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Is the massacre in Orlando the worst mass shooting in United States history? News organizations and government officials have said so since Sunday, when a gunman killed 49 people and wounded 53 others at a gay nightclub there. The question has reverberated online and in news broadcasts, with some protesting that characterizing Orlando as the worst ignores an ugly history of attacks that claimed more lives, most often involving white aggressors and black or Indian victims. Experts who study violence caution that terms like “mass shooting,” “mass killing” or even “active shooter” can be murky, and that different people use them differently. But by the definitions generally used in their field, they say, the carnage in Orlando does make it the worst mass shooting. There have been worse acts of violence that did not involve guns, of course, like the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. And in the more distant past, there were outbursts that were deadlier than the Orlando shooting, whether in the category of terrorism, race riot, pogrom, ethnic cleansing, genocide or military action. In Colfax, La. in 1873 in East St. Louis, Ill. in 1917 and in Tulsa, Okla. in 1921 mobs of white people attacked and killed large numbers of black people. In 1857, a Mormon militia attacked settlers in a wagon train at Mountain Meadows in the Territory of Utah. In 1890, a cavalry regiment gunned down Lakota men, women and children on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. In each case, there is disagreement over how many people died, and no certainty about how many were shot, but by most estimates, the death toll was higher than in the Orlando attack. As a result, some have objected to calling the Orlando mass shooting the worst. The National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, for example, issued a joint statement asking reporters to stop using the superlative, “which negates several other incidents in U. S. history, many involving minority victims. ” “You can probably point to some incidents where more people were shot than in Orlando,” said J. Pete Blair, the executive director of the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center at Texas State University, and an author of an F. B. I. study of attacks. “But for our purposes, they’re in a different category. We would consider this to be the worst mass shooting in the United States. ” Disputes over how to define mass shootings are serious enough that experts disagree about whether they are on the rise. Some researchers exclude domestic attacks, but not others. Some say that only the acts of lone gunmen can qualify others say that a small group of people can carry out a mass shooting if they prepare and act together. “That’s quite different from having a militia or a mob,” said James Alan Fox, a criminology professor at Northeastern University and the author of multiple books on killers. “Mob violence, in particular, is often spontaneous, reactive, and all the people who are shooting aren’t coordinating their actions. ” Dr. Fox said that to him, hallmarks of mass killings included planning and “the specific intent to cause a blood bath. ” Deborah Azrael, an author of a Harvard School of Public Health study of mass shootings, said that making such distinctions was often a judgment call, but necessary. “If you want to get at why these things happen, you want to compare apples to apples as much as you possibly can, so you try to disaggregate, to distinguish between different kinds of incidents,” said Dr. Azrael, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. But detailed, definitions do not roll off the tongue as readily as “mass shooting. ” By the definitions used by people in his field, Dr. Fox said, the mass shooting in Orlando was the worst in United States history, but he added, “I don’t think there’s any value in saying so. ” “Whether it’s a record or not really shouldn’t matter it doesn’t make it any more tragic,” he said. “And if we talk constantly about records, someone out there is going to want to break the record. ” | 1 |
Share on Facebook Medicinal marijuana is fast becoming more accepted as a a legitimate treatment thanks to scientific studies and patient's testaments. A recent change in legislation has created fears that Monsanto are about to try and cash in on this new treatment. Despite the fact that the U.S. Government are unwilling to change national laws, five states are about to vote to change their marijuana laws in November, and it looks likely that they will vote to join the states that have already legalized it. With more states choosing to legalese, there is a real fear that big pharmaceutical companies that are notorious for being profit-driven at the expense of health will wade into this new market. In 2015, it came to light that Monsanto, the agrochemical corporation wanted to get involved in the marijuana business. The news was met with a great deal of contempt from medicinal marijuana enthusiasts, and was followed by a statement from Monsanto that they had no interest in expanding into this field. In April, Spokeswoman, Charla Lord told the Willamette Week “Monsanto has not, is not and has no plans for working on cultivating cannabis.” But activists kept a close watch on Monsanto's movements and sure enough their suspicions were correct when it was revealed that they had made the first ever genetically modified strain of marijuana, and was also looking to patent the product. In an effort to stop Monsanto having the monopoly on this,a pioneering biotechnology startup based in Portland have launched an online interactive guide that maps the genetic evolution of the marijuana genome, thus making it public property and harder for Monsanto to lay a claim to it. The startup is called Phylos Bioscience, and it has been collecting samples of marijuana strains for over two years in order to sequence the plant's DNA. The are developing a software that presented a 3-D visualization of the data, and it is about to be revealed. Named 'Galaxy' the interactive guide allows you to take a tour round a three-dimensional projection of the genetic information they have drawn from the plant. Phylos Bioscience hope that by making this information public, they can keep the information in the hands of the underground societies where it began, and out of the hands of the commercial companies. Sales and Marketing Manager of Phylos Bioscience, Carolyn White has said “Sample collection was a huge part of this process. One side was a collaboration with growers, dispensaries and labs to collect modern samples, and the other a process of hunting down ancient landrace strains from all over the world.” “We've collected samples from all over the world, and cataloged the genetic information encoded in their DNA,” Dr Holmes, Phylos's chief science officer and molecular and evolutionary biologist and Phylos Bioscience co-founder told The New York Times. Because of this data collected by Phylos Bioscience, it could mean better protection of intellectual property rights of marijuana growers and keep it away from the likes of Monsanto. Related: | 0 |
President Donald Trump discussed several issues with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meetings at this week. [Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters that Trump was able to build on his important relationship with the president of China but was “frank” and “candid” about their differences. “I think all of us are feeling very good about the results of this summit in terms of what it did for setting a very constructive tone going forward,” he said. Chinese State media noted that “Xi’s trip at was marked by cordiality, with both presidents seen smile [sic] to each other. ” Some issues discussed during the visit are important to the United States: Trade and Currency, Trump told the Chinese that they needed to “level the playing field for American workers,” according to a statement from the White House. He expressed concerns about the Chinese government’s intervention in U. S. economy was hurting jobs for the American worker. Both Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross spoke positively of a “ plan” that they discussed with their Chinese counterparts to make important changes immediately. “The most interesting thing to me was they expressed an interest in reducing their net trade balance because of the impact it’s having on money supply and inflation,” Ross said about the Chinese. “That’s the first time I’ve heard them say that in a bilateral context. ” According to Xinhua, the Chinese state media, President Xi urged both countries to “grasp the opportunity” of economic development between the two countries and signaled interest in future investments. “China welcomes the U. S. side to participate in cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative,” said Xi. North Korea, Trump and the Chinese agreed that North Korea’s nuclear weapons program presented a challenge to the region and said that they would take steps to pressure the rogue state with the “international community. ” No agreement was reached, but the United States reasserted that it is willing to act alone. “[W]e understand it creates unique problems for them and challenges and that we would, and are, prepared to chart our own course if this is something China is just unable to coordinate with us,” Tillerson said. South China Sea, Officials from the United States discussed the ongoing military buildup in the East and South China Seas, but the result was merely a “candid” conversation. “President Trump noted the importance of adhering to international rules and norms in the East and South China Seas and to previous statements on ” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said in a statement. Human Rights, Tillerson remarked that America’s commitment to human rights was “quite clear” throughout all their discussions, but it appears that specific offenses were not discussed. “I don’t think you have to have a separate conversation, somehow separate our core values around human rights from our economic discussions, our discussions, or our foreign policy discussions,” he said. “They’re really embedded in every discussion, that that is really what guides much of our view around how we’re going to work together. ” Spicer said in a statement that Trump “noted the importance of protecting human rights and other values deeply held by Americans” during the visit. The Chinese state media reported that Xi called on both sides to cooperate on issues such as “drug trafficking, child trafficking, money laundering, cyber crime and organized crime. ” Trump to Visit China, Trump accepted an invitation from President Xi to visit China for a state visit at some point. | 0 |
PARIS — In France this year, the annual Strasbourg Christmas market opened under heavy security. Instead of the usual gleam of holiday decorations in the central square, dominated by a pine tree, the authorities left it mostly bare — in case they needed to set up a field hospital. Before anyone can reach the market, they must pass through one of the 15 checkpoints fortifying the center of the city. Vehicles are not allowed on the streets near the market, and the closest tram stops have been temporarily shut down. At a time when terrorist attacks have become all too familiar, public spaces are no longer presumed to be safe, and that includes the ubiquitous Christmas markets that flourish across much of the Continent this time of year. So when a truck careered into one of those markets in Berlin, 470 miles from Strasbourg, on Monday night, it was not clear whether terrorism was the motivation, but it was many people’s first thought. If they turn out to be right, it would hardly be unexpected. At least twice this year, Islamic extremists in Europe have used a vehicle to kill people. There have been at least nine attacks or attempted attacks in Germany in 2016 as well as in at least five other European countries: France, Italy, Belgium, Russia and Serbia. And these attacks have taken every possible form, from bombings to beheadings. Those who carry them out are young and old. Heightening the pervasive sense of dread, terrorism in Europe seems to have no one face, no one method, no one target and knows no national borders. Most of all in France, which has suffered the most attacks of any European country, they have become part of life. The deadliest attack in Europe this year was carried out by a lone driver in Nice on July 14. He used a cargo truck to career into crowds leaving the annual fireworks festivities, and killed 90 people. There have been at least nine other attacks or attempted attacks in the country. In a comment made after the Nice killings, Prime Minister Manuel Valls of France said: “Times have changed, and we should learn to live with terrorism. We have to show solidarity and collective calm. ” A state of emergency has been in effect in France since the November 2015 attacks in and near Paris, which killed 130 people. But the mood began to change about 10 months before that, when two gunmen entered the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in January 2015 and killed 12 people. Bags are searched when customers enter supermarkets, before theatergoers can go into performance halls, at the entrances to sporting events and department stores. Christmastime has loomed as a daunting challenge for law enforcement. It is the most celebrated single holiday across a continent where a majority of people are Catholic or Protestant. The markets are a beloved feature of cities, towns and even villages, which dress up their historic centers to celebrate the season. They are also a tourist draw with many people coming to glimpse a bit of the Old World that can appear quaint but at the same time is still very vibrant. The Christmas market tradition is especially beloved in the world, where it originated in the Middle Ages. Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as places like Strasbourg, a French city that used to be German, have elaborate celebrations. These markets, which often dominate ancient, picturesque streets, coincide with the period of Advent, the four Sundays before Christmas, and have become a monthlong excuse for socializing, shopping and drinking hot spiced wine punch, and informal outdoor concerts. Families frequent the Christmas markets. So do people working downtown who dart out at lunch to get a little present at one place and a at another, and drink a cup of something. But markets are dauntingly hard to protect — a determined killer can almost always find a way to enter and wreak mayhem. Hence, the heavy security in Strasbourg. Similar precautions are being taken in Metz, another town in that hosts a famous Christmas market. Worried after the deaths in Berlin on Monday that perhaps these precautions were not enough, Bruno Le Roux, the French interior minister, urged all law enforcement officials to redouble the efforts to be vigilant and announced that he was reinforcing the security at Christmas markets throughout France. | 1 |
at 10:41 am 2 Comments
On Monday, The Daily Beast published a hugely important story about AT&T’s in house, for profit surveillance operation called Project Hemisphere. The program has nothing to do with information sharing legally required under a warrant, but rather consists of a business line through which the telecom giant stores customer data longer than peers in order to turn around and sell it to government agencies (no warrant required). This allows law enforcement to use secret and never disclosed evidence to build a cases against citizens via a shady and unaccountable practice known as parallel construction.
The article is titled, AT&T Is Spying on Americans for Profit, New Documents Reveal , and is a must read.
Here are some key excerpts:
In 2013, Hemisphere was revealed by The New York Times and described only within a Powerpoint presentation made by the Drug Enforcement Administration . The Times described it as a “partnership” between AT&T and the U.S. government; the Justice Department said it was an essential, and prudently deployed, counter-narcotics tool.
However, AT&T’s own documentation—reported here by The Daily Beast for the first time—shows Hemisphere was used far beyond the war on drugs to include everything from investigations of homicide to Medicaid fraud.
Hemisphere isn’t a “partnership” but rather a product AT&T developed, marketed, and sold at a cost of millions of dollars per year to taxpayers. No warrant is required to make use of the company’s massive trove of data, according to AT&T documents, only a promise from law enforcement to not disclose Hemisphere if an investigation using it becomes public.
These new revelations come as the company seeks to acquire Time Warner in the face of vocal opposition saying the deal would be bad for consumers . Donald Trump told supporters over the weekend he would kill the acquisition if he’s elected president; Hillary Clinton has urged regulators to scrutinize the deal.
The fact that this deal is even being considered shows what a giant joke this county has become.
As I noted on Twitter earlier this week: Why don’t we just merge the entire S&P 500 into one company called Oligarchy Inc. and get it over with.
— Michael Krieger (@LibertyBlitz) October 24, 2016
While telecommunications companies are legally obligated to hand over records, AT&T appears to have gone much further to make the enterprise profitable, according to ACLU technology policy analyst Christopher Soghoian.
AT&T has a unique power to extract information from its metadata because it retains so much of it. The company owns more than three-quarters of U.S. landline switches, and the second largest share of the nation’s wireless infrastructure and cellphone towers, behind Verizon. AT&T retains its cell tower data going back to July 2008, longer than other providers. Verizon holds records for a year and Sprint for 18 months, according to a 2011 retention schedule obtained by The Daily Beast.
The disclosure of Hemisphere was not the first time AT&T has been caught working with law enforcement above and beyond what the law requires.
A statement of work from 2014 shows how hush-hush AT&T wants to keep Hemisphere.
“The Government agency agrees not to use the data as evidence in any judicial or administrative proceedings unless there is no other available and admissible probative evidence,” it says.
But those charged with a crime are entitled to know the evidence against them come trial. Adam Schwartz, staff attorney for activist group Electronic Frontier Foundation, said that means AT&T leaves investigators no choice but to construct a false investigative narrative to hide how they use Hemisphere if they plan to prosecute anyone.
Once AT&T provides a lead through Hemisphere, then investigators use routine police work, like getting a court order for a wiretap or following a suspect around, to provide the same evidence for the purpose of prosecution. This is known as “parallel construction.”
Parallel construction is a pernicious side effect of all this spying. It’s a very important topic I covered last year in the post, How the DEA Uses “Parallel Construction” to Hide Unconstitutional Investigations .
“This document here is striking,” Schwartz told The Daily Beast. “I’ve seen documents produced by the government regarding Hemisphere, but this is the first time I’ve seen an AT&T document which requires parallel construction in a service to government. It’s very troubling and not the way law enforcement should work in this country.”
The federal government reimburses municipalities for the expense of Hemisphere through the same grant program that is blamed for police militarization by paying for military gear like Bearcat vehicles.
There’s your government again. Tirelessly working against you from behind the scenes.
“At a minimum there is a very serious question whether they should be doing it without a warrant. A benefit to the parallel construction is they never have to face that crucible. Then the judge, the defendant, the general public, the media, and elected officials never know that AT&T and police across America funded by the White House are using the world’s largest metadata database to surveil people,” Schwartz said.
Sheriff and police departments pay from $100,000 to upward of $1 million a year or more for Hemisphere access. Harris County, Texas, home to Houston, made its inaugural payment to AT&T of $77,924 in 2007, according to a contract reviewed by The Daily Beast. Four years later, the county’s Hemisphere bill had increased more than tenfold to $940,000.
AT&T documents state law enforcement doesn’t need a search warrant to use Hemisphere, just an administrative subpoena, which does not require probable cause . The DEA was granted administrative subpoena power in 1970.
Just another reason to end the failed war on drugs and close down the DEA. Recall, unconstitutional surveillance was actually pioneered by the DEA a decade before the 9/11 attacks. See: How NSA Surveillance Was Birthed from the Drug War – The DEA Tracked Billions of Phone Calls Pre 9/11 .
AT&T stores details for every call, text message, Skype chat, or other communication that has passed through its infrastructure, retaining many records dating back to 1987, according to the Times 2013 Hemisphere report. The scope and length of the collection has accumulated trillions of records and is believed to be larger than any phone record database collected by the NSA under the Patriot Act, the Times reported.
This summer, I switched my cellphone service away from AT&T and was able to reduce my monthly bill by nearly 50%. You should consider doing the same.
In Liberty, | 1 |
Gene Wilder was born Jerome Silberman but changed his name. With blue eyes that big, and hair that untamed, who else could he be? Gene Wildest, I suppose. But you’ve seen this man do his thing. What made him a star was the modesty of his nuttiness. You had to get a rise out of him. He didn’t come risen. Take the court sentencing from “Stir Crazy,” the 1980 smash in which he and Richard Pryor are framed for robbery and given 125 years. When Mr. Wilder hears the verdict, he pops his eyes and tilts his body forward. When he finds out that he’ll be spending more than a century behind bars, he and Pryor freak out in completely different, but utterly harmonious ways. Mr. Wilder loses his breath while shrieking and stammering, “What?” He then smiles through an explanation that this is a mistake. Pryor, meanwhile, simply uses his face, then asks, in that Richard Pryor way, “Have you got the right case?” As Mr. Wilder hopefully repeats their characters’ names for the judge, he’s calmed down, but is obviously in shock. At some point, he exclaims, “No!” and leaves his mouth so agape that the geometry cracks you up. Mr. Wilder, who died on Monday at the age of 83, had a great face for comedy. That’s worth noting in 2016 when even the occasional faces of movie comedy tend to be more … usual: Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Gosling. There was no mistaking Mr. Wilder, even when it seemed like putting him in certain roles was a mistake. That’s why they put him there. Mopey gunslinger in “Blazing Saddles” or mad scientist in “Young Frankenstein” (both from 1974)? A 1977 parody of Rudolph Valentino’s erotics in “The World’s Greatest Lover” (which he wrote and directed)? All miscast, all the funnier for it. All the stranger. Mr. Wilder’s eyes were famous. They glimmered even when — in, say, “The Producers” (1968) “Blazing Saddles” or “The Woman in Red” (1984) — he looked sad, even in the black and white of “Young Frankenstein. ” (Although, acting next to Marty Feldman or Zero Mostel he didn’t seem to have eyes at all.) But when he spoofed Valentino, he telegraphed the gag by enhancing the diameter of his eyes so that he looked more lunatic than lusty. And his Willy Wonka spent that chocolate factory tour quietly on the verge of a nervous breakdown. For one thing, he never seemed to blink. Mr. Wilder also had amazing diction. It was as crisp as a potato chip, as precise as some professors and as neat as the curls in his hair were a mess. It all came together when his characters fell apart. His performance in “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (1971) was a master class of gradually shattering aplomb. Toward the end of the movie, when Wonka’s overtakes him and he erupts at Charlie and his grandpa, who’ve inquired about why Charlie doesn’t win a lifetime of candy after all, Mr. Wilder’s rage struck a very young me the way “The Rite of Spring” shocked those Parisian in 1913. What kind of monster does this to people? Some of that shock came from Mr. Wilder’s punching every word in Wonka’s tirade. “Wrong, sir! Wrong!” he shouts, and continues, “You stole Drinks! You bumped into the ceiling, which now has to be washed and sterilized, so you get . .. nothing! You lose! Good day, sir!” Then, just like that, he changes his mind. Mr. Hyde goes back to being Dr. Jekyll. And Charlie wins. Mr. Wilder made the character as unstable as he could make the protagonist of a supposed kiddie movie. But that was him in a nutshell: funny at both extremes. In “Young Frankenstein,” Mr. Wilder lies atop the monster his character has created, peeved that the creature beneath him has been aroused, not subdued as he requested. “Sedagive?” he barks, referring both to an earlier joke about a sedative and the current situation, and turning each syllable into a note of aggravated disbelief. Mr. Wilder doesn’t have many comedy descendants. He was too much of an original to copy. But there are traces of him whenever Johnny Depp wants to be funny — less as his version of Willy Wonka and more as Ed Wood. Mr. Wilder’s unreliable equilibrium suits Mr. Depp. And those four movies Pryor made with Mr. Wilder remain influential for how they literalized the upside of racial integration as conjoined symbiosis. In their movies, they wanted to be funny only together. Mr. Wilder made just under two dozen films in his eight decades. That’s a lot of neurosis. But his was something to celebrate. Not many other actors’ crackups could produce this much confetti. | 1 |
This is What Happens When a Currency Hits an All-Time Low Posted on Home » Headlines » Finance News » This is What Happens When a Currency Hits an All-Time Low
This opportunity doesn’t always exist… but it does for now, at least for US dollar investors:
From Simon Black, Sovereign Man :
I’ll start with an admission that I don’t do vacations very well. Or frequently.
Over the past ten years I’ve probably only taken a week or two off in total.
A big part of that is a deep character flaw of me being a workaholic… but that’s a natural extension of genuinely loving all the exciting business ventures and wonderful people that I’m involved with each day.
I do recognize, however, that taking a break is healthy, and I’m trying to get better at it.
The last few weeks in particular have been a blur.
My fellow executives at our agriculture business and I have been busy negotiating credit facilities with some of the largest financial institutions in the world, all while the company has been planting hundreds and hundreds of acres at a record pace.
My team at Sovereign Man and I have also just concluded months of discussions about a unique investment and citizenship deal in a foreign country with its prime minister.
And I just received approval for my second banking license after working on this for most of the past year.
So it was definitely time for a break… and for me that means South Africa.
South Africa is a wonderful country to visit, especially out here in the Western Cape.
This may be the only place in the world where in the span of a single afternoon you can see penguins, whales, and great white sharks on the coast, followed by baboons, elephants, lions, and rhinos just an hour inland.
It’s really special.
The weather is also fantastic. Like central Chile, the climate here in Cape Town is classified as “Mediterranean”, which means it never gets too hot or too cold.
The food is great, the people are extremely welcoming. And with the currency (South African Rand, or ZAR) being so cheap, this place is even more spectacular.
I’ve been to South Africa probably a dozen times or more, and I remember coming here years ago when the rand was very strong, around 6 to the dollar.
Back then South Africa was very expensive.
Now it’s the opposite. The US dollar is overvalued, and the rand is extremely cheap.
When I was here last year, I wrote to you when the rand had hit an all-time low against the US dollar, describing just how cheap South Africa had become.
My rental car was just $8 per day. Going out to eat for a multi-course meal at some of the most luxurious restaurants in town, with wine, was barely $15 per person.
In economics there’s a concept called the Law of One Price, which suggests in general that things should more or less cost the same around the world.
The Economist magazine routinely publishes its Big Mac Index , comparing the prices of Big Macs around the world , from London to Tokyo to Sydney, after converting local prices to US dollars.
A Big Mac in South Africa, for example, costs 30 rand, or about $2.14, compared to an average Big Mac price in the US of $5.04.
In theory, the two prices should be more or less the same. Whenever they’re far apart, it suggests that a currency may be undervalued or overvalued.
South Africa’s currency has been massively undervalued. And anytime that happens, there are usually two ways it corrects.
First, an undervalued currency will get stronger.
That’s already happened. Last year when I wrote to you, the rand was at 16 per dollar. Now it’s strengthened to 14.
(Fewer rand per dollar means the rand is getting stronger)
The second thing that happens is that inflation kicks in, and local prices rise.
So instead of a Big Mac costing 30 rand, the price may rise to 40 or 50 rand.
That’s why it makes so much sense to buy inexpensive, high quality assets in an undervalued currency whenever they’re available.
Look at South African stocks as an example.
When I was here last December, the JSE All Shares Index was at roughly 48,000. Today it’s 51,300, an increase of 6.875%.
But given that the rand strengthened from 16 to 14, in US dollar terms the JSE All Shares Index is up 22.1%.
(By comparison, the S&P 500 index in the US is up just 5.9% in the same period.)
This is what happens when undervalued assets and currencies correct.
When the currency gets stronger, you make money. And if there’s local inflation and prices rise, the value of your asset increases… and you make money.
This opportunity doesn’t always exist… but it does for now, at least for US dollar investors.
The US dollar is at a multi-year, multi-decade, and even all-time high against a number of other currencies.
From the UK to Europe to Colombia to here in South Africa, there are places all over the world where the currencies are cheap.
The trick is finding high quality assets in those places which are also relative bargains– inexpensive real estate, undervalued businesses, discounted collectibles, etc.
This takes a little bit of patience and legwork, but the risk-adjusted returns can be phenomenal.
I suppose that’s why I’m combing through real estate listings right now instead of shark diving with my friends… so much for vacation.
(Our Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose is a master of this ethos, and his 4th Pillar investment newsletter has scored some big wins recommending deeply undervalued companies in deeply undervalued currencies.)
It’s possible that the US dollar will continue to stay strong for quite some time, so this opportunity isn’t going away tomorrow.
But it definitely makes sense to think globally and look for opportunities to trade an overvalued currency for something that can make you a lot of money– deep-discount, high quality assets denominated in undervalued currencies. This entry was posted in Finance News and tagged Simon Black , Sovereign Man . Bookmark the permalink . Post navigation | 1 |
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36-year-old Chrissy Metz has finally gotten her breakout role as Kate Pearson, a woman who's struggling with her weight, on the new hit show “This Is Us.”
The show revolves around the lives of several couples whose lives intertwine in unexpected ways. Like her character, Metz has also struggled with her size ever since she was a little girl.
In an interview with People Magazine this week, Metz revealed that she has felt the exact same pains that 8-year-old Kate experienced in the flashbacks sequences shown on TV.
For Metz, even as a child her weight “was always something I was cognizant of. I’ve had pictures of when I was 3 and 4 years old, and I’ve always been chubby.”
Then she discovered that her weight was something she was supposed to be ashamed of. Image Credit: David Livingston/Getty Images
In fact, she was enrolled in Weight Watchers at just 11 years old:
“I remember being at Weight Watchers at, like, 11 years old and my mom just trying to figure it out for me.
It’s one of those things where it’s heartbreaking because, as a parent, you want your child to have the best life possible and you want them to be protected and in this little bubble where everybody finds them to be beautiful and perfect and their lives to be amazing.
But that’s not always the case.”
When she was young she would starve herself, but then as soon as she had the opportunity she would binge on unhealthy food.
The resulting weight gain perplexed her parents, because she hid her binges from them:
“I would not eat, and then, of course, I would get so hungry I would binge...and it was difficult because my parents were like, ‘I don’t understand, if you’re not really eating, why are you gaining weight?’ I would be at one of my good friend’s house and her mom would literally make us a tray of brownies and split it down the middle, and we would go to town.” Image Credit: David Livingston/Getty Images
At 30, Metz realized that she doesn't have to stress and worry about what others think about her body. She called that a life-changing moment:
“I had this epiphany that my life is my own and my choices are my own.”
Prior to “This Is Us,” Metz appeared in only a few things , and certainly not as a lead actress.
She played Ima 'Barbara' Wiggles on “American Horror Story: Freak Show,” described as the “fattest woman of all time” by the show.
Even then, she had to wear a fat suit on set:
Her newfound fame and honest portrayal of a woman struggling with her weight has not gone to her head, though. She's staying grounded and grateful:
“I just feel really grateful that I can pursue my dreams and also reach people in ways that I never expected.”
Metz told Refinery 29 last month that women have already reached out to her and praised her touching portrayal of Kate.
In reality, 67% of American women are a size 14 or higher, but these women only make up about 2% of the images portrayed in the media, according to Refinery 29 .
Research has also shown that dieting is more likely to cause obesity than solve it, according to the New York Times :
"After about five years, 41 percent of dieters gain back more weight than they lost. Long-term studies show dieters are more likely than non-dieters to become obese over the next one to 15 years.
That’s true in men and women, across ethnic groups, from childhood through middle age. The effect is strongest in those who started in the normal weight range, a group that includes almost half of the female dieters in the United States."
While she's not the first, Metz's performance has the potential to open more doors for plus-sized actresses who are trying to find their place in Hollywood. Other actresses such as Rebel Wilson, Queen Latifah, and Melissa McCarthy have also helped pave the way. | 1 |
South Front Analysis & Intelligence is a public analytical project maintained by an independent team of experts from the four corners of the Earth focusing on international relations issues and crises. They focus on analysis and intelligence of the ongoing crises and the biggest stories from around the world: Ukraine, the war in Middle East, Central Asia issues, protest movements in the Balkans, migration crises, and others. In addition, they provide military operations analysis, the military posture of major world powers, and other important data influencing the growth of tensions between countries and nations. We try to dig out the truth on issues which are barely covered by governments and mainstream media. The Geopolitics of Russia-Egypt Relations By South Front on October 26, 2016 …from SouthFront
The rapidly developing relations between Russia and Egypt have been overshadowed by the more prominent relationships between Russia and Syria, as well as Russia and Iran. Nevertheless, the Russia-Egypt relationship deserves closer scrutiny because, unlike the country’s relations with the other two Middle Eastern powers, it concerns a country that until recently appeared to be firmly in Western orbit. The abrupt shift of its geopolitical vector toward Eurasia therefore represents a far bigger change for the region than Russia’s successful support of the legitimate Syrian government, or the close relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran, both of which have been on the Western “enemies list” for decades. The reasons for this shift are twofold, and have to do with the way Western powers interact with Middle Eastern powers in the context of a systemic economic crisis, as well as with Russia’s demonstrated attractiveness as an ally.
The West’s systemic crisis clearly transformed how Western powers view non-Western ones. Whereas the “end of history” globalist rhetoric suggested a post-sovereignty utopia in which weak and strong powers interact on equal terms in a world without borders, in practice that rhetoric was a ruse to persuade non-Western powers to drop their guard and allow themselves to be penetrated by Western corporations and financial institutions and lose any possibility of charting their own, independent course. Alas, from Western perspective, assimilating “emerging markets” is still the cornerstone of economic policy, the only program of economic growth. Whereas during the 1990s this assimilation took relatively benign form, 9/11 had the effect of allowing initially the US to adopt a far more aggressive stance, to the point of overt military invasion. While EU initially did not follow suit, the severity of EU’s own problems prompted it to jump on the bandwagon of “regime change” in the case of Libya, Syria, and Ukraine.
Egypt, a long-time Western ally since the late 1970s, unexpectedly found itself on the receiving end of predatory Western policies which took the form of the Tahrir Square “color revolution” which ultimately led to the electoral victory of the Muslim Brotherhood, which in turn fell to a military overthrow once the danger of the country’s slide into a civil war became apparent. The fact that Muslim Brotherhood was financed by US-allied Persian Gulf states made Egypt aware it too was the target of state-sponsored jihadism, and that the US was incapable or unwilling to force its allies in region to refrain from targeting Egypt. While Syria is only a peripheral concern for Egypt, the civil war in Libya, where Islamist formations including ISIS enjoy Gulf Arab support, represents an immediate threat to Egypt for several reasons. The country can be used as a staging ground for launching attacks into Egypt and a sanctuary against retaliation and, in the longer term, should its government be a puppet controlled by hostile Gulf powers whose long term goal is the control of Egypt and of Suez Canal, which means that Cairo is keenly interested in influencing the outcome of that war.
Russia thus became an attractive partner because of its history of non-involvement in the internal politics of its allied states (almost to a fault, because unilateral restraint led to the Maidan revolution in Ukraine), because it can fill the security void left by the Western weakness, and, last but not least, because it can physically defend Egypt’s political and territorial integrity against every conceivable threat, an ability it is currently demonstrating in Syria. Egypt appears to be taking advantage of these capabilities. Cooperation now includes the possibility of establishing a Russian airbase in Egypt, visits by Russian paratroopers to Egypt, and special operations troops providing training to their Egyptian counterparts. Egypt is also shifting its military procurement plans toward Russia. The two Mistral-class ships that have been acquired by Egypt will receive the originally planned Russian electronics suite and will carry Russian helicopters; there are discussions of MiG fighter sales to Egypt, and the country received a Molniya-class missile boat.
From the Russian perspective, Egypt represents yet another bulwark of security against Western encroachment, a symmetric response to NATO expansion, “Eastern Partnership”, and color revolutions. Combined with the military presence in Syria, Cyprus’ general pro-Russian orientation, and the neutralization of Turkey which was also facilitated by an abortive West-promoted coup attempt, Egyptian bases would transform Eastern Mediterranean into a “Russian lake.” Last but not least, these bases and alliances could serve a launchpad for power projection into other unstable areas of the Middle East and, if Egypt’s control of the Suez Canal is guaranteed by Russian arms, this guarantee endows both countries with a very effective means of pressuring Western and Gulf Arab powers. Related Posts: No Related Posts The views expressed herein are the views of the author exclusively and not necessarily the views of VT, VT authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors, partners, technicians, or the Veterans Today Network and its assigns. LEGAL NOTICE - COMMENT POLICY Posted by South Front on October 26, 2016, With 534 Reads Filed under Military . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 . You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. FaceBook Comments
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Puberty Before Age 10: A New ‘Normal’?
Reaching puberty is a rite of passage that we’ve all been through, but children nowadays are reaching it earlier than ever before — a trend that has both health experts and parents alarmed.
Precocious puberty , which is the appearance of secondary sex characteristics like pubic hair or breast growth before age 8, or the onset of menarche before age 9, impacts at least 1 in 5,000 U.S. children, and the rate is on the rise. 1
Even in the last three decades, children (particularly girls) are maturing at younger and younger ages (precocious puberty is 10 times more common in girls than in boys).
Puberty, Once the Norm at Age 15, Now Occurring in 7-, 8- and 9-Year-Olds
In the 19th century the onset of menstruation occurred around the age of 15. Now the average age of the first period, or menarche, is around 12. The time during and before puberty is one of rapid development and change, which is why even months matter when it comes to first menstruation. Before menstruation, girls will show beginning signs of development, such as breast “budding” and growth of pubic hair.
These signs are now becoming unsettlingly common among 7-, 8- and 9-year-old girls, to the extent that many health care providers, rather than labeling these children with a diagnosis that something is wrong, have simply changed the definition of what’s normal… but is it really “normal” for girls to mature at such a young age?
There are more questions than answers in the case of precocious puberty, but what is certain is that girls are developing earlier than they have even 10, 20 or 30 years ago.
One study in the journal Pediatrics revealed that by age 7, 10 percent of white girls, 23 percent of black girls, 15 percent of Hispanic girls and 2 percent of Asian girls had started developing breasts, with researchers noting: 2
“The proportion of girls who had breast development at ages 7 and 8 years, particularly among white girls, is greater than that reported from studies of girls who were born 10 to 30 years earlier.”
Early puberty can set the stage for emotional and behavioral problems, and is linked to lower self-esteem, depression, eating disorders, alcohol use, earlier loss of virginity, more sexual partners and increased risk of sexually transmitted diseases. There is also evidence that suggests these girls are at increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and other cardiovascular diseases, as well as cancer, later in life.
Environmental Chemicals a Likely Factor
Scientists have brought forth a number of potential explanations for the rising rates of early puberty, but one that deserves special attention is environmental chemicals, and particularly estrogen-mimicking, “gender-bending” chemicals that easily leach out of the products that contain them, contaminating everything they touch, including food and beverages.
As the featured New York Times article reported:
”…animal studies show that the exposure to some environmental chemicals can cause bodies to mature early. Of particular concern are endocrine-disrupters, like “xeno-estrogens” or estrogen mimics. These compounds behave like steroid hormones and can alter puberty timing.
For obvious ethical reasons, scientists cannot perform controlled studies proving the direct impact of these chemicals on children, so researchers instead look for so-called “natural experiments,” one of which occurred in 1973 in Michigan, when cattle were accidentally fed grain contaminated with an estrogen-mimicking chemical, the flame retardant PBB.
The daughters born to the pregnant women who ate the PBB-laced meat and drank the PBB-laced milk started menstruating significantly earlier than their peers.”
This is an extreme case, but the truth is we are all part of a “secret experiment” of sorts, because hormone-disrupting chemicals are all around us. Bisphenol A (BPA), an industrial petrochemical that acts as a synthetic estrogen, is found in our plastics and our tin can linings, in dental sealants and on cash-register receipts. Laboratory tests commissioned by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) detected BPA in the umbilical cord blood of 90 percent of newborn infants tested — along with more than 230 other chemicals. As written in the New York Times :
“One concern, among parents and researchers, is the effect of simultaneous exposures to many estrogen-mimics, including the compound BPA, which is ubiquitous.”
No one knows what happens when a developing fetus or young child is exposed to hundreds of chemicals, many of which mimic your body’s natural hormones and can trigger major changes in your body even as an adult, let along during the most rapid and vulnerable periods of development (in utero and as a young child).
BPA is, unfortunately, but one example. Others include phthalates, a group of industrial chemicals used to make plastics like polyvinyl chloride (PVC) more flexible and resilient. They’re also one of the most pervasive of the endocrine disrupters, found in everything from processed food packaging and shower curtains to detergents, toys and beauty products like nail polish, hair spray, shampoo, deodorants, and fragrances.
Other environmental chemicals like PCBs and DDE (a breakdown product of the pesticide DDT) may also be associated with early sexual development in girls. Both DDE and PCBs are known to mimic, or interfere with, sex hormones.
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), found in non-stick cookware, also falls into this dangerous category, as does fluoride, which is added to the majority of public water supplies in the United States. Research showed that animals treated with fluoride had lower levels of circulating melatonin , as reflected by reduced levels of melatonin metabolites in the animals’ urine. This reduced level of circulating melatonin was accompanied — as might be expected — by an earlier onset of puberty in the fluoride-treated female animals.
These Chemicals Also Increase Your Risk of Cancer and Heart Disease
If a chemical is capable of influencing the rate of your reproductive development, it stands to reason that it would be capable of influencing other hormone-sensitive growth processes as well, and this is indeed the case.
For instance, new research has detected the presence of paraben esters in 99 percent of breast cancer tissues sampled. 3 Parabens are chemicals with estrogen-like properties, and estrogen is one of the hormones involved in not only puberty but also the development of breast cancer. They are widely used in household products such as:
Recent research has also confirmed the existence of a previously unknown class of cancer-causing estrogen-mimicking compounds: metals. Yes, a broad range of metals have been shown to act as “metalloestrogens” with the potential to add to the estrogenic burden of the human body, thereby increasing the risk of breast cancer and also possibly early puberty. The following metals, which are added to thousands of consumer products, including vaccines, have been identified as being capable of binding to cellular estrogen receptors and then mimicking the actions of physiological estrogens: 4
Data from a long-running British health survey, meanwhile, has shown that if you have high levels of the chemical BPA in your urine, you may be at an increased risk of heart disease . Some of the greatest concern surrounds early-life, in utero exposure to BPA, which can lead to chromosomal errors in your developing fetus, causing spontaneous miscarriages and genetic damage. But evidence is also very strong showing these chemicals are influencing adults and children, too, and leading to decreased sperm quality, early puberty, stimulation of mammary gland development, disrupted reproductive cycles and ovarian dysfunction, obesity, cancer and heart disease, among numerous other health problems.
Avoiding Hormone-Disrupting Substances is Crucial for Children and Adults Alike
While young girls may show obvious signs of exposure to hormone-disrupting substances via early puberty, other signals are more insidious and may not show up until a disease is already present. Here are 11 measures you can implement right away to help protect yourself and your children from common toxic substances that could cause precocious puberty and other long-term health problems:
1. As much as possible, buy and eat organic produce and free-range, organic meats to reduce your exposure to added hormones, pesticides and fertilizers. Also avoid milk and other dairy products that contain the genetically engineered recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH or rBST)
2. Eat mostly raw, fresh foods. Processed, prepackaged foods (of all kinds) are a major source of soy and chemicals such as BPA and phthalates.
3. Store your food and beverages in glass rather than plastic, and avoid using plastic wrap and canned foods (which are often lined with BPA-containing liners).
4. Use glass baby bottles and BPA-free sippy cups for your little ones.
5. Make sure your baby’s toys are BPA-free, such as pacifiers, teething rings and anything your child may be prone to suck on.
6. Only use natural cleaning products in your home to avoid phthalates.
7. Switch over to natural brands of toiletries such as shampoo, toothpaste, antiperspirants and cosmetics. The Environmental Working Group has a great safety guide to help you find personal care products that are free of phthalates, parabens and other potentially dangerous chemicals.
8. Avoid using artificial air fresheners, dryer sheets, fabric softeners or other synthetic fragrances, many of which can also disrupt your hormone balance.
9. Replace your non-stick pots and pans with ceramic or glass cookware.
10. When redoing your home, look for “green,” toxin-free alternatives in lieu of regular paint and vinyl floor coverings.
11. Replace your vinyl shower curtain with one made of fabric.
12. Avoid non-fermented soy, especially if you’re pregnant and in infant formula.
Theo Colburn’s book Our Stolen Future is a great source for further investigation as it identifies the numerous ways in which environmental pollutants are disrupting human reproductive patterns. I believe it is one of the best resources on this topic and highly recommend it.
Vitamin D Also Linked to Early Puberty
It has been suggested that girls who live closer to the equator start puberty at a later age than girls who live in Northern regions. Since this indicates a potential connection with sun exposure, researchers decided to investigate whether vitamin D was, in fact, related. Upon measuring vitamin D levels in 242 girls aged 5-12, researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health found that those who were deficient were twice as likely to start menstruation during the study period as those with higher levels. 5
Specifically, among the vitamin-D-deficient girls, 57 percent started their period during the study, compared to 23 percent with adequate vitamin D. However, researchers defined adequate vitamin D as ≥ 30 ng/mL, which is actually still a deficiency state! For optimal health, vitamin D levels should be a minimum of 50 ng/mL, which means the number of vitamin-D-deficient girls with early puberty was probably much higher than the study reported.
The earlier you enter puberty, the longer you’re exposed to elevated levels of the female hormone estrogen, which is a risk factor for certain cancers such as breast cancer. This has been the primary “link” between early puberty and cancer that has been explored, but it’s important to understand that vitamin D deficiency is also a major risk factor for cancer, heart disease and many other diseases. So it could be that some of the increased risks that come from early puberty are linked to low vitamin D levels.
What You Should Know About Obesity, Stress and Exercise
Obesity (which exposes girls to more estrogen because estrogen is both stored and produced in fat tissue) is another likely factor in early puberty. The New York Times reported:
“As Robert Lustig, a professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco’s Benioff Children’s Hospital, explains, fatter girls have higher levels of the hormone leptin, which can lead to early puberty, which leads to higher estrogen levels, which leads to greater insulin resistance, causing girls to have yet more fat tissue, more leptin and more estrogen, the cycle feeding on itself, until their bodies physically mature.”
