We’ll find out Friday.</p>
<p>It may be that Arnold, who maintains ties to his European faterland, is well aware of the fiscal tsunami that is washing over Europa, and soon will wash over America. It’s going to be nasty, folks. The Bush Depression is not over yet, but is picking up speed as the Bush-Obama Depression.</p>
<p>The “recovery” we supposedly are “enjoying” now is because Obama and the Federal Reserve Board are flooding the country with made-up money. That’s why the price of gold <a href="http://www.thestreet.com/story/10754381/1/record-high-gold-prices-continue.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN" type="external">keeps going up</a> — meaning the value of the dollar is going down. To prevent a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_in_the_Weimar_Republic" type="external">Weimar</a>– or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_Zimbabwe" type="external">Zimbabwe</a>-style hyperinflation, the Fed will have to stop printing so much money and raise its artificially low interest rates. Doing so will crash the economy hard, as happened back in 1980-81.</p>
<p>The key thing to look for in Arnold’s May Revise is what he says U.S. economic growth will be the next year. Anything above 0.00 percent is a fantasy. There’s no real growth now. And there won’t be for a year or, probably, several years.</p>
<p>Instead of the federal goverment’s made-up numbers, check the real GDP and unemployment and inflation figures at <a href="http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data" type="external">Shadowstats.com</a>.</p>
<p>— John Seiler</p> | Budget D-Day on Friday, May 14 | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2010/05/12/budget-d-day-on-friday-may-14/ | 2018-05-20 | 3 |
<p>Tawakul Karman, 32, is one of three women's rights activists awarded the Nobel Peace Prize Friday. She is the first Arab woman to receive the prize.</p>
<p>The mother of three -- who told the BBC that she didn't even know she was nominated for the prize, and found out through their news service -- was honored for her activism work in Yemen during the Arab Spring, the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15216473" type="external">BBC</a> reports.</p>
<p>More: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/111007/profile-leymah-gbowee-nobel-peace-prize" type="external">Leymah Gbowee wins Nobel Peace Prize</a></p>
<p>Karman organized regular sit-ins and protests in Sana'a's Freedom Square, in hopes of ending the 33-year rule of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, according to <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/yemen/8813170/Nobel-peace-prize-profile-of-Tawakul-Karman.html" type="external">The Telegraph</a>. She and other activists with Women Journalists Without Chains, an organization she founded in 2005, also demonstrated for the advancement of women's rights and the protection of freedom of expression, reports <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/10/201110711019647156.html" type="external">Al-Jazeera English</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>Karman, who has been jailed many times for her efforts by the leaders in Yemen, dedicated the prize to the youth in the Arab Spring.</p>
<p>"I give the prize to the youth of revolution in Yemen and the Yemeni people," she allegedly said, reports&#160; <a href="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2096442,00.html" type="external">Time Magazine</a>.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/111007/nobel-peace-prize-ellen-sirleaf-johnson-criticism-liberia-presidential-election" type="external">Ellen Johnson Sirleaf slammed by Liberia election candidate</a></p>
<p>Karman is a member of Yemen's leading opposition party, the Islah, a conservative religious movement that calls for reform in accordance with Islamic principles. She herself takes a more progressive approach to Islam and the Shari'a, wearing a headscarf instead of a full face veil, reports <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15216473" type="external">BBC</a>. During the Arab Spring, she and thousands of other women broke the country's 7 p.m. curfew to spend the night in Freedom Square.</p>
<p>More: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/111002/liberia-news-ellen-johnson-sirleaf-runs-reelection" type="external">Nobel Prize Laureate profile: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf</a></p>
<p>Thorbjoern Jagland of the Norwegian Nobel Committee told the <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_NOBEL_PEACE_PRIZE?SITE=FLTAM&amp;SECTION=HOME&amp;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT" type="external">AP</a> that the prize is "a signal that the Arab Spring cannot be successful without including the women in it."</p>
<p>Karman said she was unaware of her nomination because she is so deep in the revolution in Yemen, working vigilantly to make gains in the country.</p>
<p>"We will build our country with peace. ... All the youth and women, this is a victory for our demand for citizenship and human rights," she allegedly told <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/10/201110711019647156.html" type="external">Al-Jazeera English</a>.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/111007/nobel-noble-peace-prize-three-winners-sirleaf" type="external">Three women share Nobel Peace Prize</a></p> | Profile: Tawakkul Karman first Arab woman to win Nobel Peace Prize | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-10-07/profile-tawakkul-karman-first-arab-woman-win-nobel-peace-prize | 2011-10-07 | 3 |
