By Associated Press | October 21, 2015, 7:06 EDT Printed from: http://newbostonpost.com/2015/10/21/mother-boyfriend-can-conduct-own-autopsy-in-baby-doe-case/ Michael McCarthy attends a hearing in Dorchester District Court, on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2015, in Boston. McCarthy is charged with murder in the death of Bella Bond, 2, the girl dubbed Baby Doe. (Wendy Maeda/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool) BOSTON (AP) -- A mother and boyfriend charged in the death of a 2-year-old girl whose body washed up on a Boston Harbor beach can have their own autopsy conducted on her remains, a judge ruled Tuesday. Rachelle Bond and Michael McCarthy were charged last month. Bond's daughter, Bella, was known as "Baby Doe" for nearly three months as authorities launched a massive investigation and social media campaign to find out who she was and how she died. The girl's body was found in a trash bag on Deer Island in June. State police put a composite image of the brown-eyed, chubby-cheeked girl on Facebook and on billboards, generating hundreds of leads but not the identity of the girl. Finally, on Sept. 16, police received a tip after Bond told a man who lived with the couple earlier this year that McCarthy killed Bella by punching her repeatedly in the abdomen one night when she would not go to sleep. McCarthy's lawyer has said he denies killing the child and claims Bond told him her daughter had been taken away by the state's child protection agency. McCarthy, 35, is charged with murder, while Bond, 40, is charged with being an accessory after the fact. Both have pleaded not guilty. A judge approved the request for a separate autopsy during a brief hearing Tuesday in Dorchester District Court. McCarthy and Bond will each have an independent pathologist for the second autopsy, said Bond's attorney, Janice Bassil. "Although my client was reluctant to do this, I felt that it was important in corroborating her statement as to the manner in which Michael McCarthy killed her child," Bassil said after the hearing. McCarthy's lawyer, Jonathan Shapiro, said he wanted the second autopsy because the murder charge against McCarthy is based on Bond's statements to police. He said Bond is "completely not credible." McCarthy and Bond are due back in court on Nov. 19 for a probable cause hearing. Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

McCarthy is charged with murder in the death of Bella Bond, 2, the girl dubbed Baby Doe. (Wendy Maeda/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool) BOSTON (AP)

Last year, McDonald's test-marketed a Big Mac in Ohio. The special sauce was blended with sriracha, that now-ubiquitous condiment consisting primarily of red chili paste and vinegar, whose origins have been traced to Thailand (specifically the subdistrict of Sriracha in Chonburi Province). This year the Golden Arches went nationwide with its Signature Sriracha 1/4 lb. Burger, Signature Sriracha Buttermilk Crispy Chicken Sandwich, and Signature Sriracha Artisan Chicken Sandwich. My immediate concern: Does McDonald's really expect customers to order these sandwiches by name? It's literally and figuratively a mouthful. For all the money spent on marketing strategy, did no one ponder this? Compare "Hi, I'd like the Signature Sriracha Buttermilk Crispy Chicken Sandwich" to "Hi, I'd like the McRib." On a deeper level, this also means the sriracha moment is now over. And it's been over for a while. Remember when sriracha was Bon Appetit 's Ingredient of the Year? The year was 2009. The condiment is now about as exotic as chipotle. It's ready to join the ranks of pesto and ramps. As best I could find, the first mention of sriracha (the sauce, not the place) in the U.S. press dates back to an August 1983 article in the Miami Herald about an exotic food store called Thai Center: There are gradations in chili powders and curries that an American used to buying Heinz and McCormick off the shelf would never have imagined. "Dry hottest chili" says a packet of weeds the color of molten lava. "Ground Hottest Chili Sauce" says a jar; the elixir inside is quite green. "Sriracha Chili Sauce," in a tall-neck bottle, is a beautiful bright orange. Three years later the Los Angeles Times mentioned sriracha for the first time when it reviewed a Vietnamese restaurant. The New York Times , however, doesn't speak of it until 1996, when Fran Schumer reviewed The Ebbitt Room in Cape May, New Jersey. "J. Christopher Hubert, the chef, makes mistakes, but his buttery fillets of salmon upon a creamy saffron risotto, and his sesame-seed-crusted tuna with hoisin, wasabi and sriracha (a hot pepper) dressings, are not among them. Both are twice as good as any appetizer in the area." (By contrast, in 2009, the Times ran a story titled " Sriracha, State by State .") Regarding its potency as "a hot pepper," sriracha by Scoville standards is quite mild, having red jalapenos as its base. That jalapeno registers approximately 2,500 Scoville heat units, which is a far cry from the hottest pepper on earth, Dragon's Breath, which registers 2.48 million Scoville units. (The hottest pepper I've ever had is the Scotch bonnet, somewhere between 100,000 to 350,000 units. I might have cried a little.) But sriracha's relatively mild heat is a plus--because you can blend it into pretty much anything--cocktails, as a snack flavoring, even in ice cream . Huy Fong Foods, the biggest producer of sriracha in the United States, does about $60 million in sales and ships to 27 countries. Heinz and Tabasco are making their own versions. And now it's at McDonald's, in a Mac Sauce, and for dipping Chicken McNuggets. I've sampled the sriracha burger, with its baby greens, crispy onion, and white cheddar. It was fine. But it felt oddly small for a quarter-pound of beef. And it wasn't salty and greasy as I'd come to expect. I tend to agree with Washington Post food writer Tim Carman who said, "it reeks of a corporate attempt to capitalize on two of the biggest food trends of the past decade (although far after each has peaked). It's the fast-food equivalent of watching Dad sport rompers and pledge his undying love for Drake." Aside from sriracha, the other trend Carman references is kale, which is also newly available at McD's. So if sriracha is passe, what's next? In that same food section as Carmen's column, on the front-page below the fold, was an article with the headline, "It's time for harissa to be a staple in U.S. pantries." Which means sometime around 2020 someone at a McDonald's will be ordering a Signature Harissa Buttermilk Crispy Chicken Sandwich. Read Less Longtime editor Judith Jones died on August 2 at the age of 93. To say she had an eye for talent--and for what makes for a good book--is an understatement. After all, she did find The Diary of Anne Frank in a rejection pile and got it published in English for Doubleday (it had already been published in Dutch and French). In 1959, working for Knopf, Jones came across a French cookbook written for Americans by a first-time author named Julia Child. Houghton Mifflin had taken a pass on Mastering the Art of French Cooking , but Jones sensed this could be big. And the rest, as they say, is history. Much had already been written about Judith Jones before she died--a 2014 Q&A with Charlotte Druckman in the Wall Street Journal was particularly lovely. And there is now a flurry of obituaries by those who knew her well. I never had the pleasure of meeting Judith Jones, but I did spend some time with a mutual acquaintance, Jacques Pepin. In 2012, I had lunch with the legendary French chef at a lobster shack in Madison, Conn. We covered an array of food-related subjects, and at some point we touched on Julie Powell's book, Julie & Julia , and the movie starring Meryl Streep. There is a scene in the book and the movie, in which Powell is preparing a momentous dinner for a reporter with the Christian Science Monitor and his guest, Judith Jones. Powell had embarked on her now famous quest to cook 524 recipes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking in the span of 365 days. While gaining fame from her blog, Powell learned she would be hosting Child's editor, Judith Jones, for a meal in her cramped Long Island City apartment. Powell decided on the daunting Boeuf Bourguignon, " the classic dish of French cookery, the first dish Julia Child ever cooked on The French Chef ," she writes in Julie & Julia . I started my first Boeuf Bourguignon at about 9:30 on the night before the Dinner. I began by cutting up a thick piece of slab bacon into lardons. When my mom made this for Christmas Eve in 1984 in Austin, Texas, she used Oscar Mayer, she didn't have any choice. But in 2004 New York, there's no excuse--certainly not when the woman who discovered Julia Child is coming over. I simmered the lardons in water for ten minutes once they were chopped so they wouldn't make "the whole dish taste like bacon." I personally didn't see the problem with this, but I'm no Julia Child, and in a situation as fraught as this one it must be assumed that Julia's opinion is the correct one. The situation only got more fraught. She was up 'til four in the morning, called in sick from work, and slaved in the kitchen all that day. And then the phone rang. It wasn't even Judith who called. I've never spoken to Judith--and now it looks like I never will. "I'm so sorry," moaned the journalist. He was distraught. "I know how much you were looking forward to this. She just doesn't want to venture out to Queens in this weather." Powell was crushed, but put on a brave face. "Well, she is ninety, after all, and it is sleeting. Maybe next time," she told the reporter, adding that "I didn't even start wailing disconsolately until I was in the shower." But over lobster rolls on the Connecticut shore, Pepin related a different story. "I was in Boston," he recalled. "Because when I teach in Boston, I used to pick up Julia, and we always cooked together, and for the students, too. And I remember, I don't know, eight, ten years ago, she came, she said, 'Do you know what a blog is?' It was just starting. I said, 'No idea, Julia.' She said, 'I have that woman, you know, who is doing a blog? She's going to do all the recipes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking . Isn't that a silly thing? I mean, how silly can that be?' And then she said, 'You know, she wants to take advantage of me, of my name, too, but she is not serious about cooking.'" He then added: "But in the movie, remember there is a time where Judith Jones--she's her editor--she's supposed to meet that woman in Queens in her apartment. And she canceled it because of ... rain and so forth, too. And I remember that Julia told me, 'I don't want you to do it.' She told Judith Jones. Julia did not want to give credit to that woman. She thought that she was taking advantage of her." On the other hand, Pepin loved how Meryl Streep portrayed his late friend Julia Child: When I knew they were going to do that, I said you cannot do that without doing Julia's voice. And if you do Julia's voice, then it becomes a cliche right away, so it's impossible. Well, Meryl Streep came, and five minutes later, I didn't even know I was not looking at Julia. She looked taller than Julia. And I know Meryl Streep because we've done stuff together for the market, the Connecticut Farm Association. I was cohost with her for several years. And she is about the size of my wife. I mean, she's not [tall]. She's fantastic. And so was Judith Jones--a fantastic editor and ever loyal to her writers. Read Less

Last year, McDonald's test-marketed a Big Mac in Ohio. The special sauce was blended with sriracha, that now-ubiquitous condiment consisting primarily of red chili paste and vinegar, whose origins have been traced to Thailand (specifically the subdistrict of Sriracha in Chonburi Province).

Posted By Michael Gebert on 09.08.15 at 02:07 PM Michael Gebert Tofu with bonito flakes at Sunshine Cafe Maybe you had the TV-commercial-perfect Labor Day: a racially diverse group of neighbors barbecuing in a lush backyard, everyone with a frosty can of [insert beer brand here] in hand. But I had the organizing-stuff-before-school-starts kind, lived vicariously through social media. And from those channels, it seemed like there was a lot of transitioning going on. According to Facebook, a lot of people got married-- Boka chef Lee Wolen did; so did La Sirena Clandestina chef John Manion and food writer Matt Kirouac. Greg Hall sold another business (Virtue Cider) to Anheuser-Busch. And several places closed. Hoppin' Hots, the Hot Doug's-like place in the old Great Lake space where I interviewed hot dog author Rich Bowen , closed. Jack's, a one-time 24-hour coffee shop in Skokie where machers and pishers went to kibitz, closed, a victim--to its ownership's minds anyway--of the smoking ban that killed the hanging-out-in-a-booth-at-2 AM part of its business. And there's some news that I've been expecting for a long time about a place that back in the LTHForum day was a favorite and everything we loved about quirky dining out of the mainstream. Posted By Ben Sachs on 09.08.15 at 01:30 PM Roberto Aguire and Williams star in Boulevard . Robin Williams had a knack for playing lonely introverts, as he demonstrated in Good Will Hunting , One Hour Photo , The Night Caller , World's Greatest Dad , The Face of Love , and one of his final films, Boulevard , which is newly available on DVD. These movies vary in overall quality, yet Williams delivered committed performances in all of them, conveying the weight of his characters' inner turmoil through careful body language and quiet line readings. It's common knowledge that Williams battled depression for much of his life, and it's hard not to read these performances as autobiographical. In these films, it feels as though the comedian is shedding his well-known manic persona to reveal the insecurities underneath. He could sometimes come off as inert when playing serious, but even then he generated a bathetic fascination, suggesting that when he wasn't actively trying to please an audience there was nothing there but crippling sadness. Posted By Michael Miner on 09.08.15 at 12:46 PM Thinkstock Competing dailies are archrivals no more. Before the Sun-Times told its staff late last month that it would begin publishing content from the Daily Herald , it was already publishing content from USA Today and picking up stories from the Reader . And it was decades ago that the paper began publishing content provided by the AP and other wires. Even at their biggest, strongest, and richest, the dailies never went it alone. That said, our local newspapers make a melancholy sight leaning against each other for support. I said so to Daily Herald editor John Lampinen, and he replied with the obvious: "The world has changed and the industry has changed. Posted By Peter Margasak on 09.08.15 at 12:00 PM Novos Baianos formed in 1968, during the height of Brazil's Tropicalia movement, but they came to maturity after that multiarts revolution was on the wane (though it's impossible to imagine the group without the innovations of Caetano Veloso, Os Mutantes, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, and Tom Ze). The combo moved between a dazzling hybrid of psychedelic rock and Brazilian roots music with utter grace and nonchalance, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Novos Baianos made a clutch of classic albums during the first half of the 70s before losing its way, and they remain indelible, vibrant documents of musical ferment bursting with possibility. Today's 12 O'Clock Track is one the group's greatest moments: "Tinindo Trincando" is from the 1972 album Acabou Chorare (Som Livre), a high-powered jam with searing lead guitar slaloming through a driving groove that moves easily between funked-up hard rock and forro. The melody is irresistible, but it's the way singer Baby Consuelo sells it that seals the deal. Check it out below. Posted By Reader staff on 09.08.15 at 11:23 AM Posted By Robin Amer on 09.04.15 at 03:30 PM Sun-Times Media In 1974, gas leaking from a nearby storage tank forced the residents of Altgeld Gardens from their homes. A dozen or so people gathered around Cheryl Johnson for a grim kind of story time. Johnson is the de facto matriarch of Altgeld Gardens, a public housing complex on the far southeast side that's home to about 5,000 mostly black residents. Altgeld is almost bucolic looking, cut off from the rest of the region by the curve of the Little Calumet River, the woodsy Beaubien Forest Preserve, and a water treatment plant. The area's nickname--the "toxic doughnut"--is less rustic. Posted By Peter Margasak on 09.04.15 at 02:00 PM courtesy of the artist Cortex With the annual Chicago Jazz Festival stealing all of the attention this weekend I think it's important to remember that jazz shows happen in Chicago every day, and once the fest shuts down Sunday the music doesn't go anywhere. For example, in this week's paper I wrote about the local debut on Wednesday of LA sax phenomenon Kamasi Washington at Bottom Lounge , and on that same night one of the best bands in Norway returns to Chicago when Cortex plays Constellation . Posted By Julia Thiel on 09.04.15 at 01:00 PM Julia Thiel With the scorching weather we've had for the past few days (not to mention the weekend forecast), it's tempting to wish summer would hurry up and leave already. To be honest, I kind of do. But then I start thinking about all that's going to leave along with the warm weather--peak-season tomatoes, peaches, basil, mint--and trying to figure out if I can live solely on tomatoes for the next couple weeks. I guess I could start canning tomatoes or peaches, but I've tried canning in the past and wasn't wild about the hours of work in a hot kitchen (plus, I don't own a food mill). Preserving flavors in alcohol, on the other hand, is incredibly easy. Enter creme de menthe. As cocktail ingredients go, creme de menthe is dated: it pops up over and over in the cocktail books from the 1930s that I've recently been sifting through, and it starred in the Grasshopper cocktails that were so popular in the 70s. But these days, much like creme de cacao (which I also recently tried making ), creme de menthe is more likely to be found in a dorm room than in a well-curated liquor cabinet. Posted By Isa Giallorenzo on 09.04.15 at 12:30 PM Street View is a fashion series in which Isa Giallorenzo spotlights some of the coolest styles seen in Chicago. Graphic Designer Crystal Zapata recently launched her own zine, So Nice! ( so-nice-zine.tumblr.com ), which profiles 16 artists such as Swedish illustrator and furniture maker Johanna Berg and Zai Najera, founder of the Mexico City-based "modern-day girl culture" publication Superhero Mag . The 21-year-old's keen eye for composition--being put to good use during her internship at Leo Burnett's Department of Design--is apparent in both her work and attire, the latter consisting these days of a mix of 70s and 90s touchstones and "as many wide-legged pants as possible." Recently she's let music be her sartorial guide; Sister Sledge and easy-listening tunes from Brazil are on heavy rotation. "So I guess that translates to wearing bell-bottoms some days and wearing denim cutoffs on others," she says. Check out more of Zapata's wide-ranging wardrobe at crystalzapata.tumblr.com and on Instagram via @crystalzapata . See details of her look below--including her cool geometric socks. Posted By Luca Cimarusti on 09.04.15 at 12:00 PM Mitchell Wojcik Mutoid Man Old Man Gloom , the space-metal collective consisting of members from Cave In, Converge, and Isis, plays the Bottle on Sunday, but they're not the only Boston-area heavy metal supergroup in town this weekend: Mutoid Man, featuring Cave In singer Stephen Brodsky and Converge drummer Ben Koller plays at Reggie's Rock Club tomorrow night . While Old Man Gloom focuses on punishing, guttural sludge, Mutoid Man operates at the opposite end of the heavy spectrum, playing melodic, technical psych-metal with proggy flourishes. The highlight of the band is without a doubt Koller, whose acrobatic drumming makes it sound like he's hammering away at his kit with eight arms. Today's 12 O'Clock Track is "Sweet Ivy," from the band's brand-new Bleeder LP, out on Sargent House. Check it out below, and try to catch both bands this weekend.

Posted By Michael Gebert on 09.08.15 at 02:07 PM Michael Gebert Tofu with bonito flakes at Sunshine Cafe Maybe you had the TV-commercial-perfect Labor Day: a racially diverse group of neighbors barbecuing in a lush backyard, everyone with a frosty can of [insert beer brand here] in hand

On March 3, the Peace and Conflict Studies program at West Chester University of Pennsylvania hosted a symposium with Eugene Puryear titled, "The Movement for Black Lives: How Do We Fight to Win?" Nearly 100 students and faculty attended. Puryear delivered a powerful presentation that focused on the long and complex global history of capitalism and white supremacy that led to the heroic uprisings against police brutality and crushing poverty in Ferguson, Baltimore and beyond. Many of the students in attendance had just read Puryear's book "Shackled and Chained: Mass Incarceration in Capitalist America" and were clearly eager to engage the author. Puryear's talk highlighted a new generation of activists and leaders who have energized the struggle for Black liberation. Exploring the debates over strategy, tactics and goals, Eugene focused on the combined need for the self-determination of oppressed communities and a movement with the capacity to connect many seemingly separate issues. Providing convincing analysis and evidence, Puryear pointed to socialism, echoing Lenin, as the answer to the question, "What is to be done?" Reflecting the current surge in the popularity of the idea, Eugene's socialist conclusions met enthusiastic applause. In a long discussion after the event, a number of progressive students expressed interest in how the alliances Puryear discussed can be formed and deepened. For example, Mike Peterman, a student veteran at the event, expressed interest in Black-Palestinian solidarity and in the activism of March Forward . Reflecting on the significance of the event, Peterman told Liberation News : "This event was important because the topic of mass incarceration touches the idea of white supremacy from an angle that is hard to deny. The statistics associated with mass incarceration show just how disproportionate the number of Black men behind bars in America really is. Such glaring inequality put out in front of white students makes it difficult for them to remain oblivious to the realities of white privilege." Peterman added: "Another important aspect is the link between incarceration and corporate profit. Making money off of putting people behind bars does not live up to the espoused American standard, and we should all be outraged!"

On March 3, the Peace and Conflict Studies program at West Chester University of Pennsylvania hosted a symposium with Eugene Puryear titled, "The Movement for Black Lives: How Do We Fight to Win?" Nearly 100 students and faculty attended. Puryear delivered a powerful presentation that focused on the long and complex global history of capitalism and white supremacy that led to the heroic uprisings against police brutality and crushing poverty in Ferguson, Baltimore and beyond.

Like this article? rabble is reader-supported journalism. Chip in to keep stories like these coming. Budgets may appear to be dry, technical financial documents. In fact budgets are the product of values and they contain some of the most important choices that governments make. Today we're releasing our twenty-first Alternative Federal Budget (AFB). This year's AFB includes 23 subject chapters and is written by almost 100 contributors. Its goals are progressive: reducing poverty, redressing inequality, driving job creation and greening our economy. Over the years, the Alternative Budget has proposed policies that have been successfully implemented like the creation of a Parliamentary Budget Officer. Other ideas, like affordable child care and a national carbon tax, we continue to advocate for. Like each of our previous 20 budgets, this budget is based on a rigorous economic and fiscal framework that's acquired an enviable reputation in Canada and internationally. In the lead up to the new Liberal government's first budget, our Alternative Federal Budget sets out a benchmark for what is possible. Without intervention, 2016 will see half the economic growth we've historically enjoyed. The pattern of slow growth doesn't change even if we look as far out as 2020. If we maintain our present trajectory, slow growth is Canada's future. In this period of slow growth, the federal government has not stepped in. Families have shouldered ever-higher levels of indebtedness, now nearly $2 trillion dollars. And this year for the first time ever, the provinces hold more debt than the federal government. The federal government can certainly cut back services to balance its books, but households and the provinces are (the ones) left holding the bag. The Bank of Canada's unprecedentedly low interest rates are no longer enough to encourage households to take out larger mortgages or businesses to take out loans in order to drive GDP. In fact, after inflation, the real interest on those mortgages and business loans is approaching zero. If we were to see another recession, there would be little the Bank of Canada could do to restart growth. We shouldn't let the idea of federal deficits, even relatively large ones, scare us off making much needed investments in Canada. There is more than enough fiscal room to ensure that everyone can have a better future. It's important to point out that mathematically one sector's deficit is another's surplus. Every billion dollars of federal deficits means an extra billion in after-tax income for regular Canadians, more opportunities for businesses or lower deficits for the provinces. We have updated the fiscal framework to include the March 1 GDP figures and we now are projecting an underlying deficit of $18.8 billion in 2016-17, including the $6 billion contingency fund. If Liberal platform measures are fully implemented, we predict the March 22 budget deficit will be $29.1 billion dollars in 2016-17 decreasing to $21 billion by 2018-19. There have been signs that the Liberal government is working to repair the damage done over the past decade. But we must do more than just repair it. Today we are releasing our twenty-first Alternative Federal Budget. It plots an alternative path out of repeated recessions and slow growth. If implemented, the AFB would lift 1.1 million Canadians out of poverty. It would result in a net gain for 90 per cent of Canadian families after our new taxes, transfers and programs are accounted for. Further, it would reduce unemployment to six per cent by 2018-19. Its sophisticated framework breaks new ground by demonstrating the impact of our policies on income inequality and poverty. Something never before attempted in any federal or provincial budget. But one we hope governments will emulate in the future. Including all of our measures, our federal deficit would be $37.9 billion -- certainly higher than the $29 billion likely to be seen on March 22 but lower than what some Bay Street analysts are calling for. We show how a federal budget should be constructed to offset any new debt through stronger economic growth, thereby maintaining a stable debt to GDP ratio. The Alternative Federal Budget proves we can fight climate change and create jobs. It shows we can reduce poverty and grow the economy responsibly. It demonstrates we can raise the standard of living for everyone , not just for a wealthy few. Federal spending as a share of GDP is the smallest it has been since the Second World War. The last time the government spent this little money we had no national health care plan, no pension plan, and no employment insurance. Over the past decade federal revenues have been diminished by cuts to the corporate tax rate, regressive income tax policies, and tax evasion on an ever-widening scale. The Alternative Federal Budget demonstrates how progressive policy changes can shift the balance from economic growth based on the accumulation of profits by the few to economic growth based on rising employment and wages for the many. The Alternative Federal Budget would start by ensuring the most basic needs of citizens are met. We would provide clean drinking water for the 110 First Nations communities that currently live without this basic necessity and human right. We would put in place safeguards to ensure that all Canadians have access to clean water and a healthy environment for generations to come. Fourteen per cent of our children live below the poverty line. The Alternative Federal Budget would lift 270,000 children out of poverty by increasing child benefits for low-income families. The Alternative Federal Budget would provide affordable and accessible childcare for families who can't afford to add $1000 a month in childcare fees to their already overburdened household budgets. Our budget would introduce a national pharmacare program. A pharmaceutical strategy could save Canadians $11 billion dollars in annual costs for prescription medicines -- 43 per cent of Canada $25 billion drug bill. Canada's cities are becoming increasingly unaffordable, with average housing prices exceeding half a million dollars. Thirteen per cent of all Canadian households are in core housing need with wait times for affordable housing measured in years, not months. The Alternative Federal Budget would ensure that Canadians can afford to live where they work by investing in affordable housing and community infrastructure. Our budget would support working Canadians by creating jobs through investments in physical and social infrastructure. At its peak, our budget measures would create more than half a million new jobs. The collective student debt load now totals $28 billion. The Alternative Federal Budget would foster a highly skilled workforce, and ease the burden on young people entering the job market, by eliminating undergraduate university tuition fees. At the end of their working lives one in 10 seniors finds themselves living below the poverty line. For senior women living alone that number rises to one in three. The Alternative Federal Budget would cut senior poverty in half by increasing the Guaranteed Income Supplement and returning the age of eligibility to 65 years. We can afford to have better lives, from beginning to end. We can afford to have bigger lives with the resources already at our disposal. There is no deficit in the capacity or imagination of this country. The Alternative Federal Budget demonstrates that there is more than enough fiscal room for us all to grow. The past decade in Canada has taught us to think small and expect less. It's time to think big and expect more. It's time to move on. For the full Alternative Federal Budget 2016 (available in English and French), video and infographics, visit www.policyalternatives.ca/afb2016 . Like this article? rabble is reader-supported journalism. Chip in to keep stories like these coming. Image: CCPA

We would put in place safeguards to ensure that all Canadians have access to clean water and a healthy environment for generations to come.

THE biggest myth in British politics is that the Labour Party can be saved by ditching Jeremy Corbyn. But what do you notice about the bookies' hot favourites to become the next leader of Labour ? PA:Press Association 15 Jeremy Corbyn has come under increased pressure due to his mixed messages on Brexit What is the distinguishing feature of Clive Lewis and Keir Starmer? They are both far more fanatically pro-EU than Jeremy Corbyn. This will no doubt go down a storm in the Fairtrade bistros of Islington. It will play less well in the pubs of the old Labour heartlands. PA:Press Association 15 Possible successor? Clive Lewis at the Labour Party Conference Even the long shots to become next Labour leader -- Owen Smith, Hilary Benn, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Chuka Umunna -- are all so pro-EU they make Jeremy Corbyn look like Nigel Farage. Corbyn was a half-hearted campaigner for Remain. Whoever replaces him will be a true mouth-foaming Brussels believer. But how does electing a leader who is more anti-Brexit than Corbyn solve Labour's existential dilemma? It doesn't. Ditching Corbyn can only make it worse. Dumping Red Jezza will only hasten Labour's helter-skelter rush to oblivion. But the Labour movement itself is terminally split on the subject. Even now, out-of-touch Labour MPs like Tulip Siddiq (Kilburn and Hampstead) parrot the lie that anyone who voted to leave the EU is a thick bigot who despises foreigners. 15 Labour MP Tulip Siddiq is a prominent anti-Brexit voice within the Labour party This casual contempt for the concerns of ordinary Brits is exactly why Labour lost the working class. Replacing Corbyn with a Little European will not win them back. It is significant that Corbyn's great political hero, Tony Benn, was the most eloquent anti-EU spokesman this country ever had. "The huge Commission building in Brussels is absolutely un-British," Benn wrote in 1974. "I felt as if I were going as a slave to Rome. "The whole relationship was wrong. Here was I, an elected man who could be removed, and here were these people with more power than I had and no accountability to anybody." London News Pictures 15 Tony Benn remains revered within the Labour party Yes, Corbyn acts like he shares the conventional liberal, lefty view of the EU -- that questioning our membership is something only xenophobes would do -- but I suspect he is still a Tony Benn acolyte at heart. Corbyn is not just another Brussels groupie. He dithers because he is torn. And you can bet your last euro that the next Labour leader will be a lot more genuinely anti-Brexit than Jeremy Corbyn. Related Stories Time Lord for change Ex-Doctor Who David Tennant backs Scottish independence after losing faith in Labour IS THERE ANYONE LEFT? Corbyn's 63 shadow cabinet ministers in 17 months - more than Miliband and Cameron in five years 'IT'S NOT A DISASTER' Corbyn laughs off claims of Labour crisis and accuses BBC of 'fake news' for peddling quit rumours NOW DO IT EVERY WEEK Surrey seems to be the hardest word for Theresa as Corbyn creates PMQs fireworks 'BITTER FIGHT AHEAD' Jeremy Corbyn's 'socialist' revolution of the Labour Party is at its lowest point, John McDonnell claims Right now Corbyn cuts a pathetic figure -- abandoned by his most extreme pro-EU MPs yet doing nothing to win back the millions of Labour voters who are passionately against rule from Brussels. But Corbyn is in an impossible position, attempting to respect our democratic referendum vote while still maintaining working relations with his eye-swivelling Little European MPs. Corbyn is trying to have his ciabatta and eat it. It can't be done. Brexit has exposed the yawning chasm that exists between Labour MPs and Labour voters. And on the day that Jeremy Corbyn goes, it will grow wider. SIXTY-three-year-olds have never looked like Christie Brinkley before. Christie recreated her 1980 cover of Sports Illustrated with her two daughters. 15 Christie Brinkley stuns in a bikini for Sports Illustrated Anyone who remembers her from Billy Joel's Uptown Girl video will not be able to tell the difference between 1980 and now without reading glasses. We can't turn back the clock but Christie proves that with regular exercise and sensible eating, we can slam on the brakes for an emergency stop. Or you can skip the gym, eat what you like and look like Billy Joel. IF you grew up with music as the centre of your world, then the last year or so will have left you battered, bereft and bereaved. Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, Prince, George Michael and Lemmy. The music that filled our youth is slipping into the mists of history. 15 Soulful...Aretha Franklin has one more album left in her Now we learn that Aretha Franklin, 74, will make one final album with Stevie Wonder before calling it a day. Sad news. But what a relief to learn the greatest female singer of all time is only retiring and not expiring. Housing crowded out in UK Where Mr Javid, gets it wrong is by denying that immigration has any impact on our housing crisis. "If immigration was to fall to zero, we would still have a deficit of some two million homes," he said. PA:Press Association 15 Communities Secretary Sajid Javid speaking earlier this week But the Department of the Bloody Obvious tells us that current immigration levels - a third of a million newcomers every year, or the population of Coventry - inevitably increases pressure on housing. How could unfettered immigration NOT have an impact on housing? We do not build enough houses and flats to satisfy demand. The homes that exist are too expensive, especially for the young who never got a toe on the property ladder. And there are too many people looking for a home. My dad was a greengrocer. He worked all his life from leaving school at 14 to his death from lung cancer at 62, with just a break to defeat Nazi Germany. He never made much money but by working all the hours he could get he scraped together enough to put down a deposit on the semi-detached house in Essex where I grew up. By the time my dad died, the mortgage was paid off. That was the British dream - to own your own home, no matter how modest your income, no matter what you did for a living. That dream has quietly died and it will never be revived until we find the courage to admit this little country is far too crowded. That's not racist. It's common sense. A message we have to drive home MOST drivers - even the millions who use their phone at the wheel - will be appalled by the lorry driver caught mucking about with two phones, using Skype and noshing lunch while doing 50mph in an 18-ton HGV . But let's not kid ourselves - phone-driving is still as socially acceptable as drunk-driving was in the Seventies. 15 Florin Chireata was pictured with both hands off the wheel The police were on my local high street last week stopping motorists who were using their phones. The cops were spoilt for choice. We shake our heads about these stupid truckers. But the message that mobiles and motors don't mix has still not sunk in. Many more innocents have to die before we finally get it. ELIZABETH DEBICKI, the love interest in the BBC's adaptation of John Le Carre's The Night Manager, complains that the female characters in spy stories are just male fantasy figures. 15 Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder So James Bond girls like Octopussy, Holly Goodhead (Moonraker), Honey Ryder (Dr No) and Pussy Galore (Goldfinger), are not realistic, fully-rounded female characters but just the lurid product of a feverish male imagination? I thought that was what we liked about them. Bercow a hypocrite on Trump Getty Images 15 We should beware hypocrites like John Bercow, says Tony Parsons SPEAKER John Bercow embarrassed himself, the House of Commons and this country with his puerile thoughts on the moral credentials of the President of the United States. Who does Bercow think he is - Lily Allen? Bercow, has licked the steel-capped boots of every despot from Kuwait to North Korea. America is our greatest ally. Donald Trump won a democratic election - unlike Bercow's chums in China, North Korea and Kuwait. Save it for Twitter, shorty! LABOUR'S Diane Abbott missed a crucial House of Commons vote because she had a headache. Diddums. And last week Tory Nick Boles was wheeled out of the hospital where he is having chemotherapy for a brain tumour so he could "represent his constituents." Boles says he felt "pretty grim" but I bet he felt a lot worse than that. Don't ever let anyone tell you that politicians are all the same. SCOTTISH Nationalist MPs enjoy flouting the traditions of the House of Commons. They clap. They hoot. They whistle Beethoven's Ode To Joy, the EU theme tune. If they hate it all so much then why don't they call a second Scottish Referendum? The SNP are starting to look a bit windy. KYLIE Minogue bounces back from the end of her affair with unknown fuzz-faced thespian Joshua Sasse with a sizzling ad campaign for Specsavers. Let's hope those new glasses help Kylie to start telling the difference between Mr Right and Mr Right Now. IT is reassuring news for our planet that Barack Obama and Richard Branson are in "close alignment" on climate change. AP:Associated Press Private jet! When the global elite goes on their hols, concerns about climate change go to the back of the queue. Getty Images 15 David Beckham attempted to use his charity work for Unicef as part of a campaign to get a knighthood But then Bobby Moore, our only World Cup-winning captain, had to be content with an OBE. Beckham should stop mourning his lost knighthood and start counting his blessings.

THE biggest myth in British politics is that the Labour Party can be saved by ditching Jeremy Corbyn.

Cary Nelson, an emeritus professor of English at the University of Illinois who is a leader in effort to counter BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), last week described BDS as a burgeoning political movement in the U.S. akin to the anti-war movement in the Vietnam era. The Gaza war has given impetus to the movement, he said in the video below: We did not prepare for the level of uncontrolled hatred we faced since the war in Gaza. It has changed, and the level of hatred is tenfold what it was a year ago, and our job is very hard. Nelson even conceded that Israel ought to change its policies so as to defang the BDS movement before it becomes a "security threat" to Israel -- say by removing some settlements east of the wall -- but the thrust of his speech at a Tel Aviv University panel on fighting academic boycotts of Israel, was that a group of Pied Pipers in the U.S. who hate Israel are bewitching students and faculty and bringing them into "alternative communities" that provide them with a social and political cause. This movement has so intimidated Israel supporters that they "stand down... in silence." Innocent students and faculty derive meaning from the movement. "We're going to a drink after the BDS panel. Want to come along?" [they say]. You're brought into a network of human beings and you begin to ground your identity there. Some of course are therefore persuaded that BDS should become their primary political cause, the center of their political life. Some become completely obsessed with BDS activism... And "we've passed a Rubicon," Nelson went on, where support for BDS defines some instructors' "professional identity," and they feel a moral duty to recruit their students in BDS promotion in classrooms. And I think really we haven't seen anything like that in any way comparable since the Vietnam War. It's a large shift, if what it means to teach if instead of presenting views, you actually want to bring students in line with your own political convictions. Nelson's speech, which was sponsored in part by the Jewish Federations, the largest Jewish organization in the United States, contained a giant blindspot. Apart from his fleeting reference to the Gaza war and the settlements, there was no acknowledgment that activists in the U.S., including their young recruits, are responding to real events that disturb them. He mocked the appeal to which students respond: "Justice and equality- you don't have to think beyond that." It's an "illusion," he said. And as to the apartheid wall that activists constructed on his campus in Urbana-Champaign, Nelson said with a sneer: "I've only looked at it once, I'm never going to look at it again." Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank cannot make that choice. But throughout his speech, Nelson identified himself with Israelis. He said he preferred speaking at Tel Aviv University to US venues because he gets heckled in the U.S. And he said that fighting BDS will surely shift Israelis' "attention from more pressing military challenges." And what could those military challenges be? Maybe the necessity of killing 2100 Palestinians in Gaza last summer, including 500 children, which shocked the world. This was the insensitivity at the heart of Nelson's speech. He seemed unaware of how much public opinion worldwide has been galvanized by the Gaza slaughter. Much as massacres in Vietnam helped to consolidate an antiwar movement inside the U.S. 45 years ago: People weren't deluded, they were upset and needed to do something. BDS is a nonviolent movement aimed at isolating Israel and changing its behavior, and it has attracted great support from young people who don't feel represented by their government's statements, let alone the Jewish Federations. Of course, some in the movement are dedicated to ending the Jewish state, ending an official system of Jewish privilege. But its thrust is human rights, equality. Nelson soon had the rug pulled out from under him by Dalit Baum , the Israeli feminist, BDS activist and leader of Who Profits . To the Tel Aviv University forum's credit, Baum was granted an opportunity to speak from the audience at 13:00 of the video below. She took on the organizers' cluelessness about what is shaping up in the U.S. The academic boycott of Israel targets a specific issue, she said: Israeli institutions are "complicit in the Israeli occupation." (Big audience Yikes). Now you may not agree with that but you have to deal with that. You have to deal with the facts. Baum spoke of official efforts by universities to suppress BDS. What we are seeing is a coordinated attack on any kind of criticism of Israel. Especially in the U.S., and now it's creeping into Israel. She addressed Israel's policies and American support for them: You ask why there is more criticism of Israel in the world? Because of Israeli policies! Read the news- seriously! Seriously! (Grumbles from the audience). And still, the dominant views and the dominant hegemonic structures in the US are totally pro-Israeli. When it comes to the vote in the Senate, you get 100 votes pro-Israel, you get the tremendous support of the U.S., you get get the vetoing power. She said that young Zionists are shocked by the climate on campus, but that's alright. They need to wake up: Jewish students on campus have to face this growing criticism. It's unpleasant. Young people have to hear that they live in a complex world. They live in a place where there is criticism over some things that they thought from kindergarten that there is no problem... This is part of education and freedom of speech ..This is what students are supposed to feel and hear and encounter on campus. You have to deal with the facts. What a simple and powerful statement. Cary Nelson thought he was getting a safe place to speak, inside the Tel Aviv bubble. But nearly a half century of occupation and Gaza have shifted the ground under our feet.

Cary Nelson, an emeritus professor of English at the University of Illinois who is a leader in effort to counter BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), last week described BDS as a burgeoning political movement in the U.S. akin to the anti-war movement in the Vietnam era.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below The U.S. Conference of Mayors is more or less an association, and their annual meeting is more or less a convention. About two hundred of them stay in the same hotel. They listen to speeches, have small group sessions. They learn. They teach. They network. And at the end of the day, they drink a few beers and give one another awards over roast beef in a ballroom. They hang out. And they talk about grocery stores. When we asked them, over the course of the convention, about their jobs, the supermarket came up a lot. But not in a metaphorical way. The grocery store isn't a symbol. It's a second office. A grocery cart is pushed slowly enough that the good people of your town can position themselves in front of it to ask how you're doing. Right before they tell you how you're doing. The shoppers are voters. The checkout girl is a constituent. The mayor's quality of life approximates the butcher's quality of life. You can't hide in a grocery store -- it's too fluorescent. And it's intimate, like the job. As we took their pictures in a cavernous ballroom at the Century Plaza down the road from Beverly Hills, the mayors of America talked about that intimacy a lot. Oakland mayor and former congressman Ron Dellums put it this way: "In Congress, dealing with millions of people, things can become abstract. There's nothing abstract about being mayor." Piscataway, New Jersey, mayor Brian Wahler put it this way: "People talk to me about their problems at the deli counter." Mayors mostly deal with intimate issues, things national leaders don't talk about all that much: gangs, dropout rates, homelessness, inner cities gone to hell. This is stuff straight out of 1995. But it's still around. These issues are still being stabilized, overcome, or made worse by somebody. The good news is that the intimacy often translates to efficiency. If the mayor has some skills and a good staff, he can change things more than anyone else in public service can change things. Not just "hearts and minds" but sidewalks and schools. Add some terrorism and climate change to the whole thing (and sewer problems) and you have a long day. Part-time means full-time. Full-time means all the time. Mayor might be the hardest job in America. Then you hit the A&P for a chicken and a box of Uncrustables, and it starts all over again.

Continue Reading Below The U.S. Conference of Mayors is more or less an association, and their annual meeting is more or less a convention.

An article from Black Enterprise says that Google.org, the charitable aspect of Google, has recently announced that it will invest $11.5 million in a new funding to 10 racial justice organizations. In a blog for the foundation, Justin Steele, principal of Google.org, explained the need for moves such as this with a personal narrative. "I'm the grandson of a Port of Seattle police officer, the nephew of a Washington State Trooper, and the son of a Snohomish County Detention Chief. The Black men in my family were all engaged in some form of law enforcement, and throughout my lifetime, I've seen law enforcement officers be a force for good in communities. But I've also borne witness to injustices that have shaken my faith in our criminal justice system. In my work at Google.org, I help identify causes and organizations that aim to ultimately help correct many of these injustices," Steele shared. He also expanded these issues to a national conversation, such as mass incarceration. "Mass incarceration is a huge issue in the United States and a major area of focus for our grants. The U.S. penal population has exploded, growing by 400% since 1984 to more than 2 million today, with black men sentenced at over five times the rate of white men. We have the highest rate of incarceration in the world, dwarfing the rates of every developed country and even surpassing those in highly repressive regimes." While attending to issues such as mass incarceration and mistreatment of people of color by law enforcement are imperative, allowing for a future of true equality is providing equal opportunities along with equal treatment. As a result, funding will go to a wide range of organizations. These include groups like Center for Policing Equity, Impact Justice, and Center for Employment Opportunities--one of the several groups funded that work on supplying the previously incarcerated with marketable job skills. They are also providing money to organizations using data and evidence to try and find racial disparities in the justice system. This is not the first time that Google has tried to support organizations dedicated to the cause of racial justice. Since 2015, Google.org has committed more than $5 million to nonprofits designed for advancing racial justice. They also gave half a million in funding to Black Lives Matter last year.

Lee V. Gaines CBD products for sale at Bucktown shop CBD Kratom Walk into the CBD Kratom shop on the corner of Damen and Dickens in Bucktown and you'll find pill bottles, containers of balm and lotions, and small glass jars full of oil neatly arranged in tall glass display cases.