As for stress, this, too, has been linked to early puberty, with girls whose parents divorced when they were between 3- and 8-years-old significantly more likely to experience precocious puberty. “Evolutionary psychology offers a theory,” the New York Times reports. “A stressful childhood inclines a body toward early reproduction; if life is hard, best to mature young. But such theories are tough to prove.” Interestingly, in addition to avoiding environmental chemicals, obesity and stress, and optimizing your vitamin D, regular exercise appears to be one of the best known ways to help prevent early puberty. | 1 |
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Losing the governor’s race here in 1980 so shattered a young Bill Clinton that he could not face his supporters, so he sent his wife around to thank campaign workers instead. He later gathered with close friends for dinner but quietly sulked, playing the country song “I Don’t Know Whether to Kill Myself or Go Bowling” on the jukebox. But his wife had a more pressing concern: money. The ousted governor needed a job, the family needed a place to live, and moving out of the governor’s mansion meant losing the help they had as they raised their daughter, Chelsea. The morning after the election, Hillary Clinton worked the phones from the mansion, calling wealthy friends and asking for help. “The world changed. There was a tectonic shift,” said Thomas F. McLarty III, a friend of Mr. Clinton’s who served as his White House chief of staff. Mr. Clinton was of little use as he fixated on voters’ rejection. And for the first time, friends said, Mrs. Clinton glimpsed fragility in the future she had moved to Arkansas to pursue. She worried about saving for Chelsea’s college, caring for her aging parents, and even possibly supporting herself should the marriage or their political dreams dissolve. “It was up to her to just keep holding things up,” said Nancy Pietrafesa, a college friend of Mrs. Clinton’s who moved to Arkansas to work for Mr. Clinton in the 1970s. Hillary Clinton’s relationship with money has long puzzled even some of her closest supporters: Despite choosing a life in government, she has appeared eager to make money, driven to provide for her family and helping amass a fortune of more than $50 million with her husband. But Mrs. Clinton can seem blind to how her financial decisions are viewed, and has suffered repeated political damage and accusations of conflicts of interest as a result — from serving on the corporate board of Walmart while her husband was governor to initially accepting a $1. 35 million mortgage personally secured by a top for the family’s home in Chappaqua, N. Y. Her collection of more than $21 million in speaking fees from a range of groups, including Wall Street firms and other interests, led to one of the most potent attacks against her in this election cycle, given voters’ anger about economic inequality. Half of all voters said it bothered them “a lot’’ that Mrs. Clinton gave numerous speeches to Wall Street banks, according to a Bloomberg Politics poll conducted in June. Donald J. Trump has called Mrs. Clinton “totally owned by Wall Street. ” Mr. Trump, whose own finances have drawn extensive scrutiny, may be an imperfect messenger, but “Republicans can say, ‘This undercuts everything she is saying about what she wants to do to regulate Wall Street and her economic populist stance,’” said Anna Greenberg, a Democratic pollster. Even some of Mrs. Clinton’s allies privately say they are mystified by her choice to make the Wall Street speeches, given the likelihood that they would become an issue in a presidential campaign. And to some of them, her financial moves clash with the selfless Methodist credo to do good for others that she so often says guided her toward a life of public service. But her longtime friends say the contradiction is rooted in Mrs. Clinton’s practicality and the cycles that have characterized her life with Bill Clinton. At no time did those stresses fall more squarely on Mrs. Clinton’s shoulders than in the difficult period in Arkansas when she and her husband found themselves cast out of office, financially strained and deeply uncertain about the future. And the memory of that time shaped her desire to be free from financial burden. “Hillary had a couple years of the taste of what it means to be a working mother, without any help, to have to take care of a small baby and care for your job,” said James B. Blair, a close Clinton friend and lawyer who offered Mrs. Clinton investment advice in the 1970s. The Clintons’ unexpected ouster from their comfortable life occurred at a time when Arkansas was swirling with new money and schemes as companies like Tyson and Walmart minted millionaires and new savings and loan institutions were spreading throughout the South. A generation of Ivy young people like Mr. Clinton had returned to their home state to make their mark. Money seemed to be all around the Clintons, but they did not have much of their own. And unlike Mrs. Clinton, a worrier by nature, Mr. Clinton, consumed with his dreams of a political career, seemed indifferent to securing a financial future. “He was never interested in money, ever,” Mr. Blair said. “She is the one who had to be sure Chelsea was going to be able to afford college. ” People close to Mrs. Clinton don’t begrudge her desire to provide generously for her family, and certainly many presidential candidates and public servants acquire vast personal wealth. Asked in an interview whether earlier financial stresses had prompted her to pursue the lucrative speechmaking, Mrs. Clinton said, “I really think it’s much simpler than that,” adding that it is typical for secretaries of state to share their views in speeches after leaving office. It was one of the smallest houses on the block in Little Rock’s Hillcrest section, and Mrs. Clinton largely bought it with her own money, the month after that devastating 1980 election loss. She filled the rooms with mismatched furniture bought at thrift stores and borrowed from her flamboyant . She converted the windowed attic into a bedroom for Chelsea, parked her Oldsmobile Cutlass in the weedy driveway and chased after the family’s cocker spaniel, Zeke, who liked to chew through the fence. The Clintons had stretched their finances to afford the $112, 000 home, which was down the hill from the city’s mansions. The sprawling estate of Winthrop Rockefeller, the celebrated former governor, was so close that it practically cast a shadow on the Clintons’ grassy backyard. Friends described the décor as unsightly, a jarring departure from the governor’s mansion. “That couch just jumped out at me,” said Bobby Roberts, a former aide to Mr. Clinton, describing a Victorian chaise that Mr. Clinton’s mother, Virginia Kelly, had lent them. “It was in some bright, violent color. ” And with no parents or in Little Rock, Mrs. Clinton turned to friends and neighbors for help. She persuaded Carolyn Huber, who had helped run the governor’s mansion while Mr. Clinton was in office, to continue to help care for Chelsea, who had grown fond of her. A neighbor, Manuel J. Lozano, recalled: Hillary “was running around, and my wife took care of Chelsea here and there whenever she needed help. ” Mr. Clinton had turned down job offers in academia and Democratic politics, and instead took the only offer he had in Arkansas, to serve “of counsel” for $55, 000 a year at the Wright, Lindsey Jennings law firm, where Mr. Clinton’s longtime adviser Bruce R. Lindsey was a partner. But he spent most of his time on the road, often accompanied by Mr. Lindsey, trying to win back the hearts of voters. “He had to go all over that state, touch base and apologize, and listen to why he lost,” Mrs. Pietrafesa recalled, “and every one of those visits was a or ordeal. ” Mrs. Clinton had become a partner at the Rose Law Firm in 1979, and during these lean years, she balanced her work there with caring for Chelsea, who celebrated her first birthday and learned to walk in the Hillcrest house, on Midland Street. She often felt on her own as Mr. Clinton crisscrossed the state, friends said. She increased her hours to bring in work for the firm, with business not as easy to come by now that she was no longer the governor’s wife. “The whole time period was a point of learning, after the defeat,” Jerry C. Jones, Mrs. Clinton’s colleague at the firm, remembered. Friends said she would have focused on public service and charitable work and not gone to work at the firm — a practice known for representing the business and political elite — had she not been concerned about her family’s finances. Ann Henry, an Arkansas friend, described Mrs. Clinton as an “oddity” there, where other women, mostly secretaries and paralegals, gawked at her curls and clothes. (Mrs. Clinton worked at the Rose Law Firm for roughly 15 years, the longest she has worked at any job, though it is not on her official campaign biography.) “I’m not sure she ever planned to be a corporate lawyer,” said Lissa Muscatine, a friend and former chief speechwriter to Mrs. Clinton. But she did the work because “she had the earning capacity that he didn’t have as governor. ” Growing up in the suburb of Park Ridge, Ill. Hillary Rodham — whose mother had been raised in poverty and whose father preached frugality — babysat and held summer jobs beginning when she was 13. Her father, Hugh Rodham, taught his only daughter fiscal responsibility and how to read stock tables in the newspaper. But he was not one to shower his children with material things. “Her mother came from nothing and her father was so there’s always been an awareness of working hard to earn a living,” said Lisa Caputo, a friend and former White House aide. There was anxiety, too. The family was never comfortably affluent, and even as Mr. Rodham bought himself a Cadillac, he insisted that his wife and children live modestly. Hillary and her brothers helped at his drapery business, which eventually closed after sales slowed. By the time she was a student at Wellesley College, Mrs. Clinton and many in her generation were expressing skepticism about the pursuit of money. In her 1969 commencement speech, she denounced materialism and corporate greed. “We’re searching for more immediate, ecstatic and penetrating modes of living,” she declared. When she moved to Fayetteville, Ark. and later married Mr. Clinton in 1975, the Yale couple lived happily earning about $18, 000 a year each in their positions as professors. But several years later, as Mr. Clinton planned his run for the governor’s office and the couple worried about starting a family, Mrs. Clinton grew increasingly uneasy about their incomes and started to think more seriously about how to build a nest egg. “She had been the chief breadwinner and financial decision maker,” her best friend, Diane D. Blair, wrote in notes she kept about the era. Arkansas was a small state with overlapping circles of the politically and economically powerful — and many of the Clintons’ contemporaries were getting rich. “The smart guys who were politically active would make that interesting investment that would push them from the ranks of the upper middle class into the wealthy and powerful,” said William K. Black, a former financial regulator and professor at the University of City. Mrs. Clinton began seeking out investment opportunities, and in 1978 she made one of the most lucrative, if seemingly risky, financial decisions of her life. Mr. Blair, the Clintons’ close friend, had made several million dollars in the commodities market, and urged Mrs. Clinton to begin trading, too. With an initial investment of just $1, 000, she made nearly $100, 000 trading cattle futures in a period, which helped pay for the down payment on the Midland Street home. But the move later haunted her when the investment became the subject of scrutiny in the early years of the Clinton presidency. It still trails her occasionally: Mr. Trump raised it at a rally last month in North Carolina, as he attacked her for being “crooked. ” “Look at her cattle futures! ’’ he called out to the crowd. Also in 1978, another friend, James B. McDougal, persuaded Mrs. Clinton to invest in another venture: the Whitewater real estate development on a plot of land in the Ozarks. The Clintons ultimately lost money on the deal, but the development led to an investigation when Mr. Clinton was in the White House. The deals were certainly tempting, given the couple’s income at the time. In 1978, Mr. Clinton became one of the youngest, and lowest paid, governors, in the country, earning $33, 519. 14 his first year in office. Mrs. Clinton’s income from the Rose Law Firm brought their combined wages in 1978 to $51, 173. Even though she reaped big rewards on the commodities market, the experience was unnerving. Shortly after Chelsea was born, Mrs. Clinton told her broker she wanted out. “I couldn’t take the stress,” she said at a campaign stop in June. She would, however, continue to shoulder her family’s financial worries. Not long after Mr. Clinton won in 1982, the Clintons sold the yellow house on Midland Street and moved back into the governor’s mansion, where they once again had free housing and the assistance of a small staff. Two years later, the state increased the governor’s term to four years, and the Clintons’ finances appeared more stable. Mrs. Clinton went on to join the board of Walmart, and she continued to work at the Rose Law Firm. By the time Mr. Clinton was running for president, they reported $297, 177 in total income on their 1992 tax returns, a sum that would put most Americans in the upper income tier but seemed meager compared with the wealth of his opponents, George Bush and Ross Perot. “When we moved into the White House, we had the lowest net worth of any family since Harry Truman,” Mr. Clinton has said. The White House years offered a respite from financial worry. As first lady, Mrs. Clinton wrote a book, “It Takes a Village,’’ for which she did not accept an advance and donated the proceeds to charity. “HRC insists she will have time, wants it to have impact (of course, also wants it to make huge bucks),” Mrs. Blair wrote at the time. Still, the couple’s earlier financial decisions resurfaced in damaging ways. What started as an investigation into the Whitewater investment spun into revelations of Mr. Clinton’s relationship with a White House intern, which led to the president’s impeachment by the House of Representatives. When the Clintons left the White House after the 2000 election — the first time they were without the safety net of public office in 18 years — they owed $5 million in legal fees and once again felt financial uncertainty. In 2014, Mrs. Clinton described her family’s situation at the time in words that have bedeviled her candidacy: “Dead broke. ” Once again, the Clintons needed a house, and once again they turned to the help of a wealthy friend. This time it was Terry McAuliffe, a longtime Clinton campaign who offered to guarantee the mortgage on the home they would move into after leaving the White House. But this time, the home — a $1. 7 million, Dutch Colonial in Chappaqua, a rich suburb — was not one of the smallest houses on the block. Mrs. Clinton did not have to call the every time the old pipes clogged or run to a neighbor’s house to borrow milk and eggs, as she had done in the house on Midland Street. And now it was Mrs. Clinton, eyeing a Senate seat from New York, who left her husband at home as she hit the road, crisscrossing the state for her campaign. | 1 |
The Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Dvorak’s “Rusalka” may be the unlikeliest hit of the season, a staging that takes opera’s answer to “The Little Mermaid” fairy tale and turns it into an almost shockingly dark, sexy drama. The mysterious look of the production, fantastical and ominous, combines with the sensual singing of a handsome cast to create a romantic energy rare at the Met — or at any opera house. When this project was first announced, “Rusalka” seemed a promising match for the director Mary Zimmerman, best known for casting fairy tale magic in her Tony “Metamorphoses. ” But many were wary. Her three previous productions for the company, though full of ideas, were all variously disappointing. With this “Rusalka,” though, Ms. Zimmerman comes into her own as a director at the Met. Working with the set designer Daniel Ostling, the costume designer Mara Blumenfeld and the lighting designer T. J. Gerckens, Ms. Zimmerman has explored the dark complexities of this fable. At the opening on Thursday, Mark Elder conducted a glowing account of Dvorak’s score. And the Met has assembled a matchless cast, led by the lovely soprano Kristine Opolais, who gives a vocally lustrous and achingly vulnerable performance as Rusalka, the water nymph who falls in love with a human prince. Even in the unusual love scenes between the prince and the silent Rusalka, who has given up her voice to become mortal, Ms. Zimmerman has coaxed simmering tension from Ms. Opolais and the dashing tenor Brandon Jovanovich. The director has said that this opera carries a wise warning: If you have to transform yourself drastically, to the point of literally losing your voice, for the sake of love, the relationship may well be doomed. That theme comes through in every element of this haunting production, whose intensity coexists with a sense of disorientation: Ms. Zimmerman has subtly destabilized almost every aspect of the work. The opening scene is set in a meadow by a pond, and in this staging, everything seems a little off. The pond is a forbidding pool from which mists slowly spew the willow tree on which Rusalka rests is twisted and creepy. Dancing wood sprites (including a singing trio: Hyesang Park, Megan Marino and Cassandra Zoé Velasco) prance around in curiously ornate costumes, with frilly foliage skirts and headdresses of prickly twigs. As Vodnik, the water gnome who presides over the meadow, the earthy, stentorian Eric Owens looks endearingly foolish in a robe and crown. When Rusalka, who is Vodnik’s daughter, starts to tell her father about her sorrows and longing, Ms. Opolais, with golden hair and a gaze, wears an aqua gown with long, flowing trails, almost like rivulets of lake water. The cumbersome dress weighs her down: This is just one detail of many with which Ms. Zimmerman suggests that Rusalka is not just part of, but bound by, the natural world. And with her fidgety physical gestures and darting eyes, Ms. Opolais conveys the character’s restlessness and pining. This powerful singing actress adds unusual intensity to her plaintive “Song to the Moon,” Rusalka’s famed lament, suggesting the character’s defiant side more than most sopranos. Ms. Zimmerman and her design team have mixed periods to create an atmosphere of unease. The athletic Mr. Jovanovich wears an hunting coat, and as the witch Jezibaba, who dwells in the forest but straddles the human and supernatural worlds, the powerhouse Jamie Barton is made up like a Victorian matron (though the cobweb patterns on her dress are a surreal touch). Rusalka goes to Jezibaba in desperation to ask for a potion that can turn her into a human. Ms. Barton’s chortling Jezibaba says she’ll help, but the witch warns Rusalka that she will become mute to all humans, including the prince. The transformation takes place atop a surgical table, attended to by a valet and a maid who are here dressed as a giant, eerie mouse and a crow. Ms. Zimmerman presses a dark vision of the patriarchal oppression at the root of the fairy tale. At the start of their first love scene, the prince, thinking that Rusalka, now wearing a white sleeveless dress, looks vulnerable, wraps her in his cloak. When she finally succumbs to his passion, Mr. Jovanovich lifts Ms. Opolais into his arms. The staging suggests that the reborn Rusalka may not really be free, but is simply adapting to a new set of strictures. Loving the prince means submitting to him. In the prince’s castle in Act II, Ms. Opolais’s Rusalka seems like a lost waif as a strange ballroom dance takes place around her, with the courtly participants going through all manner of angular, jutting movements. (The choreographer is Austin McCormick, in his Met debut.) A rival for the prince appears, called simply the Foreign Princess in the libretto and here played formidably by the Wagnerian soprano Katarina Dalayman, who feeds the prince’s exasperation with Rusalka’s unnerving silence and oddly cold embraces. By the end of the opera, when Rusalka has fled the castle and returned to her pond, Ms. Zimmerman has turned the meadow gray and dank the set’s scaffolding is partly exposed. Or is this just the way it appears to Rusalka? Perhaps she now sees, with painful clarity, the bare beams that prop up the seemingly rich natural world. The prince has gone in search of Rusalka, and finds her: Now, finally, the two have a real love duet, impassioned, fitful music, sung here with burnished sound and wrenching beauty by Ms. Opolais and Mr. Jovanovich. But the doomed Rusalka has become a moonlit phantom, as she warns the prince. By kissing her, he dies. In a final directorial gesture, before heading alone into the forest, Rusalka puts on the prince’s coat. This time, though, it seems a token of remembrance. | 1 |
Topics: Politics , Hillary Clinton , Donald Trump , 2016 Presidential Election , President , US Constitution Thursday, 10 November 2016
If anyone in this "great" land knows anything about renovation, it may well be presidential hopeful Donald J. Trump. A veteran of the real estate industry for several decades now, Trump surely has renovated his share of properties, buildings and even golf courses. His latest project, however, could be his most ambitious: the Bill of Rights itself.
"Look at this thing," The Donald said as he held a copy the seminal American document before a crowd of reporters. "It's old. I mean, it's old, like really old. You hear what I'm saying? It is old."
When asked what his intentions for the document were, Trump proposed a "renovation" of the foundational document "just like he would any of [his] older buildings that didn't cut the mustard anymore. I mean, Ivana wasn't cutting it anymore, so I got Marla Maples. New is better. I think we all know that, new is better. New equals better. Sometimes you have to tear something down to make something new, right? And then it's all better."
When asked what he specifically meant by "tearing down the document" that is the basis of this country's inalienable rights, Trump continued, "Hey look, I don't know when this thing was written, probably a long time ago, like in the 1920's or something, but it doesn't make any sense anymore. I have a real problem with an old, stinky document telling me how to live my life. If we're gonna make America great again, the first thing we have to do is make these document new again, and that's what I'm gonna do on the first day in office. Bingo-bango, new document for the new America. I mean, really, no one reads this stuff anymore."
The presidential hopeful was then asked how he planned to rejuvenate the Bill of Rights. "First of all some of this spooky language needs to get cleaned up. Like how is a working-class guy like me, the average citizen, supposed to understand this stuff? The trial of all crimes (except in cases of impeachment, and in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia when in actual service in time of War or public danger) shall be by an Impartial Jury of the Vicinage, with the requisite of unanimity for conviction, the right of challenge, and other accostomed [sic] requisites; and no person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherways [sic] infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment by a Grand Jury; but if a crime be committed in a place in the possession of an enemy, or… blah, blah, blah. Vicinage? That's not even a word, is it? Unanimity? Impeachment? These aren't words like hammer, dumptruck or bigly. They're talking in circles. That's right, they're talking in circles. So that one's gone. Just out. Accostomed? Otherways? These Founding Father clowns can't even spell!"
Trump's furor grew as he read more of the document. "Freedom of religion? No one goes to church anymore. Who cares? That one's going too. All it does is protect these Muslims who blew up buildings. God forbid they blow up my towers. That's out. Freedom of speech? Freedom to lie, that's what I call it. Freedom to lie, like those bastards on CNN and Hillary over there. This seventh here, that's a doozy. It says in "all matters involving more than 20 dollars". That's a joke. I tip 20 dollars at Starbucks when I get my coffee. That one's out. "Due process of law" … another joke. Out! This third one, "quartering soldiers," what's that? I have waaaay too much respect for our soldiers to start chopping them up into quarters. I mean, that's like serial killer stuff, right? No, absolutely not, I will not chop up soldiers. On my first day in office, I will find anyone who is trying to chop up American soldiers and make them pay."
When prompted that he may be misinterpreting the articles in the Bill, Trump lashed back. "Of course I am! Look at it some time. Who can understand this stuff? Of course I'm misinterpreting this stuff. Maybe this is how they talked in the 1920's, but not now, not in Trump's America. And the ideas are just stupid. Look at this fourth one. No illegal "search and seizure"? If I can't walk into someone's house and arrest him, how am I gonna maintain law and order? If I can't just take someone's stuff, how am I gonna know what's going on in this country, huh? You tell me. And this old piece of paper is trying to tell me when I'm president - not if but when - I'm gonna restore law and order. This fourth one, how many shootings in Chicago happened because my police have their hands tied by this stupid fourth amendment. I mean, that's what I'm gonna do, starting on the first day of my term. The very first day. Here's another peach: no "cruel and unusual punishment." What's that? How else do you deal with terrorists? That's why we got soft. These terrorists knew they could come over, bombs some buildings, kill a bunch of people and know this piece of paper was gonna make sure they didn't get their precious feeling hurt. First day in office, that one's out!"
One reporter asked The Donald if he knew that the "stinky, old" document he was holding was supposed to protect the American people from injustice, and false legal claims. (He was also asked if he knew what "quartered" meant). "Hey, I'm not saying people don't have rights. People have rights. Of course people have rights. Sure they do. I'm just saying they don't need all this stuff. The first day I'm in office, the very first day, I'm gonna make a nice simple list of rights, you know, without all this fancy nonsense. It's outdated. We need something for 2016, something nice and simple."
Trump then said he had to meet with his team of architects and engineers to draw up plans for a wall along the southern border of the US, which he would start building on his "very first day in office." Make Chris Dahl's day - give this story five thumbs-up (there's no need to register , the thumbs are just down there!) | 1 |
Trump’s Walk of Fame star smashed with a sledgehammer (VIDEO) Published time: 26 Oct, 2016 18:46 Edited time: 26 Oct, 2016 18:46 Get short URL People take photos of Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame after it was vandalized in Hollywood, California U.S., October 26, 2016. © Mario Anzuoni / Reuters Donald Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame has been reduced to dust with a sledgehammer. Trends US Elections 2016
A man dressed as a construction worker arrived at the site early Wednesday morning to inflict some serious damage on the Hollywood Boulevard star. Using a sledgehammer, the man later identified as Jamie Otis attacked the star, literally pounding it to dust as onlookers watched.
Trump’s star has seen a lot of abuse during his presidential run. From being spray-painted with a Swastika to being covered in dog feces and having its own wall built around it, the star has been a target for disgruntled Americans angered by the Republican candidate’s controversial statements. Someone defaced Donald Trump's Star,the idiot trying to portray him as a Nazi,used the Buddhist swastika LOL pic.twitter.com/CxhBzBa2sP — Faolan (@TheCoffeeSnolf) January 31, 2016
Otis originally planned to remove the star and then auction it off, with the money going towards victims of Trump’s alleged sexual harassment and assault. Speaking to reporters at the scene, Otis explained “four or five” of his family members had been victims of sexual assault, and he wa s “terribly upset that we have a presidential nominee who is the poster child for sexual violence.”
Over the past month, nearly a dozen women have come forth to accuse Trump of sexually assaulting them in the past. Most are represented by Gloria Allred, a California lawyer and outspoken Democrat.
The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which is in charge of the Walk of Fame, condemned the star’s destruction.
“The Hollywood Walk of Fame is an institution celebrating the positive contributions of the inductees,” Chamber of Commerce’s Leon Gubler said. “When people are unhappy with one of our honorees, we would hope that they would project their anger in more positive ways than to vandalize a California State landmark. Our democracy is based on respect for the law. People can make a difference by voting and not destroying public property.”
The Chamber of Commerce is working to prosecute those involved, Gubler said, adding that the star will be repaired immediately. A city worker repairs Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, which was destroyed by a man with a jackhammer pic.twitter.com/sonjT2Osiw — Super Deluxe (@superdeluxe) October 26, 2016
Trump received a star on the famous walkway in 2007 for his work on the reality show The Apprentice. | 0 |
Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice lashed out against President Donald Trump for appointing his senior adviser Stephen K. Bannon to the National Security Council. [“This is stone cold crazy,” she wrote on Twitter after highlighting a tweet calling Bannon a “Nazi. ” “After a week of crazy. Who needs military advice or intel to make policy on ISIL, Syria, Afghanistan, DPRK?” Rice, Obama’s former ambassador to the United Nations and National Security adviser, has not held back her criticism of Trump, especially after he decided to elevate Bannon. “Chairman of Joint Chiefs and DNI treated as after thoughts in Cabinet level principals meetings,” she wrote on Twitter. “And where is CIA?? Cut out of everything? Chair of Joint Chiefs DNI are after thoughts in Cabinet level principals mtgs. And CIA?? Cut out of everything?” Bannon was a officer in the Navy for seven years, and was the executive chairman of Breitbart News before joining the Trump administration. Breitbart News, which was founded and is edited and staffed by Jews, is openly and . Rice was the point woman for spreading the Obama administration’s talking points on the Sunday shows after the terrorist attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, including the falsehood that the attack was sparked by an internet video. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer responded to Rice’s message, calling it “clearly inappropriate language from a former ambassador” during an interview on ABC News’ “This Week. ” “When you talk about the missteps made by the last administration, with all due respect, I think Ambassador Rice might want to wait, let and see how we handle this,” he said. “Because I think so far they’ve got an expert team of folks that have come in to understand the national situation — our intelligence systems and how to modernize. ” | 0 |
Home › HEALTH › YOUR SUSPICIONS ABOUT GMO CROPS WERE JUST CONFIRMED BY A NYT REPORT YOUR SUSPICIONS ABOUT GMO CROPS WERE JUST CONFIRMED BY A NYT REPORT 0 SHARES
[11/2/16] An analysis of data by The Times shows that crop yields did not increase and herbicide and insecticide use did not shrink in the 20 years since GMO seeds were introduced in North America. In fact, herbicide use has increased .
“An analysis by The Times using United Nations data showed that the United States and Canada have gained no discernible advantage in yields — food per acre — when measured against Western Europe, a region with comparably modernized agricultural producers like France and Germany,” an October 29 Times article stated.
Times researchers compared data from Europe, where genetic modification was rejected, with that from Canada and the United States, where they are widely used. The data goes back 20 years and indicates that GM technology did not deliver on some of the promises that its promoters made.
In fact, herbicide use has increased by 21 percent in the U.S. while it has decreased by 36 percent in France’s, Europe’s largest agriculture producer. GMO seeds have led to a decrease of about 33 percent in insecticide and fungicide use in the U.S., but France has seen an even larger decrease — 65 percent – without using genetically modified crops.
As the weather begins to warm, you’ll want to switch over to more heat-tolerant greens. Consider lettuce varieties such as Red Butterworth and Larissa or spinach varieties such as Tyee or Emu. Post navigation | 0 |
Tweet Home » Headlines » World News » It Just Got WAY BIGGER: Wikileaks Bombshell Reveals Clinton Email “Where They Are Literally Pricing How Much It Costs to Transport Children”
Over the past 48 hours, rumors and whisperings have emerged from the FBI’s reopened investigation into Hillary’s emails found on Anthony Weiner’s laptop that SERIOUS ADDITIONAL crimes were under investigation, unrelated to the email server case, involving among other things, child trafficking . Wikileaks has just released perhaps the biggest Bombshell yet, claiming emails “showing how the Clintons supported child stealer Laura Silsby” including an email “where they are literally pricing how much it costs to transport children”. | 0 |
WASHINGTON — Over the many months that officials in Washington debated sweeping new regulations for internet providers, Jeffrey A. Eisenach, a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, was hard to miss. He wrote articles, including for The New York Times, that were critical of the rules. He filed formal comments with the Federal Communications Commission, where he also met privately with senior lawyers. He appeared before Congress and issued reports detailing how destructive the new rules would be. “Net neutrality would not improve consumer welfare or protect the public interest,” Mr. Eisenach testified in September 2014 before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Intense advocacy by a think tank scholar is not notable in itself, but Mr. Eisenach, 58, a former aide at the Federal Trade Commission, has held another job: as a paid consultant for Verizon and its trade association. And he has plenty of company. An examination of 75 think tanks found an array of researchers who had simultaneously worked as registered lobbyists, members of corporate boards or outside consultants in litigation and regulatory disputes, with only intermittent disclosure of their dual roles. With their expertise and authority, think tank scholars offer themselves as independent arbiters, playing a vital role in Washington’s political economy. Their imprimatur helps shape government decisions that can be lucrative to corporations. But the examination identified dozens of examples of scholars conducting research at think tanks while corporations were paying them to help shape government policy. Many think tanks also readily confer “nonresident scholar” status on lobbyists, former government officials and others who earn their primary living working for private clients, with few restrictions on such outside work. Largely free from disclosure requirements, the researchers’ work is often woven into elaborate corporate lobbying campaigns. “A report authored by an academic is going to have more credibility in the eyes of the regulator who is reading it,” said Michael J. Copps, a former F. C. C. commissioner who is a special adviser for the Media and Democracy Reform Initiative at Common Cause, a liberal group. “They are seeking to build credibility where none exists. ” And it is a decidedly bipartisan practice. Roger Zakheim, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, has used research to push for greater spending for new military equipment while working as a lobbyist for Pentagon suppliers like Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems, lobbying records show. At the Brookings Institution, Dr. Mark B. McClellan led a health care studies program as he served on the board of directors at Johnson Johnson, where he was paid $264, 899 last fiscal year. The company sells a hepatitis C treatment, an approach that Dr. McClellan defended from his Brookings perch. Carol M. Browner, a former top environmental adviser to President Obama, works as a paid consultant to the nuclear power industry, pushing for government policies that help keep nuclear power plants online. Until recently, she also served as an unpaid senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. The overlapping roles are often not made clear, and even members of Congress say they are frequently unaware of the financial ties between industries and the witnesses with think tank titles appearing before them at hearings. “They can make a very deceptive and false claim to credibility that is totally lacking,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, who said he had become increasingly disturbed by the role of think tank experts on Capitol Hill. “I think about it every time there is a witness now from a ‘think tank,’ putting that term in very boldface quotes. ” Scholars sometimes include general references to their work in their official biographies. Mr. Eisenach, for example, notes that he is an executive at NERA Economic Consulting in addition to his position at the American Enterprise Institute. And when a private company pays him or his consulting firm to publish a study, he discloses the name of the corporate sponsor on the study. But there is no way for the public or policy makers to know Mr. Eisenach’s full roster of NERA clients. And there is no comprehensive disclosure of these clients when he writes his think tank reports or academic papers, testifies before Congress, or meets with F. C. C. members or staff. Mr. Eisenach declined repeated requests to comment in detail. But a spokeswoman for the American Enterprise Institute, Judy Mayka Stecker, said she saw no conflict in his roles. “We believe in the open competition of ideas and encourage our scholars to engage with experts from all sectors and viewpoints,” she said. Yet even as The Times was making inquiries about the potential for conflicts of interest among some think tank researchers, officials at a number of the nation’s most prominent institutions — including Brookings and the Peterson Institute for International Economics — acknowledged that they were revising policies. “I think we have too much influence of funded research with clear interests at stake that is treated as though it is independent and academic research,” said Yochai Benkler, a professor at Harvard Law School and of its Berkman Klein Center for Internet Society. “There is no culture in the discipline to mark funded research clearly, or systematically treat it as less reliable. ” Several weeks after Tom Wheeler was sworn in as the F. C. C. chairman in 2013, he received a letter signed by more than a dozen prominent economists and scholars identified by their affiliations with Washington think tanks or academic institutions. The economic evidence, they declared, showed that the internet should not be regulated as a public utility. They urged Mr. Wheeler to reject “net neutrality” regulations that would give the federal government additional powers to oversee the $100 billion market for internet services, dominated by ATT, Verizon and Comcast. A footnote on the first page of the letter indicated that none of the scholars who signed had been compensated by stakeholder companies. But of the dozen studies they submitted as evidence, more than half had been funded by telecommunications giants or based on other work for the companies, industry ties that were disclosed only in footnotes in the original studies. No federal rules required broader disclosure. Yet on many highly technical policy issues like telecommunications regulation, scholarship is dominated by research, according to a review of hundreds of studies, regulatory filings and other documents. “Let’s say you’re in legal and you want to have a paper that says what you want it to say,” said Dennis Weller, a former Verizon economist who occasionally consults for telecommunications companies and international organizations. “You could have a bunch of economists in house and ask them if they agree with you. How much easier would it be to go to an outside economist and say, ‘How about if I pay you $100, 000 to write this? ’” Few policy battles have had higher stakes in recent years than the debate over net neutrality — a catchall term for proposals to restrict internet service providers from blocking websites or regulating speed. To bolster their claims that the regulations would hurt consumers, companies have financed research that contends the rules would reduce investment in new services and raise prices. That work is used to shape the public debate and to build an narrative in the regulatory record, one that the F. C. C. is required by law to evaluate. research has also figured prominently in court battles over F. C. C. efforts to regulate the internet. When Verizon successfully opposed an earlier F. C. C. rule on net neutrality, more than half of the 23 studies or expert declarations cited in court filings had been sponsored directly by telecommunications companies or trade associations, according to an analysis by The Times. Other studies had been published under the banner of think tanks but written by scholars who consulted extensively for companies. The attacks began to grow particularly heated nearly two years ago, when Mr. Obama called on Mr. Wheeler and his fellow F. C. C. commissioners to regulate the internet like traditional phone lines. In December 2014, Robert Litan, then a senior fellow at Brookings, and Hal Singer, then a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, released a “policy brief” claiming that such a proposal could cost $15 billion in new fees. (They later revised the figure to $11 billion.) The study mentioned their employment at Economists Incorporated, a consulting firm in Washington. But a reader would have had to do more research to learn that Economists Incorporated’s clients included ATT and Verizon, companies leading the industry’s charge against the commission proposal. That was disclosed on a “select client list” on the Economists Incorporated website. Mr. Singer and Mr. Litan’s study quickly became central to the industry’s lobbying campaign. The National Cable and Telecommunications Association, a trade group that is listed as an Economists Incorporated client, began an advertising campaign, based on the study, that ran in Washington and beyond. When debate on the proposal started in Congress, the study was repeatedly cited by lawmakers who wanted to block Mr. Wheeler’s plan. “People who are running advertisements are not going to say, ‘In a study we paid for,’” said Mr. Litan, now an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “In the public discourse, the disclaimers often do get dropped. ” Mr. Singer, in a Twitter post directed at critics of the study, was a bit more blunt. “None of us works for free,” Mr. Singer wrote. “So let’s focus on the merits be nice to each other!” In an interview, Mr. Singer said he — like most scholars — disclosed when a client commissioned a particular study published through his consulting firm. Most specialists in the telecommunications field, he suggested, are well aware of his business connections and views on regulatory issues. “Everybody is on different teams,” Mr. Singer said. “So long as you tell the audience what team you are on, you can then offer the opinions. Disclosure is the antidote to all of this. ” Few scholars have been as active in the net neutrality debate as Mr. Eisenach. At least a dozen times between 2007 and 2016, Mr. Eisenach published studies — including one analysis later released under the American Enterprise Institute’s banner — that were underwritten by Verizon or a trade association. (He also wrote two papers last year for Facebook, which has declared its support for net neutrality.) In the fall of 2013, he became the director of the think tank’s new center on media and internet policy. A few months later, he joined NERA, one of the country’s oldest and economic consultancies, as a senior vice president of the firm’s telecommunications practice, the latest in a string of jobs at industry consulting firms. “Jeff is good at linking big theoretical ideas to policy, and he’s been good at making money doing that,” said Mr. Weller, the former Verizon economist. “He’s been good at moving from think tank to think tank and company to company, and I don’t think he’s ever lost money doing it. ” Mr. Eisenach has testified before Congress, filed comment letters to the F. C. C. that mention his status as an American Enterprise Institute scholar, and met privately with F. C. C. commissioners, according to emails obtained through an open records request. He has also organized public briefings featuring, among others, Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, the chairman of the Senate commerce committee, which oversees the F. C. C. Mr. Eisenach used his position as a think tank researcher to help rally opposition to net neutrality regulations. At a given moment, it can be difficult to determine which hat Mr. Eisenach is wearing. In September 2014, at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on net neutrality, the formal meeting agenda listed Mr. Eisenach as a visiting scholar at the institute. His written testimony mentioned that he also served as “ of NERA Economic Consulting’s Communications, Media and Internet Practice,” but included no explicit reference to clients like Verizon. As he opened his testimony, Mr. Eisenach suggested that his opposition was based purely on his personal views. “While I am here in my capacity as a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, the views I express are my own, should not be attributed to A. E. I. or to any of the organizations with which I am affiliated,” he said. He then detailed his vehement opposition to further federal regulation of the internet. “The potential costs of net neutrality regulation are both sweeping and severe,” he said. “It is best understood as an effort by one set of private interests to enrich itself by using the power of the state. ” Both the institute and his consulting firm posted his testimony on their websites. Mr. Eisenach was similarly ambiguous when he interacted with members of the F. C. C. according to dozens of emails obtained by The Times, all but one of which was sent from Mr. Eisenach’s email address at the American Enterprise Institute. On behalf of the think tank, he sought meetings with F. C. C. commissioners and lawyers to discuss the rules, and briefed the commission’s Republican members on what its general counsel was telling him about Mr. Wheeler’s thinking. Mr. Eisenach offered speaking slots at American Enterprise Institute events to the two Republican members on the commission, urging one to use a January 2015 forum to speak out against the proposed regulations. “Net neutrality is obviously top of mind,” he said in an email to that commissioner, Michael O’Rielly. “I’d be delighted if you would use the opportunity to lay out the case against. ” Ms. Stecker, the institute spokeswoman, said it should be no surprise that the opinions of experts like Mr. Eisenach were in demand. The think tank requires scholars to submit an annual report on any “outside activities,” she added, and A. E. I. has “not as an institution sought to influence or constrain” this work. Other technology companies like Google and Comcast have also underwritten research by think tank scholars, whose findings typically dovetail with the companies’ lobbying agenda. Geoffrey Manne, for example, who runs the International Center for Law and Economics and is a senior fellow at the think tank TechFreedom, has frequently written pieces questioning federal antitrust investigations of Google while accepting financial support from the company. While private consulting arrangements can leave scholars’ ties to corporate interests murky, the conflict is more apparent when think tank researchers do double duty as registered lobbyists. C. Stewart Verdery Jr. as a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, one of Washington’s most influential think tanks, hosted a panel of experts in December to discuss a federal program — now being expanded — that tightens border security by having the American authorities conduct passport checks in foreign airports. Mr. Verdery made clear that he favored the preclearance effort, which speeds the arrival of travelers in the United States. “It provides unmatched benefits to our security, travel facilitation and passenger convenience,” Mr. Verdery said as he introduced the other speakers, including Howard Eng, the president and chief executive of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, during an event that was broadcast on . Mr. Verdery, a former senior official at the Department of Homeland Security whose office helped run the inspection program at foreign airports, briefly mentioned that in addition to his status as a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, he was the founder of the Monument Policy Group. Left unsaid: Mr. Eng’s airports authority is one of Mr. Verdery’s regular lobbying clients, paying his firm $130, 000 last year to influence the Obama administration and Congress. Officials at the Toronto airport, with Mr. Verdery’s help, have been trying to persuade the American authorities to increase staff and equipment to reduce bottlenecks sometimes created by the preclearance program. Asked whether it was appropriate for a lobbyist to host his clients at a think tank event, Mr. Verdery said, “It is fairly typical. ” Mr. Verdery is not paid by the think tank, he noted. He does benefit from the C. S. I. S. title, however, when laying out a client’s case. As of late last year, at least 70 unpaid senior advisers and associates listed on the think tank’s website had simultaneously worked as consultants. Seven others listed as C. S. I. S. senior advisers or associates during the past five years had worked as registered corporate lobbyists while holding the positions. Officials at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, when asked about Mr. Verdery, said his December presentation should not have occurred. “This event did not meet our standards of transparency and integrity,” the think tank said in a statement in response to questions. “This constituted a lapse in oversight from C. S. I. S. ” Mr. Verdery is no longer listed among the think tank’s senior associates. Bruce Bartlett, a scholar who has worked at the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation, said it was becoming the norm in Washington for lobbyists and consultants like Mr. Verdery to vie for nonresident scholar posts to help them burnish sales pitches to corporate clients. “Clients prefer it that way,” Mr. Bartlett said. “They get a chance to have their work done by scholars. ” Christopher Miller, a former policy adviser to Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, has worked as a paid senior visiting fellow on energy and environmental issues at Third Way, a centrist think tank, while also a registered lobbyist for Covanta Energy, which owns facilities that burn municipal trash. Mr. Miller acknowledged in an interview that his clients could benefit from the work he had done briefing members of Congress on behalf of his think tank. “I don’t think they see any downside,” Mr. Miller said of his corporate clients and the think tank. While Mr. Miller is not well known, he has company. Within three months of leaving Congress in January 2011, Byron L. Dorgan, a former Democratic senator from North Dakota, had been named a of government relations and a senior policy adviser for the energy industry lobbying team at the Washington offices at Arent Fox — as well as a senior fellow, specializing in energy issues, at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington think tank. Mr. Dorgan did not immediately register as a lobbyist, but his firm has oil and gas industry clients. Using his post at the Bipartisan Policy Center, Mr. Dorgan urged Congress and the Obama administration to do more to promote oil and gas production in the United States. He was often joined by Trent Lott, a former Republican senator from Mississippi and another Bipartisan Policy Center fellow working simultaneously as a lobbyist. Together, they sent letters under think tank letterhead to Congress, and Mr. Dorgan testified before the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power in favor of expanded oil and gas production in the United States. Mr. Dorgan’s most aggressive efforts relate to the National Biodiesel Board, which he has represented as a lobbyist since 2014, earning his firm $240, 000 a year. He has written pieces, given speeches and set up meetings with top officials at the Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of the biodiesel board, emails obtained by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting show. Mr. Dorgan generally does identify himself as both a think tank scholar and an Arent Fox senior policy adviser representing the biodiesel industry. Asked if his dual role represented a conflict of interest, Mr. Dorgan said that the premise of the Bipartisan Policy Center was “to bring interested parties together to find solutions to difficult problems,” and that he was proud to work there. Mr. Zakheim, of the American Enterprise Institute, is also a lobbyist at Covington Burling L. L. P. where, on behalf of BAE Systems, he is urging Congress and the Defense Department to increase spending on ground combat vehicles that the company manufactures. Other clients include Northrop Grumman, which is building a new Air Force bomber. In October, as a “visiting fellow,” Mr. Zakheim contributed to an American Enterprise Institute report, “To Rebuild America’s Military,” which concluded that strengthening the military’s ground forces and land combat vehicles would be an “essential key to deterrence in Europe and success in the greater Middle East. ” The report did not mention that Mr. Zakheim was a paid lobbyist. His client, BAE, recently won a contract to supply the vehicles. Some scholars add another twist: They serve on corporate boards directly related to their areas of expertise at think tanks. Dr. McClellan, a former commissioner at the Food and Drug Administration who until January was a senior fellow at Brookings, has been a expert for the federal government as it debates how to cope with surging costs of prescription drugs. At public events, Dr. McClellan emphasized the extraordinary progress by the pharmaceutical industry in coming up with treatments for diseases like diabetes, H. I. V. and hepatitis C. “Lots of diseases have been transformed,” Dr. McClellan said at a hearing in November sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services. He ran through a series of slides prominently stamped with Brookings’s name. He also argued that even though these drugs were very expensive, they were worth it given the improvement in a patient’s quality of life. “They are, over all, a pretty good deal,” Dr. McClellan said, referring to treatments for hepatitis C. One such drug, manufactured by Johnson Johnson, generated $2. 3 billion in sales in its first full year, representing about 7 percent of the company’s overall drug sales in 2014. The pills cost $66, 000 for a standard regimen. There was no mention in a video of the event that Dr. McClellan joined Johnson Johnson’s board of directors in October 2013, or that he earned nearly $530, 000 over the past two years in overall compensation from the company. That is in addition to his salary at Brookings, where he is one of the scholars, with $353, 145 in wages and other compensation from the think tank in 2014, tax records show. Dr. McClellan, in a statement, disputed any suggestion that he might have had a conflict. “My entire career in academics, government and public policy has focused on ways to improve health and restrain costs for consumers, and my extensive track record speaks for itself,” he said. Ms. Browner, a former E. P. A. administrator under President Bill Clinton, has traveled to cities around the world — including Chicago and Davos, Switzerland — where introductions of her included her credential as a distinguished senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. But she is also a member of the leadership council of Nuclear Matters, an group that pays her to promote nuclear energy. At these stops, she has argued that any solution to climate change must include nuclear energy because it generates power without producing emissions that are blamed for global warming, even though, as an environmentalist, she was once a critic of nuclear power. She said that her change of heart on nuclear power had predated her engagement with Nuclear Matters, and was motivated by her desire to combat climate change, not by payment from the industry. “Obviously, the single most important thing any individual has is their reputation,” she said in an interview. “I have worked really hard to be forthcoming about what I stand for and believe in. I am who I am. ” Ms. Browner has since resigned as a senior fellow at the center, but she remains on the board. Adam S. Posen, the president of the Peterson Institute, considered the world’s think tank on global economics, has a commanding view of the construction of the new headquarters for the American Enterprise Institute, as well as the main office of Brookings. In his office, he recently had a series of uncomfortable conversations with three scholars he had decided to let go. After much internal debate, Mr. Posen decided to formally prohibit Peterson’s scholars from holding outside jobs that directly related to the field they wrote about on behalf of the think tank. The three who had such outside engagements were terminated. Mr. Posen noted that the change did not imply the researchers had done anything wrong. But tighter rules are needed, he said, to respond to a growing sense he shares with the Peterson board that the think tank industry must reassert its commitment to impartiality. “I live in a glass house,” said Mr. Posen, a economist who previously served on the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England, gesturing toward the glass that provides him stunning views. “Our reputation is built on our credibility,” Mr. Posen said. “Without being perceived as credible and objective, our studies just get thrown on the scrap heap. ” The Urban Institute, a think tank that focuses on issues confronting cities, has decided to require that its scholars with any outside jobs detail the relationship in their writings. “Urban’s greatest asset is its reputation for objective research that is based upon rigorous academic and ethical standards,” the institute’s president, Sarah Rosen Wartell, said in a December memo to her staff. And at Brookings, executives imposed new rules in December requiring that unpaid nonresident scholars use their title from any paying job, not from Brookings, if they testify before Congress. They are also prohibited from using their affiliation with Brookings in any research report they publish under contract with an outside party. “These are designed to avoid not just conflicts of interests, but the appearance of conflicts of interests,” said Martin S. Indyk, the executive vice president at Brookings. Separately, Brookings terminated its relationship with Mr. Litan in September after he failed to make clear that testimony he provided to a Senate committee last year, based on a study he had done as a private consultant, “left the false impression that Brookings was connected with the report and the testimony,” Strobe Talbott, the Brookings president, said in a letter explaining the matter. Mr. Eisenach, for reasons he would not specify, said he was no longer working on issues related to net neutrality — even though he had taken up the topic on behalf of the American Enterprise Institute as recently as January and published an report through his consulting firm in February that discussed it. “I’ve moved on to other issues,” Mr. Eisenach said. Such steps are long overdue, said Thomas Medvetz, the author of the 2012 book “Think Tanks in America” and an associate professor of sociology at the University of California, San Diego. “It has gotten to the point where everyone in Washington has their own expert,” Mr. Medvetz said. “It is yet another reflection of the tremendous influence of economic power in American politics — as with money, you can create your own vehicles of political influence. ” Still, not everyone is worried about the multiple roles played by think tank scholars. Representative Greg Walden, Republican of Oregon, oversaw a House hearing on the F. C. C. ’s net neutrality rule early last year. Among the evidence he submitted into the congressional record was a Wall Street Journal article by Robert M. McDowell, a Hudson Institute scholar who also serves as a telecommunications industry lawyer at a firm retained by ATT to lobby on net neutrality. “Everyone’s got their point of view,” Mr. Walden said in an interview last year. “And some of them get paid to have that point of view. ” | 1 |
Mises.org November 1, 2016 Inferno is a great thriller, featuring Tom Hanks reprising his role as Professor Robert Langdon. The previous movie adaptations of Dan Brown’s books ( Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code ) were a success, and I expect Inferno will do well in theaters, too. Langdon is a professor of symbology whose puzzle solving skills and knowledge of history come in high demand when a billionaire leaves a trail of clues based on Dante’s Inferno to a biological weapon that would halve the world’s population. The villain, however, has good motives. As a radical Malthusian, he believes that the human race needs halving if it is to survive at all, even if through a plague. Malthus’s name is not mentioned in the movie, but his ideas are certainly there. Inferno provides us an opportunity to unpack this overpopulation fear, and see where it stands today. Thomas Malthus (1766–1834) thought that the potential exponential growth of population was a problem. If the population increases faster than the means of subsistence, then, “The superior power of population cannot be checked without producing misery or vice.” Is overpopulation a problem? The economics of population size tell a different, less scary, story. While it is certainly possible that some areas can become too crowded for some people’s preferences, as long as people are free to buy and sell land for a mutually agreeable price, overcrowding will fix itself. As an introvert who enjoys nature and peace and quiet, I am certainly less willing to rent an apartment in the middle of a busy, crowded city. The prices I’m willing to pay for country living versus city living reflect my preferences. And, to the extent that others share my preferences or even have the opposite preferences, the use and construction of homes and apartments will economize in both locations. Our demands and the profitability of the varied real estate offerings keep local populations in check. But what about on a global scale? The Inferno villain was concerned with world population. He stressed the urgency of the situation, but I don’t see any reason to worry. Google tells me that we could fit the entire world population in Texas and everybody would have a small, 100 square meter plot to themselves. Indeed, there are vast stretches of land across the globe with little to no human inhabitants. Malthus and his ideological followers must have a biased perspective, only looking at the crowded streets of a big city. If it’s not land that’s a problem, what about the “means of subsistence”? Are we at risk of running out of food, medicine, or other resources because of our growing population? No. A larger population not only means more mouths to feed, but also more heads, hands, and feet to do the producing. Also, as populations increase, so does the variety of skills available to make production even more efficient. More people means everybody can specialize in a more specific and more productive comparative advantage and participate in a division of labor. Perhaps this question will drive the point home: Would you rather be stranded on an island with two other people or 20 other people? Malthus wouldn’t be a Malthusian if he could see this data The empirical evidence is compelling, too. In the graph below, we can see the sort of world Malthus saw: one in which most people were barely surviving, especially compared to our current situation. Our 21st-century world tells a different story. Extreme poverty is on the decline even while world population is increasing. Hans Rosling, a Swedish medical doctor and “celebrity statistician,” is famous for his “Don’t Panic” message about population growth. He sees that as populations and economies grow, more have access to birth control and limit the size of their families. In this video , he shows that all countries are heading toward longer lifespans and greater standards of living. Finally, there’s the hockey stick of human prosperity. Estimates of GDP per capita on a global, millennial scale reveal a recent dramatic turn. The inflection point coincides with the industrial revolution. Embracing the productivity of steam-powered capital goods and other technologies sparked a revolution in human well-being across the globe. Since then, new sources of energy have been harnessed and computers entered the scene. Now, computers across the world are connected through the internet and have been made small enough to fit in our pockets. Goods, services, and ideas zip across the globe, while human productivity increases beyond what anybody could have imagined just 50 years ago.
I don’t think Malthus himself would be a Malthusian if he could see the world today.
Note: The views expressed on Mises.org are not necessarily those of the Mises Institute. The Best of Jonathan Newman Tags: Jonathan Newman was a 2013 and 2014 Summer Fellow at the Mises Institute and teaches economics at Auburn University. | 1 |
BEIJING — When President Xi Jinping of China meets foreign leaders, he tends to recite talking points in a dutiful monotone, diplomats say. But when challenges to China’s sovereignty come up — like protests in Hong Kong — he roars to life. “He read flatly from the script,” one Western official said of such a meeting. “But when it got to China’s core interests, these disputes, he put down his notes and spoke passionately. ” For anyone puzzling over why China reacted so swiftly and severely to block two politicians from taking their seats in Hong Kong’s legislature, Mr. Xi’s expansive idea of sovereignty is a good place to start. “He lets you know that this is what really matters,” said the Western official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a meeting with Mr. Xi. China’s Communist National People’s Congress stepped in on Monday and effectively barred the two from taking office, saying they had slurred Beijing in their oath of office. The politicians, Sixtus Leung and Yau were elected to the Hong Kong Legislative Council in September on a platform. In taking their oaths last month, they substituted a word for China that is widely seen as derogatory, and Ms. Yau added a common obscenity. There were other, less draconian ways to resolve the impasse. Mr. Leung, known as Baggio, and Ms. Yau, for instance, agreed to retake their oaths properly. The president of the council said it should decide its own affairs. Even Hong Kong’s chief executive, a loyal supporter of Beijing, was willing to leave the decision to Hong Kong’s judiciary. But that was not to be. “What could have been handled in a moderate fashion,” said Michael C. Davis, a former law professor in Hong Kong who is now a researcher in Washington, “became a constitutional crisis, affording Beijing an opportunity to advance its sovereignty agenda. ” Or as Richard C. Bush, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, put it, “Instead of ignoring independence and localist sentiment, which Chinese leaders should have done, they shone a spotlight on” it. Beijing decided it had to respond strongly and to make an example of the wayward politicians. “Some people think there was no need to worry, that they could never win independence and their forces are too puny,” Zou Pingxue, a professor of law in Shenzhen, China, said by telephone. “But there was the dangerous tendency that the Hong Kong independence phenomenon could grow larger and spin out of control. ” A punitive response was in character for Mr. Xi, who has waged a blistering campaign against corruption that has jailed thousands of officials. Moreover, a tight grip on Hong Kong comports with his job as the leader of national rejuvenation, which he sees as a mission. Even before this a string of actions since last year showed how Mr. Xi is willing to recast, override or ignore laws and conventions that stood in the way of what he sees as China’s powers over its territory and citizens, wherever they may be. Hong Kong booksellers peddling garish tales about China’s elite were snatched into the mainland. Chinese dissidents on the run were spirited back to their homeland from Thailand, despite United Nations protection as refugees. Beijing has not recognized an international tribunal’s rejection of its claims over much of the South China Sea, although it signed the treaty behind the decision. Covert squads abroad have induced absconding officials to return to China from the United States and other states that have no extradition agreements with Beijing. Beijing has a stronger legal argument for its intervention in Hong Kong, over which it has sovereignty. But under the agreement that returned Hong Kong to China from Britain in 1997, Beijing agreed to allow Hong Kong to maintain its separate system for 50 years. Beijing has long treated Hong Kong as a worrisome bridgehead that allows politically toxic ideas, books and people to seep into the adjoining mainland. But until Mr. Xi took office, China’s leaders were less inclined to intervene in the city, which has its legal autonomy and freedoms enshrined in a known as the Basic Law. That reluctance has evaporated over the last two years. In 2014, Mr. Xi’s government issued a policy paper on Hong Kong that rattled many in the city who saw it as watering down their legal protections. Then an election plan for the city fell far short of competitive elections that many Hong Kong residents demanded, and protests erupted that occupied streets in the city center for nearly three months. Those failed protests kindled Hong Kong’s small, youthful movement. Most residents view their demands as unrealistic or undesirable. But in elections in September, activists gained a foothold in the Legislative Council, which skewed voting rules ensure is dominated by politicians loyal to Beijing. Lawyers disagree over whether Chinese legislators had the power to interpret the Basic Law that is supposed to guard the city’s legal autonomy. Even so, the move has unnerved many in Hong Kong, because it occurred before the city’s courts, with a tradition of independence rooted in common law, decided a case over whether the politicians could take their seats. “It intrudes upon an ongoing case before the courts in Hong Kong,” said Mr. Davis, the former law professor. “There is no doubt that it raises concern over both the integrity of the Hong Kong judicial system and Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy. ” Now the Hong Kong courts must rule on the case in light of China’s interpretation, which says that even city lawmakers who take their oath of office correctly will “bear legal responsibility” if their sincerity is found lacking. Already, the decision has ignited street protests in Hong Kong, recalling the demonstrations of 2014. But defenders of China’s position said its leaders would not back down as they have done before. “Some people have said the People’s Congress should exercise that we shouldn’t use powers to their utmost,” Li Fei, a deputy secretary general of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, told reporters on Monday. “We say that the powers must be used. ” | 1 |
By Sarah Jones on Tue, Nov 1st, 2016 at 1:26 pm Comey struggled with not wanting to appear biased as the FBI investigated Russian interference with the U.S. presidential election, and so he told the Obama administration not to accuse Russia of the DNC hackings lest they be seen as "partisan". Share on Twitter Print This Post
Russia did hack the Democrats. So all of that email information that the media has been reporting came from a foreign entity that seeks to alter the outcome of the U.S. election.
But FBI Director James Comey struggled with not wanting to appear biased as the FBI investigated Russian interference with the U.S. presidential election, and so he told the Obama administration not to accuse Russia of the DNC hackings lest they be seen as “partisan”.
Republican FBI Director James Comey advised the Obama administration not to publicly accuse Russia of hacking the DNC and more “on the grounds that it would make the administration appear unduly partisan too close to the Nov. 8 election,” officials “familiar with the deliberations” told the Washington Post.
These sources with knowledge of the internal discussions spoke to the Post on the condition of anonymity.
There are a few reasons why Comey might want to keep his agency’s investigation of Russian interference under the radar, but given his choice to publicly suggest that his agency might be re-opening its exhaustive investigation of Clinton’s emails, which resulted from a Republican-led, bogus, overreaching and seemingly endless Benghazi investigation that also cleared Clinton, it seems odd that Comey was going to stay silent on the Russia matter.
Comey’s decisions is especially odd given the reports that the Russians have been communicating and coordinating with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to the point that he is already “compromised.”
Only one of these matters might allow a foreign power control over the United States president.
The same sources tell the Post that Comey made the decision to reveal the Clinton emails to Congress because he had already testified in that matter and said the investigation was closed, which suggests that he was concerned with his own reputation.
Not sure I’m buying that because if Comey really only cared about his own reputation ahead of not appearing partisan he wouldn’t have said anything at all, but that doesn’t mean that his motives were nefarious.
There might well be good reason for this – after all, this is the FBI and they can’t tell us everything, but as of right now Comey has mishandled this `and appears to be trying to influence an election to help Republicans. Just because he is a Republican and just because he has donated to Republicans doesn’t mean he isn’t doing his job properly.