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<p>This post originally ran on Truthdig contributor <a href="http://www.juancole.com/2016/03/russia-open-to-federal-syria-but-opposition-worries-about-partition.html" type="external">Juan Cole’s website</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.alghad.com/articles/923630-%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D8%AA%D8%AF%D8%B9%D9%85-%D8%AC%D9%85%D9%87%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%81%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A9%20" type="external">Russian deputy foreign minister</a> Sergey Ryabkov said Monday that Russia supports whatever arrangements the Syrians in the current negotiations reach about the future, included a possible federal state.</p>
<p>The United States has a federal system, which means that individual states retain a certain amount of autonomy, retain rights and privileges not given to the over-arching federal government.</p>
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<p>Likewise, India maintains its unity despite numerous languages and ethnicities in part because its central government has limited powers, and the various states set their own domestic policies on some issues.</p>
<p>Most Middle Eastern states do not have a federal system but rather are ruled by a powerful unitary state. So, for instance, most provincial governors in the Middle East are appointed, not elected. Most provinces do not have elected provincial legislatures. Small elites in the distant capital dictate policy to the provinces or governorates.</p>
<p>Some of this preference for central government rule goes back to the British and French colonial apparatuses.</p>
<p>Where a province is distinctive in the ethnicity that dominates it, a federal state can accommodate that diversity better than a unitary one.</p>
<p>In Syria the regime makes all the important decisions in provinces under government control.</p>
<p>In Syria in the 1960s, the central government took citizenship away from thousands of Kurds. The central government was then Arab nationalist, and the presence of the non-Arab Kurdish people was seen as a deficit detracting from national unity rather than as a strength deriving from multi-culturalism (Kurds do not speak Arabic. Syrian Kurds were left as worse than second class citizens.</p>
<p>Interestingly, in the Middle East the term ‘federal’ is often taken to mean strong central state rule, the opposite of what it means, or should mean, in the West.</p>
<p>Some sites, in contrast, read Ryabkov’s language as suggesting a Russian plot to break up Syria.</p>
<p>One of the likely ways Syria could be restored as a relatively unified country would in fact be a federal system, in which provinces such as Raqqa and Deir al-Zor (now in the hands of Daesh or ISIL), have their own post-Daesh elected governor, their own school curricula, etc. That is, if they are unhappy with the close embrace of the al-Assad police state, then federalism may meet many of their desires without requiring a surrender to extremism.</p>
<p>Likewise, the mistreated Syrian Kurds, who have been recognized as citizens by Bashar al-Assad now that his country fell apart, want a Rojava super-province. But if it were one state among many in a new federal Syria, then Kurds could achieve many of their goals while remaining citizens.</p>
<p /> | Russia Is Open to a 'Federal' Syria, but the Opposition Is Worried About Partition | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/russia-is-open-to-a-federal-syria-but-the-opposition-is-worried-about-partition/ | 2016-03-02 | 4 |
<p>Before Paul Ryan was anointed as the Republican vice presidential candidate, Ryan reigned as the GOP’s resident economic genius and “leading intellectual.”</p>
<p>However, this praise from major media outlets has long been divorced from the reality 1,000 miles away back in Ryan’s 1st Congressional District in southeastern Wisconsin. Even while Beltway media — and even President Obama — heaped kudos on Ryan for his bold economic proposals and “intellectual audacity,” the productive base and social health of his constituents have been severely deteriorating under the impact of the very policies he has aggressively championed.</p>
<p>Ryan trumpeted the $1.2 trillion in Bush tax cuts showered largely on the richest 1%, pushed for the deregulation of Wall Street financial manipulations, opposed 2007 efforts to rein in the financial industry’s increasingly risky practices but then voted for a virtually unconditional bailout of the big banks after the meltdown in 2008 in order to “save the free enterprise system.” Ryan also voted for the auto bailout without any provisions to prioritize US jobs including those in his district. Further, Ryan has been a consistent supporter of the “free trade” deals with low-wage, repressive regimes that have fueled the offshoring of jobs.</p>
<p>In recent years, Ryan’s home district has lost thousands of family-sustaining jobs. Its economic foundations have been dangerously hollowed out: Delco in Oak Creek shut down at a cost of 3,800 jobs, mostly going to Mexico; Chrysler in Kenosha had 850 jobs sent to Mexico with the help of auto industry “bailout” funds; and General Motors in his hometown of Janesville eliminated 2,800 jobs directly with its pre-Christmas 2008 plant closing, while GM kept open a low-wage plant with parallel capacities in Silao, Mexico. The GM shutdown in Janesville wiped out another 3,000 jobs in nearby supplier plants.</p>
<p>The three major industrial counties in Ryan’s district have endured devastating manufacturing job losses since 2000, with Kenosha County losing 30%, Racine County 33%, and Rock County an astonishing 54%.</p>
<p>PREDICTABLE RESULTS OF JOB LOSS</p>
<p>The results of Ryan’s policies and the resulting economic wreckage havebeen grimly predictable. The persistently high unemployment has been accompanied by rising signs of social disintegration and distress throughout most of the district.</p>