Lime Lime's electric scooters are being tested in Chicago. Are they here to stay? Will Chicagoans all ditch their bikes, cars, and public transportation to zip around everywhere on lime-green electric scooters over the next few years? It's doubtful, but the contraption is an amusing if mildly frightening way to traverse the city in short bursts. I felt like a kid for a day--and a minor celebrity--after a couple of impromptu test drives (scoots?) of the two-wheeled, long-handled devices over the weekend. The California-based company Lime parked a few dozen of its GPS-enabled Lime-S's near the Fiesta Del Sol festival in Pilsen as part of a public demo . There were four of them in a neat row right outside my apartment building, and I couldn't resist trying them out. It certainly wasn't difficult to get started: I downloaded the Lime-S app and got authorized through Facebook and Apple Pay in less than two minutes. The app borrows your phone's camera to scan the bike's QR code to activate it. When you see the electronic display turn on, then you just hop on. I found the process considerably easier and faster than getting a new Ventra or Divvy pass. Costwise, Lime-S falls somewhere between the CTA and ride sharing through Lyft or Uber. At $1, it's cheap to start the thing up, but the additional 15 cents per minute can add up quickly if you're not careful. My 3.4-mile round-trip from Pilsen to Chinatown took 28 minutes and cost $5.20 (though I got a $1 off from a promotion); my later five-mile trek from Fiesta Del Sol to Wicker Park Fest took 35 minutes and cost $8.25. Ryan Smith My Lime-S route from Fiesta Del Sol in Pilsen to Wicker Park Fest. The ride cost $8.25 for almost five miles. One of the first decisions I had to make: Where's the most appropriate place to actually ride the thing? The street felt like a weird place for a compact scooter that resembles an adult version of a child's toy, but so did the sidewalk, where I could have really annoyed (or even knocked into) pedestrians. I settled on staying within marked bike lanes, but even that felt awkward--like I was invading someone else's turf--so I tried to travel quiet residential streets instead. The novelty factor of seeing someone on an electric scooter is ultrahigh right now, which is why I kept getting distracted by pedestrians and car passengers bombarding me with questions while I was riding: Where did I get the Lime, how they could get one, how much it cost. Some just wanted me to know how fun it looked. "Damn, dude, you look like you're from the future," one guy yelled at me as I passed by his Saturday-afternoon barbecue. Related Electric scooters could be next to clog Chicago's sidewalks and bike lanes Electric scooters could be next to clog Chicago's sidewalks and bike lanes City officials and transportation advocates are moving to limit the potential downside of the powered two-wheel vehicles, documents show. By John Greenfield Bleader The moment-to-moment experience of actually riding a Lime is thrilling--maybe too much so. You barely have to move your body: one flick of the thumb on your right hand on the throttle zooms the scooter along with ease, and your left hand squeezes a brake to slow it down. I got an adrenaline rush early on, especially after I cranked the accelerator to the max while crossing the 18th Street Bridge over the Chicago River. I managed to break 21 miles per hour, and at that speed I felt like I was on a theme-park ride or a grounded version of Marty McFly's hoverboard from Back to the Future 2 . It was fun, sure; it was also wildly unsafe. Going the maximum speed on a Lime could be OK on a flat track with a smooth surface, but not on our postapocalyptic Chicago roads riddled with sharp cracks, cavernous potholes, and loose rocks and litter. On a thin, lightweight scooter, you're much more exposed than on a bicycle, and more balance is needed to stay upright--I found it nearly impossible to ride it with one hand. (Then again, this was my first time on a scooter in two decades; maybe I'm just out of practice.) Through trial and error, I discovered that somewhere between ten and 12 miles per hour is a reasonable cruising speed, but even then I once accidentally hit the edge of a pit in the pavement near May and 21st Street and thought I might fall off. Ryan Smith A first-person view of riding a Lime-S. The Black Loop Strawberry Hampton Strawberry Hampton, a transgender woman currently serving a ten-year sentence for residential burglary at Dixon Correctional Center, the fourth male prison she's been transferred to within the year, filed new claims against the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) on July 17 stating that she's been sexually and physically assaulted by inmates and prison guards, and requesting she be transferred to Logan Correctional Center, a women's prison. But her harassment at Dixon is only one episode in the ongoing abuse she claims to have suffered while in IDOC custody, according to her complaints. Hampton's lawsuit, filed on her behalf by the MacArthur Justice Center and the Uptown People's Law Center, argues that the IDOC has inappropriately assigned her to a men's prison, stating that Hampton's "physical and emotional well-being are in jeopardy at Dixon, and will be in any men's facility." "The IDOC has never articulated any reasons" for why they won't transfer Hampton, said Alan Mills, executive director of the Uptown People's Law Center, on Thursday. "The most they've said is that women sometimes get harassed in prison, so there's no guarantee she'd be protected." Hampton has lived as a woman since she was five and has continued to do so through her incarceration. She is chemically castrated, and her testosterone levels are a fraction of the average male's.

Lime Lime's electric scooters are being tested in Chicago. Are they here to stay? Will Chicagoans all ditch their bikes, cars, and public transportation to zip around everywhere on lime-green electric scooters over the next few years?

There's no doubt that religious freedom was under attack in 2017 and religious minorities especially faced many threats to their religious freedom. That's why in 2018, Americans United has partnered with allies to resolve to get to know our neighbors in the Know Your Neighbor New Year's resolution campaign . We're inviting you to join us. The campaign, which launched Monday, emphasizes that this year's resolution is especially important given the political landscape. The campaign's purpose aims to "defeat intolerance and work toward our vision of an America where all races, ethnicities, and religions live together in harmony and peace." "As we look at where we've been, we have to take stock of disturbing developments in our country and the world that we need to respond to not just as individuals but as communities," the campaign description says. Indeed, since President Donald J. Trump took office, his administration has attempted three Muslim bans, and he has constantly tweeted I slamophobic content. But religious freedom is about fairness. Singling people out for discrimination because of their religious beliefs is wrong. The Trump administration's discriminatory policies and rhetoric are harmful, and that's why we stand with Muslims and religious minorities and are fighting the ban in court . "These realities call for action. Bigoted actions are rooted in bigoted attitudes, and bigoted attitudes are rooted in ignorance and fear," the campaign notes. We agree. That's why alongside our legal battle against the Muslim ban, we've been standing with our allies to say there should be no Muslim ban ever at protests. We've also been promoting education as a means of combating Islamophobia. Resolve to get to know your neighbor. In March, AU invited Kristin Sekerci, a fellow at The Bridge Initiative , a multi-year research project studying Islamophobia based in Georgetown University's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, to a Facebook Live discussion about how to be an ally to the Muslim community. "I think the most important thing you can do and the best place to start is education, education, education," Sekerci said . "You're more likely to have more favorable views about Islam and Muslims if you know a Muslim personally." AU will continue to work towards combating ignorance because no one should face discrimination, feel unsafe, or endure harassment because of their religious beliefs - or lack thereof. Bill Mefford, AU's faith organizer, was among the faith leaders who made a video for the campaign to share what it personally means to him to know his neighbors. "Just as with other faiths, my faith mandates that my highest priority should be to ensure that all people are treated with respect and dignity and that their basic human and civil rights are respected," Mefford said. "Anytime people are belittled and attacked in the United States simply for what religion they profess, it is imperative for all people of faith to stand on the side of our neighbors. That is what this campaign is about and why I am excited to participate." Bill speaks as a person of faith, but this campaign is open to everyone. At Americans United, we advocate equality for all Americans - religious and non-religious. All people of goodwill are welcome to join us . Still haven't made a New Year's resolution? We invite you to link up with us and our coalition partners as we resolve to build a better world by getting to know our neighbors. Together we can protect religious freedom for everyone. Follow us and tweet us @AmericansUnited on Twitter: What will you do this year to #KnowYourNeighbor?

There's no doubt that religious freedom was under attack in 2017 and religious minorities especially faced many threats to their religious freedom.

By Palestine Chronicle Staff The Palestinian Center for Human Rights published a report yesterday detailing the life of Palestinian farmer Abdel Salam Manasra from Shuja'iyya neighborhood in Gaza, comparing his work in the field of agriculture before the breakout of the Second Palestinian Uprising in 2000 with the following years which saw a total blockade on the Gaza Strip and three major military offensives that turned his life upside down. Before the outbreak of the Second Palestinian Uprising in 2000, "3 to 4 farmers worked on every 1000 square meters in this area, which was a major source of income", Abdel Salam said. PCHR noted that "the tightening of the siege went hand in hand with an increase of Israeli terror that harshly affected the farmers: Ground incursions and invasions caused death and led to leveling of farmland, uprooting of trees and an increasing level of unemployment." Life under #siege : A farmer's struggle with the occupation https://t.co/qjWvMzABC4 #GAZA #PCHR -- PCHR (@pchrgaza) February 26, 2017 "The farmers, including me, found no financial reward that would cover at least the basic needs of our families", Abdel Salam added. Abdel Salam tried to plant olive trees three times after his agriculture work has collapsed but every single attempt failed because of Israel's continuing attacks on Gaza. "Today I am 52 years old and I have tried to plant olive trees three times, but every attempt was stopped by the Israelis, either through bulldozers or shells and missiles during the 2014 offensive," he continued. The serious problems of Gaza are that Israel does not leave work fishermen and farmers . It is a daily act of terrorism! #GazaUnderSiege pic.twitter.com/ioJrh9jVZs -- Pal_st (@Stefaniafodd) February 8, 2017 PCHR highlighted the suffering of the farmers of Shuja'iyya neighborhood in Gaza, who had their houses destroyed in 2014 after Israel committed a massacre and destroyed large parts of the neighborhood. "The farmers of Shuja'iyya are not only suffering from the harsh circumstances imposed on the farming sector but also from miserable living conditions. Like many families, Abdel Salam and his brothers spent all their money on their farmland and houses, which were largely destroyed by the Israeli aggression of 2014," PCHR said. "I would like to send the message that the farmer is a helpless person who has nothing in his hand but his axe", Abdel Salam concluded. (PalestineChronicle.com)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff The Palestinian Center for Human Rights published a report yesterday detailing the life of Palestinian farmer Abdel Salam Manasra from Shuja'iyya neighborhood in Gaza, comparing his work in the field of agriculture before the breakout of the Second Palestinian Uprising in 2000 with the following years which saw a total blockade on the Gaza Strip and three major military offensives that turned his life upside down.

Tuesday January 3, 2017 Ever since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, one of the things that has fascinated me most is the response of the mainstream media. Supporting the retaliatory invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, ever-increasing budgets for the national-security establishment, and constantly expanding infringements on civil liberties and privacy, mainstream reporters, commentators, and pundits have steadfastly resisted focusing on the root cause of anti-American terrorism: deadly foreign interventionism on the part of the United States and other Western countries in the Middle East. In fact, woe to those who have focused attention on US death and destruction in the Middle East as the motivating factor in the 9/11 attacks and the anti-American terrorist attacks that have come after 9/11. Whenever a libertarian has focused on terrorist blowback that comes with foreign interventionism, the response among the supporters of interventionism has been quick and fierce: "Are you blaming America for the terrorist attacks? Are you saying we are responsible for those attacks?" Americans witnessed this phenomenon in the first Republican presidential debate in the 2008 presidential race. Referring to the blowback produced by US interventionism in the Middle East, Paul said something to the effect of "They came here to kill us because we were over there killing them." By "we" Paul was referring to the US government. As Paul immediately learned, he had committed the grave sin of focusing people's attention on US foreign interventionism as the root cause of anti-American terrorism. His opponents, the mainstream press, and liberals and conservatives alike went on the attack with variations of "Oh, so you're blaming us for the attacks? You think America is responsible for the attacks?" Interestingly enough, that was the day Paul's campaign took off, primarily because a sufficient number of people, especially young people, knew instinctively that he had told the truth about US foreign policy. The dominant mindset of interventionists is: Don't ever question or challenge anything the US national-security establishment does because whatever it does is good and noble. Focus only on the evil acts of the terrorists because they are motivated only by hatred for America's freedom and values. And then support whatever measures, no matter how tyrannical and oppressive, to keep America safe from those evil people who just want to do us harm. In other words, US interventionism -- indeed, the existence of the entire Cold War national-security state -- is simply a given. The Pentagon and the CIA have the right to kill people in the Middle East and elsewhere. They have earned that right by their mission to protect "national security." Such things must never be questioned by anyone. Consider the terrorist attack in Berlin on December 19. A man named Anis Amri intentionally drove a giant truck into a crowded Christmas market in the hopes of killing as many people as possible. He succeeded, killing at least 86 people. What does that terrorist attack have to do with US interventionism in the Middle East and Afghanistan? Consider the following excerpt from an article about Germany's partnership with the US national-security establishment's interventionism in the Middle East: The Bundeswehr has flown hundreds of reconnaissance missions in Syria and Iraq since January as part of its contribution to the international efforts against the so-called "Islamic State" (IS), according to figures from its operational command center circulated on Wednesday by news agency dpa. Beginning early last year, Germany had supported coalition airstrikes against IS in the two countries, operating six Tornado reconnaissance jets and a tanker aircraft used for aerial refueling. New figures showed the Tornados flew 692 reconnaissance missions and the tanker flew 315. Together the aircraft flew 3,651 hours out of Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. Bundeswehr soldiers also helped crew airborne early warning and control (AWAC) aircraft during 10 reconnaissance flights for NATO. How do we know that the man who drove the truck into those people was motivated by US (and Western) interventionism in the Middle East and Afghanistan? Because he left a short video stating his motivations. As long as the West continues to kill Muslims, he said, he would continue to do everything he could to retaliate. And he called on other Muslims to retaliate as well. Notice something important: The terrorist attack took place in Germany, not Switzerland. The Swiss government does not partner with the US national-security establishment. It does not intervene in the Middle East and Afghanistan. It minds its own business and limits itself to self-defense. The German response to the Berlin attack was predictable. It has copied the US response to the 9/11 attacks. German officials, supported by the German mainstream press, called for stepped up infringements on civil liberties to keep Germans safe from the terrorists. And they stepped up bombing attacks on ISIS in the Middle East. Of course, the increased interventionism is just going to fuel more retaliatory terrorist strikes, which will produce more oppression and more interventionism. As I have long pointed out, US interventionism in the Middle East and Afghanistan is the greatest terrorist producing machine in history. The same applies to German interventionism. There is something else to keep in mind about all this. Despite all the hoopla about keeping people safe from terrorism, there is no way that the authorities can keep everyone safe from every possible terrorist attack. The Berlin truck attack is particularly poignant for me because just two weeks earlier I had written an article in which I pointed out the danger of a terrorist truck attack on pedestrians. I cited the crowded streets of Las Vegas as a particularly inviting target. Two weeks later comes the Berlin truck attack. It's no different all across America. What's surprising to me is that there have been no retaliatory bombing attacks in crowded malls or office buildings. The cops can't patrol every place in America. Most malls and office buildings don't have metal detectors, as an increasing number of sports venues now have. The big point is this: Why do so many Americans continue to support foreign interventionism? Why is it worth so much continued death and destruction? Why is it worth the destruction of American liberty, privacy, and prosperity? Everyone should keep in mind that there is an alternative: Bring the troops home now. No more U.S death and destruction. Leave the Middle East to the people in the Middle East. No more US fuel on the fire. And then no more retaliatory blowback from US interventionism, which means no more infringements on civil liberties and privacy. Reprinted with permission from the Future of Freedom Foundation .

Tuesday January 3, 2017 Ever since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, one of the things that has fascinated me most is the response of the mainstream media.

Mr. Rich is a self-described liberal with common sense and an open mind. Most Recent Articles by Ron A. Y. Rich: 1 2 Next Page Jun 1, 2018 -- Ron A. Y. Rich How fitting that the great William Shakespeare was focusing on bigotry when he gave Juliet the immortal line "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." It is true that Kathy Griffin also got fired for inappropriate language, but what she did was far worse--suggesting a grotesque murder of a duly elected president. There is a double standard in the way public figures are treated, and not because some may have a double chin. What Roseanne Barr did was far less offensive than what others have gotten away with, and if anything she should have gotten more leeway than others since her main claim to fame is as a comedienne, not an ethicist, and people who traditionally make fun of everything are generally deemed to be aiming for light laughs rather than mean-spirited insults. Mar 26, 2018 -- Ron A. Y. Rich Comparing the crowd size of the anti-gun rally at Washington D.C. with the crowd size at President Trump's inauguration is like comparing apples and oranges, or perhaps more apropos, bullets and blanks. It is even more outrageous than the misleading comparisons between the inaugurations of President Obama and Trump that I wrote about in the Canada Free Press , " Response to Claim That More Women Protested [at the women's rally the day after President Trump's inauguration ] Than People Attended the Inauguration," Jan. 23, 2017 (which includes a large section contrasting the Obama and Trump inauguration crowd sizes). The inauguration of President Trump was on a weekday; the anti-gun rally was on a Saturday. Schools did not generally give students an opportunity to take off from school to attend the inauguration of President Trump; if anything, most schools are headed and staffed by people who opposed the results of the election that led to the inauguration. Feb 25, 2018 -- Ron A. Y. Rich Some people have observed that President Obama's Olympic teams won more medals than President Trump's. They actually have it backwards. The blind misinformed hatred of Trump has proven to be a distraction, interfering with the ability of many members of the 2018 Olympic Team to concentrate properly. Adam Rippon has become the darling of the press of the left, when he should really be ignored or condemned rather than lionized, for his Michelle Obama style comment. Rippon ripped into Vice President Trump by saying the views of both of them have nothing in common. It is true that they may differ on homosexuality, with Pence siding with the Biblical position, but surely nobody can doubt that the Vice-President is generally committed to democracy and patriotism, and the hundreds of laws and regulations they have spawned. Adam Rippon's sin is far worse than the original Adam's sin in that by Rippon's saying he has no views in common with the Vice-President, he is not seeking knowledge but is repudiating all the principles of democracy and patriotism, from respect for the flag to respect for the office holders sworn to uphold what the flag stands for. Rippon was subjectively described as performing feats no other Olympian had performed, yet he only won a single medal, and a bronze one at that. Feb 19, 2018 -- Ron A. Y. Rich There are many ways to commit mass murder, with explosives, fires, chemical weapons, biological weapons, hijackings, trucks, knives, and so on. But far more dangerous than guns and other physical weapons are words, laws, and attitudes. It has become clear that many if not most mass murderers have given advance notice of their evil intentions, either directly or indirectly, and the guns that have caused the mass shootings generally would never have been cocked and shot had people who had advance warnings not been afraid to notify authorities in advance of their suspicions. People are more afraid of being accused of profiling than they are of being responsible for shootings. People are more afraid of being wrong than of being shot. People are more afraid of hurting the feelings of others than of preventing mass murderers who deprive innocent people of their feelings on a more permanent basis - their lives - as well as the feelings of all who knew them and loved them for the rest of their lives. Dec 8, 2017 -- Ron A. Y. Rich When considering whom to support in the coming special election for the United States Senate, we must consider that a vote to empower the Democratic party on a federal and Congressional level (as opposed to local Democrats on a state legislature or a city council) is a vote in support of policies such as the Obama Iran deal now in effect, that circumvented the treaty requirements of the consent of 2/3 of the Senators present. The obviously unconstitutional Obama Iran deal propped up - and continues to prop up--a regime that is developing nuclear weapons with the continuing promise of "Death to America," and "Death to Israel." This is also the regime that is the world's most significant state sponsor of terrorism throughout the rest of the world as well, with the proliferation of increasingly sophisticated and deadly conventional weapons. Aug 24, 2017 -- Ron A. Y. Rich President Trump must focus on educating the American people that many of the anti-statue and anti-police demonstrators came to Charlottesville armed with offensive weapons furnished by George Soros and other anti-Trump hypocrites. How many people who listened to the media reports on the Phoenix speech last night about Charlottesville last week and the statues are aware that Trump pointed out that many of the anti-statue people came armed with clubs, to go with their helmets and black masks? When the president commented that there was fault on both sides, he was referring to those people on both sides who came and come armed and braced for fights; he never equated Nazis with peaceful protestors. Jul 28, 2017 -- Ron A. Y. Rich The biggest failure of the Trump Administration continues to be its failure to present its own policies in perspective. President Trump is being pilloried in the press for his ban on transgenders in the military, just as all conservatives continue to be pilloried in the press for opposing same-sex marriage. Trump should have and should rather present his ban NOT as a new draconian measure instituted by a raging rogue or lunatic but rather as RESTORING the ban that existed from time immemorial, under liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, through the first 7 1/2 years of the Obama Administration, through June 30, 2016, including both years in which Obama and the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. Jul 19, 2017 -- Ron A. Y. Rich Most Trump haters do not really hate Donald Trump and his policies; what they hate and have hated are their mistaken perceptions of President Trump perpetuated by most of the members of the media, the distortions of his personality, the distortions of his policies, and now the distortions of the communications of Trump's representatives with certain Russian individuals. Even if President Trump's representatives met with Russian individuals who claim not to have represented the government of Russia and even if Trump's representatives met with Russian individuals who formerly had positions in the government of Russia and even if Donald Trump's representatives were told to expect to hear information that would have presented Hillary Clinton in a negative light, none of this would mean these Russians actually represented the Russian government, nor would it mean the Trump representatives made any commitments to work in concert with the Russians or to collude with the Russian government in any way. May 26, 2017 -- Ron A. Y. Rich Body slamming a reporter is a reprehensible anti-democratic act, even if in reaction to a reprehensible provocation, but it may save democracy in the United States if it finally motivates "liberals" to slam and eliminate - or at least cut back - early voting. There is a sense that the people who voted prior to Election Day in Montana made the difference in electing the candidate in Montana who body-slammed a reporter. As a result, enough people in America may finally be motivated to eliminate or cut back early voting, even if for the wrong reason. Early voting - especially weeks in advance--is anti-democratic for a few reasons. It increases the chances of voter fraud; it increases the chances a person may vote more than once; it increases the chances a person may vote in more than one jurisdiction; it increases the chances a person may forge his/her name before voting; it furthers the chances of voter fraud in the absence of requiring voters to identify themselves before voting; it unlevels the "playing field"; it enables voters to vote on essentially two differently perceived candidates, it allows people to vote on a candidate before he or she changes his/her position on any number of issues; and, perhaps above all, it encourages people to vote on a person without having the most complete understanding of the candidate that is possible on Election Day. May 10, 2017 -- Ron A. Y. Rich The only justified criticism of President Trump's firing of FBI Director Comey is the president's failure to focus on the strongest and most obvious defenses of the timing of the firing. Comey has been criticized by Democrats as well as by Republicans since he got involved in the Hillary email investigation, but the main criticism of President Trump focuses on the timing of the firing. The actual main explanation is that the FBI Director reports directly to the Associate Attorney General, and that position wasn't filled in the Trump administration until just about a week ago, in large measure because the Democrats delayed the confirmation of the Attorney General who was obviously needed in order to appoint associates. The Associate Attorney General was immediately tasked to investigate the competence and appropriateness of the Director of the FBI, and in about a week this investigation was begun and completed. Mar 27, 2017 -- Ron A. Y. Rich The simpletons who are gloating that the rejection of the Health Care Repeal and Replace legislation shows that Trump is no longer a master at the Art of the Deal seem to overlook one simple fact. Every deal with a chance of closing has to have two parties with open minds who WANT a deal. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton got things done because they had negotiating partners. The Democrats until the end refused to even consider a deal on the Trump-Ryan health care repeal and replace bill, which required the Republicans to come up with something close to unanimity in order to close the deal. It is easier to be unanimous against than in favor. Feb 20, 2017 -- Ron A. Y. Rich Trump didn't make bad mistake on Sweden - bad people made bad accusation Remember the rule: People who don't take Trump seriously take his every word literally; people who take Trump seriously don't take his every word literally. Jan 31, 2017 -- Ron A. Y. Rich Any intellectually honest people who care about immigration should be far more upset with President Obama's immigration policies than President Trump's Syrian Christians constitute 10% of the Arabs in Syria, yet during the Obama administration, they constituted from .5% to 1% of the refugees permitted to escape into America from Syria. It is patently obvious that Christians face far greater persecution in Syria and other Arab countries than Muslims, so the statistic described above demonstrates clear discrimination against Christians by the Obama administration, based 100% on religion and 0% on counter-terrorism. If anything, Christians are less likely than Muslims to be members of ISIS or Muslim fundamentalists or terrorists. Jan 23, 2017 -- Ron A. Y. Rich Once again, even most Trump supporters have failed to adequately defend him on almost every major issue, leaving it to me to do so once again (also see the series of my articles along the way, by checking the archives section by author first name, in Canada Free Press). There are two categories of responses to the claim that more women, maybe even double the number, attended the women's protests, than people who attended the inauguration. The first category of responses deals with the claim itself, and the second category of responses deals with the analysis that should take place even if the claim is accurate. Dec 19, 2016 -- Ron A. Y. Rich Those who argue that the Russian hackers gave Donald Trump an unfair advantage would do well to consider that the unfair advantage argument actually favors Trump over Clinton since Nov 14, 2016 -- Ron A. Y. Rich Some otherwise intelligent and rational people continue to compare Donald Trump to Adolph Hitler even after the American people have elected Donald Trump to serve as their President. Love him or hate him, we Americans will now have to learn to understand him. When Trump was a candidate, many people claimed he does not represent "who we are," but now that he is our president-elect, the focus should be on "who he is" and "who will he be" as president. Nov 12, 2016 -- Ron A. Y. Rich Whether or not you believe in God--or in Trump--and whether or not you believe that the recent U.S. Presidential election was good--or bad--every objective observer will have to concede that Donald Trump's shocking victory had all of the features of the most miraculous event in the lifetime of every living human being on our planet. The election of Donald Trump as President of the United States over a corrupt, pro-socialist, pro-Obama-Iran deal, and therefore in effect pro-terrorist Hillary Clinton was counter-intuitive even to Trump's supporters as well as to his detractors. It was a true miracle in our time, to overcome so many forces of evil and hypocrisy. Nov 7, 2016 -- Ron A. Y. Rich The "fact checkers" claim that Trump lied and continues to lie significantly more than Hillary did and does. The flaws in their bogus "statistics" are that more of Hillary's lies are intentional and significant, whereas more of Trump's "lies" are actually exaggerations or witticisms taken out of context, and misrepresentations by the media and other Hillary supporters (not by Trump) when intentionally misquoting or distorting what Trump has actually said. The most often cited fact checkers are not in fact objective, as, for example, Snopes and Politico. Oct 24, 2016 -- Ron A. Y. Rich Donald Trump would win by a landslide if only honest fact checkers would prevail over the dishonest fact checkers, or, to be charitable, if only the honest fact checkers would prevail over the naive and/or incompetent fact checkers. The miracle of Trump is to be competitive despite being openly opposed by, above all, Most members of the media, Most of the fact checkers selected by most members of the media, Most of the debate moderators, as well as, to a lesser extent, Trump's actual opponent, and Members of the establishments in the Republican and Democratic parties. Oct 21, 2016 -- Ron A. Y. Rich Trump may have inadvertently hurt his cause by saying too much, from time to time, and not always in a politically incorrect way (deemed politically correct by most people), but one 4-letter word he has hardly ever used is "even" followed by the 2-letter word "if." If used properly, and in enough contexts, these two words, "even if," have the potential to even the score or to catapult Trump over the top. Denying that Trump improperly touched a number of women some years ago when a private citizen (unlike Bill Clinton who clearly did so when he was an attorney general and a president) is counterproductive since, even in the best case scenario, taking Trump at his word, he may not have improperly touched SOME of the women who made their claims, and possibly did touch some but forgot. What Trump must subtly - or overtly - clarify is that EVEN IF he may have improperly touched some or even all of the women, he generally treats women well; women generally get good jobs and good benefits at his companies, more of them get high-ranking jobs at his construction companies than other women at virtually all other construction companies, and these ACTIONS are more important to most women than the possibility that he may have improperly touched maybe one in a thousand young women he came across. 1 2 Next Page

May 10, 2017 -- Ron A. Y. Rich The only justified criticism of President Trump's firing of FBI Director Comey is the president's failure to focus on the strongest and most obvious defenses of the timing of the firing.

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson before a campaign event at Colorado Christian University on Oct. 29, 2015, in Lakewood, Colo. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Before entering the political arena, Ben Carson was best-known among African Americans as "that brilliant black doctor who separated conjoined twins." His rise from poverty was inspirational and a source of pride. For many, that pride began to change when Carson slammed President Barack Obama and started championing conservative viewpoints. In an interview , NewsOne Now host Roland Martin asked the retired pediatric neurosurgeon why African Americans, who are predominantly Democrat, should cross party lines to vote for him. "If they will actually listen to what I'm saying and not what people are saying what I'm saying," Carson said. "Go back and look at my life. Look at what I do." In The Root' s Meet the Candidates series, which examines where the leading presidential candidates stand on some of the issues that matter most to black people, we've already taken a look at Bernie Sanders , Donald Trump , Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio . We continue now with a look at Carson. Raising Incomes With the economy rebounding, black people don't want to be left behind. Early in his campaign, Carson met with community leaders last year in Baltimore, shortly after the riots, and told them that fixing the economy is the main solution to crime and poverty in black neighborhoods. Reducing taxes and regulations would lead to economic growth that would benefit everyone, he stated. If he's elected, low-wage workers should not expect a minimum wage increase. Carson has fallen in line (he previously held a different view ) with other Republican candidates to oppose Fight for $15 , the movement to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. "Every time we raise the minimum wage, the number of jobless people increases," he said at the Nov. 10 GOP debate. "This is particularly a problem in the black community. Only 19.8 percent of black teenagers have a job, or are looking for one. And that's because of those high wages. If you lower those wages, that comes down." Carson also counsels the poor not to get trapped in the welfare system. In a sharp exchange with Whoopi Goldberg on The View in 2014, Carson said that the welfare system can "rob someone of their incentive" toward self-improvement. He later lamented to Fox News' Megyn Kelly that welfare has become "intergenerational" for too many people. At the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2015, he said, "We need to understand what true compassion is, to reach out to individuals who think that being dependent is reasonable as long as they feel safe. ... I'm not interested in getting rid of a safety net; I'm interested in getting rid of dependency." College Affordability As Carson frequently points out, obtaining a higher education is an important key to escaping poverty. Scores of African Americans are pursuing that path, but they are disproportionately burdened with tremendous student-loan debt, according to the Urban Institute . Carson, however, speaks very little about a solution to the student-loan crisis , which has surpassed the $1 trillion mark. He has blamed universities for contributing to the crisis and wants to hold them responsible for repaying the interest on student loans, as a motivation for them to find ways to lower the cost of a college education. Health Care While Carson doesn't give many details about his higher-education plan, he has a lot to say about health care . The retired physician shocked many with this remark at the Values Voter Summit in 2013: "Obamacare is really, I think, the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery." If elected, Carson would back efforts to repeal the president's signature health care program. Carson, according to the candidate's website , would expand individual choice and restore the doctor-patient relationship. He plans to accomplish that through individual health savings accounts, which the government would automatically open for everyone at birth. Ultimately, these accounts would negate the need for Medicare and Medicaid, Carson explained to Chuck Todd on NBC's Meet the Press . Criminal-Justice Reform Regarding reform of the criminal-justice system, which is a hot-button issue for African Americans, Carson has indicated that he would do very little until he sees evidence of police racial bias. He has, however, rejected mandatory minimums for prison sentences and has expressed support for felon voting rights. "After they have paid their debt, if they are American citizens, they should be able to vote," he said at a forum last year . When it comes to the Black Lives Matter movement, the only black candidate in the race told NewsOne Now' s Martin that he's "disappointed." Carson said that the movement fails to "recognize the carnage in the black community, from institutions like Planned Parenthood and crime on each other, is very significant." He added that Black Lives Matter should be "all-encompassing" in its focus by addressing other challenges, such as poor school systems and illegal drugs. He also told CBS News that BLM is "bullying" people and that he would prefer less emphasis on race. Gun Control Carson stands shoulder to shoulder with other conservatives in unabashed opposition to gun control. In his defense of gun rights, Carson has made some controversial statements. His comment that Nazi gun control laws enabled the Holocaust sparked tension with Jewish groups. And after a mass shooting at an Oregon college, he drew verbal fire for saying , "I would not just stand there and let him shoot me." There's at least one area where Carson disagrees with the other leading candidates in the Republican field: voting rights. Several states began erecting what many view as barriers to voting after a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2013 struck down a key feature of the Voting Rights Act. Most Republicans have argued that racism is largely in the rearview mirror and that civil-rights-era protections are no longer needed. But in a CNN interview , Carson said, "Of course I want the Voting Rights Act to be protected. Whether we still need it or not or whether we've outgrown the need for it is questionable. Maybe we have, maybe we haven't. But I wouldn't jeopardize it." At the same time, though, he has expressed doubt that racism is behind the wave of voter-fraud measures. Previously in the Meet the Candidates series: Up next in Meet the Candidates: A closer look at Ted Cruz. Nigel Roberts is a New York City-based freelance writer. Follow him on Twitter .

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson before a campaign event at Colorado Christian University on Oct. 29, 2015, in Lakewood, Colo. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Before entering the political arena, Ben Carson was best-known among African Americans as "that brilliant black doctor who separated conjoined twins."

The War is Far from Being Over in Syria Syrian Corner talks with Gilbert Achcar about recent developments in the Syrian conflict Gilbert Achcar is Professor of Development Studies at SOAS, University of London, as well as a well-known author focusing on the Middle East and the Arab World. He met with Syrian Corner during Syria Awareness Week 2018. Achcar posits that the Syrian conflict is far from over and that for Bashar al-Assad to establish a new political framework, an accord between the US and Russia is necessary. Achcar says the role of Iran in a future Syria is one of the key issues at stake, and discusses the Turkish war against the PYD, the regional role of Saudi Arabia, the international peace conferences for Syria, the recent demonstrations in Iran, and the new US foreign policy for the Middle East in the interview below. Assad and Putin recently declared that they have "won the war." Is the Syrian war over? What will happen to Bashar al-Assad? There is a lot of wishful thinking in such proclamations: battles are still raging in the Idlib region and in East Ghouta. It is true, though, that the regime, backed by Iran and Russia, has now been consolidated and is no longer facing an existential threat. Twice before, it was on the verge of a massive defeat, rescued each time by foreign intervention, first by Iran, then by Russia. As a result, the regime has now the upper hand militarily. But when I say 'regime,' I am actually referring to the Russia-Iran-Assad axis, as the Assad regime alone would not have been able to accomplish any of this. Far from it, it would have been defeated a long time ago. Besides, there is still a very large area of Syria out of regime control in the North-East, dominated by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Syrian-Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) led by the Democratic Union Party (PYD) are the SDF's backbone. They control a huge part of Syria, comprising the whole area east of the Euphrates to the Turkish and Iraqi borders -- and this is where US troops are actually involved on the ground. Two more areas are under control of the YPG and their allies: Manbij, west of the Euphrates, and Afrin where the present Turkish offensive is taking place. Specifically addressing the issue of the YPG: Turkey has started an attack on the YPG-controlled area of Afrin. Does this represent a new escalation of the conflict? Here lies a major contradiction. For many years, Western powers have been following their Turkish ally, a key member of NATO, in labelling the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as a terrorist organisation. The Turkish army has engaged in several offensives against the Kurds in Turkey over the years with the support of NATO countries. However, when the United States decided to combat ISIS in both Syria and Iraq in 2014, it did not want to involve US troops on the ground directly in the battle but provided instead air and material support to local forces. Thus, it found that the best possible ally in this battle in Syria from a military perspective would be the Kurdish forces. Washington encouraged the creation of the SDF, with the inclusion of Syrian Arabs mostly belonging to the region now under SDF control, so that the US does not appear as involved in an ethnic fight on the side of the Kurdish minority. Since everybody knows that the PYD/YPG are closely tied to the PKK, this alliance created a political paradox. In fighting ISIS, the US relied on a force that is tied to a political movement officially labelled as 'terrorist' by Turkey and its NATO allies, including Washington. Unsurprisingly, this has hugely irritated the Turkish state, outraged at seeing the US cooperating with its public enemy number one. This was made even more acute by the fact that Erdogan had undergone a sharp nationalist shift in 2015 when his party, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost the parliamentary majority. This was due to an increase in the votes garnered by a left-wing coalition in which the Kurdish movement played a central role, but it was also due, most importantly, to losing votes to the far-right Turkish nationalists. Faced with this, Erdogan resumed the war on the Kurds after years of making peace with the Kurdish movement, resorting to whipping up Turkish nationalism. The Islamic conservative stance of his discourse did not change, but a new shift occurred in the direction of Turkish nationalism and renewed onslaught on the Kurds. Erdogan organised a second election five months later, in which his party regained a parliamentary majority. Currently the AKP is in alliance with the major far-right Turkish nationalist party. Basically, this stance of Erdogan put him increasingly on a collision course with the US. Tensions with the Obama administration surged. Erdogan bet for a while on the Trump administration -- Donald Trump promised to stop supporting the Kurdish forces in Syria. However, the Pentagon contradicted him, for the Kurdish forces have proven that they are excellent fighters and have been instrumental in defeating ISIS. The Pentagon regards the SDF as the main card they hold today in Syria. They know that if they cut ties with the SDF, the Assad regime and Iran-led forces will inevitably try to recover the vast strategic area to the east of the Euphrates. Since the US is determined to contain Iran's expansion in the region, the Pentagon sees no other option than to provide the Syrian-Kurdish forces and the SDF continued support. This is where the friction lies. Erdogan is currently attacking the Kurdish-majority region of Afrin in North-West Syria. This region did play no role in the fight against ISIS and was thus no concern for the US. No US troops are present there. But Erdogan threatened to turn against Manbij -- where the SDF is backed by direct US presence on the ground. Russia greenlighted the Turkish intervention in the Afrin region, withdrawing its own troops from there. Its aim is to thus exacerbate the Turkish-US rift. This whole situation is getting even more complicated, and this is where we can reconnect to the original question: it is far from being over in Syria. Any "mission accomplished," as Bush announced very carelessly and unwisely soon after the occupation of Iraq and as Putin has proclaimed twice about Syria, is merely wishful thinking. Nothing is solved in Syria. The Assad regime, even with Russia's support, does not have the capacity to control the country. It needs Iran. Yet, Iran's presence in Syria is unacceptable for both the US and Israel. Courtesy of syria.liveuamap.com Would Turkey, if it defeats the Kurdish forces, be willing to go as far as to occupy Manbij? It is a very tough nut to crack indeed, and what is happening now is quite telling. It would be quite difficult for Turkish forces to remain in the Afrin region for a long time even if they manage to occupy it, as they would fall under permanent attacks. Moreover, they would be engaged in war on a foreign territory, without the excuse of being invited by the official government unlike Iran's and Russia's forces. Erdogan is playing with fire. He has taken a great risk with this operation. Facing discontent even within his own party, he is using this nationalist drive to consolidate his power. But a military setback could cost him a lot. Under what circumstances would Iran leave Syria? Iran would need to be compelled to leave. This could happen if there is a Russian-American agreement, in the form of a United Nations Security Council resolution stipulating that, on the basis of a political agreement that would be reached in Geneva, all foreign troops that entered Syria after 2011 (excluding the Russians who were already in Syria long before that year) should leave the country. It would be difficult for Iran to say "no," especially if the Syrian regime is part of this deal. Assad would not side with Iran over Moscow if he had to choose. Moscow relies on his regime's forces on the ground, while Iran is occupying the ground. Tehran would not allow the Syrian regime the same margin of autonomy as Moscow would. Add to that that the Iranian regime is ideologically quite different from the Syrian regime. The Syrian regime has been portrayed by many as a bulwark against Islamic fundamentalism even though it is propped on the ground by Iran-led Islamic fundamentalist forces. That's also part of the complexity of this situation. There have been some important demonstrations in Iran since the 28th of December last year. What influence on Iran's intervention in Syria can they have? Had the movement carried on and continued to expand, it may have created a situation compelling the regime to reconsider its intervention in Syria, which was condemned by the demonstrators. But the movement subsided and was quelled, and the regime is back in control. We see, however, a surge in the tension between the two wings of the regime. The reformist wing represented by Iranian President Rouhani is trying to curtail the hard-line wing of the Revolutionary Guard ( Pasdaran ), arguing that the latter and its foreign interventions are a burden on the Iranian economy. If the social turmoil resumes, things may change, but for now the regime is in full control. Moreover, Syria is an important card in Tehran's confrontation with the Trump administration, which threatens to cancel the nuclear agreement. Such a move would play into the hands of the hardliners and therefore encourage a continuation of Iran's expansion as a counter movement to US pressure. Do you think the European Union (EU) should have a bigger role in criticising Turkey for the attack on the Kurds? The EU has failed to act independently of the United States on the global level with regard to political and military issues. It has mostly behaved until now as an auxiliary of the United States. This has become a problem for Europe with the Trump administration because it is the first time that there is a US president who is so much in contrast politically with Europe's mainstream and so close to Europe's far right. The Bush administration did have problems with some European governments, such as France's and Germany's that stood against the invasion of Iraq due to differing interests. But Tony Blair's UK government, for instance, was fully involved on the side of Bush. On the Palestine issue, there has been a crystallisation of a different EU opinion, which is why the President of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Mahmoud Abbas, is now attempting to get the Europeans to recognize the Palestinian state. On Iran too, there are open divergences between the Europeans and the Trump administration. The European governments were quite happy with Obama's policy leading to the nuclear deal with Iran, which Trump considers to be the worst agreement ever concluded by the US. If he does rescind the nuclear agreement, this will create an open crisis in US-European relations. Thus, Palestine and Iran, for the time being, are two contentious issues on which there is a sharp contrast between the US and the EU. The Syrian issue though is not one on which Europe holds views opposed to that of the US. On Syria, the EU has displayed no independent stance to this day. Considering that the conflict is not over, do you think there is any possibility of reconstruction, as Assad is calling for? Again, that is wishful thinking. Russia itself has on several occasions called upon the EU to fund the reconstruction of Syria. They have a lot of nerve because Russia has secured a position whereby, if there were to be a reconstruction of Syria, it would play a key role in it. Moscow would like the Europeans to fund Syria's reconstruction with Russian companies pocketing the lion's share of contracts. But this will not happen because the Europeans will not disburse any money without a US green light, which will not be given until Washington is convinced that Iran won't take advantage of the situation. Under the present conditions, Iran too would necessarily secure a major part of the market. So, reconstruction won't really be on the agenda until this whole political puzzle is solved. Russia is trying to set a post-war political framework for Syria. They've started doing it at the end of 2016, shortly before Trump inaugurated his presidency. They were expecting him to deliver on his promise of new relations with Russia, but for the time being this is not happening as the establishment in Washington reacted with a strongly anti-Russian position. In any event, Trump won't reach any deal with the Russians unless they agree to stop cooperating with Iran in Syria and push its forces out of the country. For Trump the ideal scenario would be to reach a deal with Putin, entrust the Russians to take care of Syria on the condition that they push Iran out. In exchange for that, the United States could remove sanctions on Russia and give it some concessions in Europe. But this is clearly not on the horizon for now. Do you think any of the talks in Sochi and Geneva will change anything in Syria? These talks are about the conditions of a political settlement. We know more or less what this will look like -- a transitional period, a new constitution, new elections, all this with Assad remaining in power and running in a new presidential election -- so there's not much new to be expected in that regard. Moscow and Assad proclaim that they are willing to have international observers monitoring new elections. They may be betting on Assad's victory in free presidential elections today in Syria, because the Assad regime is one bloc whereas the opposition is very much divided. The fact that the opposition is in shambles may give the Assad regime enough confidence to undergo such a scenario. However, for such a settlement to happen, an international agreement is necessary first. In the Moscow-sponsored Sochi talks, only Russia, Turkey, Iran, the Syrian regime, and a discredited part of the Syrian opposition did participate. In the UN-sponsored talks in Geneva, the United States and Europe are involved. I can't see the US accepting an agreement that does not stipulate the withdrawal of all foreign troops that entered Syria after 2011. In other words, the US would say, "We are willing to leave Syria provided that Iranian forces leave it as well." That's why the US is currently sticking to the region east of the Euphrates. Washington's message to the Russians is: "We will leave Syria to you if you get it rid of the Iranians, otherwise we won't." Trump's view of the conflict is different from Obama's. He is trying to isolate Iran and has recognised Jerusalem as capital of the Israeli state. Why are their policies different and what implication will Trump's policy have for the region? There are different issues here. When it comes to Israel, Trump is catering to a specific audience: the Evangelicals and other Christian Zionists, who constituted a large part of the Republican's constituency under Bush and are still a major part of Trump's voter base. Mike Pence, the US Vice President, is representative of this segment. He is outbidding even his own boss in pro-Israeli discourse. Conversely, there is no consensus on this issue within the wider US establishment. Even some people in Trump's entourage were not happy with his stance on Jerusalem, which is very ideological. The only issue on which there is a consensus in the administration is a tough attitude towards Iran, but this does not even include scrapping the nuclear agreement. Does the Saudi regime still play any decisive role in the Syrian conflict, especially with regard to Iran? Trump very much encouraged the Saudi rulers to escalate hostilities against Iran. They have been very clumsy in the handling of episodes such as that of putting pressure on Qatar or that of the forced resignation of Lebanon's Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, which both ended up in fiasco. The Saudi rulers have no strategy of their own regarding Syria, they align behind the United States. The remnants of the Syrian opposition that are linked to them have been very much weakened. Thus Riyadh's overall leverage in Syria is much weakened. Its main concern is to contain Iran and roll it back, and for that they can only rely on Washington. This article was originally published in Syrian Corner , the SOAS Syria Society magazine. The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

The War is Far from Being Over in Syria Syrian Corner talks with Gilbert Achcar about recent developments in the Syrian conflict Gilbert Achcar is Professor of Development Studies at SOAS, University of London, as well as a well-known author focusing on the Middle East and the Arab World.