But Comey has a lot of explaining to do right now. He is under fire for good reason, as the explanations he’s giving for these decisions don’t make sense and are contradictory. | 0 |
WASHINGTON — One by one, the senators shuffled to the lectern on Wednesday, explaining themselves grimly, reflecting on the specter of mutually assured destruction and wondering aloud how the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Neil M. Gorsuch had delivered the institution to this moment. It was the eve of two seminal votes for the Capitol’s upper chamber: an expected Democratic filibuster of Judge Gorsuch on Thursday and a likely rule change pushed by Republicans — the nuclear option — to bypass the filibuster and confirm President Trump’s selection with a simple majority vote. On a few points, at least, bipartisan consensus seemed to have congealed: This is terrible for the Senate. This is terrible for the country. And this is happening. Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, spoke of the “further and perhaps irreparable damage it will do to the United States Senate. ” Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, suggested it was a trying time to be a lawmaker who prides herself “as one who believes in the traditions of the Senate. ” Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, held forth wistfully on a bygone era in these halls. “We need to get back,” he said, “to the comity that we’ve had. ” And these were the “yes” votes on the nuclear option. Yet as they have argued all week, from the moment Democrats secured the votes to block the nomination under current rules, Republicans insisted on Wednesday that they had no choice but to pursue this course. “Democrats would filibuster Ruth Bader Ginsburg if President Trump nominated her,” the Republican majority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said from the Senate floor. “We all know why. Democrats are bowing to special interests that can’t get over the results of the election. ” The minority party has framed its opposition differently. Democrats have cited concerns over Judge Gorsuch’s record on workers’ rights and his degree of independence from Mr. Trump, among other issues. They have also reminded the public of the treatment last year of Judge Merrick B. Garland, President Barack Obama’s nominee for the seat left vacant with the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Republicans, led by Mr. McConnell, refused to even consider Judge Garland during a presidential election year. “The truth is, each side can blame the other,” said Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, making clear which side he blamed more. “We believe they’re more in the wrong. They believe we’re more in the wrong. The game of pointing fingers and can go back and back and back to the very founding of the republic. ” But the remedy, Mr. Schumer argued, was not to bulldoze longstanding rules and traditions it was to find a compromise nominee who could earn 60 votes. “If the majority leader breaks the rules tomorrow — and that’s his choice,” Mr. Schumer began, warning that Mr. McConnell would be “erasing the last shred of bipartisanship in the Senate confirmation process. ” No senator logged more speaking hours on Wednesday (and Tuesday) than Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, who held the floor until midmorning after a more than overnight to protest the nomination. It was not technically a proper filibuster, as no Senate business was being delayed. But it was certainly a feat of congressional stamina and content enhancement, with rousing flourishes, meandering detours and encouragement from his Democratic peers on social media. “I’m here on the floor at 4:20 in the morning,” he said at one point, nearing 10 hours in, “because so much is at stake. ” In his remarks, Mr. Merkley argued that Judge Gorsuch’s rulings had disproportionately favored the privileged. He suggested that the Senate should not confirm a lifetime appointee of Mr. Trump’s amid investigations into ties between the president’s orbit and Russia. He quoted George Washington and lamented creeping commercialism and an erosion of civic participation. Republicans have pointed to assorted moments of Democratic escalation, including attempts to block judicial nominees under President George W. Bush and the party’s choice in 2013, when Democrats controlled the Senate, to bar filibusters on lower judgeships and executive branch nominees. Senator Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina, said the week’s events owed to the “physics of politics,” framing the rule change as an inevitable outgrowth of a rare partisan filibuster of a Supreme Court pick whom conservatives view as plainly qualified and uncontroversial. “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction,” Mr. Scott said. “An unprecedented action is going to provoke an unprecedented reaction. ” Still, several lawmakers sought to present themselves as pained, fueling an unusual dynamic on Capitol Hill. At least a handful of Republicans predicted that their votes would damage the country and the future of the judiciary, but described the alternative — letting Judge Gorsuch’s nomination die — as even less palatable. “Now that we’re entering into an era where a simple majority decides all judicial nominations, we will see more and more nominees from the extremes of both left and right,” Mr. McCain said. “I do not see how that will ensure a fair and impartial judiciary. ” Republicans have vowed that Judge Gorsuch will be confirmed on Friday. | 1 |
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan officials said on Tuesday that their commando forces had reclaimed the main city square in Kunduz from the Taliban and were making gains elsewhere in the vital provincial capital, where the insurgents overran central neighborhoods on Monday. Residents and local police officers reached by telephone said that clashes were continuing, with the insurgents focusing on the police headquarters and the governor’s compound. Ahmad Javed Salim, a spokesman for the Afghan Army special forces in Kunduz, said a small team of American forces was on the ground near the governor’s compound to guide airstrikes if necessary. “They are not fighting the Taliban they are here to manage the air support,” Mr. Salim said. “We asked the United States forces for air support, and now we and the U. S. forces are in the planning stage. ” Brig. Gen. Charles H. Cleveland, a spokesman for the United States forces in Afghanistan, said he could not provide details on “the current disposition of enabler and train, advise and assist forces” because the operation was still underway. General Cleveland said the American forces had not carried out airstrikes directly on the city but “had one engagement via a helicopter this morning in the west of the city,” adding that the helicopter dropped off Afghan forces to join the fight. Asadullah Omarkhel, the governor of Kunduz Province, said the military’s clearance operations would continue until the city and its surroundings were free of insurgents. “The armed opposition are using people’s homes as shields, and that is why our clearance operations are slow, to make sure civilians are not harmed,” he said. But Amruddin Wali, a member of the provincial council, said local officials were exaggerating their successes and accused them of deceiving the Afghan people and the central government. “It’s not the home of the police chief, or the army division commander, or the zone commander that is burning,” Mr. Wali said. “It’s the ordinary people’s homes and lives that are ruined, and the officials are continuing with their lies. ” Mr. Wali said the government controlled the area between Kunduz’s airport and the main city square, where it had parked armored vehicles. But, he said, “You can’t go past the main square without armored vehicles. ” The coordinated Taliban attack on Kunduz, about a year after the city was briefly taken by the insurgents, began from four directions before dawn on Monday. Alarm began to spread as the Taliban reached the main square, posting updates of their progress on social media. While insurgent fighters infiltrated large parts of the city, the government managed to hold on to its main administrative and security buildings. Stern warnings were issued to members of the Afghan forces not to abandon their posts, as many have done in past assaults. Civilians, once again, were bearing the brunt of the fighting, with the roads out of the city closed off by Taliban checkpoints. And though the Taliban’s main focus seemed to remain on Kunduz, the closing of the roads had residents in neighboring Baghlan Province also worried. While exact casualty figures from the Kunduz battle were not available, with residents taking their wounded to different health centers across the city, at least 151 were wounded and one was killed, according to Abdul Hami Alam, the provincial health director. Massoud Payez, who lives near the headquarters of the police in the city center, said that his neighborhood was still on lockdown and that movement in the city was limited. “We can’t leave our homes. The shops and bakeries are closed,” Mr. Payez said. “The police are firing from the towers of their headquarters, and the commandos are also firing from one side. And the Taliban are at the other end of the street. ” Shafi Zakhil, the police commander for the second precinct, where the governor’s office is, said that the area was the front line and that United States forces were helping defend the governor’s compound. “I am in Fatema Zahra School, which is in front of the governor’s office, and it is the front line,” he said. “U. S. forces are around the governor’s office and the police headquarters with their tanks. Taliban are on top of a building near the governor’s office and police headquarters. ” Qand Agha, an officer inside the police headquarters, said that the Taliban had mounted 11 attacks on the building since Monday night but that they were pushed back by the police each time. American military officials say they are determined to prevent major cities from falling the way Kunduz did last year. But the fallout from an American warplane’s deadly barrage on the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz during efforts to retake the city last October hangs over any decision to have American forces directly enter the fighting. At least 42 people were killed in that continuous series of airstrikes, which the Doctors Without Borders called a war crime. The timing of the latest assault on Kunduz seemed aimed at embarrassing the leaders of the Afghan coalition government, who are in Brussels to ask for continued financial support at a conference attended by dozens of world leaders. The governments represented at the conference are expected to pledge more than $3 billion in annual development aid over the next four years, in addition to the funds spent by NATO and the United States in covering much of the expenses of the Afghan security forces. In the southern province of Helmand, Afghan officials said their forces were trying to push back the Taliban from Nawa district, the fall of which to the Taliban has added pressure on the provincial capital city, Lashkar Gah. The insurgents basically overran the entire district on Sunday night, killing the district’s police chief. On Tuesday afternoon, there was conflicting information about whether the district governor’s compound was controlled by the Afghan forces or the Taliban. Aqa Muhammad Takra, the district governor who was in Lashkar Gah, said Afghan Army forces were still holed up in the district governor’s compound, which was surrounded by the Taliban. Additional Afghan forces had arrived to try to break the siege, and they managed to recover the police chief’s body from the police headquarters, he said. | 1 |
On Saturday, Jackie Chan, a legend in martial arts cinema, finally received an Oscar. Those movie buffs familiar only with Mr. Chan’s appearances in blockbusters like the “Rush Hour” trilogy and “Shanghai Noon” may not realize just how long a career the Hong Kong native has had as an actor, director and producer. Mr. Chan, 62, who began acting when he was very young, has wowed audiences the world over not only with the balletic, “Drunken Master” techniques in his early kung fu movies, but also with the complex action sequences and comedic timing that gave his career a long arc. And he has broken many bones doing it, he said, since he has done his own stunts. According to IMDB, the online film website, he has appeared in 134 films as an actor. But if you count his directing, producing and writing, as well, his film credits may number well over 200, as he noted when accepting the Honorary Oscar. “After 56 years in the film industry, making more than 200 films — I break so many bones — finally, this is mine,” he said, shaking the golden statue. In his acceptance speech, a beaming Mr. Chan told a story about a time his father asked when he was going to win an Academy Award. “Dad, I only make movies,” Mr. Chan recalled saying. He told how he had become obsessed with the award after seeing one at the home of Sylvester Stallone, and recounted his disbelief upon hearing that he had finally received it. Mr. Chan was among a roster of artists to receive the Honorary Academy Award, whose recipients were announced in September. It’s given to celebrate “extraordinary achievement” and “exceptional contributions” over the course of a filmmaker’s career, and it was roundly celebrated on social media. A comment from Lucius Hale, a from Kristiansand, Norway, was typical. “I’m really glad that Jackie Chan got an Oscar,” he said. “That man has been part of my life so long, and his movies are so goood. ” Others celebrated Mr. Chan’s status as a trailblazing Asian actor in American films. It was difficult to find anyone on Twitter questioning whether Mr. Chan had earned the award. But for anyone who has doubts about Mr. Chan’s skill onscreen, here are five clips that, together, illustrate some of his most impressive work. 1. The scene is from “Drunken Master,” a breakout film for Mr. Chan, which became a cult classic in the United States years after its 1978 release in Hong Kong. The actor’s remarkable physical abilities are evident in the scene. But so, too, are his comedic skills, demonstrated both through the fighting scenes and his exaggerated facial expressions. The movies he made in China showed him as a canny comedian, whether he was in the midst of a fight scene or just reciting canned dialogue. 2. Here’s a scene from the end of Mr. Chan’s breakout success in America, “Rush Hour” (1998) in which he starred with Chris Tucker. Among other martial arts, Mr. Chan has long been a master of his own brand of Zui Quan, which is sometimes referred to colloquially as drunken fist, or kung fu. It’s a kind of martial arts in which a person imitates the posture and clumsiness of someone who’s had a little too much to drink. Though it’s ideal for comedy and action films, it’s can also be useful in combat. An article in Vice in 2009 explained the style’s advantages: “The great strength of drunken boxing as a trick play or philosophy is as a mask for actual fighting ability. ” 3. Mr. Chan’s success paved the way for other martial arts stars from China to break into Hollywood. Three years after Mr. Chan first experienced success in America, with “Rumble in the Bronx,” the Chinese actor Jet Li made his first appearance in an American film, “Lethal Weapon 4. ” Mr. Li went on to become a star in his own right, and he and Mr. Chan teamed up in 2008 for “The Forbidden Kingdom. ” This clip shows their fight from the film. 4. Mr. Chan’s abilities as an action star were not confined to fight scenes. He was extraordinarily adept at navigating space in all its forms, as the video — a montage of clips of and other types of sequences — shows. Before Mr. Chan was a star, he was an acrobat and a stuntman, who worked with another legend, Bruce Lee, on the 1972 film “Fist of Fury. ” In an interview with Inside magazine, Mr. Chan explained that much of his physical skill was intuitive, partly because he had started basic physical training when he was 6 or 7 years old. “After all those years, it becomes very natural,” he said. “It’s actually very hard to tell you how I train, because I just ‘know’ what to do. When I lose my balance, you just know how to get it back. So, this way, when I do a stunt, I do get hurt sometimes — but less than some other people. ” 5. Tony Zhou, the movie buff who cocreates the clips on the YouTube channel Every Frame a Painting, narrates this clip, an analysis of Mr. Chan’s ability to combine action and comedy. (Mr. Zhou declined to comment for this article.) In the clip, Mr. Zhou illustrates Mr. Chan’s depth of knowledge about film more generally, including directing and editing, commenting on his framing choices and camera angles. He also elaborates on the difference between movies shot in Hong Kong, where Mr. Chan was often given months to get scenes right, and those made by American directors, which sometimes obscure the actor’s genius. | 1 |
Nation Elects First Black-Hearted President WASHINGTON—Shattering a barrier long thought unbreakable in the United States, Donald Trump, the 70-year-old billionaire real estate mogul from New York, became the first black-hearted man in history to win the American presidency, in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Nation’s Optimists Need To Shut The Fuck Up Right Now WASHINGTON—Saying their rosy attitude about the state of the election was not helping anything given what is currently transpiring, sources confirmed Tuesday night that the nation’s optimists need to seriously shut the fuck up as soon as humanly fucking possible. | 0 |
US hacking ‘hysteria’ aimed at distracting voters: Putin US hacking ‘hysteria’ aimed at distracting voters: Putin By 0 25
Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed as “hysteria” claims by US officials that Moscow is trying to influence the upcoming presidential election in America.
Speaking to foreign policy experts during a Valdai Discussion Club meeting in Sochi, southern Russia on Thursday, Putin said Washington was using Russia as a distraction to cover the fact that this year’s White House contenders had nothing to offer on real issues.
“Hysteria has been whipped up in the United States about the influence of Russia over the U.S. presidential election,” Putin said, adding that so far no clear policies have been offered by the US political elite to tackle issues such as national debt and gun control.
American officials and intelligence agencies have openly accused the Kremlin of sponsoring hacking attacks against the US.
This is while Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her campaign have gone even further, claiming that Russia was… | 0 |
Social Media Activity Can Show Early Signs of Depression and Schizophrenia What you "like" and share could be strong indicators of a mental illness Image Credits: Simon/Pixabay .
What you post and ‘like’ on Facebook could reveal whether you’re showing the early signs of depression and schizophrenia, experts say.
Researchers from Cambridge and Stanford universities believe that studying how people behave on the social network could be more effective than studying their real-life behaviour .
That’s because people – especially teenagers – share way more emotional indicators than they would do offline. | 0 |
(Before It's News)
“Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everybody gets busy on the proof.” -J. K. Galbraith
Last month, tensions between dark matter simulations and galactic rotation observations reached a new high. Despite all the successes of dark matter on the largest scales — for the CMB, for large-scale structure, for gravitational lensing and for galaxy clusters, among others — the simplest dark matter simulations reproduced unrealistic results for how individual galaxies ought to rotate. Moreover, a team of scientists uncovered a surprising relationship: between the normal (baryonic) matter alone and the observed acceleration in galaxies.
The correlation between gravitational acceleration (y-axis) and the normal, baryonic matter (x-axis) visible in an assembly of 153 galaxies. The blue points show each individual galaxy, while the red show binned data. Image credit: The Radial Acceleration Relation in Rotationally Supported Galaxies, Stacy McGaugh, Federico Lelli and Jim Schombert, 2016. From https://arxiv.org/pdf/1609.05917v1.pdf.
If dark matter were real, then the simulations needed to reproduce that result as well, which appeared to be a tremendous challenge. Yet in a new paper, two scientists from McMaster University, Ben Keller and James Wadsley, did exactly this. Even more impressively, they didn’t make new simulations, they simply took pre-existing ones and showed that this relation does, in fact, get reproduced among all their galaxies.
While the web of dark matter (purple) might seem to determine cosmic structure formation on its own, the feedback from normal matter (red) can severely impact galactic scales. Image credit: Illustris Collaboration / Illustris Simulation.
If the modified gravity camp through down the gauntlet, the dark matter camp just revealed they had brought a bazooka to a gunfight. Go get the full story! | 0 |
DETROIT — President Trump’s goal of stimulating growth in the American auto industry is getting a big push from the seemingly insatiable appetite of consumers for more trucks and sport utility vehicles. On Tuesday, Ford Motor became the latest car company to announce major investments in its facilities in the United States, prompting Mr. Trump to hail the move as another milestone in his efforts to support domestic auto manufacturing. But the decision by Ford to invest $1. 2 billion in three Michigan locations is more about America’s love affair with pickups and S. U. V.s than about economic policies put forth by the Trump administration. Like similar announcements made this year by General Motors and Fiat Chrysler, Ford’s move is primarily driven by competitive pressures to keep pace with the surging market for new truck and S. U. V. models. The centerpiece of Ford’s investment package involves spending $850 million to upgrade its assembly plant in Wayne, Mich. to build a new Ranger pickup and Bronco S. U. V. The decision to add the new models was previously agreed to in Ford’s labor contract with the United Automobile Workers, and was hardly a surprise given the industry’s continued shift toward larger, more utilitarian vehicles. And although Mr. Trump basked in the news with a Twitter message that hailed “car companies coming back to U. S.,” Ford said the decision was prompted by the realities of the current marketplace. “These products are well positioned for where consumers are now and where they are going,” said Joseph R. Hinrichs, president of Ford’s Americas division. About three out of every five new vehicles sold in the United States are trucks and sport utility vehicles, and their popularity has been critical to the industry’s two straight years of record overall sales. The growth in larger models is partly because of low gasoline prices, as well as continued efforts by automakers to broaden their product lineups to meet demand. G. M. for example, has enjoyed success with a new line of midsize pickups that offer consumers an attractive alternative to its larger truck models. Fiat Chrysler, for its part, has expanded its portfolio of Jeep S. U. V.s to feature smaller models that incorporate the rugged styling and capability that has defined the brand for years. In Ford’s case, the company needed to branch out beyond its pickups with a new Ranger model that could compete with G. M.’s entries in the segment. Similarly, the Bronco adds another S. U. V. in Ford showrooms to rival the Jeep lineup. Mr. Hinrichs said the new models were “building on our strengths” in the truck and S. U. V. categories — even as the investments are seen as a response to Mr. Trump’s aggressive push for more American auto jobs. In addition to the investment in the Wayne assembly plant, Ford said Tuesday that it would spend $150 million to add or retain 130 jobs at a Michigan engine plant, and invest $200 million on an advanced data center to support the development of autonomous and electrified vehicles. He said the investments were not discussed with Mr. Trump when he met with auto executives on March 15 in the Detroit area, vowing to reduce government regulations to promote job growth. “It wasn’t part of that conversation,” Mr. Hinrichs said, noting that Ford has been steadily expanding its domestic manufacturing operations since the last recession. “We are glad to call this country our home,” he said. “And we are proud to be going further in our commitment to invest in manufacturing here. ” But it is difficult to deny that Mr. Trump’s intense interest in the auto industry is having an effect on the production plans of Ford, G. M. and other automakers. During his presidential campaign, Mr. Trump repeatedly criticized Ford, for example, for its plans to build a $1. 6 billion factory to make small cars in Mexico. After justifying the move on several occasions as a prudent investment, Ford suddenly scrapped the Mexican plant after Mr. Trump’s election. Since then, the company has shifted its focus to expanding and upgrading several of its facilities in its home state of Michigan. It is hardly alone. On the day of Mr. Trump’s visit to Michigan, G. M. said it would create or retain about 900 jobs in the state — mostly to support manufacturing of new trucks and S. U. V. s. This week, the Japanese automaker Honda said it would spend $85 million to improve manufacturing flexibility at its plant in Alabama that makes S. U. V. s, pickups and minivans. The industry could see more American investment in the months ahead if the truck and S. U. V. market continues to expand. And Mr. Trump could accelerate the flow of money into American plants if he follows through with his pledge to establish a border tax on vehicles imported from Mexico and elsewhere. With the American market poised for another big year of vehicle sales, companies are eager to capitalize on the strong demand while it lasts — even if it means stepping up investments to increase production or introduce new models. | 1 |
Les Miles, Louisiana State’s always eccentric, sometimes frustrating and never boring football coach, was fired four games into his 12th season, the university announced Sunday. Miles, 62, was as much a mascot of L. S. U. football as Mike the Tiger. His most famous quirk was tearing up a handful of grass from Tiger Stadium’s turf and eating it. But he was also wildly successful, with an overall record of five finishes, two national championship game appearances and, after the 2007 season, one national title. But Miles’s teams, which were always made up of many of the country’s best players according to national recruiting rankings, were seen as disappointments, particularly over the past two seasons, when the Tigers finished and . And one of the country’s most fanatical fan bases grew antsy as Alabama and Auburn, two division rivals, won a combined five national titles since L. S. U. last won one. The final straw apparently came Saturday at Auburn. L. S. U. which entered the game and ranked 18th, trailed by as the final seconds ticked away, and appeared to score a thrilling touchdown on the game’s final play. But an official review revealed that the ball had been snapped after the clock expired, negating the score, handing Auburn the victory and dropping L. S. U. to . L. S. U. said in a statement that Miles and the offensive coordinator Cam Cameron had been fired, and that the defensive line coach Ed Orgeron had been offered the job of interim coach. The news was first reported by The Advocate of Baton Rouge. Miles’s buyout, for a contract that had been set to pay him at least $4. 3 million per year through 2019, could be as high as $12. 9 million, USA Today reported last year. In virtually any context, even a relative down period like the one that L. S. U. is undergoing, would be seen as tolerable. Miles’s teams have won nine games or more in nine seasons despite playing in college football’s most competitive division, the Southeastern Conference West (all of whose seven head coaches make at least $4 million a year) at a time when that division was dominated by Alabama’s unparalleled dynasty. But L. S. U. is not virtually any context. As the only team in one of the country’s most states, the Tigers are primed for excellence. And the Tigers’ fan base, known for delicious tailgates followed by intense cheers, demands it. Miles has been skating on thin ice for a while. After the 2014 season, L. S. U. was unranked. Last year, an undefeated start for the team and a Heisman Trophy campaign for running back Leonard Fournette both skidded to a halt in a November loss to Alabama that began a losing streak. Before last year’s finale, at home against Texas AM, Miles essentially said goodbye at a gathering of L. S. U. boosters, according to reports. But Miles kept his job a little longer by winning that game against AM, and then winning the Texas Bowl, and claiming several victories on the recruiting trail, where L. S. U. netted the recruiting class in the country. Alabama and its head coach, Nick Saban, have set an unmatchable standard for Miles, with four national titles in the past seven seasons (and a current No. 1 ranking). It was Saban who led L. S. U. to its first national title in decades, after the 2003 season, and who recruited several of the stars of the 2007 team that won it for Miles. Dating from the national title game after the 2011 season, in which the Crimson Tide shut out the Tigers, at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Saban has won the last five meetings with Miles. Miles’s firing — the high cost it will require, the intolerance for what seems like sustained success it evinces — is further evidence that at its highest level college football is indistinguishable from the N. F. L. in its eagerness to try out new coaches in the quest for ultimate success. The expansion of college football’s playoffs, the continued rise in deals and the existence of entire cable networks devoted to single leagues — such as the SEC Network, which began two years ago — has upped the ante for athletic directors, giving them more money to play with but also raising expectations for a return on investment. To that end, the Tigers will probably hunt for a expensive coach. Leading candidates are likely to include Tom Herman, who has Houston ranked sixth over all in his second season, and Jimbo Fisher, Florida State’s coach. | 1 |
SAN FRANCISCO — Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, last year said they would give 99 percent of their Facebook shares to charitable causes. Now they are putting a large chunk of that money to work. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the limited liability company into which Mr. Zuckerberg and Dr. Chan put their Facebook shares, on Wednesday said it would invest at least $3 billion over the next decade toward preventing, curing or managing all diseases by the end of the century. While the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has already made investments in charter schools and education the money toward curing diseases represents the group’s first major initiative in science. The announcement was also a coming out of sorts for Dr. Chan, who has a big interest in health and was trained in pediatrics. In a speech to introduce the health initiative at an event in San Francisco on Wednesday, Dr. Chan said the work to cure disease was in keeping with her organization’s mission to advance human potential and promote equality. She gave an emotional preamble, describing how a education helped her succeed as the daughter of Chinese and Vietnamese immigrants. “We want to dramatically improve every life in Max’s generation and make sure we don’t miss a single soul,” Dr. Chan said, referring to her and Mr. Zuckerberg’s infant daughter, Maxima. “We’ll be investing in basic science research with the goal of curing disease. ” The event was attended by Mayor Ed Lee of San Francisco Janet Napolitano, the president of the University of California and former secretary of homeland security and investors including Yuri Milner, who backed Facebook before it went public. About 63, 000 people watched the event on Facebook Live and there were about 450 attending. Several of Mr. Zuckerberg’s Facebook or early executives have also pledged money to charity or specifically toward health initiatives. Dustin Moskovitz, a Facebook is part of the Giving Pledge, through which the world’s wealthiest individuals and families have dedicated a majority of their wealth to philanthropy. Sean Parker, who was president of Facebook when the company was still a earlier this year said he would give $250 million to six cancer centers nationwide. Other tech billionaires have also given to public health, including Bill Gates, Microsoft’s . His Bill Melinda Gates Foundation gave $10. 2 billion through 2014 to global health initiatives like fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Mr. Zuckerberg and Dr. Chan, who are also part of the Giving Pledge and have looked up to Mr. Gates, announced the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative at the end of last year. At the time, their Facebook holdings were valued at around $45 billion. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s structure as a limited liability company gives it freedom to also spend on companies and political donations. Some traditional philanthropies, which have spending restrictions and targets they must meet, disapprove of the L. L. C. structure. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s science work will be led by Cori Bargmann, a neuroscientist at Rockefeller University in New York. The first project will be the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, an independent research center in San Francisco that will bring together engineers, computer scientists, biologists, chemists and others. Formed in partnership with Stanford, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, San Francisco, it will receive initial funding of $600 million over 10 years. At the event Wednesday, Mr. Zuckerberg said that if his organization’s plan to cure or manage all disease worked, it should increase human life expectancy to 100 years. “That doesn’t mean no one will ever get sick,” he said. “But they should be able to treat it and manage it. ” | 0 |
Social Justice Warriors Vow to Call the Police on People Wearing “Offensive” Halloween Costumes Zombie outfits or sexy Pocahontas costumes could get you in trouble Paul Joseph Watson - October 27, 2016 Comments
Social justice warriors have vowed to call the police on people wearing “offensive” Halloween costumes!
If you thought the ‘triggering’ last year was bad, wait until you hear about what’s happening this October 31st.
If you do celebrate Halloween, please make sure you wear the most tasteless, offensive costume imaginable.
Please share this video! https://youtu.be/H2ySty3ONkY
SUBSCRIBE on YouTube: | 0 |
At the Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif. scientists are trying to get time to run backward. Biological time, that is. In the first attempt to reverse aging by reprogramming the genome, they have rejuvenated the organs of mice and lengthened their life spans by 30 percent. The technique, which requires genetic engineering, cannot be applied directly to people, but the achievement points toward better understanding of human aging and the possibility of rejuvenating human tissues by other means. The Salk team’s discovery, reported in the Thursday issue of the journal Cell, is “novel and exciting,” said Jan Vijg, an expert on aging at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. Leonard Guarente, who studies the biology of aging at M. I. T. said, “This is huge,” citing the novelty of the finding and the opportunity it creates to slow down, if not reverse, aging. “It’s a pretty remarkable finding, and if it holds up it could be quite important in the history of aging research,” Dr. Guarente said. The finding is based on the heterodox idea that aging is not irreversible and that an animal’s biological clock can in principle be wound back to a more youthful state. The aging process is clocklike in the sense that a steady accumulation of changes eventually degrades the efficiency of the body’s cells. In one of the deepest mysteries of biology, the clock’s hands are always set back to zero at conception: However old the parents and their reproductive cells, a fertilized egg is free of all marks of age. Ten years ago, the Japanese biologist Shinya Yamanaka amazed researchers by identifying four critical genes that reset the clock of the fertilized egg. The four genes are so powerful that they will reprogram even the genome of skin or intestinal cells back to the embryonic state. Dr. Yamanaka’s method is now routinely used to change adult tissue cells into cells very similar to the embryonic stem cells produced in the first few divisions of a fertilized egg. Scientists next began to wonder if the four Yamanaka genes could be applied not just to cells in glassware but to a whole animal. The results were disastrous. As two groups of researchers reported in 2013 and 2014, the animals all died, some because their adult tissue cells had lost their identity and others from cancer. Embryonic cells are primed for rapid growth, which easily becomes uncontrolled. But at the Salk Institute, Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte had been contemplating a different approach. He has long been interested in regeneration, the phenomenon in which certain animals, like lizards and fish, can regenerate lost tails or limbs. The cells near the lost appendage revert to a stage midway between an embryonic cell, which is open to all fates, and an adult cell, which is committed to being a particular type of cell, before rebuilding the missing limb. This partial reprogramming suggested to him that reprogramming is a stepwise process, and that a small dose of the Yamanaka factors might rejuvenate cells without the total reprogramming that converts cells to the embryonic state. With Alejandro Ocampo and other Salk researchers, Dr. Izpisua Belmonte has spent five years devising ways to deliver a nonlethal dose of Yamanaka factors to mice. The solution his team developed was to genetically engineer mice with extra copies of the four Yamanaka genes, and to have the genes activated only when the mice received a certain drug in their drinking water, applied just two days a week. The Salk team worked first with mice that age prematurely, so as to get quick results. “What we saw is that the animal has fewer signs of aging, healthier organs, and at the end of the experiment we could see they had lived 30 percent longer than control mice,” Dr. Izpisua Belmonte said. The team also saw improved organ health in normal mice but, because the mice are still living, could not yet say if longevity was extended. Dr. Izpisua Belmonte believes these beneficial effects have been obtained by resetting the clock of the aging process. The clock is created by the epigenome, the system of proteins that clads the cell’s DNA and controls which genes are active and which are suppressed. When an egg develops into a whole animal, the epigenome plays a critical role by letting a heart cell, say, activate just the genes specific to its role but switching off all the genes used by other types of cells. This process lets the embryo’s cells differentiate into all the various types of cells required by the adult body. The epigenome is also involved throughout life in maintaining each cell and letting it switch genes on and off as required for its housekeeping duties. The epigenome itself is controlled by agents that add or subtract chemical groups, known as marks, to its proteins. Only in the last few years have biologists come to realize that the state of the epigenome may be a major cause of aging. If the epigenome is damaged, perhaps by accumulating too many marks, the cell’s efficiency is degraded. Dr. Izpisua Belmonte sees the epigenome as being like a manuscript that is continually edited. “At the end of life there are many marks and it is difficult for the cell to read them,” he said. What the Yamanaka genes are doing in his mice, he believes, is eliminating the extra marks, thus reverting the cell to a more youthful state. The Salk biologists “do indeed provide what I believe to be the first evidence that partial reprogramming of the genome ameliorated symptoms of tissue degeneration and improved regenerative capacity,” Dr. Vijg said. But he cautioned the mice used in the study might not be fully representative of ordinary aging. Dr. Guarente said it was more likely that the Yamanaka genes were not erasing the epigenomic marks directly, but rather were activating the genes which are responsible for the immense health and vitality of embryonic cells. This gene activation is a natural function of the Yamanaka factors. It is these embryonic genes that are rejuvenating the tissues in the mice, Dr. Guarente suggested, and causing changes in the epigenome through their activity. Thomas A. Rando, an expert on stem cells and aging at Stanford, said that it should be possible in theory to uncouple the differentiation program and the aging process, and that “if that’s what’s happening, this is the first demonstration of that. ” Dr. Izpisua Belmonte said he was testing drugs to see if he could achieve the same rejuvenation as with the Yamanaka factors. The use of chemicals “will be more translatable to human therapies and clinical applications,” he said. | 1 |
fuck the US government | 0 |
MOSCOW — The Kremlin’s United Russia party and its three main allies maintained their lock on Parliament in national elections on Sunday, according to early results, with particularly low turnout in the largest cities. The expected outcome will result in a State Duma, or lower house of Parliament, which has long supported President Vladimir V. Putin as he curbed civil liberties and sent the military on new foreign adventures. Ella A. Pamfilova, the head of the Central Election Commission, announced that there were some reports of irregularities, but nothing excessive. Ms. Pamfilova, a respected human rights advocate newly appointed to the post, vowed to nullify the results if any obvious fraud — something of a tradition in previous elections — was detected. Widespread perceptions of vote rigging in the last parliamentary election, in 2011, prompted mass street demonstrations, and the Kremlin, determined to avoid a repeat, seemed to try to make the entire campaign as uneventful as possible. It even moved the election date to September from December, apparently in the hope that many Russians would ignore the monthlong election season. “There have been all sorts of elections: predictable, dastardly and dishonest,” Yevgeny Roizman, the mayor of Yekaterinburg and an opposition member, posted on Twitter. “But I have not seen any more nauseating or dull than today’s. ” With just over 10 percent of the ballots counted late Sunday evening, United Russia was leading with 46 percent, according to official results on television. A nationalist party, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, was in second place with 17 percent, followed by the Communist Party, with 17 percent, and A Just Russia, with 6 percent. Those parties already form the loyal opposition and rarely challenge Mr. Putin. The initial results mirrored exit polls released by the polling organization, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center. Final results from across the country, which has 11 time zones, were expected on Monday at the earliest. The ruling party had braced for worse results given the sullen public mood after two years of recession, caused by falling oil prices and Western sanctions over Russian military actions in Ukraine. Mr. Putin, visiting United Russia headquarters in Moscow on Sunday, expressed satisfaction with the results. “The results are good,” he said. “We know that people are having a difficult time, there are many problems, many unresolved issues, and nonetheless we have this result. ” Turnout was low in some major urban areas, including Moscow and St. Petersburg. The early results showed it was less than 30 percent in Moscow, compared with more than 50 percent in 2011. Those who turned out to vote thought they might be able to effect change. “I am fed up with these four permanent parties,” said Andrei, a voter in his late 30s at a polling station in northeast Moscow, who declined to give his full name. “I want something new. ” None of the liberal opposition parties seemed to have cracked the 5 percent threshold needed to get into Parliament. Opposition candidates say the government’s tight control over the news media means they get little exposure. But the notoriously fractious opposition is also split into many parties, diluting support. Some independent candidates could still win seats through the individual races. This year, for the first time, half of the 450 seats in the State Duma were decided by proportional distribution and half by individual races. There were just two opposition members in the last Parliament, Dmitry G. Gudkov and Ilya Ponomarev. Mr. Ponomarev, the only member of Parliament to vote against the 2014 annexation of Crimea, fled the country in the face of legal prosecution seen as punishment for that vote. Mr. Gudkov was locked in a tight race on Sunday. The Kremlin worked hard to present the election as fair and transparent. It wanted to remove the stain from the 2011 election and show that enormous public support for Mr. Putin could be translated into votes. The president’s approval rating has hovered above 80 percent since he decided to grab Crimea back from Ukraine. Mr. Putin, 63, the most powerful man in Russia for 16 years, is expected to seek a fourth term as president in 2018, and his senior political advisers want elections to reflect his poll ratings. “They want Putin to be seen as very popular and not stealing elections,” said Abbas Gallyamov, a political scientist. | 1 |
Culture writer for MTV News Ira Madison III attacked Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions and his granddaughter as a “prop” to distract from his “racism. ”[“Sessions, sir, kindly return this Asian baby to the Toys “R” Us you stole her from,” Madison tweeted. Sessions, sir, kindly return this Asian baby to the Toys ”R” Us you stole her from pic. twitter. — Ira Madison III (@ira) January 10, 2017, The girl on Sessions’ lap is not adopted, it’s his granddaughter. Which is not surprising. — Ira Madison III (@ira) January 10, 2017, Why is she a prop? Sessions argued for policy that in the 1880s was used to discriminate against Asian Americans https: . — Ira Madison III (@ira) January 10, 2017, There is no reason for that child to be in his lap in a hearing other than to send an ”I’m not racist message” — Ira Madison III (@ira) January 10, 2017, After receiving a deluge of criticism, Madison deleted his initial tweet. Session Hive is out in force today, — Ira Madison III (@ira) January 10, 2017, I often tell jokes, but seeing as bringing up Sessions’ history of racial hatred of Asians is seen as an attack on his grandchild, I deleted, — Ira Madison III (@ira) January 10, 2017, Sad that many don’t see Sessions’ legitimate history of racism as a cause for concern today, but he can deeply affect our country, — Ira Madison III (@ira) January 10, 2017, Madison was not alone though he received the biggest backlash for his joke, a number of pundits and authors made similar cracks — presumably to demonstrate how they are. lol loving jeff sessions’ ”how can i possibly be a racist when i’m holding this nonwhite baby” moment, — sara david (@SaraQDavid) January 10, 2017, Oh, I get it. Jeff Sessions has grandbabies. CONFIRMED. Pack it up, guys. https: . — Donovan X. Ramsey (@iDXR) January 10, 2017, Notice how Sessions made a big show of kissing a baby before being sworn in … . — JoeMyGod (@JoeMyGod) January 10, 2017, Jeff Sessions turns up to committee hearing into whether he’s racist with a babyhttps: . pic. twitter. — Independent US (@IndyUSA) January 10, 2017, ”Senator Sessions, what about that time you prosecuted activists who were trying to register black voters … ”Sessions: ”Look! A Baby!” https: . — Kashana (@kashanacauley) January 10, 2017, Amazing optics. Sessions sitting with a child on his lap as opponents try to paint him as cold pic. twitter. — Domenico Montanaro (@DomenicoNPR) January 10, 2017, Sessions has a super cute baby in his lap — hoping we’ll forget that he’s accused of being a racist? #SenateHearings, — Mythili Sampathkumar (@MythiliSk) January 10, 2017, Oh, not just children as props, @SenatorSessions, but also Asian people. Very strategic. Guess what? You’re still a LIFELONG RACIST. — Stefanie Iris Weiss (@EcoSexuality) January 10, 2017, | 0 |
Get short URL 0 0 0 0 Saudi Arabia’s government needs to stay focused on fiscal adjustment and find ways to increase revenue, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in a statement Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The IMF chief praised Saudi Arabia’s economic-policy shift in response to falling oil prices as "very welcome." © AP Photo/ JOHN MOORE Saudi Arabia GDP Growth to Slow to 1.2% in 2016, Budget Deficit to Narrow to 13% "These efforts should continue over the medium-term including through further increases in energy prices which are still low by international standards, further revenue-raising measures including from the planned introduction of excises and the VAT [value-added tax] at the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] level, and further spending restraint," Lagarde stated.
Global oil prices plunged to a 13-year low of under $30 a barrel in January of this year from $115 in June 2014 due to a production-and-supply glut that has posed major challenges for energy companies and oil-producing countries.
So far in 2016, the Saudi government has introduced a series of reforms intended to diversify the oil-reliant country's economy. ... | 0 |
Monday 31 October 2016 by Spacey Child dressed as ghost accused of Islamification of Halloween
Barmy Brexit buffoons have forced a young boy to abandon his ghost costume after claiming the spooky homemade creation would offend Britons.
9-year-old Simon Williams was left in tears when loony leavers stopped him on the way to a friend’s Halloween party and told him to “Go back to Islam!”
“I tried to tell them I was from Reading, but they wouldn’t listen,” he said.
“One of them called me Jumanji John and said if I wanted to live under Shania Twain I should clear off to a Balsamic country like Hakuna Matata.”
Mrs Simone Williams, the boy’s mother, blasted the nutty nationalist numbskulls and insisted that she was fed-up with Sun-reading do-badders sticking their noses in.
“You can’t even open a pot of hummus nowadays without someone accusing you of being a terrorist sympathiser,” she fumed.
“It’s political incorrectness gone mad!”
Note: If you’re not sure how to feel about this story, we recommend fury, outrage and shock. Get the best NewsThump stories in your mailbox every Friday, for FREE! There are currently | 0 |
It seems as if there’s always some kind of feline holiday crouched around the corner, wriggling its bottom, ready to pounce. National Cat Day, National Feral Cat Day, National Hairball Awareness Day, Happy Mew Year — even the dog days of August are filled with feline jubilees. A celebration on Tuesday stands out from the pride, however, because it promises to deliver our cats what they most deserve, which is not a Meowjito. It’s Respect Your Cat Day, an opportunity to pay homage to that mysterious silken life form beside you, which can hear the height of sounds and has beaten the evolutionary odds to occupy your lap. Sadly, as cat lovers we don’t always fully grasp the formidable feline qualities we should be honoring. Respect Your Cat Day’s literature (mostly a news release put out by the folks at a website called National Today, who claim the source of the holiday dates back to an 1384 edict by Richard II of England forbidding the consumption of cats) highlights some impressive statistics about our “feline besties,” including the revelation from a survey that “64 percent of Americans” allegedly prefer their cat’s company to their significant other’s. (No comment, dear.) But when it comes to how, exactly, people go about respecting their cats, the survey’s findings seem a little misguided, if not downright disrespectful: Give your cat verbal compliments? Please. Cats emphatically do not understand English and studiously disregard their owner’s calls. With their supersensitive hearing, some may dislike the volume of the human voice, especially in confined quarters. When speaking in the feline presence, you might even consider consulting a decibel meter to ensure your does not irritate their ears. If you flatter your cat, do so in a reverent whisper. Snuggle or hug your cat? Actually, cats may abhor the smell of our favorite perfumes and soaps, and some are allergic to human dandruff. Furthermore, while most pet cats appreciate caresses, their territoriality means they sometimes prefer solitude to squeezes, and a few even have a condition called “petting intolerance” — a prime cause of violence. Constantly invading a cat’s personal space can also inflict something like psychological trauma, leading to chronic litter box accidents. Feed your cat treats? Thanks to precisely this sort of “respect,” veterinarians have devised feline obesity charts going all the way up to 70 percent body fat. Our cats’ jiggling physiques insult their status. Real respect requires something much more than babying it requires overhauling our whole perspective on cat kind. It’s time to open our eyes — like really, really wide, the way my sister’s cat does when it spies the vacuum cleaner — and see this animal for what it really is: not a helpless furball to be patronized and mollycoddled, but an entity both fearsome and sublime, commanding respect in the manner of a mafia don, or the ocean. For in truth, the humble house cat is one of the most stunning organisms on the planet. No creature is more exquisitely sensitive, and yet none is hardier. None beguiles us more but needs us less. There are more than 600 million domestic cats on the planet today, and we are to explain why. Humans apparently never tried to cultivate them (their abilities as ratters are overhyped). Rather, cats took the reins in our relationship, undergoing a novel process of tweaking their brain structures to better withstand the terrible stresses of human company and thereafter radiating out from the Middle East in determined furry battalions. In an era when lions, tigers and other types of felines flirt with extinction, house cats are themselves an intensifying menace to endangered species. Our living rooms are among their final conquests, as cats are a phenomenon of mostly the last 70 years or so. It hasn’t been an easy takeover. In fact, chaotic human homes, with their noises, stenches and overbearing occupants, may be the most radical and challenging environment that these little hunters, which flourish on deserted islands and the slopes of active volcanoes, have yet faced. So on Tuesday — and I know, it’s hard — resist the urge to simply cuddle your cat with reckless abandon. Instead, consider this creature at arm’s length, study it. Skip the kitty and wake up to your cat’s magnificent natural history. Respect the fact that no animal has come further under its own power to meet us where we are. Meanwhile, there are also a few simple tributes that your cat might actually appreciate. For starters, as Ohio State University’s Indoor Pet Initiative suggests, figure out your cat’s personal “prey preference” and buy anatomically appropriate toys. Create a household zone called a “refuge,” which is a bit like a panic room with blankets. Avoid crowding too many cats into too few square feet (solitary by nature, cats don’t always relish one another’s companionship). And it never hurts to add an extra litter box, or three. Some feline preferences are harder to honor: Cats loathe thunderstorms, for instance, house guests and disruptive human holidays not dedicated to them. Fully respecting cats’ aversion to human strangers could make it hard to, say, date or marry. But then again, why would you bother, since you’ll just end up pining for your cat? | 1 |
In a sign of widening fallout from Wells Fargo’s sales scandal, Prudential said Monday that it was suspending sales of its life insurance policies through Wells Fargo until it completed an investigation into the bank’s sales tactics. But Prudential is not the only insurance company that may have been affected by allegedly fraudulent insurance policy sales at Wells Fargo. On Monday, Wells Fargo announced that it had temporarily cut off its sales of another insurance product it had offered at its bank branches: renters’ insurance from Assurant. “We are suspending referrals for renters’ insurance until we can do a complete review of our online insurance product referrals,” said Mark Folk, a spokesman for Wells Fargo. Assurant and Wells Fargo declined to comment on whether they had uncovered any problems with Wells Fargo’s renters’ insurance sales. “As a matter of policy, we don’t comment on our clients,” said Linda Recupero, a spokeswoman for Assurant. Last week, three former Prudential employees filed a lawsuit asserting that the company had tried to hush up evidence that Wells Fargo bankers — who were supposed to market a Prudential policy, MyTerm, to their customers — opened sham accounts in customers’ names and had premiums withdrawn from their accounts without their consent or knowledge. Many of the victims did not speak English, the suit said. The employees had been fired by Prudential — in retaliation, they say, for trying to prod their bosses to act more aggressively on the findings. Prudential disputes this account Scot Hoffman, a Prudential spokesman, said the employees were fired “for appropriate and legitimate reasons that were entirely unrelated to Prudential’s business with Wells Fargo. ” At least one other bank, BBT, continues to sell Prudential’s MyTerm insurance, but the majority of the product’s sales came through Wells Fargo, Mr. Hoffman said. He said the timing of Prudential’s decision to suspend sales through Wells Fargo — which came just days after Prudential’s former employees went public with their claims — was coincidental. “We have been conducting our review for some time,” Mr. Hoffman said. “It became apparent last week in discussions with Wells Fargo that it was going to take more time. We thought that suspending sales of the MyTerm product through the Wells Fargo franchise was the best course of action until we have all the facts about whether it is being distributed properly and in the best interest of customers. ” Prudential would appear to be the first partner company of Wells Fargo to get caught in the aftermath of the bank’s admission three months ago that thousands of its employees had opened unauthorized accounts in bank customers’ names. The bank has fired more than 5, 000 employees and paid fines of $185 million in connection with the scandal. Wells Fargo employees were encouraged to aggressively sell a mix of products to their customers, former Wells Fargo employees said, including insurance offerings from partners. The renters’ insurance Wells Fargo sold for Assurant had some similarities to Prudential’s MyTerm policies: Both were fairly inexpensive products that could be bought in a few minutes, after the applicant filled out a brief online questionnaire. “As we have consistently reinforced, if we identify any instances where a customer received a product they didn’t ask for, we will make it right,” Mr. Folk said. The bank eliminated its sales goals for retail bankers in October, he noted. It no longer offers incentives for selling customers additional products, including insurance policies. Also on Monday, Alex Perea, a Wells Fargo customer who said he had been victimized by the insurance scheme, filed a lawsuit against Prudential. He and his lawyers are seeking status for the case. Mr. Perea, of Arizona, received a collections notice in October about unpaid premiums on a MyTerm policy, according to his complaint. A Wells Fargo customer since 2010, Mr. Perea “never authorized anyone to seek life insurance on his behalf” and was unaware that a Prudential policy had been taken out in his name, he said in the lawsuit. When he called Prudential’s customer service center, the insurance company refused to cancel the policy, the complaint said. Mr. Perea later discovered that some premiums for the policy had been deducted from his Wells Fargo savings account. Through his lawyer, Neil Mullin, Mr. Perea declined to comment further on his complaint. The case was filed in Federal District Court in New Jersey, the state where Prudential is headquartered. “Prudential believes the lawsuit is totally without merit and will vigorously defend itself in the appropriate legal venue,” said Mr. Hoffman, the company spokesman. “If any Wells Fargo MyTerm customers have concerns about the way in which the product was purchased, Prudential will reimburse the full amount of the premiums they paid and cancel the policy. ” Wells Fargo’s sales scandal rocked the bank, forcing the retirement of its chief executive and causing some of its customers to flee. The bank is under investigation by the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission, multiple state attorneys general and prosecutors’ offices, and several congressional committees. The aftershocks keep coming: On Friday, an industry overseer, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, said it was investigating claims from former Wells Fargo employees that the bank left black marks on their employment records in retaliation for their attempts to draw internal attention to the bank’s fraudulent activities. Finra wants to “review the facts and circumstances surrounding these allegations,” it said in a statement, and it has set up a hotline for former Wells Fargo employees — many of them financial advisers — who are registered with Finra and wish to dispute their termination records. | 1 |
Many believe dehydrating food is the safest, most affordable and best way to preserve flavors of foods. Having a dehydrator available allows you to make fruit leathers , dried fruits, beef jerky , nuts, seeds, and even meals . They cut down on wasted food, save money on pre-packaged snacks, and allow your family to eat healthily on the go. Dried foods are a life-saving staple and one of the most affordable ways to create an emergency food supply or preserve food that would otherwise go to waste. The Prepper’s Cookbook hails this culinary tool as a must-have for creating a stocked pantry.
If you have thought about buying a dehydrator, chances are you’ve heard of the Excalibur Food Dehydrator . It is the gold standard in food dehydration: it is reviewed highly by users, performs well and has a great guarantee package, and the customer service team has a great reputation. Many feel it is worth the upfront investment , especially if you plan on using your dehydrator often, but for some people, the $250 price tag is too much to bear.
That said, you have options! Below are some alternatives to the upper-end models and come highly recommended.
Four budget-friendly food dehydrators that get the job done!
1) Presto 06300 This no-frills dehydrator is as affordable as you can get. Selling for under $40, this four-tray system is compact and still powerful enough to dehydrate a good amount of fruits, veggies, jerky, and leathers. The clear cover allows you to keep watch over your snacks and the trays and cover are all dishwasher safe. It is quiet and lightweight, therefore easy to carry into various rooms for different purposes (such as making potpourri or drying herbs from your garden). One drawback is a lack of temperature control, but satisfied users agree that the general setting is sufficient for most tasks. This would make a great purchase or gift for someone new to food dehydration.
2) Nesco FD-75A Snackmaster Pro At around $60, the Nesco Snackmaster Pro is one of the newest dehydrators in the Nesco product line. It has 700 watts of drying power and comes with 5 drying trays (up to 12 trays can be used in the unit but those additional trays need to be purchased separately). The adjustable thermostat ranges from 95-160 degrees. It is lightweight and compact and includes added goodies like 2 fruit roll up sheets, 3 packets of beef jerky spice, and a detailed recipe and instruction book. There isn’t a timer or an on/off switch on this unit, though users seem happy with the other features at this price point.