<p>• Foreclosures in Rock County — home to Janesville and Beloit — have quadrupled since 2000. They have nearly tripled throughout the entire district.</p>
<p>• In Janesville, the GM shutdown created such a surplus of workers begging for jobs that the average wage fell from $23.27 in 2007 to $18.82 in 2010.</p>
<p>• Within three months of the GM closing just before Christmas in 2008, the number of battered women seeking shelter at the YWCA’s Janesville family violence center nearly tripled.</p>
<p>• Janesville has been afflicted by a major increase in child abuse and neglect.</p>
<p>• Janesville’s rate of child poverty has nearly doubled to 47.1% since 2000. The percentage of children eligible for free or reduced-cost lunches ranges from 43% to 69% in the major cities of his district.</p>
<p>• Janesville has also experienced a near-doubling in suicides over the first two years since the GM closing.</p>
<p>OBLIVIOUS TO SUFFERING</p>
<p>Yet Ryan has remained oblivious to this massive suffering, seemingly driven by his embrace of Ayn Rand’s ideology of anti-social capitalism (which he recently and unconvincingly renounced in the face of complaints about her atheism). He has advocated and voted for cuts to the government protections and the social safety net desperately needed by families in his district trying to hang on to their cars, their homes, and their dignity.</p>
<p>Ryan, always readily willing to bestow bailouts on major banks and corporations, but worries that workers and the poor will lose their motivation to work if the government directs meaningful help to workers, the jobless, and the poor. Ryan claims that the US safety net, pitifully thin compared to other advanced nations, is already in danger of seriously undermining the will to work: “We don’t want to turn this safety net into a hammock that ends up lulling people in their lives into dependency and complacency.”</p>
<p>After Ryan advanced pro-corporate policies that laid waste to his district, he followed up by seeking to block programs that would relieve the human misery among his constituents:</p>
<p>• Ryan has voted against extended unemployment benefits despite a persistent lack of job openings.</p>
<p>• Ryan has consistently opposed increases in the minimum wage, in spite of growing evidence that the majority of minimum-wage workers are employed by giant firms.</p>
<p>• Ryan has opposed the S-CHIP healthcare program to aid low-income people, as well as vowing to repeal the Affordable Care Act in the face of rising needs for healthcare among the ranks of the uninsured. In Janesville, for example, “Over the last two years, we’ve seen a 77% increase in the number of patients,” Traci Rogers, executive director of the HealthNet Clinic for low-income people,” told me in 2011.</p>
<p>• Ryan has voted against expansions of foreclosure-prevention assistance, in the face of evidence that prior efforts were far too weak and mis-directed toward helping mortgage holders rather than families trying to save their homes.</p>
<p>• Ryan has opposed expanded funding for job training in both his votes and his budget proposals. “The cuts he is proposing would have a devastating effect on the hardest-hit workers in Wisconsin, with cities like Racine and Beloit way above the national average in unemployment,” says Robert Borremans, executive director of the Southwest Wisconsin Workforce Development Board. “The cuts would mean that displaced workers would be shut out of new opportunities.”</p>
<p>Clearly, Ryan would prefer that government resources be directed elsewhere: to intruding into the sex lives of women and radically restricting their reproductive rights. Despite being identified for years with Ayn Rand’s “libertarianism” and a philosophy of “small government,” Ryan has zealously pursued a legislative agenda to essentially criminalize abortion under virtually all circumstances, often in tandem with the now-toxic Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), who is now running for the Senate. “Over the thirteen years he’s been in Congress, Ryan has voted 59 times — every time possible — to deny women access to abortion and even to forms of contraception,” notes Marilyn Katz in In These Times. “The 59 pieces of legislation range from declaring a fetus a human being with full legal rights to allowing hospitals to refuse treatment to a woman who needs post-abortion care — even if she is at death’s door.”</p>
<p>While Ryan’s legislative teamwork with Rep. Akin has instantly gained a scorching media spotlight, escaping mainstream media attention has been Ryan’s little-discussed budget proposal to halt the authority of the US government to tax the foreign profits of US corporations once they are brought back into the country, notes tax expert David Cay Johnston, author of Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense and Stick You With The Bill. This provision in Ryan’s budget plan would be disastrous to both US jobs and tax revenues.</p>
<p>“Ryan’s plan would insure that any profits created offshore by US corporations would never be taxed by the US government,” explains Johnston, who won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for his work as the New York Times’ tax reporter. “This would create a tremendous incentive to move more and more US jobs overseas to escape taxes on the profits that foreign workers produce for them,” Johnston told me. Corporations would thus gain a huge financial advantage in off-shoring those family-supporting jobs remaining in Ryan’s home district and the rest of the US.</p>
<p>In sum, Ryan’s economic policies have intensified the incessant carpet-bombing of the First District’s manufacturing base. But even more mercilessly, Ryan has led the strafing of the first aid stations, the safety-net measures and programs designed to help the under-employed and the jobless earn higher wages, feed their families, retain their homes, and get retrained for scarce new jobs.</p>