The announcement of the first-ever LGBT Pride Month White House Champions of Change Contest is one of many recent events suggesting Obama is on our side for real now. By Riese | April 10, 2012 | 11 Comments "The questions quickly became, what is BDSM? And what is lesbian? I'm not sure I know the answer in general, but I figured out a context for this anthology to be born into, some parameters about kinks and fetishes and gender." By Carolyn Yates | April 8, 2012 | 26 Comments "Within the violence of invisibility there was also a sense of liberation and expansiveness, like we could just make everything up as we go along." By Hallie | April 5, 2012 | 86 Comments

The announcement of the first-ever LGBT Pride Month White House Champions of Change Contest is one of many recent events suggesting Obama is on our side for real now.

Palestinian women attend a demonstration supporting the Hamas-led government in the West Bank city of Nablus May 9, 2006. (MaanImages/Rami Swidan) Suppose I were to leave my office here in Chicago and walk the short distance to the kidney dialysis unit down the road and pull out the tubes to which four elderly patients were attached, making them seriously ill or killing them. Suppose I said I did this because I disagreed with the Bush Administration's invasion and occupation of Iraq, its use of torture, and its countless other profoundly undemocractic and illegal policies. What would that make me? A murderer for sure, a monster and a new vicious kind of terrorist. Such an action would be unconscionable in any moral system. And yet this is what the so-called "international community," a few powerful governments, feel entitled to do to Palestinians because those governments disagree with the policies of the elected Hamas authority. Ha'aretz reported on May 9 that "At least four people suffering from kidney diseases died in the Gaza Strip in April, after the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority Health Ministry cut the Shifa Hospital's budget for the necessary dialysis treatments." The Palestinian Authority is near to collapse due to a decision by the European Union, the largest donor to Palestinians under occupation, to cutoff vital aid. At the same time, the United States has moved aggressively to threaten anyone who tries to render assistance to suffering Palestinians, scaring banks from allowing cash transfers to the Palestinian Authority. According to Dr. Juma al-Saka, 300 of Gaza's 650 kidney patients are treated at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, and due to the sanctions, their treatments were cut from a required three per week to just two. Four have already died, others are sure to follow unless the EU - US sanctions against the Palestinian people end. Ha'aretz adds that, "Kidney ailments are not the only diseases going untreated, according to the doctor, who said that some cancer patients have stopped receiving chemotherapy and other vital drugs due to money and equipment shortages." All of this is a flashback to the years after the 1991 Iraq war, when international sanctions killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, starting with the oldest, the youngest and the sickest. In US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's immortal words, this holocaust was "worth it" if it helped the US achieve its policy objectives. I naively thought the lesson had been learned. Now the Palestinians are to have their turn. Meanwhile, Israel continues to build a comprehensive system of apartheid, to kill Palestinian civilians and to steal their land with total impunity. On Saturday, May 6, 65-year-old Mousa Salim Mousa al-Sawarka, was killed by shrapnel to the head, when Israel shelled the area in the northern Gaza Strip where he was grazing his animals. The next morning, Hassan Hussein Khader al-Shaf'ei, 55, was killed by shrapnel throughout the body, while he was farming his land near the same area, and a woman, Fatima Mohammed Sahweel, 59, was wounded with shrapnel to her right the eye. Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has announced the construction of thousands of new Jewish-only settler homes in the occupied West Bank. ("Olmert: Settler blocs to be part of Israel forever," Ha'aretz, May 4, 2006). Within Israeli society, the dehumanization of Palestinians continues to advance: a new poll by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 62 percent of Israelis support "government-backed Arab emigration" -- in other words ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. ("More than half of Israelis want gov't to help Arabs emigrate," Ha'aretz, 9 May 2006) As Israel's onslaught goes unchallenged by the US , the UN leadership, European and Arab governments, it is encouraging to see that the UK 's largest university and college lecturers union, the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education ( NATFHE ), is about to vote again on a resolution to recommend that its 67,000 members boycott Israeli lecturers and academic institutions that do not publicly declare their opposition to Israeli policy in the occupied territories. (Ha'aretz, May 9). Ronnie Fraser, a NAFTHE delegate who heads a group called Academic Friends of Israel, objected that "Academic work should not be blocked on political grounds." The UK Ambassador to Israel, Simon McDonald, reacted to the boycott plan saying, "we do not believe that such academic boycotts are productive - far more can be obtained through dialogue and academic cooperation." Would that the British government was so willing to defend Palestinians' rights as it is to protect the privileges of Israelis. It seems that Israeli professors should never be deprived of their ability to enjoy conferences in Oslo, London or Florence no matter how bad things get in Palestine, no matter how imprisoned Palestinians are in their ghettos and no matter how complicit major Israeli institutions are with the apartheid system. The EU is now trying to deflect criticism by putting together a plan to channel aid to the Palestinians without going through Hamas. Desperate for any relief, many Palestinians have welcomed this, though the aid seems a long way from flowing as the EU has no idea how to achieve it. This palliative is merely another example of the EU stepping in to subsidize the occupation and mitigate its most pernicious effects so as to avoid actually having to do the hard work of confronting Israel and rolling back its colonialism. Ali Abunimah is co-founder of The Electronic Intifada Facebook Google+ Twitter

Palestinian women attend a demonstration supporting the Hamas-led government in the West Bank city of Nablus May 9, 2006. (MaanImages/Rami Swidan) Suppose I were to leave my office here in Chicago and walk the short distance to the kidney dialysis unit down the road and pull out the tubes to which four elderly patients were attached, making them seriously ill or killing them.

Alongside Iran Alive's 24/7 programming are 24/7 phone-in lines and website chat spaces where staff members receive prayer requests and other information from mostly Iranian viewers. In the past six months, Shariat said, calls focusing on the economic situation have dramatically increased, as prices for milk, bread, cheese, and eggs skyrocketed. Many said they had cut meat consumption to once a month, or not at all. One viewer called to ask for financial help, saying she and her husband were so desperate they had considered selling their infant to human traffickers. IRANIANS EXPECTED THEIR ECONOMIC WOES TO EASE following the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and several world powers, including the United States. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action called for the lifting of economic sanctions against the regime in exchange for Iran limiting uranium enrichment at its two nuclear facilities to nonmilitary purposes and making the facilities subject to international inspections. With the lifting of sanctions, middle- and lower-class Iranians watched inflation and their own costs of living continue to climb, along with unemployment. Yet government jobs and luxury items proliferated among the country's ruling clergy class. "There are more Maseratis on the streets of Tehran than in Beverly Hills," said Shariat, "and the ones driving them are children of the country's mullahs." A 2017 spike in prices coincided with defaults by investment firms. The first call to protest came from an accountant at a saffron import company in the northeastern city of Mashhad who learned his savings disappeared when an investment firm went bankrupt. "We lost all our fortune and no one cares," the accountant told The Wall Street Journal. The gathering discontent coincided with President Hassan Rouhani's decision to release to the public his proposed government budget, an unusual move some believe Rouhani, a so-called moderate, possibly hoped would embarrass the country's ruling ayatollahs. The budget showed millions of dollars going to Islamic religious foundations and clerics' offices, while cash subsidies to the poor were cut. Additionally, it showed the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps receiving $8 billion--a huge sum in a country weary of Iran's military incursions in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere. The purpose of the Revolutionary Guard, directly controlled by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, is to defend the Islamic regime from internal and external threats. Its Basij militia, essentially a domestic paramilitary force, brutally cracked down on 2009 demonstrations. The Quds Force has played a strategic role in propping Iraqi and Syrian militaries in their fights against ISIS. At the same time, the Revolutionary Guard is Iran's primary link to terrorist proxies--Hamas in Sinai and Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria--and in charge of exporting Iran's Islamic ideology, and its jihadist revolution, worldwide. After the accountant from Mashhad sent a group message via Telegram, an encrypted smartphone app, protests that began in the city on Dec. 28 quickly spread elsewhere. In under a week, tens of thousands of Iranians clogged streets in more than 80 cities, including Tehran, and nearly every one of the country's 31 provinces. Their shouts of "Death to Rouhani!" morphed into "Death to Khamenei!" in a country where criticizing the ayatollahs can be a capital crime. Police hauled water cannons to disperse the crowds, and Basij militiamen arrived on motorcycles to beat them, but the protesters remained indignant, ripping down and burning banners dedicated to Khamenei as they shut down streets. In Tehran, police arrested 200 protesters in one day. The authorities blocked internet access and social media sites, depriving millions of Iranians of the one place where they could escape repression, their one means of connection with one another and the outside world (see sidebar). Local residents made a cottage industry out of bypassing the censorship--posting raw footage online via VPNs, or virtual private networks, accessed through India and elsewhere. Even with Telegram and other messaging apps cut off, Iranians used VPNs to access them. News portals outside the country also solicited man-on-the-street reports via Telegram, then posted them on Instagram or elsewhere, keeping word of the uprisings alive. One video, posted Jan. 1, showed security forces firing directly on protesters in the city of Esfahan, killing five demonstrators. Long after international coverage subsided, Iranians were posting clips showing wall-to-wall protesters in some cities late into the night, defiantly raising placards and chanting. AS IRAN'S WIDESPREAD PROTESTS in years continued, in Dallas the Iran Alive team decided to add additional programming, including another live broadcast at 10:00 each night. They knew they risked censorship, too, with jamming towers in Tehran often breaking up satellite TV signals. But steady viewer feedback confirmed the shows were getting through. Broadcasters have learned to rerun programs outside of prime times, when jammers are down, and they bypass filters for online streaming by sending out new links to programs every day. The late-night segments, said Shariat, were a way to review the events of the day in Iran and air lessons in how Christians could respond. "Most do not know their role because they are new Christians," he explained. "We want to guide them in how to look at these events from God's perspective."

In under a week, tens of thousands of Iranians clogged streets in more than 80 cities, including Tehran, and nearly every one of the country's 31 provinces.

New York: An Indian-origin scientist is developing new vaccine pills from tiny pollen particles, which could treat people suffering from sneezing allergy. Harvinder Gill, a chemical engineer at Texas Tech University, plans to scoop out the pollen's allergy-causing innards and leave just the non-allergenic outer shell. Getty Images The idea harnesses the power of pollen's natural engineering -- a tough outer shell made from a polymer that could survive the human body's stomach acids and digestive processes. The vaccine by Texas Tech University could also be widely used for troops suffering from sneezing allergy and has drawn military funding from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), 'Live Science' reported. Oral vaccines skip the pain of a needle injection and don't need trained medical personnel to administer. However, researchers have struggled to create vaccine pills that can survive long enough inside the body to properly deliver the vaccine. Gill's funded project will become part of DARPA's broader efforts to make battlefield medicine both simpler and more effective for troops. Similar DARPA medical projects include developing miniaturised bio-chip versions of human body parts and organs for speedier drug testing, as well as creating swarms of tiny sensors that could diagnose or treat soldiers from inside their bodies, the report said.

New York: An Indian-origin scientist is developing new vaccine pills from tiny pollen particles, which could treat people suffering from sneezing allergy.

Other than her amazing coffee-drinking, snow-loving, Dragonfly Inn-running mother, there has been only one constant in Rory Gilmore's life: Paris Geller. From Chilton to Yale, Paris has always been there. The best thing about her? She is relatable. Like that time she said, "so I ate a family size bag of salt and vinegar potato chips and went to bed at 7:30pm." Or when she got to a party late because she "had to stop and eat first in case the food here sucked." Rory should have dated Paris instead of Dean, Jess, or Logan. With the exception of Lorelei, her relationship with Paris was the only one where Rory was motivated to better herself without having to give up bits and pieces of who she was. Being in a relationship where you are pushed to improve yourself is healthy. Being in one where you feel forced to change who you are is toxic. When something changed in their relationship, rather than deal with it maturely, all of Rory's beaus left her high and dry. Jess crashed a car, broke Rory's arm, and then ran away. Dean broke up with Rory when she didn't say "I love you" back to him, and Logan didn't tell Rory about cheating on her at the wedding but still expected her to give up her entire career and marry him. But really, when has Paris ever abandoned Rory? Never, that's when. All of Rory's boyfriends tried to force her to give up her hopes and dreams in order to be with them. Dean was possessive and jealous, threatened by Rory's ambition and status. Rather than try to grow with her, he chose to be angry and resentful. Jess wanted Rory to drop everything and come to New York with him. Logan wanted her to reject her dream job and marry him. But Paris Geller? She understood the desire to follow your ambition, wherever it may take you. Paris was the only one who was nothing but supportive in regards to Rory's career, even when she knew that it meant their lives were going to go in different directions. Paris is real. There are no games in her relationship with Rory. Sure, her realness is aggressive sometimes, but she doesn't sugarcoat things or treat Rory like a porcelain doll the way Dean, Jess and Logan do. At their graduation from Yale, Paris told Rory that they are now on their own, but Rory is still going to do such great things with her life. But Rory tells Paris that she hasn't been able to shake her off for years, and no matter where they end up, they will still remain friends for a very long time. This is just another sign on how healthy their relationship with each other was: Rory was unable to maintain any sort of truly healthy relationship with any of her beaus after their lives diverged, but not so with Paris. Paris is a forever friend. I only wished she could have been a forever girlfriend. Also, let's all just appreciate that episode where Paris planted one on Rory during spring break, can we please? Free Download: Great Dames! Get inspired by some of our favorite interviews, featuring Dolly Parton, Solange, Tina Fey, Jessica Williams, Kathleen Hanna, Laverne Cox, the Broad City gals, and more! Plus, keep up with the latest from BUST. Photo and gifs via Gilmore Girls Rebecca Charlotte is a recent graduate of Westfield State University. Currently she works as a part-time librarian, but her love for Gilmore Girls and dogs is full time. Her work has appeared in Her Campus, elephant journal, and will be included in the upcoming issue of Doll Hospital Journal. Follow her on Instagram , Twitter and Facebook .

Other than her amazing coffee-drinking, snow-loving, Dragonfly Inn-running mother, there has been only one constant in Rory Gilmore's life: Paris Geller.

Scher began by noting that a few influential Trump critics in the conservative movement have left the Republican Party in the Trump era, and a few are even rooting for a Democratic takeover of one or both chambers of Congress in November. This is, in his estimation, a half-measure unequal to the gravity of the moment and generally not in this group's interests. There is no country for a homeless pundit. They will need a tribe if they are to be effective and, ultimately, protected. Outside the tent, Scher claims, the Democratic Party will continue to move left and become even more unappealing to those on the right. The party can serve as a haven for conservative refugees, he insists, if they'd only just throw off their partisan blinders. Ideologically diverse, accommodating, and conciliatory, Scher insists that Democrats maintain the last true big tent. "[I]f you are primarily horrified at how Trump is undermining the existing international political and economic order--hugging Russia, lauding strongmen, sparking protectionist trade wars--then becoming a Democrat is your best option," he wrote. This isn't just a terrible misunderstanding of what animates Trump's conservative critics; it is a misguided and ultimately deceptive misrepresentation of the modern Democratic Party. Scher makes the point repeatedly that the Trump-skeptical conservative movement has utterly lost the debate and the GOP with it. In 2016, most of the party's voters rejected the doctrinal conservatism to which they cling. What else is new? The Republican Party has not always been a conservative party. Conservatives waged a 20-year struggle to displace the progressive ethos that typified the GOP from T.R. to Eisenhower. Preserving the GOP's ideological predisposition toward conservatism is a constant struggle, but it is one that conservative opinion makers relish. Trump's critics in the conservative movement abandoned him not just because of his temperamental defects, but because of his progressive impulses . The president's skepticism toward free trade, his conciliatory posture toward hostile regimes abroad, his Keynesian instincts, his apathy toward budget deficits, and his general amenability toward heedless populism are traits that traditionally appeal to and are exhibited by Democrats . Why would conservatives join that which they are rebelling against? Scher's contention that the Trump-skeptics in conservative ranks would have more influence over the Democratic Party than the GOP is bizarre. The anti-Trump right is far too small a contingent to have any impact on the evolutionary trajectory of the Democratic Party, even if they were to abandon the principles that led them into the wilderness in the first place. They do, however, enjoy influence over American politics wildly disproportionate relative to their numerical strength. Trump-skeptical conservatives are ubiquitous features on cable news. Their magazines and websites are enjoying a renaissance . They haunt their comrades who have made their peace with Trumpism. Most critically, they represent the strain of conservatism to which the majority of the Republican Party's congressmen and women are loyal because it was that brand of conservatism that led them into politics in the first place. The worst-kept secret of the Trump era is that this president receives his highest marks when he's doing conventionally conservative things. When the president behaves as he promised to on the campaign trail, Republicans rebel and often rein in his worst impulses . It's not much, but it is a sign that a partial restoration of the status quo ante is not unthinkable. Scher frequently cites exceptions within the Democratic firmament as though they do not illustrate the rule. He claims that the Democratic Party is not "a rotten cauldron of crass identity politics, recreational abortion, and government run amok." As evidence, he cites the fact that a handful of pro-life Democrats have managed to resist the party's purge of that formerly-common view, but that is an admission of heterodoxy. The Democratic Party's fealty to divisive identity politics is hardly a figment of conservative imaginations. From Salon.com to the New York Times opinion page, many on the left, too, have soured on the party's attachment to racial and demographic hierarchies. And as for the party's reputation for profligacy, Democrats can renounce the works of the 111th Congress --the last time the party had total control of Washington--whenever they muster up the gumption. Scher believes it is inconsistent for conservatives to support a Democratic takeover of one or more legislative chambers and not support the Democratic agenda, but there is nothing inconsistent about it. Conservatives who think the GOP-led Congress has proven an insufficient check on the GOP-led executive are placing a vote of confidence in the Constitution, not the progressive agenda. If the cohort formerly dubbed #NeverTrump conservatives believe Democrats would be a better governing party than the GOP, they should certainly register Democratic at the nearest opportunity. If they believe that, though, they're not #NeverTrump conservatives at all. They're just #NeverTrump. Conservatives are no strangers to being torn between their principle and their influence. Conservative opinion makers have been compelled to choose between proximity to power and their core values before. Those who chose temporary isolation in order to shield conservative beliefs from being disfigured by those who do not cherish them might not enjoy the gratitude they've earned. But they left behind a markedly more conservative country than the one they were born into. The lessons of recent history are clear: Those who are content to sacrifice their principles for access and influence preserve neither in the long run. When Acosta descended from the podium on which he broadcasts, he calmly approached his abusers and invited them to speak --most of them happily accepted. This isn't the first time that Acosta has served as the object of a mob's derision, only for their ire to transform into celebrity-worship when the cameras go off. No one should minimize the potential for savagery here; it would not be the first time that the president has incited his followers to acts of violence , and the media figures and outlets Trump singles out endure harassment and credible threats from the president's most unhinged fans. But there is a performative aspect to the Two Minutes Hate directed toward Acosta. He serves as their foil, the heel who absorbs the crowd's fury in the ring only to sign autographs for his hecklers backstage. And there's some evidence that Acosta relishes that role . That doesn't excuse any of this behavior. Indeed, it makes it worse. In his conduct as America's chief executive, Donald Trump has inflamed and aggravated tensions to serve his own narrow ends. That objective is so transparent, though, that most who participate in this performance must do so knowing it is a farce. In willingly suffocating their better angels with a pillow, Trump and his allies may be radicalizing the truly unhinged who cannot see through the act. Perhaps more depressing, the Trumpified Republican Party is acclimating itself to behaviors and policies that would have been considered unspeakably callous not all that long ago. In that speech before a group of veterans last week, Trump implied that media reports of businesses or individuals hurt by his trade war were pure fabrications. "Don't believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news," Trump said to cheers. "What you are seeing and what you are reading is not happening." That goes for polling data, too. At least, polling that the president doesn't like. "Polls are fake, just like everything else," Trump insisted this week before citing his own standing among Republicans as determined by--what else?--polls. The only way to avoid feeling insulted by this naked contempt for the audience's intelligence is to convince yourself that this is all a game. Maybe rally goers think that blind displays of fealty to the president frustrate all the right people. Maybe they love being swept up in the performance art of it all, and Jim Acosta might as well be the Iron Sheik to Trump's Hulk Hogan. The bottom line is that the audience believes they're part of the act. But Trump's acolytes are endorsing or excusing shameful behavior that no one should tolerate from public servants or the government of which they are a part. Donald Trump is fond of reciting portions of civil-rights activist Oscar Brown Jr.'s 1963 poem, "The Snake," from behind the lectern to impugn foreign refugees fleeing war and poverty abroad as sleeper agents who seek only to do Americans harm. This isn't just agitation; it's policy. The United States took in just 33,000 refugees last year, the lowest intake in over a decade and well below the quota. This year, administration officials led by immigration antagonist Stephen Miller hope to resettle only 15,000 refugees, a decline that experts contend is designed to allow the private charities and public mechanisms that facilitate resettlement to atrophy permanently. At first, Trump was happy to defend his "zero tolerance" policy, which became a euphemism for breaking up families at the border to deter future border crossers. He incoherently blamed "Democrat-supported loopholes" for the policy while simultaneously insisting that a secure nation cannot have a "politically correct" immigration policy, all to the sound of applause. Only when the backlash became so great did he back off this draconian policy, and his fans cheered him for that, too . The public outcry that erupted following the termination of "zero tolerance" has abated, but the horrors have not. In testimony before Congress on Tuesday, a Health and Human Services official confessed that they knew the "separation of children from their parents entails significant risk of harm to children." The psychological abuse associated with this policy has occasionally led to outbursts among incarcerated children, leading U.S. government officials to administer regular doses of psychotropic medication to their charges without the consent of a parent or guardian--a practice that a district judge halted in a sweeping ruling on Monday. The president's rallies exemplify the post-truth moment, in which his supporters adopt Trump's penchant for moral and intellectual malleability as though it was a virtue. As Jonah Goldberg observed, the president's vanguard has seamlessly transitioned from claiming that there was no evidence that the president welcomed the interference of Kremlin operatives in the 2016 election to contending that welcoming such interference would not violate any statutes to insisting that cooperation with hostile foreign powers for political gain is just best practice. Likewise, when Trump's crowds chant "lock her up" nearly two years into the Trump administration, they know that's not going to happen. It's the kind of banana republicanism that owns the libs , and that's all that matters.

Scher began by noting that a few influential Trump critics in the conservative movement have left the Republican Party in the Trump era, and a few are even rooting for a Democratic takeover of one or both chambers of Congress in November.

On Wednesday, "Late Night" host Seth Meyers hilarious slammed President Trump for one of his controversial moves while in Puerto Rico. While helping with relief efforts, Trump started throwing paper towels into a crowd like a basketball. "He looks like a drunk grandfather playing 'Pop-A-Shot' at Dave & Busters. Now, Trump is clearly much more comfortable tossing paper towels into a crowd than he is dealing with a crisis, because he has no idea what to do," Meyers said. Meyers then questioned Trump's current tax plan, lack of government support in Puerto Rico, and gun laws. "As we speak, Trump and Republicans in Congress are working on a plan to spend $2 trillion on tax cuts for richest Americans. But what about victims of Hurricane Maria - or victims of the horrific shooting in Vegas? We shouldn't have to plead with our government to do something after a tragedy. And yet, here we are. The only gun bills Republicans have taken up recently would actually loosen gun laws." According to Deadline, one bill currently being pushed by the GOP will make it much easier to obtain silencers for guns. Rep Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) argued that in Europe "it's considered neighborly." "Oh, suddenly Republicans care about what Europe does? Because in Europe it's also considered neighborly to give everyone healthcare, make college free, and take naps in the middle of the day. Also, Europe has like five guns total." The video of Seth Meyers is below:

On Wednesday, "Late Night" host Seth Meyers hilarious slammed President Trump for one of his controversial moves while in Puerto Rico.

The story of CENTCOM analysts accusing commanders of manipulating intelligence reports on ISIS to appease the White House is a story that has some interest in the mainstream media - but what if it is actually connected to a larger issue? Washington DC -Allegations are mounting that senior intelligence officials at Central Command not only skewed findings on the ISIS war to please D.C., but tried to hide what they did. In July, a group of intelligence analysts at the U.S. military's Central Command accused their bosses of distorting and selectively editing intelligence reports about the fight against ISIS in order to portray that campaign as more successful than it really was. As a result of those complaints, the Pentagon's inspector general opened an investigation. Now, the allegations of misconduct have extended to a possible cover-up, with some analysts accusing the senior intelligence officials at CENTCOM, Maj. Gen. Steven Grove and his civilian deputy, Gregory Ryckman, of deleting emails and files from computer systems before the inspector general could examine them, three individuals familiar with the investigation told The Daily Beast. One U.S. official said the alleged activity could amount to obstruction and interference with the inspector general's investigation, which began last summer. ( read more ) The presumption within the controversy (as it is generally discussed by the media) is that CENTCOM bosses changed the intel to give the impression of success to please the White House. But what if that wasn't the reason? What if the BIGGER story is that CENTCOM officers actually gave the White House accurate negative outlook intelligence, but the White House itself was ideologically adverse to the content therein? Meaning the White House did not want to take action based on accurate intelligence, because the White House didn't actually want to fight ISIS; they only wanted to promote the illusion of fighting ISIS. What if, the bigger story is a potential for risk if the broader public became aware the inept U.S. response to ISIS was not based on faulty intelligence, but was rather based on the fact that President Obama, and those within his inner circle, were adverse to fighting. Intentionally adverse. What if the inept and inadequate response was not ineptitude or inadequacy, but rather an intentional and deliberate ploy to appear inept and inadequate. The faulty intelligence story then is used as an EXCUSE, to hide the real reasoning - plausible deniability. Wouldn't an investigation into the claims of those providing the intelligence then be a risk to the White House? FOUR DAYS AGO 11/21/15 - A Congressional task force is being created to investigate whether U.S. Central Command, headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base, manipulated intelligence. The chairmen of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the House Armed Services Committee and the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee "are creating a task force to investigate allegations of intel manipulation at CENTCOM," said Jack Langer, spokesman for select committee Chairman U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, a Republican from California. CENTCOM received the request from Congress for information on intelligence assessments and, in coordination with the Department of Defense, "has responded accordingly," said Air Force Col. Pat Ryder, a CENTCOM spokesman. Ryder said that he cannot comment on the information provided because of an ongoing investigation into allegations that CENTCOM altered intelligence reports to provide a rosier picture of the fight against the so-called Islamic State jihadi group. ( read more ) Wouldn't such a congressional investigation be considered a risk? Might such inquiry take the conversation in an entirely new direction and expose a hidden, albeit ideological, agenda? Essentially, the scenario would be: the White House was provided accurate and specific intelligence of ISIS operations, movements, locations, actions and activities, and yet none of that information was every used to carry out the publicly stated objectives.... ....nothing ever done to destroy those ISIS operations, disrupt those activities, target those locations. Intentionally nothing done. Two ideological NATO Allies, Turkey and U.S.A., who have leaders with ulterior motives in support of ISIS (aka. for all intents and purposes -politically and ideologically- the Muslim Brotherhood). President Obama essentially aiding his friend and Islamist BFF President Erdogan through "non action" against an entity benefiting the intents of Erdogan. But Obama has to keep up anti-ISIS appearances for domestic consumption. What if .... say, two months ago , Jordan, via King Abdullah, and Egypt via Fattah el Sisi then frustratingly turned to Russia to discuss how this U.S. anti-ISIS effort is a false fight in media appearance only. Their specific two countries are suffering, and becoming more destabilized as the radicalization grows. What if.... President Obama views Abdullah and el-Sisi as inauthentic Arab leaders who exist only as a result of a centuries old euro-Colonialism. Ideologically illegitimate and unworthy of U.S. support under his leadership. What if .... an agreement is reached between Putin, Abdullah and el-Sisi, and then a few weeks later - all of a sudden along comes an actual military entity (Russia) who DOES TAKE ACTION based in large part on the same intelligence the White House was ignoring. Now, with Russia actually attacking the Islamic State, ISIS is actually and specifically being targeted. Real loses, not the New York Times kind of media losses - but actual, military and economic losses. Under this scenario now you have real impacts taking place against ISIS that are adverse to Turkey/Erdogan's larger plan - and as a consequence out of favor with Obama's overall and intentional willful blindness. Under this scenario, now you have ISIS actually being defeated - and a genuine risk where the world would see that Russia was so easily able to defeat ISIS in weeks/months - where the U.S. action in the past two years would be displayed for what it was, a ruse. Under this scenario, Turkey now has a vested additional interest in undermining the success of Putin - beyond Erdogan's anger of his nemesis, Bashir Assad, being propped up. Under this scenario, Turkey could now be taking action to be a thorn in the side of Russia, and assisting to provide cover for Obama by helping to keep ISIS around longer as a viable adversary to Putin as long as possible. Under this scenario Erdogan shooting down a Russian fighter plane takes on an entirely new dimension. We've called this THE BATHTUB PRINCIPLE - Chaos for a purpose . Now lets evaluate this " what if " and revisit our Occam's Razor discussion from two weeks ago : There are numerous pundits and political followers who are quite upset about President Obama's news conference in Turkey where he stated his ISIS strategy "is working". An example of the punditry proclamations can be encapsulated within this commentary of CNN contributors as outlined by NewsBusters : On Monday, CNN's Christiane Amanpour and two of her network's analysts blasted President Obama moments after he ended a press conference where he defended his anti-ISIS strategy. Amanpour underlined that Obama " something that was pretty incredible...that our strategy is working. People do not believe that to be the case. The only strategy that's working is the strategy that he tends to dismiss -- and that's the ground troop strategy. Sinjar, Tikrit, Kobani -- those are the only ISIS strongholds that have been taken back by a combination of American intelligence and air power, and local ground forces." ( video at link) Indeed, if you were to google search the various media reports about President Obama's delivered position almost all of them reflect a similar sentiment. Media scratching their heads and twisting into pretzel contortions wondering why Obama continues to proclaim his ISIS strategy is a success. What the talking heads all avoid noticing is everything reconciles if you just change position on what the Obama goals are. If you think about President Obama's goals as NOT wanting to see authentic Islam (ISIS) deconstructed then everything reconciles. The trucks loaded with oil controlled by ISIS have been driving around Iraq and Syria for well over a year. If Obama wanted to eliminate their financial benefit, he could target and wipe out those transits easily - he didn't. Turkey worked strenuously to block anyone from attacking ISIS during the seige of Kobane. If Obama wanted to support the Syrian Kurds in Kobane, and confront ISIS, he could have confronted Recep Erdogan about blocking the use of the NATO base in Incirlik - he didn't. If Obama wanted to defeat ISIS in Northern Turkey he could have provided weapons to the Kurdish forces there. Again, he didn't. ISIS is now recognized to be a significant entity within Libya, specifically Eastern Libya, a nation where President Obama took action to remove the prior dictator Momar Kaddaffi. If Obama wanted to eliminate ISIS in Libya he would be welcomed to attack them with open arms. He doesn't. Obama actually makes no attempt at all to engage in Libya. If you reset your paradigm and accept that President Obama doesn't necessarily want to see authentic Islam (ISIS) defeated - every contradiction reconciles. It's called Occam's Razor: "The simplest explanation is usually the right one". The simplest explanation is that Obama doesn't want to see authentic Islam defeated. If you re-purpose your frame of reference, and accept that President Obama is not invested in the defeat of ISIS, but rather sympathetic to the sentiments contained in their misunderstood expressions of Islam, every action taken by President Obama reconciles so neatly it cannot be mere happenstance. Now, the central element in applying 'Occam's Razor', and determining if the perspective is indeed worthy of merit, is to use the Scientific Method of analysis to attack the hypothesis. It works like this - the hypothesis is: President Obama wants to allow ISIS to exist, he essentially supports the expression of their views on Islam; however, he faces a problem where he must hide his intent because his viewpoint is antithetical to the rest of the world. To test the merit of the thesis - apply the Scientific Method, reverse the hypothesis and look for examples of specific behavior that would contradict the thesis. See if you can identify behavior that proves: President Obama doesn't want ISIS to exist and is not hiding his intents. Can you identify specific action, that means "behavior", that supports President Obama wanting to eliminate ISIS?

President Obama, and those within his inner circle, were adverse to fighting.

TEHRAN - An exhibition displaying a selection of the works submitted to the End of Terrorism Art Competition (the End of Daesh Art Competition) opened at Tehran's Art Bureau on Monday. 2018-05-14 18:35 TEHRAN - The Iranian animated movies "Pet Man" and "OBC Number 05" have won the top awards of the International Animation Film Festival Golden Kuker in the Bulgarian capital Sofia. 2018-05-14 18:32 TEHRAN - An exhibition, which will be organized at the Bahar Gallery of the Iranian Artists Forum (IAF) from May 18 to 23, will showcase a collection of photos featuring the daily lives of Iranian nomads living in the Kohkiluyeh-Boyer Ahmad region. 2018-05-14 18:29 TEHRAN - The winners of the Iran Press Photo Awards were honored during a ceremony at the Iranian Artists Forum on Sunday. 2018-05-13 18:40 TEHRAN - The Permanent Secretariat for Art Dialogue between Iran and the Arab World was established at the University of Kashan on Saturday. 2018-05-13 18:39 TEHRAN - Iranian reciter Mokhtar Dehqan won the second prize at the 60th International Al-Quran Recital and Memorizing Assembly in Malaysia on Saturday. 2018-05-13 18:36 TEHRAN - Ferdowsi National Day will be celebrated during a miscellany of programs across Iran on Tuesday. 2018-05-12 18:25 TEHRAN - A lineup of movies by Iranian filmmakers are being screened at the 21st Flying Broom International Women's Film Festival underway in the Turkish capital Ankara. 2018-05-12 18:23 TEHRAN - Iranian director Javad Darai's acclaimed short film "Limit" has won the award for best drama at the NCCC (Niagara County Community College) Film and Animation Festival in Sanborn in the U.S. state of New York north of the city of Buffalo. 2018-05-12 18:19 TEHRAN - Cameroonian jazz bassist Richard Bona will perform a concert in Tehran in September, the musician has announced in a post on his Facebook page. 2018-05-12 18:18 TEHRAN - Musicians from the northeastern Iranian region of Khorasan will be performing during a three-night event in Tehran. 2018-05-11 18:45 TEHRAN - The Tehran concerts of Japanese musician Kitaro were cancelled after the American members of his group failed to get a visa for Iran, the organizer announced on Thursday just two days before the first performance that was scheduled for Saturday. 2018-05-11 18:37 TEHRAN - Iran's oldest film document ever found was unveiled during a special ceremony at the Film Museum of Iran on Wednesday evening. 2018-05-11 18:34 TEHRAN - Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei paid a visit to the 31st Tehran International Book Fair on Friday. 2018-05-09 18:38 TEHRAN - The Iranian House of Cinema, which is also known as the Iranian Alliance of Motion Pictures Guilds, showed solidarity with the Iranian people after President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday the withdrawal of the U.S. from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). 2018-05-09 18:31 TEHRAN - The 8-year-old Iranian writing prodigy Rastin Fayyazi debuted his story during a ceremony at the 31st Tehran International Book Fair on Monday. 2018-05-08 19:14 TEHRAN - MP Tayyebeh Siavashi who is also a member of the Majlis Cultural Committee has criticized the motto of the 31st Tehran International Book Fair. 2018-05-07 19:16 TEHRAN - A group of Iranian artists will observe the World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day today by unveiling a huge painting at the Red Crescent Museum in Tehran. 2018-05-07 19:13 TEHRAN - The World Press Photo Contest, a major international competition on photojournalism, plans to organize an exhibition in Tehran. 2018-05-06 19:28 TEHRAN -- The 31st Tehran International Book Fair hosted a session on Sunday reviewing the publishing market in China. 2018-05-06 19:22 TEHRAN - Hutan Shakiba, the star of Iranian musical adaptation of "Oliver Twist" was honored with the special award of the 15th Iranian Stage Actors Celebration on Saturday. 2018-05-06 19:20 TEHRAN - The Lebanese actor Joseph Salameh who is starring as Abu Omar al-Shishani in Iranian director Ebrahim Hatamikia's Daesh drama "Damascus Time" is in Tehran to attend several special screenings of the movie. 2018-05-05 19:03 TEHRAN - The Tehran concerts of Japanese musician Masanori Takahashi, who is known as Kitaro, will commence at the Grand Hall of the Interior Ministry on May 12. 2018-05-05 19:02 TEHRAN - The director of Tehran's Golestan Palace Museum has said 21 reels of films produced during the reign of Qajar king Mozaffar ad-Din Shah (1853-1907) will be restored for public screenings. 2018-05-05 18:54 TEHRAN - Turkish novelist and winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature Orhan Pamuk is scheduled to travel to Iran. 2018-05-04 18:39 TEHRAN - The Ireland-based Iranian musician Hormoz Farhat, who is most famous for theme music for director Dariush Mehrjui's 1969 cult film "The Cow", was honored during a ceremony organized at the Iranian Artists Forum last Tuesday. 2018-05-04 18:36 TEHRAN - "Persian Literary Influence on English Literature", a book by Persian scholar Hasan Javadi, was introduced during the 31st Tehran International Book Fair on Thursday.

he Iranian animated movies "Pet Man" and "OBC Number 05" have won the top awards of the International Animation Film Festival Golden Kuker in the Bulgarian capital Sofia. 2018-05-14 18:32 TEHRAN

A week ago, Maragret Renkl of the New York Times wrote the latest in the Times' Magical Ruralism genre in which we liberals just need to talk to jaw droppingly racist Trump voters in order to understand that they're just like us. Needless to say, as a Jew and a Latino that's been listening to white Republican voters scream for both my deportation and my extermination for the last two years, I'm a bit fed up with being told that I need to understand them . I understand them just fine while it was clear that Renkl did not, a point I made in my response to Renkl's work of fiction: Please Stop Telling Me How To Talk To Racists https://t.co/FUUFjFxoCO -- Justin Rosario (@JustinDRosario) August 1, 2018 After this, I tweeted a few times to Renkl to highlight how off base she was with her privileged admonishments to liberals. White Republican voters are not poor, misunderstood creatures longing for dialogue; they are hate-filled soulless monsters that live to spread misery wherever they go: Dear @MargaretRenkl , Please, tell us some more about how they're not awful people, just waiting for us to listen to them. https://t.co/kHOrEObaB5 -- Justin Rosario (@JustinDRosario) August 1, 2018 I'd like @MargaretRenkl to sit down and have a nice chat with this person. She can listen to his woes and tell us that he just wants a better America or something. But only for white people. https://t.co/WAY613K6O0 -- Justin Rosario (@JustinDRosario) August 4, 2018 It's almost like they're already telling us how horrible they are. But I'm sure talking to them will totally help. Let me know when you ask -them- to understand -us-. I'm sure they'll be very reasonable and not at all vicious lunatics. https://t.co/ypgPjG0KZZ -- Justin Rosario (@JustinDRosario) August 5, 2018 Surely, if we just sat down and talked with the people who keep shooting the Emmett Till sign, we'd understand them and they'd stop being horrible people. Surely. BTW, have you considered my offer about that bridge in Brooklyn? https://t.co/9ONCFi5no1 -- Justin Rosario (@JustinDRosario) August 6, 2018 Today, I went to tweet another slightly sarcastic plea for Renkl to sit down and talk with a rabid Trump supporter. But, alas!, said tweet was not to be. I've been blocked by several public figures from the right and the fringe left on Twitter for pointing out their hypocrisy. I'm used to it. But this is the first time I've been offended by sheer chutzpah of a person. Follow me here: Margaret Renkl wrote an entire article in the New York Times lambasting liberals for scolding right wing racists. We have to listen to them, she said. Really listen, she said. It's the only way to move forward, she said. We have to be willing to sit down and listen to people who openly talk about ethnically cleansing America because they're not such bad people once you get to know them, she said. Liberals who don't listen to racists are just being moralizing snobs and they're not helping, she said. So we on the left have to put up with all the abuse the right heaps on us and smile. But when I, someone from the left, gently (and if you've read anything I've ever written, you'll know the kid's gloves were very firmly on) prods Renkl over her article, did she smile and listen? Did she take the time to really engage like she was insisting we on the left do? Well of course fucking not. She stuffed her fingers in her ears and shut out the criticism. Shut up, lefty! I can't hear you! This demand for civility is, and will always be, a one way street. White Republican voters can shoot Emmett Till's memorial, start white nationalist riots, and openly call for genocide and the press will cluck its tongue then move on to the next story. But when liberals politely ask a government official to leave their business or not so politely razz them out of a restaurant, suddenly it's a national emergency. Renkl, of course, will claim she was being bullied. I'm far from the only person that was giving her grief over her insipid article but there is no world in which my tweets can be construed as harsh or cruel. If this was too much for her to countenance, how dare she ask us to sit down and talk with people who call us "animals" and "criminals" while claiming to be genetically superior to us? Renkl demanded liberals be open to baseless criticism from the very worst people America has to offer while refusing to be open to any kind of criticism herself. There's a word for people who tell others "Do as I say, not as I do" and we on the left are so over the hypocrisy of people like Renkl it's not even funny. I'm a stay at home dad, father to a special needs son and a special daughter, a donor baby daddy, a militantly pragmatic liberal, the president of the PTA, a hardcore geek and nerd and I'm going to change the world. Or at least my corner of it.

A week ago, Maragret Renkl of the New York Times wrote the latest in the Times' Magical Ruralism genre in which we liberals just need to talk to jaw droppingly racist Trump voters in order to understand that they're just like us.