3) NutriChef Kitchen Electric Countertop Food Dehydrator This dehydrator is around $50 and incredibly user-friendly. It comes with 5 trays, each of which has 6 stacking tabs that allow you to change the height between each tray so you can place thicker food on the tray and still get good results. There is space for up to 20 trays in this unit (additional trays sold separately). The trays are clear and dishwasher safe, though some users complain that the base of the unit can be difficult to clean. It is fairly quiet and has an on/off switch; it comes with a detailed user guide.
4) Cuisinart DHR-20 Food Dehydrator The Cuisinart Food Dehydrator is the priciest in this list, though at $65 it still comes in at a much more affordable rate than the Excalibur. It has a 620-watt motorized fan with a top vent. It can hold 9 trays total and jerky lovers seem to love this dehydrator: it dehydrates up to 4 pounds of meat in 4-5 hours, depending on the cut. Replacement and additional trays are a bit pricey at around $14 a piece; otherwise, the reviews for this product are very satisfactory.
In planning for a long-term disaster, people are always trying to find foods they can look forward to that will give them optimum nutrition. These budget-friendly food dehydrators will help you do just that. Happy dehydrating!
Pamela Bofferding is a native Texan who now lives with her husband and sons in New York City. She enjoys hiking, traveling, and playing with her dogs.
This information has been made available by Ready Nutrition
Originally published November 15th, 2016 The Excalibur: Food Dehydrating Made Easy {Plus Tasty… Beefing Up Your Prepper Pantry with Jerky 10 Dehydrator Meals for Your Prepper Pantry The Natural Pantry: DIY Powdered Bouillon DIY: Grow a Week’s Worth of Livestock Feed For… | 1 |
Russian nuclear submarines armed with cruise missiles set off to Syria 30.10.2016 | Source: AP photo Three Russian submarines armed with cruise missiles joined a group of Russian warships led by the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier . The submarines are heading to Syria, The Sunday Times wrote with references to naval sources. According to the publication, the UK Royal Navy detected two "Akula" ("Shark") class nuclear submarines and a "Kilo" class diesel-electric submarine as the subs were entering the North Atlantic from the direction of Russian naval bases in the Murmansk region. The Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier and its support group reportedly remain in the "standby mode" off the coast of North Africa, the newspaper said. NATO military officials fear that the "Caliber" cruise missiles that the submarines carry may strike targets in Syria. On Friday, 28 October, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta , citing a source, reported that the patrol ship "Smetliviy" ("Sharp-witted") of the Black Sea Fleet was heading to Syria. However, officials with the Russian Defense Ministry said that the ship set off to the Greek port of Piraeus. The Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier and its support group set off for a journey to the Mediterranean Sea was in mid-October. The group that consists of the heavy nuclear missile cruiser Peter the Great, large anti-submarine ships Severomorsk and Vice-Admiral Kulakov and smaller maintenance vessels. The goal of the mission, as it was said, was to "ensure Russia's naval presence in operationally important areas of the oceans." Pravda.Ru | 0 |
Britt Slabinski could hear the bullets ricochet off the rocks in the darkness. It was the first firefight for his reconnaissance unit from SEAL Team 6, and it was outnumbered, outgunned and taking casualties on an Afghan mountaintop. A feet or so to his right, John Chapman, an Air Force technical sergeant acting as the unit’s radioman, lay wounded in the snow. Mr. Slabinski, a senior chief petty officer, could see through his goggles an aiming laser from Sergeant Chapman’s rifle rising and falling with his breathing, a sign he was alive. Then another of the Americans was struck in a furious exchange of grenades and fire, and the chief realized that his team had to get off the peak immediately. He looked back over at Sergeant Chapman. The laser was no longer moving, Chief Slabinski recalls, though he was not close enough to check the airman’s pulse. Chased by bullets that hit a second SEAL in the leg, the chief said, he crawled on top of the sergeant but could not detect any response, so he slid down the mountain face with the other men. When they reached temporary cover, one asked: “Where’s John? Where’s Chappy?” Chief Slabinski responded, “He’s dead. ” Now, more than 14 years after that brutal fight, in which seven Americans ultimately died, the Air Force says that Chief Slabinski was wrong — and that Sergeant Chapman not only was alive, but also fought on alone for more than an hour after the SEALs had retreated. The Air Force secretary is pushing for a Medal of Honor, the military’s highest award, after new technology used in an examination of videos from aircraft flying overhead helped officials conclude that the sergeant had killed two fighters with Al Qaeda — one in combat — before dying in an attempt to protect arriving reinforcements. The new account of Sergeant Chapman’s last act reopens old wounds for SEAL Team 6, the elite Navy unit that would later kill Osama bin Laden. The findings could rekindle tensions between Team 6 and other Special Operations organizations that lost men in the March 4, 2002, mission, which they felt the SEALs had planned and executed poorly, according to current and former military officials. Like some other military units, Team 6 accepts as an article of faith that its members never leave a fallen comrade behind. While that can be difficult to fulfill, it is a creed as old as warfare itself, a pact with those facing great peril. Abandoning a wounded man to fight and die by himself, however inadvertent, officers say, would be devastating. “These things happen in combat, but it’d be awful,” said Maj. Gen. Gary Harrell, a retired Delta Force commander who was involved in the broader operation that included the mountaintop episode. “It’d be terrible to find that out. ” He cautioned anyone who had not been there against . “It’s easy to say, ‘Well, I’d never leave someone behind,’” he said. “It’s a lot harder when you’re getting your ass shot off. ” He added, “If anybody thought Chapman was alive, we would have been trying to move heaven and earth to get him out of there. ” Chief Slabinski, who is now 46 and retired, acknowledged that he might have made a mistake under intense fire in thinking that Sergeant Chapman was dead. Still haunted by what happened on the mountain, he replayed the events there to explain his decisions that day. “I’m trying to direct what everybody’s got going on, trying to see what’s going on with John I’m already 95 percent certain in my mind that he’s been killed,” he said in an interview. “That’s why I was like, ‘O. K. we’ve got to move. ’” While saying the sergeant should be recognized for his valor if the Air Force narrative was correct, Chief Slabinski still expressed skepticism that the new evidence — gleaned from software that can isolate pixel representations of people and help track their movements — was reliable. SEAL Team 6 supports the proposed award, military officials said, but is not taking a position on whether Sergeant Chapman was alive when the SEALs retreated. If approved by the president, the award will be the first of the more than 3, 500 Medals of Honor given since the Civil War to rely not on eyewitness accounts but primarily on technology. The events surrounding the mission have long been controversial, partly because Chief Slabinski has said previously that officers denied his request to delay it 24 hours to reduce the risks. In the interview, he said he feared that critics in the Special Operations community would blame him while glossing over decisions by the higher officers that contributed to the deaths. “They’re going to say: ‘Yep, it’s all your fault. You left him up there, behind, alive,’” he said. Chief Slabinski’s team was ordered to establish an observation post on top of the mountain, Takur Ghar, during Operation Anaconda, an effort to encircle and destroy Qaeda forces in the Valley in eastern Afghanistan, about 25 miles from Pakistan. The battle occurred less than three months after bin Laden had escaped at Tora Bora, and American commanders still hoped to capture or kill senior Qaeda leaders. Chief Slabinski’s plan was to land by helicopter near the base of the mountain around midnight and climb up stealthily, but a series of delays involving aircraft left no time to do that before dawn. Under pressure from superiors, he said, he reluctantly flew to the peak at about 3 a. m. Unbeknown to the SEALs, Qaeda forces were already there, and they hit the helicopter with heavy fire. One of Chief Slabinski’s men, Petty Officer First Class Neil C. Roberts, fell out about 10 feet above the ground, and the pilot could not retrieve him before the stricken aircraft a few miles away. Shortly before 5 a. m. the five remaining SEALs and Sergeant Chapman returned to the top — later called “Roberts Ridge” — on another helicopter to try to rescue Petty Officer Roberts. They did not know that enemy fighters had already killed and tried to decapitate him. The Americans were again met by a withering barrage. Rushing through snow, Sergeant Chapman charged ahead of Chief Slabinski, and they killed two fighters in a bunker — a hole dug in the ground under a tree — before the airman was wounded. Under fire, the SEALs retreated about 15 minutes later. Chief Slabinski’s plan, he said, was to take cover and let a circling Air Force gunship hammer the Qaeda fighters before trying again to seize the peak and recover Sergeant Chapman’s body. But grenades and mortar fire drove the SEALs farther down the mountain, making it impossible to return. Three Army Rangers, an Army helicopter crewman and another Air Force commando were killed later that morning after arriving as reinforcements. Almost as soon as the guns fell silent, the accusations started to fly. Some Ranger, Army Special Operations aviation and Air Force special tactics personnel blamed the SEALs for their losses. Soon after, the military opened an investigation to determine what had gone wrong. The chief investigator, Lt. Col. Andrew Milani of the Army, wrote later that an Air Force gunship had failed to detect the militants on the mountaintop and that the SEALs had “violated a basic tenet of reconnaissance” by landing directly on their observation post instead of hiking up to it. Colonel Milani also looked into footage captured by a Predator drone about 50 minutes after the SEALs had left the mountaintop. The grainy images showed someone in the bunker defending himself against two attackers and killing one with a rifle shot, prompting the question: Who was that? Colonel Milani’s investigation remains classified, but an unclassified paper that he wrote in 2003 offered two possible explanations: The Qaeda fighters had become confused and were firing at one another, or Sergeant Chapman, still alive, had resumed fighting. The colonel did not reach a conclusion, based on the evidence he had. But the suggestion that members of one of the military’s most elite Special Operations units might have, even unintentionally, left someone from another service to fight and die alone added to the tensions. Sergeant Chapman, a father of two daughters, in 2003 was posthumously awarded an Air Force Cross, a recognition of valor second only to the Medal of Honor, for his initial charge atop the mountain. The citation noted that Chief Slabinski, who received a Navy Cross for his actions in the firefight, had credited the airman “unequivocally with saving the lives of the entire rescue team. ” Sergeant Chapman had enlisted in the Air Force as a computer technician, but soon found that he was not suited to a sedentary lifestyle. A former high school diving and soccer star from Windsor Locks, Conn. he transferred into the elite ranks of the Air Force Special Operations Command as a combat controller, a job that involved calling in airstrikes and handling radio communications for SEAL Team 6 and other secretive units. By the time he had joined Chief Slabinski’s team in October 2001, he had spent more than a decade in Special Operations and, at 36, was expressing doubts about his ability to keep up, Chief Slabinski said. The chief told him that he had nothing to worry about. Sergeant Chapman was considered for the Medal of Honor when the secretary of the Air Force, Deborah Lee James, directed the service’s Special Operations Command to review the seven Air Force Crosses awarded since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks for possible upgrades. She recently recommended the award to the defense secretary, whose approval is required before it goes to the White House. Pentagon policy forbids military officials to talk about potential Medals of Honor, but several officials, speaking only on the condition of anonymity, said that even the sergeant’s initial bravery had stood out. Chief Slabinski said he wondered whether the Air Force was motivated as much by hopes of receiving its first Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War as by a desire to fully understand what transpired on the mountain. (Since the Sept. 11 attacks, 12 Army soldiers, three Marines and three SEALs have received the medal for gallantry in Iraq or Afghanistan.) A briefing prepared by Air Force special operations officials dismisses as “not viable” Colonel Milani’s suggestion that the gunfight caught on video by the C. I. A. Predator might have involved militants fighting one another, according to people who have received it. That the airman was alive and fighting “is fully supported by the evidence,” the briefing slides state. The use of the technology to scrutinize the Predator video was central to the findings, particularly when combined with footage, from an gunship, that had not been available to Colonel Milani. As the drone circled more than 6, 500 feet above the peak, trees and other objects impeded its view, and it had trouble staying locked on to the men in the fight. The imagery technology, still being refined in an Air Force lab, enabled the service to assign each person in the blurry videos a “pixel signature” based on his size, his clothing and the weapons he carried, people who have been briefed said. By identifying Sergeant Chapman shortly after he stepped out of the helicopter with the SEALs, the briefing slides say, its imagery analysts could follow him around the mountaintop, picking him up even when trees or other obstacles partly obscured him. Outside experts familiar with the technology said having video footage from the gunship as well as from the Predator drone would have provided the analysts with more tracking angles and clarity. “That’s two different eyes, and they could fuse that together,” said David J. Kriegman, a computer science professor at the University of California, San Diego, who has done research in this area. Based on the analysis, the Air Force believes that Sergeant Chapman was unconscious when Chief Slabinski thought he was dead. The sergeant regained consciousness and began engaging enemy fighters in three directions, the slides suggest. The analysis suggests that Sergeant Chapman crawled into the bunker within 13 minutes of the SEALs’ departure, or at about 5:25 a. m. Then, at 6:00, shortly after a grenade was fired at the bunker, he fatally shot a fighter rushing toward him, according to the briefing. A few minutes later, another militant crawled to the bunker’s edge, where, at 6:11, the airman killed him in combat. As a Chinook helicopter carrying Ranger reinforcements approached, the Air Force contends, the sergeant rose up in the bunker for a better angle to provide covering fire. He faced fire as he tried to relieve the pressure on the Rangers, whose helicopter was struck by a grenade. It was only then, with rescue tantalizingly close, that two bullets struck the right side of his chest, killing him almost instantly. The Air Force says his death was not captured on video. Presented with the Air Force analysis, Colonel Milani submitted an addendum to his paper. “With some of the original uncertainty removed, I can state that the probability now lies more in favor of Chapman surviving the original assault,” he wrote. The Air Force’s case includes a new analysis of Sergeant Chapman’s autopsy that found that bruising on his forehead could have happened only if he had been alive, making the hypothesis that he had been briefly knocked out more plausible. His body, which was recovered later that day, had nine bullet wounds, five below his waist and four above. The sequence of the injuries is not known. But the two fatal rounds entered at what would have been an impossible angle had he been killed where the SEALs said he had fallen, according to people familiar with the Air Force briefing. A team led by the Air Force’s 24th Special Operations Wing commander, Col. Matthew Davidson, briefed Chief Slabinski on the findings late last year. “I didn’t see anything new,” the chief said. “It was just presented differently. ” Colonel Davidson said the Air Force could see Sergeant Chapman “moving in and around the bunker” where he and Chief Slabinski had killed the two enemy fighters, the chief said. But because the bunker was under a tree that largely obscured it, this was not clear to Chief Slabinski watching the video. “You’ve got these little flashes,” he said. “Here’s a sliver of the pixel here, and then it kind of goes away, and there’s another sliver of it, and here’s some muzzle flash stuff. ” Chief Slabinski said Sergeant Chapman’s assault rifle had been equipped with a suppressor to mask its muzzle flash, but the video showed the man in the bunker firing a weapon with an unsuppressed muzzle flash. The chief also questioned why the man shooting in the video appeared to fire on full automatic, rather than with the single aimed shots that the sergeant would have been trained to use. At times, Chief Slabinski said, he feels as if he had never left Takur Ghar. He still has “visions” in which he sees fighters on the mountain moving in slow motion, and hears the sound of grenades and gunfire. He has trouble sleeping, and says he has received a diagnosis of stress after a dozen years of war. What stays with him the most is that morning he led his team into battle to try to save one man, only to be told later that he had left another fighting for his life. “Is it within John’s character to go on and do this? Without a question,” the chief said. “If John did this stuff, I want him to get recognized. ” | 1 |
Places Most Unsettled by Rapid Demographic Change Are Drawn to Donald Trump Janet Adamy and Paul Overberg, Wall Street Journal, November 1, 2016
Small towns in the Midwest have diversified more quickly than almost any part of the U.S. since the start of an immigration wave at the beginning of this century. The resulting cultural changes appear to be moving the political needle.
A Wall Street Journal analysis of census data shows that counties in a distinct cluster of Midwestern states–Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota–saw among the fastest influxes of nonwhite residents of anywhere in the U.S. between 2000 and 2015. Hundreds of cities long dominated by white residents got a burst of Latino newcomers who migrated from Central America or uprooted from California and Texas.
That shift helps explain the emergence of Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump as a political force, and signals that tensions over immigration will likely outlive his candidacy. Among GOP voters in this year’s presidential primaries, counties that diversified rapidly were more likely to vote for the New York businessman, the Journal’s analysis shows.
{snip}
The Journal identified the epicenter of this shift using the diversity index, a tool often used by social scientists and economists. It measures the chance that any two people in a county will have a different race or ethnicity. In 244 counties, that diversity index at least doubled between 2000 and 2015, and more than half those counties were in the cluster of five Midwestern states. The analysis excludes tiny counties that produce numeric aberrations.
{snip}
Mr. Trump won about 71% of sizable counties nationwide during the Republican presidential primaries. He took 73% of those where diversity at least doubled since 2000, and 80% of those where the diversity index rose at least 150%, the Journal’s analysis found.
{snip} | 0 |
Email
Donald Trump is again riling up his voting base with claims that the November election will be rigged against him.
"Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day," Trump tweeted Monday morning. "Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naive!"
It's a charge that even other Republicans have been quick to refute. Critics have called such talk potentially dangerous and detrimental to trust in the US democratic process.
"States, backed by tens of thousands of GOP and DEM volunteers, ensure integrity of electoral process," Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, who is often sharply critical of Trump, tweeted Sunday. "Elections are not rigged."
Jon Husted, the secretary of state of Ohio and the top election official in the key battleground state, also said Monday that he could assure Trump the election would not be rigged.
Trump's most recent claims coincided with a plunge by him in the polls. Before now, Trump most recently made similar claims when his polls numbers were taking a dive in early August.
"And I'm telling you, November 8, we'd better be careful, because that election is going to be rigged," the New York billionaire told Fox News host Sean Hannity in August. "And I hope the Republicans are watching closely or it's going to be taken away from us."
Multiple Republicans told Business Insider at the time that Trump's assertion was both ludicrous and dangerous, as Trump would be the first US presidential candidate in modern times, possibly ever, to blame an election loss on voter fraud or a rigged election.
Allen Raymond, a former GOP operative who was involved in the 2002 New Hampshire Senate election phone-jamming scandal, called Trump's continued insistence that the election would be rigged "detrimental to the Republic."
"The idea that it's rigged, I don't know what he's talking about," he said in August. "I know someone that rigged elections. I mean, you know, the fact of the matter is Hillary Clinton doesn't need to rig this election. Trump's going to win Alabama and that's it. She doesn't have to do anything. It's painful to watch."
Raymond wrote "How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative" as a tell-all about the attempt to rig the 2002 New Hampshire Senate election between then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, and Republican US Rep. John E. Sununu. Raymond said that attempted rigging was centered on jamming the phone lines at the New Hampshire Democrats office in Manchester — a task his phone bank was hired to carry out. Sununu went on to win the election by roughly 20,000 votes. Shaheen defeated Sununu in a rematch in 2008.
The operative served a brief prison sentence for his involvement.He said any attempts to rig an election would look similar to that — not what Trump's talking about.
The Manhattan billionaire told The Washington Post in August that a lack of voter-identification laws would let people "just keep voting and voting and voting" and suggested fraud occurred in 2012 against Republican nominee Mitt Romney because there were "precincts where there were practically nobody voting for the Republican."
"I don't even know what he's talking about," Raymond said. "But this idea that it's 1950 or 1960 and the party bosses are going to roll into Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and are going to rig the ballot box and rig the machines — that's nonsense. An election rigging these days means something totally different than what he's talking about. Now it's stupid stuff like what I did in New Hampshire."
He said the lack of voter-ID laws Trump was trying to use as proof of fraud this fall was also bogus.
"These voter-ID laws, what's the intention of that? The clear intention is disenfranchisement," he said, echoing a common complaint in liberal circles that voter-ID laws are put in place to prevent minority voting blocks from being able to cast ballots. "You know, there's a reason we don't have a poll tax anymore. Because it's unconstitutional.
"People don't vote 10 times," he continued. "There might be one bad actor every once in a while who tries to vote a couple of times, but he's talking about an institutional effort. It's a total myth."
He said Trump's statements were an attempt to "basically sideline" Hillary Clinton's first four years in office.
The idea of a rigged election came to the forefront after the Democratic National Committee had its emails hacked and leaked, though both Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Clinton's main opponent in the Democratic primary, had claimed the electoral system was rigged earlier in the primary season. The emails showed that the organization, which was supposed to remain neutral throughout the primary, favored Clinton.
Trump said the email leak proved that the primary election was "rigged" against Sanders in his early-August interview with Hannity, in addition to such claims he perpetuated along the campaign trail. He used the leak as further evidence that the fall election would be rigged against him as well. | 1 |
By wmw_admin on November 4, 2016 Zoie O’Brien — express.co.uk Nov 4, 2016
The democratic presidential candidate who will go toe-to-toe with billionaire Donald Trump for the White House next week has been at the centre of email controversy for many months.
Just weeks ahead of the US elections on November 9, the FBI revealed it would re-investigate the content of the correspondence.
Now Mr Assange, who is holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid extradition to the US, said the most damning email yet is about to come out.
In an interview with veteran journalist John Pilger, for Russia Today, Assange said the Saudi Government funds both ISIS and Clinton’s foundation.
He said: “There’s an early 2014 email, from very early on, so not so long after she left secretary of state to her campaign manager John Podesta.
“It states that ISIS is funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar – the governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
“I think this is the most significant email in the whole collection.”
Mr Pilger, author of Distant Voices and Tell Me No Lies and owner of Dartmouth Films, asked whether this meant the same people who funded ISIS were funding Hillary Clinton.
Assange simply replied “yes”.
He told Dartmouth Films: “All serious analysts know, and even the US government has agreed, that some Saudi figures have been supporting ISIS and funding ISIS, but the dodge has always been that it is some ‘rogue’ princes using their oil money to do whatever they like, but actually the government disapproves.
“But that email says that it is the government of Saudi Arabia, and the government of Qatar that have been funding ISIS.”
Julian Assange accuses Hillary Clinton of misleading Americans about the true scope of Islamic State’s support from Washington’s Middle East allies
In one year WikiLeaks has released three sets of emails from the Clinton camp – drawing criticism of Assange.
When asks by Mr Pilger if he was “trying to get Trump in the White House” Assange denied it.
However, he said Clinton would win the vote.
He said: “Trump would not be permitted to win. Because he has had every establishment off his side. Trump does not have one establishment
“Banks, intelligence, arms companies.. foreign money etc.. is all united behind Hillary Clinton, and the media as well.
“Media owners and even journalists themselves.”
Russia Today released a teaser from the interview which sees Mr Pilger asking if while Mrs Clinton was secretary of state, the State Department was approving massive arms sales, while the Clinton Foundation was also receiving money from them
Assange replied: “Under Hillary Clinton – and the Clinton emails reveal a significant discussion of it – the biggest-ever arms deal in the world was made with Saudi Arabia: more than $80 billion.
“During her tenure, the total arms exports from the US doubled in dollar value.” | 0 |
Charles Hugh Smith
There are many sources of rage: injustice, the destruction of truth, powerlessness. But if we had to identify the one key source of non-elite rage that cuts across all age, ethnicity, gender and regional boundaries, it is this: The Ruling Elite is protected from the destructive consequences of its predatory dominance.
We see this reality across the entire political, social and economic landscape.
If I had to pick one chart that illustrates the widening divide between the Ruling Elite and the non-elites, it is this chart of wages as a share of the nation’s output (GDP): 46 years of relentless decline, interrupted by gushing fountains of credit and asset bubbles that enriched the few while leaving the economic landscape of the many in ruins.
The Ruling Elite once had an obligation to uphold the social contract as a responsibility that came with their vast privilege, power and wealth (i.e. noblesse oblige ).
America’s Ruling Elite has transmogrified into an incestuous self-serving few unapologetically plundering the many. In their hubris-soaked arrogance, their right to rule is unquestioningly based on their moral and intellectual superiority to “the little people” they loot with abandon.
Rather than feel a responsibility to the nation, America’s Elite views the status quo as a free pass to self-aggrandizement.
Much has changed in America in the past 46 years. Not only have wages and salaries declined as a share of “economic growth,” but the wealth that has been generated has flowed to the top of the wealth/power pyramid (see chart below).
Social mobility has also declined drastically: Restoring America’s Economic Mobility , as has trust in government and key institutions.
As Frank Buckley, the author of The Way Back: Restoring the Promise of America observed:
“In a corrupt country, trust is a rare commodity. That’s America today. Only 19 percent of Americans say they trust the government most of the time, down from 73 percent in 1958 according to the Pew Research Center.”
The top .01% has seen its share of the household wealth triple from 7% to 22% in the past four decades, while the share of the nation’s wealth owned by the bottom 90% has plummeted from 36% to 23%.
As I described in America’s Ruling Elite Has Failed and Deserves to Be Fired and Now That the Presidential-Election Side Show Is Finally Ending…. , the economy is rapidly undergoing structural changes that tend to reward the top 5% class of technocrats and managers and the top .1% with millions in mobile capital, while leaving the bottom 95% in the dust.
Rather than address this rising inequality directly and honestly, the Ruling Elite has parroted propaganda and policies that protect their gains while obfuscating the reality that most American households have been losing ground for decades, a decline that has been masked by replacing real income with rising debt.
The ceaseless parroting of the Ruling Elite and the Mainstream Media that prosperity has been rising for everyone is nothing less than the destruction of truth. This propaganda has one purpose: to mask the inequality and injustice built into the American status quo.
The rapid concentration of wealth has also concentrated political power in the hands of a few who seamlessly combine public and private modes of power.
This wealth and power protects the Ruling Elite from the perverse consequences of their dominance. Their precious offspring rarely serve at the point of the American military’s spear, they never lose their jobs or income when corporations shift production (and R&D, etc.) overseas, and they are never replaced with illegal immigrants paid under the table.
Rather, the Ruling Elite is pleased to pay immigrants a pittance to care for their children, clean their luxe homes, walk their dogs, etc.
This is why we’re enraged: we bear the consequences of the Ruling Elite’s dominance. The system is rigged to benefit the few, who use their wealth and power to protect themselves from the destructive consequences of their self-serving dominance.
This rage is as yet inchoate, sensed but not yet understood as the inevitable result of a broken system and a predatory Elite that exploits the system to maximize their private gain by any means available .
ELECTION NOTE: As I write this Tuesday evening, it appears Donald Trump may win the presidency. For those who cannot understand how anyone could possibly vote for Trump, please read the above essay again and ponder what people were voting against by voting for Trump .
They may well have been voting against the corrupt, self-serving status quo rather than voting for the individual Donald Trump.
There are very few opportunities for powerless non-elites to register their disapproval of the nation’s Ruling Elite and the corrupt status quo. Voting for an outsider in a national election is one such rare opportunity.
As I noted in October, The Ruling Elite Has Lost the Consent of the Governed (October 20, 2016).
If you still don’t understand how Trump could win, please read the above essay as many times as is necessary for you to get it: the status quo of corrupt self-serving insiders generates injustice and inequality as its only possible output. | 1 |
It was a minor tabloid scandal: a Bronx high school teacher caught having a sexual relationship with a student. She was 32. He was in high school, 17 or 18. Soon, they moved in together and she was pregnant. They bought wedding bands. But they began to argue: about how they would raise their son when he was born about how the student, though still a minor, drank rum. And as quickly as it had begun, the illicit relationship seemed to be over and they had resumed their separate lives at DeWitt Clinton High School, she as a science teacher, he as a student. Over the next four years, the woman, now a former teacher — her teaching certification was revoked because of the relationship — attended graduate school and raised their son. The former student, Isaac Duran Infante, paid child support and occasionally visited, but was otherwise kept at a distance. On Monday, the former teacher, Felicia Barahona, and the boy, Miguel, 4, were found dead in their apartment in Upper Manhattan. By Tuesday, detectives were trying to learn as much about Mr. Duran Infante as possible. And on Tuesday night, the police announced that Mr. Duran Infante, 23, had been charged with two counts of murder. The charges against Mr. Duran Infante made for a shocking turn in a story that, until her death, had cast Ms. Barahona as a malefactor or a punch line. Her photograph has appeared in The New York Post and The Daily News in recent years, as the tabloids chronicled a spate of prohibited, and often illegal, relationships. One law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss a continuing investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that Mr. Duran Infante had given detectives a statement, although its contents were not immediately known. The details of the intimate relationship between the two are laid out in a 2012 memorandum by the office of the special commissioner of investigation for New York City’s schools. It was not immediately clear how closely they had been involved in each other’s lives since then. Mr. Duran Infante’s family could not immediately be reached for comment. It appears that he lived in the Bronx as well as in Pennsylvania in recent years. On Tuesday, law enforcement officials and relatives of Ms. Barahona offered differing versions of his surname, with some calling him Isaac Duran and others, including the police in the news release announcing the charges, referring to him as Isaac Duran Infante. Ms. Barahona’s half brother, Jaime Bravo, said she and Mr. Duran Infante argued over how Miguel was being raised. “It was over who gets the kid, how do we figure out what payments are done, if he’s going to pay support or not,” Mr. Bravo said. Mr. Bravo said he believed Mr. Duran Infante had paid child support and had visitation rights. According to Mr. Bravo and other relatives, Ms. Barahona had been moving on with her life. “She had a fall from grace and was piecing things back together,” Mr. Bravo said, adding that she was studying forensic science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and worked there as well. A more distant relative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Ms. Barahona was quite busy given her involvement with the Coast Guard Reserve, working and studying at John Jay and raising Miguel and a daughter who was around 8. “It’s horrible,” the relative said, adding, “whatever her transgressions, she certainly didn’t deserve a death sentence. ” “Little Miguel certainly didn’t do anything wrong,” this person said. Mr. Bravo described the boy as “your basic, happy old,” and a fan of Thomas the Tank Engine who was always reaching for his mother’s phone. Miguel and his mother were found dead in their West 153rd Street apartment on Monday morning, the police said. Ms. Barahona, 36, was found on the living room floor with an electrical cord wrapped around her neck Miguel was in the bathtub, the police said. Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, said in an email that both deaths had been ruled homicides. Detectives continued on Tuesday to try to track Mr. Duran Infante’s actions in recent days. The 2012 memo written by school district investigators offers an account of the relationship between Ms. Barahona and Mr. Duran Infante, although his name is redacted and he is identified as Student A in the version obtained by The New York Times. The report indicates that Ms. Barahona had been his teacher. On Halloween 2011, the memo says, Ms. Barahona and the student met to take her daughter in Manhattan. Within a few weeks, Ms. Barahona and the student had begun to have sex, according to the memo. Soon, Ms. Barahona was pregnant and the student was accompanying her to doctor appointments. The student moved in with Ms. Barahona in January 2012. They lived together for five days, in Ms. Barahona’s telling Mr. Duran Infante said it was three weeks, according to the memo. They argued about alcohol, about a comment Mr. Duran Infante had made to Ms. Barahona’s daughter, and about whether Mr. Duran Infante would take their son to visit his relatives. “Barahona responded that Student A was not going to take the baby anywhere and they argued,” according to the memo. Before long, they split up, the memo says. The relationship came to the attention of the authorities in February 2012 based on a tip from someone who had talked to Mr. Duran Infante. When investigators contacted him, he acknowledged that he had “fallen in love” and had had a sexual relationship with Ms. Barahona. He told investigators that she was pregnant. “He embraced the idea of being a father,” the memo says. | 1 |
by Outis Philalithopoulos By Outis Philalithopoulos, who met an untimely end five years ago, and now “wears the chains he forged in life” as an economist. Previous events in this series led the ghost of Outis back to 1996. After meeting the first of three Spirits and being shown a series of sometimes unwelcome visions, Outis found himself alone. I thought about the people I had seen during my spectral journey. They seemed to think of themselves as liberals, even though they would be out of place among modern progressives. I toyed with an evolutionary explanation. There were things Brown didn’t understand about forceful communication, and things Franken didn’t understand about a lot of subjects, but maybe the two of them were “primitive progressives,” who hadn’t yet developed into real progressives. Maybe if someone had just called them out, they would have understood, and grown. One thing Franken and Brown had in common is that they both came off as smarter than the people they criticized. To me, being progressive was basically about not being stupid, and so it was unsurprising that primitive progressives had also tried to show that they were intelligent. But to reach that end, Franken and Brown used different strategies. Franken seemed one of a group of 90s Democrats who saw themselves as having mastered the most defensible positions on each issue. Support of deficit reduction and trade pacts were orthodox positions of mainstream economics, and so for these liberals, there wasn’t any political problem here – you just needed to say the correct answer as quickly as possible. For Brown, on the other hand, her self-confidence was tied more closely to her academic career, and to her ability to see around and behind “narratives” that other people might believe in. What else brought the “whipsmart” Democrats and the academic postmodernists together? Not much, as far as I could tell, except that they both disliked sounding too definite. In other words, they also had in common a sort of “postmodern attitude.” I wondered if my generalizations about primitive progressives held more broadly. What else could I remember about liberals of the time? There was a lot said about self-esteem. One time in high school something bad happened and a teacher wanted us to hold hands, and talk and feel together – or was that a movie? Regardless, many people did seemed to prize being non-judgmental. Wendy Brown had worried about whether some liberals genuinely believed in postmodernism, especially those trying to represent particular demographic groups. Even those writers, according to Brown, typically claimed to believe that culture was socially constructed, but they also wanted to privilege the perspectives of people who had suffered more, and treat their suffering as objectively real. Brown didn’t explain why this was supposed to be a problem, and clearly later progressives had realized that Brown was wrong to be so concerned. If primitive progressives had been a “rainbow coalition” of disparate groups who didn’t have much in common besides smartness and a vague commitment to postmodernism, how were they able to work together at all? How had we managed to banish the specter of postmodernism, and build an unprecedented degree of cultural cohesion and confidence? A finger touched my shoulder. Michel had returned. “I know you are weary of my presence,” he began sympathetically, “and so I will speed you to the last clues I can provide.” “But can we instead…” I began. Before I could finish my sentence, the horizon blurred and I found ourselves in a large lecture hall, surrounded by people who seemed very important, and somber. At the podium was a stern man in suit and tie. His voice rang through the hall: Something else died on Tuesday, in addition to thousands of innocent people. It was the doctrine of moral equivalency — the idea that people everywhere are just like us, or can be made so by meeting their demands. These humanistic, “can’t we all get along,” “profiling potential terrorists is racism,” “we’re all God’s children,” Kumbaya, “all we’re saying is give peace a chance” moral equivalency equivocators will soon be back. They’ll try to wear down our resolve. They should be ignored. Evil exists. It must be opposed. If this is war, let’s start acting like it and tell America’s enemies that if they are so intent on seeing their God, we’ll help them get there. As for us, we intend to die of natural causes. The audience cheered. “I guess this is 9/11?” I said to Foucault. “Two days later,” he concurred. “And this guy is some sort of rightwinger?” He nodded. “Syndicated columnist Cal Thomas.” A young, smartly dressed woman was speaking to her neighbor. “Guess what’s on the bestseller list right now?” Her somewhat older neighbor shook her head. “ Quarterlife Crisis – a book written by two twentysomethings bemoaning the,” and here her voice became brutally sarcastic, ‘ landmine period in our adult development during the transition from college graduation into the real world.’“ “The poor dears,” said the neighbor. “Many of them feel,” and here her voice took the same tone as it had before, “ helpless, panicked, indecisive, and apprehensive . You know what this generation needs? A real crisis. And now…. we have one. Our generational wake-up call. Our bloody moment of shattered self-complacency.” “Michel, Michel,” I said, annoyed. “I get it. The Right was fixated on the idea that progressives lacked moral clarity. Whatever truth there was in that claim, it’s clearly false now. What I’d really like to know is…” But Foucault shook his head and put a finger to his lips. Again, the scene shifted. We were in another room, with another speaker and another audience. This venue, though, was rather small, and while some attendants looked rather professional, others were dressed informally. Foucault whispered to me, “2007.” The audience listened intently to the speaker. She exuded an infectious, intimate candor as she talked about Internet activism. You know what? Sometimes we’re very, very rude. I go right into the face of mainstream media writers’ faces and call them out. I’m right in there with the worst of them, foul-mouthed, vituperative, and personal. There’s a reason for that: it’s the only way to get their attention ! We have a beef – and I maintain it’s legitimate and important. For years we’ve watched the mainstream media aid and abet the right wing to the point at which they behaved like a bunch of puerile cheerleaders for an absurd impeachment and stolen election. Iraq was the frosting on the cake. There’s no amount of polite discourse that’s going to shake up that comfortable relationship. And after Iraq, it’s become downright dangerous. Finally, a real progressive, I thought to myself. As she ended her speech, two men in expensive suits, with open collars, faced each other. “She’s right, you know, and it’s not just the media,” one remarked. “No shit,” the other seconded. “Say what you want about the Republicans, they know how to win. All we know how to do is lose.” The first shook his head in disgust. “The whole Democratic Party has become a bunch of,” and he lowered his voice, “pussies.” I looked angrily at Foucault. He put a sympathetic hand on my shoulder. The second man also shook his head. “We need to grow some balls.” He paused, then went on. “The thing is, I know this sounds optimistic after the last couple decades, but I actually think some people are starting to get it.” “It’s true,” the first acknowledged. “Take Rahm Emanuel. Someone tries to swift boat him, he swift boats them back. Some people don’t like him ‘cause he’s abrasive and says fuck a lot, but if you ask me, we need more people where you kinda feel like, this guy isn’t intimidated by Karl Rove.” “Yeah, Rahm’s cool,” the second said. “We just need to put ourselves out there more. Stop letting the Republicans paint us as weak. Stop accepting that they’re just going to get all the good donors.” “Exactly,” the first said with some passion. “And it’s not like this means compromising our principles.” “Of course not,” snorted the second. “I mean, we have our convictions. We just need to be smarter.” “Michel,” I said with some heat. “if the point is supposed to be that in our efforts to stand up to the right wing, we became more like them, I have to say, I find the idea unpersuasive and offensive.” “Well…,” he began. I motioned him to silence. “I think it’s really not that complicated. With the rise of the Internet, it became easier for good ideas to circulate and harder for bad ideas to escape criticism. So of course we were able to stick up for the truth more vigorously, and be less wishy-washy than before. Sort of like how the printing press made the Reformation possible…” “I see!” he exclaimed, brightening. “You cast yourself as one of the early Protestants, upholding a more rigorous standard of morality against the worldly and corrupt Catholics who preceded you. The Internet punishes tentativeness, just as the printing press made it so Erasmus’ skepticism could be pilloried by Luther in their debate on free will.” “Uh…” I said, a little disoriented by his tendency to show off his erudition. “But perhaps,” he mused, “if the earlier liberals are the medieval Catholic church, then you are the Counter-Reformation, strengthening the discipline of the Catholic faithful by imposing meticulous rules of self-examination and intensifying the obligation of confession?” That sounded less flattering. Michel frowned and took a step back. Some sort of invisible force was tugging on the back of his shirt. He turned to me and sighed. “ Désolé, but my time has grown very short.” I opened my mouth to say something, but Foucault, and the room from 2007, disappeared. In their place stood a bunny, looking me straight in the eye. * * * In the next episode, Outis journeys into a popular and widely praised artistic representation of modern liberal culture. Sources: Cal Thomas’ column from September 13, 2001 can be read here . The young woman attending his talk is based on Michelle Malkin, see her September 12 column . The Internet activist is based on Heather Digby Parton’s recollections of Netroots , with past tense changed to present. Foucault’s comments on the Counter-Reformation are loosely paraphrased from p. 19 of Discipline and Punish . His comments on the Reformation are not based on anything concrete in his writings, and hopefully he would not disagree too strongly with them. 0 0 0 0 0 0 | 1 |
“Riverdale,” the new high school noir on CW, is a dark, weird reimagining of the Archie Comics franchise. Which raises the question: What was the version? The comics I read as a kid were an palimpsest, in which kids with ’70s haircuts and ’50s lifestyles tooled around in Archie Andrews’s ’ jalopy. Recently, the franchise has been redesigned and reconceived. In one series, an adult Archie dies. In another, he and the gang flee an outbreak of zombies, one of whom is his old pal Jughead Jones. The steamy “Riverdale,” which begins Thursday, owes more to those newer iterations. (The showrunner, Roberto is the chief creative officer of Archie Comics.) It chucks the comics’ old clichés for a new pastiche, drawn from decades of moody teen dramas, that occasionally adds up to something new. The familiar characters are back, as are landmarks like Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe. But it’s a dark, bitter milkshake that “Riverdale” concocts, built on the suspicion that any town this squeaky clean must be hiding decay, corruption and secrets. And jeepers, are there secrets. The big one surrounds the murder of Jason Blossom (Trevor Stines) who disappeared while on an outing in the woods with his twin sister Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch). Archie (K. J. Apa) — an aspiring musician with abs — witnessed a key bit of evidence but can’t talk because of the circumstances: He was hooking up with his music teacher, Ms. Grundy (Sarah Habel) now a sultry knockout. The whole Archieverse is hotter and more haunted. Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes) the spellbinding rich girl, is now a transplant from Manhattan whose father is in jail for fraud. Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) still pining away in Archie’s has an older sister who had a breakdown after an entanglement with Jason. It’s a more diverse Riverdale, too, if mainly among the supporting characters. Kevin Keller (Casey Cott) a gay student, was introduced in the recent comics. The mayor, the principal and the girl group Josie and the Pussycats are all . When Archie asks Josie (Ashleigh Murray) if he might write songs for her group, she scolds him for his white privilege, and he soberly concedes her point. Meet our new Archiekins: not just ripped, but woke. The malt shop is still in business, but the is closing down. The town is beset with bullying, sexual harassment and abuse. Jughead (Cole Sprouse) the wry, sidekick of the comics, is now a dour, emo narrator. “Get closer,” he says, “and you start seeing the shadows underneath. ” Finding the corrosion under the chassis of America is itself an old trope. “Riverdale” flirts with the kinky darkness of David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet,” as well as “Twin Peaks,” whose Mädchen Amick plays Betty’s mother. But the series is closer to teen intrigues like “Pretty Little Liars” and “Gossip Girl. ” “Riverdale” is very conscious of its influences — too much so at times. It’s a blizzard of knowing references and characters talking about one another as characters. “You may be a stock character from a ’90s teen movie,” Cheryl snipes at Veronica, “but I’m not. ” She’s right — Cheryl is more like a stock character from “Glee. ” Her line is typical of much of the dialogue in “Riverdale”: It’s clever, but it sounds written. Still, the show has a welcome sense of humor about itself. “Riverdale” is more an ensemble show than the story of Archie, which is fortunate, because here he’s written and played as a flat, brooding bore. In another touch of he spars with his father, played by Luke Perry, who practically invented soulful teen brooding on “Beverly Hills 90210. ” Archie’s gal pals are far more interesting, especially the new, more complex Betty. In the excellent third episode, she and Veronica join forces for a revenge plot against some jocks — a theme, lately, in series like MTV’s “ . ” Ms. Reinhart plays her vigilante turn with a gusto that conveys years of Betty’s repressing her feelings, and the two girls’ bonding complicates their inevitable love triangle with Archie. (That dynamic is very “Dawson’s Creek,” whose Greg Berlanti is an executive producer here.) The early episodes get better the deeper they delve into the murder mystery, despite false notes like members of a biker gang who look like extras from “Grease. ” If the tone is not yet consistent, the aesthetic is, a strong sign that “Riverdale” knows what it wants to be. The terrific art direction warps the iconography into something haunting and lurid. Take Archie and the Blossom twins’ hair — so red that it’s clownish, like dyed cotton candy. What the original comics drew as milky and wholesome, “Riverdale” dials up to ghostly and unnatural. The old world of Archie was saccharine, down to the 1969 single by spinoff pop group the Archies, “Sugar, Sugar” (which gets an update in the series from the Pussycats). This “Riverdale” suggests that so much sugar, over time, can’t help but make a town a little sick. | 1 |