<p>Roger Bybee is a Milwaukee-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in numerous national publications, including Z magazine, the Progressive, American Prospect and Foreign Policy in Focus. His e-mail address is <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p> | Take a Look at What Paul Ryan Did to His Own Congressional District, and Be Very Scared for Your Country | true | http://alternet.org/election-2012/take-look-what-paul-ryan-did-his-own-congressional-district-and-be-very-scared-your | 2012-09-19 | 4 |
<p>The World Health Organization is scrambling to make new hepatitis C drugs more affordable to patients who suffer from the disease. The WHO is striving for a “concerted effort” to make the drug more affordable and accessible to people around the world.</p>
<p>The new hepatitis C drugs provide a chance to cure the liver-destroying virus, but are too expensive for many sufferers. Recent comments from the agency aim to push drugmakers, including Gilead Sciences, which is already upsetting customers in the U.S. with pills that cost $1,000 per day, to work on ways to improve access to the life-saving drug.</p>
<p>In newly released treatment guidelines for the disease, the first of their kind, which were produced at a meeting in London with liver experts, the WHO recommended the drugs from companies including Gilead Sciences and Johnson &amp; Johnson, with an emphasis on the cost.</p>
<p>There are roughly 150 million people throughout the world with chronic hepatitis C infections, making the push for more affordable medication a big part of the battle.</p>
<p>Modern drugs are greatly enhancing the fight against hepatitis C, as pills including Gilead’s Sovaldi are more effective and can be tolerated better than older injection regimens. Cure rates are generally above 90 percent in several cases.</p>
<p>Professor of medicine in Vienna, and secretary-general of the European Association for the Study of Liver, Markus Peck-Radosavljevic, explained to Reuters that, “These drugs are fantastic – they are a real breakthrough.” However, he adds, “…the prices are too high.”</p>
<p>Pharmaceutical companies justify the high cost of the medications by noting that they must charge higher prices on new and successful drugs to aid with the big cost of development, including drugs that never make it to the market.</p>
<p>Hepatitis C is frequently spread through the blood by contaminated needles, causing liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. Many of the cases are in poorer countries where the complexity of the disease, along with cost and side effects related to current treatments make treatment impractical.</p>
<p /> | WHO pushes for lower prices on successful hepatitis C drugs | false | http://natmonitor.com/2014/04/09/who-pushes-for-lower-prices-on-successful-hepatitis-c-drugs/ | 2014-04-09 | 3 |
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<p>Image Source: Getty.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The past two years haven't been kind to InvenSense (NYSE: INVN), which makes motion sensors for smartphones, tablets, wearables, and other devices. Back in Aug. 2014, the stock peaked at $25 on surging sales and expectations that its sensors would be installed in the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) Watch.</p>
<p>But Apple eventually chose STMicroelectronics' (NYSE: STM) motion sensors for the Apple Watch, and slumping smartphone and tablet sales caused InvenSense's growth to hit a brick wall. As a result, the stock plunged to about $8 per share over the past two years. But after that steep drop, which brings the stock near its IPO price of $7.50 per share, can the fallen supplier be considered a contrarian buy? Let's examine InvenSense's growth, valuations, cash flow, and competition to decide.</p>
<p>Image source: InvenSense.</p>
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<p>InvenSense's revenue rose 12% to$418.4 million last year, compared to 47% growth in fiscal 2015. Last year, 40% ofInvenSense's revenue came from Apple, while 16% came from Samsung. This means that Apple's ongoing decline of iPhone and iPad shipments are taking a huge bite out of InvenSense's top line.</p>
<p>InvenSense's revenue fell 43% annually last quarter, compared to a 20% decline in the previous quarter and 59% growth in the prior-year quarter. Sales of new smartphones, like the iPhone 7, are expected to boost its sales in the second half of the year, but not by much. Analysts still expect InvenSense's full-year revenue to fall 24% thisyear.</p>
<p>InvenSense's non-GAAP earnings rose 6.5% to $0.49 per share in 2015, but that figure is expected to plummet 76% this year. Increased competition from STMicro, which is much bigger and has its own foundry, could force InvenSense to slash prices to stay competitive.</p>
<p>To make matters worse, InvenSense's massive decline still hasn't made the stock cheap. It trades at 27 times forward earnings, which is much higher than STMicro's forward price-to-earnings ratio of 18. Moreover, STMicro is actually expected to grow its earnings by 11% this year, while InvenSense is headed toward a full-year decline.</p>
<p>InvenSense currently trades with a five-year price-to-earnings-growth (PEG) ratio of 3.3, while STMicro has a PEG ratio of 0.7. Since a PEG ratio under 1 is considered "undervalued," InvenSense looks pricey relative to its earnings growth potential, while STMicro looks cheap. InvenSense also trades with a price-to-sales ratio of 2, which is double STMicro's P/S ratio of 1.</p>