Halloween haters will treat this weekend like any other, doing all the things boring, responsible adults do. The rest of you can start with New Times ' costume party and Halloween party guides, which run through Tuesday (and if you're really all about the spookiest season, check out our Day of the Dead guide too). That being said, this weekend is still pretty freaky, with HistoryMiami's Miami City Cemetery tour and SAVE's Halloween Ball, as well as kid-friendly scares such as the Frost Science Museum's Spooky Science Monster Mash and Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden's Cars in the Garden: Halloween Edition. If Halloween isn't your thing (what's wrong with you?), you can head to the Bass' grand reopening or the Pop Cats convention. Just try not to be too responsible, OK? Ghosts of Miami City Cemetery Walking Tour at Miami City Cemetery . Hanging out in cemeteries made you a badass in middle school (right?), but this weekend it'll make you a history buff. Join HistoryMiami in celebrating the spookiest season with the Ghosts of Miami City Cemetery Walking Tour, visiting the resting places of the area's most influential dead people. You'll hear about the "Mother of Miami," Julia Tuttle, and the causes of death that landed some notable inhabitants six feet under. At the very least, you'll get some narrative fuel to scare away trick-or-treaters so you can keep the last bag of peanut butter cups for yourself. 5:30 and 8 p.m. Friday, October 27, at Miami City Cemetery, 1800 NE Second Ave., Miami; 305-375-1492; historymiami.org . Tickets cost $30 to $40. Inferno: SAVE's Halloween Ball at Magic City Casino . If you could dress as only an angel or the Devil for Halloween, which would you choose? Now let that decision guide whether you'll go to "Heaven" or "Hell" at Inferno, SAVE's Halloween ball. "Hell" includes music from Ralphi Rosario, drag queen performances, and a costume contest with a $1,000 grand prize. "Heaven" is all of the above plus a VIP lounge and open bar by Bacardi. The best part: You'll be partying with one of Miami's most prominent LGBT advocacy organizations. 9 p.m. Friday, October 27, at Magic City Casino, 450 NW 37th Ave., Miami; savehalloween.org . Tickets cost $35 to $100. Gabrielle Union at Books & Books . Gabrielle Union has become outspoken on the issue of sexual assault since her role in Birth of a Nation and the rape scandal involving that film's director, as well as after accusations against Harvey Weinstein became public. The grace and power of her words are a good indication of how her first book, We're Going to Need More Wine, will address sexism, racism, fame, and motherhood. With the purchase of the book, you can see the actress in conversation with Isis Miller and get your copy signed. 8 p.m. Friday, October 27, at Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 305-442-4408; booksandbooks.com . Vouchers cost $28.88 and include a copy of the book and admission to the event. Courtesy of Pop Cats Pop Cats at the Miami Airport Convention Center . Joining the canon of chicken-and-egg-style queries is the relationship between cats and the internet. Were we obsessed with cats before YouTube and Vine compilations, or did the internet make us obsessed? Regardless of the answer, there are enough Instagram-famous felines to justify Pop Cats, a convention celebrating the furry creatures and their devotees. Bring Fluffy along for talks by "catsperts," meet-and-greets with other cats, cat-inspired art, vendors of cat products, and other feline-inspired fun. So, basically, heaven. 11 a.m. Saturday, October 28, at the Miami Airport Convention Center, 711 NW 72nd Ave., Miami; 306-988-7113; popcatsshow.com . Admission costs $22 . Fright Night en el Callejon at Wynwood 5th Ave . There's nothing frightening about salsa, except maybe a few perverts on the dance floor. But one Wynwood haunted house is about to change that fact. Salsa Lovers (as in salsa dancing, not the tomato-based dip) and Wynwood 5th Ave have put together Fright Night en el Callejon. Plan to get haunted by ghouls and goblins and romanced by Jr Sosa and David "Melao" DJ sets. Dancing, bottle specials, and other treats will make this party a proper Miami Halloween. 9 p.m. Saturday, October 28, at Wynwood 5th Ave, 2451 NW Fifth Ave., Miami; facebook.com/salsaloversmiami ; 305-220-7115. Admission costs $15 . Photo by Robin Hill Spooky Science Monster Mash at the Phillip & Patricia Frost Museum of Science . Afraid of things that go bump in the night? Then you'll appreciate the Phillip & Patricia Frost Museum of Science's Spooky Science Monster Mash. The Saturday before All Hallows Eve, you're invited to be your own mad scientist with do-it-yourself chemistry, investigate the contents of a cauldron in a live show, carve pumpkins underwater, and find out what makes nocturnal animals such as owls and sharks tick. It's also the opening day of a new exhibit, "Monster Fish." You can show up in costume to prove there's no such thing as monsters, just things we have yet to understand. 9:30 a.m. Saturday, October 28, at the Frost Museum of Science, 1101 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 305-434-9600; frostscience.org . Programming is free with museum admission, which costs $17 to $29 . Ibeyi at the North Beach Bandshell . Twins Naomi and Lisa-Kainde Diaz grabbed our attention after R&B and pop goddess Beyonce gave them her blessing, but Ibeyi's rhythmic and spiritual music is what keeps us watching out for the duo's next move. On the heels of their second release, Ash, the sisters will perform at the intimate North Beach Bandshell. The album has received glowing reviews from Pitchfork and others, so this could be Ibeyi's last Miami appearance in such a small venue. 8 p.m. Saturday, October 28, at the North Beach Bandshell, 7275 Collins Ave., Miami Beach; 305-672-5202; northbeachbandshell.com . Tickets cost $30 . If you like this story, consider signing up for our email newsletters. You have successfully signed up for your selected newsletter(s) - please keep an eye on your mailbox, we're movin' in! Photo by Ugo Rondinone The Bass Museum Grand Opening . Twelve million dollars and two years later, the Bass will celebrate its grand reopening with expanded gallery space, a creative learning center, and new acquisitions. "Round 1: Chroma" includes five commissioned works of site-specific sculpture, and one of the four galleries will be dedicated to new work in the museum's permanent collection. The inaugural exhibitions for the new building will be Ugo Rondinone's "Good Evening Beautiful Blue" and Pascale Marthine Tayou's "Beautiful." 10 a.m. Sunday, October 29, at the Bass, 2100 Collins Ave., Miami Beach; 305-673-7530; thebass.org . Admission is free for the day. Cars in the Garden: Halloween Edition at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden . If you love attention, the October edition of Cars in the Garden is made for you. Folks with cool cars and those who love to dress up will gather at Fairchild for a family-friendly Halloween event not soon to be forgotten. Those in costume without cars can trick-or-treat from vehicle to vehicle and enjoy the car parade for which even the cars get in costume! One caveat: This event is weather permitting, so keep an eye out for rain. 5:30 p.m. Sunday, October 29, at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, 10901 Old Cutler Rd., Coral Gables; fairchildgarden.org . Admission costs $25 for adults .

Halloween haters will treat this weekend like any other, doing all the things boring, responsible adults do.

Subscribe: Leave this field empty if you're human: The Liberal government plans to announce a new plan to solve gender-based violence in Canada, which comes at a hefty price tag. Via Globe and Mail: Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef will shed more light on which programs will get a... Keep Reading Subscribe: Leave this field empty if you're human: At this point I don't think President Donald Trump is interested in being Canada's next Prime Minister, the leader has his hands full with the most powerful country in the world. Trump could actually be Canada's next PM, that's of course if... Keep Reading Subscribe: Leave this field empty if you're human: Jeffrey Robert Williamson, 42, from Calgary was arrested for filming suspects without their notice under skirts and posting the pictures and videos to a Twitter account called "Canada Creep" Williamson was released on bail and is facing child porn charges for possession of child... Keep Reading Subscribe: Leave this field empty if you're human: WASHINGTON -- A member of President Trump's legal team said on Sunday that the president was not under investigation by the special counsel looking into Russia's election-year meddling, contradicting Mr. Trump's assertion in a Friday morning tweet that he is a subject... Keep Reading Subscribe: Leave this field empty if you're human: Via The Blaze: LGBTQ activists in cities across the country are calling for city officials to create "rainbow crosswalks" to "honor the LGBTQ community." "Rainbow crosswalks" are public crosswalks that have been repainted in rainbow colors, which have been adopted by the... Keep Reading Subscribe: Leave this field empty if you're human: JTA - By now, some of you may know a bunch of random but adorable facts about 5-year-old Arabella Kushner, the granddaughter of President Donald Trump. For instance, she likes Israel more than she likes ants, she loves fidget spinners and she wants... Keep Reading Subscribe: Leave this field empty if you're human: There you have it. "Islamophobia" is intolerable. Bombs designed to cause maximum pain, mutilation and dismemberment of our babies flesh and bone at a pop concert -- not so much. But "Islamophobia"? Intolerable. That is sharia, and that is not a world... Keep Reading Subscribe: Leave this field empty if you're human: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised a Pride flag on Parliament Hill today for the first time in the country's history, in recognition of the people who have "fought a long time" to secure equal rights for LGBT Canadians. The multi-colour rainbow flag... Keep Reading Subscribe: Leave this field empty if you're human: Alberta's NDP and their team could shut down oil sands and other emission producing sites across Alberta if they exceed the limit of mandated 100-megatonne under recommendations proposed by Alberta's Oil Sands Advisory Group. The more oil is being produced the more... Keep Reading Subscribe: Leave this field empty if you're human: Is Islam a religion on peace? According to most people asked this question in the video below, non-Muslims are the violent people, has Islam taken over Toronto? At least there's one person is answering the question with common sense. Watch below for... Keep Reading

Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef will shed more light on which programs will get a.

Yesterday, New Hampshire narrowly failed to eliminate its death penalty. We offer some charts about capital punishment in the United States and abroad. Yesterday, the New Hampshire state Senate deadlocked on a bill that would have eliminated the state's death penalty, killing the bill for the moment and leaving New Hampshire as the only state in New England that still has a law providing for executions. The bill had already passed in the state House of Representatives and has the support of the governor, so one more vote would have passed it. I thought this was a nice opportunity to look at the state of the death penalty in America and around the world. On to the charts and graphs! That's the actual pattern in Democratic primaries, as this week's voting in the Midwest reaffirmed. Trump will rely even more heavily on white nationalism to get him re-elected.

On to the charts and graphs! That's the actual pattern in Democratic primaries, as this week's voting in the Midwest reaffirmed.

White House Press Secretary and President Donald Trump's professional Easter Bunny gimp Sean Spicer took the administration's treatment of the press to new lows. On Monday, during a... I'm an atheist, and I live in the Bible Belt. Here are some myths surrounding atheism that I would like to bust for you right now. 1. MYTH:... Residents in Johnson, Linn, Polk, and Wapello Counties in Iowa are seeing their raises yanked away from them this week. Wapello County was going to raise its minimum... A new type of school bus is invading Manhattan. It is sponsored by three conservative groups. One description read: "An orange bus rolled onto the streets of Manhattan... The Blaze star and conservative, yelling harpy, Tomi Lahren, has been suspended. She was on The View last week where she came out as being pro-choice; this is... The Daily Show covered the FBI hearings last night. This week, the FBI has been holding hearings about Russian involvement in the 2016 Presidential Election. FBI Director James... Well, it's been a couple of weeks since Republicans revealed their "solution" to replacing Obamacare. House Speaker Paul Ryan was practically giddy to unveil the American Health...

White House Press Secretary and President Donald Trump's professional Easter Bunny gimp Sean Spicer took the administration's treatment of the press to new lows. On Monday, during a... I'm an atheist, and I live in the Bible Belt. Here are some myths surrounding atheism that I would like to bust for you right now.

Don't try to obfuscate his words and claim he didn't, it's right there in the video . Sen. Ted Cruz is enabling the theft of natural resources from USAmericans to allow private corporate ownership. It's pure greed, folks!! As such, Sen. Ted Cruz has been one of the enablers of BLM land theft, and also by his political associations, the assassination of LaVoy Finicum in Oregon. TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2016 What is Behind the Utah Election Fraud for Ted Cruz If you are wondering why Mitt Romney, the Utah political elite and the rich people in Utah are in control of the "fraud caucus method" which installed Orin Hatch who was bragging about gun grabbing image Obama appointee to the Supreme Court Merrick Garland..........(same head at Justice who likes burning babies alive at Waco and loves police state actions like Malheur in Orgeon against Mormons)............you only have to witness what Ted Cruz has been doing for the past 3 years in Big Koch special interests. Ted Cruz Launches Senate Fight To Auction Off America's ... Meet The People Behind Ted Cruz ... Utah, Idaho, Oregon and Alaska. Under Cruz ... give them away or sell them off for mining, drilling, and logging. Cruz ... Search domain thinkprogress.orgthinkprogress.org/climate/2014/07/10/3458798/ted-cruz-aucti... Ted Cruz bribed by Kochs? Strike a match | PolitiFact Texas ... said: "This is Sen. Ted Cruz, ... Ted Cruz bribed by Kochs? Strike a ... of legislation desired by those corporate interests." What Cruz ... Search domain http://www.politifact.compolitifact.com/texas/statements/2014/aug/17/occupy-democ.. . Ted Cruz Wants to Allow Selling of National Parks, Strip ... ... for things like fracking, drilling, mining and logging. RSS; Twitter; ... Home / News / Ted Cruz Wants to Allow Selling of National Parks, Strip Government of ... Search domain http://www.forwardprogressives.comforwardprogressives.com/ted-cruz-wants-allow-selling-national- If you require an explanation in this, it is the war in the west getting Ranchers murdered like LaVoy Finicum and causing another round up of Bundy supporters, but that does not matter to Assemblywoman Fiori of Nevada who warns her flock, but votes for Cruz like Romney. This is about whether Hillary Clinton's mining interests led by Bill Gates in Thorium nuclear mining rapes the landsd or Ted Cruz's Big Koch gets to rape the land, and that is why Utah is being led to the rapine by her leaders for Ted Cruz http://lamecherry.blogspot.com/2016/03/what-is-behind-utah-election-fraud-for.html

Don't try to obfuscate his words and claim he didn't, it's right there in the video . Sen. Ted Cruz is enabling the theft of natural resources from USAmericans to allow private corporate ownership. It's pure greed, folks!! As such, Sen. Ted Cruz has been one of the enablers of BLM land theft, and also by his political associations, the assassination of LaVoy Finicum in Oregon.

The Jewish Council asked the little kids to hand out the deportation notices. I was told to go to the Jewish Council. And there I was given these small slips of paper ... It said report to the rabbi seminary at 9 am ... And I was given this list of names. I took this piece of paper to my father. He instantly recognized it. This was a list of Hungarian Jewish lawyers. He said, "You deliver the slips of paper and tell the people that if they report they will be deported." Soros did not return to that job, but instead went into hiding the next day. Later that year, at age 14, Soros lived with and posed as the godson of an employee of the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture. The official was at one point ordered to inventory the remaining contents of the estate of a wealthy Jewish family that had fled the country; rather than leave the young Soros alone in the city, the official brought him along. The next year, 1945, Soros survived the Battle of Budapest, in which Soviet and German forces fought house-to-house through the city. Soros emigrated to England in 1947 and became an impoverished student at the London School of Economics. While a student of the philosopher Karl Popper, Soros worked as a railway porter and as a waiter. A university tutor requested aid for Soros, and he received PS40 from a Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) charity. In a discussion at the Los Angeles World Affairs Council in 2006, Alvin Shuster, former foreign editor of the Los Angeles Times, asked Soros, "How does one go from an immigrant to a financier? ... When did you realize that you knew how to make money?" Soros replied, "Well, I had a variety of jobs and I ended up selling fancy goods on the sea side, souvenir shops, and I thought, that's really not what I was cut out to do. So, I wrote to every managing director in every merchant bank in London, got just one or two replies, and eventually that's how I got a job in a merchant bank." That job was an entry-level position in Singer & Friedlander. In 1951, Soros earned a BSc in philosophy and a PhD in philosophy in 1954, both from the London School of Economics. Career In 1956, Soros moved to New York City where he worked as an arbitrage trader for F. M. Mayer (195659) and as an analyst for Wertheim & Co. (195963). He planned to stay for five years, enough time to save $500,000, after which he intended to return to England to study philosophy. During this period, Soros developed the theory of reflexivity based on the ideas of Karl Popper. Reflexivity posited that the valuation of any market produces a procyclical "virtuous or vicious" circle that further affects the market. Soros' experience from 1963 to 1973 as a vice-president at Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder resulted in little enthusiasm for the job and a desire to assert himself as an investor to make reflexivity profitable. In 1967, First Eagle Funds created an opportunity for Soros to run an offshore investment fund as well as the Double Eagle hedge fund in 1969. In 1970, Soros founded Soros Fund Management and became its chairman. Among those who held senior positions there at various times were Jim Rogers, Stanley Druckenmiller, Mark Schwartz, Keith Anderson, and Soros' two sons. In 1973, due to regulatory restrictions limiting his ability to run the funds, Soros resigned from his First Eagle funds. He then established the Quantum Fund. In August 2010, Soros acquired a 4 percent stake in the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) for about $35 million. Soros announced in July 2011 that he had returned funds from outside investors' money (valued at $1 billion) and instead invested funds from his $24.5 billion family fortune due to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure rules. In 2013 the Quantum fund made $5.5 billion, making it again the most successful hedge fund in history. The fund has generated $40 billion since its inception in 1973. Currency speculation Soros had been building a huge position in pounds sterling for months leading up to September 1992. Soros recognized the unfavorable position at which the United Kingdom joined the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. For Soros, the rate at which the United Kingdom was brought into the European Exchange Rate Mechanism was too high, their inflation was also much too high (triple the German rate), and British interest rates were hurting their asset prices. On September 16, 1992, Black Wednesday, Soros' fund sold short more than $10 billion in pounds, profiting from the UK government's reluctance to either raise its interest rates to levels comparable to those of other European Exchange Rate Mechanism countries or to float its currency. Finally, the UK withdrew from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, devaluing the pound. Soros's profit on the bet was estimated at over $1 billion. He was dubbed "the man who broke the Bank of England". In 1997, the UK Treasury estimated the cost of Black Wednesday at PS3.4 billion. On Monday, October 26, 1992, The Times quoted Soros as saying: "Our total position by Black Wednesday had to be worth almost $10 billion. We planned to sell more than that. In fact, when Norman Lamont said just before the devaluation that he would borrow nearly $15 billion to defend sterling, we were amused because that was about how much we wanted to sell." Stanley Druckenmiller, who traded under Soros, originally saw the weakness in the pound. "Soros' contribution was pushing him to take a gigantic position." In 1997, during the Asian financial crisis, the Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir bin Mohamad accused Soros of using the wealth under his control to punish the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for welcoming Myanmar as a member. Following on a history of antisemitic remarks, Mahathir made specific reference to Soros' Jewish background ("It is a Jew who triggered the currency plunge&quot and implied Soros was orchestrating the crash as part of a larger Jewish conspiracy. Nine years later, in 2006, Mahathir met with Soros and afterwards stated that he accepted that Soros had not been responsible for the crisis. In 1998's The Crisis of Global Capitalism: Open Society Endangered Soros explained his role in the crisis as follows: The financial crisis that originated in Thailand in 1997 was particularly unnerving because of its scope and severity. ... By the beginning of 1997, it was clear to Soros Fund Management that the discrepancy between the trade account and the capital account was becoming untenable. We sold short the Thai baht and the Malaysian ringgit early in 1997 with maturities ranging from six months to a year. (That is, we entered into contracts to deliver at future dates Thai Baht and Malaysian ringgit that we did not currently hold.) Subsequently Prime Minister Mahathir of Malaysia accused me of causing the crisis, a wholly unfounded accusation. We were not sellers of the currency during or several months before the crisis; on the contrary, we were buyers when the currencies began to decline we were purchasing ringgits to realize the profits on our earlier speculation. (Much too soon, as it turned out. We left most of the potential gain on the table because we were afraid that Mahathir would impose capital controls. He did so, but much later.) (NAKED SHORTS! DEMETER) The nominal U.S. dollar GDP of the ASEAN fell by $9.2 billion in 1997 and $218.2 billion (31.7%) in 1998. Economist Paul Krugman is critical of Soros' effect on financial markets. "Nobody who has read a business magazine in the last few years can be unaware that these days there really are investors who not only move money in anticipation of a currency crisis, but actually do their best to trigger that crisis for fun and profit. These new actors on the scene do not yet have a standard name; my proposed term is 'Soroi'." zerohedge @zerohedge Follow Will be ironic if Soros was long EURCHF 4:49 AM - 15 Jan 2015 47 Retweets 26 favorites ... because there would be nothing more ironic if the man who "broke the Bank of England" ended up being FXCMed himself by another central bank, over two decades later and just as he was set to finally retire, at the age of 84, formally, something he supposedly announced in Davos yesterday. As it turns out, we were almost correct, and according to the WSJ, Soros Fund Management, which manages more than $25 billion for investor George Soros, was betting against the Swiss franc in the fall before it removed those bearish positions. Why did the Soros so conveniently take off a bet which, with leverage, could have resulted in massive losses for his hedge fund? The WSJ says he did so after "viewing the risk as too high relative to potential gains, said people close to the matter." Well as long as "people close" think Soros did not have input directly from the Swiss central bank, or perhaps the occasional hint from Kashya Hildebrand, then one can't help but marvel at the octogenarian's impeccable timing. As a result, the francs surge last week didnt have a major impact on Mr. Soross firms profits, "these people said." Naturally, if Soros was still short the CHF, he would have suffered massive losses...Curiously, Soros wasn't the only one to "luckily" pull his bearish CHF exposure ahead of the 30% move: Brevan Howard Asset Management, run by billionaire Alan Howard , was profiting from a negative bet on the Swiss franc against the dollar before it cut back shortly before the Swiss currency soared. Brevans flagship $23.7 billion fund gained 0.8% last week, taking gains for this year to 1.9%. How lucky. So Soros and Brevan were spared due to some truly impeccable timing. Others were not as lucky. Here is a quick recap of all the hedge funds (excluding the numerous retail FX brokers such as FXCM that blew up in the aftermath) that have been known to have suffered terminal or partial, but still cripppling, losses. We already know about Marko Dimitrijevic, who survived at least five emerging market debt crises, is closing his largest hedge fund after losing virtually all its money when the SNB unexpectedly let the franc trade freely against the euro, according to a person familiar with the firm. Everest Capitals Global Fund had about $830 million in assets as of the end of December, according to a client report. The Miami-based firm, which specializes in emerging markets, still manages seven funds with about $2.2 billion in assets. The global fund, the firms oldest, was betting the Swiss franc would decline, said the person. A spokesman declined to comment on the losses. Calls to Dimitrijevic werent returned. Michael Platts BlueCrest Capital Management lost 5.5 percent in its macroeconomic fund through Jan. 16, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Amid the losses, Luke Halestrap and Peter McGarry left the $15 billion Jersey-based firm and BlueCrest shut a portfolio run by currency money manager, Peter Von Maydell, according to people with knowledge of the decisions. Von Maydell, Halestrap and McGarry didnt reply to e-mails and telephone messages seeking comment. Comac Capital, the $1.2 billion firm run by Colm OShea, is returning money to clients after it lost 8 percent from the franc surge. The declines bring its loss this month to 10 percent, according to a person familiar with the matter. London-based Comac will continue to trade with internal money, the person said. A spokesman declined to comment. Fortress Investment Groups main macro hedge fund lost 7.6 percent last week, a period during which markets were roiled by movements in the Swiss franc. The macro funds decline last week brought its losses this year to 7.9 percent, Reuters reported, citing a letter to investors. Fortress didnt give a reason for the loss in the letter, according to Reuters. Gordon Runte, a spokesman for Fortress, declined to comment. SaxoBank moments ago reported it would lose up to $107 million on the Swiss Bank move. But while the vast majority of "hedged" speculators were massively short the CHF into the Swiss announcement, there were some who bet against the central bank, and made huge profits. First and foremost among these, Quaesta Capital AG: "The firm, which oversees $3 billion in Pfaffikon, Switzerland, bought options a considerable time ago betting that the euro would drop below 1.20 francs, said Chief Executive Thomas Suter." Those bets paid off last Thursday, when the Swiss National Bank s decision sent the franc soaring against the euro and delivered a boost to investors in a $120 million Quaesta strategy that is up at least 14% this year, according to a letter to investors. We immediately knew that it was going to be a very, very good day for this strategy and its investors, said Mr. Suter, who said the firm made the bet because of its low cost and high potential rewards. Omni Partners was another such winner, which "locked in a small profit, by making small trades that it closed out the same day following the massive franc-euro swing, according to a person familiar with the matter. Omni Partners has about $1 billion under management in London. London-based macro hedge fund Rubicon Global was down 2.3% at the end of the first full week of January but recouped most of those losses, helped by a positive bet on the Swiss franc, said a person familiar with the matter. Rubicon declined to comment. Stockholm-based Lynx Asset Management, which manages $5.5 billion, gained more than 2% last week, helped by bets against the euro. The firm is up about 4% this year to Jan. 16, said a person who has seen the numbers. We expect to learn about even more victims and casualties in the coming days as career-ending margin calls can only be pushed straight to voicemail for so long. As for everyone in the investing world else who was spared the violent move either to the up or downside, fear not: as more central banks retreat from currency wars, now that things are really heating up, the volatility seen last week will be merely a pleasant reminder of what is about to come as the Big Three move from mere soundbites and proceed to all out tactical FX warfare, until one day, China joins in as well. Then all bets are off.

The Jewish Council asked the little kids to hand out the deportation notices. I was told to go to the Jewish Council. And there I was given these small slips of paper ...

White supremacists walk into Lee park surrounded by counter demonstrators in Charlottesville, VA -- Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017 (AP Photo/Steve Helber) On Monday, October 2, the Denton Record-Chronicle reported that Denton County GOP Chairwoman Lisa Hendrickson had resigned from her position over the weekend. Hendrickson cited health reasons for stepping down. In August, after Heather Heyer was killed while protesting the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, a meme Hendrickson tweeted in January that joked about running over protesters was shared thousands of times on social media. Wow. GOP when are you going to deal with your own tribe? https://t.co/zPguVvqwp2 Hendrickson later shared an article that claimed the protests and counter protests in Charlottesville were a "false flag" operation orchestrated by former President Barack Obama to cause chaos. Despite Hendrickson's resignation, multiple members of the Republican Party in Texas' ninth largest county have continued to share inflammatory and misleading material on their Twitter and Facebook pages. At least three more members of the Denton County GOP's leadership team, including State Representative Patrick Fallon, have claimed, or shared material that claimed, Charlottesvile was a hoax or that it was orchestrated by liberals. Joseph Kane, a Denton County GOP Precinct Chair, regularly shares white nationalist imagery on his Twitter page . I searched the social media accounts of every listed Denton County GOP party official and here is what I found: Patrick Fallon (Denton County GOP Victory Chair/Texas State Representative HD-106/Texas State Senate Candidate SD-30) Fallon asked if "some in power" wanted a scuffle in Charlottesville in an early morning Facebook rant defending Texas House Bill 250, a bill he wrote that would remove civil liability from motorists who ran over protesters. Fallon is running for Texas State Senate in Senate District 30 and has promised to file the "Texas Historical Preservation Act" if he wins, which would ban the removal of Confederate statues. "There exists a method to this liberal madness," Fallon wrote. "Delegitimize our history, next our founders, then you can delegitimize our constitution. Soros & Co. wt the aid of activist judges will finally be able to pin the socialist 'utopia' for which they've been pining for years." "Hmmm, let's see, Antifa, Black Lives Matter and many other semi-professional leftist protesters on one side and Nazis, White Supremacists and the KKK on the other. Wow, nothing bad could possibly come of that...Nitro, meet glycerine. Really!? I'm not espousing a conspiracy theory here merely asking a question, 'Did some in power want a scuffle?'" -Texas State Rep. Patrick Fallon Mark Roy (Denton County GOP Vice Chair of Veterans Affairs/Texas State House Candidate HD-64) Roy, a retired Marine, recently announced he will challenge incumbent State Rep. Lynn Stucky in the Republican primary for Stucky's seat in Texas House District 64. Roy has written on Facebook that Charlottesville was staged, Arizona Senator John McCain is a traitor to the country, and that the Food and Drug Administration is putting sex hormones into canned foods in an attempt to turn Americans gay. When Roy announced his campaign for the Texas House by changing his cover photo on Facebook, a friend noted that he could not see the image. "Hmmm...a no-flash picture of a black guy on a moonless night," the friend wrote. "Either that or there was something wrong with the file upload because because all I got was a great big black rectangle with Mark's campaign banner across the middle and no pictures." Roy's response: "Thank you!" Connie Hudson (Denton County GOP Vice Chair of Precinct Chairmen) Hudson has shared multiple articles on her public Facebook page that claim Charlottesville was an inside job to "ignite [a] race war." "The New World Order, led in the United States by elite operatives Obama, Podesta, Soros, Clinton and company, are pulling out all the stops to create division through chaos and destruction," one of the articles claimed. "Crowds of paid protestors and useful psychopaths are being sent into pitched battle against one another to sour the mood of the nation and further divide us all." At least four members of the Denton County Republican Party, including the outgoing chairwoman, have claimed that Charlottesville was a hoax, an inside job, or orchestrated by liberals. Party officials should immediately clarify their stance on the matter. In the meantime, the Texas Republican Party should censure their counterparts in Denton County while clarifying their own position on the tragedy that happened in Charlottesville. Silence is no longer an option. You can reach out to Denton County GOP officials and ask them to clarify their beliefs here .

White supremacists walk into Lee park surrounded by counter demonstrators in Charlottesville, VA

7. ART: "Keith Haring: The Political Line" The late Keith Haring was a deeply political artist, with works that spoke to gay life in the 1980s (including his iconic image for National Coming Out Day), responded to the AIDS crisis, and protested against a variety of social ills. San Francisco's de Young Museum is hosting the first major West Coast exhibition of Haring's work in two decades, with 130 pieces, many on loan from the Keith Haring Foundation and others from public and private collections. "Haring understood that art was for everybody -- he fought for the individual and against dictatorship, racism and capitalism," says guest curator Dieter Buchhart. "He was no utopian, but he had a dream that 'nothing is an end, because it always can be the basis for something new and different.'" The exhibition opens Saturday and continues through February 16; in conjunction with the show, there will be several special events, from educational symposia to festive dance parties, this weekend and throughout the run. Get all the information here . -- Trudy Ring 6. DVD: Tru Love This intergenerational lesbian love story has been a hit and an award-winner on the film festival circuit, and now you can own it on DVD thanks to Wolfe Video. Tru (Shauna MacDonald), a 37-year-old with commitment issues, falls in love with elegant 60-year-old widow Alice (Kate Trotter). Alice's daughter Suzanne (Christine Horne), who has a history with Tru, worries that her mother is in for heartbreak -- but will love conquer all? MacDonald and Kate Johnston wrote the film together and collaborated in directing it as well. Bonus features include Johnston's short comedy-drama Stormcloud, in which a lesbian who's just gone through a breakup is visited by a couple of evangelical Christians, and deleted scenes. Order at WolfeVideo.com and watch a trailer below. -- Trudy Ring 5. MUSIC: Nick Jonas Sweet boy-bander turned sex symbol Nick Jonas delivers the goods with his self-titled sultry sophomore solo album . "In making this record, I really allowed myself to be vulnerable and open up emotionally," he told Rolling Stone. "This record is a combination of R&B, soul and pop, with musical influences from legendary artists that I've always admired such as Prince and Stevie Wonder -- and more modern artists such as the Weeknd and Jhene Aiko. My plan is to surprise the world with the unexpected." His plan appears to be working. The album, available Tuesday, will be the studly singer's first to be slapped with a Parental Advisory warning label -- in case it wasn't clear from those recent nearly naked photo spreads that darling Nicky is all grown up. Listen to the boy-band graduate get down and dirty in the remix of his hit single "Jealous" featuring Tinashe below. -- Jase Peeples {C} 4. FILM: The Way He Looks As the winner of the LGBT Teddy Award and the official Oscar entry for Brazil, The Way He Looks is remarkable as one of the year's most beautiful stories of young love, which just so happens to focus on a gay and differently abled character. Leo (Ghilherme Lobo) has charmed audiences as a blind teenager who struggles with bullies in school and parents who are afraid to let their son have independence. However, the arrival of a new student, Gabriel (Fabio Audi), stirs new feelings in Leo, and the two form a bond that deepens into something much more. Calling to mind coming-of-age classics like Edge of Seventeen, The Way He Looks is a fresh take on the bildungsroman, one that will open your eyes to the pain, joy, and love of those who were once considered "different" from others. The Way He Looks comes out in select theaters this weekend. Watch the trailer below. -- Daniel Reynold s {C} 3. EVENT: Greater Palm Springs Pride Pride season continues in the endless summer of the California desert. The weekend-long Palm Springs celebration, with the theme "I Am Pride: Stonewall 45" kicks off tonight with performances by Lorie Moore, Jeremiah Clark, and other musicians; continues with a street party Saturday, with headliners Amanda Lepore, Ian Thomas, Steed Lord, and more; and culminates in Sunday's parade, with Lepore as celebrity grand marshal, and a concert by the Psychedelic Furs. And there's much, much more throughout the weekend, including a festival, drag pageant, awards ceremony, and parties, parties, parties, including the Saturday night Express Yourselfie gathering sponsored by our sibling publication Out and hosted by Courtney Act of RuPaul's Drag Race at Copa Palm Springs. It benefits GO! Athletes, a national network dedicated to empowering LGBTQ athletes and allies. Visit PSPride.org for a list of events, and RSVP for Express Yourselfie here . -- Trudy Ring {C} 2. FILM: Interstellar Christopher Nolan, known for blockbusters like Inception and the Dark Knight trilogy, sets his sights to infinity and beyond in his latest science fiction adventure. Matthew McConaughey, Jessica Chastain, Anne Hathaway, and Michael Caine are cast as a team of astronauts who are seeking a new planet for humans after climate change renders Earth inhabitable. On an experimental craft known as Endurance, they must navigate a wormhole and survey faraway solar systems in order to save the future of humanity. Will they succeed? See Interstellar in theaters this weekend to find out, and check out the trailer below. -- Daniel Reynolds {C} 1. TV: The Comeback It's been almost a decade since The Comeback first aired on HBO, when Valerie Cherish (Lisa Kudrow) first titillated audiences as an aging it girl trying to revive her career through reality stardom. Created by Kudrow and Michael Patrick King ( Sex and the City ), the critically acclaimed comedy and biting Hollywood satire saw its life tragically cut short, as it was not initially renewed. But at long last, Cherish returns Sunday, and her attempts to maintain the limelight lampoon phenomena such as social media, Real Housewives, dramas masquerading as comedies for awards consideration. Popular gay characters like publicist Billy (Dan Bucatinsky) and hairstylist Mickey (Robert Michael Morris) will return, and there will be guest appearances from Andy Cohen, Lisa Vanderpump, and RuPaul, guaranteeing The Comeback a spot as one of the gayest shows of the fall season. -- Daniel Reynolds

Nick Jonas Sweet boy-bander turned sex symbol Nick Jonas delivers the goods with his self-titled sultry sophomore solo album .

A report by Members of Parliament has found that there are no black or ethnic minority people holding top positions in British security services. As if that's important. There are even TV and radio advertisements calling for a more diverse range of people to apply for work in the British security services. Is this really what we want to do - pander to the diversity crowd and potentially put British security at risk by hiring people based on skin colour, instead of ability? Share This On Facebook Share This On Twitter Share This By Email Share This On LinkedIn

A report by Members of Parliament has found that there are no black or ethnic minority people holding top positions in British security services. As if that's important. There are even TV and radio advertisements calling for a more diverse range of people to apply for work in the British security services. I

Flickr/republicanconference O n Tuesday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor swung by the conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) to offer yet another "rebrand" for Republicans--the latest in a string of efforts to reinvent the struggling party. Speaking on the top floor of AEI's office in downtown Washington, D.C., Cantor steered clear of culture-war issues and refrained from talk about lowering taxes, which has become the party's sole policy prescription over the past several years. His speech--focused on education, workers' woes, and immigration--lacked details behind the broad goals he outlined. But Cantor's vision for the Aggrieved Old Party showed a shift in emphasis, a way forward for a party that has failed to convince voters that it has an economic vision for the middle class. The biggest news from Cantor's speech was his oblique endorsement of the DREAM Act. "A good place to start is with the kids," Cantor said while discussing the need for immigration reform. "One of the great founding principles of our country was that children would not be punished for the mistakes of their parents. It is time to provide an opportunity for legal residence and citizenship for those who were brought to this country as children and who know no other home." However, the House majority leader fell short of supporting more comprehensive measures emerging from a bipartisan group of senators. It's nevertheless a marked turn from December 2010, when he was among the 160 House Republicans who voted down the DREAM Act. Cantor also called for an expansion of the STEM Jobs Act, which would allow more immigrants with graduate degrees in science and technology to remain in the country. The majority leader spent the bulk of his speech addressing education and the struggles of working class families, the bread and butter of Democratic policy speeches. He called for a "weighted student formula" that would allow students in low-performing schools to cross district barriers to attend high-performing schools, even raising the liberal beacon of San Francisco as a model. This could simply be a restatement of conservatives' typical calls for school vouchers, but Cantor's phrasing suggests a more expansive view of school selection. Romney made a shrouded reference to a similar idea of empowering poor families with school choices during the campaign, which Slate 's Dana Goldstein described as the "most radical, furthest left idea currently in the mainstream education debate." The representative from Virginia also called for more information on the ballooning price of college tuition, suggesting that colleges be required to provide breakdowns on costs so that prospective students and parents can weigh the price before they take out thousands of dollars in loans. "Suppose colleges provided prospective students with reliable information on the unemployment rate and potential earnings by major," he said. "What if parents had access to clear and understandable breakdowns between academic studies and amenities?" It's a sensible proposition, and Cantor endorsed a plan proposed by Marco Rubio and Ron Wyden to that effect. Except the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the watchdog agency tasked with protecting borrows, has already floated even easier plans. The only trouble is that Cantor's Republican colleagues in the Senate have fought with all their might to prevent the CFPB from operating at full capacity. Cantor devoted a chunk of his speech to the troubles families face in balancing their work lives with their family obligations. "Too many parents have to weigh whether they can afford to miss work even for half a day to see their child off on the first day of school or attend a parent-teacher conference," he said. It's nice to hear a Republican actually tackle the concerns of the working poor. But his suggested solution wouldn't do much to solve the problem. Allowing workers to rearrange their schedules grants extra flexibility, but it doesn't offer extra time with the kids. Instead, the simplest solution would be to align the U.S. with the rest of the developed world and require companies to offer sick time and paid maternity leave. To be sure, much of what Cantor said was standard-issue politicking. He devoted a chunk of his address to bemoaning the evils of a medical-device tax in the Affordable Care Act, a specious attack that The New Republic 's Alec MacGillis thoroughly debunked yesterday. And Cantor hardly backed down from the debt scaremongering that has defined Republicans during the Obama era, claiming "there is no greater moral imperative than to reduce the mountain of debt facing us." Taxes, regulation of business, and spending cuts were left aside Tuesday, but there's little reason to believe Cantor is ready to abandon his staunch opposition to liberals on these issues, which have elevated him to the presumed leader of the House's Tea Party wing. Yet the rhetorical feint may represent a new tactic for Republicans. Mitt Romney failed to present the country with a convincing economic vision to tackle the middle class' economic woes. He and Paul Ryan could only muster an argument for fewer taxes and fewer regulations in the name of easing business' uncertainty; the rest was left to the trickle-down-economics fairy. But branching out on education, work-home life balance, and easing immigration are the sorts of policies where bipartisan efforts are theoretically possible, and ones that Republicans could use to reintroduce themselves to voters. "We do intend to follow up with some policy proposals and legislation, working with our committees to move forward on many of these issues," Cantor said during the question-and-answer portion of the event. We await the detail.

Flickr/republicanconference O n Tuesday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor swung by the conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) to offer yet another "rebrand" for Republicans--the latest in a string of efforts to reinvent the struggling party.

A grown man spent more than three minutes in his capacity as an elected official in charge of making laws in the United States screaming at the top of his lungs about sin and devils and quoting lines from a book of stories written 2000 years ago. Lee Bright isn't some escaped mental patient standing on a street corner shouting at a telephone pole. He's one of 46 ostensibly... Well, that didn't take long. Days after nine African Americans were murdered in cold blood by a psychopathic racist, and literally hours after the debate began to focus on getting rid of the Confederate flag, Rush Limbaugh has leapt to the defense of persecuted white people everywhere.... In about a week, South Carolina will pick between Mark Sanford and Elizabeth Colbert Busch. As we all know, when Mark Sanford was governor of South Carolina, he vanished for a week -- after telling staff he was off hiking the Appalachian Trail, a lie they repeated to the press. He had actually used his official plane to fly off for a visit with his "soul mate" mistress in Argentina. As someone who... Mark Sanford's bizarre return to politics proves it's possible to do something so heinous that it ruins your position in politics, pop culture, and polite society, then come back relatively unscathed. How did the disgraced Congressman turn it all around?... My mother has told me a joke she heard from someone when she went to South Carolina. The SC resident and native told her, "South Carolina; too small to be its own country, too big to be a mental institution." I have spent some time in the Palmetto State and like it a lot but you have to admit, they have a way -- at least with their politics -- of making themselves... The Daily Banter Headline Grab. From TPM: Comedy Central star Stephen Colbert is the most popular choice among South Carolina voters to replace retiring Sen. Jim DeMint (R), according to a new poll from Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling. DeMint is leaving the Senate to lead the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation in January. Colbert is the choice of 20 percent of registered South Carolina voters polled, Rep. Tim... Are we finally seeing a ray of light for the future of the Republican Party? From the Guardian: Senator Lindsey Graham has become the second senior Republican in days to publicly disavow a pledge that handcuffs the party to a policy of no tax rises, raising hopes of a deal over the fiscal cliff. Speaking on ABC's This Week, the South Carolina politician said that the only pledge members... By Bob Cesca: Arizona has been such a hotbed of wingnuttery and ignorance lately that it's easy to forget about the almost-as-backwards-and-ridiculous state of South Carolina. The home of legal firecrackers and the abundantly racist tourist trap called South of the Border has been the reigning super-champion of right-wing demagoguery and radicalism almost since the formation of the country. Toss in its status as the first nation to secede...

A grown man spent more than three minutes in his capacity as an elected official in charge of making laws in the United States screaming at the top of his lungs about sin and devils and quoting lines from a book of stories written 2000 years ago.

Sherrel W. Stewart is a freelance writer based in Alabama. Some of them lead churches steeped in civil rights history. Others started their congregations from scratch. And a few have broken the glass ceiling in their respective denominations. Whatever their accomplishments, these 20 Christian ministers are at the top of their field. Click through to learn more about them. The Rev. Raphael G. Warnock Warnock preaches from one of the most historic pulpits in the country: Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. pastored the church at the height of the civil rights movement. Warnock, a two-time honoree on The Root 100 list , takes on social and political issues, notably donning a hoodie when preaching in honor of Trayvon Martin. He was also an outspoken critic of the death sentence in the Troy Davis case. The Rev. Arthur Price Jr. Price is pastor of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., a prominent church during the civil rights movement where four little girls were killed in a Ku Klux Klan bombing in 1963. This year, Price and his congregation have opened their doors to host several events commemorating the 50th anniversary of a pivotal year in civil rights history, while also trying to remain focused on the gospel. Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie McKenzie is the first woman to be elected a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. A biblical scholar and an author, McKenzie was also the first woman to pastor the Payne Memorial AME Church in Baltimore and is the first female bishop to preside over the Council of Bishops, the AME Church's executive branch. The Rev. Calvin O. Butts III Butts is pastor of one of Harlem's most influential congregations: the Abyssinian Baptist Church . He is also president of the State University of New York (SUNY) College at Old Westbury. In March, Butts was presented with the United Negro College Fund Shirley Chisholm Community Service Award for his commitment to education. The Thurgood Marshall Academy for Learning and Social Change High School and the Thurgood Marshall Academy Lower School, both sponsored and supported by Butts' Abyssinian Development Corp. , are just two examples of his leadership in education. Caldwell, senior pastor of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston, has led that congregation for more than 30 years. When he started at the church, it had only 25 members. Today Windsor Village is the largest United Methodist congregation in America, with more than 17,000 members. Caldwell gave the invocation at the inauguration of President George W. Bush. Bishop Joseph H. Walker III Walker, of Mount Zion Full Gospel Baptist Church in Nashville, Tenn., takes his ministry everywhere via the Internet. Under his leadership, Mount Zion, which is located on three campuses, makes ministry to college students a full-time mission. Each Sunday, buses from the church pick up students on 11 campuses in Tennessee and Kentucky. Before they leave church, students are offered a hot meal. When they graduate from Tennessee State University, Vanderbilt University or other area colleges, many of the students make Mount Zion their church home if they locate nearby. In addition to its college ministries, the church has programs for children, youths and seniors. Pastor J. Edgar Boyd Boyd, who has been senior minister of Los Angeles' First AME Church for less than a year, is looking to continue some of the success he had while pastoring Bethel AME Church in San Francisco. Under his leadership, Bethel's assets grew from $12 million to $85 million . That church also established the Community Technology Center to help bridge the technology gap for seniors. Pastor Andre Butler Butler became senior pastor of Word of Faith International Christian Center in Southfield, Mich., in January 2011 after his father, Bishop Keith Butler, stepped down. The elder Butler and his wife, Pastor Deborah Butler, founded the church in 1978. Today the church reports a membership of more than 14,000. It has established other churches in Uganda, Kenya and Pakistan. Pastor Charles G. Adams Adams, of Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit, was educated at the University of Michigan, Harvard University and the Union Theological Seminary, and he has lectured on preaching at some of the most prominent institutions. His preaching style continues to draw worshippers, mixing old-timey rhythmic hooping with in-depth biblical knowledge. The Rev. Delman Coates The senior pastor of Mount Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton, Md., which Outreach magazine named one of the country's fastest-growing congregations in 2009, Coates is also a board member of the Parents Television Council and the National Action Network. A member of The Root 100' s 2012 class , Coates is a vocal supporter of marriage equality and was involved in the successful campaign to legalize gay marriage in his state. Pastor Fred Luter Jr. Luter, senior pastor at Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, made history last year when he was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention . The sometimes controversial pastor is the first African American to hold that position. When he became pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist, the church, which had been a predominantly white Southern Baptist congregation, was in transition because of changing neighborhood demographics. Today the church has a majority African-American congregation and is one of the largest Southern Baptist churches in Louisiana. The Rev. Floyd H. Flake Flake, of the Greater Allen AME Cathedral in Jamaica, N.Y., has helped grow the church into a congregation of more than 18,000 members, combined with a vibrant nonprofit corporation that serves the community. The church's most recent projects include completion of a $42 million senior citizen assisted living complex with 330 units. The church now has a total of 630 senior-housing units. Flake, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, has been pastor of the church for 26 years. The Rev. Anthony Evans Evans became president of the National Black Church Initiative in 1992, working with churches and religious leaders across the country on issues of social and economic justice. The organization, which reports an affiliation with 34,000 churches across the country, has a mission that includes fighting health disparities, promoting financial responsibility and protecting babies from abuse and neglect. Bishop Paul S. Morton Hurricane Katrina scattered Morton's congregation at New Orleans' Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Church in 2005, but he maintained contact with many of his members as he traveled across the country. After the storm, he passed the leadership of the church to his wife, Debra B. Morton, and he started a church in Atlanta: GSS Changing a Generation . Now, he says, Greater St. Stephen is one church in two states. Morton is also a gospel recording artist and an international television preacher. The Rev. Cynthia L. Hale Founder and senior pastor of Ray of Hope Christian Church in Decatur, Ga., Hale is known as a woman of vision and is recognized for her leadership, integrity and compassion. She established a mentoring program, Elah Pastoral Ministries Inc., in 2004 to assist in the spiritual and practical development of pastors and para-church leaders. In September 2005 she convened her first Women in Ministry Conference , a premier national conference with a focused mission to "develop, coach and mentor Christian women in ministry for the 21st century." Hale has been inducted into the African American Biographies Hall of Fame and the Martin Luther King Board of Preachers of Morehouse College. Apostle Fred K.C. Price Price founded the Crenshaw Christian Center in 1973 with 300 members, and now membership at the suburban Los Angeles church is reported to be more than 18,000. Price has led the church's growth through his radio and television broadcasts and through his books. In addition to education and outreach programs, the church, housed at the "FaithDome," established the Crenshaw Christian Center Ministry Training Institute. Price also founded the Fellowship of International Christian Word of Faith Ministries to foster and spread the faith message among independent ministries located in urban metropolitan areas of the United States. Price's son Fred Price Jr. has taken over senior-pastor duties, while Price is the center's chairman of the board. Bishop T.D. Jakes Minister, film producer and entrepreneur, Jakes leads one of the nation's biggest mega-churches: the Potter's House in Dallas. The church began with 50 families who relocated from West Virginia to Dallas with Jakes. Today the church has more than 30,000 members, and its message is broadcast on stations around the world. The ministry employs nearly 400 staff members, including full-time finance, human resources, information technology, materials-distribution, public relations, publications and television-production departments. Jakes is also CEO of the Potter's House, a nonprofit organization that has produced four major national conferences: the Pastors and Leadership Conference ; ManPower; Woman, Thou Art Loosed; and MegaFest. The ministry established the Metroplex Economic Development Corp., a nonprofit organization that seeks to remedy social and economic disparities and to bridge socio-economic voids existing in urban America. Bishop Timothy J. Clarke If you are in Columbus, Ohio, on Sundays between 8 and 11 a.m., you can get a hot meal of fish and grits or maybe chicken and waffles at First Church of God , pastored by Clarke. In addition to the food served up in its Manna Cafe, the church offers a family fitness center and a full range of ministries, Bible studies and worship services. Clarke, who has led the congregation since 1982, has also served on the State of Ohio Victims of Crime advisory board and the Columbus Urban League board of directors. He is president and CEO of New Beginnings Christian Community Revitalization Corp. Bishop Donald Hilliard Jr. Hilliard, of Cathedral International in Perth Amboy, N.J., has led the church's growth from 125 members in 1983 to more than 6,000 today. The church has three locations and 50 ministries serving three New Jersey areas: Perth Amboy, Asbury Park and Plainfield. Hilliard is the presiding bishop and founder of the Covenant Ecumenical Fellowship and Cathedral Assemblies Inc., serving as spiritual adviser and mentor for several pastors and churches in the United States and West Africa. Apostle Kimberly Daniels Daniels is the overseer of Spoken Word Ministries in Jacksonville, Fla., and is joined in ministry by her husband, Ardell Daniels. She is also founder of Kimberly Daniels Ministries International and World Bible College. A city commissioner in Jacksonville, Daniels is the proud mother of six children and is an author for Creation House Press; she has also self-published an autobiography, Against All Odds. Daniels combines her athletic ability and military background to promote discipline, endurance and deliverance for Christians. Like The Root on Facebook . Follow us on Twitter .