‘Can you tell me who the president of the United States is at the moment?” A man and a woman sat in an office in the Clinical Research Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was 1986, and the man, Henry Molaison, was about to turn 60. He was wearing sweatpants and a checkered shirt and had thick glasses and thick hair. He pondered the question for a moment. “No,” he said. “I can’t. ” The woman, Jenni Ogden, was a visiting postdoctoral research fellow from the University of Auckland, in New Zealand. One of the greatest thrills of her time at M. I. T. was the chance to have sessions with Henry. In her field — neuropsychology — he was a legendary figure, something between a rock star and a saint. “Who’s the last president you remember?” “I don’t. . .. ” He paused for a second, mulling over the question. He had a soft, tentative voice, a warm New England accent. “Ike,” he said finally. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s inauguration took place in 1953. Our world had spun around the sun more than 30 times since, though Henry’s world had stayed still, frozen in orbit. This is because 1953 was the year he received an experimental operation, one that destroyed most of several seated structures in his brain, including his hippocampus, his amygdala and his entorhinal cortex. The operation, performed on both sides of his brain and intended to treat Henry’s epilepsy, rendered him profoundly amnesiac, unable to hold on to the present moment for more than 30 seconds or so. That outcome, devastating to Henry, was a boon to science: By 1986, Patient H. M. — as he was called in countless journal articles and textbooks — had become arguably the most important human research subject of all time, revolutionizing our understanding of how memory works. Of course, Henry didn’t know that. No matter how many times the scientists told him he was famous, he’d always forget. (It was an odd sort of fame: The scientists kept even his first name a closely guarded secret from the outside world and didn’t reveal it until after his death, when it was unveiled in a obituary in this newspaper.) Similarly, Henry didn’t know why he was in a wheelchair that day, in the office at M. I. T. because he didn’t remember badly spraining his ankle a few weeks before. He had big ears, big hands and, often, a big smile. Earlier, Ogden asked if he could place her accent, and he guessed that she was British, then Canadian, then Swedish. She gave him a short list to choose from, and eventually he made his way to New Zealand. She then asked if he could tell her anything about New Zealand. He impressed her by noting, correctly, that it was a country of two islands. In his spare time, Henry liked doing crossword puzzles, and his knowledge of geography was decent. This was one of the things about Henry that fascinated scientists: His amnesia often appeared, as they termed it, pure. There was an abyss in his brain that all the passing events of his life tumbled into, but on the surface he could seem almost normal. “Now,” Ogden continued, “if I tell you that the president now used to be a film star, does that help? Not a very good film star, but he used to be one a long time ago. I think he used to be a film star in westerns. And he’s the president of the United States. Rea . .. ?” The syllable tripped a circuit in Henry. “Reagan,” he said. “Reagan! Very good. Do you remember he used to be a film star?” “Well, yes. ” They spoke for a while about other film stars he remembered. Gary Cooper. Myrna Loy. Jimmy Stewart. “What about Frank Sinatra?” Ogden asked Henry. He considered the question. “Well,” he said, “he did a lot of singing, and he was in films and on the stage and radio and records. ” “Do you think he’s still alive, Frank Sinatra?” Henry paused. “There I don’t know. ” The scientists posed these sorts of questions to him, questions about who was living and who was not, relentlessly. They wanted to see if even the most drastic events — and nothing in life is more drastic than death — had failed to stick. At one point, Henry responded to some other questions of Ogden’s by telling her that he thought he lived at home with his mother in East Hartford, but he wasn’t sure about his father, because he had a feeling that maybe his father had died. In fact, Henry lived in a nursing home when he wasn’t living at the M. I. T. Clinical Research Center, and both his parents were long deceased. Henry would learn of someone’s death and grieve in his own quiet way, but if he wasn’t constantly reminded of his loss, that person would soon slowly come back to life in his mind. This cycle of death and resurrection may have been painful. For a while, Henry made a habit of carrying around a little scrap of paper reminding him that his father was dead. Now Ogden asked about someone who was still living, someone who was neither a celebrity nor a relative, but someone who loomed large to Henry. “Who or what,” she asked, “is Sue Corkin?” “Well. She was a . .. like a senator. ” “A senator?” “Yeah. ” The relationship between Suzanne Corkin and Henry Molaison was one of those that appear, when traced to their roots, to be almost fated. Corkin was born in Hartford Hospital, the same hospital where Henry received his operation. She grew up across the street from the neurosurgeon who operated on him and was close friends with the surgeon’s daughter. The two girls would gossip deep into the night on telephones strung between their bedroom windows. They ended up going off to Smith College together. Corkin majored in psychology and, upon graduation, went to Montreal to pursue a master’s and a Ph. D. at McGill University. There, her adviser turned out to be a woman named Brenda Milner, a brilliant neuropsychologist who in 1957 had written — with Corkin’s old neighbor, the neurosurgeon — the first groundbreaking paper about Patient H. M. After Milner moved on to other interests, Corkin moved in, and by the 1970s had inherited her mentor’s most important research subject, becoming the lead researcher in his case. Corkin built much of her subsequent career on the back of her privileged access to Henry and became both his gatekeeper — fielding requests from other scientists who wished to meet him — and his chief inquisitor. Fated or not, Henry and Corkin’s relationship was unusual, in that it was almost entirely sided. Corkin knew Henry intimately, spending decades gathering the most minute details of his strengths and his deficits. But Henry, squinting through the haze of his amnesia, didn’t know the first thing about Suzanne Corkin. Each of the hundreds of times they met, it was, for Henry, a first meeting, though over the years little shards of feelings and associations seemed to have accrued. Maybe it’s understandable that Corkin’s name would eventually spark the image of a senator in Henry’s mind, because she became such a dominant authority figure in his life. The history of brain science is rich in these sorts of sided relationships. A great deal of what we know about how our brains work has come about through intensively scrutinizing individuals whose brains don’t work. An accident jettisons an iron rod through the left frontal lobe of a mannered railroad foreman named Phineas Gage, transforming him into a hellion, thus allowing researchers to begin deducing the functions of those oversized saddlebags behind our forehead and eyes. A man with a lesion to the left superior temporal gyrus is unable to understand what’s said to him, spurring the neurologist Carl Wernicke to conclude that this area must be essential to language comprehension. Another man, with a lesion to the left inferior frontal gyrus, is able to understand speech but can’t articulate any words himself, other than a single syllable — tan, tan — providing a French surgeon named Paul Broca a glimpse of the cerebral root of language production. In that pantheon of illuminatingly broken men and women, Henry stands apart. It is difficult to exaggerate the impact he has had on our understanding of ourselves. Before Brenda Milner collaborated on that first paper about Henry, the prevailing theory of memory held that its functions could not be localized to a single cortical area, that learning was distributed across the brain as a whole. By that theory — built upon the experimental lesioning of the brains of rats — a person’s memory would be affected only in proportion to the amount of brain tissue removed, regardless of which brain structures the tissue was removed from. Milner’s first paper about Henry, along with her previous work, upended this view. She demonstrated, with elegance and rigor, that Henry’s amnesia was profound — possibly the most catastrophic she had ever seen — and declared that it must have been a result only of the relatively small and specific bilateral lesions to his hippocampus and other medial temporal structures left by the operation. This was an astonishing revelation. It was not the last. Five years after Milner’s first paper about Henry, she published a second that was almost as revelatory. That paper documented Henry’s gradual improvement over a period on a difficult coordination task. His improvement came despite his inability to ever remember his previous attempts at the task, indicating that there are at least two different memory systems in the brain — one responsible for our conscious, episodic memories, the second responsible for related “procedural” memories — and that these two systems seem to rely on entirely distinct parts of the brain. This was another fundamental step forward in our understanding of how memory works. Together, Milner’s two related revelations can be viewed as the cornerstones of modern memory science. After Corkin took over the research, the revelations kept coming, though now they were of a smaller scale. Corkin and her colleagues added fine detail to the portrait of Henry’s damaged condition, filling in gaps, but the weight of their work could seem slight when compared with Milner’s monumental achievements. Corkin and her colleagues learned that if you placed a inflicting device called a dolorimeter to Henry’s chest, he wouldn’t complain even as his skin began to turn red and burn. She learned that if you presented him with two dinners in a row, he would eat them both, because by the time he began the second he would have forgotten the first. She learned that he was apparently asexual and that there was no evidence of his ever even masturbating. She learned the ins and outs of his temperament, the frequency of his tantrums, the patterns of his infrequent complaints. She noted the odd exceptions to his amnesia, like the fact that Henry, after years of watching the sitcom “All in the Family,” eventually came to know that Archie Bunker’s was called Meathead. Corkin cataloged his verbal tics, his malapropisms, his stock phrases. “I’m having an argument with myself,” Henry would say, over and over and over again. As the experiments piled up and the data accumulated, Henry became a boon not just to science but also to Corkin’s career. She started her own lab at M. I. T. and although she and her colleagues conducted research in a number of areas, the papers that generated the most attention were always the ones about Henry. When they first met, Corkin was a young graduate student in her 20s. She grew older. She became a renowned professor of neuroscience at one of the world’s greatest universities. Henry grew older, too, though he wasn’t exactly aware of it. In Henry’s later years, people were always asking him how old he thought he was, and he would make a series of guesses. Was he in his 30s, his 40s, his 50s? He had only the vaguest sense of the passage of time. Then someone might pass him a mirror and watch him gaze into his own elderly eyes. “I’m not a boy,” he would say, finally. Henry died on a winter afternoon in 2008. The next morning, Corkin peered through a window into an autopsy room at Massachusetts General Hospital, watching as two men cut off the top of Henry’s skull. For 46 years, Corkin had been having her sided meetings with Henry, endlessly introducing herself to an old friend. Now she was having one last encounter that only she would remember. The men carefully pulled out Henry’s brain, and Corkin gazed at it through the glass, marveling at this object she had spent her career considering at one step removed. Later, reflecting on that moment, Corkin could think of only one word to describe her feelings. She was, she wrote, “ecstatic. ” It would be reasonable to assume that the strange relationship between Suzanne Corkin and Henry Molaison ended that day, but that assumption would be wrong. As it turned out, some of the most astonishing, and troubling, episodes in the long saga of Suzanne Corkin and Henry Molaison were still to come. Late last fall, I rode an elevator to the fifth floor of M. I. T. ’s Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex and walked down a long red hallway toward Suzanne Corkin’s office. I had known Corkin since I was a kid. Remember her friend, the surgeon’s daughter, the one she telephoned with as a little girl? That’s my mom. The surgeon who performed the experimental operation on Henry was my grandfather. When I was growing up, Corkin was a staple at my mom’s dinner parties. We had met many times before. This meeting was going to be different. I was in the final stages of writing a book about Henry, and Corkin was a central figure in it. Until then, however, she had been mostly inaccessible to me. If I ever hoped that my personal connection to Corkin would provide me any sort of privileged access, I had long since given up. When I first explored the possibility of writing about Henry, he was still alive, but I abandoned that effort after Corkin presented me with a confidentiality agreement stating that M. I. T. would allow me access to the “research project entitled ‘The Amnesic Patient H. M.’’u2009” only if the university had editorial control over anything I intended to publish. After Henry died and I decided to take another run at telling his story, Corkin turned down repeated interview requests, telling me that she was working on her own book about Henry and that her literary agent had advised her not to speak with me. That time, I didn’t drop the project. Instead, I spent years shuttling between dusty archives and edge laboratories, speaking with other researchers who had worked with Henry and other neurosurgeons who had worked with my grandfather. I followed Henry’s trail down all sorts of unexpected paths, and what I uncovered was alternately fascinating and disturbing, starting even before the day my grandfather drilled two holes in Henry’s head, levered up his frontal lobes and suctioned out some of the deepest and most mysterious structures in his brain. The questionable ethics that were the backdrop to Henry’s operation — a catastrophic blurring of the lines between medical research and medical practice — became clear early on, but my reporting also eventually raised serious questions about Henry’s treatment after he left the operating room, during the decades he spent as a human research subject, as well as in the eight years that have passed since his death. Corkin welcomed me into her office and sat down across from me at a small round table. She was 78 and had retired from her research and teaching duties. She had short reddish hair and framed glasses. She had always been petite, but she looked unusually thin because she was battling a serious illness. She offered me a French chocolate from a glass bowl. I was grateful that she had finally agreed to an interview, though from the outset it was clear that this wasn’t going to be an easy one. Her answers were generally curt, offering the bare minimum of information in a clinical, dispassionate way, even when talking about major milestones in her past. Shortly after we began, I asked whether she could describe the first time she met Henry, that initial encounter with the man who would go on to define her life’s work, and this is what she said: “No, but that’s not surprising. Because what you’re asking for is an episodic memory, and episodic memories typically don’t last that long, no matter what the situation is. Now, I’m sure there are exceptions, when, you know, say, somebody’s being raped, and she remembers every little detail of that event. But what probably happened in cases like that, that are very emotional, is that they were repeated many times after. They were rehearsed, mentally, and became semanticized. So no, I don’t remember what it was like to first shake hands with Henry, but if I did, it would probably be fiction rather than fact. ” Some of my most pressing questions had to do with a much more recent episode. Specifically, I wanted to ask Corkin about a secret custody war that had just been waged over Henry’s brain. It was a war very few people knew about, and it was a war she had won. It was also a war with serious implications, not just for the future of memory science but for its past. When I brought up the subject, Corkin pursed her lips. “I’m not going into this at all with you,” she said. “Not at all?” I said. “Because I’d like to — ” Corkin cut me off. “You would, and so would everybody else. ” The story of the war over Henry’s brain didn’t begin in a fancy conference room on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, but that’s where one of its climactic battles would take place. It was March 2013, and there were more than a dozen participants, an impressive roster of scientists and administrators affiliated with four major institutions — M. I. T. Mass General the University of California, Davis and the University of California, San Diego — as well as two major giving organizations, the Dana Foundation and the Simons Foundation. But the essential participants, the chief antagonists, were Suzanne Corkin and a man named Jacopo Annese. Annese was a neuroanatomist. He was Italian, charismatic and handsome, and he drove a 1986 Porsche. seven years old at the time, he had labored as a cook before he embarked on his present career. He liked using cooking analogies to explain the various elements of his work: For example, the craft of neurohistology — which can involve mounting and dyeing delicate slivers of neural tissue — was a lot like baking, he said, because in both endeavors the temperatures and times must be finely calibrated, precisely tuned, with little room for improvisation. He had lived in the United States for nearly two decades, climbing the rungs of an academic ladder that took him from the University of Rome to Dartmouth to the University of California, Los Angeles, to a position at the University of California, San Diego, where he founded his own laboratory, a place he called the Brain Observatory. The Brain Observatory had the simple but ambitious goal of amassing the world’s most useful collection of brains. Its utility wasn’t ever going to be a function of its size — there were brain banks whose scale Annese couldn’t compete with — but rather would depend on its curation and its methods. Annese wanted to acquire exceptional brains, and he wanted to preserve them through an extraordinary process that he and his colleagues had developed. Corkin was impressed when she met Annese and later chose him to receive the object that would become the cornerstone of his collection. Not long after Corkin watched Henry’s brain being removed from Henry’s skull in 2008, she carried it in a small cooler to a JetBlue gate at Logan Airport in Boston, passed it to Annese and watched him walk down the ramp to the plane. Annese had bought two tickets, one for him and one for Henry. Back in San Diego, Annese kicked off what he dubbed Project H. M. with what was possibly the most successful publicity stunt in the history of neuroscience. Near the first anniversary of Henry’s death, he streamed the act that would enable all the work to follow: a partitioning of Henry’s brain into 2, 401 thin slices. The stream registered 400, 000 views, and it was catnip for science writers. During the silent feed, Annese placed little notes on the slicer, giving viewers a sense of the vibe in his lab. “Playing the White Album now,” one said. After the spectacle died down, Annese and his labmates undertook the slow, glamourless, painstaking process of mounting the slices onto slides. They also began using the “ images” — resolution pictures made during the slicing, when a camera mounted above the slicer snapped a shot just before each pass of the blade — to create a dimensional model of Henry’s brain, one that could be whirled around and zoomed in and out of at will. Annese kept in touch with Corkin throughout these early stages of Project H. M. sending her updates addressed “Cara Sue” and receiving in return smiley emoticons. Then, some months after the slicing, Corkin began asking for Henry’s brain back. At first, she and her colleagues asked for only parts of the brain and some of the data Annese had produced with it — the images and tissue samples for a neuropathology exam. Annese was wary of handing over data before they had an agreement for how his work would be credited. He gave Corkin and her colleagues some of what they asked for, but not all of it. He hadn’t finished his work, and after investing so many resources, he expected more clarity. The longer Annese stalled, the more insistent Corkin’s demands became. Eventually, Annese prepared a paper based on his analysis of Henry’s brain and asked Corkin to contribute to it. But the dialogue between them was fraying. Shortly after Annese submitted the paper to the journal Nature Communications without Corkin’s participation, the summit was called in New York. The parties gathered around the table, with Gerald Fischbach, then the director of life sciences at the Simons Foundation, assuming the meeting chair. After everyone introduced themselves and Annese presented his work on Henry’s brain, Fischbach asked Annese for his views on the brain’s custody. Two weeks earlier, M. I. T. sent U. C. S. D. a formal letter requesting that it turn over all 2, 401 slices of Henry’s brain to a scientist M. I. T. had selected. “I never felt like I owned the brain,” Annese said. He told the group that he didn’t really care where Henry’s brain ultimately resided, though he wanted to make sure that whatever happened, he and his labmates would receive fair credit and recognition for all the time and money and labor they had invested. It appeared that the question of where Henry’s brain would ultimately be housed — whether it would remain with Annese at U. C. S. D. or be moved at M. I. T. ’s request — might be settled quickly. “And how would you like to set this up,” Fischbach asked, “if it doesn’t really matter where the tissue is? Do you want to resolve that now? Or let the committee decide it?” Corkin interjected. “It’s not a decision by the committee,” she said. “Because it’s a decision by the people who own the tissue. And that’s M. G. H. and M. I. T. And our decision is that we would like it to go to David’s lab. ” By David, she meant David Amaral, who directed research at the MIND Institute at the University of California, Davis. M. I. T. and Mass General were proposing to transfer Henry’s brain to the MIND Institute, though not to relinquish ownership. “In what sense do you own the tissue?” the chairman asked. “We have a donation form,” Corkin said. She then passed a stack of photocopies of an old document around the table. The document appeared to show that Henry and his closest living next of kin had agreed, 16 years before Henry’s death, to donate Henry’s brain to M. I. T. and Mass General. Although the donation form seemed to settle the matter of the brain’s ownership, the meeting became increasingly contentious. One item on the agenda was a discussion of the Nature Communications paper, which Corkin did not want to be published. Annese made what he hoped would be taken as a conciliatory gesture, telling Corkin that the journal’s editors had agreed to add her name as a author. Corkin said that adding “names to that paper isn’t going to make it publishable. ” She continued: “It needs to be rewritten, as a serious scientific document. ” “It’s not a serious scientific document?” Annese asked. “It’s not sophisticated scientific writing,” Corkin said. “That’s not what the other three reviewers said. ” The chairman intervened. “Somebody has read it and reviewed it,” he told Corkin. One of Corkin’s colleagues jumped in: “Maybe the point is that [Annese’s paper] is not the definitive anatomical paper. ” “Of course it isn’t,” Corkin said. “Of course it isn’t. ” The chairman continued: “I’m uncomfortable criticizing a publication that one is not part of. If you [Annese] feel that, in your scientific judgment, it merits publication, and the reviewers have accepted it. . .. It may not turn out to be the definitive paper. And that will be left, Sue, for you and your colleagues or for Jacopo to write. ” “There’s just melodrama,” Corkin said, referring to Annese’s paper. “The reviewers found it sound scientifically,” Annese said. “Please, Sue, send me your comments. ” “You call him Henry,” Corkin said. “I mean, it’s so chatty! ‘During the surgery, Henry. … ’’u2009” “One reviewer talks about the data as stellar quality,” Annese said. The quarrel continued until the meeting ended a later. In a up memo that was sent to all participants, representatives of the Dana Foundation summarized what they saw as the major decisions made. They wrote that Corkin would be added as a author on Annese’s paper and that the “ultimate location” of Henry’s brain would be with David Amaral at the MIND Institute at U. C. Davis. But it would be up to Annese and Amaral to determine what tissue would be transferred and when. Corkin quickly revised the memo, striking through the line outlining the timing and details of the transfer. Instead, she wrote, U. C. S. D. would simply “transfer all of H. M.’s brain tissue, including the tissue that has already been mounted,” to the scientist M. I. T. had chosen. At that point, M. I. T. and Mass General would write an agreement to “allow U. C. Davis certain rights to use and distribute the tissue owned by M. I. T. and M. G. H. ” As far as Corkin was concerned, she and her colleagues owned Henry’s brain, period, and Annese had no say in the matter whatsoever. Despite the unsettled question of where Henry’s brain would reside, the New York meeting did accomplish at least one thing. Now that Corkin had been added as an author on Annese’s Nature Communications paper, Corkin and Annese had to communicate to complete the revision process, breaking the chilly silence between them. What this new correspondence revealed was that despite what she said during the meeting, Corkin’s central problem with the paper, the one she pushed back on hardest, wasn’t Annese’s chatty writing style. Instead she was concerned with something Annese had discovered in Henry’s brain. Specifically, Annese’s analysis had revealed a previously unreported lesion in Henry’s frontal lobe. The lesion was in the left hemisphere and appeared to have been caused by a object. In his draft of the paper, Annese speculated that my grandfather had created the lesion when he levered up Henry’s frontal lobes to access the medial temporal lobes. This was a significant finding. As one of the paper’s anonymous peer reviewers pointed out, “much of the neuropsychological literature on H. M. has made the case that called frontal function was intact. ” In other words, for the previous six decades, neuropsychologists like Corkin had interpreted their experimental results with Henry under the working assumption that his lesions were restricted to the medial temporal lobes. The discovery of this new lesion might call some of their conclusions about the functions of the medial temporal lobes into question and require a examination of all that old data. When Corkin sent Annese her revisions of his paper, she deleted all references to the newly discovered frontal lesion. In a note to Annese, she explained that “the frontal lobe lesion does not appear on either the in situ scans [the M. R. I. scans made while the brain was still in Henry’s skull] or the fresh brain photos” and that “any consideration of it would be highly misleading. ” She followed up with an email stating that her colleagues at M. I. T. and Mass General “believe that there is a good chance that the alleged orbitofrontal lesion is a handling lesion,” meaning that it was caused after death, during the extraction and subsequent handling of the brain. She added that “there is no intent by the [Mass General] group and me to hide evidence. ” Annese responded with a series of images from in situ M. R. I. scans that, contrary to Corkin’s assertions, gave clear views of the lesion, demonstrating that it could not have resulted from the handling of the brain. Annese also sent imagery of some of the slides bearing that portion of Henry’s frontal lobes, and these slides seemed to support the idea that the lesion resulted from the use of a object, like the “flat brain spatula” that my grandfather used during the operation. The lesion, Annese wrote to Corkin, “was previously unreported (we ascertained it was present even in the 1992 — 93 M. R. I. scans) and together with other data represents new evidence in the case. ” He added: “I really don’t understand the reluctance. . .. This is real flesh and blood. There’s a lesion outside the [medial temporal lobes] it is conspicuous and it should be reported. Remember, the goal of this paper and the archive is to catalyze new investigations as well as new debates, like the one we have been having. ” The arguments over the lesion and other aspects of the paper soon devolved into acrimony. A mediator hosted a conference call, and eventually a compromise was reached. The frontal lesion would stay in the paper, but it wouldn’t be featured as prominently as it was in earlier drafts. Soon after, U. C. S. D. agreed to give up custody of the brain. If Annese was being honest with himself, he would admit that a part of him had considered holding on to the brain, or at least some pieces of it. His ego had given him a sense of entitlement. A sense of outrage, too. After the brain was handed over, he submitted his resignation to U. C. S. D. “I believe that, regretfully, this is the only way to provide a justifiable (and dignifying) narrative to the changes in course of the H. M. project,” he wrote. Back in Corkin’s office, I pressed for her side of the story, her perspective on the fight over the brain. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she said. “We have a donation form, right? That says it all. ” “I’m curious about, what was the paperwork — ” She cut me off. “I cannot talk about the paperwork,” she said. The paperwork — the document she passed around the table at the meeting in New York — was only one page, and the crucial part took up just two sentences: “I, Thomas F. Mooney, am the appointed guardian of the person of Henry G. Molaison. I also presently am Henry G. Molaison’s closest living next of kin, and as such I am entitled by law to control Henry G. Molaison’s remains upon his death. ” The lines were followed by a signature and a date: Dec. 19, 1992. Corkin had arranged for Mooney to apply to become Henry’s conservator earlier that year. A judge, taking Mooney to be Henry’s closest relative, approved the conservatorship. One of Mooney’s first acts as conservator was to donate Henry’s brain to Corkin and her colleagues. He also consented, with Henry’s assent, to the continuation of the experiments Corkin wished to conduct on Henry while he remained alive. The problem was, Mooney wasn’t actually Henry’s next of kin. I asked Corkin whether she could tell me how, precisely, Mooney was related to Henry. She could not. It took me a long time to answer the same question. I made numerous phone calls and even showed up on Mooney’s doorstep once. He always made excuses for not being able to meet me. In court documents, I saw Mooney described as both Henry’s cousin and Henry’s nephew, but I had built out Henry’s family tree for three generations and was unable to find any blood ties. Eventually, over the phone, Mooney told me that he and Henry were third cousins, very distant relations. I asked Corkin whether she was aware that when Mooney became Henry’s conservator, one of Henry’s first cousins, Frank Molaison, was living nearby — his actual next of kin — and had not been consulted. I mentioned that his name should have made him particularly easy to find. “I was not aware of his existence,” she said. I asked whether she had ever done any genealogical research at all into the man she had studied for almost a century. “No,” she said. “So,” I said, “you were not aware that Mr. Mooney was not his next of kin?” “No,” she said. I had tracked down and spoken with Henry’s closest living relatives, and some were surprised and disturbed to learn about the things Corkin and her colleagues did with their cousin while he was alive and about the fight over his brain that took place after his death. I asked Corkin why she arranged for Mooney to apply to become Henry’s conservator in the first place. I knew that for more than a decade before Mooney was named Henry’s conservator, Henry himself had been the only one signing the consent forms for his experiments. “I just wanted another level of security,” Corkin said. “Another person who was not amnesiac and who had Henry’s best interests at heart. ” I asked what she meant by “security. ” Security from what? “For Henry,” she said. “For M. I. T. ” And what were M. I. T. ’s vulnerabilities? “I don’t know,” she said. “I’d have to ask our lawyers that. ” After the slides and the remaining brain tissue were turned over, M. I. T. and U. C. S. D. officials continued to negotiate over a final point of contention: the resolution images that Annese and his colleagues made during the slicing. In the end, U. C. S. D. agreed to one final demand: The digital data, too, would go. As someone who spent years grappling with Henry’s story, I knew that this was not necessarily a bad thing. However you interpreted the conflict leading up to the removal of Henry’s brain from San Diego, once that transfer happened, it seemed reasonable to want everything consolidated: all the material, all the data. This would make it easier for scientists to continue their analysis, mining Henry’s brain for any last revelations it contained. You could imagine a moment decades in the future, when some eager and brilliant young researcher might hold to the light one of the slides Annese made from Henry’s brain, appreciating it for the historic and gorgeous and mysterious object it would always remain, not giving a damn who owned or controlled it. You could imagine that researcher digging into additional parts of the archive, including the imagery, the other slides, the remaining unprocessed tissue. Maybe, just maybe, she finds something, some anomaly that nobody has ever noticed, something that might spark a new idea — a new hint about how we work or a new challenge to our old assumptions. Ideally, of course, that hypothetical researcher would be able to explore not just the archive of Henry’s brain but the archive of all the data that was collected from Henry’s mind while he was still alive, the reams of experimental and observational information that scientists had extracted from him after he left my grandfather’s operating room. The whole idea behind preserving Henry’s brain, after all, was to be able to compare and correlate his neuroanatomical data with the unprecedented amount of clinical and behavioral data that already existed in his case. Most of that other data was presumably in Suzanne Corkin’s possession. So toward the end of my interview with her, I asked what she intended to do with her Henry files, the raw data she spent her career gathering. Me: Are you aiming to give his files to an archive? Corkin: Not his files, but I’m giving his memorabilia to my department. And they will be on display on the third floor. (By memorabilia, she meant his personal effects — his Bible, his glasses, his crucifix — all of which she owned. She had also claimed copyright to every known family photo of Henry and his parents.) Me: Right. And what’s going to happen to the files themselves? (She paused for several seconds.) Corkin: Shredded. Me: Shredded? Why would they be shredded? Corkin: Nobody’s gonna look at them. Me: Really? I can’t imagine shredding the files of the most important research subject in history. Why would you do that? Corkin: Well, you can’t just take one test on one day and draw conclusions about it. That’s a very dangerous thing to do. Me: Yeah, but your files would be comprehensive. They would span decades. Corkin: Yeah, well, the tests are gone. The test data. The data sheets are gone. Because the stuff is published. Most of it is published. Or a lot of it is published. Me: But not all of it. Corkin: Well, the things that aren’t published are, you know, experiments that just didn’t . .. [another long pause] go right. Didn’t. You know, there was a problem. He had a seizure or something like that. Me: But you know, even what’s published — as you know, if you look at the papers, in some sense each paper is just the tip of the iceberg of the work that was done, and the work that was done — all that data floating around underneath — it seems to me that so much of that would be valuable to preserve. That people really may want to go back and review — Corkin: There’s no place to preserve it. Me: There’s no place to preserve it? Not at M. I. T.? How many files are we talking here? Are we talking about a storeroom like this, full of boxes of papers? Corkin: No, not that much. Me: Are they mostly at your home now? Corkin: Some of it was. No, not now. It isn’t. No. Me: It’s just in storage somewhere? Corkin: Most of it has gone, is in the trash, was shredded. Me: Most of it was already shredded? Just recently? Corkin: Yeah. When I moved. Me: When you moved you shredded it? Corkin: . Me: And what is left, most of it you’re planning to shred? Corkin: Probably. (Elements of her story seemed to be shifting and flexing in real time. Whatever the details, though — whatever Corkin had or hadn’t yet shredded — the whole idea of willfully shredding any of Henry’s data struck me as deeply troubling.) Me: Not to sound too here, but I could see future generations being disappointed that the source documents for the work that was done on Patient H. M. had been destroyed. Corkin: Well, I mean, there are other famous amnesiac patients, and their data aren’t available to the public. Me: But why would — it seems to me, and I think it gets back to this: He’s somebody who has been so fundamentally important to our understanding of ourselves. And it seems to me that the data that was used to provide this understanding of ourselves is almost a common heritage. Corkin: Yeah, but it’s not reviewed, for one thing. That’s important. The stuff that’s published is good stuff. reviewed. You can believe it. Things that, you know, experiments that might not have been good experiments, there might have been inadequate control groups. . .. There are all sorts of things that can go wrong with experiments. Not every experiment is publishable. Me: But they can still be interpreted by other people. . .. Maybe as we continue to understand how the brain works, and how memory works, some of this existing data of H. M.’s could be reilluminated by new theories, by new ideas, by new — it just seems a shame to destroy it. And it also seems — and this would be the darker interpretation of it — it locks in stone your own telling of H. M.’s story. Corkin: Well, it’s not just me. It’s me and over a hundred colleagues. Me: I know. But again, you’re the principal investigator for the last many decades. And that is the story, then: When you destroy the data, that becomes the inalterable and sort of inviolate story of Patient H. M. And if you do destroy it, I can imagine people saying, Well, there certainly could be a serving motive there. Corkin: I don’t think scientists would say that. Me: O. K. Corkin: I think people like you might say that. She was wrong about that. It wasn’t just people like me. Later I told a number of neuroscientists — including researchers from Stanford and U. C. L. A. — what Corkin had told me about her shredding of Henry’s files, and almost all were appalled by what one described as her “cavalier destruction of data. ” Even as a nonscientist, I couldn’t help noticing that some of the unpublished data I came across while reporting my book went against the grain of the established narrative of Patient H. M. For example, unpublished parts of a psychological assessment of Henry provided evidence that even before the operation that transformed Henry Molaison into the amnesiac Patient H. M. his memory was already severely impaired. The causes and significance of Henry’s preoperative memory deficits can be debated, but their existence only underscores the importance of preserving the complete record of the most important research subject in the history of memory science. I wondered what other surprises might be found in a full accounting of Henry’s data, at least the data that hadn’t already made its way to Corkin’s shredder. You didn’t need to be a scientist to grasp what this destruction meant. My grandfather had cut a hole into Henry’s memory, and now one of the many people who profited from that act was cutting another irreparable hole, this one into our memory of Henry. Eventually Corkin and I said goodbye, exchanged handshakes, stiffly wished each other well. It would be the last time we saw each other. She died not long afterward. On the way out of her office, I noticed a framed photograph of Henry’s brain hanging on a wall. The photo was professionally shot and was taken in Annese’s lab, after the various membranes that had cloaked it were removed, leaving it fully exposed. The photo showed the brain in profile, close up. It was pink, the pink of a ballerina’s slippers, though a complex network of dark purplish veins crisscrossed its surface. The brain was, in its own way, beautiful, even if you divorced it from context, even if you didn’t know to whom it belonged or what it had taught us. Even if you didn’t know anything about its story. There was something aquatic about it, like a creature you might encounter while diving too deep in a dark underwater cave. Staring at it, I remembered something Annese told me once. He was complaining about the current trend of depicting the brain, with its myriad neural networks, as though it were some sort of electric metropolis. You could hardly glance at a newsstand’s magazine rack, he pointed out, without seeing a CGI cover illustration of the brain looking like a coruscating optic fantasia, as though we were all walking around with Times Square blazing in our heads. Annese didn’t like that electric metaphor. He saw the brain as more organic than that. Earthier. Not like a light bulb more like an oyster. That didn’t strike me as right either, though. It’s not a pneumatic pump, a telephone switchboard, a tape recorder or any of the other objects people have compared it to over the years. Maybe the human brain is an object beyond the reach of metaphor, for the simple reason that it is the only object capable of creating metaphors to describe itself. There really is nothing else like it. The human brain creates the human mind, and then the human mind tries to understand the human brain, however long it takes and whatever the cost. I took one more look at the picture on the wall and tried to commit the moment to memory. | 1 |
NYT Admits Key Al Qaeda Role in Aleppo
In a backhand way, The New York Times admits that the U.S.-backed moderate rebels in east Aleppo are fighting alongside Al Qaeda jihadists, an almost casual admission of this long-obscured reality.
By Robert Parry
November 08, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Consortium News " - As much as The New York Times and the mainstream U.S. media have become propaganda outlets on most foreign policy issues, like the one-sided coverage of the bloody Syrian war, sometimes the truth seeps through in on-the-ground reporting by correspondents, even ones who usually are pushing the propo.
Such was the case with Anne Barnards new reporting from inside west Aleppo, the major portion of the city which is in government hands and copes with regular terror rocket and mortar attacks from rebel-held east Aleppo where Al Qaeda militants and U.S.-armed-and-funded moderate rebels fight side-by-side.
Almost in passing, Barnards article on Sunday acknowledged the rarely admitted reality of the Al Qaeda/moderate rebel collaboration, which puts the United States into a de facto alliance with Al Qaeda terrorists and their jihadist allies, fighting under banners such as Nusra Front (recently renamed Syria Conquest Front) and Ahrar al-Sham.
Barnard also finally puts the blame for preventing civilians in east Aleppo from escaping the fighting on a rebel policy of keeping them in harms way rather than letting them transit through humanitarian corridors to safety. Some of her earlier pro-rebel accounts suggested that it wasnt clear who was stopping movement of civilians through those corridors.
However, on Sunday, she reported: We had arrived at a critical moment, as Russia said there was only one day left to pass through a corridor it had provided for people to escape eastern Aleppo before the rebel side was flattened, a corridor through which precious few had passed. The government says rebels are preventing civilians from leaving. Rebels refuse any evacuation without international supervision and a broader deal to deliver humanitarian aid.
Granted, you still have to read between the lines, but at least there is the acknowledgement that rebels are refusing civilian evacuations under the current conditions. How that is different from Islamic State terrorists in Mosul, Iraq, preventing departures from their areas a practice which the Times and other U.S. outlets condemn as using women and children as human shields isnt addressed. But Barnards crimped admission is at least a start.
Barnard then writes: Instead [of allowing civilians to move through the humanitarian corridors], they [the rebels] are trying to break the siege, with Qaeda-linked groups and those backed by the United States working together the opposite of what Russia has demanded.
Again, that isnt the clearest description of the situation, which is stunning enough that one might have expected it in the lede rather than buried deep inside the story, but it is significant that the Times is recognizing that Al Qaeda and the U.S.-backed moderates are working together and that Russia opposes that collaboration.
She also noted that Three Qaeda-linked suicide bombers attacked a military position with explosive-packed personnel carriers on Thursday, military officials said, and mortar fire was raining on neighborhoods that until now had been relatively safe. It was among the most intense rounds in four years of rebel shelling that officials say has killed 11,000 civilians.
While she then throws in a caveat about the impossibility of verifying the numbers, the acknowledgement that the U.S.-backed moderate rebels and their Al Qaeda comrades have been shelling civilians in west Aleppo is significant, too. Before this, all the American people heard was the other side, from rebel-held east Aleppo, about the human suffering there, often conveyed by activists with video cameras who have depicted the conflict as simply the willful killing of children by the evil Syrian government and the even more evil Russians.
More Balance
With the admission of rebel terror attacks on civilians in west Aleppo, the picture finally is put into more balance. The Al Qaeda and U.S.-backed rebels have been killing thousands of civilians in government-controlled areas and the Syrian military and its Russian allies have struck back only to be condemned for committing war crimes.
Though the human toll in both sides of Aleppo is tragic, we have seen comparable situations before in which the U.S. government has supported, supplied and encouraged governments to mount fierce offensives to silence rockets or mortars fired by rebels toward civilian areas.
For instance, senior U.S. government officials, including President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, have defended Israels right to defend itself from rockets fired from inside Gaza even though those missiles rarely kill anyone. Yet, Israel is allowed to bomb the near-defenseless people of Gaza at will, killing thousands including the four little boys blown apart in July 2014 while playing on a beach during the last round of what the Israelis call mowing the grass.
In the context of those deaths, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, who has built her career as a supposed humanitarian advocating a responsibility to protect civilians, laid the blame not on the Israeli military but on fighters in Gaza who had fired rockets that rarely hit anything besides sand.
At the United Nations on July 18, 2014, Power said , President Obama spoke with [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu this morning to reaffirm the United States strong support for Israels right to defend itself . Hamas attacks are unacceptable and would be unacceptable to any member state of the United Nations. Israel has the right to defend its citizens and prevent these attacks.
But that universal right apparently does not extend to Syria where U.S.-supplied rockets are fired into civilian neighborhoods of west Aleppo. In that case, Power and other U.S. officials apply an entirely different set of standards. Any Syrian or Russian destruction of east Aleppo with the goal of suppressing that rocket fire becomes a war crime.
Perhaps its expected that the U.S. government, like other governments, will engage in hypocrisy regarding affairs of state: one set of rules for U.S. allies and another for countries marked for U.S. regime change. Statements by supposed humanitarians such as Samantha Power, Ms. R2P are no exception.
But double standards are even more distasteful when they come from allegedly objective journalists such as those who work at The New York Times, The Washington Post and other prestige American news outlets. When they take the U.S. side in a dispute and become crude propagandists, they encourage the kind of misguided group thinks that led to the criminal Iraq War and other disastrous regime change projects over the past two decades.
Yet, that is what we normally see. A thoughtful reader cant peruse the international reporting of the U.S. mainstream media without realizing that it is corrupted by propaganda from both government officials and from U.S.-funded operations, often disguised as human rights activists or citizen journalists whose supposed independence makes their propo even more effective.
So, its worth noting those rare occasions when The New York Times and the rest of the MSM let some of the reality peek through. When evaluating the latest plans from Hillary Clinton and other interventionists to expand the U.S. military intervention in Syria via prettily named safe zones and no-fly zones the American people should realize that they are being asked to come to the aid of Al Qaeda.
[For more on this topic, see Consortiumnews.coms The De Facto US/Al Qaeda Alliance. ]
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, Americas Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com ). | 1 |
San Francisco | A chinese man visiting his family in California became their neighbor’s worst nightmare when they found out days later that their missing dog had been eaten by the strange visitor.
The 34-year old plumber from Beijing that has since been arrested does not seem to have any grief over what he did to the couple’s favorite companion, a 7-year old german shepherd, which they’ve had since it was a puppy.
The man’s family has argued in his defense that in his country, it was common for him to eat dog meat and have acknowledged that it was not right to eat their neighbor’s dog without their consent. They have also offered to replace the dog with another one to help ease the pain of their loss.
“If I had known he was to suffer such a gruesome ordeal, we would’ve never picked him up at the animal shelter” explains the owner, still visibly under shock. The neighbor’s discovered in horror that their dog had been slain by the neighbors when they witnessed the man of Chinese origin grilling what seemed to be pieces of dog meat onto the barbecue. “There were also pieces of fur we found lying on top of the garbage container, as if he wanted us to find them, or was oblivious to the fact that we cared about our dog other than being just a piece of meat” admitted the horrified neighbors.
Humphrey was given a proper burial even though the man had cooked large parts of the dog before police officers arrived on the scene and apprehended the perpetrator. “We buried the parts we could find, what a horrible mess” added the dog’s owner, fighting to contain her tears. “I just hope this awful man goes to prison for a long, long time” she added.
World News Daily Report
SOURCE | 0 |
Blacks For Trump Rejoice! Trump Has A Plan To Save You (Video) By Grownmangrumbles on October 27, 2016 Subscribe
Why is that only the Blacks for Trump crowd can see it?
The crime ridden streets. The sense of hopelessness. Black men loitering outside buildings, taking causal pot shots at each other across barely-lit streets strewn with human refuse. Black women sobbing quietly to themselves, their fingers raw from the caustic touch of the White-folk laundry they labor over. Dark-hued children scampering through the streets barefoot, clutching prizes grubbed from garbage that ooze like the bloated carcasses of animals lost to the summer heat. A half-eaten apple, a burger entombed in the husk of a once-edible bun.
Such treats.
Or rather, to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s version of certain parts of America. Africa-America
Donald Trump has lived in a bubble his entire life. His has been a life of privilege and of entitlement. He has never ventured out into the Black communities he is so quick to criticize; he’s never had to experience any of the hardships he pretends to lament.
Which helps explain a few things, I guess. Like why he refused to rent property to non-whites back in the 1970s. The answer is simple.
Because the man is fixated on a view of the lives of Black Americans so painfully anachronistic that it’s just plain racist.
To listen to him, you’d think that we were still living in plantation-era America. Speaking to Fox News ‘ Jeanine Pirro last August, he described the lives of Black people in U.S. as a: “Total catastrophe, the unemployment rates, everything is bad — no health care, no education, no anything, no anything.”
He went on to make the kind of pitch to the Black demographic that was as inept as it was inappropriate. “Then, I said, ‘Hey, wait a minute, vote for me. What have you got to lose? You can’t do worse, you can’t do any worse than what these people have been doing and I will do better.'”
It’s not that his observations are entirely without merit. Serious inequality absolutely does exist in the United States. RE: Reality Check
Income inequality between Black people and White people is worse today that it was in 1979. That’s on both parties. Gaps in household incomes persist and home ownership is divided along ethnic lines. That’s on both major parties too.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Five times as many White people are using drugs as Black, yet Black people are sent to prison for drug offenses at 10 times the rate of White people. And then there are the shootings , the mistrust, the blatant prejudice.
So yes, there is a lot of work to be done. But to say that ‘they’ have nothing is yet one more reason why this man is unfit to be president. To dismiss their gains, to dismiss the vibrancy of their communities, the impact they have had on popular culture, and even the very fact that a Black man is in the White House. To do that is to demean those very same achievements.
It seems that somebody in the Trump camp agrees. Trump 2.0
On Wednesday, in Charlotte, North Carolina, speaking to an overwhelmingly White crowd, Donald Trump laid out his ‘new’ new deal for Black people, taking aim at those people who were, in his eyes, living in the very worst kind of Dickensian squalor.
As you might expect for a man whose hands are too tiny to pull a trigger, he missed the mark by quite some margin.
Gone was his insistence that the unconstitutional stop-and-frisk policy had been a rousing success. Gone was his blundering critique of the ongoing tension between the Black community and law enforcement.
Instead, he treated us to a new tactic. Sure it was a rehash of the lines that helped him exploit the post-truth delusional mindset of disaffected White people across the country but so what? It’s not like his approval rating with Black people could get any lower, right? He said : “Illegal immigration violates the civil rights of African-Americans.”
Sticking to his usual modus operandi , he offered no evidence whatsoever to back this claim. Instead he forged ahead with yet more unsubstantiated bullshit : “No group has been more economically harmed by decades of illegal immigration than low-income African-American workers.”
Ever the defender of the underdog, Trump proceeded to rail against Wall Street, Clinton, and tax laws for a few minutes before admitting, almost as an afterthought, that he wanted to pass legislation that would prioritize helping Black people with businesses : “Get the credit they need.”
Incredibly, this close to the election, he did not feel the need to tell the crowd what the legislation would be. Maybe he doesn’t know. Maybe he just said it for fun.
Who the hell knows anymore? Comic Relief
Although some attempt at softening his stance seems to have been made, the old rhetoric was still there. He pointed to slow growth of what he called “blighted communities,” and promised to : “… Seek a federal disaster designation … in order to initiate the rebuilding of vital infrastructure, the demolition of abandoned properties and the increased presence of law enforcement.”
Presumably with the intention of doing the rebuilding himself. Or rather, getting someone else to do the work, slapping his name on it and then politely asking all the Black people to get the fuck out of the way because, you know, they kind of spoil his view.
Watch Black leaders reject Trump’s proposals:
Featured image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr under a CC By-S.A. 2.0 license About Grownmangrumbles
I'm a full- time, somewhat unwilling resident of the planet Earth. I studied journalism at Murdoch University in West Australia and moved back to the UK where I taught politics and studied for a PhD. I've written a number of books on political philosophy that are mostly of interest to scholars. I'm also a seasoned travel writer so I get to stay in fancy hotels for free. I have a pet Lizard called Rousseau. We have only the most cursory of respect for one another. Connect | 1 |
■ President Trump, Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and their wives will fly to in Palm Beach, Fla. for dinner and a weekend of golf. ■ Treasury Steven Mnuchin’s confirmation vote, originally slated for a rare Saturday session in the Senate, has been pushed to Monday. Mr. Trump overruled his newly minted secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson, and rejected the secretary’s choice for his deputy at the department, two people briefed on the decision said Friday. The deputy’s job was denied for Elliott Abrams, a conservative who had served under President Ronald Reagan and President George W. Bush, deals a blow to Mr. Tillerson in his first week on the job. The rejection of Mr. Abrams leaves Mr. Tillerson without a sherpa to help guide the government official around the State Department headquarters. Mr. Trump had a productive meeting with Mr. Abrams on Tuesday, according to a White House official and a person close to Mr. Abrams. But after it took place, Mr. Trump learned of Mr. Abrams’s pointed criticisms of the president when he was running for president, the administration official said. Among those criticisms was a column headlined “When You Can’t Stand Your Candidate,” which appeared in May 2016 in The Weekly Standard. Mr. Trump has been increasingly focused on who was with him or against him during his campaign, according to several people who have spoken with him in recent days. Mr. Tillerson had argued strongly for Mr. Abrams. So had Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s and a senior adviser. Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas who is closely aligned with friends of Mr. Abrams’ and some members of the lobbying group Aipac, had been reaching out to Democratic senators to impress upon them the importance of Mr. Abrams receiving Senate confirmation. Aides to Mr. Trump did not respond to an email seeking comment. The revelation that Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s national security adviser, apparently discussed sanctions with Russia’s ambassador to the United States in the weeks before the inauguration has given Democrats a new cudgel to revive discussions of Mr. Trump’s ties to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin. And they are swinging it. Representative Eric Swalwell of California, the ranking Democrat on the C. I. A. subcommittee of the House Intelligence Committee, called it “a crime for someone outside of our government to negotiate with foreign entities on our nation’s behalf. ” Senators Christopher S. Murphy of Connecticut and Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, both Democrats, were similarly scathing in a joint statement. Said Mr. Murphy: With the legal fight over President Trump’s travel ban apparently headed for the Supreme Court, a leading contender for the job of arguing the government’s cases before the highest court has dropped out of consideration. The candidate, Charles J. Cooper, said he was withdrawing as a possible nominee for solicitor general of the United States “after witnessing the treatment of my friend Jeff Sessions,” who was approved as attorney general Wednesday evening after bruising attacks by Senate Democrats over his civil rights record. Mr. Cooper, a conservative Washington lawyer who argued against gay marriage in an important California case, said that after what Mr. Sessions “had to endure at the hands of a partisan opposition that will say anything and do anything to advance their political interests, I am unwilling to subject myself, my family, and my friends to such a process. ” His withdrawal appears to leave George T. Conway, a New York lawyer who is married to Kellyanne Conway, a top White House aide, as the leading contender for solicitor general. Mr. Trump said Thursday that he expected to select a new nominee in about a week. Whoever gets confirmed for the job could end up arguing the legality of Mr. Trump’s travel ban before the Supreme Court. No wonder Mr. Trump wants the Mexicans to pay for it. The wall on the southern border — really a set of fences and walls — would take three and a half years to build and would cost $21. 6 billion, according to an internal report by the Department of Homeland Security that was seen by Reuters. That’s well over the $12 billion estimated by Mr. Trump during the campaign, and the upper bound of $15 billion cited by Republican leaders in Congress. At a time when federal deficits are again expected to grow, the amount is not pocket change. As the population ages and draws on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the Congressional Budget Office is already expecting the government to heap nearly $10 trillion onto the federal debt over the coming decade — and that is with statutory caps on domestic and military spending. Mr. Trump has already vowed to bust through those caps on the military side of the ledger, something that would take an act of Congress. Now he’ll have to pay extra for his promised wall — either out of existing domestic programs or above the nondefense caps. Mr. Trump is still pretty miffed that a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a restraining order against his travel ban from seven countries. We can also deduce what he was watching on television: MSNBC’s Morning Joe. Wonder why it took 12 minutes to compose that post on Twitter. On Thursday night, The New York Times published a scoop: the president of the United States had not spoken to the president of China, Xi Jinping, who was icing him out over his unorthodox call with the leader of Taiwan during his transition to power, and his suggestion that just maybe, Washington would no longer follow the “One China” policy (which affirms that Taiwan is a province of the mainland). Hours later, the White House issued a statement that, hey, not only had Mr. Trump just spoken to Mr. Xi, he had also expressed support for the One China policy after all — something Mr. Trump had said he would do only in return for concessions. The Times story was rewritten accordingly, capturing the news. But Mr. Trump does not accept the chronology — at least not publicly. Hillary Clinton has been slow to emerge after her November defeat. But there she was on social media Thursday night, praising the unanimous decision by a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a nationwide restraining order against Mr. Trump’s travel ban for seven countries. To which Kellyanne Conway, the Trump House adviser, had a reply. Winning is everything. First came the video of Representative Mike Coffman of Colorado sneaking out a back door to avoid the angry crowd gathered for his town hall meeting — but his suburban Denver district is swingy. Then Representative Tom McClintock of California had to flee under guard as constituents in Roseville demanded to know why he was so bent on repealing the Affordable Care Act. But hey, it’s California — even though his turf outside Sacramento isn’t exactly Berkeley. But Utah? On Wednesday, it was Representative Jason Chaffetz’s turn — in the reddest of states, in the Salt Lake City suburb Cottonwood Heights. It’s getting ugly out there. | 1 |
Off the Grid News – by Daniel Jennings
A public school official in Florida has urged citizens to fight truancy by reporting any children they suspect might not be in school or being educated — including homeschool families.
It is all part of an “anti-truancy” initiative called Operation Round Up, in which residents of Jackson County, Florida, are urged to be on the lookout for children not in school and to report them to school officials or to police.
A truancy report can lead to a home check by sheriff’s deputies or police and possibly the arrest of the parents, TV station WJHG reported.
The policy of the Jackson County School District is to send law enforcement to the homes of suspected truants.
“Sometimes if these citizens don’t call me, I have no way of knowing,” Shirl Williams, director of student services for the school system, told the TV station. “So if it’s a nosy neighbor, be a nosy neighbor. Just call me and let me check out the situation.”
Williams acknowledged that homeschool children can be mistaken for truants but urged citizens to report them so school authorities can investigate.
“Sometimes the community will see them around town and they think, ‘Hey, they’re not being educated.’ Sometimes the community is right,” Williams said.
Home School Legal Defense Association attorney TJ Schmidt wrote Williams and the Jackson County superintendent, saying that while truancy is a problem, homeschoolers should not be targeted.
“Your statements suggest that everyone should report children they think aren’t being educated,” the letter read. “In our opinion, this is a threatening practice, and will instill a spirit of suspicion and hostility against homeschoolers in the community.”
Schmidt wrote to Williams after a parent saw her on TV and complained to HSDLA.