<p>InvenSense is burning through a lot of cash. Its cash and equivalents fell 44% sequentially to $23 million last quarter. STMicro's cash pile, by comparison, stayed nearly flat sequentially at $1.68 billion last quarter. Therefore, it isn't surprising that STMicro has generated much stronger cash flows than InvenSense over the past five years. That's why STMicro pays a forward annual yield of 3.1%, while InvenSense has never paid a dividend.</p>
<p>Data source: <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>The biggest threat to InvenSense is STMicro. The chipmaker already pulled the Apple Watch away from InvenSense, and might do the same in iPhones and iPads in the future if it offers comparable sensors at lower prices. As fierce competition puts further pressure on smartphone margins, plenty of other OEMs could do the same.</p>
<p>InvenSense's main response to these threats is to diversify into new markets like virtual and augmented reality headsets, drones, cars, Internet of Things devices, and industrial machines. Unfortunately, STMicro is alsoexpanding into many of the same markets. FurthermoreBosch is becoming a major player in VR headsets. The company's six- and nine-axis sensors are already used inFacebook'sOculus Rift andRazer's HDK 2 VR headsets. InvenSense's six-axis sensor canbe found inside HTC's Vive, which is pricier than both headsets.</p>
<p>InvenSense's plunging sales and earnings, weak cash flow, unattractive valuations, lack of competitive advantages, and its dependence on Apple make the stock too risky for investors. Investors who are looking for a stable play on gyroscopes and accelerometers should simply stick with STMicro instead.</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2668&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSunLion/info.aspx" type="external">Leo Sun Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple, Facebook, and InvenSense. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2018 $90 calls on Apple and short January 2018 $95 calls on Apple. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | How Risky Is InvenSense Inc. Stock? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/08/25/how-risky-is-invensense-inc-stock.html | 2016-08-25 | 0 |
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<p />
<p>Three Americans won the Nobel prize in economics Monday for their sometimes-contradictory insights into the complexities of investing.</p>
<p>FAMA: His research revealed efficiency of markets</p>
<p>Eugene Fama and Lars Peter Hansen of the University of Chicago and Robert Shiller of Yale University were honored for shedding light on the forces that move stock, bond and home prices – findings that have transformed how people invest.</p>
<p>Fama’s research revealed the efficiency of financial markets: They absorb information so fast that individual investors can’t outperform the markets as a whole. His work helped popularize index funds, which reflect an entire market of assets, such as the Standard &amp; Poor’s 500 stock index.</p>
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<p>“Fama’s work was incredibly fundamental in the ’60s and ’70s,” said David</p>
<p>HANSEN: He created ways to test competing theories</p>
<p>Warsh, who follows economists at his Economic Principals blog. “It led to enormous practical change in terms of people not buying particular stocks but buying index funds.”</p>
<p>Shiller’s research examined asset prices from a contrasting angle. He showed that in the long run, stock and bond markets can behave irrationally, reaching prices that are out of whack with economic fundamentals.</p>
<p>Shiller, 67, predicted the dot-com crash of the early 2000s and the implosion of home prices in 2007. He has also been a pioneer in the field of behavioral economics, or how human emotions, biases and preferences can collectively influence financial markets.</p>
<p>SHILLER: He believes markets can behave irrationally</p>
<p>Using mathematical tools like the well-known Case-Shiller index of home prices, Shiller has expanded the available information on asset prices.</p>
<p>Meb Faber, chief investment officer at Cambria Investment Management, said his firm uses a model developed by Shiller to seek stock bargains around the world.</p>
<p>Hansen has focused on statistical models, creating ways to test competing theories of why asset prices move as they do.</p>
<p>Fama and Shiller “provide the ends of the spectrum” between those who believe financial markets are efficient and those who think them deeply flawed, with Hansen “in the middle doing the math,” said Allen Sanderson, a University of Chicago lecturer in economics.</p>
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<p>The three economists share the $1.2 million prize, the last of this year’s Nobels to be announced.</p>
<p>“Their methods have shaped subsequent research in the field, and their findings have been highly influential both academically and practically,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in Stockholm.</p>
<p>Fama, 74, and Hansen, 60, became the 11th and 12th professors from the University of Chicago to win a Nobel in economics, the most for any university. Harvard is second, with six laureates.</p>
<p>Hansen said he received the phone call from Sweden while on his way to the gym Monday morning. He said he was “still working on taking a deep breath.”</p>
<p>Fama was preparing to teach his first class as a Nobel laureate Monday. Asked whether his students would get a break, he said: “We’ll see, but they’re going to get an exam tomorrow, anyway. They paid their money; they’re going to get the full pill.”</p>
<p>The Nobel prizes in medicine, chemistry, physics, literature and peace were created by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel in 1895. Sweden’s central bank added the economics prize in 1968 as a memorial to Nobel.</p>