The Rev. Raphael G. Warnock Warnock preaches from one of the most historic pulpits in the country: Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

Hello, and welcome. Jeremy Corbyn has lost a vote of no confidence and now faces a challenge from Labour Party MPs. We're closing the blog but we'll keep reporting and analysing the story as the leadership race comes into focus. This is what you need to know: MPs have passed a no confidence motion against Jeremy Corbyn by 172 votes to 40, with 4 abstentions Jeremy Corbyn vows to defy "unconstitutional vote" and stay on rather than "betraying" party members The main challenger is tipped to be either Angela Eagle or Tom Watson Meanwhile the Scottish Government is wooing Brussels and Stephen Crabb is tipped to run for Tory leader From the moment the EU referendum results rolled in, all eyes were on Eurosceptic Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. But he made no move to resign. Then, overnight on Saturday, Hilary Benn was sacked from the shadow cabinet. The game was on. Sunday saw a string of resignations from the shadow cabinet, and by Monday roughly two thirds had gone. But Corbyn wasn't going to give up so easily. Backed by his old friend and Shadow chancellor John McDonnell, he replaced the shadow cabinet and appeared at a rally organised by the grassroots movement Momentum. The Parliamentary Labour Party was determined to press on. There was an emotional meeting that spilled out into the Westminster corridors. Margaret Hodge tabled a no confidence vote. And then, on Tuesday afternoon, MPs voted in a secret ballot. The result was damning. Just 40 MPs backed Corbyn, compared to 172 who told him to go. A further four abstained. Still, Corbyn refused to go. He denounced the vote as having "no constitutional legitimacy" and said he would "not betray" party members by resigning. With the Corbynites and PLP at loggerheads, it is still unclear how the battle will end. The PLP must now come up with a candidate with a chance of beating the hugely-popular Corbyn, or find a way to strike him off the ballot. The fight for the soul of the Labour Party has only just begun. For the whole story, scroll down... 17:40 Another resignation. Clive Efford has resigned as Shadow DCMS Minister - head of soft left Tribune group. -- George Eaton (@georgeeaton) June 28, 2016 17:34 A tweet from ITV's Chris Ship suggests we'll get Watson or Eagle, but not some kind of Team Weagle. NEW: The challenger to Jeremy Corbyn will be either @tom_watson or @angelaeagle . No contest launched yet -- Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) June 28, 2016 17:18 For anyone tuning in now who doesn't like to read their news backwards, my colleague Anoosh has written this helpful guide to the vote of no confidence and what happens next . 17:16 Christina Rees, one of the few remaining ministers from Corbyn's original cabinet, has resigned: Christina Rees, shadow justice minister, has resigned her post. -- Stephen Bush (@stephenkb) June 28, 2016 17:13 Labour MP Wes Streeting tweets that Corbyn's position is "untenable": It's abundantly clear that @jeremycorbyn cannot command a majority of the PLP. His position is untenable. He should resign now with dignity. -- Wes Streeting MP (@wesstreeting) June 28, 2016 17:03 Jeremy Corbyn has made a statement saying the vote of no confidence has "no constitutional legitimacy": "In the aftermath of last week's referendum, our country faces major challenges. Risks to the economy and living standards are growing. The public is divided. "The Government is in disarray. Ministers have made it clear they have no exit plan, but are determined to make working people pay with a new round of cuts and tax rises. "Labour has the responsibility to give a lead where the Government will not. We need to bring people together, hold the Government to account, oppose austerity and set out a path to exit that will protect jobs and incomes. "To do that we need to stand together. Since I was elected leader of our party nine months ago, we have repeatedly defeated the Government over its attacks on living standards. "Last month, Labour become the largest party in the local elections. In Thursday's referendum, a narrow majority voted to leave, but two thirds of Labour supporters backed our call for a remain vote. "I was democratically elected leader of our party for a new kind of politics by 60 per cent of Labour members and supporters, and I will not betray them by resigning. Today's vote by MPs has no constitutional legitimacy. "We are a democratic party, with a clear constitution. Our people need Labour party members, trade unionists and MPs to unite behind my leadership at a critical time for our country." 16:57 More on that ballot situation. If Corbyn doesn't get enough nominations, Corbynistas will argue that the rule you need 20% of the MPs to nominate you only applies to challengers. According to lawyers Doughty Chambers, this doesn't apply to incumbents, like Jezza. You can read the full advice here . 16:45 The next challenge for anti-Corbyn MPs is to keep him off the ballot. Their job is made easier by the fact he has only 40 core supporters. But if he does get on, under current rules there's a good chance he could win again. I met activists from the pro-Corbyn grassroots organisation Momentum at a rally on Monday night , as the coup gathered pace. One organiser told me if there is another leadership election "Jeremy will win again". It's undeniable he's electrified a lot of activists on the left and captured the imagination of party members. I don't see them jumping to support Eagle or Watson, especially given it's a hostile takeover. 16:38 Labour heavyweights Tom Watson and Angela Eagle are meeting now, according to Kay Burley from Sky News. Break: Watson and Angela Eagle meeting NOW - likely to discuss challenge on Corbyn for leadership -- Kay Burley (@KayBurley) June 28, 2016 Eagle has grown in prominence under the Corbyn leadership and has been making squawks about "unity" in recent days. Watson won the deputy leadership by more than double the share of the vote gained by rival candidates. 16:24 Labour MPs have passed a no confidence motion in their leader, Jeremy Corbyn. The vote was 172 to 40. This breakdown is important because Corbyn will need 50 nominations to get on the ballot again. Result means #JeremyCorbyn will struggle to get back on the ballot if his name does not go forward automatically. -- Ben Glaze (@benglaze) June 28, 2016 Our Political Editor, George Eaton, isn't surprised: Corbyn has never had the confidence of Labour MPs. Today just makes it official. -- George Eaton (@georgeeaton) June 28, 2016 16:09 The source of all the Crabb gossip appears to be an email inviting Tory MPs for networking drinks, according to The Mirror . The email, from Maria Caulfield, Simon Hoare and Craig Williams, says Crabb is standing as a candidate. 15:53 It seems that Crabb is scuttling away from the headlines. The BBC has changed its headline to "expected" to run. But The Sun already seemed sure this "blue collar dream team" was standing last night. Makes Labour look like an oasis of calm... I'm told by Stephen Crabb's special adviser he has NOT declared his intention to run for the Tory leadership. -- Katy Searle (@KatySearle) June 28, 2016 15:34 Pat Glass is Labour's new shadow education secretary, but not for that long, it turns out. She has written to her local Labour branch formally giving notice that she does not intend to stand in the next General Election, which "could come as soon as October 2016". She writes that representing the people she grew up with has been a privilege and an honour, but continues: "Whilst I had always intended to do no more than two terms in Parliament I have found the last six months very,very difficult. "The referendum has been incredibly divisive, it divided families and communities and I have found it bruising in many respects. It has had an impact on both me and my family as I am sure it has had on many others." Glass, who campaigned to Remain, revealed earlier that she had received death threats and stayed away from the referendum count as a result. She has been an MP since 2010, and a Shadow minister since January. I have informed my CLP Chair that whenever the next General Election takes place, I will not be Labour's candidate. pic.twitter.com/g3DADx57KF -- Pat Glass (@PatGlassMP) June 28, 2016 15:24 A little bit of blue-on-blue action now. Stephen Crabb, the Department for Work and Pensions minister who replaced Iain Duncan Smith, is going to run for PM. Crabb, who backed Remain, is launching his bid with Osborne protege and Business secretary Sajid Javid as his right-hand man. He'll have some powerful supporters - political star and leader of the Scottish Tories Ruth Davidson has previously described him as her "political soulmate" . Both Crabb and Javid come from working class backgrounds, which could help the Tory leadership escape the pervading whiff of Bullingdon Club, most strongly surrounding a certain Boris Johnson... 14:45 STOP PRESS. Our Political Editor, George Eaton, has been spotted with Keanu Reaves. ... And if it wasn't surreal enough... Keanu Reeves has just turned up in Parliament...does all feel like The Matrix pic.twitter.com/rIPNwCnVAQ -- Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) June 28, 2016 George is so dedicated in his research of the current philosophical challenges facing the Labour Party he'll turn to The Matrix to find the truth. 14:24 A fabulous new video experience of the newly-appointed Shadow cabinet has emerged. As the camera begins to roll, a worried-looking Jeremy Corbyn says "This seems like a bad idea". He then says to his spin doctor: "Seumas, I'm not sure this is a great idea either." He then gives a polite smile while his eyes dart back to the camera. And then asks: "Are we getting the camera to go or what?" Deputy leader Tom Watson, widely tipped as a leadership challenger, sits uneasily beside him. Jeremy Corbyn reshuffles the shadow cabinet - literally - before TV filming https://t.co/7D7wyfdN1c https://t.co/ceabdcinNd -- Sky News (@SkyNews) June 28, 2016 It's great that media-shy Corbyn has opened up to cameras. But my colleague and electoral soothsayer Stephen Bush isn't convinced. If Corbyn does lead Labour into the next election, this video will form the basis of a constructive dismissal case. https://t.co/SguD4Q3aUu -- Stephen Bush (@stephenkb) June 28, 2016 13:08 Labour MPs may be about to bury Jeremy Corbyn in a secret ballot, but outside the walls of Parliament, his supporters are ready to fight. I met some of them at the Momentum rally on Monday night. You can read more about it here . 12:59 Julia here. While Westminster is a hotbed of rumour, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been getting on with it. She is meeting European Parliament President Martin Schultz tomorrow. Although the SNP's promise of an independent European Scotland was shot down during the Scottish referendum, it seems this time round MEPs are sympathetic. Guy Verhofstadt, the former Belgium PM, who leads the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe parliamentary group tweeted: "It's wrong that Scotland might be taken out of [the] EU." Scroll down to see the standing ovation a Scottish MEP earned when he urged the Parliament "do not let Scotland down". 12:47 George here. A Labour source tells me that "Angela Eagle has told Tom Watson that she will stand aside if he runs" against Jeremy Corbyn. The source said that this was "on the basis of his mandate as deputy leader against her lack of one having stood in the same race [in which she finished fourth]". But an Eagle aide tells me this is "absolutely not true". 11:28 Shadow Energy and Climate Change Minister Alan Whitehead has resigned. In his resignation letter, he says: "You are a good, decent, committed person, but unfortunately not the right person to lead the Opposition." He thanks Corbyn for giving the opportunity to work for an area he feels passionate about, but continues: "I cannot give you complete loyalty in this position and it would be dishonest of me to continue to occupy it." It is with great sadness that I have resigned as Shadow Energy and Climate Change Minister as of 11am today pic.twitter.com/97JksufgUz -- Alan Whitehead (@alanwhiteheadmp) June 28, 2016 10:57 For a bit of light relief, let's turn to the European Parliament. Jean-Claude Juncker asked Nigel Farage: "I am really surprised that you are here. You are fighting for the exit, the British people voted in favour of the exit. Why are you here?" Farage in turn tells MEPs "Virtually none of you have ever done a proper job in your lives." The President calms them down by telling them "you're behaving like UKIP". Scottish MEP Alyn Smith, though, gets a standing ovation. He says he is proudly European: "The people of Scotland along with the people of NI and the people of London and lots of people in England and Wales also." Brandishing a map showing Scotland's Remain vote, he adds: "please remember this. Scotland did not let you die. Please, I beg you, cher colleague, do not let Scotland down now." "Do not let Scotland down." Scotland's @AlynSmithMEP gets a rousing applause from European Parliament https://t.co/961mdWVlfE -- Sky News (@SkyNews) June 28, 2016 10:37 On Angela Eagle, another potential challenger to Corbyn, a Labour source told me: "Angela is widely regarded as the candidate who can unite the Labour Party and heal the divisions. She has impressed MPs with her performances at PMQs and has the skill and intellect to rebuild Labour into the credible opposition that the country is crying out for. It is no surprise that colleagues are turning to her, she is very much considered as a tough Angela Merkel-type figure, someone who can lead the party through this difficult period." 10:31 George here. Labour MPs expect a two-thirds vote of no confidence in Corbyn when the result is announced around 4:30pm. They then expect a mass resignation of whips (a leader's last line of defence) to follow. I'm also told there is "growing pressure" on Tom Watson from all wings of the party to stand against Corbyn. 08:49 The FTSE 100 has opened up 2.09 per cent, with housebuilder Persimmon up 7.25 per cent. This suggests investors are feeling more optimistic about the property market. More crucially, the domestic-facing FTSE 250 is up 2.86 per cent. The pound has "stabilised", but that doesn't mean much if you didn't exchange your holiday money in time. Today's *massive* sterling rally in full: #boristability pic.twitter.com/VmMCAv0F60 -- Katie Martin (@katie_martin_fx) June 28, 2016 08:38 More from Jeremy Hunt, best known for infuriating junior doctors, who is "seriously considering" joining the leadership race. He calls for a second vote on a deal resembling "Norway plus". Says full access to the single market is essential for jobs, but with some immigration controls. According to Hunt: "I do think that deal needs to have some sort of democratic endorsement. My preference would be in the 2020 Conservative manifesto." He then starts talking about Schengen freedom of movement rules that have never applied to the UK anyway. 08:29 Corbyn loyalist Diane Abbott is not giving any ground to the PLP. She tells Today nearly 60 per cent of Labour members still support the leadership: "Fleet Street and Labour MPs at Westminster do not choose the leader of the Labour Party. The Party does that." She accuses media commentators of being "Westminster-centric" and questions the validity of a no confidence vote: "We have to remember this vote of no confidence doesn't exist in the rule book. It has no meaning." 08:22 "Did I want Britain to remain in the EU? Yes. Did I fear the consequences? Yes." Osborne signs off by saying he doesn't do things by half measures, but he loves his country and will "do everything I can" in the weeks and months ahead. 08:19 Osborne says there are loads of contingency plans in place for financial shocks. He says accusations otherwise are "nonsensical" and "it was not the responsibility" of those who wanted to remain in the EU to explain what happened when we voted out. He says he's not backing a leadership candidate but says a Remain campaigner could stand: "The candidate now who is able to articulate now the clearest, crispest version of what we are seeing is the candidate who I think can lead the country." NB: Theresa May officially supported Remain. 08:13 Osborne, who was understood to have opposed a referendum, says: "We had a big and lively debate about it inside the Conservative Party." He refuses to be drawn on his own discussions, but insists: "I supported the decision we collectively took to hold a referendum." He tells the BBC his successors will have to show the world Britain can live within its means: "We are absolutely going to have to provide fiscal security to people." In other words, there will be a Punishment Budget, but he's leaving that for the next Conservative leadership to dish out. 08:01 In non-Labour news, George Osborne, a prominent Remain backer, has ruled himself out of a Tory leadership contest. He had previously been tipped to succeed Cameron. It paves the way for a contest between the hugely popular Leave campaigner Boris Johnson and heavyweight Home Secretary Theresa May. Meanwhile, Jeremy Hunt has called for a second referendum. 07:58 Another set of stories coming out about the Momentum rally last night, just outside Parliament. I was there, and the devotion to Jeremy Corbyn was striking. But who exactly do his supporters represent? The Today programme has captured an argument between a Corbyn supporter and a lone dissenter. The dissenter is told: "I would just leave if I were you. "You're a single lone voice here walking around with your Resign placard. You on the right wing of the party is not what we want to hear." He was certainly a brave man - I saw posters describing the PLP as "scabs". 07:55 Tales from last night's fraught meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party. The BBC reports MPs were standing in corridors in full view of Corbyn aides calling for him to go. It got emotional - some MPs left the meeting in tears. Margaret Hodge, who proposed the no confidence vote, is now on the Today programme. She says she has had hundreds of messages in support, and it's the millions of voters that matter. She says MPs are telling her "Jeremy's a problem on the doorstep". Corbyn should do "what all decent men do" and consider his position, she says. It is in the best interests of the party, and the country. Excruciating PLP never seen my colleagues so angry but united & with wholly inadequate response from Jeremy. -- Barry Sheerman (@BarrySheerman) June 27, 2016 07:21 A quick look at the Asian markets. And it's looking a little more stable. Japan's Nikkei was up 0.09% last night, but China's Hang Seng index was dowwn 0.76%. Investors see Japan as relatively stable right now, whereas China has problems of its own. The FTSE 100 closed down, at 5,982.20 last night. The pound has crept up against the dollar overnight, but it is still in the doldrums compared to before the vote. Meanwhile, Martin Gilbert from Aberdeen Asset Management has some intereting observations on the chances of a Scottish independence referendum (he supported the last one). "Nicola is a pretty cautious politician," he told the BBC. "She's not going to go for a referendum unless she's pretty sure she'll win it." The key point is whether Europe will allow Scotland to remain, he adds. 07:17 My old paper, the staunchly Labour Mirror , has told Jeremy Corbyn he's got to go. -- Mirror Politics (@MirrorPolitics) June 27, 2016 It comes hours after Corbyn hit back at a rally of his grassroots supporters, Momentum. He told them: "I do not want to live in a country where there are people sleeping on the streets while the mansions are left empty. "The political atmosphere we have is about challenging these orthodoxies." TUESDAY 07:09 Julia here. Shadow justice minister Andy Slaughter has resigned, according to the BBC. He calls himself a "comrade" of Corbyn and, damningly, only resigned after discussing it with local party activists. 18:25: Am told that there will be no news tonight. See you all tomorrow at 7am. (sob) 18:12: Reshuffle news! Jon Trickett is moved from shadow local government to shadow lord president of the council, the only post in politics that sounds like a baddie in Star Wars. Replacing him at shadow local gov is Graeme Morris, promoted from the whips' office. Debbie Abrahams is promoted to shadow secretary for work and pensions, Barry Gardiner goes to shadow energy, while Richard Burgon is made shadow secretary of state for justice. Not much news on who - or if - the junior posts will be filled by. 18:05: Just when I thought I was out. Richard Burden, a long-time fellow traveller of Jeremy Corbyn's, from the left of the party, has resigned, warning that he is "making things worse" (Corbyn, that is, though Corbyn might equally say it of Burden). 17:30: Stephen here: Jack Dromey has resigned as shadow home office minister. I think that's a clean sweep of the Home Office team. 16:58 Here's a clanger. Stephen Bush has sent me a comment piece from Richard Murphy, who advised Corbyn during the leadership election . He's backing those "demanding change": "Now his leadership is in crisis. I will make myself unpopular for saying this, but I think that those demanding change are right to do so, even if I will not agree with much of their reasoning. In my opinion Corbyn has been guilty of three things. First, he has not grown into the job in the way John McDonnell has into his: after nine months he still feels like the reluctant leader who cannot do up his tie when necessary, and I hate to say it, but such messages are important. People believe that this is a slap-dash approach that means he cannot lead as a result." 16:49 Labour MP Kevin Brennan is asking when the NHS can get the extra PS350million promised. Cameron answers with a grin "my successor will have to explain where the money's going". Meanwhile in Scotland... Labour leader Kezia Dugdale signals independence may no longer be impossible to stomach. She has written an opinion piece arguing "the case for independence is stronger now". 16:42 Will Straw, head of Britain Stronger in Europe calls on Corbyn to go: "Jeremy Corbyn should follow David Cameron's lead. Under his leadership, Labour is further removed from its industrial heartlands than ever before with 29 per cent of its supporters threatening to go elsewhere. New research from the IPPR think tank shows that the poorest families will be hit twice as hard by new inflation caused by sterling's slide as the richest--many living in areas that voted overwhelmingly to leave. "Rather than making a clear and passionate Labour case for EU membership, Corbyn took a week's holiday in the middle of the campaign and removed pro-EU lines from his speeches. "Rather than finding imaginative ways for Labour to present a united front and get its message across to wavering supporters, Corbyn vetoed a planned event featuring all Labour's formers leaders." 16:33: A rumour that Caroline Lucas will join the shadow cabinet is nonsense according to Anoosh, who knows more about the inner workings of the Greens than some Greens do. no truth in rumour that Caroline Lucas might join shadow cabinet. She hasn't had a conversation with Labour. -- Anoosh Chakelian (@Anoosh_C) June 27, 2016 16:23 After the game of Where's George? it's time for Hunt the Boris. Neither Boris Johnson nor Michael Gove have turned up to the debate in the House of Commons today. Boris was last seen in the pages of The Telegraph , where he said "Britain is part of Europe" and that voters were more interested in democracy than immigration . 16:06 Hilary Benn stands up in Parliament to cheers. Perhaps wisely, he sticks to an international question on influencing foreign policy in Syria and elsewhere. 15:52 Labour MPs have shouted "Resign" at Jeremy Corbyn in Parliament. Corbyn struggled to say "the country will thank neither the benches in front of me nor behind for indulging in internal faction and manoeuvring at this time," above the noise. 15:29: Keir Starmer has resigned as shadow home office minister, saying that following yesterday and today's resignations, his situation has "materially changed" and it is "simply untenable now to suggest we can offer an effective opposition without a change of leader". 15:18: Here's where we are. Most of the shadow cabinet has resigned, and much of the frontbench with them. Two of the three biggest trade unions, the GMB and Unison, have given Corbyn a vote of somewhat equivocal confidence. There is a no confidence vote in Jeremy Corbyn from the PLP tomorrow. Corbyn is insisting that he will remain in post and will be a candidate in any leadership election. Well-placed sources insist that Iain McNicol has been given legal advice that Corbyn will need to seek 50 nominations from the PLP to stand. 15:11: Labour's leadership team in the Lords (Angela Smith, leader in the Lords, and Steve Bassam, Chief Whip) are writing to Jeremy Corbyn outlining their reasons for declining to attend shadow cabinet while he is leader and their approach moving forward. They have the full support of their frontbench team, who will continue to act as an opposition in the Lords but a remove from the leadership. (In practice, the Lords have been ploughing a seperate furrow since Corbyn's election.) 15:04: 4000 people are expected to attend* Momentum's rally in support of Jeremy Corbyn. They will hear speeches from Corbynite MPs and trade union general secretaries, with the FBU's Matt Wrack among them. *have clicked "maybe attending" on Facebook. 14:44: Some pushback from that latest update. Paul Waugh at HuffPo says that "it's what they don't say that matters". I dunno, at some point fairly soon the big unions will need to back Iain McNicol up at the NEC if they're to keep Corbyn off the ballot. Are they in that place yet? 14:37: Or not. Unison have just released a statement in support of Jeremy Corbyn. The wind feels like it might be coming out of the plotters' sails a bit. UNISON issues statement of support for Corbyn: "Tories are divided, but at this crucial time, Labour should not be." pic.twitter.com/Crm30iFbgi -- Siraj Datoo (@dats) June 27, 2016 14:33 : Just realised there is a nightmare scenario in which Corbyn neither resigns nor do we reach a point where we can say the crisis is over, locking the NS politics team in a perpetual state of liveblogging. 14:23: I just typed "this is why the Tory approach of throwing out just the top two, guaranteeing the winner has a genuine power base in parliament works better" then I remembered this would have meant a whole summer of Andy Burnham vs Yvette Cooper, a contest so boring and soul-crushing I actually felt my heartbeat slow a little thinking of it. 14:21: I said I would produce a full list of the resignees. I lied. Too much is happening. Just Rosie Winterton and Jon Ashworth unaccounted for from the shadow cabinet now. 14:18: Luciana Berger has resigned from the shadow cabinet. I have spoken to Jeremy today and it is with great sadness that I have stood down from his Shadow Cabinet. pic.twitter.com/YRYiu7HRd0 -- Luciana Berger (@lucianaberger) June 27, 2016 14:16: Update on that LYL no con. Yeah, I wouldn't read too much into that, its leadership at the moment has always been hostile to the Corbyn project. There is also a letter going around signed by over 200 members of Young Labour, which has several former Corbyn supporters on there but is largely made up of former supporters of Andy Burnham, Yvettte Cooper and Liz Kendall. 14:12: Somewhat equivocal statement from the GMB's general secretary Tim Roache. GMB statement - a little bit for everyone pic.twitter.com/bwMUYgSigH -- Sam Coates Times (@SamCoatesTimes) June 27, 2016 Something to please both sides in there. 14:06: Have been asked to do a list of all the exits so far. With you in just a minute. 14:02: Blimey. This is why the Watson playbook that worked against Tony Blair might not work this time. Owen Smith asked Corbyn: "Are you prepared to split the party over this?" Corbyn said he didn't want to: "But if necessary...." -- Jim Pickard (@PickardJE) June 27, 2016 13:56 : London Young Labour's executive have passed a motion of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn's leadership . Not sure what their political complexion is at the moment. I am reliably told by the left it is fairly right-wing at the moment, and from the right, etc, etc. 13:52: In other news, the Conservatives have announced their leadership timetable. Nominations will open on Wednesday and there will be a new leader in place by 2 September. 13:48 : Better version of the joke I told at 13:29. @stephenkb How can you tell Corbyn's cabinet DIDN'T come from Ikea? It'll fit in to a small hatchback. -- lucien desgai (@lucien_desgai) June 27, 2016 13:46: 'In Dreams Begin Responsibilities' is the last episode of the brilliant TV show My So-Called Life , which struggled to find an audience and was cancelled after less than a year by short-sighted corporate executives. There's a column in that. 13:42: No word from Jon Ashworth, but he has changed his Twitter bio. 13:35: People keep asking me what the members think of all this. My sense is that there is a majority for change from the current approach but I'm not sure there's a candidate who can win that majority. People want someone who can keep the politics, sharpen up the competence and approach, and bring together more of the PLP. Not clear there is someone who fits that bill. As I wrote yesterday: For what it's worth, Open Labour, the soft left pressure group, has called for a fresh leadership election in the light of the referendum result . 13:33: Angela Eagle just gave a very emotional interview on the World At One. She sounds close to tears. Listen to it here (about five minutes back). 13:29: Ooh, I've just thought of a joke. (Lower your expectations.) Q: How can you tell Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet came from IKEA? A: It took days to assemble but it fell over the second a fat man leaned on it. (I told you to lower them.) 13:26: Team Corbyn are still insisting they will be able to fill the gaps with some "surprising names". At this point, name of any sort would be fairly surprising. 13:23: Nick Thomas-Symonds, author of a very good biography of Attlee and a biography of Nye Bevan I haven't got around to reading yet, has resigned as shadow employment minister. It is with enormous regret that I have resigned as Shadow Employment Minister. pic.twitter.com/KWe52wgVQc -- Nick Thomas-Symonds (@NickTorfaenMP) June 27, 2016 13:17 : One woman rebuttal service. Sign petition against Labour MPs who are putting their careers before the Party and the country. https://t.co/St8pMZIiGO @PeoplesMomentum -- Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) June 27, 2016 13:13: Good question via Twitter: the plotters' favoured approach will be a coronation. But who? It can't be any of Dan Jarvis, Chuka Umunna, Heidi Alexander, Jon Ashworth, Gloria DePiero or anyone else tipped to do it long term, as that would likely trigger a full-blooded leadership race. My guess is Tom Watson or Angela Eagle. But not inconcievable that Yvette Cooper could do it. 13:09: That last update has generated a lot of texts saying the same thing "What about Ivan Lewis?" A question that is also its own answer. But seriously: Ivan Lewis, sacked by Corbyn via text message in his first reshuffle, is running for Greater Manchester mayor and has called for Corbyn to go. My instinct is that whatever happens, Burnham has done his chances of scooping up the Greater Manchester mayor no harm at all, though. 13:05: The only members of the shadow cabinet who are still in the same jobs they were this morning are: Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell, Andy Burnham, Jon Ashworth, Rosie Winterton and Luciana Berger. Both Berger and Burnham are seeking the nominations for the new metro mayors for Merseyside and Greater Manchester respectively. 13:04: Oh, that's a shame. Labour's excellent Women and Equalities lead, Kate Green, has resigned. 13:02: On Lisa Nandy, can I reccomend my colleague Anoosh Chakelian's long piece on Nandy's constituency? It's a great read. 12:58: Jim Waterson has this tidbit on the new shadow cabinet. Corbyn's team pledge to fill all open shadow cabinet positions today and promise to include some "surprising names". -- Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) June 27, 2016 Waiting by the phone here. My peerage may yet come. 12:56: My MP, Diane Abbott, currently on course to be shadow secretary of state for everything in addition to her new berth at Health, is not having any of this coup nonsense. Join me at 18.00 today at Parliament Square. @PeoplesMomentum protest for Jeremy Corbyn & against self-serving coup https://t.co/jOTGBs6HcP -- Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) June 27, 2016 12:50: Team Corbyn tell George he will fill the vacancies, and the new appointments are "not just lefties". If anyone in Team Corbyn is reading, I am willing to accept a peerage. 12:49: Reminded of Eric Varley, the industry secretary under Jim Callaghan and from the same tradition on the Labour right as Tom Watson, who once quipped that "'it's carrying democracy too far if you don't know the result of the vote before the meeting." 12:46 : It's still not clear who the alternative to Corbyn is . Owen Smith and Lisa Nandy have called on Tom Watson to assume the position. I am hearing that Yvette Cooper is still interested and indeed intervened to put pressure on several wavering shadow cabinet ministers to resign but that might trigger a full-blooded contest, which the plotters are keen to avoid. 12:42: To lose one Eagle is unfortunate. To lose two looks like the culmination of an organised plot. Maria Eagle quits the shadow cabinet. 12:40: Nia Griffith has released a statement on her resignation. "This morning I met with Jeremy Corbyn, to discuss the much needed leadership and unity that the Party needs in the light of the referendum aftermath and a potentially imminent general election. However I do not feel that our discussions this morning gave me the confidence that he could now achieve this unity. I have therefore tendered my resignation as Shadow Secretary of State for Wales. I made clear to Jeremy that I have always admired his commitment to the causes that matter to him, but last week's referendum result and the likelihood of an early general election mean that the party now requires new leadership. Jeremy has lost the confidence of the party, including many members who initially supported him, and he should now do the honourable thing and resign. It has been a tremendous privilege to serve as Shadow Welsh Secretary for the past nine months, in particular to play my part in re-electing a Welsh Labour Government which is now more important than ever before." Her juniors, Susan Elan Jones and Gerald Jones have also resigned. 12:38: Episode 113: The One With All The Resignations. 12:37 : Imagine if the Labour party were a long-running show and you were watching it after a year away from it. 12:33: Yesterday I said that I thought it was more likely that Jeremy Corbyn would survive than not. People are asking me what I think now. Honest answer: search me, guv. Two things I know to be absolutely true: Labour never gets rid of its leaders, and you never bet against Tom Watson when control of the Labour party is on the line. They can't both be true. 12:31: Am hearing that Nia Griffith, shadow secretary of state for Wales, and her junior ministers, will be next to quit. 12:27 : It's all kicking off. And not just in the Labour party. Julia's got the inside track on what's going on in the markets and why you should care: 12:26 Stephen has come back from wherever he was - a meeting, probably, or primal scream therapy - and is taking over this liveblog. It's been a gas, guys. 12:25 Apparently George hasn't got the message that we're meant to call anyone who opposes Corbyn a "Blairite" these days. Angela Eagle and John Healey resign - soft left revolt completed. -- George Eaton (@georgeeaton) June 27, 2016 12:23 The Guardian has a video of John McDonnell saying this morning that Jeremy Corbyn should not resign, saying they should look to the interests of the country, rather than "party political" interests. 12:21 They're coming thick and fast now. John Healey has hand delivered his resignation letter - very classy. (See 11:50 ) I have just hand-delivered Jeremy Corbyn my resignation letter. pic.twitter.com/ntnHFzeaXN -- John Healey MP (@JohnHealey_MP) June 27, 2016 12:20 A good thought from Stephen: The Eagle has flown the coop to join the coup! (Sorry.) Just one thing, tho: that leaves a shadow cabinet position on Labour's ruling NEC in Corbyn's choosing, which could turn out to be crucial later on. If Maria stays, will we have spread Eagles? 12:16 EAGLE DOWN: Angela Eagle has posted her resignation letter, saying Labour needs a leader who can "unite rather than divide" the Labour Party. With deep regret, and after nine months of trying to make it work, I have today resigned from the Shadow Cabinet pic.twitter.com/tX7SPDyTIZ -- Angela Eagle (@angelaeagle) June 27, 2016 12:12 Meanwhile, over in Ireland Taoiseach Enda Kenny is addressing the Dail on Brexit. He says that "the closer the UK is to the EU", the better it is for Ireland - notable, given that other countries are keen to give the UK the cold shoulder as soon as possible. 12:11 From George, reports that Keith Veness has said Corbyn "should have come out openly for Brexit". (See 11:18, when Chris Bryant told the BBC that he suspects Corbyn voted "out".) Corbyn's friend and former agent Keith Veness says that "JC should have come out openly for Brexit". Interesting phrasing. -- George Eaton (@georgeeaton) June 25, 2016 12:09 The Buzzfeed bingo card is nearly full - here's the latest update, if you're playing along at home. (Or at your desk, if you're in work but can't focus because there's too much news.) Here's what's left of Saturday's Labour shadow cabinet. Very close to a bingo. https://t.co/Ru2pQwxosT pic.twitter.com/Ic7RYU1p7R -- Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) June 27, 2016 12:06 Some hot goss from Anushka Asthana: apparently Smith, Nandy and co weren't expecting to call for Corbyn to go... Nandy, Smith, Healey, Griffiths and Green went in not expecting to call for Corbyn to go but furious that "McDonnell barged in" I'm told -- Anushka Asthana (@GuardianAnushka) June 27, 2016 11:59 Lisa Nandy has ruled herself out of a leadership contest. Wigan MP, Lisa Nandy, resigns from Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet. She says she won't stand in a leadership contest. -- BBC Radio Manchester (@bbcradiomanc) June 27, 2016 11:53 Lisa Nandy and Owen Smith, both firmly in Labour's soft left, have resigned, calling for Tom Watson to become the temporary leader. Even more shadow cabinet members resign and call for Tom Watson to become temporary leader. pic.twitter.com/LvsNl9JHJv -- Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) June 27, 2016 11:50 Resignation by Twitter and Facebook is becoming a bit tired now. What other media would you like to see MPs use to resign? (Personally, I think a stereo held in the air Say Anything- style on College Green would be quite good). Do share your ideas @stephanieboland before a serious political journalist takes the liveblog back. 11:47 Another one down: Jenny Chapman has posted her resignation from the shadow education team to Facebook. 11:44 Good news: after a recent trip to Ireland I forgot to change some euro back, and will now be buying a charming maisonette in Bayswater. You're all invited to the housewarming. At 0930 Boris Johnson: "the pound is stable" - it has now fallen to a new 31 year low versus the dollar pic.twitter.com/41swM1WGtK -- Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) June 27, 2016 11:40 Aside from the fact that Eagle, Smith and Nandy sounds like a prog rock supergroup, their resignations would be particularly significant given recent rumblings (see George at 11:04) about potential leadership bids. Eagle, Smith and Nandy significant - they're all potential leadership contenders https://t.co/jvy0nLXZk3 -- Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) June 27, 2016 11:37 Hearing that further high-profile resignations may be imminent. Time to put the kettle on, folks. 11:35 For those of you into that sort of things, Ladbrokes have published the latest odds for leaders of both the Conservative and Labour Parties. No mention of the duck (11:16). -- Ladbrokes Politics (@LadPolitics) June 27, 2016 11:28 Seumas Milne says that they're not having trouble filling the new shadow cabinet: "there's always people". Milne saying they're not having problems filling shadow cabinet posts, "there's always people" -- Vincent McAviney (@VinnyITV) June 27, 2016 11:24 Jess Phillips has posted her resignation letter, signing off with a "take care"... -- Jess Phillips MP (@jessphillips) June 27, 2016 11:22 A spokesperson for German premiere Angela Merkel has told a briefing that informal discussions will not begin before Britain invokes Article 50. One thing is clear: before Britain has sent this request there will be no informal preliminary talks about the modalities of leaving. 11:18 Chris Bryant has told BBC News that he thinks Jeremy Corbyn may have voted to leave the EU. Bryant says Corbyn refused to tell him whether he had voted to leave the EU #Brexit -- Nick Eardley (@nickeardleybbc) June 27, 2016 11:16 This probably wouldn't be the most absurd thing to happen since Friday, really. Prime Mallard: duck makes bid for Downing Street https://t.co/OiKMUFhamD pic.twitter.com/KHeQMGGwWG -- The Telegraph (@Telegraph) June 27, 2016 11:09 Muddy? Sleep-deprived? Living in a tent amidst chaos? Just a sort of Defense training day, isn't it, Glastonbury? (Actually, Clive Lewis has completed a tour of Afghanistan: you can read about his military experience here .) THICK OF IT ALERT: Labour source: Clive Lewis, is apparently on is way back from Glastonbury and may not make his first Defence Questions! -- Darren McCaffrey (@DMcCaffreySKY) June 27, 2016 11:06 Running out of time to make cups of tea between these resignation letters now. Roberta Blackman-Woods has resigned from the front bench, saying that part of being Labour leader is to "connect with the public" and represent a range of opinions within the party. I have just resigned my position on the frontbench for the reasons as set out below in my letter to Jeremy pic.twitter.com/wtYq5lgt9D -- R. Blackman-Woods (@robertabwMP) June 27, 2016 11:04 George hears from one of his sources that Lisa Nandy will stand against Corbyn. Lisa Nandy will stand against Corbyn, Labour source tells me. -- George Eaton (@georgeeaton) June 27, 2016 11:03 Here's Karin Smyth's letter to her constituents this morning. My favourite bit? She's not taught her spellchecker the word "Corbyn" in all this time. Here's my letter to Bristol South Labour Party members this morning pic.twitter.com/mcFgyMC9YV -- Karin Smyth MP (@karinsmyth) June 27, 2016 11:00 Ruth Smeeth has joined the growing number of MPs who have resigned. (I've lost track of what number we're at: can someone tweet it at me ?) It's with a heavy heart that I have just resigned as PPS to the Shadow Northern Ireland & Scotland teams. -- Ruth Smeeth MP (@RuthSmeeth) June 27, 2016 10:57 George reports that, as we said above, Watson's suggestion that Corbyn resign was "implicit at most". BBC report that Watson called for Corbyn to resign is wrong. It was implicit at most. -- George Eaton (@georgeeaton) June 27, 2016 10:54 The Press Association reports that the executive of the Conservative 1922 committee will meet today to discuss the rules and timetable for the party's leadership challenge. They are expected to use the same system that saw David Cameron elected in 2005 . 10:50 The BBC has revised its story on Tom Watson. The story is now more in line with what the majority of the lobby have been reporting: Watson has not explicitly called on Corbyn to resign, but has stressed the seriousness of his position and warned him he faces a concerted challenge to his leadership. 10:47 Diana Johnson, who resigned from her post in the Shadow Foreign and Commonwealth Office this morning, has posted the full text of her resignation letter to Twitter. She calls Corbyn "a very principled and decent man", but says she does not believe he possesses "the vital leadership qualities we need at this crucial time". This is the text of my resignation letter sent to Jeremy Corbyn. pic.twitter.com/NoEyBywinA -- Diana Johnson (@DianaJohnsonMP) June 27, 2016 10:43 The Times Red Box is now reporting that a growing number of Labour MPs are in "serious" discussions to consider the possibility of an SDP-style split. Hannah McGrath suggests that any breakaway group would need to muster over a hundred MPs to make a play at forming a new party. 10:38 Meanwhile, the resignations contginue: Alex Cunningham, Shadow Minis ter for the Natural Environment, tendered his this morning . 10:32 Boris Johnson has said that "Project Fear" is over. Nicola Sturgeon concurrs. Indeed, Boris. Project Farce has now begun - and you are largely responsible. #EUref https://t.co/1TExKvEvfT -- Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) June 27, 2016 10:28 With the pound falling again this morning and the Governer of the Bank of England allocating PS250,000,000,000 to prop up the currency, the BBC now reports that RBS and Barclays have both been suspended from trading after shares tanked more than 8%, triggering automatic "circuit breakers" designed to allow the value of the stock to be re-evaluated before automatic trading resumes. This is, as you may have guessed, concerning at best. 10:25 Fairly sure the front page of the Metro this morning is how every sleep-deprived political journalist in the country feels right now... 10:15 T he BBC reports that Nia Griffith, Shadow Welsh Secretary, is meeting Corbyn to ask him to step down as Labour leader. Yesterday, Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones said he would "wait to see" how the situation develops before making a statement for or against Corbyn's leadership. Shadow Welsh Secretary Nia Griffith meeting @JeremyCorbyn to ask him to step down as @UKLabour leader https://t.co/2tJze9H8LU -- BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) June 27, 2016 10:11 Emily Thornberry is on Sky, and is not coping well with the metaphors of the day. Thornberry on BBC: "I don't think it's like the Eng taem with half the players refusing to go on the pitch. It's a third of them." -- Stephen Pollard (@stephenpollard) June 27, 2016 10:01 Guardian political editor Anushka Asthana is reporting that a meeting has now taken place between Tom Watson and Jeremy Corbyn, but understands that Watson did not ask Corbyn to stand down (as some presumed would happen). Meeting between Tom Watson and Jeremy Corbyn has taken place. I understand that Tom didn't urge JC to resign... -- Anushka Asthana (@GuardianAnushka) June 27, 2016 10:00 Stephanie here, briefly helming the liveblog so the politics desk can go outside and scream at the sky. Tips? Hyperventilating and need a chat? I'm on @stephanieboland 9:48: Funny how things work out. Most Labour peers are of that 1980s generation that didn't split off and form the SDP. Now they're a party within a party. 09:30: Following conversations with Labour peers, Labour's Chief Whip, Steve Bassam, and leader in the Lords, Angela Smith, will not attend shadow cabinet meetings while Corbyn is in post. 9:19: Stephen here, helming the liveblog so Julia can get to work. Keep it here for the latest. After a weekend of Brexit turmoil, we're expecting a little more leadership from senior politicians. But in the meantime, here's what happened over the weekend: - Eleven shadow cabinet ministers and four other shadow ministers have resigned, following the sacking over shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn. - Tom Watson has failed to back Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. Labour's deputy leader said that " we are heading for an early general election and the Labour Party must be ready to form a g overnment". - The SNP's Nicola Sturgeon has warned that the Scottish Parliament could veto the UK's withdrawal from the EU. - Boris Johnson has been sighted at his farmhouse in Oxfordshire, but so far we've heard no more detail from any of the leading members of the Leave campaign about their post-Brexit plans. The Chancellor, George Osborne, has also not been seen in public since Friday. 09:06 Stephen Bush has written that we're beginning to see what the Conservative hope for Brexit is, and it's grim. You can read his account of the deal that right-wing politicians might stomach here . 08:48 When will we next hear from Angela Eagle, the widely-respected Shadow Business minister? Interestingly, the Shadow cabinet wikipedia page describes her as serving from 2015-16. However, we haven't heard a peep from her on Twitter in the last 24 hours. We understand though that she's likely to stay... 08:41 Jeremy Corbyn has lived up to John McDonnell's pledge to replace the resigning ministers, and has appointed a new Shadow cabinet: Shadow Foreign Secretary - Emily Thornberry Shadow Health Secretary - Diane Abbott Shadow Education Secretary - Pat Glass Shadow Transport Secretary - Andy McDonald Shadow Defence Secretary - Clive Lewis Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury - Rebecca Long-Bailey Shadow International Development Secretary - Kate Osamor Shadow Environment Food and Rural Affairs Secretary - Racheal Maskell Shadow Voter Engagement and Youth Affairs - Cat Smith Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary - Dave Anderson 08:33 Stephen Kinnock, assistant to Shadow Business minister Angela Eagle, has resigned and published his resignation letter on Twitter. He writes: "British politics will be completely dominated in the coming years by the Brexit negotiations, and I do not believe that you have the requisite skills or experience to ensure that there is a strong Labour voice at the negotiating table." It is with regret that this morning I have resigned as a PPS pic.twitter.com/0KFG1bhRaD -- Stephen Kinnock MP (@SKinnock) June 27, 2016 08:17 Former Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling is on Radio 4 Today and he makes the financial crisis sound like a piece of cake. He says it isn't clear what to do: "I'm more worried than I was in 2008. "We cannot have a four month period in which nothing happens." The world wants to know Britain's policy on the free movement of people, and how laws might change, he says. While Darling has been speaking, the FTSE 100 has recovered slightly, although it's still 0.33% down on Friday night. The FTSE 250, however, which is more indicative of the British domestic economy, is down 0.9%. 08:02 The FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 have just opened, and both have immediately plummeted. Meanwhile, more on the resigning MPs. Anna Turley is resigning as Shadow Minister for Civil Society. She writes : "This is a very hard letter to write. We have been friends for some years and as my former MP I hold you in very high regard as one of the kindest and most committed public servants in politics. "However, I am sorry to say it has become clear beyond doubt to me that you and your team are not providing the strong, forward looking and competent leadership we need." She says the "lacklustre referendum campaign" brought this home, but adds the leadership is not in touch with her local constituents. In a blow to the Corbyn camp's claim that it has a mandate from members, Turley says: "I have had a number of party members, and many many Labour voting members of the public, tell me this weekend that they do not have confidence in your leadership." Here's a tweet from Diana Johnson: After @hilarybennmp sacking yesterday I have now written to Jeremy Corbyn to resign as a Shadow Foreign and Commonwealth Office minister. -- Diana Johnson (@DianaJohnsonMP) June 27, 2016 07:50 More Labour MPs are resigning. Diana Johnson has resigned from her post as Shadow Foreign and Commonwealth Office minister. Anna Turley is resigning as Shadow Minister for Civil Society. And according to Radio 4 Today, two more junior ministers, Neil Coyle and Labour's housing and planning spokeswoman also plan to resign from positions of responsibility. This brings the number of shadow ministers resigning to 15, although not all are full members of the cabinet. 07:45 The Labour MP Wes Streeting has been tweeting about something that has been gathering concern on social media over the weekend: racism against immigrants. He tweets: "One of my Irish constituents told she should "go home" twice in two days. We must not become that kind of country." Streeting was responding to reports that a black British councillor had been racially abused. Meanwhile, The Cambridge News reported messages demanding "no more Polish vermin" have been posted through doors in Huntingdon. I don't want to spoil your breakfast by repeating all the racist bile that's being reported, but you can find some of the "worrying signs" being collected by concerned individuals in this group on Facebook . 07:39 Lucy Powell, who resigned from the Shadow Cabinet yesterday, is talking on the BBC Radio 4's Today Programme. She says she is "not concerned" by the threat of deselection by trade unions or others. She says she hopes Jeremy Corbyn "does not drag this out longer than necessary". 07:37 Pundits seem divided on whether Osborne announced his "Punishment Budget" or not. He certainly struck a less apocalyptic tone than he did in the run up to the referendum, with plenty of lines about the strong economy, and the Bank of England's preparations. On the other hand, he did just shift the burden of "action" over to whichever unlucky sod sits in the Treasury by autumn. 07:20 Osborne is speaking, 40 minutes before the markets open. He strikes a reassuring tone, but there are some worrying messages if you read through the lines. He also says he will address his role "within the future of the Conservative party" in the coming days. He says he has spoken to finance ministers of other major countries, chief executives of financial institutions and other central banks. The Bank of England and the Treasury have been contingency planning for weeks. The Bank of England has PS250billion of funds to continue to support banks and the smooth functioning of markets. As he puts it: "The British economy is fundamentally strong, it is highly competitive and we are open foor business." But, extending Cameron's nautical metaphor, he warns: "It will not be plain sailing." Osborne is also cautioning against triggering Article 50 - the legal exit from the EU - too soon. He said: "Only the UK can trigger article 50 and in my judgement we shouldd only do that when there is a clear view about what arrangement we want." The Chancellor repeats many of his favourite phrases about the UK's strong economy and how he has fixed the "hole in the roof" during better economic times. But he adds: "It is already evident that some firms are already pauing their decision to invest or hire people. This will have an impact on the economy and public finances. There will need to be action to handle that." As with Cameron, he says this is a job for the new PM's Government, which could happen as late as the autumn. That leaves businesses several months of uncertainty. And he ends by making a plea against protectionism: "I do not want Britain to turn its back on Europe or the rest of the world." 07:10 No sign of Osborne yet. In the meantime, Boris Johnson has written an article that is basically a pitch for leadership - and presumably he collected a hefty fee for it too. He starts by dismissing the common view the EU referendum was about immigration: "It is said that those who voted Leave were mainly driven by anxieties about immigration. I do not believe that is so. After meeting thousands of people in the course of the campaign, I can tell you that the number one issue was control - a sense that British democracy was being undermined by the EU system, and that we should restore to the people that vital power: to kick out their rulers at elections, and to choose new ones." 06:58 MONDAY: Morning, Julia here. We're expecting a statement from the Chancellor, George Osborne, who has been AWOL since the result on Friday. You can even play a game - Can You Find George Osborne? It's crucial Osborne speaks, because the pound is still falling, and a snap poll from the Institute of Directors suggests one in three business leaders will cut investment in their business as a result. Two in three think the result is negative for their business and a quarter will put a freeze on recruitment. Simon Walker, Director General of the Institute of Directors, said: "We can't sugar-coat this, many of our members are feeling anxious. A majority of business leaders think the vote for Brexit is bad for them, and as a result plans for investment and hiring are being put on hold or scaled back." 00:07 At the end of one of the most remarkable days in Labour's history, here's my extended take on where the party stands tonight. Julia will be back with more tomorrow morning, with at least 20 more frontbench resignations expected. George. 22:38 The Mirror reports that John Spellar, a veteran of Labour's 1980s wars, could run as a "stalking horse" candidate against Corbyn. This would trigger a contest in which potential successors, such as Tom Watson and Angela Eagle, could then stand. Barry Sheerman and Margaret Hodge have also been touted for the role. 22:30 George here . It's notable that among the shadow cabinet members who haven't resigned are Angela Eagle and Jon Ashworth, a close ally of Tom Watson (and the only one not to have left). One theory is that both have remained in order to keep their seats on Labour's NEC, which would determine whether or not Corbyn makes the ballot automatically. 21:57 : Jeremy Corbyn has released a statement. And it seems pretty defiant. After commenting on the need to protect workers' rights and reflecting on economic inequality, he says: "I was elected by hundreds of thousands of Labour Party members and supporters with an overwhelming mandate for a different kind of politics. "I regret there have been resignations today from my shadow cabinet. But I am not going to betray the trust of those who voted for me - or the millions of supporters across the country who need Labour to represent them. "Those who want to change Labour's leadership will have to stand in a democratic election, in which I will be a candidate. "Over the next 24 hours I will reshape my shadow cabinet and announce a new leadership team to take forward Labour's campaign for a fairer Britain - and to get the best deal with Europe for our people." He ain't going quietly. 21:41: From Bryant's resignation letter: "Last week changed everything. A major plank of Labour's longstanding economic and foreign policy was defeated in the referendum and we effectively handed the right in this country their biggest victory in a century. "The Prime Minister must take the lion's share of the blame for that defeat and he has honourably resigned, but your inability to give a clear, unambiguous message to Labour voters significantly contributed to the result. "You left many Labour voters uncertain as to our party's position. You made speeches that undermined the campaign to stay in the EU. You and John McDonnell regularly attacked the Remain campaign. Even on polling day there were people who thought you really wanted us to leave." And then he sticks the knife in: "Your ambivalent attitude in the campaign was a betrayal of the Labour Party and the wider Labour movement and it has let down a whole generation of young people who desperately hoped to hear a strong, cogent and inspiring pro-EU message from Labour." 21.20: Chris Bryant, Shadow leader of the House of Commons, has just announced his resignation from the Shadow Cabinet. He is the eleventh MP after Benn to resign, and the twelfth from the Shadow Cabinet altogether. He called for someone new "to unite and lead Labour". Bryant's resignation means roughly a third of the Shadow Cabinet has gone in 24 hours. I've just spoken to Jeremy Corbyn and tendered my resignation from the Shadow Cabinet. We need someone new to unite and lead Labour. -- Chris Bryant MP (@RhonddaBryant) June 26, 2016 19:20 Announcing his resignation, Turner tweeted : "With a very heavy heart I have notified Jeremy Corbyn that I have resigned from the Shadow Cabinet. Letter to follow." 19:12 Helen here to say Karl Turner has resigned, following Lord Falconer. So we're up to 10 departures so far, plus Benn. 18:34 On Watson's position, a source says that he wants "the leadership handed to him on a plate" with backing from grandees across the party. 18:28 On the leadership, a Labour source tells me: "Don't rule out Yvette. Only grown-up candidate and I believe she wants it". The source emphasised the need to look beyond the task of "unifying the party" and towards that of EU negotiations. Cooper, he suggested, was best-qualified to lead at a moment of "national crisis". 18:15 As I reported on Friday, many in Labour believe the party needs a "Michael Howard figure": an interim leader to see the party through an early general election. Watson and Angela Eagle, the shadow First Secretary of State and shadow business secretary, are the key contenders for that role. 17:46 Charlie Falconer, the shadow justice secretary, has just become the ninth shadow cabinet member to resign. 17:24 Having returned from Glastonbury (where he was partying at 4am this morning), Tom Watson has spoken. Labour's deputy leader, who wields his own mandate, said: "I was deeply disappointed to see Hilary Benn sacked in the early hours of this morning and equally saddened that so many talented, able and hard-working colleagues felt they had to leave the shadow cabinet. "My single focus is to hold the Labour Party together in very turbulent times. The nation needs an effective opposition, particularly as the current leadership of the country is so lamentable. It's very clear to me that we are heading for an early general election and the Labour Party must be ready to form a government. There's much work to do. I will be meeting Jeremy Corbyn tomorrow morning to discuss the way forward." Though that's not a formal endorsement of the coup, it's far from a rejection. Watson's warning of an early election and the need to be "ready to form a government" is a clear signal that he doesn't believe Corbyn is up to the task. Nowhere does he defend his leadership or his mandate. When he sees Corbyn tomorrow morning, one assumes it will be to tell him that "the way forward" is for him to go. 17:12 As Corbyn contemplates the struggle of forming a fresh shadow cabinet, Simon Danczuk, the Rochdale MP suspended from Labour last December, has cheekily offered his services. "Have phoned Jeremy & said if required, I'm prepared to serve. I am prepared to make that sacrifice for the Labour Party," he tweeted . 16:49 Shadow Northern Ireland secretary Vernon Coaker has become the eighth shadow cabinet member to resign. I reported that the Gedling was a "dead cert" to walk at 13:25. Coaker, formerly shadow defence secretary, is one of the strongest supporters of Trident renewal and would have resigned had unilateral disarmament become party policy. 16:18 A Corbyn ally who has been in touch with the Labour leader tells me that he is "not wavering" and will seek to form a fresh shadow cabinet. 16:03 George here again . I spoke earlier to Jon Trickett, one of just five shadow cabinet members to publicly back Corbyn. Here's what he told me: "The central task facing Britain is what kind of country we're going to have now that we've voted for Brexit. The central task facing the Labour Party is to offer a different vision for a different kind of Britain than the one that's going to be offered by the small-minded Little England, xenophobic group around Boris Johnson, Gove and Farage. "The only way that Labour can do that is to be united and focus totally on doing that, presenting an alternative vision. All of this is a reckless distraction from our central task. It's time that people faced the facts: Jeremy is our leader, he has the overwhelming support of the party and we've got to get on with being an opposition and offer an alternative vision for the country." 15.27 Helen here - I'm signing off as there hasn't been a resignation for at least 20 minutes. Follow us on Twitter or Facebook to make sure you don't miss the latest updates. 15.14 On which note, Big Len has written a piece in the Guardian attacking the rebels. The Unite leader says : "Hilary Benn and others have decided this is the moment to let the Tories off the hook, turn Labour inwards and try to set aside the overwhelming result of a party leadership election held less than 10 months ago." 14.57 Worth remembering that the unions yesterday released a statement in support of Jeremy Corbyn. Unite's Len McCluskey is sticking to that today: Unite leader Len McCluskey tells me it's "pathetic and futile coup" against Corbyn, "drip-fed". Says Tom Watson will back Corbyn -- Michael Crick (@MichaelLCrick) June 26, 2016 The second line is interesting, too - Tom Watson emerging in his wellies to back the leader would take the wind out of the plotters' sails. It would also come as a surprise to many MPs who assume he must have known what was about to happen. 14:26 Stephen has written on what the plotters are thinking - and how they might have been emboldened the thought that Corbyn would need MPs' approval to get back on the ballot. What appears to have happened is that Iain McNicol, the party's general secretary, has received legal advice that he should not put Corbyn on the ballot paper unless the parliamentary Labour party does so - advice that he is willing to put his job on the line to follow. 14:20 Earlier, Channel 4's Michael Crick briefed that the Corbyn coup was being plotted in a group on Snapchat. As our younger readers will know, there's no such thing. (Presumably his source means WhatsApp, which lots of Labour MPs use for secure communications.) The happy side-effect is that I am now getting Snaps with jokes related to the shadow cabinet. Every day brings something new in this job, it truly does. 14:01 This tweet raised a wry smile. It's unprecedented to have the government and opposition in such turmoil at the same time. Never mind the fact we don't have any idea what kind of Brexit deal will be negotiated - will we be part of the EEA? Will we accept freedom of movement? When will we trigger Article 50 and start the process? David Cameron wants to wait for a leadership election, but will European leaders let him? Never mind Iain Duncan Smith saying one of the flagship pledges of the Leave campaign - that PS350m a week which goes to the EU should instead go to the NHS - was more of a suggestion. Or Liam Fox saying that, actually, the new Tory leader - and prime minister - shouldn't be announced at Tory party conference, but instead there should be a beauty parade of candidates there. And that's before we've got to Nicola Sturgeon's declaration that a) she will seek a second Scottish independence referendum, and b) she could try to block Brexit. In times like this, Tim Farron is a beacon of hope and stability. Thank you Tim. Britain after #Brexit summed up in one photo pic.twitter.com/aqpxFlJvXm -- Andrew MacG Marshall (@zenjournalist) June 26, 2016 13:58 Anyone trying to gauge the depth of this rebellion - you have my sympathies. The reason the lobby's collective ears pricked up when Seema Malhotra resigned is that she has been loyal to the leadership, and introduced Corbyn at his speech yesterday. 13:56 Karen Buck, the Labour MP for Westminster North - and no one's idea of a "usual suspect" in terms of acting against a Labour leader - has tweeted her unhappiness with Corbyn: 13:52 Momentum, the group which grew out of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership campaign, is organising a demonstration in support of the Labour leader in front of parliament tomorrow at 6pm. "The future is uncertain. After a Brexit vote we are in a time of national crisis, Cameron has resigned and we will likely have a general election with the potential of Britain lurching yet further to the right. A small number of Labour MPs are using this as an opportunity to oust Jeremy, disrespect the Labour membership who elected him and to disregard our movement for a new kind of politics. We cannot let this undemocratic behaviour succeed. Join us at 6 pm outside Parliament tomorrow, Monday 27 June. The Parliamentary Labour Party will be meeting inside, so let's make sure they can hear us, the Labour Party members and voters outside. " 13:50 Jeremy Corbyn has emerged from his house in north London, and got into a people carrier with his wife. Probably not off to visit a nice National Trust property, or pop to the garden centre. He didn't answer reporters' questions about whether he would resign. . @JeremyCorbyn leaves his house in North London during a day of resignations among his shadow cabinet https://t.co/xPAoJRqQHS -- Sky News (@SkyNews) June 26, 2016 13:48 Kerry McCarthy has tweeted her resignaton letter , which says she "does not doubt your personal commitment to your longheld principles" but believes that "a new leader is needed". 13:45 Seema Malhotra resigns. That makes seven. 13:43 Helen here, back from tellygeddon on College Green at Westminster, allowing George to have lunch. The latest update is that Tom Watson was not on his expected train back from Glastonbury. 13:25 A senior Labour MP tells me that Chris Bryant and Vernon Coaker are "dead certs" to resign from the shadow cabinet. That would make eight. 13:22 It's notable that Powell and McCarthy, the two latest resignations, are both from the soft left of the party. THis will make it harder for Corbyn's allies to frame this as a "Blairte" revolt. 13:16 I earlier reported (08:52) that Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones had joined the revolt. Welsh Labour have been in touch to say that this is not the case. Here's what he said: "Clearly it makes it very difficult if half the shadow cabinet team has resigned, then there's a division in the shadow cabinet that would need to be healed. At the moment I've just heard the news and I don't know what the circumstances are. We will have to wait to see how the situation develops throughout the day." 13:09 Shadow environment secretary Kerry McCarthy has become the sixth shadow cabinet member to resign. 13:06 Andy Burnham has tweeted that he won't be joining the revolt. "At an uncertain time like this for our country, I cannot see how it makes sense for the Opposition to plunge itself into a civil war. "I have never taken part in a coup against any Leader of the Labour Party and I am not going to start now. "It is for our members to decide who leads our Party & 10 months ago they gave Jeremy Corbyn a resounding mandate. I respect that & them." 12:59 And Powell has gone too. Her resignation letter can be read here . 12:49 Shadow transport secretary Lilian Greenwood has become the fourth shadow cabinet member to resign. Shadow education secretary Lucy Powell is expected to be next. 12:44 Sky News is reporting that Andy Burnham, who is running to be Labour's Manchester mayoral candidate, will not be among those resigning today. 12:39 A Corbyn ally tells me that that there is "legal advice" stating that he would automatically make the ballot if challenged. He added: "He's not going to give in. He's a steady, steady individual beneath his reasonable gentleness. He's definitely going to be on the ballot paper, there's no question about it whatsoever." 12:23 Julia writes: "Hilary Benn and John McDonnell appeared in quick succession this morning to debate Jeremy Corbyn's future as the leader of the Labour Party. But underpinning this is a wider debate about Labour's electoral strategy . Benn says he resigned as a matter of conscience because Corbyn is not a leader capable of winning an election. McDonnell, though, reminded listeners and any Labour rebels out there that it is only Corbyn that has succeeded in winning the loyalty of party members - that army of door knockers and campaign volunteers." 11:47 The hope among Labour MPs is that Corbyn will "do the decent thing" and resign if (or rather when) he loses the confidence vote due on Tuesday. They are convinced they will win a majority but believe that reports of "80 per cent support" are wide of the mark. 11:40 Labour's only Scottish MP, Ian Murray, has just resigned as shadow Scotland secretary. As I noted earlier, this means the job will have to be done by a non-Scottish MP or a peer. 11:21 Shadow Scotland secretary Ian Murray (see 09:11 ) and shadow transport secretary Lillian Greenwood are expected to be the next to resign. 11:11 Shadow minister for young people Gloria De Piero has become the latest to resign . It's worth noting that De Piero is a close ally of Tom Watson (she's married to his aide James Robinson). Many will see this as a sign that the coup has the tacit approval of Watson (who is currently en route from Glastonbury). De Piero wrote in her resignation letter to Corbyn: "I have always enjoyed a warm personal relationship with you and I want to thank you for the opportunity to serve in your shadow cabinet. I accepted that invitation because I thought it was right to support you in your attempt to achieve the Labour victory the country so badly needs. "I do not believe you can deliver that victory at a general election, which may take place in a matter of months. I have been contacted by many of my members this weekend and It is clear that a good number of them share that view and have lost faith in your leadership." 10:58 Shadow defence secretary Emily Thornberry has backed Corbyn, telling Michael Crick that "of course" she has confidence in his leadership. She is the fourth shadow cabinet minister to back Corbyn (along with McDonnell, Abbott and Trickett). 10:52 Our Staggers editor Julia Rampen has written up Benn and McDonnell's TV appearances. "Two different visions for the Labour Party's future clashed today on primetime TV. Hours after being sacked from the shadow cabinet, Corbyn critic Hilary Benn was on the Andrew Marr Show ruling himself out of a leadership challenge. However, he issued a not-so-coded cry for revolt as he urged others to "do the right thing" for the party. Moments later, shadowhancellor John McDonnell sought to quell rumours of a coup by telling Andrew Neil Jeremy was "not going anywhere". He reminded any shadow ministers watching of the grassroots support Labour has enjoyed under Corbyn and the public petition urging them to back their leader." 10:46 Asked to comment, Tony Blair told the BBC: "I think this is for the PLP. I don't think it's right for me or helpful to intervene." 10:38 On the leadership, it's worth noting that while Corbyn would need 50 MP/MEP nominations to make the ballot (were he not on automatically), an alternative left-wing candidate would only need 37 (15 per cent of the total). 10:27 Jon Trickett, one of just three shadow cabinet Corbynites, has tweeted : "200,000 people already signed the petition in solidarity with the leadership. I stand with our party membership." 10:14 McDonnell has told the BBC's Andrew Neil: "I will never stand for the leadership of the Labour Party". He confirmed that this would remain the case if Corbyn resigned. McDonnell, who stood unsuccessfully for the Labour leadership in 2007 and 2010 (failing to make the ballot), added that if Corbyn was forced to fitght another election he would "chair his campaign". 10:12 Tom Watson is returning from Glastonbury to London. He's been spotted at Castle Cary train station. 10:07 A spokesman for John McDonnell has told me that it's "not true" that Seema Malhotra, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, is canvassing MPs on his behalf. Labour figures have long believed that the shadow chancellor and former Labour leadership contender has ambitions to succeed Corbyn. 09:51 Appearing on the Marr Show, Hilary Benn has just announced that he will not stand for the Labour leadership. "I am not going to be a candidate for leader of the Labour Party." Tom Watson, Angela Eagle and Dan Jarvis are those most commonly cited by Corbyn's opponents as alternative leaders. 09:46 Should Corbyn refuse to resign, Labour MPs are considering electing an independent PLP leader, an option first floated by Joe Haines, Harold Wilson's former press secretary, in the New Statesman . He argued that as the representatives of the party's 9.35 million voters, their mandate trumped Corbyn's. 09:38 Here's Stephen on the issue of whether Corbyn could form a shadow cabinet after the revolt. "A lot of chatter about whether Corbyn could replace 10 of his shadow cabinet. He couldn't, but a real question of whether he'd need to. Could get by with a frontbench of 18 to 20. There's no particular need to man-mark the government - Corbyn has already created a series of jobs without shadows, like Gloria De Piero's shadow minister for young people and voter registration. That might, in many ways, be more stable." 09:32 Despite the revolt, there is no sign of Corbyn backing down. A spokesman said: "There will be no resignation from the elected leader of the party with a strong mandate". 09:11 Shadow Scotland secretary Ian Murray is one of those expected to resign. As Labour's only Scottish MP, the post would have to be filled by an MP south of the border or a peer. 09:01 Diane Abbott, Corbyn's long-standing ally, has been promised the post of shadow foreign secretary, a Labour source has told me. The shadow international developmnent secretary is one of just three Corbyn supporters in the shadow cabinet (along with John McDonnell and Jon Trickett). Though 36 MPs nominated him for the leadership, only 14 current members went on to vote for him. It is this that explains why Corbyn is fighting the rebellion. He never had his MPs' support to begin with and is confident he retains the support of party activists (as all polls have suggested). But the weakness of his standing among the PLP means some hope he could yet be kept off the ballot in any new contest. Under Labour's rules, 50 MP/MEP nominations (20 per cent of the total) are required. 08:52 Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones has joined the revolt, telling BBC Radio Wales that events make it "very difficult" for Corbyn to lead Labour into the next election. 08:50 Tom Watson, a pivotal figure who Labour MPs have long believed could determine the success of any coup attempt is currently at Glastonbury. 08:26 Following Hilary Benn's 1am sacking, Jeremy Corbyn will face shadow cabinet resignations this morning. Shadow health secretary Heidi Alexander has become the first to depart . The New Statesman will cover all the latest developments here. John McDonnell, Corbyn's closest ally, is appearing on The Andrew Marr Show at 9:45. "This is the trigger. Jeremy's called our bluff," a shadow cabinet minister told me. He added that he expected to joined by a "significant number" of colleagues. The BBC's Laura Kuenssberg has reported that half of the 30 will resign this morning. Corbyn is set to face a vote of no confidence from Labour MPs on Tuesday followed by a leadership challenge. But his allies say he will not resign and are confident that he will make the ballot either automatically (as legal advice has suggested) or by winning the requisite 50 MP/MEP nominations.