© Copyright Off The Grid News | 0 |
No president Barack Obama, Hillary has not been sentenced yet, so she is innocent, she doesn’t need the clemency from an incumbent president. Moreover, Hillary to be treated as anyone, actually her doings link to the national security, serious crimes. Hillary couldn’t stand above the law, if she escapes the crimes as director FBI James Comey did, the national wound has never healed and the nation divided, the law and constitution to be thrown into the trash bin | 0 |
Oscar Health was going to be a new kind of insurance company. Started in 2012, just in time to offer plans to people buying insurance under the new federal health care law, the business promised to use technology to push less costly care and more coverage. “We’re trying to build something that’s going to turn the industry on its head,” Joshua Kushner, one of the company’s founders, said in 2014, as Oscar began to enroll its first customers. These days, though, Oscar is more of a case study in how brutally tough it is to keep a business above water in the state marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act. And its struggles highlight a critical question about the act: Can insurance companies run a viable business in the individual market? Oscar has attracted 135, 000 customers, about half of them in New York State. And some of its efforts with technology have been successful. But for every dollar of premium Oscar collects in New York, the company is losing 15 cents. It lost $92 million in the state last year and another $39 million in the first three months of 2016. “That’s not a sustainable position,” said Mario Schlosser, chief executive at Oscar. Companies like Oscar were initially attracted by the potential of millions of new customers added to the individual market by the health law. But the reality has been far messier. In an effort to attract customers, insurers put prices on their plans that have turned out to be too low to make a profit. The companies also assumed they could offer the same sort of plans as they do through coverage, including broad networks of doctors and hospitals. But the market has turned out to be smaller than they hoped, with 12 million signed up for coverage in 2016. Fewer employers have dropped health insurance than expected, for example, keeping many healthy adults out of the individual market. And among the remaining population, the insurers cannot pick and choose their customers. The law forces them to insure people with conditions, no matter how expensive those conditions may be. As a result, most insurers are still trying to develop a successful business model. Last year, only a quarter of the insurers appear to have made money selling individual policies, according to a preliminary analysis from McKinsey, the consulting firm. Giant insurers like UnitedHealth Group have stopped offering individual coverage through the public exchanges in some states. And most of the new insurance which were founded to create more competition, have failed. The heavy losses do not necessarily mean that the individual market is ready to implode. Some insurers, including large companies like Anthem, say they remain committed to the market, and some insurers have made money. But the turbulence is certainly greater than expected. And it may well lead many insurers to seek percentage rate increases and tighten their networks. “There was tremendous uncertainty that even the very established companies were flummoxed by,” said Larry Levitt, an executive with the Kaiser Family Foundation, which has been closely following the insurers’ progress. Over all, insurance companies continue to make profits. The dearth of profits from the individual markets, though, show how challenging it is to make insurance affordable when it is not subsidized by the government or an employer. The troubles in the individual market also underscore how some of the law’s provisions meant to protect the insurers have not worked as well as desired. Insurers did not receive all the payments they were due under one of the law’s provisions, and another provision, meant to even out the risk among companies to protect those that enroll sicker individuals, has been described as flawed by many health care experts. Federal officials have said they would tweak those formulas. The companies that have fared best so far are those that have kept the tightest control over their costs, by working closely with providers or a limited group of hospitals and doctors. Many have abandoned the idea of offering the kind of access available through many employer plans. The successful companies have also avoided the very low prices found in some of the . For most of the insurers, though, the math has just not added up, which is the case with Oscar. In New York State, where Oscar is based, the company recently filed requests to raise rates by a weighted average of nearly 20 percent for 2017. Regulators will make a decision in August. “The market is over all too low in price,” Mr. Schlosser said. “We, like everybody else, have priced in a very aggressive way. ” Many of the big insurers, like Anthem, can rely on their other businesses to generate profits while they wait for this market to stabilize. Oscar does not have that luxury it is focused on individual marketplaces. (In addition to New York, Oscar operates in California, New Jersey and Texas.) Other new insurers that sell plans to employers or under government programs like Medicare have been a little more insulated. When Northwell Health, the system in New York previously known as North Health System, entered the insurance market, it created a new company. That company, CareConnect, has 100, 000 customers, most of them individuals insured through both large and small employers. “If we only had the individual market, we would have taken undue risk because we would not have understood that market,” said Alan J. Murray, CareConnect’s chief executive. He said the company is close to turning a profit. Oscar says it plans to begin offering coverage to small businesses, but Mr. Schlosser was adamant that individuals will eventually be buying their own coverage, rather than relying on employers. The company is also racing to incorporate plans with smaller networks. Bright Health, another also plans to work closely with health systems to offer plans. While Oscar has had to use another insurer’s network in New York, the company’s goal is to form partnerships with systems to create networks that specialize in managing care. The company began experimenting with these networks this year in Texas and California. “Oscar talks about narrow networks like no one has seen one before,” said Dr. Sanjay B. Saxena, who works with insurers and health systems at the Boston Consulting Group. Oscar has received $750 million from its investors, and Mr. Schlosser insists that the company understood how long it would take for the new insurance marketplaces to develop, calling these “very, very early days. ” Oscar points to its technological edge as a way to manage patients’ health better than the established insurers. It has created teams, including nurses, who are assigned to groups of patients and can intervene when its data flags a potentially worrisome condition like a high blood sugar level. Promoting itself as a alternative to the other insurers also has its risks. While Oscar has loyal customers, others say they are disappointed to find the insurer behaving like everyone else. Cosmin Bita, a real estate broker in New York, switched to Oscar from an insurer that had given him the runaround about whether it would pay for blood tests as part of his annual physical. Although Oscar said when he enrolled that the tests would be covered, he said, he found himself fighting with the company over whether everything was covered. “The exact same thing happened,” Mr. Bita said. Oscar executives said the company works hard to keep customers satisfied. But so far, it has not proved that it has created a better model than the rest of the industry. As Darren Walsh, a principal at Power Walsh Insurance Advisors, said: “They haven’t invented a new mousetrap. ” | 1 |
A California Black Lives Matter group claiming one of its members happily spit in a local police officer’s Starbucks order is also saying they are proud of the incident, even as the Starbuck’s location is denying it ever happened. [A Facebook post on the Black Lives Matter sponsored page titled “Stockton Police Department, Corruption Reporting Page,” announced that a Stockton police officer was given a coffee order laced with spit. “We are very happy to report that today this officer from Stockton Police Department got to have coffee at Starbucks with the public,” The post reads, “it was hot coffee according to our supporters served with a side of spit they even gave it to him with a smile and a nice comment. ” The post is accompanied by a photo of an officer and his wife and child and was posted on December 28 on a page that also features a banner that reads, “The thin blue line is a terrorist symbol. ” Many commenters at the page criticized the Black Lives Matter group for its cowardly and disgusting action, but the admin of the page replied to many stating they are proud of what they claimed happened. For instance, to one commenter who said, “That’s wrong” the admin replied, “But it feels so good. ” After the Facebook post made a stir, though, the local Starbucks said it investigated the incident and later reported saying they can find no evidence and no employee who perpetrated the spitting. “We are proud of our relationship with the Stockton Police Department, who initially notified us of this rumor. We can confirm there is absolutely no truth to this post, and we are disappointed with the suggestion,” the local Starbucks said in a statement released to Fox 40 Sacramento. After the store’s denial, the Black Lives Matter group insisted that store managers are lying and that the incident did, indeed, take place, but they won’t say which employee did it so the employee won’t face any repercussions. The group also claimed that another restaurant in the area does the same thing to orders by police officers, but the group refused to name the place. Commenters on the story were mostly negative toward the BLM group. Typical of the comments is the one from Kevin Dunleavy who said the BLM group is “childish. ” In another one, Richard Steinberg insisted the BLM group’s smugness over the incident is “further proof the BLM is full of haters. ” Meanwhile Carol Anderson said the incident made BLM out to be the terrorists and not the police. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com. | 0 |
CrowdStrike, the company relied upon by the FBI to make its assessment about alleged Russian hacking into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) was financed to the tune of $100 million from a funding drive last year led by Google Capital. [Google Capital, which now goes by the name of CapitalG, is an arm of Alphabet Inc. Google’s parent company. Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Alphabet, has been a staunch and active supporter of Hillary Clinton and is a longtime donor to the Democratic Party. On Thursday, a senior law enforcement official told CNN that the DNC “rebuffed” the agency’s request to physically examine its computer servers after the alleged hacking. Instead, the FBI relied on CrowdStrike’s assessment that the servers had most likely been hacked by Russian agents. “The FBI repeatedly stressed to DNC officials the necessity of obtaining direct access to servers and data, only to be rebuffed until well after the initial compromise had been mitigated,” CNN quoted the senior law enforcement official as saying. “This left the FBI no choice but to rely upon a third party for information. These actions caused significant delays and inhibited the FBI from addressing the intrusion earlier. ” The news network was following up on a BuzzFeed report that first broke the story that the FBI did not examine the DNC’s servers before issuing a joint report with the DHS last week accusing Russian civilian and military intelligence services of compromising networks and infrastructure associated with the 2016 presidential election. Contrary to the claim from the FBI about being rebuffed, Eric Walker, the DNC’s deputy communications director, told BuzzFeed that the FBI never requested access to the servers. “The DNC had several meetings with representatives of the FBI’s Cyber Division and its Washington (DC) Field Office, the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, and U. S. Attorney’s Offices, and it responded to a variety of requests for cooperation, but the FBI never requested access to the DNC’s computer servers,” Walker wrote in the email. BuzzFeed further reported on the FBI’s reliance on CrowdStrike’s assessment about the alleged Russian hacking: The FBI has instead relied on computer forensics from a tech security company, CrowdStrike, which first determined in May of last year that the DNC’s servers had been infiltrated by hackers, the U. S. intelligence official told BuzzFeed News. “CrowdStrike is pretty good. There’s no reason to believe that anything that they have concluded is not accurate,” the intelligence official said, adding they were confident Russia was behind the widespread hacks. The CNN report also affirmed that the FBI relied on CrowdStrike’s findings. CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity technology company by experts George Kurtz and Dmitri Alperovitch. The company’s website explains the firm was founded because Alperovitch and Kurtz “realized that a brand new approach was needed — one that combines the most advanced endpoint protection with expert intelligence to pinpoint the adversaries perpetrating the attacks, not just the malware. ” In an Esquire profile, Alperovitch, a Russian expat, recalls he first discovered that Russia allegedly hacked into the DNC when one of his analysts installed a proprietary software package into the DNC’s system and immediately discovered the alleged Russian breach. “Are we sure it’s Russia?” Alperovitch says he asked the analyst. Esquire reported: The analyst said there was no doubt. Falcon had detected malicious software, or malware, that was stealing data and sending it to the same servers that had been used in a 2015 attack on the German Bundestag. The code and techniques used against the DNC resembled those from earlier attacks on the White House and the State Department. The analyst, a former intelligence officer, told Alperovitch that Falcon had identified not one but two Russian intruders: Cozy Bear, a group CrowdStrike’s experts believed was affiliated with the FSB, Russia’s answer to the CIA and Fancy Bear, which they had linked to the GRU, Russian military intelligence. Alperovitch then called Shawn Henry, a tall, bald former executive assistant director at the FBI who is now CrowdStrike’s president of services. Henry led a forensics team that retraced the hackers’ steps and pieced together the pathology of the breach. Over the next two weeks, they learned that Cozy Bear had been stealing emails from the DNC for more than a year. Fancy Bear, on the other hand, had been in the network for only a few weeks. Its target was the DNC research department, specifically the material that the committee was compiling on Donald Trump and other Republicans. Meanwhile, a CrowdStrike group called the Overwatch team used Falcon to monitor the hackers, a process known as . According to the Esquire story, Alperovitch was surprised when the DNC, which had contracted CrowdStrike for cybersecurity, wanted to go public about the alleged Russia hack, which took place at around the same time Donald Trump was being accused of having a relationship with Russia. Esquire documented: Hacking, like domestic abuse, is a crime that tends to induce shame. Companies such as Yahoo usually publicize their breaches only when the law requires it. For this reason, Alperovitch says, he expected that the DNC, too, would want to keep quiet. By the time of the hack, however, Donald Trump’s relationship to Russia had become an issue in the election. The DNC wanted to go public. At the committee’s request, Alperovitch and Henry briefed a reporter from The Washington Post about the attack. On June 14, soon after the Post story publicly linked Fancy Bear with the Russian GRU and Cozy Bear with the FSB for the first time, Alperovitch published a detailed blog post about the attacks. Google financing, CrowdStrike advertises on its website that it is “proud to have received major funding from some of the world’s most prestigious technology providers and investment firms” — most prominently Google Capital, which “led (a) $100M investment in CrowdStrike. ” “It’s extremely gratifying to bring in a investor like Google Capital which shares our passion for innovation and sees the opportunity to completely transform the security industry,” CrowdStrike’s and chief executive officer Kurtz said after the completion of the financing in July 2015. “As we continue to experience this capital injection will help us firmly establish our endpoint protection platform as the leading solution to address today’s sophisticated attacks and will allow CrowdStrike to further accelerate our domestic and international expansion. ” In November, Google Capital itself and now goes by the name of CapitalG. It is a venture capital arm of Alphabet Inc. CapitalG explained: “Founded in 2013 in Mountain View, California, we began as Google Capital, a growth equity investment fund. We changed our name to CapitalG in 2016, after Google created Alphabet to serve as its parent company. Though our name has changed, our goal remains the same: to make investments in leading companies around the world and help entrepreneurs rapidly grow their businesses. ” CapitalG’s website documents its close links to Google: “Our Google connection is our key asset. We call on experts from Google’s offices around the world to help our portfolio companies grow … CapitalG works with Google experts to advise on product, engineering, marketing, sales, operations, and other essential areas to help companies scale effectively. The Googlers draw upon knowledge from their day to day roles to offer valuable technical advice — from scaling architecture, to making the transition to the cloud, to mobile development, to cybersecurity, and much more. ” Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Alphabet, which owns CapitalG, has been a staunch and active supporter of Hillary Clinton. In November, the Wall Street Journal reported on an email released that month claiming Schmidt was “ready to fund, advise recruit talent” for Clinton’s campaign and that he “clearly wants to be head outside advisor. ” The Journal reported: Mr. Schmidt in April 2014 backed a startup dubbed Timshel that helped develop some of the technology behind Mrs. Clinton’s campaign website, including functions to sign up supporters and accept donations, according to the emails. Around that time, Mr. Schmidt sent a Clinton campaign official a lengthy memo with advice on running the campaign. He told campaign officials he was “ready to fund, advise recruit talent,” and “clearly wants to be head outside advisor,” according to a 2014 email from Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta to campaign manager Robby Mook. Mr. Schmidt’s memo to Clinton aide Cheryl Mills is included in the leaked emails. Schmidt drew up a plan for Clinton’s campaign a year before she announced her White House bid, released emails showed. He sent the memo to top Clinton aide Cheryl Mills, chief of staff to Clinton when she was secretary of state. The Daily Mail reported: The Google titan outlined a number of things, including one Clinton definitely listened to — where she should base her campaign headquarters. ‘Its important to have a very large hiring pool (such as Chicago or NYC) from which to choose enthusiastic, smart and low paid permanent employees,’ Schmidt argued. He also nixed Washington, D. C. as an idea, even though it’s a thriving city for millennials. ‘DC is a poor choice as its full of distractions and interruptions,’ he wrote in the memo, emailed to Mills. She then passed it along to John Podesta, whose emails were hacked and made public by Wikileaks. Schmidt was spotted at Clinton’s nixed election night party wearing a “staff” badge. Meanwhile, Shawn Henry, president of CrowdStrike Services and CSO of the firm, is a retired executive assistant director of the FBI. “Henry, who served in three FBI field offices and at the bureau’s headquarters, is credited with boosting the FBI’s computer crime and cybersecurity investigative capabilities,” his CrowdStrike bio says. Last April, CrowdStrike General Counsel and Chief Risk Officer Steven Chabinsky was appointed to President Obama’s White House Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity. A CrowdStrike press release explained: Under the Commission, Chabinsky and 11 other industry leaders have been directed by the White House to recommend “bold, actionable steps that the government, private sector, and the nation as a whole can take to bolster cybersecurity in today’s digital world. ” President Obama, in an official statement, commended the members for bringing ”a wealth of experience and talent to this important role,” and charged the Commission with “the task of identifying the steps that our nation must take to ensure our cybersecurity in an increasingly digital world. ” CrowdStrike Alperovitch, meanwhile, has a bad taste for Russia, according to the Esquire profile: Alperovitch knows a thing or two about what the Russians call “active measures,” in which propaganda is used to undermine a target country’s political systems. He was born in 1980 in Moscow, in an era when people were afraid to discuss politics even inside their homes. His father, Michael, was a nuclear physicist who barely escaped being sent to Chernobyl as part of a rescue mission in 1986. Many of Michael’s close friends and colleagues died of radiation poisoning within months of flying to the burning power plant. The takeaway for Dmitri was that “life is cheap in the Soviet Union. ” Alperovitch is a nonresident senior fellow of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative at the Atlantic Council. The Council takes a hawkish approach toward Russia and has released numerous reports and briefs about Russian aggression. The Council is funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Inc, the U. S. State Department, and NATO ACT. Another Council funder is the Ploughshares Fund, which in turn has received financing from billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundations. In an interview with PBS, host Judy Woodruff asked Alpervotich whether he had a conflict of interest in the alleged Russia hacking case since his firm, which was helping to publicize the Russia claims, was employed by the DNC. Here is a transcript of that section of the interview: JUDY WOODRUFF: Now, Dmitri Alperovitch, we want to point out and we said earlier, you were — your company was the one that uncovered this in the first place. You were working for the Democratic National Committee. Are you still working — doing work for them? DMITRI ALPEROVITCH: We’re protecting them going forward. The investigation is closed in terms of what happened there. But certainly, we’ve seen the campaigns, political organizations are continued to be targeted, and they continue to hire us and use our technology to protect themselves. JUDY WOODRUFF: I ask you that because if there’s a question of conflict of interest, how do you answer that? DMITRI ALPEROVITCH: Well, this report was not about the DNC. This report was about information we uncovered about what these Russian actors were doing in eastern Ukraine in terms of locating these artillery units of the Ukrainian army and then targeting them. So, what we just did is said that it looks exactly as the same to the evidence we’ve already uncovered from the DNC, linking the two together. Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio. ” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook. With research by Joshua Klein. | 1 |
The first job that Sherry Johnson, 56, lost to automation was at the local newspaper in Marietta, Ga. where she fed paper into the printing machines and laid out pages. Later, she watched machines learn to do her jobs on a factory floor making breathing machines, and in inventory and filing. “It actually kind of ticked me off because it’s like, How are we supposed to make a living?” she said. She took a computer class at Goodwill, but it was too little too late. “The and are more up to date on that stuff than we are because we didn’t have that when we were growing up,” said Ms. Johnson, who is now on disability and lives in a housing project in Jefferson City, Tenn. Donald J. Trump told workers like Ms. Johnson that he would bring back their jobs by clamping down on trade, offshoring and immigration. But economists say the bigger threat to their jobs has been something else: automation. “Over the long haul, clearly automation’s been much more important — it’s not even close,” said Lawrence Katz, an economics professor at Harvard who studies labor and technological change. No candidate talked much about automation on the campaign trail. Technology is not as convenient a villain as China or Mexico, there is no clear way to stop it, and many of the technology companies are in the United States and benefit the country in many ways. Mr. Trump told a group of tech company leaders last Wednesday: “We want you to keep going with the incredible innovation. Anything we can do to help this go along, we’re going to be there for you. ” Andrew F. Puzder, Mr. Trump’s pick for labor secretary and chief executive of CKE Restaurants, extolled the virtues of robot employees over the human kind in an interview with Business Insider in March. “They’re always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there’s never a or an age, sex or race discrimination case,” he said. Globalization is clearly responsible for some of the job losses, particularly trade with China during the 2000s, which led to the rapid loss of 2 million to 2. 4 million net jobs, according to research by economists including Daron Acemoglu and David Autor of M. I. T. People who work in parts of the country most affected by imports generally have greater unemployment and reduced income for the rest of their lives, Mr. Autor found in a paper published in January. Still, over time, automation has had a far bigger effect than globalization, and would have eventually eliminated those jobs anyway, he said in an interview. “Some of it is globalization, but a lot of it is we require many fewer workers to do the same amount of work,” he said. “Workers are basically supervisors of machines. ” When Greg Hayes, the chief executive of United Technologies, agreed to invest $16 million in one of its Carrier factories as part of a Trump deal to keep some jobs in Indiana instead of moving them to Mexico, he said the money would go toward automation. “What that ultimately means is there will be fewer jobs,” he said on CNBC. Take the steel industry. It lost 400, 000 people, 75 percent of its work force, between 1962 and 2005. But its shipments did not decline, according to a study published in the American Economic Review last year. The reason was a new technology called the minimill. Its effect remained strong even after controlling for management practices job losses in the Midwest international trade and unionization rates, found the authors of the study, Allan of Duke and Jan De Loecker of Princeton. Another analysis, from Ball State University, attributed roughly 13 percent of manufacturing job losses to trade and the rest to enhanced productivity because of automation. Apparel making was hit hardest by trade, it said, and computer and electronics manufacturing was hit hardest by technological advances. Over time, automation has generally had a happy ending: As it has displaced jobs, it has created new ones. But some experts are beginning to worry that this time could be different. Even as the economy has improved, jobs and wages for a large segment of workers — particularly men without college degrees doing manual labor — have not recovered. Even in the best case, automation leaves the first generation of workers it displaces in a lurch because they usually don’t have the skills to do new and more complex tasks, Mr. Acemoglu found in a paper published in May. Robert Stilwell, 35, of Evansville, Ind. is one of them. He did not graduate from high school and worked in factories building parts for tools and cars, wrapping them up and loading them onto trucks. After he was laid off, he got a job as a convenience store cashier, which pays a lot less. “I used to have a really good job, and I liked the people I worked with — until it got overtaken by a machine, and then I was let go,” he said. Dennis Kriebel’s last job was as a supervisor at an aluminum extrusion factory, where he had spent a decade punching out parts for cars and tractors. Then, about five years ago, he lost it to a robot. “Everything we did, you could program a robot to do it,” said Mr. Kriebel, who is 55 and lives in Youngstown, Ohio, the town about which Bruce Springsteen sang, “Seven hundred tons of metal a sir you tell me the world’s changed. ” Since then, Mr. Kriebel has barely been scraping by doing odd jobs. Many of the new jobs at factories require technical skills, but he doesn’t own a computer and doesn’t want to. Labor economists say there are ways to ease the transition for workers whose jobs have been displaced by robots. They include retraining programs, stronger unions, more jobs, a higher minimum wage, a bigger tax credit and, for the next generation of workers, more college degrees. The White House on Tuesday released a report on automation and the economy that called for better education from early childhood through adult job transitions and for updating the social safety net with tools like wage insurance. Few are policies that Mr. Trump has said he will pursue. “Just allowing the private market to automate without any support is a recipe for blaming immigrants and trade and other things, even when it’s the long impact of technology,” said Mr. Katz, who was the Labor Department’s chief economist under President Clinton. The changes are not just affecting manual labor: Computers are rapidly learning to do some and work, too. Existing technology could automate 45 percent of activities people are paid to do, according to a July report by McKinsey. Work that requires creativity, management of people or caregiving is least at risk. Ms. Johnson in Tennessee said both her favorite and job, at $8. 65 an hour, was at an animal shelter, caring for puppies. It was also the least likely to be done by a machine, she said: “I would hope a computer couldn’t do that, unless they like changing dirty papers and giving them love and attention. ” | 1 |
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AS America’s ‘decision day’ looms, Republican candidate Donald Trump has been engaged in a frantic bid to fit in as much casual racism as possible on the final day of campaigning.
“It’s highly likely Donald would be arrested for all the racist, xenophobic and misogynistic things he says if he weren’t a candidate so I think he wants to make the most of his last full day as a fully protected monster,” adviser to Trump, David Scalden explained.
“Plus, for Donald, it just feels really, really, really, good to give out about people who aren’t white and voting for him,” added Scalden, “it’s not about swing states, or convincing people to vote. Right now, he just wants a podium and a crowd to shout in the general direction of”.
Trump took to several hastily assembled rallies as he bid to be as freely racist as possible, calling into question any and every non-white race or group of people he could think of.
“Get me an atlas, let’s see who’s next,” Trump said shortly after doing a 12 minute impression of a person from China while pinning back the skin around his eyes.
“Believe me, I will be president, but let me tell you if I’m not, I’m gonna get arrested so quickly if I carry this act on after election day, so ya gotta make the most of it folks, believe me,” the tiny handed reality TV star explained.
It is alleged that aides close to Trump have taken away his phone in recent days for fear he may use Twitter. It is also alleged that they have taken away his make up and fake tan amid fears Trump would attempt ‘black face’ in order to appeal to white supremacists in an actual attempt to reach out to African Americans voters. | 0 |
On Sunday’s broadcast CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Sen. Ben Sasse ( ) said the way President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey exacerbated “the erosion of trust in our institutions. ” Sasse said, “I’m not sure how this president makes lots of decisions. So I honestly don’t know. I do know that we are in the midst of a civilization warping crisis of public trust, and we need to talk honestly about our institutions that need to be restored and need to have the ability for people in five and eight and ten years to trust these institutions. There are lots of reasonable arguments people can make about the way Director Comey made decisions in the midst of the unprecedented complexities of the 2016 election cycle. ” “Lots of people can think that Director Comey, who is a fundamentally honorable man, but people can think that he executed his job in all sorts of clunky and imperfect ways,” he continued. “That’s a different question than whether or not he should have been fired the way he was last week, and I’ve been critical of that decision. I think it exacerbates the erosion of trust in our institutions. So I’m disappointed in the timing of the firing, but I want to preserve room that there are lots of reasonable reasons that people across the political spectrum can argue about the way the FBI leadership conducted its business in the 2016 cycle. ” ( The Hill) Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0 |
Leave a reply Charles Hugh Smith – Once dissed as The Dark Ages, the Medieval Era is more properly viewed as a successful adaptation to the challenges of the post-Western Roman Empire era. The decline of the Western Roman Empire was the result of a constellation of challenges, including (but not limited to) massive new incursions of powerful Germanic tribes, a widening chasm between the Western and the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium), plague, an onerous tax burden on the non-elite classes, weak leadership, the dominance of a self-serving elite (sound familiar?) and last but not least, the expansion of an unproductive rabble in Rome that had to be bribed with increasingly costly Bread and Circuses. In effect, The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire ran out of time and money.The Grand Strategy, successful for hundreds of years, relied heavily on persuading “barbarian” tribes to join the Roman system for the commercial and security benefits. This process of integration worked because it was backed by the threat of destruction by military force. The Empire maintained relatively modest military forces given its vast territory, but its road system and fleet enabled relatively rapid concentration of force to counter an invasion. It also maintained extensive fortifications along active borders. All of this required substantial tax revenues, manpower and effective leadership, not just for fortifications, the army, roads and the fleet, but to maintain the commercial and political benefits offered to “barbarians” who chose integration in the Empire. Once the military threats proliferated and the benefits of Imperial membership eroded, the Grand Strategy was unable to maintain the integrity of the Imperial borders. As tax revenues and the bureaucracy they supported imploded, security declined, reducing trade and communications. This unvirtuous cycle fed on itself: reduced trade led to reduced tax revenues which led to phantom legions that were still listed on the bureaucratic ledgers but which no longer had any troops. The collapse of the Western Empire was a process, not an event. Key organizational infrastructures that endured through the Medieval era–for example, the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian Churches–gained traction in the waning centuries of the Western Empire. Monasteries offered islands of scholarship and literacy and in many cases offered security via fortifications. As trade diminished along with secure trade routes, self-reliance became the order of the day outside the borders of the Byzantine and Persian empires. Though political leadership shifted with the latest invasion from the steppes of Eurasia, the two branches of Christendom slowly converted many invading groups or consolidated existing Christian powers into alliances that bound together diverse groups and proto-states. These alliances were typically contingent and temporary, as today’s ally became tomorrow’s enemy, or vice versa. Despite the shifting loyalties of constant invasion and warfare, the Byzantine Empire endured and Charlemagne (and others) in Western Europe established the fractured but still effective Holy Roman Empire. Much was lost when the Western Roman Empire collapsed, but islands of literacy, learning and security arose despite the constant conflicts and threats of invasion. Venice offers one example of a small city securing trade routes with commercial centers that then funded a regional empire. The tidiness of the old Empire could not be reinstated. The adaptations were as messy and untidy as the challenges that swept in from the steppes and forests. So please don’t diss the Dark Ages. Yes, the Roman baths, coliseums and political /social order fell into disrepair, but new ways of coping emerged that were as contingent and untidy as the era’s multiple challenges. New modes of production and new social /political orders do not arise fully formed. They are pieced together by trial and error and numerous cycles of adaptation, innovation and failure. Charles Smith is a Contributing Writer for Shift Frequency SF Source Of Two Minds Oct. 2016 Share this: | 0 |
CHICAGO — The artist Peter Doig took the stand here Monday in an odd federal court case in which the owner of a landscape painting is accusing Mr. Doig of falsely denying that he created the work while a young man in Canada. In a brief opening statement, William F. Zieske, a lawyer for the owner, said the evidence would prove that a painting bought in 1976 by his client, a former correction officer named Robert Fletcher, and signed “Pete Doige,” is “indeed the work of Peter Doig. ” The painting was carried into the courtroom in a cardboard box and unceremoniously placed on a metal easel a few feet from the artist and his team of lawyers. “This is not a work painted by someone with no artistry or no artistic talent,” Mr. Zieske said. “It is a work of master artistic talent. ” But Matthew S. Dontzin, a lawyer for the artist, a popular painter whose works routinely fetch $10 million, argued that his client has been suffering through a nightmare of “bullying tactics” and money demands from plaintiffs who “have not produced any documents or one witness to show that Doig painted this or Doig didn’t. ” The dispute began five years ago when a friend noticed a painting hanging on Mr. Fletcher’s wall and told him that the work was by a famous artist. Mr. Fletcher said he knew Mr. Doig in the 1970s, when the artist attended Lakehead University in Ontario, Canada, and later, while working in a Canadian detention center, and that the painter indeed created the work while a young inmate there. Mr. Fletcher said that he had been the young artist’s parole officer, helped Mr. Doig find a job through the Seafarers International Union, and bought the painting from Mr. Doig for $100. The painting, an untitled acrylic on canvas showing a rocky desert, is signed “Pete Doige 76. ” Peter Bartlow, a Chicago art dealer who agreed to help Mr. Fletcher sell the work and is now a in the case, says the acrylic of the forlorn desert scene contains early echoes of Mr. Doig’s trademark eerie landscapes, which have made him famous. But Mr. Doig has said he was sent a photograph of the canvas by the owner and did not recognize it. He said he never attended Lakehead, was never near the detention facility (the Thunder Bay Correctional Center, several hours north of Toronto) and has never been incarcerated. He grew up in Canada, before attending art school in England. He was 16 or 17 in 1976, he has said, and living with his parents in Toronto. The lawsuit, brought by Mr. Fletcher and Mr. Bartlow, charges that Mr. Doig is either confused or lying, and that his denials wrecked their plan to sell the work at a Chicago auction house for what they said could have been millions of dollars. The plaintiffs are suing the painter for at least $5 million in damages and, in addition, are seeking a court declaration that the artwork is authentic. Mr. Doig took the stand on the first day of the trial, called as an adverse witness by the plaintiffs, whose lawyers asked him to go through the minutiae of how he creates art. The plaintiffs contend the work resembles other paintings by Mr. Doig and employs colors he typically uses. Mr. Doig, dressed in a light gray suit, answered politely through several hours of testimony, describing how he used projections and other tools to help create images. Most of his answers revolved around technical issues, not direct commentary on whether he had created the work. Asked, for example, to describe how he would create a on Mr. Doig said, “You slop on varnish and you paint the paint through a screen. ” Mr. Doig and his lawyers have identified a man, Peter Edward Doige, who they say was the real artist. He died in 2012, but his sister, Marilyn Doige Bovard, said he had attended Lakehead University, served time in Thunder Bay, and painted. Mr. Fletcher, who lives in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and Mr. Bartlow have no record of Mr. Doig being jailed in Thunder Bay, but they have focused on what they assert is an incomplete account of his teenage years in Canada, when he cannot fully explain where he was or what he was doing. Mr. Fletcher testified in the afternoon and said that he remembered Mr. Doig well, partly because, he said, he had known him at Lakehead University and then later when he worked at the detention center. While at Thunder Bay, Mr. Fletcher recalled watching the person he said was Mr. Doig work on the desert painting over a period of months. “He was almost bragging and said how good he was getting at it (painting),” Mr. Fletcher said. And his progress as a painter showed in the work, Mr. Fletcher told the court. “The painting stood out,” he said. “I fell in love with it. ” The auctioneer, who the owner had intended to sell the painting through, also testified briefly. Judge Gary Feinerman of the United States District Court for Northern Illinois decided that there was enough evidence for the case to go to trial and will rule after what is expected to be about a week of testimony. | 1 |
Wikileaks has released a new tranche of correspondence from the hacked email account of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair, John Podesta.
The latest release consists of over 1,100 emails. More than 43,000 emails have now been published by the whistleblowing site, which has pledged to make public a total of 50,000 in the run up to next week’s US presidential election.
Tuesday’s email release divulged more details on the Clinton team’s reaction to her email server scandal and gave further insight into its relationship with the MSM.
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advertisement - learn more It’s been more than one hundred years since Max Planck, the theoretical physicist who originated quantum theory, which won him the Nobel Prize in Physics, said that he regards “consciousness as fundamental,” that he regards “matter as a derivative from consciousness,” and that “everything we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.” He is basically saying that the immaterial ‘substance’ of consciousness is directly intertwined with what we perceive to be our physical material world in some sort of way, shape or form, that consciousness is required for matter to be, that it becomes after consciousness….and he’s not the only physicist to believe that. “It was not possible to formulate the laws of quantum mechanics in a fully consistent way without reference to consciousness.”– Eugene Wigner, theoretical physicist and mathematician. He received a share of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 Scientists have been urging the mainstream scientific community, which today is littered with scientific fraud and industry influence as well as invention secrecy , to open up to a broader view regarding the true nature of our reality. “The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade that in all of the previous centuries of its existence.”– Nikola Tesla advertisement - learn more Not long ago, a group of internationally recognized scientists came together to stress this fact and how it’s overlooked by the mainstream scientific community. It’s ‘post-material” science, an area of study dealing with the ‘non-physical realm, and it’s challenging the modern scientific worldview of materialism that’s dominated mainstream science. The idea that matter is not the reality is finally starting to gain some merrit. The summary of this report presented at the International Summit On Post-Materialist Science can be found HERE . “The modern scientific worldview is predominantly predicated on assumptions that are closely associated with classical physics. Materialism—the idea that matter is the only reality—is one of these assumptions. A related assumption is reductionism, the notion that complex things can be understood by reducing them to the interactions of their parts, or to simpler or more fundamental things such as tiny material particles.”– Manifesto for a Post-Materialist Science MIT’s Max Tegmark,a theoretical physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, is one of the latest to attempt explaining why he believes consciousness is a state of matter. He believes that consciousness arises out of a certain set of mathematical conditions, and that there are varying degrees of consciousness – just as certain conditions are required to create varying states of vapor, water, and ice. As PBS emphasized, “understanding how consciousness functions as a separate state of matter could help us come to a more thorough understanding of why we perceive the world the way we do.” ( source ) Tegmark describes this as “perceptronium,” which he defines as the most general substance that feels subjectively self-aware and this substance should not only be able to store information, but do it in a way that form a unified, indivisible, whole. “The problem is why we perceive the universe as the semi-classical, three dimensional world that is so familiar. When we look at a glass of iced water, we perceive the liquid and the solid ice cubes as independent things even though they are intimately linked as part of the same system. How does this happen? Out of all possible outcomes, we do we perceive this solution?”– Tegmark ( source ) This new way of thinking about consciousness has been spreading throughout the physics community at an exponential rate within the past few years. Considering consciousness as an actual state of matter would be huge, considering the fact that modern day definitions of matter require a substance to have mass, which consciousness does not have. What it does have, however, is some sort of effect on our physical material world, and the extent of this effect and how far it goes is the next step for science.
The quantum double slit experiment is a very popular experiment used to examine how consciousness and our physical material world are intertwined. It is a great example that documents how factors associated with consciousness and our physical material world are connected in some way.
One potential revelation of this experience is that “the observer creates the reality.” A paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Physics Essays by Dean Radin, PhD, explains how this experiment has been used multiple times to explore the role of consciousness in shaping the nature of physical reality.
The study found that factors associated with consciousness “ significantly” correlated in predicted ways with perturbations in the double slit interference pattern. ( source ) “Observation not only disturbs what has to be measured, they produce it. We compel the electron to assume a definite position. We ourselves produce the results of the measurement.” (source) For a physicist to brush off the fact that understanding consciousness is necessary for the advancement and understanding of the nature of our reality is not as common as it used to be but, despite the empirical success of quantum theory, even the suggesting that it could be true as a description of our reality is greeted with harsh cynicism, incomprehension and even anger.
R.C. Henry, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University wrote in a 2005 publication for the journal Nature:
According to [pioneering physicist] Sir James Jeans: “the stream of knowledge is heading towards a non-mechanical reality; the Universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine. Mind no longer appears to be an accidental intruder into the realm of matter… we ought rather hail it as the creator and governor of the realm of matter.” . . . The Universe is immaterial — mental and spiritual. Live, and enjoy.
(“The Mental Universe”; Nature 436:29,2005) (source) Thanks for reading. | 1 |
The Obama administration’s decision to bar ITT Educational Services, one of the nation’s largest operators of colleges, from using federal financial aid to enroll new students shuts off the cash spigot to the troubled company. But it also creates a new set of problems. The decision last week was the latest step in the federal government’s crackdown on schools that have vacuumed up billions of dollars in government grants and loans but failed to deliver on promised training and jobs. Still, the goal of relieving current and former students saddled with onerous debt and a subpar education can be at odds with reducing the cost to taxpayers, who are likely to be stuck with the bill for loan defaults and discharges. “There is a conflict of interest when the gatekeeper and the financier are the same entity,” Barmak Nassirian, director of federal relations and policy analysis at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, said of the Department of Education. ITT, with about 45, 000 enrolled students spread over more than 130 campuses across the country, received an estimated $580 million in federal money last year, according to the Department of Education. The company did not respond to repeated requests for comment, but Mr. Nassirian and other experts who have closely followed the issue said the department’s decision could mean the end of ITT, either through bankruptcy or sale. “It’s a de facto death sentence,” Mr. Nassirian said. “They certainly can’t find students who will pay out of pocket to go to that school, and they don’t have adequate resources to creep along in time to reverse the decision. So I don’t see how they’re going to pull out of this. ” The curb on new student enrollment at ITT, which has been under heightened financial scrutiny from the department since 2014, is the latest move in a campaign to halt deceptive advertising, illegal recruitment practices and other abuses by career training and other educational institutions. Last year, another heavyweight, Corinthian Colleges, filed for bankruptcy after being the subject of numerous state and federal inquiries. The drumbeat of negative reports has eroded the industry’s popularity, leading enrollments to shrink substantially. “People are defaulting at a rate of two per minute, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Mr. Nassirian said. “The vast majority are victims, not deadbeats. ” Pauline Abernathy, executive vice president of the nonprofit Institute for College Access and Success, praised the education officials’ decision. “If a ship is at high risk of sinking, one doesn’t let any more people board,” she said, and should also “let people on board know what’s happening. ” Other education advocates also applauded the move but worried that both former and current students who had already invested thousands of dollars would be left with a mountain of debt and few educational options. Angela who attended a nursing program at ITT’s Hilliard campus outside Columbus, Ohio, for example, was two semesters away from completion and $40, 000 in debt when she pulled out in April 2015. Already disenchanted with the absence of promised weekend clinics, the use of YouTube videos to teach catheter insertions and the repeated failure of her classmates to pass the required nursing exams, she said she was further disturbed by reports of state and federal fraud investigations. “I got more concerned about going on with more debt, and seeing that everyone graduating was not passing their boards,” said Ms. a mother of five. She said she was unable to pick up where she left off because no other program would accept her credits and she was close to maxing out her loans. “I couldn’t go somewhere and start over,” she said. “I’m just stuck where I am. ” After hearing about the Education Department’s decision, Ms. said she called the Hilliard campus on Friday to speak with a financial aid representative but was told no one would be in until late the next week. Current students left stranded by the closing of a school can apply for a loan discharge, while former students are eligible only if they can prove they were defrauded. New guidelines governing that process are expected in November from the Department of Education. Veterans going to school would be covered by the same provisions if ITT were to close, said Carrie Wofford, the president of Veterans Education Success, a nonprofit group. But they would not be credited for the months of eligibility under the G. I. Bill already used up while at ITT, or the concurrent housing allowance, she said. This month, ITT was put on notice that it was in danger of losing its accreditation, which would mean an immediate cutoff in access to government loan programs. That threat helped prompt education officials to demand last week that ITT come up with an additional $153 million in credit within 30 days, to cover potential student refunds in case of a shutdown. According to its most recent quarterly filing, though, ITT had only $78 million in cash on its balance sheet. Education officials also ordered ITT to put in place a contingency plan for its students so they can finish their education if ITT fails. But it was unclear whether that plan entailed simply sending students to another school with a similar record of failings. As Ms. Wofford pointed out, nobody yet knows what is going to happen. At the moment, students at ITT have limited options. A Department of Education blog post explains that they can stay at ITT and see what happens they can try to transfer, although other schools may not accept ITT’s credits or they can pause their studies. To many education advocates, community colleges are a cheaper and better option, but many lack the capacity and resources to absorb all the students. Some also have similarly dismal graduation rates. David Halperin, a Washington lawyer and the author of “Stealing America’s Future: How Colleges Scam Taxpayers and Ruin Students’ Lives,” pointed out that colleges committed to providing a quality education could also be part of the solution. “For willing to live by reasonable rules,” he said, “there is an opportunity there to make some money. ” | 1 |
WASHINGTON — President Obama is considering removing Adm. Michael S. Rogers from his posts as leader of the National Security Agency and United States Cyber Command after top officials expressed frustration over the speed at which Admiral Rogers had moved to combat the Islamic State and over the agency’s repeated loss of closely guarded secrets, administration and intelligence officials said Saturday. Donald J. Trump is considering Admiral Rogers, who is responsible for surveillance and the growing arsenal of cyberweapons, for a top post in his administration, including director of national intelligence overseeing all 16 intelligence agencies. Admiral Rogers met with Mr. Trump on Thursday, apparently without the White House’s knowledge. The recommendation to remove Admiral Rogers, a career intelligence officer who was promoted to his posts by the Obama administration two years ago, came last month from Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter and the current director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr. Administration and intelligence officials, who insisted on anonymity to detail the private discussions, said the recommendation that Admiral Rogers be removed was not related to Mr. Trump’s interest in hiring him. Instead, they argued, it was driven by breaches during Admiral Rogers’s tenure at the N. S. A. and his leadership of the agency. The White House and the Pentagon declined to comment on Admiral Rogers’s fate. Reached by phone on Saturday afternoon, Admiral Rogers declined to comment. The effort to force out Admiral Rogers, which was first reported by The Washington Post, puts Mr. Trump in the position of considering whether to name, as the man who would brief him on intelligence matters each morning, a admiral whom the White House is considering relieving of his posts. It also raises the question of why Mr. Obama would consider firing one of the nation’s top intelligence officers in the last days of his administration. Admiral Rogers’s replacement would not be confirmed until after Mr. Trump takes over. One senior intelligence official argued that letting word of the effort leak seemed more about politics or vengeance than about effecting any real change. Representative Devin Nunes of California, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a member of Mr. Trump’s transition team, strongly defended Admiral Rogers. In a letter to Mr. Carter and Mr. Clapper, Mr. Nunes asked them to testify before his committee to explain why they want to push Mr. Rogers out. “It’s not by accident that Admiral Rogers meets with the and two days later this story, which is completely built on lies, appears,” Mr. Nunes said in a short interview. Mr. Carter and Mr. Clapper had submitted a formal recommendation to the White House to split the N. S. A. which conducts foreign surveillance and secures military networks, from the Cyber Command. But there are questions inside the giant complex at Fort Meade, Md. where the N. S. A. and Cyber Command are housed, about whether the military cyberunit is ready to survive on its own. It relies heavily on the talent of the N. S. A. which dates back to the early 1950s. Mr. Trump, who has begun filling the top echelons of his national security team with met with Admiral Rogers on Thursday at Trump Tower in New York. Senior Defense Department and intelligence officials were surprised that Admiral Rogers, while on personal leave, had paid a visit to Mr. Trump. Mr. Carter’s first major disagreement with Admiral Rogers dates to the fall of 2015, when he expressed mounting frustration that Cyber Command, which is responsible for offensive action against adversaries, was not acting aggressively enough to disrupt the Islamic State’s networks in Iraq and Syria. In the spring, Mr. Carter said for the first time that the United States was using its cyberarsenal against the Islamic State. But the effort was moving too slowly for the Pentagon leadership, and Mr. Carter went to Fort Meade several weeks ago to give Admiral Rogers and his team “a kick in the pants,” one official said. Top national security officials had also come to see Admiral Rogers as lacking leadership at a moment of wrenching change for the N. S. A. He took command after the disclosures of widespread surveillance by Edward J. Snowden, the former N. S. A. contractor, and the efforts he directed to seal up the agency proved insufficient, they said. That perception was underlined by the disclosure in October that the F. B. I. had secretly arrested a former N. S. A. contractor, Harold T. Martin III, and was investigating whether he had stolen and disclosed highly classified computer code developed by the agency to hack into the networks of foreign governments. Mr. Martin was charged with theft of government property and the unauthorized removal or retention of classified documents. Administration officials had planned to relieve Admiral Rogers of his duties after the election and announce a plan to create separate chains of command for the N. S. A. and Cyber Command. But the plan, supported by Mr. Carter and Mr. Clapper, stalled in part because of opposition from Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who heads the Armed Services Committee. Under the plan, Cyber Command would remain under the Armed Services Committee’s jurisdiction, but oversight of the N. S. A. would shift to the Senate Intelligence Committee. Mr. Trump’s victory complicated the planning. On one major issue, Mr. Trump and Admiral Rogers disagree — quite publicly. While Mr. Trump has insisted that no one knows whether Russia was responsible for the hacking of email accounts of the Democratic National Committee and a range of prominent formal officials, Admiral Rogers has said he has no doubt. He recently said that “this was not something that was done casually, this was not something that was done by chance, this was not a target that was selected purely arbitrarily. ” He added, “This was a conscious effort by a to attempt to achieve a specific effect. ” Coming into the job, Admiral Rogers said one of his top goals was to make sure that cyberattacks on the United States had consequences for the attackers. In August, he proposed a series of possible options to respond to the attacks, which American intelligence officials, in a public statement, said the Kremlin’s leadership had to have been aware of. But the White House rejected the proposals, fearing that they could start an escalating cyberconflict that the United States might not be able to win decisively. | 1 |
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REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE DONALD TRUMP SIGNALED THURSDAY PLANS TO SEEK NATIONWIDE CHANGES TO SCHOOL CURRICULA WITH THE GOAL OF “PROMOTING AMERICAN PRIDE AND PATRIOTISM IN AMERICA’S SCHOOLS.”
“In a Trump administration, I plan to work directly with the American Legion to uphold our common values and to help ensure they are taught to America’s children,” Trump said, speaking at the American Legion’s annual convention in Cincinnati.
“We want our kids to learn the incredible achievements of America’s history, its institutions and its heroes, many of whom are with us today,” he told the veterans group.
The comments suggested a federal government intervention in the programs of locally run schools, which is prohibited under federal law“We will stop apologizing for America. And we will start celebrating America. We will be united by our common culture, values and principles, becoming one American nation, one country, under one Constitution, saluting one American flag, and always saluting it,” Trump said.
Last year a Denver-area school board sought to change the content of the AP U.S. history course because some board members thought it failed to promote patriotism.
That sparked a political proxy war in Jefferson County, Colorado, and the 2015 school board election drew nearly $1 million in campaign funding from outside interest groups.
Public schools nationwide are funded by their local communities along with some state money. Most schools receive little federal funding.
Current federal law prohibits the federal government from exercising “any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system.” | 0 |
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His heated rhetoric is a response to the endless episodes of fraud, dirty trick and foul play by the Hillary campaign, as it seems that she will stop at nothing to become the first female POTUS – just the sort of abuse of power that the founders warned about.
1775-76 erupted in response to a long train of abuses – acts of oppression and hostility listed in the Declaration of Independence that is being largely repeated in modern day America.
Could Hillary’s reported election victory – or Donald Trump’s defeat – signal civil unrest and a new wave of resistance, particularly if the results are widely viewed as fraudulent or “rigged”? Trump, for one, has certainly been talking up the possibility of a stolen election.
The scenario is plausible enough that the Pentagon and Homeland Security have been carrying out secret drills in the lead up to the election to prepare for the possibility of a martial law response to violence or civil unrest.
As SHTF detailed in an exclusive report, a whistleblower has come forward on the ominous contingency plan to keep and/or restore order if the populace revolt against the establishment’s “selection” for president:
If there is any truth to it, the 2016 election could be a kick-off for total tyranny.
According to an unnamed source – who has provided accurate intel in the past – an unannounced military drill is scheduled to take place during a period leading up to the election and throughout the month after.
Date: October 30th – 30 days after the election Suspected Region: Northeast, specifically New York
1st Phase: NROL (No Rule of Law) – drill involving combat arms in metro areas (active and reserve). Source says active duty and reserve service members are being vaccinated as if they are being deployed in theatre.
2nd Phase: LROL (Limited Rule of Law) – Military/FEMA consolidating resources, controlling water supply, handing out to public as needed.
3rd Phase: AROL (Authoritarian Rule of Law) – Possible new acronym or term for “Martial Law”. Curfew, restricted movements, basically martial law scenario.
Source said exercise involves FEMA/DHS/Military
At this point, no one can say for certain what will happen in the aftermath of November 8, but it is clear that millions and millions of Americans are dissatisfied with the status quo, troubled about the economic realities perpetuated by the Fed and angry that Hillary may be put in the Oval Office rather than a jail cell, despite a trail of corruption with virtually no end.
How far will things go?
And will things ever be reset without a new American Revolution? This entry was posted in World News and tagged Donald Trump , Mac Slavo , Revolution , SHTFPlan , Trump . Bookmark the permalink . Post navigation | 0 |
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard has launched several sophisticated rockets during military exercises, Iranian media reported on Monday. [The Tasnim news agency considered to be close to the Revolutionary Guard, said the launch of the “smart and advanced” rockets came during an annual maneuver which began on Monday in Iran’s central desert. Later on Monday, state TV showed footage of several rockets launching from the back of trucks in the desert. Gen. Mohammad Pakpour, head of the Revolutionary Guards’ ground forces told the channel that rockets with ranges of more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) as well as the and rockets, all believed to have under range, were all successfully tested in the exercise. Pakpour said the tests send a message to any of Iran’s potential adversaries: “We are ready to give a crushing respond to any threat. ” Earlier in February, the United States said has put Iran “on notice” after the country test fired a ballistic missile. | 0 |
A Bahamian man who hacked into the email accounts of celebrities and athletes and later wrote in a jailhouse email that after his release he would “shake up hollywood for real!” was sentenced to five years in prison on Tuesday. The sentence was roughly double the number of years suggested under federal sentencing guidelines. The man, Alonzo Knowles, 24, had used his illicit access to the celebrity accounts to obtain unreleased movie and television scripts and personal information, which he then tried to sell for thousands of dollars, prosecutors said. Mr. Knowles had also stolen unreleased music, financial documents, and nude and intimate images and videos, the government said. Kristy J. Greenberg, a prosecutor, said in Federal District Court in Manhattan that Mr. Knowles’s motivation had been greed. “He had a singular focus on becoming rich and famous,” she said, “by disseminating personal information of celebrities and exploiting them. ” Several victims had submitted statements to the judge. Naturi Naughton, an actress in the Starz drama “Power,” said in a video statement that Mr. Knowles had hacked her personal emails and stolen six scripts of the show, and then “tried to extort me, the producer, 50 Cent and my showrunner. ” “I have never felt more violated and out of control in my entire life,” Ms. Naughton said. Judge Paul A. Engelmayer of Federal District Court called Mr. Knowles’s crimes “deeply troubling,” and told him that he had chosen to use “your gifts, your for dark and lawless ends. ” When Mr. Knowles pleaded guilty in federal court in May, he apologized, saying he knew what he had done was wrong. But he then wrote in emails sent from jail that he planned to write a book and reveal the secrets of the victims whose accounts he had broken into, the government said. “Im name dropping everyone involved and what I know,” Mr. Knowles wrote, “and im including pictures of paperwork that aint public. ” He wrote that he would charge $35 a copy, would hack into Twitter accounts to promote his book and that his goal was to make money. “Everyone loves gossip,” he wrote. “I cant wait to get out i already know how the cover is gonna look. ” The emails, which prosecutors cited in a sentencing memorandum to Judge Engelmayer, had been sent on a Bureau of Prisons email system that prisoners may use after they give consent to the monitoring of their messages. The judge said that Mr. Knowles’s jailhouse messages were “devoid of any remorse,” and showed that if he were released from prison any time soon, he “would be a clear and present danger to commit the very same crime again. ” “Unavoidably, Mr. Knowles,” Judge Engelmayer said, “the public has a significant interest in your being behind bars in federal prison where you have no access to the internet and no practical ability to do such harm. ” Mr. Knowles, who had pleaded guilty to charges of identity theft and criminal copyright infringement, read a brief statement, apologizing to the court and his victims. “What I did was wrong,” he said. “I could have ruined people’s lives. ” His lawyer, Clay Kaminsky, had asked for a sentence of 14 months. Mr. Knowles had faced a maximum sentence of 10 years the federal sentencing guidelines, which are not binding on a judge, had suggested 27 to 33 months, his plea agreement shows. Mr. Knowles was arrested last December after he flew to New York to meet with a man who was posing as a potential buyer of the scripts he had stolen. The man was actually an undercover agent. The case drew attention in part because it followed the widely publicized hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2014. The Knowles case also showed how a hacker could obtain confidential information from victims by targeting the accounts of their friends and associates, a process Mr. Knowles called “social engineering. ” “In the wee hours of the night, when his victims were likely asleep, Knowles trolled his victims’ private email accounts, obtaining their most personal communications,” the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, had said in its sentencing memorandum. | 1 |
Brad Pitt needs no media introduction to the entertainment and showbiz lovers. He is legendarily known for his outstanding acting career in Hollywood and for his successful film productions that... | 0 |
A big reason for the lack of a “conversation” is that the mass media are not reporting on global warming—and for a reason that violates their responsibility to serve the public interest. A reporter of the weather here in Milwaukee has told me that he would like to discuss global warming, but his management FORBIDS him to do so—and I suspect that this is true across the board, with “our” mass media! Even “progressive” sites such as this one—with Dahr Jamail’s reports—fail to indicate the severity of the crisis we humans now face.