<p>Americans have dominated the Nobel in economics in recent years. The last time there was no American among the winners was 1999.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Three American professors win Nobel prize in economics | false | https://abqjournal.com/281922/three-american-professors-win-nobel-prize-in-economics.html | 2013-10-15 | 2 |
<p>Hillary Clinton’s icy demeanor with Secret Service agents and police officers is well documented.</p>
<p>But with members of the military protecting her overseas?</p>
<p>Former military K9 handler Eric Bonner says an encounter with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton led him to never support her for president.</p>
<p>“It has nothing to do with her views,” Bonner posted on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kilonine/posts/10206808654082950" type="external">Facebook</a>. “It really doesn’t even matter about all the laws she broke.</p>
<p>“It’s because She actually talked to me once. Almost a sentence,” he wrote.</p>
<p />
<p>“Being a K9 handler in the Military I got to do a few details involving Distinguished Visitors. Mostly Generals, DOD Officials, and Secretaries of Defense,” Bonner explained.</p>
<p>Bonner described the encounter with Clinton:</p>
<p>One of my Last details was for Hillary when she was Secretary of State. She was in Turkey for whatever reason. I helped with sweeps of her DV Quarters and staff vehicles.</p>
<p>Her words to me? “Get that Fucking dog away from me.”</p>
<p>Then she turns to her Security Detail and berates them up and down about why that animal was in her quarters. For the next 20 minutes while I sit there waiting to be released she lays into her detail, slamming the door in their faces when she’s done. The Detail lead walks over apologizes and releases me.</p>
<p>I apologize to him for getting him in trouble. His words “Happens every day, Brother”</p>
<p>Not all presidents were so nasty, according to Bonner.</p>
<p>“(George W. Bush) looked at me, said ‘Man, who’d you piss off’ high fived me, and continued on. I was climbing down from a catwalk I stood on for 4 hours with nothing but Dust and a radio to keep me company. The radio died early on. It was pretty sweet.</p>
<p>“Obama, as he was walking out to his plane in Turkey, said ‘What the hell kind of dog is that?!’ In reference to Suli.</p>
<p>“Hillary doesn’t care about anyone but Hillary,” Bonner concluded.</p>
<p>Weasel Zippers reports after Bonner’s Facebook post garnered so much attention, his account was suspended.</p>
<p>Bonner <a href="http://www.weaselzippers.us/287312-former-military-k-9-handler-explains-why-he-will-not-be-voting-for-hillary-gets-facebook-suspended/" type="external">posted</a>:</p>
<p>Facebook suspended my account until my name could be Verified. The timing of it was interesting. They wanted me to provide government ID. Which ultimately I did not end up providing. End Result? As you can see my profile is back up and running. However, I feel like this won’t be the end of this type of “Contact.”</p>
<p>His account appears to be active again.</p> | Former military K9 handler criticizes Hillary on Facebook — gets suspended | true | http://theamericanmirror.com/k9-handler-says-nasty-encounter-hillary-led-never-vote/ | 2016-08-02 | 0 |
<p>U.S. single-family housing starts continued to edge higher in August, in what could be the last snapshot of the market's health before the cleanup from major hurricanes begins to skew construction activity.</p>
<p>Overall housing starts slipped 0.8% in August from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.18 million, driven by continued steep declines in multifamily building, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Single-family starts, however, rose 1.6% in August, even as starts for buildings with two or more units and fell 6.5%.</p>
<p>The report offers a mixed picture of a market in which single-family construction is gradually improving while multifamily construction is declining significantly due to an oversupply of apartments in many urban markets.</p>
<p>Starts were up 2.7% in the first eight months of 2017 compared with the same period a year earlier. Permits rose 7.5% from the first eight months of 2016. The three-month moving average for single-family home starts was the highest since the recession.</p>
<p>U.S. median household income, adjusted for inflation, rose to a new record in 2016, surpassing the previous peak in 1999, the Census Bureau reported last week, as Americans enjoy a period of sustained income growth and economic prosperity.</p>
<p>Despite those gains, new construction remains weak due to a shortage of labor, lack of available land and other factors.</p>
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<p>"Almost every other item of investment, everything is up and recovered, but housing construction has not recovered," said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank. "It's the missing piece of the puzzle."</p>
<p>Monthly data on housing starts tend to be volatile and imprecise; August's 0.8% loss came with a margin of error of 9.6 percentage points. The 5.7% rise for permits had a 2-point margin of error.</p>
<p>Residential building permits, which provide a less volatile read on the market, rebounded in August. Permits, which typically lead starts by a month or two, rose 5.7% to a 1.3 million annual rate last month.</p>
<p>Permits fell 1.5% for single-family houses but jumped 19.6% last month for apartment buildings and other multifamily buildings. Both starts and permits fell in July, but revisions in Tuesday's report showed the declines weren't as steep as earlier estimated.</p>