From the moment the EU referendum results rolled in, all eyes were on Eurosceptic Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

On Tuesday, March 22, Brussels was struck by brutal terror attacks that left 30 people dead . There were explosions at the airport and a central train station, and a European capital once again found itself reeling in the wake of a horrific and senseless tragedy. France immediately exhibited solidarity with its neighbor, having gone through this just five months ago . Heartfelt images expressing camaraderie between France and Belgium appeared on social media shortly after the attacks. Meanwhile, others were left wondering why there weren't similar responses via the media and elsewhere following recent terror attacks in Ankara and Istanbul , among other places. Are terror attacks in Western Europe or the US more important than those that occur across the world on a daily basis? Of course not. But media bias, as well as the self-centered nature of societies, perpetuates a lack of comprehensive coverage. It's understandable people in France can relate more to people in Belgium after they suffer a terror attack. These countries border one another, they share a language and culture. Moreover, historically, culturally and even diplomatically, the United States has far more ties with Western Europe than the Middle East or Africa (where terrorism unfortunately occurs far too frequently). The Western media responds to these events in accordance with these sentiments. This isn't a defense of the biased coverage, but a partial explanation. There are also certainly elements of prejudice regarding how the media responds to terrorism (a product of bigotry and racism). It's difficult to accept this, but the sad truth is Western societies often care more when the faces of those who died in terror attacks were white. This doesn't mean every white Westerner who didn't respond to a recent terror attack in Ivory Coast , for example, is racist, but it does mean we have work to do in terms of balancing our approach to the subject of terrorism. We need to get to a point where we truly believe and act as though every single terror attack matters. If we don't, we will only fuel further terror and violence. Working toward this will also aid the larger effort to rid our societies of bigotry and racism -- evils that fuel terrorism across the world. Whether a terror attack occurred in Lebanon, Mali, Ivory Coast, Turkey, the US, Syria, Iraq, Kenya, Afghanistan, Nigeria or Israel, it matters. Wherever and whenever innocent lives are stolen from this world because of hatred and extremism, it matters. Violence is contagious. When we prioritize certain acts of violence over others, we contribute to the vicious cycle. The imbalance in our response to terror is precisely why many in the West are seemingly unaware Muslims are the primary victims of jihadism. If this was a widely known fact, it's conceivable fewer Westerners would falsely believe Islam is their enemy. In turn, fewer Americans and Europeans would be likely to support misguided conflicts in majority Muslim countries (which only increases enmity toward the West, kills innocent civilians and breeds more terror). The more we become aware of the terror that occurs across the world, the better equipped we are to defeat it together.

On Tuesday, March 22, Brussels was struck by brutal terror attacks that left 30 people dead . There were explosions at the airport and a central train station, and a European capital once again found itself reeling in the wake of a horrific and senseless tragedy.

In His Speech, Martin O'Malley Put Our Nation's Values and Ideals at the Forefront of His Advocacy As you know I don't normally post Pics Of The Moment on weekends. However, I've put up a pic for each of the announced Democratic candidates so far, so I'm doing one today for Martin O'Malley. Follow @demunderground Pic Of The Moment: He's Young! He's Fresh! He's... Hopelessly Out-Of-Touch Posted by EarlG | Tue May 26, 2015, 11:55 AM (57 replies) Pic Of The Moment: What Must His Friends Think? "Family Values" Champion Admits To Child Molestation Go to Page: 1 2 Next >>

Hopelessly Out-Of-Touch Posted by EarlG | Tue May 26, 2015, 11:55 AM

The one-page Egyptian-drafted text, which was circulated to the 15-member council on Saturday and seen by Reuters, does not specifically mention the United States or Trump. Diplomats say it has broad support but will likely be vetoed by Washington. This disabled Palestinian was shot dead today by Israeli forces while protesting Trump's Jerusalem declaration pic.twitter.com/SdXWXBLFzP -- Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) December 15, 2017 Diplomats said the council could vote as early as Monday or Tuesday. A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to be adopted. Trump abruptly reversed decades of US policy this month, generating outrage from Palestinians and defying warnings of Middle East violence. Trump also plans to move the US embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. Pro-Palestine activists rally in Washington near the White House in protest against President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel's capital #FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/9nUURi22jF -- Press TV (@PressTV) December 17, 2017 The draft UN resolution "affirms that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered, the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded in compliance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council." [It] calls upon all States to refrain from the establishment of diplomatic missions in the Holy City of Jerusalem, pursuant to resolution 478 (1980) of the Security Council. Thousands of Germans join protest rallies against Trump's Jerusalem move and in solidarity with Palestine #FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/ue4o5a7KUJ -- Press TV (@PressTV) December 16, 2017 Israel considers the city its eternal and indivisible capital and wants all embassies based there. Palestinians want the capital of an independent Palestinian state to be in the city's eastern sector, which Israel captured in a 1967 war and annexed in a move never recognized internationally. The draft council resolution "demands that all states comply with Security Council resolutions regarding the Holy City of Jerusalem, and not to recognize any actions or measures contrary to those resolutions." UN Security Council considers resolution nullifying Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital https://t.co/bstf3Fh1ke pic.twitter.com/lFlNS8txtW -- The Hill (@thehill) December 17, 2017 Tension has risen across the Palestinian territories since US President Donald Trump's decision to officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Most countries consider East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed after capturing it in a 1967 war, to be occupied territory, and say the status of the city should be left to be decided at future Israeli-Palestinian talks. #Palestinians protests were not widespread today , 67 Palestinian were injured, 5 of them with live bullet in #Gaza and one in critical condition, according to Red crecent, the video of the clashes from Tulkruam. #Jerusalem #Trump via @qudsn pic.twitter.com/JQxJlISJE3 -- Nasser Atta (@nasseratta5) December 17, 2017 While the international community has almost unanimously disagreed with Donald Trump's announcement, reports suggest that the announcement was done with the pre-agreement of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, with the Saudi Arabia going as far as, allegedly, stating to the Palestinian President to accept a village on the outskirts of Jerusalem as the alternative Palestinian capital. (MEMO, PC, Social Media)

The one-page Egyptian-drafted text, which was circulated to the 15-member council on Saturday and seen by Reuters, does not specifically mention the United States or Trump. Diplomats say it has broad support but will likely be vetoed by Washington.

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - According to the Kurdish news site Rudaw, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson weighed in on the Kurdistan referendum on independence from Iraq, held last Monday, saying it is illegitimate and the US does not recognize it. The statement of the Department of State said, "The vote [...] By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The Kurdistan Regional Government on Thursday rejected the decisions of the Iraqi parliament and government. It nevertheless expressed a willingness to conduct a dialogue in order to resolve the problems. It will at the same time launch legal challenges to the sanctions imposed on it. The [...] by Sam Pizzigati | ( Inequality.org ) | - - Our 'free market' health care system gives CEOs the freedom to squeeze us. Blogging Our Great Divide. Our current health care system in the United States works just fine -- for the corporate executives who run it. Take, for instance, Michael Mussallem. This eminent power [...] By Haifaa Jawad | (The Conversation) | - - In an unexpected move that surprised everyone, including his own people, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia has suddenly passed a royal decree permitting women to drive. His stunning decision comes after years of the ban, which was justified using Islam as a pretext. [...] By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The Iraqi parliament on Wednesday passed a resolution demanding that the Iraqi army take control of the province of Kirkuk and reclaim the Kirkuk oil fields as a national patrimony. The parliament also demanded that the government arrest and try Kurdistan president Massoud Barzani for treason. [...] TeleSur | - - U.S. forces responded with an airstrike but one of the missiles went off course in a "malfunction," causing several casualties. Kabul's airport has been attacked by militants during a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to Afghanistan. The U.S. responded to the attacks with an airstrike that killed multiple civilians, [...] By Medea Benjamin | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | - - No matter their age, Saudi women are treated like minors -- to the point that many require permission from their sons to work, study, or travel. It looks like 27 years of protesting, along with international pressure and government recognition that it needs more [...]

The Kurdistan Regional Government on Thursday rejected the decisions of the Iraqi parliament and government. It nevertheless expressed a willingness to conduct a dialogue in order to resolve the problems.

UPDATE: Guido understands that TV chef Ainsley Harriot put in an appearance and that there was Zoomba dancing. Naturally... IPSA has revealed the roll call of shame of MPs who begged for more cash in the pay rise consultation. Only four had the balls to go on the record: At least they had the nerve to stick their necks out, unlike the silent majority who quietly accepted the rise... It's far more likely he was done in by a rival candidate for Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, or a Home Office insider... Multiple Labour sources have accused the party's NEC of stitching up safe seats for committee members, with Keith Vaz in the frame for fixing selections for his friends. When there is a late retirement in the run up to an election, Labour has a standard procedure where an NEC sub-committee chooses the candidates to go forward for selection. This special selections panel is usually put into place close to the election for last minute selections only, however Guido is told that this time it was implemented in January. The NEC deciding that any constituency where the MP stood down after 10 December last year not have local shortlisting powers and the NEC rather than their local party would handle the selections. One Labour source describes this as "earlier than ever" , another as "way too early", noting there is "still plenty of time to run proper selections" . Why the change from convention? Since the special NEC panel was set up, NEC members are mysteriously being selected for safe seats all over the place. NEC member Conor McGinn was put on the shortlist for the uber-safe seat of St. Helen's North, winning the selection two weeks ago. McGinn represents the same division on the NEC as Vaz. As Guido reported yesterday , NEC member and Unite agitator Rachael Maskell has just been selected in York Central in acrimonious circumstances. Meanwhile the selection in Edmonton, where Andy Love has retired, takes place this weekend. At the moment the favourite is Kate Osamor, surprise surprise, yet another NEC member. Three NEC members put forward for safe seats just weeks after the NEC special selections panel was set up - more than a little fishy... The Sun has discovered Victor Spirescu, the first Romanian to enter Britain under new EU rules, is as a thug who beat up his girlfriend after she dumped him. He told Vaz he was in the UK "to work and not to steal" . The Sun revealed he was convicted of violence and spent 21 days in a psychiatric hospital being treated for "use of psychotic substances" . His 26-year-old victim Ana said: "I needed days of medical treatment after the attack and it took almost two years before my scars healed." In June 2011 Bucharest's Third District Court handed him a suspended 35-day jail term and fined him PS660. He was also ordered to pay Ana PS400 to cover medical bills -- but she said she has yet to see a penny. Welcome to Britain Victor...

UPDATE: Guido understands that TV chef Ainsley Harriot put in an appearance and that there was Zoomba dancing. Naturally... IPSA has revealed the roll call of shame of MPs who begged for more cash in the pay rise consultation.

I am the co-author of GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones. www.gpsdeclassified.com. I am an actuary. | July 24, 2018 The Left has been calling Trump a traitor since his summit with Putin. It's surprising they haven't cited the abundance of evidence for this: 1. Energy: Putin depends heavily on energy exports. Trump has encouraged fracking, pipelines, and offshore drilling. These actions are increasing oil and gas production, which hurts Russia. 2. Iran: The nation is a de facto ally of Russia. Trump has withdrawn from Obama's Iran agreement, reinstituted sanctions, and forced European companies to follow them. This hurts Russia's ally and is further evidence that he's Putin's poodle. 3. Ukraine: Trump has begun shipping weapons to them whereas Obama generously shipped blankets. This support for the country attacked by Putin decisively proves that Trump is in league with Putin. Published in Politics

July 24, 2018 The Left has been calling Trump a traitor since his summit with Putin.

A parent would go to the ends of the earth for their child. But what if the government forcibly stopped them? What if, instead, the government doggedly pursued their child's death? Such has been the tragic story of Thomas Evans and Kate James, and their son, Alfie Evans. It's a chilling reminder of what happens when the government attempts to be doctor and to play God. British toddler Alfie was hospitalized at age 1 after suffering seizures. Doctors suspected a degenerative neurological condition, but Alfie was never diagnosed. The toddler was in a semi-vegetative state and needed ventilation in order to breathe. Soon, hospital staff at Alder Hey Children's Hospital began to disagree with Alfie's parents over his treatment. So, Alder Hey appealed to the High Court to remove Evans and James' parental rights and remove Alfie's ventilation. This marked the beginning of a long and dramatic legal battle, as Evans and James made appeals not only to British courts, but the European Court of Human Rights. If Alder Hey would not continue Alfie's life support, Evans and James argued, they should at least be allowed to take their son to Italy, where the Vatican hospital had already agreed to give Alfie treatment. United Kingdom judges not only signed off on the decision to remove Alfie's ventilator, but they repeatedly refused to allow the family to leave and pursue care abroad. Alfie's father tried everything. He flew to meet with Pope Francis and begged him to intervene. He wrote to the archbishop of Liverpool , beseeching him to show mercy and help them gain permission to take Alfie to the pope's hospital. "We don't want to force ourselves upon him [the pope], and we don't want therapeutic obstinacy, but we would at least like his disease to be diagnosed, and we would like him to receive the best possible treatment," Evans wrote the archbishop. In response to a father's pleas, Italy granted Alfie citizenship and even offered to provide his travel in hopes that he might be able to leave the United Kingdom. But that was to no avail. After Alfie's ventilator was removed on April 23, the boy continued breathing overnight, motivating Evans and James to launch another last-ditch appeal to an emergency High Court to take Alfie to Italy. The court rejected their appeal. It is unclear what will come next for the family. This shocking instance of government overreach into the realm of parental rights and the personal relationship between doctors and patients sets a troubling precedent for government control over who lives and who dies. Even if the physicians at Alder Hey were right about Alfie's poor prospects for recovery, the court is neither authorized to make, nor capable of making, intimate health care decisions for patients--particularly when those decisions have life-or-death consequences. Nor does the state have a right to replace parents as the ones ultimately responsible for their children's care. What are the implications of trampling upon patient and parental rights in such a brazen fashion? If the state gets to decide which lives are worth living, the government will begin to treat the most vulnerable as burdens to society--burdens who are ultimately disposable. Evans indicated this in his letter to the archbishop of Liverpool: [Alfie's case] might set a further precedent like in Charlie Gard's case in order to prevent parents from taking care of their sick children, considered a burden by the state because they are ill and 'therefore' useless, unproductive, and expensive. Readers will recall when another British infant, Charlie Gard, was denied care by a U.K. judge, who in 2017 deemed his life not worth living. Evans' instinct is correct: When the government gets to be the arbiter of life and death, those who are sick, aged, or disabled are liable to be done away with as unnecessary expenditures. This trend should horrify everyone, not just parents. We are all vulnerable under such a government. Under what circumstances might the state determine that we ourselves are not fit to live? Could the government prevent us or our family from pursuing a second opinion or different treatment? Order our health care providers to remove life support? Perhaps even order them to induce death? The government does not get to play doctor or to play God. Courts are not competent to make personal health care decisions, nor to replace parents in their responsibility to care for their children. Such blatant abuse of power must be vehemently opposed and fought at every turn. That is why Alfie's army will keep fighting until no family has to go through what Evans, James, and Alfie have endured. Alfie's story is not yet over.

A parent would go to the ends of the earth for their child. But what if the government forcibly stopped them?

BY: Andrew Evans Follow @anevans12 May 16, 2013 3:20 pm The Department of the Interior admitted to Congress on Thursday morning that it could process oil and natural gas drilling applications more efficiently than it does right now during a hearing on the administration's management of federal property. "There are opportunities for greater efficiencies," Tommy Beaudreau, the acting assistant secretary of Land and Minerals Management for the Interior Department, told a subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The hearing focused on the Obama administration's efforts to allow drilling for natural resources on federally owned land. The federal government approved 7,124 permits for drilling on federal lands in 2007, with an average approval time of 196 days. However, the Obama administration approved only 4,256 in 2012, at an average time of 228 days, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah) said. States can take under a month, and sometimes under two weeks, to issue a permit, multiple congressmen said. Beaudreau argued after the hearing that states have different regulatory requirements and the Interior Department has to take multiple factors, including multiple uses of federal land, into account when issuing permits. "That takes time," Beaudreau said. "That takes public engagement. That takes analysis." Frustration about the federal permitting time led Rep. Blake Farenthold (R., Texas) to ask if the department was intentionally sitting on permits in order to delay drilling. Beaudreau assured him the department was not doing that. Rep. James Lankford (R., Okla.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy Policy, Health Care, and Entitlements, showed a map at the beginning of the hearing of drilling locations around federal land in North Dakota. He noted that companies are drilling all around federal land--often right up to the border--but are not actually venturing onto federal land to drill. Lankford argued that the regulatory burden is too high to make it worth it, even though royalty costs are lower on federal land than elsewhere. Unleashing the resources on federal land would allow "American energy independence and broad economic renaissance," Lankford argued. Opening up all federal land to drilling would increase GDP by $127 billion each year over the next seven years and create 552,000 jobs over the next seven years, Lankford said, citing an Institute for Energy Research study . Subcommittee ranking member Jackie Speier (D., Calif.) argued that issued and unused leases pose a greater problem for the United States than federal land that is closed to drilling. The Obama administration has been criticized in the past for its reluctance to allow drilling on federal lands. Republican candidate Mitt Romney attacked President Barack Obama during the campaign for the drop in drilling on federal lands under his watch. The Government Accountability Office issued a report last May asserting that America's oil shale formations could be equal to the entirety of the world's proven oil reserves. The Interior Department is working on a new regulation for hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, on federal lands, Beaudreau said at the hearing. Lankford wondered after the hearing if the department could handle yet another responsibility, given the inefficiencies that already plague it.