Dr. David Wasdell ( http://www.apollo-gaia.org/Har... , p. 16) wrote last year that he believed that what’s in the “pipeline” AT PRESENT—that is, not counting what we do today, tomorrow, etc.—is enough to increase the global mean more than 6° C above the pre-industrial level. That would easily be enough to “wipe out” our species. (Already, 150 – 200 species are going extinct EACH DAY! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Dr. Wasdell’s 6° C number may be too high, but the (apparent) fact that global warming is now “feeding on itself” ( http://transitionvoice.com/201... SHOULD scare the bejesus out of everyone! | 0 |
Email Print In the summer of 2013, Hillary Clinton had just left the State Department and returned to New York. She was determined to latch on to her high approval ratings and lay the foundation for a second presidential run. That’s when Anthony D. Weiner happened. The husband of Clinton’s closest aide, Huma Abedin, was running for mayor of New York when it was revealed that he had continued to exchange lewd messages with women online even after the practice cost him his congressional seat. The incident brought Abedin’s relationship with Clinton into the spotlight, and Clinton was once again making headlines for sexual indiscretions. Now, just weeks away from the election, Weiner has pulled her into yet another one of his dramas. Federal investigators are looking into his sexual messaging with an underage girls, and they just happened to stumble across thousands of emails that are potentially pertinent to the FBI investigation of Clinton’s private email server. This was disturbing for many reasons. Americans are not happy that the Clintons have a continued behavior of standing behind those who have committed dangerous sexual or financial acts. That doesn’t align well with Hillary’s message about empowering women. In fact, many of Clinton’s friends have suggested she distance herself from Abedin. Still, she kept Abedin close by her side as she prepared to make a statement about the new revelation to the media. “We of course stand by her,” her campaign chairman, John D. Podesta, said on Saturday when he was asked whether Abedin would step down. The question on many Americans’ minds now is whether Clinton’s loyalty to Abedin would inspire her to bring her friend (and her drama) into the White House if she wins the presidency. What do you think? Do we need to keep Clinton and her ‘friends’ far away from the White House? Stay connected by subscribing to our news letter. Click on the button. | 0 |
5 Things America Can Learn From Hungary’s Resistance Against The Migrant Masses 5 Things America Can Learn From Hungary’s Resistance Against The Migrant Masses
The PAPRIKA PLUTOCRAT is a spicy capitalistic Hungarian blogger. Follow his unyielding assaults against Cultural Marxism on his blog, paprikaplutocrat.com November 10, 2016 Politics
On the 2 nd of October Hungary has seen a stunning manifestation of national unity, as 98% of votes cast on a referendum regarding the EU-imposed migrant settlement quotas were declared a strong and undebatable no. Now the Hungarian national parliament works at incorporating the referendum results as an amendment to the country’s constitution. While some left-wing news outlets—like the Guardian—celebrated the supposed inadequacy of the referendum, it is beyond dispute that the message of the voting is strong and firm.
Here are five lessons we can learn from this monumental stand against globalism. 1. Democracies Need Strong Leaders
Wimpy western politicians would have their voters believe that personality does not matter. Strong, witty, and masculine politicians are often depicted as exponents of a “fascistic personality cult.” Nowadays, it seems, not much distinction is made between being a macho and being a Nazi.
In reality, all great western democratic leaders were strong men—and sometimes women. Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, David Ben-Gurion, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were not known for being timid, politically correct politicians who would retract and apologize for every past comment that they’ve made. Do you think that today’s EU politicians and Western leaders could have beaten Hitler or won the Cold War?
Hungary’s Viktor Orbán might have some faults, but he is certainly not a shy and weak politician who lacks magnetism. Even his opponents will grant him that he has a rare political talent and an almost visionary skill for seeing future happenings: think of how one year ago Hungary was the first European country to build a wall to keep the migrant wave out. Today, most countries—from Austria to Great Britain—follow his lead.
Just listen to his 15 th March, 2015 speech (made on Hungary’s national holiday commemorating the country’s 1848 freedom fight against the Habsburgs). Look at how he is standing in the rain, without some guy holding an umbrella over his head. This man has speaking skills, grand views, and balls:
The idea that Western democracies can function with leaders who “have the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk”—to quote Nigel Farage who has so sharply put it to Herman van Rompuy—is a lie and has no foundation in reality. Democracy is about the masses; the masses need inspiration and leaders; democratic leaders therefore have to be strong and need game themselves.
I am personally a friend of monarchies, and I have libertarian arguments for it; but as long as the western world believes in democracy, we cannot have cucks and wimps protecting it. 2. Liberty Is Protected By The Right-Wing
Anyone who believes in game enjoys the fruits if Western liberal capitalism, like it or not. Yes, the modern world has its faults, but freedom of speech, freedom of sex life, freedom of entrepreneurship and freedom of travel are all essential parts of our lifestyle. Of course, these are tenets that the left hates today; in fact, if you want to live free and live a masculine lifestyle, the “liberalism” of today is certainly not your friend.
Therefore I’m going to write about “liberty,” and not “liberalism.” One can debate the difference between these terms; in short, what I mean is that the left today doesn’t want you to be free, but wants a politically correct nanny state to control and plan every move you make, and punish you if you do not oblige.
The right, however, still stands for the basic concept of personal liberty that we have grown to love and respect. Hungary has been criticized a lot by left-wing groups for having curbed some freedoms; I will agree that some of these state actions were unnecessary and hardly defensible. But Hungary—and Eastern-Europe—today still has more freedom than some corners of the oh-so-liberal-and-tolerant Western world.
In Hungary, universities rarely propagate the debased agenda of social justice wars; cultural Marxism is regularly attacked and barely tolerated; feminism is rare and marginal, and the country is, overwhelmingly, conservative and right wing (the governing party with two-thirds of parliamentary seats is centre-right, the largest opposition party is openly far-right). In the capital city of Budapest, one of the best and cheapest cities for night-life and gaming in Europe, you will certainly not be prosecuted for stopping hot girls and asking for their number—unlike some Western cities. 3. Minorities Are Misled
The Hungarian press—much outside of the view of the grand world, due to our rarely known and complicated language—has been in throes for the past few months about the migrant crisis. Like most Eastern European countries, Hungary barely has any immigration or Muslims. In fact, if there’s a black person on the street, people will often turn their heads.
Debates that have been present in the Western media—about Muslim integration, terror and Islam, “Palestine” and Israel— have only recently surfaced in the Hungarian press. Minorities, of course, have been misled by the left-wing press into believing that the migrants were “refugees,” “poor victims whom he have a responsibility to assist.” The Jewish press (meaning official Jewish congregation organs, not conspiracy theories) and LGBT groups voiced their concern for tolerance and non-violent communication.
It is probably not a grand revelation to most readers of this site that Muslim immigration brings little good to minorities. As Milo Yiannopoulos said in a lecture of his, the Muslims are “not on top of the oppression ladder, but they want to kill all the others on the oppression ladder.” Minorities have been misled into following the agenda of the political left; the sight of Hungary’s gay public personalities demonstrating for letting in Muslims in front the parliament is a clear proof of this. 4. Feminists Love Islam
Feminism in Hungary is a rare bird, but it does exist. One such radical Marxist-Feminist made the news when she openly argued that there could be “no terrorists among Muslim refugees”; this, of course, was before the Paris and Brussels attacks, many of the perpetrators of which arrived as “refugees” through Hungary. A few days ago I stumbled across the Facebook page of another fine specimen: this hardly attractive girl celebrated the “empowerment” of the hijab which, according to her, was a beautiful expression of female’s voluntary decision to defy the dating market.
Describing such violent and shameful oppression of people as “voluntary self-empowerment” is crazy. Feminists live in denial of facts, and the recent alliance between crazy radical Islam and Marxist Feminism only proves that neither has any love for Western culture. 5. Eastern Europe Is Still OK
The Western media gleefully celebrated the fact that with a voter turnout of a little more than 40%, the 50% limit of required turnout was not reached. According to Hungarian laws however, a referendum with 25% or more electorate turnout is valid, even if not politically binding. The Hungarian government will soon amend the constitution to declare that Brussels cannot force the country to take in immigrants without the consent of the people.
Such a policy is clear and sound. The message is that Eastern Europe—with all its faults, economic lagging and sometimes real intolerance—is still a better place to live for masculine men that many a place in the western world. Here masculine lifestyle is appreciated, Donald Trump has grand support—even Viktor Orbán voiced his good wishes for the Republican president-elect—and feminism has failed to win any serious ground.
Eastern Europe is still not lost, and Hungary is certainly among the best options for men of game today. | 1 |
Federal authorities in Manhattan and New Jersey charged Ahmad Khan Rahami with several crimes late Tuesday, including the use of weapons of mass destruction and bombing a place of public use. A federal complaint roughly laid out the method the authorities believe Mr. Rahami used to compile the materials for bombs and then place them in New Jersey and New York. Here are some details from the document: Two days before the bombing in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, Mr. Rahami was filmed igniting a device in the backyard of his home in Elizabeth, N. J. Federal investigators said the video shows Mr. Rahami in his backyard, lighting the fuse of a small cylindrical object in the ground followed by a loud noise and flames, smoke and laughter. Investigators believe Mr. Rahami bought some of the materials he used to make bombs on eBay between June 20 and Aug. 10 under the name “ahmad rahimi. ” On July 12, that user bought an electric igniter for a fireworks system. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said that “an analysis of the 27th Street bomb identified numerous electric igniters inside. ” On July 31, the user bought a circuit board, which the authorities said could be used in explosive devices. On Aug. 10, the user bought what authorities believe to be citric acid, which was described on the online auction site as being “great for bath bombs and candy making. ” The F. B. I. described citric acid as a precursor for improvised explosives. On various dates, the user bought items listed as milling balls and slingshot ammo, which investigators said could be used to increase a bomb’s fragmentation. The items were shipped to a business where Mr. Rahami worked. The complaint describes a handwritten journal investigators say they recovered from Mr. Rahami during his arrest. They said the journal includes references to slaughter in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and Syria concern about being apprehended by the F. B. I. and the Department of Homeland Security and references to “jihad,” “pipe bombs” and a “pressure cooker bomb. ” It also includes “laudatory” writing about the cleric Anwar Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 people in Fort Hood, Tex. and “Brother Osama bin Laden.” The document ends with the following: “Inshallah [God willing] the sounds of the bombs will be heard in the streets. Gun shots to your police. Death to your OPPRESSION. ” A YouTube account under a name the authorities linked to Mr. Rahami includes, on a page of favorites, what they describe as two videos, as well as Afghan wedding songs, a model aircraft compilation and the viral video “Charlie Bit My Finger — Again!” The explosive in Chelsea was so powerful that it propelled the Dumpster it was under more than 120 feet, shattering windows as far as 400 feet away and three stories high. Fragmentation from the bomb, which was packed with ball bearings and steel nuts, was found more than 650 feet away. people were injured, two more than were initially reported, the report said. Investigators recovered 12 fingerprints from the unexploded bomb on 27th Street, which F. B. I. agents matched to Mr. Rahami. They also say they matched fingerprints from materials inside the backpack used for the bomb at the train station in Elizabeth to Mr. Rahami. The injuries included lacerations to the face, stomach, legs and arms from flying glass and metal shrapnel and fragmentation embedded in skin and bone. One woman had multiple ball bearings removed from her body, metal from her ear and splintered wood from her neck. Another victim, a man who was driving by the bomb site, was knocked unconscious by the explosion. A video shows a man pulling a suitcase on West 27th Street about two minutes after the West 23rd Street explosion. That man, who investigators believe to be Mr. Rahami, returns shortly thereafter into the camera’s view, without the suitcase. | 0 |
Trump Hotels See a YUGE SURGE in Bookings After his HISTORIC WIN! Trump Hotels See a YUGE SURGE in Bookings After his HISTORIC WIN! Videos By Amy Moreno November 11, 2016
It looks like President-elect Trump’s HISTORIC WIN is great for his business!
Donald Trump bested Hillary Clinton on election day (well the next day, actually) with the political “comeback” of our lifetime!
Trump has seen a 20% increase in hotel bookings at some of his most prominent hotels.
From Fox News :
Bookings at Trump hotels in Washington, DC, and New York — which plunged during Donald Trump’s presidential campaign — have spiked since his victory.
The Trump International Hotel Washington, DC, just blocks from the White House, has seen a 20 percent increase in reservations and is sold out for Inauguration Day weekend in January.
“Wow. Demand is definitely up,” said Jack Ezon, president of Manhattan-based travel agency Ovation Vacations. “I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.”
Bookings at the Trump International Hotel & Tower New York are up 18 percent since Election Day, and there has been a 15 percent rise at the Trump Soho New York, Ezon told The Post.
A check on the Expedia travel site Thursday showed the Trump New York was sold out for Friday night, while similarly priced hotels, like The Plaza and The Mark, had vacancies. Rooms were available at the Trump Soho for about $500.
But reservations at other Trump-branded hotel and resorts remained virtually unchanged. Amy Moreno is a Published Author , Pug Lover & Game of Thrones Nerd. You can follow her on Twitter here and Facebook here . Support the Trump Presidency and help us fight Liberal Media Bias. Please LIKE and SHARE this story on Facebook or Twitter. | 0 |
The leftist, internet site Change. org launched a petition to stop the University of Tennessee’s “Pride of the Southland” band from partaking in the Inauguration Day parade for Donald Trump. [The petition asks university leadership to decline the invitation to perform. The petition reads, “As either proud residents of Tennessee or proud University of Tennessee alumni, we are greatly disturbed by the behavior exhibited by Donald Trump both during and after the recent presidential campaign. He has made racist and sexist remarks that should never come out of the mouth of someone in public office … we believe the attendance at the upcoming inauguration of a band representing the state of Tennessee would condone this behavior,” said the petition. ” Donald Trump won 94 of the 95 counties in Tennessee during the Republican primary in addition to trouncing Hillary Clinton there during the general election. So, the idea that the “proud residents” of Tennessee would clutch their proverbial pearls and take great issue with the Tennessee band representing the Volunteer State seems a bit more than laughable. According to the AP, Marist College and Talladega College have also experienced some resistance to the idea of taking part in the inauguration. Somehow, despite potentially not having the bands of Marist, Talladega College, and Tennessee, Donald Trump will have to find a way to become president. Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn | 0 |
More information about Gardasil Leaving a lucrative career as a nephrologist (kidney doctor), Dr. Suzanne Humphries is now free to actually help cure people. In this autobiography she explains why good doctors are constrained within the current corrupt medical system from practicing real, ethical medicine. FREE Shipping Available! Order here . Medical Doctors Opposed to Forced Vaccinations – Should Their Views be Silenced? eBook – Available for immediate download.
One of the biggest myths being propagated in the compliant mainstream media today is that doctors are either pro-vaccine or anti-vaccine, and that the anti-vaccine doctors are all “quacks.”
However, nothing could be further from the truth in the vaccine debate. Doctors are not unified at all on their positions regarding “the science” of vaccines, nor are they unified in the position of removing informed consent to a medical procedure like vaccines.
The two most extreme positions are those doctors who are 100% against vaccines and do not administer them at all, and those doctors that believe that ALL vaccines are safe and effective for ALL people, ALL the time, by force if necessary.
Very few doctors fall into either of these two extremist positions, and yet it is the extreme pro-vaccine position that is presented by the U.S. Government and mainstream media as being the dominant position of the medical field.
In between these two extreme views, however, is where the vast majority of doctors practicing today would probably categorize their position. Many doctors who consider themselves “pro-vaccine,” for example, do not believe that every single vaccine is appropriate for every single individual.
Many doctors recommend a “delayed” vaccine schedule for some patients, and not always the recommended one-size-fits-all CDC childhood schedule. Other doctors choose to recommend vaccines based on the actual science and merit of each vaccine, recommending some, while determining that others are not worth the risk for children, such as the suspect seasonal flu shot.
These doctors who do not hold extreme positions would be opposed to government-mandated vaccinations and the removal of all parental exemptions.
In this eBook, I am going to summarize the many doctors today who do not take the most extremist pro-vaccine position, which is probably not held by very many doctors at all, in spite of what the pharmaceutical industry, the federal government, and the mainstream media would like the public to believe. Read : Medical Doctors Opposed to Forced Vaccinations – Should Their Views be Silenced? on your mobile device! | 0 |
Various analysts and news outlets favorable to President Barack Obama have acknowledged that the president’s decision to essentially deport 35 U. S. Kremlin diplomats suspected of serving as intelligence operatives and impose sanctions on Russia’s two leading intelligence services are meant to “box in” Donald Trump. [In response to Obama’s measures, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the U. S. president the cold shoulder, saying from now on any future attempt to engage with the United States would take place under the incoming administration. Moreover, President Obama expected Putin to follow the long history of retaliation and reciprocal expulsions that has governed the relationship between the United States and Russia for decades, but the Kremlin leader instead chose to deviate from the typical diplomatic protocol of . Putin’s reaction went against Kremlin officials urging the Russian president to retaliate, a move that completely undermined Obama’s effort to make it difficult for the incoming to improve relations with Russia. In the statement responding to the sanctions, Putin said the Kremlin “will not resort to the level of irresponsible ‘kitchen’ diplomacy,” using what the New York Times (NYT) described as “a common Russian idiom for quarrelsome and unseemly acts. ” Obama’s move appears to have backfired, granting the incoming administration leeway to pursue the restoration of . S. relations that Trump has been advocating. NYT notes: Should Mr. Putin have chosen to retaliate harshly against the United States [as Obama expected] he would most likely have deepened the rift between the two countries and left Donald J. Trump with a nettlesome diplomatic standoff from the moment he arrived in the Oval Office. But by choosing to essentially disregard Mr. Obama’s punitive measures, Mr. Putin can try to disarm his American critics, including members of Congress who consider him an aggressive foe of the United States. That could give Mr. Trump more room to pursue the closer cooperation with Russia that he has advocated, “This is a perfect step because it makes Obama’s administration look very weak and it opens a new page in relations with Trump,” Vladimir Frolov, an international affairs analyst and a columnist, told the Times. “Moscow wanted Trump to have room to maneuver this decision is a clear gesture of good will toward him. ” Various analysts have used the “box in” expression in reference to Obama’s Russia move, including Eric Lorber, a senior adviser at the Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and Kellyanne Conway, who managed Trump’s campaign and has been selected to serve as a counselor to the Republican president in the White House, and mainstream media outlets like NYT. Obama’s actions came in response to Russia allegedly trying to influence the 2016 elections through the supposed hacking of both the Democratic National Committee’s servers and the email account of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta. The Podesta emails were ultimately published online by the organization Wikileaks shortly before the election. Those who accuse Russia of the hacking claim the move was intended to obtain information that came from the minds of the Democrats themselves. Some have blamed the hacking scandal for the demise of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, implying that the DNC and Podesta’s own words impacted the decision of Americans who voted against Mrs. Clinton. The Obama administration has yet to provide public evidence linking Russia to Wikileaks. Various media outlets have erroneously conflated the cyberattack against the DNC and Podesta with a hacking of the U. S. electoral system. There is also no evidence the latter occurred. Putin has denied the Obama administration’s accusations of Russian cyberattacks intended to influence U. S. presidential elections. According to the State Department, the ejection of the Russian diplomats — dubbed by the Times “the strongest American response yet to a cyberattack” — is also a response to the increasing “pattern of harassment” of American diplomats in Russia. Despite being friendly to the Obama administration, Vox Media suggested the president’s actions against Russia are toothless, noting they are unlikely to “frighten Putin into changing his behavior. ” Vox conceded Obama’s move is intended “to make it significantly harder for Trump to start his tenure in the White House with an immediate effort to improve ties with Vladimir Putin. ” The Trump team has denounced the DNC hacking, insisting that it remains unclear whether it was a cyberattack by Russia at the behest of Putin. Trump’s incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus told Eric Bolling last week, “We agree that foreign governments should not be hacking into American institutions, period!” | 1 |
U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley made a sharp speech at the U. N.’s Human Rights Council on Tuesday, calling on the body to fix its “chronic” bias and calling on Venezuela to step down from the Council if it will not end its human rights abuses. [In her address to the Council in Geneva — the first by a U. S. Permanent Representative — Haley renewed the U. S. commitment to human rights and, in particular, its commitment to women’s rights. “There is no room here for cultural relativism,” she said: . @NikkiHaley: US will not sit quietly while this body, supposedly dedicated to #humanrights, continues to damage the cause of human rights. pic. twitter. — Department of State (@StateDept) June 6, 2017, The U. S. has had a tense relationship with the Council since Trump took office, particularly over the Council’s bias and its membership, which includes countries with poor human rights records, such as Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Cuba. The U. S. has mulled leaving the Council for months and boycotted its opening session in March due to the agenda. While Haley told the Council that the U. S. is “looking carefully” at U. S. participation in the body, she refrained from giving an outright ultimatum in her address. She did point to a side event on human rights abuses in Venezuela and warned the socialist country that it should step away from the Council if it cannot end its abuses. “If Venezuela cannot, then it should voluntarily step down from its seat on the Human Rights Council until it can get its own house in order,” she said. “Being a member of this council is a privilege, and no country who is a human right violator should be allowed a seat at the table. ” She then drew a contrast with the way the Council treated Venezuela and the way it treated Israel. “It’s hard to accept that this Council has never considered a resolution on Venezuela, and yet it adopted five biased resolutions in March against a single country — Israel,” she said. “It is essential that this Council address its chronic bias if it is to have any credibility. ” Later Tuesday, Haley was scheduled to make an address to the Geneva Graduate Institute, where she said she will outline a plan to make the Council “more effective, more accountable and more responsive. ” Haley’s address comes days after she penned a withering in the Washington Post in which she blasted the body as a “haven for dictators. ” The Bush administration boycotted the Human Rights Council when it was formed in 2006 as a successor to the Human Rights Commission, which was also criticized for bias and its membership. However, the Obama administration applied for membership in 2009, claiming membership would allow it to reform the body from the inside. Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY. | 0 |
Financial Markets , Housing Market , U.S. Economy foreclosures , Housing bubble , mortgage rates admin
You wouldn’t know it from the housing industry organizations, Wall Street or the media propaganda, but the housing market is starting to unravel. It does not matter which person or political party occupies the White House and Capitol Hill. The debt orgy that followed the Fed’s QE program is now showing visible signs of unintended but inevitable consequences and it’s beginning smell a lot like 2008.
Per RealtyTrac , U.S. foreclosure activity increased 27% from September to October. Foreclose starts posted the biggest monthly increase since…December 2008. Scheduled foreclosure auctions posted the biggest monthly increase since 2006. The data is even more startling in certain States. Foreclosures in Colorado jumped 64% in October from September and foreclosure starts soared 71%. Colorado tends to be an economic and demographic bellweather State. In the housing bubble 1.0, foreclosure activity in Colorado began to accelerate before it hit all the other major MSAs.
Just in time for foreclose activity to ramp up, the Obama Government rolled new Fannie and Freddie mortgage programs which removed or reduced required mortgage insurance. Once again the Taxpayers will be left holding the bag and monetizing a mortgage collapse from which the bankers, real estate and mortgage industry collected $100’s of millions in fee money.
Per this analysis posted by Wolf Richter, the Miami condo market is in a freefall: LINK . Mortgage rates have spiked up considerably in the last week. This will extinguish a significant amount of home sales and cash-out refi’s – note – the following is an excerpt from the latest issue of my Short Seller’s Journal :
I continue to see with my own eyeballs, which I trust a lot more than the manipulated b.s. reported by the National Association of Realtors and the Government’s Census Bureau, a stunning number of “for sale” and “for rent” signs all around central Denver. Note that Colorado has 11,000 people per month moving here, so if inventory in both homes for sale and rentals are visibly increasing here it means they are increasing everywhere.
I’ve heard horror stories about the south Florida market from several sources. A colleague who runs a real estate brokerage firm in Houston published a report last week on a growing glut in luxury apartments in Houston: LINK .
I bought Toll Brothers (TOL) December $28-strike puts on Thursday for 64 cents. The stock at the time was $29.40. It closed Friday at $28.25. I also bought Pulte Home (PHM) January $18-strike puts for 72 cents. The stock at the time was $18.65. It closed Friday at $18.32.
I did this after chatting with the friend of mine mentioned earlier who is a mortgage broker. We are working on a refi for my significant other, which is why he called me on Thursday to see if I wanted to rate-lock her loan after informing me that the mortgage market was getting “funky” and spreads were widening.
Finally, again just like the mid-2000’s housing bubble, NYC is showing definitive signs that its housing market is crumbling very quickly. Landlord rent concessions soared 24% in October, more than double the 10.4% concession rate in October 2015. Typical concessions include one free month or payment of broker fees at lease signing. Days to lease an apartment on average increased 15% over 2015 in October to 46 days. And inventory listings are up 23% year over year.
DR Horton (DHI) reported earnings on Tuesday. It missed both revenues and earnings. The stock was hit 5.4% that day and closed even lower by Friday. Any stock that sold off on Thursday and Friday while the stock market was going orbital has real problems. DHI reported the slowest order growth rate in three years. More troubling from my perspective is that, with the market obviously slowing down, DHI’s inventories continue to balloon, increasing by $537 million to $8.3 billion vs $7.8 billion at the end of September 2015. The Company’s cancellation rate jumped to 28% from 23% last year. Again, this smells exactly like 2008…perhaps this part of the reason the Dow Jones Home Construction index looks so ugly:
The graph above shows the Dow Jones Home Construction index vs the S&P 500 for the past year. Since hitting 601 on July 26, the index is down 14%. It’s down 16.5% from its 52 week high of 618 on December 1, 2015. As you can see, the index is below both its 50 and 200 dma’s (yellow line and red line, respectively). The 50 dma is about to cross below the 200 dma, another potentially highly bearish techincal indicator. Perhaps first and foremost is the fact that the homebuilders were extremely weak relative to the buying frenzy that gripped the market Wed thru Friday.
In my opinion, it’s safe to put a fork in the housing market. And this is the primary reason that it smells to me a lot like 2008.
You can access the Short Seller’s Journal with this LINK or by clicking on the graphic to the right. Almost all of the ideas I have presented since early August have been working, some have been yielding tremendous returns. It’s a weekly report for $20/month with no minimum subscription requirement. I provide options trading ideas as well as disclose all of my trading activity from the short-side. Share this: | 1 |
The Secret Cost of Chinese Buffets: Part 1 Posted on Nov 2, 2016
By Amelia Pang Workers prepare for business at a restaurant in the Chinatown section of Los Angeles on Jan. 19, 2012. ( Jae C. Hong / AP Photo )
Wang’s Employment Agency is nestled on the third floor of a barbershop in Flushing, N.Y. No sign outside suggests its existence. Inside, there is an undecorated, white-walled office where a dozen middle-aged Chinese immigrants sit and wait in nervous silence. Wang, the owner of the agency, is a heavyset woman in her early 50s. She snacks on walnuts from a Styrofoam cup as she considers people’s job requests.
“I have a job as a cook at a Vietnamese restaurant,” she tells a man in his 50s.
“A Vietnamese restaurant?” he asks. “But I’ve never had Vietnamese food.”
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“It’s just noodles,” Wang says. “They use a different sauce than we do. That’s all. Give them a call and try it out for a day.”
He pays Wang $60 for the job offer. I catch the tail end of this conversation. It is not clear where the restaurant is located.
“Were you smuggled in?” Wang asks me.
“No,” I say.
I was born and raised in Maryland. My Mandarin has a noticeable American accent. I later realize it was a mistake to admit my legal status. Wang asks me a few questions about what type of restaurant jobs I want. She says she’ll call me if anything comes up.
She doesn’t call. Wang isn’t alone. Other employment agencies in Flushing I contact also do not return my calls after hearing my Mandarin.
Chinese restaurants hire undocumented Chinese and Latino workers, pay them well below minimum wage, make them work 12-hour shifts six days a week but offer free housing and food. These workers are packed at night into roach-infested apartments and houses. Sometimes they are forced to sleep on cardboard in the basements of restaurants. They make $800 to $2,000 a month—regardless of how many hours they work.
Much of their pay goes to fees charged by traffickers and smugglers—known in Chinese as “snakeheads”—and to private employment agencies such as the one run by Wang that charges clients for finding them a job. The smugglers, like the agencies, do not advertise. Snakeheads charge $60,000 to $80,000 to smuggle someone into the United States. They have networks of enforcers, which means that, if you do not pay, you or your family members in China will be subject, until the money is paid, to beatings or even death.
Restaurant jobs in big cities fill up fast. There are more immigrants looking for work in cities, where wealthier customers tip generously. Most employment agencies in Flushing specialize in sending immigrants to jobs in remote towns where Chinese restaurants are often short of staff. Once offered a job, an immigrant often has to be on a bus within hours and can find him- or herself halfway across the country.
My legal status and my American-accented Mandarin are impediments. Labor trafficking, which can take place before the immigrant is smuggled into the country, is dependent on the powerlessness of the worker. Snakeheads routinely lie about jobs, wages and employment conditions, knowing that once workers are in the United States they are unable to appeal to law enforcement. It is also common for snakeheads and employers to confiscate passports and identity documents in order to hold workers hostage.
These snakeheads do not only traffic in Chinese workers. They routinely “buy” undocumented Latino workers who have crossed into the United States from Mexico and drive them to Chinese restaurants around the country where they, too, are held in bondage. Those who traffic human beings also often traffic drugs, carrying narcotics along with their human cargo across state lines.
“Employment agencies buy Mexicans at the border from smugglers and sell them to Chinese employers,” said a former snakehead I’ll call Edward, whom I interviewed in Atlanta. For one year, the First Street Employment Agency paid Edward $2 per mile to pick up undocumented Latino immigrants from Fort Myers, Fla., and drive them to the agency in Chamblee, Ga. The employment agency owner would pack the Latino migrants into crowded rooms in a nearby apartment complex called the Don Juan Duplexes while he waited for Chinese restaurant owners to purchase the immigrants like indentured servants.
“Chinese restaurant owners don’t pay Mexicans for the first two months of work. They pay the smugglers instead,” Edward told me. “They pay $1,000 per person, maybe $1,200 per person, to the smuggler.”
After two months, restaurant owners typically begin to pay new Latino workers $800 a month. They tend to work in the kitchen, so they don’t receive tips. In busy restaurants, experienced kitchen workers might eventually make up to $2,000 a month.
The employment agencies, Chinese restaurants and human smugglers have informal ties to one another, which makes it efficient to supply cheap labor but difficult to prosecute. Most of these labor agencies are never charged with trafficking.
I change my tactics when I enter Min Du Employment Agency on Eldridge Street in Manhattan’s Chinatown. The agency’s office is not much larger than a walk-in closet. A poster plastered on the wall advertises a $30 bus ride to Indiana.
“Hello, little sister,” an elderly woman greets me in Mandarin from behind the counter. The small space behind her counter is stuffed with notebooks, instant-noodle packs and an electric kettle.
I speak haltingly. I give vague answers about my ability to speak English. She doesn’t ask about my immigration status.
I tell her I’m looking for a busgirl job. I decide on busgirl because I have limited Chinese writing skills and would struggle to write orders down in Chinese.
“The closest job is four hours away,” she says.
“That’s fine,” I say.
She begins calling restaurant employers across North America and mumbles a few words to them before handing me the receiver. I get on the phone with a Chinese restaurant owner in Indiana. | 1 |
The night President and Mrs. Trump had dinner at with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and his wife, Akie Abe — after a nice round of golf and a garden tour, before North Korea necessitated an impromptu news conference — Alexander Wang dragged his audience up to the crumbling abandoned RKO Hamilton Theater on 146th Street in Harlem and jammed everyone into a area that once housed orchestra seats and now framed a raised runway. Ansel Elgort craned his neck over Luka Sabbat’s head. Zoë Kravitz was smooshed against the barrier. Lights flashed red the air smelled like beer and the models came stomping out as if they were ready to rumble. In tight black leather pants and silver studs, tank tops and strapless cat suits in Prince of Wales check, they were dressed for it, anyway. Some chopped off their hair specially for the night. They looked mad. I mention the simultaneous events not because they have any direct relationship, but because it is increasingly clear that it is almost impossible to think about New York Fashion Week and what happens on the runway without thinking, to varying extents, about Mr. Trump. He — the world he has currently created — is the prism through which everything is seen, and evaluated. There’s just no getting away from it. And if that is a given, then the question we have to ask ourselves is not should fashion react to Trump, but rather: What is the role of fashion under Trump? So far, there has been a lot of symbolic posturing. The Council of Fashion Designers of America gave out buttons in support of Planned Parenthood, and some people have been wearing them around. Christian Siriano designed a message tee that read “People Are People” after the Depeche Mode song (sample lyrics: “People are people so why should it be You and I should get along so awfully Help me understand”) and paired it with a long pink skirt. Jeremy Scott sent out on the runway a sequined tank top touting “As Seen on TV. ” At Public School, the designers Maxwell Osborne and Chow topped off their first collection since quitting their second jobs as designers at DKNY with red baseball caps with “Make America New York” on the front and “44 ” on the side. Their commentary on Mr. Trump was a little fuzzy — they said, in a statement, the show was about “constantly examining your beliefs, values and privileges and matching your intent to your action,” though sweatshirts with “We Need Leaders” made more sense — but it made for a good Instagram. The best burgundy nylon evening anorak I’ve ever seen — possibly the only one, to be fair — made for better clothes, however. (So, too, the flannel shirtdress with a navy train, and the jacquard mini dress.) And potentially a more lasting impact. Victoria Beckham summed it up when she said (during a preview before her show) “The world is so confused right now, I just want to make my customer feel secure. ” In the end, the job of fashion should be to make a woman feel confident in her clothes — feel like a stronger version of herself — so she can proactively think about something else. Message tees are a beginning, but they are also easy it’s message clothing that is hard. By that measure, how are things stacking up? Despite the fact that Mr. Wang’s show seemed conceived to put a stiletto boot into the eye of the establishment (see Bella Hadid in a vintage sporting the words “Night of Treason”) the whole felt less convincing than calculated. It didn’t help that, though he had his show in Harlem, there were less than a handful of black models on the runway. Mr. Wang has been down the ’n’ route before, and while he has a knack for combining the trappings of punk with some neat men’s wear tailoring and couture cuts, here the latter was unfortunately in short supply. Instead there was a lot of slicing and dicing sleight of hand. The most original part of the collection was where he put the majority of his verbiage: on sheer tights that blared “No ” up the thigh. That at least echoed a certain truth. This is not a time for fiddling, after all. Which doesn’t mean absolutely no fun can be had (see Melissa McCarthy’s “S. N. L. ” Sean Spicer self). Jeremy Scott, by contrast, offered up not rebellion, but a raspberry. That is his wont, though this season there was surprising substance to the schtick, the latter made up of Jesus souvenir rug prints mixed in with faux leopard, boudoir bunny ruffles beneath sheer pajama sets in candy colors, Vegas Elvis metallic flares and Marilyn Monroe gowns. Among other cartoons. It was unclear whether he was parodying false idols or suggesting that everyone love thy neighbor, but either way the provided both relevance and levity. Providing polish, however, was Jason Wu, who originally catapulted to fame thanks to Michelle Obama’s inaugural gowns. Celebrating his 10th anniversary, he provided an unofficial retrospective of greatest hits: from neat camel and glen plaid trouser suits to slouchy coed cashmeres over handkerchief hem skirts cocktail frocks that danced around the body and a series of draped gold dévoré evening dresses. They had a quiet that made for a good background check. But it was at Victoria Beckham that really came into play. In her strongest show in seasons, she walked a fine line between the masculine and feminine, fragility and power, layering strictly tailored jackets and slouchy trousers in houndstooth, tartan and gray flannel over and under flyaway chiffons and sheer all worn with leather gloves and leather boots for protective cover. Streams of wool and knit bumped up against each other in swingy dresses prints were fractured geometries sleeves belled out just a bit below the elbow and it added up to more than the sum of its parts. “I wasn’t interested in showpieces,” she had said earlier. “Just clothes. ” It was an emancipation proclamation, of sorts. | 1 |
HAMAD CITY, Gaza Strip — Wail is grateful for his new apartment here in a growing neighborhood in southern Gaza. For just $140 a month, there are separate bedrooms for his three girls and two boys, as well as a guest bathroom. The complex is being built by Qatar, the Persian Gulf state that has stepped in repeatedly in recent years to help isolated, Gazans. But there are limits to Mr. Gatshan’s thankfulness. “As a Palestinian, I would not support Qatar if they said they wanted a solution,” said Mr. Gatshan, 44. “I want my human rights. My rights are to live without any limits or restrictions and without occupiers. ” For years, the Obama administration struggled to forge a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians, only to run headlong into unsurmountable obstacles: a Israeli government, fractured Palestinian leadership, and an Arab world consumed by its own upheavals. Since then the barriers to peace have grown even more formidable, and attitudes like Mr. Gatshan’s more entrenched. When President Trump and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, meet in Washington on Wednesday they are likely to discuss a change of tactics, relying on Arab states like Qatar to help secure an solution, under which Israel and an independent Palestinian state would live . A White House official said Tuesday that Mr. Trump’s objective was peace between the two sides, but it did not necessarily need to take the form of a solution. But even if Mr. Trump does not abandon the solution, any route to peace contains many pitfalls. The Trump administration plans to focus on an “ ” approach, meaning that Israel would first pursue agreements with Arab countries to help solve the conflict with the Palestinians. But that is a long shot, experts say, given some of the crises gripping the region: Saudi Arabia is mired in a war in Yemen Egypt is reeling from economic and security concerns and Jordan is focused on securing its borders with Iraq and Syria. Israel’s government has moved steadily to the right, expanding settlements on land that the Palestinians and much of the rest of the world say should be part of a future Palestinian state. And the Palestinians remain sharply divided: The Palestinian Authority, backed by the United States and European powers, governs parts of the West Bank, while Hamas, a militant Islamist movement committed to Israel’s destruction, rules the coastal Gaza Strip. Given those realities, there is little that Arab countries can do to break the deadlock, especially at a time when uprisings and wars have left them focused on domestic affairs, said Oraib the director of the Quds Center for Political Studies in Jordan. “What can Jordan or Egypt or Saudi Arabia do?” he said. “In the end, the occupation has to end, or you will have no end to the conflict. ” Historically, sympathy for the Palestinians and their quest for statehood was one of few unifying causes across the Arab world. Arab armies came together to wage wars against the Jewish state, and many governments later provided financial and military aid to armed Palestinian factions. Even after the Oslo peace accords of 1993 led to the creation of the Palestinian Authority, most Arab countries rejected formal relations with Israel on principle, considering it a usurper of Arab land. Jordan and Egypt have peace treaties with Israel, but Israel remains unpopular with their citizens. But the prominence of the Palestinian issue in the Arab consciousness has waned in recent years, as the Arab state system has weakened because of popular uprisings and civil conflicts. Saudi Arabia and its allies in the Persian Gulf are bogged down in a war against Houthi rebels in Yemen and are increasingly worried about Iran’s influence — a concern they share with Israel. Syria and Iraq, longtime enemies of Israel, have been locked in lengthy wars that have drained their governments’ resources and given them little time to focus on issues beyond their borders. Egypt, too, has turned inward, as its economy has worsened and a jihadist insurgency has taken root on the Sinai Peninsula. “Care is there, but attention is not,” Mahmoud Yehia, an Egyptian lawmaker, said of the Palestinian cause. “People are dealing with all these new internal issues now, and they have been struggling economically for years and years before that. ” Supporters of the approach say that the merging of interests between Israel and Arab states like Saudi Arabia and Egypt could provide an opening. But that approach has been tried before, without success, in large measure because of deep and nearly universal Arab opposition to Israel. Arab leaders will not dare be seen to align their interests with the Jewish state, even when there is common cause, like opposition to Iran and to terrorist groups like the Islamic State. Last year, a survey of attitudes across the Middle East by Zogby Research Services found that 41 percent of respondents in Egypt and 39 percent in Saudi Arabia considered the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands to be “the greatest obstacle to regional peace,” surpassing any other issue. So while Saudi and Egyptian leaders may collaborate with Israel privately on issues of shared interest, doing so publicly could incite a blowback from their populations. For many Arabs, the sheer number of crises in the region leaves little energy left for the Palestinians. “There is also a growing realization among people that the region is now very chaotic,” said H. A. Hellyer, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a research organization in Washington. That causes “a sense of helplessness” toward the Palestinian issue. The divisions among Palestinians also undermine support for their cause. “Even if they wanted to do something, they don’t know who they should support now,” Mr. Hellyer said. And many Palestinians have given up on the idea of a solution. A decade has passed since Palestinian infighting left the West Bank and Gaza under the control of competing administrations with opposing views of how to pursue statehood. Multiple rounds of talks have gained only limited benefit for the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, which supports a solution, while Hamas’s dedication to its slogan of “resistance” seems as strong as ever. On Monday, it announced that Yehya Sinwar, a member of its military wing, had been chosen as its new Gaza leader. Others feel that too much time has passed to expect that the West Bank and Gaza can again be brought under a single authority. “It’s impossible to have a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza,” said Ibrahim Madhoun, a columnist for the newspaper Al Resala. “Now, Gaza is one thing and the West Bank is something else. ” Hamad City, where Mr. Gatshan lives with his family, is home to tidy shops, playgrounds and a mosque that will soon hold 3, 000 people. A second wing of roughly 1, 400 spacious units has just opened. But the Qatari initiative has risen on a potent symbol of deadlock. Much of the land once belonged to an Israeli settlement, which was evacuated in 2005. Israel called it a move toward peace. Gazans said settlers should never have been there in the first place. But Israelis complain bitterly that this evacuation showed that pulling back from settlements does not work: Militant groups, including Hamas, fired rockets into Israel. Three wars followed. Though Hamas has declared a truce, and largely controls other groups who try to continue fighting, some Israelis say a new war in Gaza is the only way to ultimately achieve peace. Israel “cannot be the only country in the world where children cannot walk down the street without worrying that a missile will fall,” Naftali Bennett, a lawmaker and education minister, said on a visit to the fence dividing Gaza and Israel last week. “Our enemies are investing all their resources in developing ways to kill us. ” “Only with a complete victory,” he said, “can we put an end to this cycle. ” | 1 |
259 Views November 23, 2016 GOLD , KWN King World News
Last year , Richard Russell made one of his last and most shocking predictions ever. Below is what the Godfather of newsletter writers had to say.
With gold breaking $1,200 and the bond market continuing its waterfall decline, it is a great day to step back and look at the big picture as seen through Russell’s eyes.
Richard Russell’s Memories Of The Great Depression ( King World News ) – From legendary Richard Russell: “In the 90 years that I have been on this earth I have never felt good about myself. But lately, after much soul searching, I finally accepted that I am a good person and deserve to treat myself better. I grew up during the Great Depression and I learned to always order the cheapest item on the menu in restaurants. In those difficult days, a penny saved was like a dollar earned… IMPORTANT… To find out which company is set to become one of the highest grade producing gold mines on the planet Sponsored
Frightened, People Wouldn’t Pay $10,000 For A Building In New York City I remember well during 1932, that real estate parcels in New York City were often for sale for $10,000 cash. Yet they didn’t sell because people were afraid to put down $10,000 cash on a New York City building. Anybody who had cash refused to part with it regardless of the huge possible return on their money. If you had cash, you thanked God that you had it and no investment was juicy enough to entice you to put down your money. Thus, New York real estate was selling at giveaway prices and it stayed that way until the Great Depression ended.
I remember full-course Sunday dinners at top restaurants being offered for a dollar or less. I remember admission to neighborhood movies (double features) for 15 cents, and you could stay the whole night sleeping in your seat to stay out of the winter cold.
Lessons From Late 1957 It’s late 1957. The bull market had started up in June 1949. Suddenly a recession starts in late 1957. Sentiment among the crowd turns black bearish. The market sinks into a severe correction. I don’t believe that the bull market is over. People call me an idiot, but I am convinced that the bull market has a lot further to run. The reason is that the bull market never produced a third speculative phase. I write an article published in Barron’s to the effect that I expect a third highly speculative phase to appear ahead. People remain stubbornly bearish. They tell me I’m out of my mind. But I know that the market normally has a severe correction following the second phase of a bull market and just preceding the third speculative and final phase.
The Dow sinks to 419 in October and then turns up in the face of the severe recession. Investors are actually angry. How can the stock market be rising when there is a recession in progress? The stock market pushes relentlessly higher. My bullish Barron’s article causes a sensation. A little ad that I place in Barron’s brings in 300 subscriptions. Overnight I start up Dow Theory Letters. Within a week I am in business!
Fast Forward: Russell Predicts A Mania In Stocks, But Issues Warning Now let’s return to the present. I believe a great speculative third phase lies ahead for this bull market. The coming third phase will see the stock market climb far higher than even the bulls think possible.
The question is: is it too late to enter the stock market? In the third phase of a bull market, usually more money is made than in the first two phases combined. Thus, I foresee the possibility of large gains if a third and final speculative phase is ahead. My advice is that you assume an initial position in DIA or SPY on any weakness.
What will be the leverage that will drive up the stock market in the coming third speculative third phase? The answer is human hysteria and greed. And never before seen, sky-high price-to-earnings ratios.
This piece may sound like a reversal of thinking on my part. But it is based on a weekend of deep thinking and memories of 1957. As for timing, I believe the coming third phase could last until 2016. It will have the effect of placing the United States as the continuing world leader… IMPORTANT: To hear which legend just spoke with KWN about $8,000 gold and the coming mania in the gold, silver, and mining shares markets CLICK HERE OR ON THE IMAGE BELOW.
I left Tuesday’s site with a suggestion that my subscribers swap their phony fiat money for real tangible constitutional money, gold. I believe that within the next decade we will experience a worldwide trend towards honesty and the truth; this will start with currencies and the world will go back to the gold standard.
Since the Great Depression, there have been a number of bull markets, and their average age is 3.8 years. Yet the current bull market is almost six years old. Bull markets usually end and die during periods of hysterical optimism and then exhaustion. That is the way I expect this market to end.
In this time of massive liquidity, I see the world’s stock markets as comparable to a powder keg. The wick is lit and no one knows when the whole pile will ignite.
This Grand Experiment Will End In Disaster With gold probably near the end of its bear market, technicians are now writing more and more about gold. Debt tends to be deflationary since it requires relatively large amounts of money to carry debt, much less pay it off. A living organism cannot continue to inhale, organisms must exhale as well. This is the simple explanation that the Fed does not understand. The Fed inhales to the choking point and when the choking point is reached, instead of exhaling, the Fed inhales again. The Fed believes that it can inhale endlessly (bull market) and never exhale (bear market).
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I’ve been writing Dow Theory Letters since 1958 and as you’ve probably guessed, I am not the same man in my nineties that I was back in 1958 when I was in my thirties. Subscribers have undoubtedly noticed that I write a great deal about spirituality, and that I frequently quote Emmet Fox. As I see him, Fox is a genius mystic, an historian and a great servant to mankind. In my reports, I have always attempted to reveal my innermost thoughts to my subscribers. I started out as agnostic, and to be honest, an atheist. But events during WWII and since have served to change my mind. I write what I’m thinking about and what I’m struggling with. And the majority of my subscribers don’t seem to mind (actually many of them like it).
I often ask myself whether I am doing any good in my stay on this earth. If I have served to guide some of my subscribers toward the spiritual path, I will consider that my visit to the earth on this round will have been worth it. In closing, I’ll say that the most precious commodity on this earth, the most precious commodity that anyone can have, is peace of mind. The antithesis of peace of mind is fear. Fear is the curse of mankind. Man’s greatest task on earth is to equalize or get rid of fear. The path to getting rid of fear is learning to love yourself.
Words from Emmet Fox’s Sermon on the Mount: The old saying, “God has a plan for every man, and he has one for you,” is quite correct. God has glorious and wonderful plans for every one of us. He has planned a splendid career, full of interest, life and joy, for each, and if our lives are dull, or restricted, or squalid, that is not his fault, but ours.
Paper Manipulation Of The Gold Market Will Not Last Late Notes — There is a giant secret stirring under today’s market. China, India, Russia and almost every central bank is buying physical gold. I’m guessing that within another year, physical gold will be swept off the market.” Here are the final warnings and thoughts that Richard Russell communicated to his subscribers: “Question — What’s the best action you can look for in a stock? Answer — A long record of increasing dividends. A lot of lies can be told about a stock, but dividends don’t lie. In order to increase dividends, a stock must create a history of producing cash. Analysts can lie, earnings can lie, CEO’s can lie, but dividends don’t lie. A company must increase its actual earnings in order to raise dividends. The only thing better than dividends is the float produced by an insurance company. The float, plus compounding, made Buffett a wealthy man.”
Russell Passed Away Right After The Last Of His High School Buddies “One by one, the old fighters from WWII are disappearing. A few weeks ago, I was told that my best buddy, James Salter, had died. He was the last of my high school buddies. Jim flew the F-86 during the Korean War. Jim was also an excellent, world renowned writer. His book, The Hunters, talks of a US-Russia “dog fight” and their respective jet aircraft. I’ll miss Jim and his writing. He was my last old buddy. Look him up on Google if you want. They will have more to say about it.”
The legend warned about a totalitarian government: “One of the first things the Nazis did in Germany was take away all the guns of the citizens. This meant that the government could do anything it wanted while the citizens were unable to object. As a Jew, I am fearful of a government that has all the guns with the citizens all unarmed.” Russell also warned about robotics displacing workers and the inability to save and retire: “The world is caught up in an amazing array of new items. Every day we hear about some new invention that is changing the world as we know it. I wrote before that the age of retirement will be history, and new inventions will displace workers by the millions. To retire requires a large amount of savings, and the way the world is working now it’s becoming almost impossible to save.” And finally, the legend warned about the destruction of currencies and capitalism itself: “The end of capitalism will be due to the unbelievable amount of debt that is currently being created. This will create monster inflation that will destroy every currency. The only currency that cannot be destroyed is gold. When investors realize this, we’ll have the makings of the greatest bull market in gold ever seen.”
The Early Days
A native New Yorker (born in 1924) Russell has lived through depressions and booms, through good times and bad, through war and peace. He was educated at Rutgers and received his BA at New York University. Russell flew as a combat bombardier on B-25 Mitchell Bombers with the 12th Air Force during World War II.
Richard Russell began publishing Dow Theory Letters in 1958, and he has been writing the Letters ever since (never once having skipped a Letter). Dow Theory Letters is the oldest service continuously written by one person in the business.
“Richard Russell is by far the most interesting writer of all the services we get.” — Investors Intelligence, Feb. 19, 1999.
The Calls That Made Him A Legend
Russell gained wide recognition via a series of over 30 Dow Theory and technical articles that he wrote for Barron’s during the late 1950s through the 1990s. Through Barron’s and via word of mouth, he gained a wide following. Russell was the first (in 1960) to recommend gold stocks. He called the top of the 1949-’66 bull market. And almost to the day he called the bottom of the great 1972-’74 bear market, and the beginning of the great bull market which started in December 1974.
Richard Russell was the greatest in the business and he will be sorely missed, especially during the difficult times ahead.