<p>Limited supply and fast-rising prices have squeezed many would-be home buyers this year, despite mortgage rates that moved lower during the spring and summer. In July, purchases of previously owned homes and newly built single-family homes both fell from the previous month.</p>
<p>August is likely to provide the last indication of the health of the housing market before storms in Florida and Texas weigh on the data. The Commerce Department on Tuesday said hurricane-affected counties in Florida and Texas accounted for about 13% of total U.S. building permits last year.</p>
<p>"This is a good time to do a status check on the market and generally speaking single-family construction continues its gradual improvement," said Robert Dietz, chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders.</p>
<p>Hurricane Harvey hit the Gulf Coast in late August, followed by Hurricane Irma striking Florida earlier this month. The storms have started to scramble U.S. economic indicators, pushing up jobless claims in recent weeks and depressing industrial production during August, and home-construction data could be clouded for several months.</p>
<p>Granger MacDonald, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders, on Monday said builder confidence dimmed this month as "recent hurricanes have intensified our members' concerns about the availability of labor and the cost of building materials."</p>
<p>Economic forecasters expect the storms will cause weaker growth in the short run, but activity should pick up in subsequent quarters as rebuilding efforts gain traction.</p>
<p>Write to Laura Kusisto at [email protected] and Ben Leubsdorf at [email protected]</p>
<p>WASHINGTON -- U.S. single-family housing starts continued to edge higher in August, in what could be the last snapshot of the market's health before the cleanup from major hurricanes begins to skew construction activity.</p>
<p>Overall housing starts slipped 0.8% in August from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.18 million, driven by continued steep declines in multifamily building, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.</p>
<p>Single-family starts, however, rose 1.6% in August, even as starts for buildings with two or more units and fell 6.5%.</p>
<p>The report offers a mixed picture of a market in which single-family construction is gradually improving while multifamily construction is declining significantly due to an oversupply of apartments in many urban markets.</p>
<p>Starts were up 2.7% in the first eight months of 2017 compared with the same period a year earlier. Permits rose 7.5% from the first eight months of 2016. The three-month moving average for single-family home starts was the highest since the recession.</p>
<p>U.S. median household income, adjusted for inflation, rose to a new record in 2016, surpassing the previous peak in 1999, the Census Bureau reported last week, as Americans enjoy a period of sustained income growth and economic prosperity.</p>
<p>Despite those gains, new construction remains weak due to a shortage of labor, lack of available land and other factors.</p>
<p>"Almost every other item of investment, everything is up and recovered, but housing construction has not recovered," said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank. "It's the missing piece of the puzzle."</p>
<p>Monthly data on housing starts tend to be volatile and imprecise; August's 0.8% loss came with a margin of error of 9.6 percentage points. The 5.7% rise for permits had a 2-point margin of error.</p>
<p>Residential building permits, which provide a less volatile read on the market, rebounded in August. Permits, which typically lead starts by a month or two, rose 5.7% to a 1.3 million annual rate last month.</p>
<p>Permits fell 1.5% for single-family houses but jumped 19.6% last month for apartment buildings and other multifamily buildings. Both starts and permits fell in July, but revisions in Tuesday's report showed the declines weren't as steep as earlier estimated.</p>
<p>Limited supply and fast-rising prices have squeezed many would-be home buyers this year, despite mortgage rates that moved lower during the spring and summer. In July, purchases of previously owned homes and newly built single-family homes both fell from the previous month.</p>
<p>August is likely to provide the last indication of the health of the housing market before storms in Florida and Texas weigh on the data. The Commerce Department on Tuesday said hurricane-affected counties in Florida and Texas accounted for about 13% of total U.S. building permits last year.</p>
<p>"This is a good time to do a status check on the market and generally speaking single-family construction continues its gradual improvement," said Robert Dietz, chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders.</p>
<p>Hurricane Harvey hit the Gulf Coast in late August, followed by Hurricane Irma striking Florida earlier this month. The storms have started to scramble U.S. economic indicators, pushing up jobless claims in recent weeks and depressing industrial production during August, and home-construction data could be clouded for several months.</p>
<p>Granger MacDonald, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders, on Monday said builder confidence dimmed this month as "recent hurricanes have intensified our members' concerns about the availability of labor and the cost of building materials."</p>
<p>New-home construction has ground to a crawl in the weeks after the storm in affected areas of Texas and Florida, but should begin to pick back up as the rebuilding commences.</p>
<p>In Texas, repairing damaged homes is likely to strain an already tight labor market, dampening construction activity. But rebuilding new homes could eventually boost home starts. Houston builders were on track to build about 30,000 homes this year -- about as many as were destroyed in the storm.</p>