BY: Andrew Evans Follow @anevans12 May 16, 2013 3:20 pm The Department of the Interior admitted to Congress on Thursday morning that it could process oil and natural gas drilling applications more efficiently than it does right now during a hearing on the administration's management of federal property.

Environmental advocates from around the world gathered in Cochabamba, Bolivia, this week and resolved that, a year from now, they would hold a world's people referendum on climate change to marshal support for the rights of the planet. "Although it is hoped that some states will cooperate, the participation of governments will not be essential to the referendum, as civil society organizations are to plan it according to their own lights and the traditions and customs of each local area," reports Franz Chavez for Inter Press Service . The conference's democratic, citizen-oriented format starkly contrasted with March's United Nations-led summit in Copenhagen. The conference at Cochabamba emphasized inclusion and a diversity of voices, providing an antidote to processes like the U.N. climate negotiations, where smaller countries were excluded from key discussions. No official United States delegation attended the conference, but this week, the country held its own celebration of the environment: the 40th annual Earth Day. On Thursday, arguments over climate change were put on pause, as environmental leaders recognized both accomplishments and the unfinished business of cleaning up the air, land, and water. "Environmentalism isn't such a mysterious thing anymore. People are looking more at environmental values as being things that are tangible and relate to how we live our lives," Pete Carrels of the South Dakota Sierra Club told Public News Service . The mystery, now, lies in finding a way to shore up defenses against old environmental hazards--dirty water, dirty air, diminishing resources--and to agree on a path towards a low-carbon future that avoids the worst calamities of climate change. At Cochabamba "Bolivian music, indigenous ceremonies and the Bolivian army's honor guard were on hand to greet the first indigenous president of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Evo Morales," Democracy Now! reported from Tiquipaya , the town just outside Cochabamba where the actual conference is being held. In a stadium crowded with fifteen thousand people, President Morales opened the event Tuesday morning with exhortations to choose life for the planet. Franz Chavez of Inter Press Service reports : "The stadium, ablaze with the multi-coloured traditional garments of different Andean and Amazonian native communities and the flags of people from different countries around the world that contrasted with the cold formality of presidential summits, served as the stage for Morales, of Aymara descent, to call for an "inter-continental movement" in defence of Mother Earth." You can get a sense of the atmosphere in this GRITtv report or the below video from Yes! Magazine . Too many cooks? One of the main goals of the summit was to draft a "universal declaration of rights of Mother Earth," envisioned as a complement to the United Nations declaration on human rights. There were also 17 working groups that dealt with issues like climate migrants, the Kyoto protocol, and technology transfer. Any conference participant could participate in up to five working groups. The open format was, at times, chaotic. Cormac Cullinan, an environmental lawyer from South Africa who provide the baseline text for the declaration of rights, told Democracy Now! that on one day of the conference four hundred people were contributing revisions to the text. Another day, that number jumped to one thousand. "The challenge is to make sure we integrated all the different comments and point of view," he said. "We're essentially expressing an entirely new world view from an indigenous perspective in legal language." Many voices, but what are the solutions? Elizabeth Cooper affirms this emphasis on a diversity of voices in a report for Yes! Magazine . "This issue of valuing the knowledge and abilities of indigenous peoples and those from the South was an undercurrent to the rest of the afternoon as it is to the Summit as a whole," she writes. But this scale of participation also meant that conversations could veer from essential topics. Also at Yes! Magazine , Jim Shultz asks , "If forcing rich countries to pay a climate debt is a dead end, what is the plan to move "climate debt" from a catchy idea to a real proposal with a chance of delivering some results?" "At a workshop today on that topic, there was an abundance of declarations about why climate debt is important, but few ideas of how to make it real," he reports. The need There's a need, though, for people to participate in these discussions, even if the conversations don't take a smooth and tidy course. At The Nation , Naomi Klein writes that "Bolivia's climate summit has had moments of joy, levity and absurdity. Yet underneath it all, you can feel the emotion that provoked this gathering: rage against helplessness." At a conference like Copenhagen, the worries and priorities of smaller countries were ultimately excluded from the debate. In Bolivia, Klein explains, glaciers--the water source for two major cities--are melting. Yet that problem did not earn the country a place in the Copenhagen discussions that could determine its fate. Cochabamba's goals were, in part, to reestablish a more democratic system for decision-making about climate reform. As Regina Cornwell documents at the Women's Media Center, left to its own devices, international bodies like the United Nations easily exclude interested groups from the conversation. "In early March, just as the entire area of Manhattan around the UN was crawling with women wearing their blue Conference for the Status of Women tags, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced a "High-level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing" composed exclusively of men," she writes. Earth Day 2010 The conferees at Cochabamba traveled to Bolivia because they saw a gap in leadership after UN climate talks at Copenhagen crumbled. The ideas developed this week could prompt the world's leaders towards brave action on climate change. Strong leadership can make the difference between real change and status quo. At The Nation , John Nichols reflects on the leadership of Sen. Gaylord Nelson , who helped create Earth Day. Nelson, was "a bold progressive who recognized the need to make the health and welfare of human beings, in the United States and abroad, a priority over the profits of multinational corporations," he writes. Nelson's vision for Earth Day was to produce an outpouring of empathy for the environment "so large that it would shake the political establishment out of its lethargy." It worked. The first Earth Day is credited with driving action on the environmental institutions that still protect Americans today: the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency. Today's leaders Today, other leaders are fighting the same fight as Nelson did. At Cochabamba, these climate leaders, profiled by Colorlines , are marshaling their communities to push back against global warming, as are these conference-goers . They lack official titles but are leading nonetheless. Young people, like those honored by the Brower Youth Award, are coming up with amazing ideas to ensure a healthy future for the planet, reports LinkTV . At The Progressive , Winona LaDuke explains how native communities are working to produce a new energy economy. And all over the world, individuals are working to minimize their impact and the impact of their societies on the environment. AlterNet suggests " five ways you can help save life on earth ," and Care2 has two other suggestions: eat less meat and reduce use of water bottles . For more inspiration, check out the climate rally on Sunday, April 25 on the Mall in Washington, DC; organizers are promising the largest climate rally ever, along with an awesome line-up of speakers and performers. This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about the environment by members of The Media Consortium . It is free to reprint. Visit the Mulch for a complete list of articles on environmental issues, or follow us on Twitter . And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit , The Pulse , and The Diaspora . This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.

Environmental advocates from around the world gathered in Cochabamba, Bolivia, this week and resolved that, a year from now, they would hold a world's people referendum on climate change to marshal support for the rights of the planet.

Almond growers will need 1.5 million hives this year, estimates Colorado beekeeper Lyle Johnston. "It takes almost all the commercial bees in the United States," to pollinate the almond crop, he says. The payoff can amount to half an individual keeper's yearly profit. However, bees can come back from California "loaded with mites and every other disease you can think of," beekeeper Ed Colby explains. That can often mean bee colony deaths. Last year, US beekeepers experienced an average 30% overwinter bee loss; some lost 10% to 15% of their hives, while others lost much more. It's a normal cost of doing business, but it can be painful. Last year's rate was higher than normal, and higher than any keeper would want. But it was not the "bee-pocalypse" that some news stories claimed. The real story is that efforts to identify a single unifying cause for higher-than-usual losses have failed. Scientists are discovering that multiple issues affect bee health. Urban, suburban and agricultural "development has reduced natural habitats, clearing out thousands of acres of clover and natural flowers," a 60 Minutes investigative report observed. "Instead, bees are spending week after week on the road, feeding on a single crop, undernourished and overworked." The migration itself is stressful, notes Glenwood Springs, Colorado Post-Independent reporter Marilyn Gleason. "First, there's the road trip, which isn't exactly natural for bees, and may include freezing cold or scorching heat. Bees ship out of Colorado before the coldest weather, and drivers may drench hot, thirsty bees with water at the truck wash." The convergence in almond groves of so many commercial bees from all over the country creates a hotbed of viruses and pathogens that can spread to many hives. The varroa destructor mite carries at least 19 different bee viruses and diseases, causing major impacts on bee colonies. Parasitic phorid flies are another problem, and highly contagious infections also pose significant threats. The intestinal fungus nosema ceranae, for example, prevents bees from absorbing nutrition, resulting in starvation. The tobacco ringspot virus was likewise linked recently to the highly publicized problem known as "colony collapse disorder." CCD occurs when bees in a colony disappear, leaving behind only a queen and a few workers. The term originally lumped together a variety of such "disappearing" disorders recorded in different locales across hundreds of years, as far back as 950 AD in Ireland. Thankfully, as during past episodes, these unexplained incidents have declined in recent years and, despite all these challenges, overall US honeybee populations and the number of managed colonies have held steady for nearly 20 years. These days, perhaps the biggest existential threat to bees is campaigns purporting to save them. Extreme-green groups like the Center for Food Safety and Pesticide Action Network of North America are blaming an innovative new class of pesticides called neonicotinoids for both over-winter bee losses and CCD. Allied with several outspoken beekeepers, the activists are pressuring the Environmental Protection Agency, Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency and government regulatory agencies to follow Europe's lead - and ban neonics. Instead of protecting bees and beekeepers, however, their campaigns will likely cause greater harm - because they ignore the multiple threats that scientists have identified, and because a neonic ban will result in farmers using pesticides that are more toxic to bees. The European Union's political decision to suspend neonic use came because France's new agriculture minister banned their use. That meant French farmers would be at a distinct disadvantage with the rest of Europe, if they were the only ones unable to use the pesticide, noted British environmental commentator Richard North. They could lose $278 million per season in lost yields and extra pesticide spraying. So the French agricultural ministry sought an EU-wide ban on all neonicotinoids. After several votes and a misleading report on the science, the European Commission imposed a ban, over the objections of many other EU members, who note that the evidence clearly demonstrates the new pesticides are safe for bees. Years-long field tests have found that real-world exposures have no observable effects on bee colonies. Other studies have highlighted other significant insect, fungal, human and other issues that, singly or collectively, could explain CCD. Having analyzed scores of 2007-2012 bee death incidents, Canadian bee experts concluded that "...very few of the serious bee kills involve neonicotinoid pesticides. Five times as many 'major' or 'moderate' pesticide-related bee kills were sourced to non-neonic chemicals." In Canada's western provinces, almost 20 million acres of 100% neonic-treated canola is pollinated annually by honeybees and tiny alfalfa leaf-cutter bees. Both species thrive on the crop, demonstrating that neonics are not a problem. Large-scale field studies of honeybees at Canadian universities and a bumblebee field study by a UK government agency found no adverse effects on bees. Last October, a team of industry scientists published a four-year study of the effects of repeated honeybee exposure to neonic-treated corn and rapeseed (canola) pollen and nectar under field conditions in several French provinces. The study found similar mortality, foraging behavior, colony strength and weight, brood development and food storage in colonies exposed to seed-treated crops and in unexposed control colonies. This also indicates low risk to bees. At least two more major, recently completed university-run field research projects conducted under complex, costly scientific laboratory guidelines ("good lab practices") are awaiting publication. All indications to date suggest that they too will find no observable adverse effects on bees at field-realistic exposures to neonicotinoids. Meanwhile Project ApisM., a partnership of agro-businesses and beekeepers, has invested $2.5 million in research to enhance the health of honeybee colonies. Switzerland-based Syngenta has spent millions expanding bee habitats in Europe and North America, through Project Pollinator. Bayer has built bee health centers in Europe and the United States, and Monsanto's Beeologics subsidiary is developing technology to fight varroa mites. None of that matters to the anti-pesticide activists. They are using pressure tactics to make Canada and the United States copy the EU. That would be a huge mistake. Science, not politics, should prevail. Please SHARE this story as the only way for CFP to beat Facebook anti-Conservative Suppression.

Almond growers will need 1.5 million hives this year, estimates Colorado beekeeper Lyle Johnston. "It takes almost all the commercial bees in the United States," to pollinate the almond crop, he says. The payoff can amount to half an individual keeper's yearly profit.

Sunday September 3, 2017 Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Russian President Vladimir Putin in person that Israel will not tolerate an Iranian military presence in Syria that threatens Israeli interests. Netanyahu also stated that Israel is prepared to take action in Syria to curb the alleged threat. At the time, Putin did not respond specifically to Israel's issue with Iran. This provided some uncertainty regarding Russia's position on the current conflict given Russia views Iran as a strategic ally . At the same time, however, Russia would likely not want to be dragged into a regional spat between Israel and the Islamic Republic. However, according to the Washington Examiner, a conservative news outlet, Russia has responded by warning Israel not to authorize any attack on Iranian military positions in Syria. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov allegedly told reporters: If anyone in the Middle East or [an]other part of the world plans to violate international law by undermining any other country's sovereignty or territorial integrity, including any country in the Middle East or North Africa, this would be condemned. He also added: [R]egarding whatever area of cooperation between Iran and Syria, my position is that if their cooperation in whichever field does not violate the basic provisions of international law, it should not be cause for question. This line of thinking on Russia's part was confirmed by the Times of Israel in a report claiming that even U.S. officials have agreed to allow Iranian-backed militias to take up positions in Syria less than ten kilometers from the Golan Heights region, which is technically under Israeli control. Under this arrangement, Russian observers are to police the truce zones, and this has rattled Israeli officials. A Russian military presence in the area may limit its ability to strike pro-Iranian and pro-Syrian forces inside Syrian territory. There are also further reports of Russia stationing its S-400 anti-missile defense system near an Iranian arms factory inside Syria, which allegedly provides Hezbollah with weapons that could be used against Israel. In response to fears of an increased and protected Iranian presence, a senior Israeli official came forward days ago to state that if Iran expands in Syria, Israel will respond by striking Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's palaces. This may be the ultimate aim of the U.S. war establishment. If the U.S. can provoke a direct confrontation between Israel and Iran, the rationale to intervene more heavily to counter both Iran and Syria will be that much more concrete, particularly if there are concerns about protecting an American ally. A recent survey found the majority of Americans would support a nuclear strike on Iran, killing 2 million civilians, if Iran attacked the U.S. military first through conventional warfare. In the same vein, the majority of Americans may also feel that such a military option would be justified if the U.S. were acting to defend an American ally. This hypothetical scenario would at least explain America's decision to allow Iranian-backed troops so close to Israel's border given the current Trump administration is incredibly anti-Iranian. However, Russia's military presence and the deployment of its defense systems may ultimately complicate this scenario for both the U.S. and Israel, which may sooner or later have to admit that they have realistically lost the war in Syria. Reprinted with permission from The Anti-Media .

Sunday September 3, 2017 Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Russian President Vladimir Putin in person that Israel will not tolerate an Iranian military presence in Syria that threatens Israeli interests.

By Tom Blumer | May 11, 2017 7:57 PM EDT Desperate to make a case that voter-ID laws kept "many" people who should be allowed to vote from casting ballots in Wisconsin in November, two reporters at the Associated Press claimed "it is not hard to find" examples of Badger State residents who were "turned away." Left unexplained is how reporters Christina A. Cassidy and Ivan Moreno apparently could only identify four people out of hundreds of thousands allegedly affected after six months of searching. Despite a headline claiming that those involved faced "insurmountable" barriers, each person cited could have successfully cast a ballot, but failed to do so because of inadequate follow-through. By Tom Blumer | May 10, 2017 9:52 PM EDT Seattle Mayor Ed Murray announced on Tuesday that he will not run for reelection as the city's mayor because of mounting allegations that he sexually abused underage boys in the 1980s. Press coverage has either ignored Murray's Democratic Party affiliation or buried it in related stories' late paragraphs. This outcome also exposes a double standard in the Evergreen State press, and should (but probably won't) lead management at these outlets, particularly at the Seattle Times , to question why they chose not to report multiple allegations against Murray which first surfaced almost a decade ago. By Tom Blumer | May 9, 2017 10:55 PM EDT The Associated Press had a variety of howlers from Democrats and leftists it could have included in its May 8 (update on May 9) "fact check" roundup based on events of the past week. As those who have watched the wire service's conduct since the 2016 election campaign could have predicted, it included none, and instead solely went after the Trump administration and GOP politicians on nine different claims. By Tom Blumer | May 9, 2017 10:45 AM EDT On Friday, the government reported that the economy added a seasonally adjusted 211,000 jobs, and that the unemployment rate dropped to a 10-year low of 4.4 percent. The day's press coverage had three noticeable highlights. The first was the headline at the Associated Press's coverage -- "US JOBS DATA SHOW SOME SCARS FROM RECESSION FINALLY HEALING." By Tom Blumer | May 8, 2017 3:50 PM EDT In a two-minute video posted at PJ Media on Sunday, MSNBC's Chris Matthews stated that he wants Donald Trump to succeed, and that he "used to think" that presidential preference polls were honest, but "they were wrong." This is pretty odd coming a guy who, as seen in several recent NewsBusters posts, has frequently compared the Trump family to the Romanovs, and who has seemed to encourage people at the IRS to leak Trump's prior-year tax returns, saying that doing so would be "a good leak." By Tom Blumer | May 7, 2017 5:29 PM EDT On Thursday, an Investor's Business Daily editorial cited a long list of news outlets which have recently covered the calamitous events in Venezuela, but which, in IBD's words, "continue to obfuscate, if not totally ignore" the fact that the country's implosion can be laid at the feet of one simple cause: "Socialism." One particularly appalling example exemplifying the paper's complaint came Saturday morning from NBC News. By Tom Blumer | May 6, 2017 6:27 PM EDT Democratic Party strategist Peter Daou is among the sorest of all the sore losers having a hard time handling Hillary Clinton's November electoral loss to Donald Trump. He has been ranting for weeks on Twitter about how sexism hurt Mrs. Clinton, how "THE PLAYING FIELD ... (was) TILTED AGAINST HER" (yes, the original was in all caps), and even that the media "helped Trump win." Friday, Daou took his act to Tucker Carlson's Fox News show, where, as would be expected, Carlson made valid points, while Daou had nothing but tired excuses and spin. By Tom Blumer | May 6, 2017 10:42 AM EDT In a segment on media bias on his Wednesday evening Fox News show, there was an interesting juxtaposition between host Tucker Carlson's short opening flashback to a conversation with Reuters reporter and White House Correspondents Association President Jeff Mason at Reuters and the live conversation he had with Buzzfeed Editor Ben Smith. Smith incredibly insisted that "people don't get into the business of reporting ... because we are political activists." By Tom Blumer | May 5, 2017 8:44 PM EDT Early Thursday morning, New York Magazine published an online item which claimed that "rape is a pre-existing condition" under the health care bill which has passed in the House. As Reason.com noted, "None of this is true. Like, not even a little bit." That appears not to be the point, though. The point of engaging in such irresponsibility appears to have been to get it out there so that at least some people who never learn about the "correction" end up believing the original false claims. In other words, it's shamelessly produced fake news. By Tom Blumer | May 4, 2017 5:37 PM EDT The Associated Press's descent into an ever more reflexively anti-Donald Trump, anti-conservative outlet which disguises itself as a wire service continues. On Tuesday (apparently updated sometime on Wednesday, based on its current "Yesterday" label), the AP's Marcy Gordon used a shopworn argument that a Republican or conservative who generally supports reducing government regulations and red tape is a hypocrite if he or she ever supports, even tentatively, any form of stronger regulation. By Tom Blumer | May 3, 2017 6:32 PM EDT ESPN's determination to dig its own grave continues to move at high speed. On Tuesday, SportsCenter 6 co-host Michael Smith intensely overreacted to the racist actions of a small contingent fans at a Major League Baseball game at Boston's Fenway Park, using what they did to tag every city in America as "racist." By Tom Blumer | May 2, 2017 9:06 PM EDT On Thursday, Julia Seymour at NewsBusters noted that in his new, ridiculously hyped Netflix series, so-called "Science Guy" Bill Nye "preached gender fluidity as 'forward thinking.'" In what can hardly be a coincidence, Daniel Payne at the Federalist.com reports that "someone cut from a re-release of the episode" a 76-second segment from Nye's original 1996 program on "Probability" explaining how a child's sex is determined at conception. By Tom Blumer | May 1, 2017 10:23 PM EDT In an 18-minute Friday interview on the New Yorker Radio Hour , CNN President Jeffrey Zucker contended that "Fox News ... is state-run TV," that "MSNBC has become the opposition," and that "CNN is seeking the truth." Yes, he really said that. Zucker also doesn't like the term "fake news" any more -- even though his network was one of the earliest post-election promoters of the term when they thought they could use it as a club against others. By Tom Blumer | May 1, 2017 12:53 AM EDT Let's imagine that an activist for a conservative cause supported committing physical violence up to and including murder against people doing things he or she sees as "immoral" in a letter to the editor at a local newspaper, and that this same person was behind a state ballot initiative designed to limit the activities of those "immoral" people. No one would reasonably expect that the leading newspaper in the state involved would for all practical purposes ignore this person's activities. But from all appearances, the Denver Post has virtually ignored the violence-advocating Andrew O'Connor, as well as his co-sponsorship of a Colorado ballot initiative to double the severance tax on the "immoral" oil and gas industry, since April 19. By Tom Blumer | April 30, 2017 5:55 PM EDT On Saturday, syndicated columnist, blogging pioneer and CRTV.com investigative reporter Michelle Malkin delivered an epic smackdown of the two-faced history of the White House Correspondents' Dinner. She also completely supported President Donald Trump's decision, announced in late February, not to attend the event. By Tom Blumer | April 29, 2017 12:30 PM EDT On Friday (appearing in Saturday's print edition), the New York Times published its first column by Bret Stephens, the former Wall Street Journal columnist recently hired as a "conservative" voice. Its theme was that the political "hyperbole" about climate change doesn't match the underlying science -- even if one trusts the underlying science. That alone was enough to send journalists into unhinged and often profane orbit. By Tom Blumer | April 28, 2017 11:16 PM EDT In a Thursday opinion piece at New York Times , that self-described guardian of "Real Journalism," Bonnie Tsui devoted over 1,200 words to the racist term "Asian salad." What, you didn't know that the term was racist? Ms. Tsui, whose piece will appear in print in the paper's "Sunday Review" section this weekend, is here to set you straight. By Tom Blumer | April 27, 2017 10:57 PM EDT Yesterday, as Jay Maxson at NewsBusters noted, ESPN laid off 100 on-air personalities. One would think that an awareness of growing financial vulnerability might convince the network to keep its employees' and contributors' most radical impulses in check, lest even more subscribers and/or advertisers get alienated. That certainly isn't happening at ESPNW, the network's women's sports website. By Tom Blumer | April 27, 2017 7:00 PM EDT A development has occurred which should erase any doubt that basic freedoms are in serious jeopardy in much of blue-state America. It is at least as disturbing as the failure of the University of California at Berkeley and the Berkeley Police Department to provide for the safety of conservative Ann Coulter, leading to the cancellation of her planned appearance there. By Tom Blumer | April 27, 2017 9:15 AM EDT In a report which comes off as something it felt obligated to address but with as little meaningful information as possible, a story at CNN.com tells readers that "Murder Is Out of Control" in Baltimore -- to the point where the city is begging the FBI for additional help. The story is so utterly devoid of background that those who haven't followed the city's woes closely could read it and believe that the problem just came along this year.

By Tom Blumer | May 11, 2017 7:57 PM EDT Desperate to make a case that voter-ID laws kept "many" people who should be allowed to vote from casting ballots in Wisconsin in November, two reporters at the Associated Press claimed "it is not hard to find" examples of Badger State residents who were "turned away."

Seasonal fruit makes me feel like a drug addict: it makes me excited and a little anxious that I won't eat enough of them in their short season. So when cherries first show up, I buy five pounds just because I can. Fresh apricots get hoarded, and somehow, I always "accidentally" pick 20 pounds of organic Chandler strawberries with my family. I discovered the hard way that there is a limit on how many pies, cobblers and crisps a person can consume a year (mine is 33), and I wanted those flavors to last year-round. So I let my inner grandma shine and got my jam on. There is nothing quite like drowning in a sea of strawberry hulls and juiced lemons, with at least one fresh burn on my arm and my clothing covered in mysterious sticky bits. Jam is probably the easiest of fruit preserves to make. It's not picky like jelly, which requires you to strain the fruit out of the syrup. You don't have to double cook it like you would a fruit butter. But jam does have a fairly strict set of rules you'll need to follow, unless you enjoy getting burned on awkward body parts or throwing away four hours of work because you just had to send that email in the final stages of cooking your blackberry jam. Learn from my experience, and find out how to get a little bit of spring and summer all year long. 1. Start with a few good jam cookbooks A good jam book will not only give you tested recipes, but it will also explain in great detail how to make jam, test if it has gelled, and how to experiment with different flavors and spices. I like starting with The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving when I am making an unfamiliar jam because it offers recipes that yield a small amount, allowing me to test a few different recipes. I like to pair it with a specialized jam book, like The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook . This book has pages dedicated to describing different fruit varieties, spice pairings and how to get the true essence of the fruit into your jar of jam. 2. Cover your body for splatter control Hot jam burns like the devil, so this is not time to dress fashionably or skimpily. No open-toed sandals, short-sleeved shirts, shorts or short skirts. Jam is pretty smart. It will find that one bit of naked skin showing and burn the crap out of you. The weirder the spot - -the crook of your elbow, your cleavage, etc. -- the more likely it is to get burned. Treat jam making like cooking bacon and protect yo self. 3. Use the largest pot you can, no matter how small the recipe is Fruit and sugar like to bubble up and foam in the early stages of jam. The best type of jam pot is large and has a lot of surface area, which means the liquid will reduce quickly and evenly. Also, consider making your jam in small batches. If you try to stuff too much fruit and sugar into a pot, be prepared for jampocalypse on your stove top. 4. Cook in small batches Cooking your jam in small batches won't just save your stovetop from a sticky, gooey mess -- it also helps preserves that fresh fruit flavor. The longer you cook a jam, the less the fruit will taste raw, and when you cook in large batches, the jam will take longer to cook. Plus, cooking fruit too long could destroy the pectin in the recipe, which means it won't gel properly. If you're going through the trouble of preserving the best seasonal fruit you can find, be nice to it. Small batches are your friend (even when trying to can 20 pounds of strawberry jam). 5. Cook jam with as few distractions as possible There are a few seconds between beautifully preserved fruit and a burned, disgusting fruit-flavored sludge, so avoid doing anything else that requires too much of your attention. Think of jam making like a baby who just learned to walk: turn your head for a second and all hell will break loose. A burned jam is enough to make a grown woman cry. 6. Check the set on your jam An overcooked jam will be stiff and hard to spread when cool, and an undercooked jam will be runny and more syrupy. If you crave the perfect gel from your jam, there is a quick test you can do to see if it is thick enough before you can it: the plate test. Place a few plates in the freezer before beginning to make your jam. When you think your jam is thick enough to gel, remove the pot of jam from the heat and place a spoonful of hot jam on a frozen plate. Put the plate back in the freezer for two minutes. If the jam has gelled, it will move slowly when you tilt the plate. If it runs off of the plate quickly, cook the jam for another two minutes before doing the test again.

Seasonal fruit makes me feel like a drug addict: it makes me excited and a little anxious that I won't eat enough of them in their short season. So when cherries first show up, I buy five pounds just because I can. Fresh apricots get hoarded, and somehow, I always "accidentally" pick 20 pounds of organic Chandler strawberries with my family.

NERMEEN SHAIKH : This year, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to ICAN , the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Do you see that as significant? ROBERT JAY LIFTON : I do see that as very significant, because there is a mindset that rejects nuclearism. Nuclearism is the embrace of weapons to, as I said before, to do all the things they can't do and to utilize them instead of what should be utilized in the way of peacemaking. So, giving the Nobel Peace Prize to a group that seeks to outlaw all nuclear weapons recognizes that mindset, the critical mindset toward nuclear weapons. And, you know, I was part of the anti-nuclear movement--still am--but particularly the doctor's role in anti-nuclear work. And I think we have reason to believe that the whole anti-nuclear movement, from all directions, was a significant factor in preventing the use of nuclear weapons since Nagasaki in 1945. It doesn't mean that we're on fine ground with nuclear weapons. It's still extremely dangerous, as we're discussing. But the prevention of their use was certainly influenced by anti-nuclear movements and a rejection of nuclearism. AMY GOODMAN : Your work with bringing out the voices of the Hiroshima, Nagasaki victims. I wanted to turn to one of those victims. In fact, when we interviewed ICAN after they won the Nobel Peace Prize, they talked about the voices of the hibakusha being so critical. In 2016, we spoke to Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima August 6, 1945, now an anti-nuclear activist who works as a social worker in Toronto, Canada, serving Japanese-speaking immigrants. She described that day, August 6, 1945. SETSUKO THURLOW : I was a 13-year-old, grade eight student at the girls' school. And I was mobilized by the army, like together with a group of about 30 schoolmates. And we were trained to act as decoding assistants. And that very day, being Monday, we were to start the day's work, the full-fledged decoding assistant. At 8:00, we had a morning assembly, and the Major Yanai gave us a pep talk. And we said, "We will do our best for emperor's sake." And at the moment, I saw the bluish white flash in the windows. I was on the second floor of the wooden building, which was one mile, or 1.8 kilometers, away from the ground zero. And after seeing the flash, I had a sensation of floating in the air. All the buildings were flattened by the blast and falling. And, obviously, the building I was in was falling, and my body was falling together with it. That's the end of my recollection. AMY GOODMAN : That was Setsuko Thurlow. She was a survivor of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima. And in your book, The Climate Swerve: Reflections on Mind, Hope, and Survival , you talk about the "apocalyptic twins: nuclear and climate threats." Talk about this voice. Most of the hibakusha have died out at this point. ROBERT JAY LIFTON : Survivors have a special form of witness. And many of them, including particularly Hiroshima survivors, as you know, so-called hibakusha, have traveled around the world and told their stories. And that does us a service, and it does them a service, as well, because it gives meaning to an otherwise intolerable kind of experience. They sense that they know something that the rest of us don't know. And what they know, what they've learned, is the capacity of our technology, our weaponry, to destroy our entire species and much of the planet. They know that in a visceral way, in a way that we don't know. AMY GOODMAN : Dr. Robert Jay Lifton is a leading American psychiatrist, author of more than 20 books, his latest, The Climate Swerve: Reflections on Mind, Hope, and Survival . When we come back, I ask him about climate change, which he's called the "apocalyptic twin" of nuclear war. Stay with us. [Music break] AMY GOODMAN : We continue our conversation with Dr. Robert Jay Lifton, leading American psychiatrist, author of more than 20 books. On Thursday, Democracy Now! 's Nermeen Shaikh and I spoke with him about his new book, The Climate Swerve: Reflections on Mind, Hope, and Survival . In the midst of the massive hurricanes and the wildfires in California, I asked him about climate change, what he's called the "apocalyptic twin" of nuclear war. ROBERT JAY LIFTON : Climate change, yes, is the apocalyptic twin. And we saw in those images of the hurricanes just in the last couple of months--and still--a kind of apocalyptic damage, the destruction of cities, of islands, of most of Puerto Rico, a large area, and doubts about the capacity to recover and to really prevent the most long-standing damage to these places. There has to be a kind of perspective survivor, somebody who imagines this happening. But now we have visual evidence in these hurricanes, not caused by climate change, but rendered much more extreme, according to much scientific evidence. We have evidence, which the rest of us can take in as perspective survivors, of further climate damage that threatens our whole civilization. I call them apocalyptic twins because only these two threats, these two developments, can destroy the human species. I no longer speak so much of climate change denial, but rather climate change rejection. It's impossible not to, in at least one part of one's mind, recognize that there is something called global warming and that it's very dangerous to us and that we're contributing to it. It doesn't mean that one accepts it. One recognizes it partially. The human mind can be very contradictory. One can both recognize it and reject it--reject it because it's contrary to one's anti-government stance--you need governments to cooperate to do anything about it--and because it's antithetical to one's identity and to one's worldview, and also to one's financial sponsors--all that feeding climate rejection. But even as they try to make adaptation--how you're going to restore these coastal areas--the issue of climate change arises more readily. So, although we are not satisfied with the amount of emphasis on global warming, it's making its way into what I call a species awareness or a climate swerve. One wishes it would happen faster, but it is happening. NERMEEN SHAIKH : But it's interesting that you say that this climate swerve or change in climate mindset is happening at the same moment that the Trump administration is perhaps the most vocal in renouncing-- ROBERT JAY LIFTON : Absolutely. NERMEEN SHAIKH : --climate science, or in climate rejection, as you call it. I want to go back to President Trump last month, when he traveled to Mandan, North Dakota, and celebrated his decision to pull out of the landmark 2015 climate deal, while speaking outside an oil refinery. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP : In order to protect American industry and workers, we withdrew the United States from the job-killing Paris climate accord. Job killer. People have no idea. Many people have no idea how bad that was. And right here in North Dakota, the Dakota Access pipeline is finally open for business. ... I also did Keystone. You know about Keystone, another one, big one. Big. First couple of days in office, those two. Forty-eight thousand jobs. Tremendous, tremendous thing. I think environmentally better. I really believe that. Environmentally better. AMY GOODMAN : So, that was President Trump speaking on September 6th in Mandan, North Dakota. It was just about a year after the Dakota Access pipeline guards unleashed dogs on protesters, Native American protesters, water protectors, who were trying to protect the planet and not have that DAPL pipeline built. It was after--just after Hurricane Harvey had inundated the greater Houston area and Hurricane Irma was just making landfall. He chose this moment to come to this controversial spot, where hundreds of Native Americans, just down the road from the oil refinery, had been jailed for their fight for water protection, to announce, once again, "Look at what I've done, pull out of the Paris accord and greenlight these pipelines." ROBERT JAY LIFTON : But that story isn't over, and the story continues. It has proven very difficult for Trump to pull out of the Paris accord. As soon as it was announced, there was a heartening response on the part of governors and mayors all over the country saying that their states or their cities would follow the Paris accord. And there was an even more intense international response, a joint statement by Germany, France and Italy, that the Paris accord was irreversible, and by China, that they would continue their involvement in the Paris accord. And then the Trump administration issued a series of so-called clarifications: "Well, we'll go to the meetings. Well, we don't exactly have to pull out. We'll renegotiate." In other words, obfuscating the whole issue, which is very Trumpian and not so surprising. The reason why it's difficult for him to pull out of the Paris accord is that there's a worldwide consensus about it that's more powerful than any person, even the most dangerous person in the world, Donald Trump. And in that sense, again, we'd like more. It's outrageous that Trump would try to pull out of a world-saving accord, or at least something in the direction of that. It should really be criminal for a president to do that. But at least we can say that the climate swerve or the species awareness, the idea that we're all members of a single species in deep trouble, as I put it, all that prevents him from pulling out absolutely and leaves the whole matter unclear. NERMEEN SHAIKH : Is it your sense that there are sufficient restraints on Donald Trump acting unilaterally on either of these fronts, climate or nuclear? ROBERT JAY LIFTON : Of course there are not. You would have to have total restraints for them to be sufficient with a man like Donald Trump. Of course there aren't sufficient restraints. And who ever depended upon generals to restrain a civilian in so many different areas? And we don't know the outcome. I'm not, in my book or in my work, promising that we've accomplished enough to prevent climate damage and real disaster from happening. It's happening already. What I'm saying is that there has been a shift in mindset that makes possible the actions, the sensible actions, necessary to curb global warming. We still haven't taken those actions fully. And, you know, at the beginning of my book, I speak of the ultimate absurdity, the ultimate absurdity that if we do nothing but what we're doing now--and it's what I mean by malignant normality--just go on using fossil fuels, we will do ourselves in as a civilization, pretty much by the end of this century. Nothing could be more absurd than that. But at least we have a beginning shift in mindset that allows us to take reasonable action. And that's what Paris was all about. AMY GOODMAN : I wanted to ask you about the quote you begin your book with. You quote the American poet Theodore Roethke, saying, "In a dark time, the eye begins to see." ROBERT JAY LIFTON : Yes, that's a beautiful line from a very great poet. I've used that throughout my career, because it's, in a way, what my work is about. I've studied a lot of descents into darkness: Hiroshima, the Vietnam War, Nazi doctors, and others, Aum Shinrikyo in Japan. And I always feel there's something to be learned from what happened. And it doesn't mean that we're guaranteed to make good use of our history and never do it again. It does mean that some kind of knowledge can come from it. And I see myself, in that way, as what I call a witnessing professional, trying to use my professional knowledge to bear witness to and, in some way, reveal more about this kind of darkness. AMY GOODMAN : Can you talk more about the Nazi doctors? I mean, you devote a chapter to them here. But, I mean, your work spans--well, you are 91 years old now. ROBERT JAY LIFTON : Yes. AMY GOODMAN : You have so much wisdom, in both experience and all you have brought to this. Tell us what we should learn from what you learned from these men. ROBERT JAY LIFTON : With the Nazi doctors, when a German doctor who would be a member of the Nazi Party was assigned to Auschwitz, he was expected to do so-called selections and send most arriving Jews to the gas chamber. That was considered normal behavior for a doctor in Auschwitz. Some of them had difficulty with it, but, ultimately, they adapted to it. This is rendering professionals a hired gun for a malignant version of normality. And I learned that, in extreme ways, professionals can be put to use for killing rather than healing. That's what happened in Nazi Germany. But we also saw expressions of that, not quite as fully expressed, but with American psychologists, and for a while, psychiatrists, engaging in torture, and that being an expected norm, normal behavior, for-- AMY GOODMAN : You're talking about the American Psychological Association-- ROBERT JAY LIFTON : Yeah, I'm talking about-- AMY GOODMAN : --cooperating with President Bush. ROBERT JAY LIFTON : That's right. And I'm talking about both individual psychologists and psychiatrists, and then the American Psychological Association, collaborating with the torturers. I call that a scandal within a scandal. It's a scandal that professionals are doing that, but it really shows that we have to, as professionals or as anything, recognize what our work is being used for and where it's being put in connection with despotic behavior. The scandal within a scandal is an association, that's supposed to watch over the ethics of a profession, joins in torture or at least protects those who join in torture. But all that was exposed by a movement from within psychologists, from within the American Psychological Association, with the help of reasonably good leadership on the part of the American Psychiatric Association, who said it was wrong for any psychiatrist to be in the room during an interrogation that could spill over into torture. Yes, those were examples of malignant normality, not in Nazi Germany, but in relation to democratic United States of America. And with Trump, of course, malignant normality becomes the rule, because he's president, and what a president does tends to normalize potentially bad, evil or destructive behavior. AMY GOODMAN : Dr. Robert Jay Lifton, leading American psychiatrist. His latest book, The Climate Swerve: Reflections on Mind, Hope, and Survival . That does it for our show. We want to wish Robby Karran a very happy 10th anniversary with Democracy Now! And our speaking schedule this weekend, Juan Gonzalez speaks at noon today at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville . I'll be speaking tonight at 8 p.m. in Albany at the SUNY Albany Symposium on "Telling the Truth in a Post-truth World," along with Bob Schieffer, historian Douglas Brinkley and New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush. Then, on Saturday, Juan Gonzalez will be speaking at that same Albany symposium at 11:30. Check our website for details.

This year, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to ICAN , the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Do you see that as significant?

TEHRAN, Dec. 16 (MNA) - Iran's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Gholamali Khoshroo on Thursday called on the United Nations to prioritize the culture of peace as one of its main duties. 2016-12-16 10:12 TEHRAN, Sep. 28 (MNA) - First Secretary of the Permanent Mission of Iran to UN deemed the remarks of the UAE foreign minister 'baseless' and 'absurd' fabrications from a country whose warplanes are constantly bombing civilians in Yemen. 2016-09-28 14:37 DAMASCUS, Sep. 26 (MNA) - Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign and Expatriates Minister Walid al-Moallem stressed that the United States, France, and Britain called for a UN Security Council session on Syria this Sunday in an attempt to support terrorist organizations in Syria. 2016-09-26 15:15

TEHRAN, Dec. 16 (MNA) - Iran's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Gholamali Khoshroo on Thursday called on the United Nations to prioritize the culture of peace as one of its main duties.