As Massive Bond Bubble Implodes, Is It Move In Gold, Silver And The Canadian Dollar? | 1 |
How Population Growth, Industrial Agriculture And Environmental Pollution May Have Weakened Society How Population Growth, Industrial Agriculture And Environmental Pollution May Have Weakened Society
A determined young man with a strong sense of his destiny - to save his country from postmodern collapse. October 30, 2016 Culture
The global population in 1800 was about one billion people. Today it stands at over seven times that amount, with the rapidly growing populations of India and Africa expected to increase that to at least nine billion over the coming years. Readers today are well used to the idea that the “global south” is densely populated relative to its economic size and area, but this was not always the case. Prior to the collapse of Empire, Europe, having undergone thorough industrialization, was the most densely populated continent in the world. Source: “The World at Six Billion”, United Nations, 1999.1950-2100 – UN, Dept. of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2011)
Europe was also where the world’s social justice movements—liberalism, communism and feminism—began, overthrowing the old order of kings, castes and courtship with the vulgar and degenerate world we suffer today. But why did this happen? Why did the immense increase of wealth and prosperity not correspond to an increase of human happiness, but instead lead to the emasculation of men, the breakdown of the family, and the disappearance of religion and morality?
In these series of articles, I examine the root causes of this paradox, what one can do about it on an individual dietary level, and what one can do about it on an individual environmental level. I am a strong believer in social change through individual growth, and, having experienced a dramatic turnaround in the quality of my own personality and success of my outcomes as a result of following these strategies, I hope that others can benefit from my knowledge, and similarly make themselves into solid Men. Popular mainstream theories for social degeneration
Many authors have postulated economic reasons for this degeneration—industrialization, having deprived men of their primary roles as the masters of nature, reduced their worth and attractiveness—or utility—in the eyes of women. Relatedly, others argue that technological progress, which increased independence and ability for all, allowed women to go their own way.
Another popular argument is that increased prosperity leads to reduced incentive for discipline—r-selection versus K-selection—and so prosperous, disciplined societies create a generation of lazy youngsters, fat off the success of their parents, who cause so much havoc with their short sighted policies that their civilization collapses, leading to a new generation of disciplined youngsters who again create greatness. One example of a short-sighted policy would be the feminist political movement, which artificially separated woman from man by giving her, through affirmative action, socially harmful economic independence.
While all these explanations bear some truth, none of them delve into the deeply emotional, spiritual, human and thus fundamentally biological causes of social degeneration. Why the mainstream theories are flawed
To begin with, a healthy Man and a healthy woman, even with modern technology at their disposal, should not so substantially less love and cherish each other, as seems to be the case today. The proof of this can be seen by examining what it is women do with that technology: a modern loose woman uses technology to go to places where men can ravish her. Even if it gives woman the ability to go it alone, Technology does not diminish her emotional and biological need for man.
Further, the availability of technology does not always translate into its adoption—the failure of Google Glass is the emblematic example. It does not have to be the case that smartphones are automatically adopted for Slut Culture—they do not have to automatically lead to female promiscuity. Anyone familiar with Russian or Japanese women, who have the same technology at hand, but a vastly greater sense of restraint and self-worth, can attest to this fact. Therefore, the technological argument is not sufficient to explain modern degeneracy, although it is certainly a necessary condition. credit: Ninaras credit: moguphotos
To briefly examine the argument that Men no longer have (non-financial) utility in the eyes of women: a man is not necessarily attractive to a woman if he actually breaks rocks, or actually kills other people—instead, being able to is sufficient.
Therefore, the emotional and spiritual inseparability of a healthy woman from her evolved master, man, remains and will remain eternally true. The change in technology and the nature of men’s work is not the causal factor—instead, the change in preferences of both men and women explains modern degeneracy. Men hardly today want to lead and possess their woman; and women do not respond to weakling men.
Let us examine the r/K selection argument: if it were the case that wealth and ease begat indiscipline automatically, it would be true that the rich produce weak and undisciplined progeny. This may seem like a truism today, viewed through the lens of the post-industrial, overpopulated Paris Hilton West, but in societies of the past, it was certainly not the case—rather, historically, the opposite has been true: the weak were poor because they were undisciplined, and the strong were rich because they were disciplined. The poor raised weak and hence undisciplined children, while the rich raised strong and disciplined ones, so the cycle continued and over time aristocracies formed.
An extreme version of this disciplined-rich mentality can be seen in modern British farmers, many of whom, financially wealthy and prosperous, drive old, beaten SUVs, reuse clothes and generally minimize expenditures. While it cannot be denied that even the modern rich have in general become mostly degenerate, this is, in my opinion, a (disproportionately visible) symptom of a deeper malaise that affects society across the board.
Therefore, I do not rely on the technological or economic explanations for societal degeneration-I view these theories as descriptive of passing symptoms or trends, and not timelessly causal truths.int The population growth, nutritional depletion and environmental pollution theory of societal degeneration
Having outlined and accounted for the above theories, I argue instead that the degeneration of society is caused mostly by the biological degeneration of the human being that makes up the society. This degeneration is caused by factors that affect the human organism on the basest level, and the two primary factors are: Nutritional depletion of food, caused by the growth of industrial agriculture, which itself is made necessary by unprecedented population growth. The pollution of the environment caused by industry and the introduction of unsafe technology.
According to this view, it was not the Boomers’ access to ease that made them such degenerate and irresponsible scum, but rather the fact that the rapid population increase during their key developmental years meant that the growth of industrial agriculture that somewhat necessarily accompanied it—the Green revolution—created such nutritionally sparse food that there was insufficient development of Boomers’ brains, leading to a generation of overgrown children.
Further, according to this theory, the increased dependence on technology is not viewed as the cause of millennial autism, but rather a symptom of millennial autism. Recent historical examples
Consider the historical path of Communism, which did not generally spring up in the villages. This was not because the landlords were better able to control the peasants, but instead because poor city dwellers, even if earning a higher income than poor peasants, had access to much worse food and lived in a far dirtier environment, making them both mentally and physically ill. The unfortunate result of insufficient mental development in a crisis situation – our aim should be to save as many leftists as possible, and almost all can be.
The poor in the countryside today continue to vote conservative or liberal, while the urban poor vote socialist, for this same reason: the rural poor, despite usually being less wealthy than the urban poor, are intellectually mature enough to see how harmful a controlling government can be. The urban poor mostly achieve the intellectual maturity of children or adolescents, and mostly feel rather than think, so they support an emotion-based class war or gender war ideology.
This theory explains the early rise of social justice in Europe, where industrial agriculture was first adopted on a wide scale, and also explains why such movements did not organically grow anywhere else until much later, owing to the much later adoption of industrial agriculture. It should be noted that in the countries where communist revolutions were actually successful, they enjoyed no broad support, but instead were able to defeat the mostly pre-industrial historical governments because of these governments’ economic weakness, and also because of extensive support by globalist or communist interests (this was true in Russia, China and Cambodia). Ancient historical examples
This theory also explains the path of historical civilizations—Rome’s case is highly instructive. At its birth Rome was a small collection of largely self-sufficient, highly disciplined towns, where the diet, like in many towns of that era, was a mixture of grains, vegetables, small farmed meats (like chickens), and hunted meats—what we would call a balanced diet. In this society, men were the masters of their households, with power of life and death over their family members, while facing total responsibility for their family members’ behaviour. Only a group of strong, capable and self-disciplined individuals could sustain such a social order. Population of the City of Rome; 1.0E6 = 1 Million Inhabitants – Source: www.davidgalbraith.org
Rome’s extreme martial and social discipline led to expansion. As it expanded and the city’s population grew, the diet for most people changed over time to mostly grains farmed highly intensively, shipped in from all over the Empire, losing a lot of its nutrition on the way. Simultaneously, and partly as a result of rising grain production, meat consumption fell, reducing the population’s testosterone levels, leading to falling strength and willingness or ability to compete, as well as rising mental illness because of copper overload.
The weakened population’s increasing demands for emotion based socialism led to the growth of a massive welfare state, and eventual bankruptcy, hyperinflation and collapse of the central government.
India is another equally tragic example. The population growth that resulted from highly prosperous Nanda rule led to the growth of Buddhism and the adoption of degenerate attitudes, moral collapse and eventually weakness to invasion. After the institutionalization of Buddhism by power-hungry and utterly Machiavellian psychopath Ashoka—who looked to weaken the Brahmins, Hinduism’s traditional moral guides—Buddhism’s degenerate vegetarian curse spread like a virus, and created, over several generations, a population of weaklings, who weren’t again able to assert their independence for over a thousand years. The Song dynasty followed a similar path as these two empires, being eventually overrun by the Mongols (the Yuan dynasty). Population of China – Source: Vaclab Smil, China’s Environmental Crisis (1993)
This degradation of the diet, caused by population growth, has been, at least, a significant causal element behind the degeneracy and collapse of most prosperous sedentary civilizations. The modern context
The dramatic increase of the population since ancient times should help you understand why humans today are such fools and weaklings compared to our ancestors. There is only so much nutrition in the world’s topsoil to go around, and a population seven times greater than 200 years ago, eating a diet uncorrected (through nutritional supplementation) for dietary sparsity, will be living individually, in effect, 1/7 th the life that its ancestor population did. Is it any wonder that people today feel so weak and helpless that they want mommy government and daddy police state to give them the illusion of comfort and security?
This theory is also borne out in the data: in general, food today contains ½ to 1/10 th the nutrients it did in the 1930s, which was already about 50 years after the adoption of modern style industrial agriculture in the West. This dramatic fall in nutrition has accompanied the tripling of the global population, and close-to doubling of the European population, since that time. While some population control seems necessary, I believe that sustainable organic agriculture, combined with nutritional supplementation, should obviate a large amount of needed population reduction.
I hope that the reader is, after consideration of these facts, sufficiently convinced of the true causes behind the modern world’s degeneracy. People have, fairly universally, across the political spectrum, become weak and insane from malnutrition. Artificial protein may have allowed some men to grow muscles, and calcium from an (over-)reliance on milk may have allowed them to grow tall, but perhaps the lack of most necessary nutrients has meant that they are generally still retarded, emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually. The effects on modern society
This weakness amongst men—and dietary sparsity has disproportionately affected men, due to our much greater nutritional requirements—has not just resulted in an inability to control the destructive forces that lie latent in every society. Worse, the fundamental outlook of men, who viewed themselves as the creators of civilization, the slayers of enemies and the protectors of women, all under God, has changed. The modern millennial man is a childlike hedonist who cares little for his civilization, culture or People. An aspiring patriarch. An example of testicular failure. Image credit: Giorgiomtb/Shutterstock Environmental toxins
Environmental toxins are also a problem. Electrical, oestrogen and toxic metal pollution are under-researched but may have devastating effects on human health. Radio waves, plastics, unfiltered medication and purposely added toxins in the water supply, like fluoride and chlorine, have deleterious effects too. What can we do?
Considering these realities, it serves little purpose to blame women for their self-destructive behavior. While in the past, like men, women used to have enough emotional maturity to try to live a life of self-respect (for example by remaining virgins and not drinking alcohol), they have never had much agency, charisma or true self will, even before the diet was empty, and before they were being stuffed full of drugs and chemicals by the unscrupulous pharmaceutical industry and its proxies.
These poisons may cause serious and dangerous, (although slowly fixable) hormonal and behavioral changes, but the real effects are felt by their offspring. Unfortunately, once a woman is hooked on these drugs (for example, the birth control pill or antidepressants), she is unlikely to come off them, and if she does, she is unlikely to do anything to fix the damage to herself or her future children. This is especially the case as the medical industry, which has brainwashed her to see doctors and the state as her loving protectors, is unlikely to recommend it.
Even so, these drugs don’t permanently alter the fact that women, as mostly emotion driven actors, are biologically and intrinsically people pleasers, and respond automatically to the most powerful person (or group of people) that can give them a raison d’être. Even if we can’t ensure that women in general improve their diet and avoid pollutants, we can certainly make changes on an individual level, convincing or browbeating our girlfriends, sisters and mothers.
The healthier a woman gets, the greater her affinity with nature becomes and the more maternal she feels, so you can be fairly certain that she’ll try and pass on the knowledge to her children and friends, like our grandmothers and great-grandmothers did. Furthermore, there are a large minority of health conscious women, who it should be our duty to marry and impregnate as many times as possible. Considering the rapid population declines that will occur in the atheist and leftist segments of our countries’ native populations, these women are our best hope for creating a viable future. You will have to teach her a few things. Credit: csp_Subbotina The situation is not hopeless—but we have a fight on our hands
In the past, well-informed people couldn’t expect, due to the limited, and elite-controlled, nature of communication technology and the educational system, to make any impact on the vast majority of the population. The political fight against Big Agra and Big Pharma seemed hopeless. Today is different: the growth of the Internet and the increasing spread of awareness has meant that more people are aware about the importance of eating well, avoiding environmental dangers and supplementing wisely.
This is partly evidenced by the steadily rising percentage of people who eat organic diets, and the booming supplement industry. I hope that, in the future, at least a significant portion of us can survive in a sane enough state to politically fight back against moves by globalists, Islamists, communists and ruthless financiers who are circling, like vultures, over our degenerating civilizations.
On the other side of this political battle, the globalist controlled medical industry has been the biggest proponent of unhealthy diets and dangerous and addictive drugs. Special interests have also been the biggest corrupters of regulators and the institutions created to defend the population against industrial and chemical pollution.
A system of global monopoly wealth extraction is not possible with active, capable and self-confident masculinities from proud nation-states to resist it; those who seek to benefit from such a monopoly system have tried their absolute hardest to suppress natural health information. But so far they have failed, and the situation is only improving, so there is considerable reason for hope. Conclusion
Our forefathers demanded to fulfill their destiny, ordained by the Gods, to defend our civilizations against the forces of rapacious greed and murderous atheistic villainy—to be the protectors and kings of our people. Today, most men are mentally ill and have become childish hedonistic narcissists. As expected, the ruthless and soulless have exploited this weakness for their own benefit. Now that you have, I hope, understood the principles behind why most of us have lost the urge to fight to protect our cultures, the cause and fix to the industrial malaise should no longer seem out of reach or impossible to grasp.
This area of the human condition is just one another where we stand at the crossroads of history. But in my opinion it is the most important: if the dietary trend of the last two centuries is not reversed, and the nutritional quality of at least a significant minority of men is not substantially improved, then each generation of people will become more communist, more feminist and more weak than the last, and the globalist special interests that seek to create a totalitarian world-monopoly police state will win, regardless of temporary political victories.
Each of us has chosen a path to follow in our quest for spiritual, intellectual and national salvation. This is mine. In my future articles I will detail the best dietary approach for strong men (and beautiful women) to follow, and overview the most important environmental precautions we must take, in our quest to fix the root causes of modern degeneracy.
I hope that, ultimately, you are convinced to help me, and others like me, prevent our world from collapsing entirely into a miserable cyberpunk dystopia. Oct 30, 2016 Kshatriya Indransha | 1 |
You know, if the guy really is about restoring jobs and manufacturing to the US, we'll need immigrants just as we always have. The corporate queen comes from a long line of neocon pirates herding us into bankster new world order. When Bernie got the rug yanked, liberal politics was conquered - Obama wasn't, and she's not.
At least more of us are paying attention now. We'd better. | 0 |
Hillary Clinton invoked her roles as mother and grandmother on Saturday to deliver an impassioned rebuttal to Donald J. Trump’s contention that her push for stricter gun control would make families less safe, saying the presumptive Republican nominee would put more children “at risk of violence and bigotry. ” The day after Mr. Trump received the endorsement of the National Rifle Association, Mrs. Clinton assailed her probable general election rival as pandering to the group. “I believe it’s the most powerful lobby in Washington,” Mrs. Clinton said of the N. R. A. at an event in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. to benefit the Trayvon Martin Foundation’s Circle of Mothers. “And we know some candidates will say or do anything to make them happy. ” Speaking in a ballroom full of mothers who had lost children to gun violence, Mrs. Clinton defended her position on gun control and her promise to overhaul the criminal justice system. “I love my daughter and granddaughter more than anything, and I worry about them as every mother does, and I want them always to be safe,” Mrs. Clinton said. “Parents, teachers and schools should have the right to keep guns out of classrooms, just like Donald Trump does at many of his hotels by the way. ” She mentioned his speech to the N. R. A. on Friday, which included a vow to allow teachers and principals to arm themselves. “This is someone running to be president of the United States, a country facing a gun violence epidemic, and he’s talking about more guns in our schools,” Mrs. Clinton said. “He’s talking about more hatred and violence in our streets. ” Mrs. Clinton delivered her remarks to a group named after Mr. Martin, an unarmed black who was fatally shot in 2012 by a neighborhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman. Before she spoke, Mrs. Clinton sat for dinner alongside Mr. Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton. “We will carry the memories of your sons and daughters in our hearts every day, as you do,” Mrs. Clinton told the group as she affirmed her plans to strengthen background checks and take other measures to keep guns out of the wrong hands. Mr. Trump, speaking before N. R. A. members in Louisville, Ky. called Mrs. Clinton “the most Amendment candidate ever to run for office. ” Mr. Trump said Mrs. Clinton’s policies would put women in particular danger. “You have a woman living in a community, a rough community, a bad community — sorry, you can’t defend yourself,” he told the group on Friday. For months, Mrs. Clinton has made gun control a major issue in her Democratic primary campaign against Bernie Sanders, whose record as a senator from Vermont has been mixed on the issue. She has campaigned alongside the mothers of Eric Garner, Jordan Davis, Sandra Bland and others who have lost children in clashes with the police or to gun violence. Some of them attended the event on Saturday. The Clinton campaign has featured these mothers and Erica Smegielski, daughter of the school principal killed in the massacre in Sandy Hook, Conn. in evocative television ads. But as the Clinton campaign turns its focus to the fall election against Mr. Trump and as both candidates vie for the support of white voters in the Rust Belt, gun control has become less of a driving force. A New York News poll in January found that 57 percent of respondents wanted stricter laws governing gun sales, and 88 percent favored background checks for all purchases. On Saturday, Mrs. Clinton reaffirmed her commitment to both gun control and the overhaul of the criminal justice system, two issues that formed the pillars of her primary campaign and have helped her win broad support among . Mrs. Clinton vowed to end the “schools to prison pipeline” that affects black men. “Something is wrong when so many Americans have reason to believe that our country doesn’t consider their children as precious and worthy of protection as other children because of the color of their skins,” she said. Mrs. Clinton also restated her promise to “end the era of mass incarceration” and to “rebuild the bonds of trust between law enforcement and communities” — issues that could resonate with voters in Los Angeles, Oakland and other California cities ahead of that state’s June 7 primary. | 1 |
6 Great Halloween Costume Ideas For Duos Posted today When it comes to dressing up, two is always better than one! 1. A Horse For Two
Whether you’re in the front hooves shaking the head or in the back hooves flapping the tail, nothing says love quite like this classic horse costume for two! If you’re looking to trot into a party and turn heads this Halloween, look no further, because this humble steed is always guaranteed to steal the show! 2. Nerd University
If you and your date are looking to match this Halloween without spending too much dough, stop right there, because everything you’ll need to make this couples costume can be found with a quick trip to the closet! All it takes is a few accessories, and voilà! 3. Marvel Universe
Break out your most intimidating voice and flex those muscles, because every trick-or-treater is going to want a piece of this crime-fighting duo after you open the door! Captain America might be a lone wolf on the big screen, but this Halloween, he’s got his trusty sidekick, and let’s just say that he’s nothing short of unstoppable! 4. Wayne’s World
Relive this classic 1992 movie with this fun costume for two! You’ll have the other Halloween party guests saying “We’re not worthy!” when they see your incredible getups. Bring a boombox to play “Bohemian Rhapsody” if you want to step up your game a notch. Party on! 5. May The Force Be With You
Now, costumes for one are fine, but dressing up with a friend or significant other is what will send Halloween to a galaxy far, far away! Dance the night away in your Jedi best, and you’ll be the center of any party you go to. These ARE the droids you’re looking for! 6. Home On The Range
Halloween only comes once per year, so this is your chance to do it right! Grab your guy or gal, throw on your costume, and party till the sun comes up. You won’t regret it! | 0 |
What the heck are those bulges underneath that bright green pant suit you are wearing Hillary? You know the one you wore when you couldn’t walk up the steps without assistance back in February? The suit that is in the viral photo that adds to the speculation that not all is well with your health?
Via TruthAndAction
A private fundraiser was held at the house of Lisa and Joseph Rice in Charleston, SC. A picture of Hillary needing strong-armed assistance to walk up several steps has given more visual evidence that something is seriously wrong with Hillary.
Scroll Down For Video Evidence Below! Her health appears to be a very real issue, with brain glitches that result in confused speech and disconnected thoughts, the inability to walk unassisted at times, and her chronic cough. However, Hillary will become president, even if it kills her, and it appears with her health issues becoming less easy to hide from the public, it will kill her.
Though her doctor, Dr. Bardack, gave her a clean bill of health back on July 28, 2015 in a letter stating she was fit to run for president, her behavior suggests otherwise. A neurologist, viewing the recent health issues displayed by Hillary, such as her exceptionally long bathroom break during the debate, suggests that Clinton is demonstrating signs of post-concussion syndrome. This disorder can “severely impact her cognitive abilities”
Check out the video that shows the bulges on her back under that bright green pantsuit on the next page. Some suggest that it is a life saving vest. What do you think? Is Hillary wearing a flack jacket under her pantsuit or is there something else that she hiding from the world? As more evidence accumulates, from brain glitches to extraordinarily long bathroom breaks, the DNC will eventually have to address her health issues one would think.
Now there is the mystery of the bulge under the green jacket she was wearing when she was unable to walk up the steps at a North Carolina fundraiser. As a reminder, Hillary suffered from blood clots in 2012. Could this bulge under her jacket be a LifeVest Wearable Defibrillator?
In 2012, Hillary suffered from a “transverse sinus thrombosis [blood clot] is a rare condition of a clot forming in the venous sinus cavities surrounding the brain,” Kassicieh told Breitbart, that resulted after Hillary’s fall.
These venous sinuses drain blood out of the brain. The [injury] incidence is only about 3 per 1,000,000 adults. The transverse sinus is less commonly affected than the main sagittal venous sinus. The cause of transverse sinus clots is not well understood although trauma and dehydration have been described as risk factors. Mrs. Clinton suffered from both.
If her seizure like episodes are tied to an impaired heart, than the bulges could be the LifeVest.
Here’s a video of the fundraiser event in the Rices’ home. Pay special attention to Hillary’s back in the beginning of the video:
Did you notice those strange bulges on her upper back, although she was wearing a roomy coat-jacket?
Here’s a screenshot from the video, with painted red arrows pointing to the bulges:
Below are more (cropped) screenshots I took from the video. I highlighted the bulges with yellow arrows and circles:
Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit thinks Hillary’s bulges are from a defibrillator vest.
From the website Zoll.LifeVest :
What Is the LifeVest Wearable Defibrillator?
The LifeVest wearable defibrillator is a treatment option for sudden cardiac arrest that offers patients advanced protection and monitoring as well as improved quality of life.
The LifeVest is the first wearable defibrillator . Unlike an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), the LifeVest is worn outside the body rather than implanted in the chest. This device continuously monitors the patient’s heart with dry, non-adhesive sensing electrodes to detect life-threatening abnormal heart rhythms. If a life-threatening rhythm is detected, the device alerts the patient prior to delivering a treatment shock, and thus allows a conscious patient to delay the treatment shock. If the patient becomes unconscious, the device releases a Blue™ gel over the therapy electrodes and delivers an electrical shock to restore normal rhythm.
Those strange bulges on her back add to the many indicators of Hillary Clinton’s ill health (see links below) which the mainstream media continue to dismiss . Presidential candidates are required by law to release their medical records. It is high time for Hillary to do so.
Pause the video at 13 seconds and check out the bulge.
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WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump on Tuesday named as his chief trade negotiator a Washington lawyer who has long advocated protectionist policies, the latest sign that Mr. Trump intends to fulfill his campaign promise to get tough with China, Mexico and other trading partners. Mr. Trump also renewed his episodic campaign to persuade American companies to expand domestic manufacturing, criticizing General Motors via Twitter on Tuesday morning for making in Mexico some of the Chevrolet Cruze hatchbacks it sells domestically. Hours later, Mr. Trump claimed credit after Ford said it would expand vehicle production in Flat Rock, Mich. The choice of Robert Lighthizer (pronounced ) to be the United States’ trade representative nearly completes Mr. Trump’s selection of top economic advisers and, taken together with the ’s running commentary on Twitter, underscores Mr. Trump’s focus on making things in America. That is causing unease among some Republicans who regard Mr. Trump’s views on trade as dangerously retrograde, even as they embrace the bulk of his economic agenda. Mainstream economists warn that protectionist policies like import taxes could impose higher prices on consumers and slow economic growth. But some Democrats are signaling a readiness to support Mr. Trump. Nine House Democrats held a news conference Tuesday with the A. F. L. . I. O. president, Richard Trumka, to urge renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada. “We wanted him to know that we’ll work with him on doing that,” Mr. Trumka said. “I don’t think he has enough Republican support to do it, and rewriting the rules of trade is a necessary first step in righting the economy for working people. ” Mr. Trump and his top advisers on trade, including Mr. Lighthizer, share a view that the United States in recent decades prioritized the ideal of free trade over its own . They argue that other countries are undermining America’s industrial base by subsidizing their own export industries while impeding American importers. They regard this unfair competition as a key reason for the lackluster growth of the economy. In picking Mr. Lighthizer, who has spent much of the last few decades representing American steel producers in their frequent litigation of trade disputes, Mr. Trump is seeking to hire one of Washington’s top trade lawyers to enforce international trade agreements more vigorously. He must be confirmed by the Senate. “He will do an amazing job helping turn around the failed trade policies which have robbed so many Americans of prosperity,” Mr. Trump said in a statement. Mainstream Republicans have sought common ground with Mr. Trump, emphasizing, for example, the importance of enforcing trade rules, but they have not abandoned the party’s longtime advocacy for trade. Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which will hold hearings on Mr. Lighthizer’s nomination, issued a cautiously supportive statement Tuesday. “As the world and our economic competitors move to expand their global footprints, we can’t afford to be left behind in securing strong deals that will increase our access to new markets for products and services,” Mr. Hatch said in a statement. “I look forward to a vigorous discussion of Bob’s trade philosophy and priorities. ” Mr. Trump has named a number of advisers on trade, leaving some ambiguity about the division of responsibilities. The named the economist Peter Navarro, an outspoken critic of China, to lead a new White House office overseeing trade and industrial policy. Mr. Trump also said Wilbur Ross, the billionaire investor and choice for commerce secretary, will play a key role. Mr. Lighthizer, however, is the only member of the triumvirate with government experience. “Those who say U. S. T. R. will be subordinated to other agencies are mistaken,” said Alan Wolff, another former senior American trade official who was the steel industry’s on trade with Mr. Lighthizer for nearly 20 years, citing Mr. Lighthizer’s encyclopedic knowledge of trade law. “He’ll be a dominant figure on trade, in harmony with Wilbur Ross and Navarro. ” There is also an ideological divide between the people Mr. Trump has named to oversee trade policy and his broader circle of advisers, which is populated by longstanding trade advocates like Gary D. Cohn, the president of Goldman Sachs, who will lead the National Economic Council Rex W. Tillerson, the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, tapped for secretary of state and Gov. Terry Branstad of Iowa, Mr. Trump’s choice for ambassador to China. Proponents of trade hope the broader circle, and congressional Republicans, will exert a moderating influence. “You’re seeing a pretty clear indication that there will be a focus on the enforcement of our trade agreements and on the letter of the law,” said Scott Lincicome, an international trade lawyer at White Case. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean a significant turn toward protectionism. Even free trade guys like me support enforcement. ” Trade opponents on the left and the right, meanwhile, are hoping Mr. Trump means to break with several decades of policy. “There’s going to be a war within the Trump administration on where they go with trade, and we’re hoping to energize the worker base he had to make sure they go in the right direction to benefit the American worker,” Mr. Trumka said. Mr. Trump’s promise to immediately designate China as a currency manipulator may offer an early test of the administration’s intentions. Economists see no evidence China is suppressing the value of its currency, although it has done so in the past. Mr. Lincicome said officially labeling China a currency manipulator despite the lack of recent evidence would signal that the administration is taking a hard line on trade issues. A broader shift in trade policy would unfold more slowly. Mr. Trump has promised to renegotiate Nafta the original process took most of three years. He has promised to pursue enforcement actions against other nations, but it takes time to mount cases. He has threatened to impose new tariffs on imports, but sweeping changes most likely would require congressional legislation. Mr. Trump already is seeking to exert influence by seizing the presidential bullhorn. “General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U. S. car free across border,” he wrote Tuesday on Twitter. “Make in U. S. A. or pay big border tax!” General Motors announced in 2015 that it would make the Cruze in Coahuila, Mexico. American manufacturers are moving production to Mexico to take advantage of lower labor costs and because of declining domestic demand. They continue to build more expensive vehicles in the United States. Ford’s announcement Tuesday does not reverse that trend. The carmaker said it still planned to move production of the compact Ford Focus from Michigan to Mexico. But it said it would invest in a different Michigan plant to expand production of vehicles, including its pickup truck and the Mustang sports car, as well as a new sport utility vehicle. “We are encouraged by the policies that Trump and the new Congress have indicated they will pursue,” said the company’s chief executive, Mark Fields. Mr. Lighthizer served as deputy United States trade representative in the Ronald Reagan administration, when he was involved in pressing Japan to reduce its restrictions on American imports and its subsidies for its own exports. Mr. Trump has criticized China for similar practices, setting the stage for a new round of confrontations. Reagan is often remembered as an advocate for free trade, but his administration in its early hours imposed a quota on Japanese auto imports. It was the first in a long series of measures aimed at putting pressure on the nation that was then regarded, like China in recent years, as a threat to American prosperity. “President Reagan’s pragmatism contrasted strongly with the utopian dreams of free traders,” Mr. Lighthizer wrote in a 2008 piece criticizing Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, for embracing “unbridled” free trade. Conservatives, he argued, “always understood that trade policy was merely a tool for building a strong and independent country with a prosperous middle class. ” | 1 |
Sure, Hillary Clinton is a banshee nightmare from Hell, but that really doesn’t mean Donald Trump is automatically amazing just because literally anything is better than Hillary. That’s a pretty low bar.
Trump has assured us he’ll give a lot more power to Big Brother as if we aren’t already living in an Orwellian nightmare as it is. He has said that he will grow the police state, boost the Patriot Act, and extend the neverending wars (he keeps mentioning Iran specifically, because no matter who becomes president, they all know they have to sing that same old “Which Path to Persia?” tune). Once I even heard the man say he expects the NSA to be listening in to all our phone calls… guess that makes it okay???
ಠ_ಠ
Trump has also called Edward Snowden a traitor and implied that he should be executed.
He also banned Snowden from Miss Universe… which I’m sure must’ve really broken poor Edward’s heart.
Message to Edward Snowden, you’re banned from @MissUniverse . Unless you want me to take you back home to face justice!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 21, 2013
While Snowden may be a limited hangout, that’s beside the point here. Without Snowden, we wouldn’t have so much hard physical evidence of just how much our Constitution has been trampled, our 4th Amendment has been run over, and our privacy has been rendered nonexistent in the cybernetic technological control grid we now find ourselves living in.
How is exposing the tyrannical government’s crimes against the people a traitorous act worthy of death?
And this talk of “justice”?
Real justice would be someone standing up for the Constitution and Bill of Rights and challenging Big Brother and the NSA surveillance state, something neither Trump nor Hillary ever planned to do.
Then again, Trump is the same guy who said he would “take out” the family members of terrorists. Do you have a criminal in the family? How would you like to be killed because your family member is a criminal? Same logic fail.
Like this government is honest about who the real terrorists even are anyway. Come on. If we’re to believe Trump is that naive, he shouldn’t go anywhere near the oval office.
Then again, how does the saying go? Everyone that would make a truly good president is smart enough to realize they’d never want to be president? Not that presidents are really running anything in this country anyway…
Sigh.
. @realDonaldTrump yes, I’m sure Edward Snowden would take it all back if he’d known he’d eventually be banned from @MissUniverse .
— Robin (@caulkthewagon) October 21, 2013
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Melissa Dykes is a writer, researcher, and analyst for The Daily Sheeple and a co-creator of Truthstream Media with Aaron Dykes, a site that offers teleprompter-free, unscripted analysis of The Matrix we find ourselves living in. Melissa and Aaron also recently launched Revolution of the Method and Informed Dissent . Wake the flock up! | 0 |
For decades, it seemed as though Eileen Myles and her unflinching depictions of New York misfits and creatives would forever be relegated to the margins of the American canon. And then last year happened. ON A RECENT SUNDAY afternoon, Eileen Myles came to meet me in the East Village on a white bicycle with brown leather handlebars. We chose as our destination Saint Mark’s a historic portal of downtown Manhattan a few blocks from the apartment where she has lived for nearly 40 years. Since 1966, the church has housed the Poetry Project, which began as a funded attempt to address the teenage hippie runaway problem by offering free creative writing workshops, and which Myles discovered when she made her way to New York from Boston in 1974, then in her and not yet out as a lesbian. There, she found the poets drinking and smoking cigarettes around long tables in the church’s back rooms, at seminars run by Alice Notley and Ted Berrigan. Allen Ginsberg came to readings, the group’s leaders were heroes and the East Village felt, to Myles, like the center of American poetry. “The romance was that you had to be poor, you had to live in this neighborhood, you had to hang out and read all the books that everybody was reading, stay up all night, have an amazing life and write poetry,” said Myles, who had just returned from a visit to her second home in Marfa, Tex. with a tan. Her look is L. L. Bean meets the South Shore, a grandfatherly assortment of cotton shirts, wool sweaters, a canvas coat and transition lenses in blond tortoiseshell frames, complemented by a Massachusetts accent that’s most pronounced when she’s reading poems or cracking wise. At the age of 66, Myles has published 19 books of poetry, prose and criticism, but until last year, when Ecco released her 1994 novel, “Chelsea Girls,” many readers didn’t know who she was. That’s not to say she wasn’t famous in her own way — if you were a contemporary poet, if you were gay or if you had an interest in the cultural feminism of the 1990s, you probably read her. Each of these communities had its canon, and in their canons Myles figured. But 2015 was the year that the culture machine picked up Myles and transmitted her to a larger audience. The gritty, idealistic outsiders of New York’s creative scenes in the late ’70s — their era’s music, art and general sense of freedom — provided an antidote to the homogeneity of today’s pop culture, and few writers captured that romantic rawness quite like Myles. She published poems in The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books for the first time. Young women were reading her work in the coffee shops of Brooklyn. On television, on the Amazon show “Transparent,” the poems of a character named Leslie Mackinaw, played by Cherry Jones, are actually hers, and the fictional feminist professor is based on Myles, too. (Myles and the show’s creator, Jill Soloway, have dated.) This new generation of public feminists, including Beth Ditto, Lena Dunham and Tavi Gevinson, cite her as an inspiration, finding in her writing a ribald and ponderous succession to the New York School. Earlier in her career, she explained, publishers seemed only to accommodate so much difference, so that “if you were going to publish gay work, you were going to publish sentimental gay work, you were going to publish conventional gay work. ” Now, she said, ‘’I think what social media has done is made us relish variables. You know? We’re just living in these floating fragmentations. ” And with that came a realization that “everybody’s queer — everybody’s wrongly shaped for a culture that requires conformity. ” For many readers discovering Myles’s work for the first time, the experience was accompanied by a sense of confusion: Why hadn’t we read her sooner? Sitting under the window at Saint Mark’s, Myles suggested that perhaps the distance of time has made her writing more palatable to the public. “To be too queer,” she said, “to be talking too graphically, closer to the present, is more frightening. ” In “Chelsea Girls,” Myles describes a world of penny loafers and jean shorts, the World’s Fair, highway “comfort stations,” Filene’s Basement, teenagers hanging out in the parking lot of Butterick’s ice cream, “teevee” — all familiar baby boomer territory, but without nostalgia, and with a frankness about sexuality that opens a direct channel of connection from then to now. The novel also captures what it was like to be Eileen Myles in Manhattan in the ’70s and ’80s, when people planned their book parties according to the astrological calendar and went out afterward to a “glitter ball tall Italian Lesbian disco environment. ” Her narrator gets her amphetamines from a corrupt diet doctor in Flushing, Queens, and redistributes them at the Strand. She subsists on garlic knots, hot dogs, Campbell’s tomato soup, Budweiser and cigarettes. She has lovers of different temperaments and physical forms. One of them convenes an “elite junkie salon. ” Another throws herself into the East River. Of a stint working a factory job in Maine: “The men were all men, and we were all lesbians, and everyone loved to get smashed. ” Despite having written the book 20 years ago, Myles’s literary style feels as contemporary as the essayistic autobiographical fiction of Sheila Heti, Ben Lerner and Tao Lin, who might be considered her literary offspring. Her work functions as a bridge between many of the discussions of the present — about sexual violence, class, “ culture” — and a past from which those narratives were often secret or hidden. And even though her writing is now being transmitted on that most mainstream of venues, the “teevee,” it seems to resist assimilation, in part by maintaining its sense of defiance. “I keep getting called a punk poet in the press, because they can’t say dyke,” she said dryly. Myles has been many things, but punk is not one of them. In her early years in New York she worked as a librarian on Wall Street. She sold subway slugs. She was employed by the Department of Corrections, where she would type up Dodgems, the poetry magazine she was publishing, which, at the time, was as common as starting a band. For half a year she was an assistant to the poet James Schuyler who, said Myles, had “a career as a mental patient,” supported by friends who admired his writing. He lived at the Chelsea Hotel, and every morning Myles would bring him his newspapers and keep him company for the day. Schuyler was one of Myles’s literary influences, of which there were many: Lucille Clifton, Susie Timmons, John Wieners and, of course, Ginsberg, “a poet who actually got heard. ” After sitting in Saint Mark’s for a while, we decided to get lunch at the Ukrainian diner Veselka, the site of many late evenings for Myles and her friends. She scanned the room as if to surface the memories. “In the ’70s it was cool to be a poet,” she said. “In the ’80s it was a joke. ” And yet, in 1993, when she finished her novel after working on it for 14 years, it proved as resistant to the market as anything else she’d done. Finally getting it published by Black Sparrow Press — “they were indie but they were top of the indie,” she said — was a breakthrough. The head of the company, John Martin, saw in Myles a kind of female Bukowski, also a house author, although her own idea of “Chelsea Girls” was that it would be “’u2009‘On the Road’ for girls,” she said. Its release was followed by a series of unlucky coincidences: Bukowski died the same year it came out and the promotional energy turned to his legacy someone bought the rights to translate the book into French, but the translator died before its completion and although the movie rights to one of its essays, “1969,” were optioned, the film was never made. But maybe the book’s obscurity wasn’t just bad luck: Maybe the culture just wasn’t ready for it. Myles has a theory about her resurgent popularity — you might call it the Theory of the Bad Copy, which posits that most people who are breaking with the past do so by presenting initially as bad copies of an accepted person. Which is to say that Myles got published by Black Sparrow as a bad copy of Charles Bukowski. And that Leslie Mackinaw, on “Transparent,” is a bad copy of Myles. And that Hillary Clinton — who Myles recently endorsed — is a bad copy of the male presidential figure, but one who Myles insists will be different because of her gender. People get published or elected or onto television shows because they’re bad copies painted in broad strokes — that’s how difference slips by, and then the bad copies break with the past and make something new. This seems to have been Myles’s plan all along. “If a fool will persist in their folly, he will be wise, right?” she said, smiling, because she knew she already was. | 1 |
Truancy crackdown 'Operation Round Up' hunts homeschoolers Source: One News Now
Homeschool students in Florida’s Jackson County are being hunted down in a countywide initiative called “Operation Round Up,” which was launched by local school board officials to enroll more children in pubic schools.
After watching a television interview featuring the Jackson County School Board’s director of student services – who called on the community to report any suspected truant students to her – one homeschool family sought legal advice out of fear that the public school was aggressively and specifically targeting homeschool students.
Crackdown on homeschoolers
Anxiety over the matter was validated by the director when she implied that many homeschoolers are really not being educated by their parents.
“[Homeschooling families are] not set on a particular schedule, so sometimes the community will see them around town, and they think, ‘Hey, they aren’t being educated?’” the leader of the Jackson County School Board asserted during a televised news interview on the local WHJG station . “Sometimes the community is right.”
Not stopping there, the local television station went on to insinuate that homeschooling is a disservice to children, urging members of the community to support the local schools by launching their own crackdown on homeschoolers.
“[The] school board still encourages people to speak up with their suspicions [about homeschoolers],” the WHJG report announced across Jackson County.
Inciting suspicion
When apprised of the warning and incited crackdown, the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) stepped into the matter.
HSLDA Staff Attorney Tj Schmidt promptly informed the director of the Jackson County School Board, as well as the superintendent of Jackson County schools, that their approach through the problematic Operation Round Up was troubling and needed to be addressed immediately to alleviate local homeschoolers’ concerns.
“Your statements suggest that everyone should report children they think aren’t being educated,” Schmidt wrote in his letter to the school officials, according to HSLDA . “In our opinion, this is a threatening practice, and will instill a spirit of suspicion and hostility against homeschoolers in the community.”
In order to put an end to the misinformation and ill-advised crackdown on homeschoolers, Schmidt proceeded to offer information to Jackson County officials and residents – and anyone participating in Operation Round Up – so that they would be able to properly interact with local homeschooling families and maintain respect for their parental rights to educate their own without undue interference.
Don’t let them get away with it …
Attorneys with the nonprofit Christian legal organization are confident that the letter submitted by Schmidt will work to educate the community and improve the relationship between local public school officials, residents and homeschooling families countywide.
According to HSLDA, Operation Round Up and other ill-intended and misguided attempts to boost public school revenues – orchestrated to bring in more homeschoolers and increasing attendance – must be reported to legal experts. It maintains that such vigilance must be exercised in order stop the government’s monopoly on education from winning its war against homeschooling … and anything else that falls outside of its over-regulated system. | 0 |
0 comments
Well, here’s a lesson for ya! Comedy and politics DON’T mix! So if you’re a comedian and you want to be successful- don’t bring politics into your act! Seriously, it just kills the mood, no one will be up to laughing after you insult them over who they are supporting for President, or whether or not they view abortion as murder.
Who would find any humor in that?
This should be common sense, but for Amy Schumer …twas not. Now she’s learning the hard way, what many of us were warning her about for a while now!
According to AdWeek, Budweiser came in under expected profits in their third quarter, prompting the company to pull the Schumer ads ahead of schedule. The ads themselves were not at all doing well, and the last one received such negative attention on YouTube that it currently has more than 1,900 “thumbs down,” compared to only 300 “thumbs up.”
Fox News reported that, at one time, the YouTube video had comments disabled, but that has since been changed. Many comments are negative toward Schumer herself, who has recently been in traveling around promoting feminist ideals and social justice causes.
Schumer’s attitude on politics has alienated many people over the past few years, however. Many would say that the comedian’s negative views on men, and hypocritical outrage, is often in complete contrast with inclusivity. This could have further attributed to the decline in Bud Light’s sales, as having a wildly unpopular figure represent your product will devalue it to the public.
Sorry Schumer. Either be a comedian, or a social justice warrior…the two however, do not play well together. Somewhere along the line you got that very obvious truth, twisted. Related Items | 0 |
WALNUT GROVE, Calif. — Until a few weeks ago, the Tract in the California Delta was an island of farmland, more than two square miles protected from the surrounding rivers and sloughs by earthen levees. Today the tract is an immense lake, up to 15 feet deep, with fish prowling the water and ducks skimming the surface. The adjacent Mokelumne River, swollen by the intense storms that have drenched the state this winter, caused a levee to break, allowing the water to rush in. Those same storms led to the recent near disaster at the Oroville Dam 100 miles north of here, which cast an uncomfortable light on the elaborate and aging network of reservoirs, aqueducts, levees and pumps that funnel water to the state’s 39 million people and its $50 billion agricultural industry. The flooding at was unintentional, but scientists and environmental groups say deliberately creating similar areas — floodplains to allow the state’s rivers to overflow more naturally and benignly — is a way to help ease the strain on this water infrastructure, especially as climate change poses new challenges. “Nature has been dealing with the vicissitudes of water changes in California for millennia,” said Brian Stranko, director of the state water program for the Nature Conservancy, which bought the tract here, south of Sacramento, in 1999, and has long had plans to restore it. “There are certain things that nature can do that we can’t do as well. ” Moving some of the state’s 13, 000 miles of levees back from rivers to make floodplains would allow dam operators to release more water without endangering population centers. Water percolating down through the flooded land would also help recharge aquifers, which, having been severely depleted by pumping for agriculture, are subject to a new state groundwater law requiring that they eventually be made sustainable. And the flooding could restore some of the fish and wildlife habitat that existed in California’s interior valleys before intensive farming began a century ago. But as with everything else involving water in California, the subject of augmenting the state’s gray infrastructure of concrete dams, aqueducts and other structures with floodplains and other “green” infrastructure, including watershed forests, is one of intense debate. There are concerns that new floodplains would take farmland out of production and that allowing benign flooding would reduce the amount of reservoir water available for agriculture and other uses. “California water is complicated,” said Joshua Viers, a professor at the University of California, Merced, who was at the flooded tract last week with a team of researchers using equipment and other instruments to monitor the changes taking place. “But I think we’re finding that there are softer paths. ” At Oroville, which was completed half a century ago during the heyday of the push to build gray infrastructure, the immediate danger is past. Trucks last week rumbled up the winding roads to the dam, carrying rocks and other materials as crews continued to shore up an eroded spillway. The reservoir level was well below maximum, operators having drawn it down using another spillway that is also extensively damaged. The more than 180, 000 people downstream who were evacuated in response to fears of a flash flood are back home. But the episode was a reminder of the pressures on the major dams among the 1, 400 dams of various sizes in the state, where water levels are actively managed to control floods, make electricity, provide water for drinking, irrigation and recreation, and keep the dams and the people below them safe. After five years of severe drought in the state, in which water all but vanished from some reservoirs, this year is on pace to be one of the wettest on record. Dam operators follow specific rules on releasing water, set by state and federal regulators, which require leaving room for anticipated storms. This year that balancing act has been more delicate than usual. The rush of runoff that affected Oroville when a warm storm hit the Sierra Nevada, bringing more rain and less snow, exposed the need for proper maintenance throughout the water system, and the potentially high cost when things go wrong. Repairs at Oroville alone could run in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The pressure on dams and other parts of the system is expected to rise as global warming continues. Computer models suggest that climate change will exacerbate a trend toward extremes — very dry or very wet years. By producing more rain and less snow in the mountains, atmospheric warming will also alter the amounts and timing of the runoff that fills the reservoirs behind dams like Oroville. Operators may have to release more water earlier in the year. But critics say the system is not flexible enough. At dams, like Oroville, that generate electricity, the rules on water releases are set for several decades as part of licensing requirements of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, known as FERC. Even nonhydropower dams have rules that are based on more static conditions. “California’s dams must be adapted to address new risks from a changing climate,” Jeffrey Mount, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, wrote in a blog post after the Oroville crisis. But, he added, “when it comes to changing course on dams, institutional inertia is a powerful countervailing force. ” A spokeswoman for FERC pointed out that the commission had the authority to reopen a hydropower license, and that the agency’s dam safety program reviewed rainfall and storm data every five years. But Dr. Viers and others say climate change has not been factored in. In 2009, for example, FERC rejected climate change studies in relicensing several hydropower projects in Northern California. John Andrew, the deputy director of the California Department of Water Resources responsible for climate change issues, said the state had been studying the impact of warming for years. “We’re already looking at a changed hydrology,” he said. “And that’s going to continue to change. So how we operate dams as well as other water infrastructure is going to have to change. ” Mr. Andrew said a mix of conventional infrastructure like dams and alternative approaches — including floodplains but also technologies like desalination and wastewater recycling — should be used to manage the state’s water. “The bottom line is we would like to see a diverse set of strategies, implemented at a local and regional level,” he said. At the Tract, after the levee was breached two weeks ago the Nature Conservancy made a cut at the opposite end to allow the river waters to flow through. When the wet season ends, the tract should drain and dry out, although there still may be occasional flooding in parts of it. A more deliberate experiment is taking place about a miles to the east, at another conservancy plot on the Cosumnes River. Dr. Viers refers to the Cosumnes as the state’s “ugly duckling” river — it has never fit into plans. As a result, unlike all the other significant rivers on the western slope of the Sierra, the Cosumnes is essentially undammed and flooding is largely uncontrolled. Farmers in the area have adapted, growing crops or raising orchards that can tolerate winter inundations. The flooding can be a nuisance nonetheless. For days at a time over the last month, Michael Eaton, a former official with the Nature Conservancy who has a small farm at his home in Galt, has had to leave his car on one side of a flooded driveway and paddle a canoe a couple of hundred feet to reach the property. “It gets a little tiresome,” said Mr. Eaton, who is thinking of having the road raised. At times, Mr. Eaton said, he can see and hear air bubbles popping up through the water as it infiltrates the soil. “It’s groundwater recharge in real time,” he said. The undammed nature of the Cosumnes also makes it a useful laboratory, both for studying how stream flows and flooding are changing under more natural conditions and for assessing the impact of green infrastructure. Not far from Mr. Eaton’s home, the conservancy bought a plot along the river, called punched a hole in a levee to turn it into a floodplain and planted native vegetation as part of the restoration effort. Dr. Viers and others have been studying the plot, and so far the results are encouraging. Among other things, they have measured a significant amount of water returning to aquifers. “This little ugly duckling is now showing us the way in which we can better manage rivers downstream,” Dr. Viers said. | 1 |
Liberals Brag With Pic Of Hillary, FURIOUS At What Snuck In Behind Her Posted on November 1, 2016 by Alisha Rich in Politics Share This
It’s been a rough week for crooked Hillary Clinton, and things only seem to be getting worse. She’s panicking behind closed doors, and things are now spiraling out of control after a popular liberal newspaper attempted to brag about the presidential hopeful by using a picture of her in Florida. However, liberals were left furious when they realized what snuck in behind her in the photo.
Hillary Clinton stopped at an early voting location to do a little last-minute campaigning in Pompano Beach, Florida. When The New York Times obtained a picture of Hillary at the event, they decided to run the picture in their newspaper. However, the editors made one massive mistake that left them not only furious but embarrassed as to what they had accidentally published behind Hillary in the picture
According to The Gateway Pundit , “You know the wheels are falling off your crooked campaign when the far left NY Times” publishes a picture of Hillary Clinton surrounded by Trump supporters. At least six Trump signs can be seen in the photo, making them hard to miss, but liberals have been known to turn a blind eye to obvious things, such as the dirty deeds of their crooked candidate.
As Mad World News has previously reported, Hillary’s problems only got worse when those Trump supporters were heard chanting three brutal words, “Lock her up.” Of course, she chose to ignore their bold statement and focused on her few supporters who were in attendance and were mildly excited for her presence.
Clearly, Hillary Clinton’s campaign is imploding and her chances of being elected as the next president are getting smaller and smaller on a daily basis. Obviously, it’s her own fault.
Perhaps if she had learned how to be a bit more honest and a lot less corrupt, she wouldn’t have anything to worry about from the FBI or the American voters. However, that’s not the case for the crooked Clinton, and it’s becoming a no-brainer that Donald Trump is going to be in the Oval Office, working to make America great again. | 0 |
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