<p>"There's a pause and a reset going on in Houston, but I think in a few months we'll see things return to normal," said Scott Norman, executive director of the Texas Association of Builders.</p>
<p>Economic forecasters expect the storms will cause weaker growth in the short run, but activity should pick up in subsequent quarters as rebuilding efforts gain traction.</p>
<p>Write to Laura Kusisto at [email protected] and Ben Leubsdorf at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>September 19, 2017 12:24 ET (16:24 GMT)</p> | U.S. Housing Starts Fell, Permits Rose in August -- 2nd Update | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/09/19/u-s-housing-starts-fell-permits-rose-in-august-2nd-update.html | 2017-09-19 | 0 |
<p>LONDON (Reuters) – A top investor in the London Stock Exchange (L:) demanded</p>
<p>that its outgoing chief executive, Xavier Rolet, be allowed to speak publicly about the reasons for his departure.</p>
<p>In a letter to Chairman Donald Brydon dated Nov. 7, Chris Hohn, founder of The Children’s Investment Fund, reiterated his belief that Rolet was being forced out against his wishes, and repeated his threat to call a meeting to vote on removing Brydon if the company failed to act.</p>
<p>Hohn called on Brydon to waive a confidentiality agreement TCI said had been signed by Rolet covering the reasons behind his departure.</p>
<p>The LSE declined to comment.</p>
<p>TCI – the fourth-biggest investor in LSE with a more than 5 percent stake, Thomson Reuters data shows – first raised its concerns in a letter to the board last Friday, which prompted the LSE to say it had followed good governance.</p>
<p>“Confidentiality agreements which prohibit proper explanations to shareholders are bad corporate governance. Hence we refute your assertion that you followed proper governance procedures on succession planning,” Hohn wrote.</p>
<p>“We ask you to waive immediately all confidentiality agreements on Xavier Rolet so that shareholders can now hear the truth and make informed judgements on the expected EGM [Extraordinary General Meeting] regarding your continued chairmanship and the retention of Xavier Rolet as CEO,” it said.</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> | Investor demands LSE let CEO Rolet speak about reasons for his departure | false | https://newsline.com/investor-demands-lse-let-ceo-rolet-speak-about-reasons-for-his-departure/ | 2017-11-08 | 1 |
<p>For more than a year, Washington held its tongue as the Rohingya humanitarian crisis raged on. Western corporate media condemned Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace laureate cum the West’s poster girl, for not speaking out against the atrocities committed by the Myanmar military.</p>
<p>Just as Myanmar and Bangladesh accepted China’s mediation based on a three-point peace plan for the Rakhine state, US Foreign Secretary Tillerson condemned the Myanmar government, saying the atrocities against the Rohingyas amounted to ethnic cleansing. The timing is no mere coincidence.</p>
<p>China’s mediation can restore peace to the warring Rakhine state, facilitate an orderly return of Rohingyas to Rakhine and promote development along the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor, one of the six in Belt and Road Initiative.</p>
<p>That’s bad news for the empire which regards BRI as China’s geostrategy to bring prosperity to the region. When that succeeds, which is more than likely,&#160; it’ll&#160; demonstrate to the world at large that China’s win-win formula to secure peace and development is far superior to the American way of perpetual war and destruction. BRI is anathema to the Wolfowitz Doctrine, which seeks to prevent the emergence of a strong rival that will threaten American hegemony.</p>
<p>As in the Korean peninsula, the Middle East and other powderkeg regions, the empire isn’t interested in peace which would deprive the American arms industry of obscene profits and a pretext for the empire’s military presence and intervention in foreign land. Unclassified CIA documents show that the US supported Myanmar’s military junta in the past in its relentless and continuing wars against the minorities since1948. Washington’s&#160; concern was that “a Burma divided by ethnic interests would be more apt to fall under China’s influence”.</p>
<p>Tillerson’s Johnnie-come-lately denunciation of the Myanmar military will backfire on the empire. Moreover, as an analyst has pointed out, America’s belated condemnation of Myanmar is frustrating India’s attempt to bring Myanmar into its sphere of influence:</p>
<p>“In officially putting itself on the opposite side vis-a-vis India, the US has shown that the policy being sold to New Delhi, that Washington will India’s side in every major issue from China and Pakistan, to One Belt–One Road and the war in Afghanistan, is at best, incomplete and being approached in a totally one sided manner.”</p>
<p>“The US clearly sees India not as a co-equal but as a geopolitical useful idiot…When it comes to pouncing on a Chinese peace initiative, the US is willing to trample on the interests of its Indian “ally”, without apparently thinking twice.”</p>
<p>Like America, India is taking a one-sided position, albeit on the opposing side, in the Rohingya crisis. In so doing, India has no regard for the interest of&#160; Bangladesh, often touted as a strong ally of New Delhi. This should serve as a wake-up call to the largely pro-India politicians in Dhaka, that India is a hegemon in South Asia and doesn’t regard Bangladesh as an equal.</p> | Myanmar Conflict: Geopolitical Food Chain | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/11/24/myanmar-conflict-geopolitical-food-chain/ | 2017-11-24 | 4 |
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