Ali Abu Awwad in Encounterpoint When she hijacked two planes over thirty years ago, refugee Leila Khaled helped put the Palestinian struggle on the international radar. A generation later, however, the realization of Palestinians' rights is elusive as ever and the tactics of their resistance are increasingly scrutinized. The limits of resistance are examined in Ronit Avni and Julia Bacha's documentary Encounter Point as well as Lina Makboul's Leila Khaled, Hijacker . Encounter Point appropriately opens with a wide shot of two parallel roads, suggesting that there are two worlds existing side by side in the same place. Indeed, this is confirmed within the first few minutes of the film, as Israeli citizen Shlomo Zagman breezes through a West Bank checkpoint with a friendly wave from soldiers while Palestinian Sami Al-Jundi waits in an endless queue of Palestinian vehicles at a decidedly less friendly checkpoint. In the film we meet Israelis and Palestinians from the Bereaved Families Forum, which brings together those from both communities who have lost family members to political violence. Particularly memorable are Robi Damelin, whose son was killed by a sniper while manning a checkpoint guarding a settlement, and Ali Abu Awwad, whose unarmed brother Youssef was killed by an Israeli soldier during an army raid. Damelin, who grew up in South Africa, struggles with her own principles as she appeals to skeptical Israeli audiences. Unable to contain her anger at a visit to a settlement in the Gaza Strip where an audience of visitors is told that Israelis have a God-given right to the land and that the Arabs have it pretty good, Damelin interrupts, exclaiming, "[That's] exactly what whites said about the living standards of blacks" in apartheid South Africa. And when she is asked on Israeli television what she would like done to the sniper who killed her son, she replies, "You cannot kill anyone in the name of David. What I'm focusing on is, why was David in the Occupied Territories? Why was David guarding settlers who said their safety is worth more than David's life?" There are scenes of Damelin at peace rallies in which she is shown holding signs critical of the Israeli occupation. She stands out from the other Israelis featured in the film, like Tzvika Shahak, whose daughter Bat-Chen was killed in the 1996 Purim suicide bombing. Also a member of the Bereaved Families Forum, Shahak believes that the suicide bomber who killed his daughter is someone to be pitied, and rather than motivated by nationalist aims, he was brainwashed by metaphorical "drug dealers" who should be "taken care of" by Israel. We later see Shahak speak to some young Israeli teenagers, likely on the brink of being conscripted into the military. After speaking to the kids, Shahak explains that serving in the army is important -- that "we have to stay strong and also have dialogue." Damelin's stand seems more honest -- how can one be in a coexistence group yet still believe the occupation is necessary? Problematically for those who do not have a strong background in the conflict, the film -- produced by the self-described non-political group Just Vision that advocates non-violence -- does not provide much context. In the beginning of the film viewers are informed, "Palestinians struggle to end Israeli military occupation and create an independent state" while "Israelis act to secure themselves against attacks by Palestinians, nearby states and militant groups." The viewer is left with the sense that if Palestinians and Israelis would just recognize their shared humanity, the oft-cited cycle of violence could finally come to an end. Such a message equivocates the situation and makes it appear as though the two parties are equally responsible for the "cycle of violence." The film seems to suggest that the conflict is primarily psychological -- one that can be overcome by encounters -- rather than one stemming from a systematic disparity in rights. For a film focusing on the experience of the bereaved, it is surely a questionable omission that there is no mention of the massive disparity of Palestinian versus Israeli deaths during the last six years of intifada and indeed six decades of conflict. The film does not go into the roots of this conflict, the dispossession of the Palestinian people when an overwhelmingly non-Jewish country was turned into a "Jewish state" during the war of 1947-48 and the colonization of Palestinian land ever since. However, we are given glimpses of the heart of the matter, those uncomfortable truths that many would prefer to ignore. Doe-eyed Palestinian Aziz Tazi works with Israeli Ruti Atmoson on an Israeli-Palestinian joint publication. "We're working for peace," he says, but describes how Israel refuses to grant him permission to enter Israel, so an Israeli coexistence delegation must come to the West Bank to visit Tazi and some other Palestinians. The delegation is held back by Israeli authorities and yet they balk at Tazi's suggestion at circumventing the checkpoint by driving through the Palestinian town of Tulkarem. A large group of Palestinians wait with Tazi as he argues with Atmoson on the phone when she asks him if they could meet at a different place. "If they don't come, no one would come to another meeting. They'll lose trust," he frets. Though the Israelis eventually do show up, many of the Palestinians who came to greet them had already left. In this and other instances, it appears as though it is generally the responsibility of the occupied Palestinians to accommodate the Israelis, starkly reflecting the imbalance of political power between the two peoples. Ali Abu Awwad can only nod in agreement when he asks a Palestinian in Hebron whose house windows were recently smashed in how he lives with the settlers. "The situation was imposed on us," the Palestinian man shrugs, and the same can be said of the occupation and the Palestinians generally. Abu Awwad deftly yet diplomatically illustrates this when he meets Shlomo Zagman, who was taught while growing up in a settlement that Palestinians "did the work my parents didn't want to do." Abu Awwad emphasizes that when there is a cease-fire, the suicide bombing stops in Israel but the Palestinians still have to endure the humiliating occupation. He convinces Zagman to try to see the checkpoints from the Palestinian point of view, which he does by tagging along with the Israeli women's group Machsom Watch that monitors soldiers' behavior at checkpoints. The film is dedicated to those on both sides struggling for non-violence, and the profiled Palestinians and Israelis' appeals to their respective societies are sympathetically portrayed as noble. However, it is unconvincing that both sides absolutely rejecting violence is the solution since the whole edifice of Israel as a "Jewish state" and the occupation rests on the threat and exercise of violence by Israel. We feel we have hit something closer to the truth with the response of the Israeli founder of the Bereaved Families Forum being asked on Israeli TV about Palestinians who "delight" in the deaths of their children: "Perhaps we should ask ourselves, 'how did we push an entire population to laud and praise suicide bombers?" Indeed, the most powerful aspect of the film is the archive footage of the funeral of 12-year-old Bethlehemite Christine Sa'adeh, who is given a final kiss by her mother, whose grief is so profound it is difficult to look at. Her father shouts a message to Israeli mothers: "If you want security, end the occupation. We all stand together until we have freedom and a Palestinian state." Nonviolence certainly something to aspire to, and something that many international film audiences will not argue with, it is too easy to ignore the more complicated question of when an oppressed people -- like the Palestinians -- have a right to resist through violent means (and what just means of violent resistance might look like). Film still from Leila Khaled, Hijacker Leila Khaled, Hijacker The supposed moral authority of nonviolent resistance is thrown off-kilter when considering the plight of the five million Palestinian refugees in exile who don't even have the opportunity for occasional contact let alone normalization with the Israeli other as do their kin in the West Bank. "What language should I use with an occupier? As long as the enemy occupies our country, there's nothing to discuss," Leila Khaled unambiguously tells filmmaker Lina Makboul as they talk in Amman, Jordan. The question of the limits of resistance is compellingly posed in Leila Khaled, Hijacker . Khaled made headlines for herself and the Palestinian people, and as one newscaster put it, added a touch of "glamour" to their struggle when she hijacked a passenger plane in 1969 and then again in 1970. Makboul's smart film relies on archive material to present a history of Khaled and her feats and juxtaposes it with her interviews with Khaled conducted at her home in Amman and Chatila refugee camp in Lebanon. Khaled was born in Haifa in 1944 and on her fourth birthday, the Zionist militia called the Stern Gang brutally massacred inhabitants of the village of Deir Yassin, one of many such atrocities that terrified hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into fleeing their towns and villages in face of the Zionist onslaught. Soon thereafter Khaled's family fled to Lebanon, her father remaining in Haifa to fight the Zionist forces. Makboul uses family photos as a point of reference -- the first a cheery image of a young Khaled lined up with her siblings in front of their Haifa home, and the second a rare image circa 1967 of a smiling Khaled -- we are told she is smiling because she just purchased a one-way ticket to Haifa, buoyed by the pan-Arabism of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel-Nasser. However, all optimism later dashed by the Arabs' crushing defeat during that year's war, Khaled came to the realization that help for her people would not come from the outside and that "she'd have to do it herself." Makboul lets archive footage of Khaled's spectacular hijackings speak for itself, interspersing the footage with interviews recently conducted with passengers and crew on the hijacked planes. The first hijacking went as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ( PFLP ) planned, though the Israeli war criminal who was scheduled to be on board, then-Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. (and later Prime Minister) Yitzhak Rabin, had changed plans at the last minute and so they were not able to try him in an Arab court as intended. However, the world did learn of the Palestinian people whose struggle before the late '60s had largely been forgotten. Six plastic surgeries later, Khaled managed to hijack another plane in a synchronized attack, also organized by the PFLP . This time Khaled was caught off guard by an El Al security guard on board who managed to disarm her of her two hand grenades, and a fellow hijacker was shot dead. Khaled was detained upon the plane's emergency landing in London, though aircraft hijacked by other operatives landed as planned in Jordan. Passengers were held hostage until Khaled and her killed colleague's body were transferred to the Palestinian resistance. With the first hijacking, "Leila and the Palestinians [were] suddenly world famous," as Makboul narrates, causing journalists to finally report on the situation in the Middle East. However, the second time around the press coverage was less desirable and what the world remembered was Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir stating that it is the sole intention of these terrorists to kill Israelis and "this is what their organization stands for." The Palestinians' struggle for justice had been eclipsed. For teenage Makboul, being raised by Palestinian parents in a comfortable suburb in Sweden, Leila "was brave and beautiful. And she was Palestinian," and thus a figure of admiration. While men sat in coffee shops and uselessly complained about the situation, Leila "did something about it." However, as an adult, Makboul reflects, "it was Leila Khaled who gave us this [negative] reputation," and she questions how far one can go "to achieve freedom." Makboul meets Khaled in Amman, where "her life is quite ordinary." Decades after the famous image of Khaled wrapped in a kuffiyeh holding a gun was photographed, Khaled is still recognizable but her appearance is maternal rather than revolutionary. We see her do the mundane, such as vacuum her house, play with her dog, and sit down with Makboul and her family for a large meal, during which she repeatedly urges her guest to eat more. Asked about her reaction to the 11 September 2001 attacks in the U.S., Khaled replies, "I don't agree with the murders of civilians, no matter where in the world." She adds, "As far as I'm concerned, occupation is terrorism. My people have the right to fight it." Questioned on the tactic of hijacking planes as a means of fighting, Khaled responds, "When we're tortured in Israeli prisons, who heard our screams?" Hijacking those planes forced the world to sit up and take notice of the Palestinians. Whether it moved the world to intervene is another question. While a young and beautiful Khaled might have lent the early Palestinian revolutionary movement a shade of romanticism, a trip with Makboul to the Chatila refugee camp in Lebanon -- where "the real Palestinians live" according to Khaled -- brings us back to the grim reality being lived out by many of those in exile. While a young refugee boy on a bicycle tells the camera crew that Palestinians will return "whatever the price," Khaled meets an impoverished former comrade whose struggle has been rewarded with very little. Widowed and his children now out of the home, Abu Hisham cannot contain his tears as he talks about his situation to Khaled. Even now Khaled says she regrets nothing. Still skeptical of the hijackings, Makboul questions if the problem is with herself rather than Khaled's actions: "I, with my comfortable life in Sweden, would want the struggle for a free Palestine to be fought with discreet diplomacy rather than spectacular skyjackings." Of course, the lingering question is how much longer the Palestinians will be denied their right to go home. Asking the crew aboard those hijacked planes if they understand why Khaled did it, the sky hostess aboard the first plane tells Makboul, "It's still a shame that it's the way that it is -- that the Palestinians don't have a country." Did Khaled's hijackings, plastic surgeries, and revolutionary training bring the Palestinians any closer to freedom? Makboul interviews the Israeli pilot of the El Al plane hijacked by Khaled, whose skewed Zionist perception of history means he thinks that "maybe 20 or 30" people were killed at Deir Yassin instead of more than 100. Questions regarding the efficacy of violence and the negative reputation of the Palestinians is made all the more complicated by Israel's own violent birth when Palestinians were forced to march to nearby Arab countries or put on rafts in the Mediterranean. "I'm confused," Makboul narrates. "Isn't terrorism always wrong? Maybe it isn't. The Stern Gang became celebrated heroes. One of them even became the Prime Minister of Israel. We, the Palestinians, still live with the bad reputation. Maybe it's OK to be a terrorist. If you win." As she narrates, viewers see archive footage of an Israeli flag being hoisted atop a pole. So what to make of those back in Israel-Palestine proselytizing nonviolence in Encounter Point ? One wishes the filmmakers would have probed further when Palestinian Sami al-Jundi explains that he used his ten years in Israeli prison as an opportunity to learn from the struggles such as those of South Africa, India, and the U.S. Civil Rights movement. "There are some aspects of their movements [that apply to the Palestinian case] and some that don't," he says, so the Palestinians should adopt what makes sense for their situation. Does he mean that there are times when violent resistance is necessary? And besides, to view those analogous cases as absolutely nonviolent is to sugarcoat history. Maybe the problem is like the one Makboul self-diagnoses. We outsiders would prefer it if the Palestinians didn't make us feel uncomfortable, and that they remain docile and well-behaved subjects of colonialism even as we place sanctions on them and supply the weapons to Israel that kill them. Ironically, the Palestinian struggle has historically depended on mass nonviolent resistance such as strikes. Now that Israel has managed to erect a physical, economic, and social wall of isolation around the Palestinians and has put them out of view, it is doubtful that those former means of nonviolent resistance would have more than a negligible impact. Sami al-Jundi is right that Palestinians would do well to learn from history and adapt tactics that would bring them closer to freedom. However, concluding that the Palestinians must forego the right to resist through violent means doesn't come from a very close reading of history. Both Encounter Point and Leila Khaled, Hijacker will be screened at the Chicago Palestine Film Festival , April 14-26. Maureen Clare Murphy is Managing Editor of The Electronic Intifada.

Ali Abu Awwad in Encounterpoint When she hijacked two planes over thirty years ago, refugee Leila Khaled helped put the Palestinian struggle on the international radar.

Amid the last few days' legitimate furor over Twitter apparently censoring conservative opinions, some conservatives have vowed to quit the medium in protest. That is a mistake. Legal Insurrection's previous coverage of Twitter's banning author Robert Stacy McCain and de-authenticating Milo Yiannopoulos - both noted critics of extreme feminism - is here... Welcome to our Nevada Republican Caucus live feed. Caucuses end by midnight EST. We'll report results as we have them. Depending on your time zone, you might want to crank up the coffee pot, we'll be here awhile. Up for grabs, 30 delegates. The caucus is closed, so only those who... In a ruling sure to keep the Hillary Clinton email scandal alive through the summer, if not longer, a federal just has granted Judicial Watch the right to take discovery as to whether Hillary's home server was part of an effort to evade the Freedom of Information (FOIA) law by shifting... Earlier this month, Donald Trump called for a boycott of Apple products if Apple didn't unlock a terrorist phone for the feds, even though the case is in the courts. I made this comment at the time: What, me worry about him in control of the IRS, FBI, DOJ, CIA, NSA, EPA, and... Having campaigned on closing Gitmo and on his first day in office signing an executive order to close it within the year, Obama has been steadily emptying the detention center, often in dubious deals and scandalous, logic-defying swaps. This is something that he has been determined to accomplish while in office,... One prediction I can now comfortably make after years of observation is that there is a direct, linear relationship between how much government funding a scientist gets and the inaccuracy of the theories generated. The more politically connected the researcher, the more erroneous the "consensus" will be. I have a new data point... One of the most fascinating aspects of the Republican side of the 2016 election has been the sharp divide among conservatives over Donald Trump. People tend to fall into one of three camps; love him, hate him or will support him if he's the nominee. On one side, you've got multiple conservative... As Britain heads for the June referendum, the question of country's membership in the European Union is pitting the political establishment and the mainstream media against a rising tide of public sentiment against the Brussels, deepened by recent Eurozone debt crisis and EU's inability to regulate mass migration. The present policy paralysis within... The Baltimore Sun reports today that city officials will finalize approval of a contract this week to install video cameras inside the Police Department's 23 transport vans, at a cost of $187,000. The impetus for this effort is found in numerous cases of suspects suffering injuries while being transported in the vans.... 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The Democratic Party's Descent Into Socialism For Bernie Sanders Iowa campaign, Socialism is a feature not a bug Bernie Sanders and Media Normalization of Socialism Now Politico is reporting a new poll which confirms that... On Saturday morning we posted a brief compilation of recent events suggesting Twitter might be targeting conservatives, Is Twitter Silencing Conservatives? The impetus Saturday was the suspension of Robert Stacy McCain's account (@rsmccain). McCain blogs at TheOtherMcCain.com and last February published a book, Sex Trouble: Essays on Radical Feminism and the War Against... Senator Cruz has requested the resignation of Rick Tyler, the campaign's Communication's Director. Ted Cruz announces he has asked for communications director Rick Tyler's resignation.-- Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) February 22, 2016 Politico reports: Ted Cruz's campaign on Monday apologized to Marco Rubio for publicizing a story misstating the Florida senator's remarks to a Cruz... I'm so old I remember when conservative blogs and websites used to communicate with each other on email lists and by frequent linking to each other. When Legal Insurrection started in October 2008, that was how we let the world know we existed and what we were writing. So-called "blog whoring," whereby... There is no positive way to spin this one. Speaking at a town hall event, Ohio's Governor and Republican Presidential contender, John Kasich said, "How did I get elected? I didn't have anybody for me, we just got an army of people who uh, and many women who left the kitchens...

Amid the last few days' legitimate furor over Twitter apparently censoring conservative opinions, some conservatives have vowed to quit the medium in protest.

by Ted Glick May 9, 2015 This is the latest in a series of articles discusing the pros and cons of a Bernie Sanders campaign in the Democratic Party. Scroll down to find other articles. - Ed. "If you had a President who said: `Nobody in America is going to make less than $12 or $14 an hour,' what do you think that would do? If you had a President who said: `You know what, everybody in this country is going to get free primary health care within a year,' what do you think that would do? If you had a President say, `Every kid in this country is going to go to college regardless of their income,' what do you think that would do? If you had a President say, `I stand here today and guarantee you that we are not going to cut a nickel in Social Security; in fact we're going to improve the Social Security program,' what do you think that would do? If you had a president who said, `Global warming is the great planetary crisis of our time, I'm going to create millions of jobs as we transform our energy system. I know the oil companies don't like it. I know the coal companies don't like it. But that is what this planet needs: we're going to lead the world in that direction. We're going to transform the energy system across this planet-and create millions of jobs while we do that.' If you had a President say that, what kind of excitement would you generate from young people all over this world?" -Bernie Sanders, from the November, 2013 issue of The Progressive

This is the latest in a series of articles discusing the pros and cons of a Bernie Sanders campaign in the Democratic Party.

Peter Churcher is an Australian artist who decided to relocate to Barcelona in 2006 in order to explore a new culture and further develop themes in his painting. The basic theme of Churcher's paintings is the figure, in both the individual and group narrative context. In moving to Spain, Churcher brought himself closer to the "coalface" of both the European figure painting tradition and the vibrant contemporary human presence that is so alive and active on the streets in a country such as Spain. Churcher has worked through various themes over the past five years in Spain -- the dark religious processions of the Semana Santa (Easter) festivals, the street-kid/skateboard culture of the youths of Barcelona, and most recently, the life of the urban beaches of Barcelona. Each of these themes contrasts in palette and mood, but they are linked by the same highly charged sensuality and sense of "human ritual" that is such a central theme of Churcher's general work practice. In January 2002, Churcher was appointed by the Australian War Memorial as the nation's official artist for the "war against terrorism" in the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan. All the works were painted on site during the two separate engagements, the first covering the Persian Gulf and the Diego Garcia support facility and the second at Bagram, Afghanistan. Churcher is represented by Australian Galleries in Melbourne and Sydney and Phillip Bacon Galleries in Brisbane. Churcher also exhibits work in Europe through Mokum Galerie in Amsterdam. Churcher's next show opens August 9 at Australian Galleries in Sydney. Why are you an artist? Well, I really had no choice in that. Apart from having an interest in music and learning to play the piano tolerably well, painting was the one thing that I could always do well. What catches your eye? I am an artist who relies heavily on walking the streets and keeping an open eye on the human traffic around me. What ultimately catches my eye, and develops into a series of work, is a combination of physical beauty/sexuality, human frailty, playing out of collective ritualized behaviour. These themes I can see in so many different guises and often in quite unexpected ways ... I just have to be open to it and prepared to get it down on the canvas. Tell us about your process or techniques. The most basic process, central to my work, is that I work from life. I constantly have models in the studio, and the interaction between myself and the other person in my studio is terribly important. For this reason I can only use photographs in a very limited way. They can only provide me with a memory or rough record of what I have seen. For the painting to have any real electricity, however, I need to re-create the scene with real people in my studio. That's when I get excited by what I am painting. Of course, the photograph can be very helpful in the case of, say, my beach paintings. Even though I was sitting on the beach doing the studies in situ, people basically just don't keep still, even when relaxing and lounging about on the beach! The quick, clandestine photo, however, enables me to capture a moment that I can later use in the studio ... much in the same way the artist's sketchbook operated in the past. How do you choose your subjects? I tend to work with the one model, or perhaps two, at any particular time. I like to find that "right" person, and when I do, I stick to it. I find that over a period of time, painting this person again and again, I really get inside this person's psyche and character. Equally, they too get a "sixth sense" of what is going on inside my head when I begin a painting. I find this interaction very exciting and rewarding. Who, or what attributes, does this "right person" have? Hard to say. All I know is that when I see them the first time I get this "sense" that it is going to work. Sometimes, of course, you realize this "sense" was a false alarm once you start the first piece of work and the painting relationship quickly fades away. But more often than not, this first painting is just the beginning of a journey between myself and my model, which evolves into a working relationship that can span many years and manifest itself in many paintings. How do you describe your work? Basically from the very outset, when I was in art school and the only means of supposedly relevant artistic expression was the video or installation, I was totally convinced that one could paint oil paintings in a strongly figurative manner with all the relevance and contemporary context as any other medium. My professors at art school often disagreed, but I saw in the "contemporary practice" that was institutionalized at the time an orthodoxy that I could rebel against by sticking stalwartly to my own very strongly held painting principles. I was seen as reactionary and not "with it," but to do anything else would be a lie to me. I can only paint one way, and to let go of that would be death to my relevance as an artist. I have never for one second let go of my conviction that what I am doing is right (for me) and that I must stick to this regardless of whatever art fashion is in place at the time. What makes a good artwork to you? Well, as I said above, an artwork that is true to itself, unconscious of "fitting in" with the accepted art dogma of its time, and real. For me, a great artwork is a visceral, emotional/sexual, and very physical revelation of a moment of the world we live in. Concepts and superimposed theories bore me. What artists do you take inspiration from and why? Well, those artists that have done exactly what I have described above. Manet, for example, saw in the 17th-century Spanish painters, specifically Velazquez, a way to rediscover the power of painting and overthrow the orthodoxy of the French 19th-century Salon style with all its frilly, overblown decorativeness and "rules" as to what constituted a "good" painting. Manet showed us that there are no "rules," just your own personal inner conviction. Ironically, whilst being totally rejected in his time by the Salon, Manet went on to become titled as "the father of Modernism."

Peter Churcher is an Australian artist who decided to relocate to Barcelona in 2006 in order to explore a new culture and further develop themes in his painting.

TEDx Indianapolis video still John Green delivers a TEDx talk in Indianapolis on November 27, 2012. T he young-adult novelist John Green rose to fame in 2012, following the publication of his breakout hit The Fault in Our Stars , but for years he has channeled an outsider's empathizing ethos to fans called "Nerdfighters." YouTube hosts Vlogbrothers , the popular video diary Green keeps with his younger brother Hank, and Green's personal website hums with reader feedback. The arrival of The Fault in Our Stars, now a movie starring Shailene Woodley as Hazel, a sardonic teenager with terminal cancer, has only served to energize Green's wholesome it-gets-better brand. In anticipation of TFIOS-mania (the clunky acronym and hashtag fans are using), Prospect writing fellow Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux and Prospect contributor Clare Malone decided to explore the Nerdfighters' universe and compare notes. The following is an edited version of their conversation. Clare Malone: I was skeptical of a book about teenagers and cancer, so I avoided reading John Green's The Fault in Our Stars for three days after it arrived. The opening pages, in which the two young protagonists, Hazel and Augustus (Gus), meet at a cancer-patient support group--their eyes lock across a crowded room--are a bit overwrought. There's talk about hotness. Jaded quips are traded. The dialogue is written like Gilmore Girls , the WB show of the early aughts, with quick, syncopated banter. It's exhausting. Green's writing is highly stylized. No matter which character speaks there's a tone, a surface cynicism pricked by bone-deep ruminations on life, death, and what it all means. But I softened up once I realized why the book is a best-seller: It's an absorbing little story of guileless love, easy intimacy--talking about the existential things that hit you blind while clipping your toenails, or getting pheromone-drunk every time you see the person. Teenagers are often portrayed as living in the moment, but Hazel and Gus's story is a meditation on how we become adults, sorting out the frenzy inside our minds while trying to show the outside world it's all sunshine and summer shandies. So, I'm inclined to forgive the book for its pretentious moments on that account. Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux: I remember a high-school sick day I spent watching Sweet November , a movie starring Charlize Theron as Sara, a soulful woman who dates troubled men for a month, offering sexual favors and promising to change their lives. Halfway through, Keanu Reeves's character discovers that Sara is dying. The trope of heroic cancer sufferer is icky because it makes dying without suffering seem romantic and beautiful. Theron remains lovely, in body and spirit, until the bitter end, which is simply not possible for someone dying of a terminal illness. I put off reading The Fault in Our Stars for almost a year, ever since posts about how heartrending it was began to drift into my Facebook feed. I finally read it in one sitting a couple of weeks ago. Green's style is unsentimental, and he doesn't shy away from the less salubrious aspects of the disease. But the book is unusual because Green realizes that as teen cancer patients who have to squeeze their lives into less than two decades, Hazel and Gus get to ask big questions with conviction. There's a scene where they're in Amsterdam, eating a fancy dinner. "The oblivion I fear is that I won't be able to give anything in exchange for my life," Gus tells Hazel. "If you don't live a life in service of a greater good, you've gotta at least die a death in service of a greater good, you know? And I fear that I won't get either a life or death that means anything." Most of us take decades to come to terms with the fact that we won't get that hero's journey. At one point Green was slated to attend divinity school, although he didn't go. He got the idea for The Fault in Our Stars while working as a hospital chaplain. I don't think he was ever interested in pulpit ministry, but is it overstating it to say he's kind of a preacher for the Internet? There is something undeniably charismatic about Green's demeanor, and his message--if not explicitly religious--inspires devotion. (c) 2014 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation A still from the film The Fault in Our Stars , based on the 2012 novel of the same name by John Green. CM: He's the magic ingredient in this whole stew of Young Adult phenom-ism --a publisher's dream author for today's young reader. @realjohngreen has nearly 2.5 million followers. For literary(ish) world comparison, Jennifer Weiner , the author of popular breezy books like In Her Shoes and Good in Bed has nearly 88,000. Both authors are savvy about using Twitter to connect with fans, but Green has been living online since the early days of YouTube--around 2007, the Mesozoic era of social media. He's vintage Internet--confident enough about his thoughts to have sent them out into the world but insecure enough to care what people thought about them. He has parlayed that shtick nicely; I would like to know his current net worth. Watching the videos, I wasn't surprised to learn that Green considered divinity school. He and Hank are just oatmeal-wholesome blond guys. Their haircuts alone make you think they might ask if you've been saved. In a 2008 blog entry, Green explains why he's voting for Obama. He goes on to discuss health care and all that, but his intro is most telling: I don't talk about it very often, but I'm a religious person. In fact, before I became a writer, I wanted to be a minister. There is a certain branch of Christianity that has so effectively hijacked the word "Christian" that I feel uncomfortable sometimes using it to describe myself. But I am a Christian. I do want to take a moment to mention Green's video "presence," which is ... frenetic. Like a peppy young high-school teacher, before he's had his spirit crushed. He gets wide-eyed, gesticulates, and runs both hands through his hair as a physical exclamation point. He seems genuinely upbeat, but I also think that people who focus on being happy--who make being happy their thing--are sometimes people for whom it doesn't come easily. Green has a video about his life when he was 24 and had broken up with a girlfriend; he was depressed. Therapy, medicine, and watching the Jimmy Stewart classic Harvey brought about a sort of epiphany. He cites this line from the loopy but lovable Elwood P. Dowd : Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, "In this world, Elwood, you must be"--she always called me Elwood--"In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me. In a way, Green's aim is to mainstream the concept of the examined life. He specializes in being quotable. His aphorisms seem ready-made for the Pinterest age. They can be taken out of context and shared with a friend who's down or posted to a virtual inspiration bulletin board. BuzzFeed , in fact, has a list of John Green quotes : praise from Caesar. ATD: I wonder how much of John Green's Internet savvy comes from his younger brother, Hank, a self-proclaimed "Internet Guy." We haven't talked about Hank much, but he's an essential part of the Vlogbrothers' energy. Hank is well versed in the craft of "going viral," as one of his recent projects, the Web series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries , proves. Imagine video blogs in the vein of the Vlogbrothers. But instead of two clean-cut young men discussing climate change and the joys of optimism, a trim young woman with radiant skin tells the rollicking tale of being set up with rich men in the neighborhood by her gold-digging mother. You will not be shocked to learn that people loved a version of Pride and Prejudice where "Bing Lee" and Darcy tweet. Hank does not believe in God, and he does not seem to relish discussing theology, theodicy, or the other big questions that clutter his brother's books. His background is biochemistry, and today he's the proprietor of a website called Eco Geek , where one can discuss the finer points of tractor-trailer fuel efficiency. John's theologian side pervades another book I just read by him, Looking for Alaska (2005). To give you a quick sense of what the book is about, a high-school guy from Florida (like John Green) goes to a boarding school in Alabama (like John Green) in search of a life-changing adventure--what the dying Francois Rabelais referred to as "The Great Perhaps." There he finds friends and a dazzling girl named Alaska, acquires the incongruous nickname "Pudge," explores a wide range of illicit substances, and learns firsthand about the depths of human grief. The book is now taught in many high schools, though because of a brief and awkward sex scene, it's been banned and un-banned in a couple of states, inspiring John Green to make the perennial Vlogbrothers favorite " I Am Not a Pornographer ." Despite its lack of nuance, the book is often poignant. A religion teacher makes some cameos to reassert the message: The only way out of the "labyrinth of suffering" is to forgive. Green has even referred to Alaska as "Christian fiction." He writes on his website : It has always seemed odd to me that all the people who want to ban Looking for Alaska from schools claim it is offensive to their Christian values, when the core Christian values--radical hope, universal forgiveness--are the core values of the book's final chapter. (For the record, I think the people who argue the opposite--that the end of the book is a bit didactic and heavy-handed--are not wrong. I just don't really care that it's a bit heavy-handed. I wanted Pudge to be able to write that essay. I wanted him to be able to give and receive the forgiveness he so desperately needs, and I wanted him to be able to imagine a beautiful somewhere for Alaska.) Of course, Green doesn't care about being heavy-handed. He wants that beautiful somewhere for all of his readers or watchers or followers. But he understands that it comes as much from asking big questions as patiently embracing the quotidian, alternating a video about the nature of mass incarceration in the United States with the occasional cute video about velociraptors (made with his four-year-old son). CM: We haven't spent a whole lot of time talking about the audience that the Brothers Green are sending their video missives out to. But they're the people whose clicks make this world go 'round. This Vlogbrothers movement is a sort of "revenge of the nerds" type of thing--except the movie based on it would probably be called "the civil disobedience of the nerds," because John and Hank are about encouraging people to channel outsiderness into something productive, like living well through small acts of kindness. I can imagine a person getting into the habit of watching these daily and thinking about their meaning (maybe not actively, more by osmosis), almost in the way a monk goes to vespers or a devout Muslim prays five times a day. I'm not even being theological; I'm just thinking about the importance of habit. Prayers involve repetition to get a person into a meditative state. To a certain extent it's Pavlovian, but we need that push into a different headspace to think about things outside necessities of the flesh (and as someone staring down the barrel of a long day, I am currently doing all I can to not think about a couch and a bowl of noodles). ATD: There's something immersive about John Green's universe--the books you can swallow in one gulp, more videos than I could ever watch because the jump cuts make me a little nauseated, Internet forum upon forum, conference upon conference--that makes me wish we had gotten to go to that princess event. We were, I'm sure you recall, going to dress up as princesses with other Nerdfighters on a Saturday morning and hand out books to kids on the National Mall. Truth be told, I was dreading it a little, and at the time I was relieved when it got canceled because the organizer was sick. But now I'm sad we didn't get to meet the people who try to take Green's philosophizing into the world. What does that modern, contemplative--yet active--life look like? CM: I'll admit that I was not looking forward to going to the Mall, either. The idea of riding public transportation in a party dress and tiara on a Saturday morning was not appealing, if only because spring tourists visiting Washington might get the idea that I was walk-of-shaming home from a very odd night out. Of course, the larger idea of handing out books to children was nice. I've been scrolling through the Nerdfighters of D.C. Facebook feed , and I have to say, it's fascinating. People seem to be pretty interested in stereotypically nerdy hobbies like gaming/fantasy (Sample post: "If you got a button that could teleport you to one [keyword: one] fandom world, where would you go??") But there are also general crowdsourcing "asks" about what to do in certain cities when you visit, calls to sign a petition for the White House to legally recognize "non-binary genders." One post did catch my eye. It was a Nerdfighter airing grievances: "so i've noticed that gatherings planned by people who are not wizard cops tend to have low attendance." (I have no idea what a wizard cop is--a person who is in charge of Nerdfighter activities on Facebook?) The aggrieved party goes on to vent insider frustrations over the low attendance of events she and her friends had planned and ended with this: dont know if it's a popularity thing, or if people just dont trust gatherings that arent planned by wiz cops, or what. i just know that it doesnt seem fair. it's frustrating and even hurtful to have put a lot of energy and enthusiasm into planning a gathering and then have extremely low attendance. this is a problem that needs to be solved. i welcome any ideas or suggestions on how to solve it. thank you. So, an uncomfortable display of hurt feelings. But the comments are interesting. Other group members respond to the original poster in as soothing a manner as possible. They give her constructive criticism about her socially inept way of handling conflict. It's the sort of banal "crisis" that happens every day to people. The idea that your character is tested by how you deal with these moments came to mind; so did that famous David Foster Wallace graduation speech about how you have to choose how to feel about life while you're living it. I think about it almost every time I'm in a crowded grocery store after work. ATD: Funny that you mention David Foster Wallace. His graduation speech took place at Green's alma mater, Kenyon, so there's that. But Green, like so many earnest and angsty men of our generation, also loves Wallace's Infinite Jest obsessively. It's the inspiration for An Imperial Affliction , the book within a book that drives much of the plot of The Fault in Our Stars and ends midsentence. Since I only managed to get 200 pages into Infinite Jest before surrendering to a particularly long footnote, I can't speak to the references that apparently litter The Fault in Our Stars . But I did find an essay Green wrote for a DFW fan site back in 2009, where he explains that Wallace helped shape his understanding of what it means to be "smart and talented and scared and 17." (c) 2014 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation A still from the film The Fault In Our Stars What makes Nerdfighteria so potent does seem to be the moral imperative that the Brothers Green throw at their bajillion viewers' feet: to take their weirdness and anxiety and turn it into empathy. It's become kind of a culture. Away from Facebook and into the wilds of Pinterest and Tumblr and beyond, I discovered that people get Nerdfighter tattoos. There are Nerdfighter samplers and onesies, and videos "executive produced" by the Green brothers about sex education and doing your taxes. There are also lots of forums--some feel like LiveJournal in its heyday--with fan fiction and youthful poetry. Which brings me to a subject I have been avoiding up until now: how I feel about John Green and the cult of Nerdfighting. We've been approaching this whole phenomenon with a sociological eye, but your comment about the Facebook page reminded me that I've been subduing some of my discomfort with this project. The books are one thing; I don't love them with anywhere near enough evangelical zeal to qualify as a Nerdfighter, but they are witty and moving, if occasionally maudlin. The videos, on the other hand, are too slick and zingy to keep me coming back. Maybe it's John Green's genius for branding. The trailer and production schedule for The Fault in Our Stars is a frequent subject among the Vlogbrothers these days. When Green's not talking about life on the set of TFIOS, too many of the videos feel like they're trying to deliver a bite-size moral. Sometimes, I want the Green brothers to admit they're having a bad day. Which is not to say that I want the mean-spiritedness that often coats the Internet like an oil slick to seep into Nerdfighteria. But John and Hank's bouncing boyish pratfalls can get tiring. CM: So often discussion of Internet phenomena comes back to a discussion of realness, whatever that means. I don't say that to be flip. What's real and what's not about people has been distorted by the onset of the "personal brand." I've heard on more than one occasion people discussing their "Internet persona," which they proclaim to be different from how they "are" in "real life." But aren't those thoughts you express or personas you take on always lurking inside your mind? Aren't they you? For those who live some significant portion of their life on the Internet, as John Green does, whom they project to be online, all day long, is how most of the world knows them. For Green, perhaps that affects the choices he makes in his presentation. People have started to look up to him as this inspirational figure, so he can't have an off day. I agree with you that some of those videos would be more powerful if he were just palpably down in the dumps. But as with fashion magazines and car ads, the Green brothers' videos are aspirational, not real life . Which is funny, because we expect writers to be a bit above the fray of all this, don't we? You can be more "real" in writing. You don't have to stare someone in the face while you say difficult things and watch their lips quiver. It's easier to parse your thoughts artfully if you do it on a page or input cold letters into a Word doc. It's bloodless, even when the words are bloody. Expressing thoughts and emotions off the cuff is messier--which is why, no matter what we think of their politics, a virtuoso retail politician is such a sight to behold. I don't blame Green from shying away from being raw and unscripted in his videos, but I don't think I'll be coming back to them. I prefer his earnestness manifested in prose. It seems more natural. (c) 2014 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars, and actor Nat Wolff from the movie based Green's novel, at a 2014 promotional event for the film. ATD: If the Green brothers are like fashion magazines and car ads, how can they also be lonely and awkward and scared? I get that they're selling something to people. But to return this conversation to where it began, the thing I liked about The Fault in Our Stars was that it did not try to whitewash the minutiae of what it's like to die from cancer or what it's like to watch your child die. There's a moment in the novel when Hazel is lying in her hospital bed, struggling to stay alive. She hears her mother tell her father, "I won't be a mom anymore." Hazel doesn't die then, but she carries her mother's words around with her, knowing that when she does die, she's going to take a part of her parents with her. I mean, that's it, right? That's the punch-to-the-stomach, unflinching empathy that makes the book worth reading. More than the love story, Hazel's relationship with her parents is the tragedy that animates The Fault in Our Stars . Where's that vulnerability in the Vlogbrothers? What we see in the best parts of TFIOS--and on the Nerdfighters of D.C.'s Facebook wall--is raw emotion on display, unafraid to be embarrassing or schmaltzy. John Green just got named one of Time 's 100 most influential people . There's a sense, I think, that when you get to that point--especially as a young-adult writer, not the most lucrative or powerful of trades--you must have it all figured out. What if John Green talked about the moments when he doesn't? I'm about to be schmaltzy here myself, but how compelling would that be?

TEDx Indianapolis video still John Green delivers a TEDx talk in Indianapolis on November 27, 2012. T he young-adult novelist John Green rose to fame in 2012, following the publication of his breakout hit The Fault in Our Stars , but for years he has channeled an outsider's empathizing ethos to fans called "Nerdfighters."

UPDATE 26 May 2010: Paul Fraser, the Chief Research Scientist at CSIRO, has responded to Tom Quirk here... Postscript to The Unfinished Hockey Stick Sometime after the posting of my essay on May 19, a funny thing happened on the CSIRO website. There was a change to page 5 of the " State of the Climate " report by the CSIRO. This has the appearance of a response. The comparison is shown in Figure 1 where on the left the original may be compared to the altered figure with the footnote "updated May 2010" added on the right. Figure 1: Carbon dioxide (parts per million) and methane (parts per billion) concentrations measured in ice cores and directly in the atmosphere. Left Original State of the Climate , Right May 2010 version State of the Climate . While this now appears to be an attempt to present consistent data the CSIRO is not addressing the issue of a straight forward presentation of the available measurements. The last twenty years of action have been compressed by the choice of timescale into an unreadable format. This selective presentation is compounded by the following figure on Page 5 of "State of the Climate" (Fig. 2) that shows the rise in carbon dioxide at Cape Grim on the coast of Tasmania. Figure 2 : Carbon Dioxide concentrations measured at Cape Grim Tasmania (Latitude 40 0 S) Not shown in this figure are the measurements of methane recorded at the same time and available through the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center . Carbon dioxide and methane measurements are compared in Figure 3 with carbon dioxide measurements from Baring Head in New Zealand (latitude 41 0 S) from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Figure 3: Carbon Dioxide concentrations measured at Baring Head, New Zealand (Latitude 41 0 S) and methane concentration measured at Cape Grim, Tasmania (Latitude 40 0 S) The unfortunate conclusion from this analysis is that the CSIRO has been highly selective in the presentation of data. Why the methane data from 1984 on was omitted from the second figure of page 5 of the "State of the Climate" report needs some explanation. Lest anyone should claim that methane is on the rise again then the measurements of annual changes in methane suggest that it is too early to tell as the trend would indicate otherwise. Figure 4 : Recent measurements of atmospheric methane [i] . Instantaneous growth rate for globally averaged atmospheric methane (solid line; dashed lines are +-1 standard deviation). The CSIRO should be presenting the state of the climate and the state of the understanding of the climate. The IPCC reports that there is a lack of understanding for the behaviour of methane but our CSIRO expresses no opinion but rather chooses to ignore what may be inconvenient facts. This is not serving the community well. There are billions of dollars at risk for coal miners and farmers. To seek to regulate or penalize miners and farmers on the basis of poorly understood science and selective presentation will only serve to diminish the reputation of the CSIRO and is no help to policy makers. [i] E. J. Dlugokencky, L. Bruhwiler, J. W. C. White, L. K. Emmons, P. C. Novelli, S. A. Montzka, K. A. Masarie, P. M. Lang, A. M. Crotwell, J. B. Miller and L. V. Gatti, Observational constraints on recent increases in the atmospheric CH4 burden. Geophysical Research Letters , 36, L18803, 2009

The comparison is shown in Figure 1 where on the left the original may be compared to the altered figure with the footnote "updated May 2010" added on the right.

For far too long, much as with health care reform, the Washington Cartel has hijacked the meaning of immigration reform. Until now, it has meant mass amnesty for illegal immigration, endless expansion of the current failed legal immigration system, and ignoring the needs of the American citizen. Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and David Perdue, R-Ga., with the re-introduction of the RAISE (Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy) Act , have flipped the paradigm on its head. Most importantly, the White House is actually taking an active role in promoting this legislation -- an imperative in promoting any conservative idea. There is broad consensus among the public that immigration should a) be limited to those who have unique skills; b) cultivate the assimilation of American values and the English language; and c) that it should be a net positive for all Americans, not just the corporate-D.C. cartel. This is the message Trump ran on, and it is the message that Cotton and Purdue have restored with this legislation (after a several-month detour by the White House ). If the president continues to use the bully pulpit to sell this plan, he could go a long way toward staving off a looming disaster in the midterms and actually making the party stand for something important again. The problem: The 1965 immigration bill As I chronicle in detail of Chapter 7 of my book, " Stolen Sovereignty ," the 1965 immigration bill killed our immigration system long before illegal immigration and the 1986 amnesty became the dominant issues. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 was sold by its proponents as the exact opposite of what it has actually done. It was sold as in line with our history and tradition of only bringing in those who will patriotically assimilate and not become a drain on the public purse. Sen. Ted Kennedy, the lead sponsor of the bill, famously declared , "The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs." He thundered at a Senate hearing how "the bill will not permit the entry of subversive persons, criminals, illiterates, or those with contagious disease or serious mental illness" or "to a person who is likely to become a public charge." Sensing what the public wanted from immigration, the LBJ administration echoed a similar sentiment. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach predicted that the '65 bill would induce a net increase of only about 60,000 immigrants per year. A complete lie. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 wound up being the most extreme policy implemented during the latter part of the 20 th century, as measured against the criteria laid down by the bill's own supporters. Here are some points from my book: Overwhelming numbers of immigrants: Whereas 18.2 million immigrants came during the Great Wave in 1890-1919, over 61 million immigrants have come since passage of the bill ( not including illegal immigrants, who are largely influenced by the drive to reunite with relatives as a result of the record legal immigration.) Living in poverty: According to Pew , in 1970, 18 percent of immigrants were living below the poverty line. At present, 28 percent of immigrants are living in poverty. The poverty rate among natives, on the other hand, has held steady between 13 and 15 percent. More than 50 percent of all immigrant households receive welfare benefits, compared to only 30 percent of native households in the United States that receive welfare benefits. Dramatic shifts in countries of origin: What about the promise not to fundamentally change the orientation of the country? In 1910, 89 percent of immigrants were from Europe; today that number is just 10 percent. It's not just a cultural transformation, it affects the economy as well. As of 2013, the median family income for immigrant families from Europe was $66,600, roughly twice the income of those from Mexico ($31,100), the Caribbean ($31,100), Africa ($34,800), and central/South America ($37,400). This, despite the fact that most of the recent job growth has gone to the immigrant population. Dramatic imbalance: What about Ted Kennedy's promise that his bill would not "inundate America with immigrants from any one country or area?" Fifty percent of all immigrants since 1965 have come from Latin America -- 29 percent from Mexico alone. According to the Pew Research Center, as of 2010, Mexicans were the largest immigrant group in thirty-three states, with immigrants from other Latin American countries winning first place in six other states. At the height of the first great wave in 1910, on the other hand, Germans held the distinction of the most represented immigrant group in just seventeen states. Criminal activity: What about criminals? There are 2.1 million illegal and legal immigrants convicted of crimes , but 1.2 million criminal aliens remain at large in the United States and have not been deported. Language assimilation problems: A record 63.2 million, or one in five U.S. residents, speak a language other than English at home. In six states, that number exceeds 30 percent and is as high as 44 percent in the state of California. Thirty-four of the major metropolitan areas in the country have a third or more residents who speak foreign languages at home; sixty-seven metropolitan areas top 25 percent in foreign-language speakers. California a canary in the coal mine: California demographics speak for themselves. Orange County was once the bread basket of GOP politics in the state and was a big part of the GOP's dominance during the Nixon and Reagan eras. Thirty percent of the county's population is now foreign-born and 45.5 percent of residents speak a foreign language at home. As leading immigration historian Aristide Zolberg has observed, "Whether hailed or deplored, there is no gainsaying that this development was contrary to the tacit agreement to maintain immigration as a minor feature of American existence that underlay the 1965 reform." The new RAISE Act: What would it do? The main problem of the 1965 bill, which was exacerbated by a 1990 immigration bill, is that it forced immigration officials to prioritize family ties over skills. Thus, once the initial burst of immigrants was predominantly low-skilled and from third-world countries, it set off a phenomenon of "chain migration," whereby the majority of future immigrants were from similar socio-economic backgrounds. The result is that just 15 percent of our green cards (1.6 million of the 10.8 million legal permanent residents over the past decade) are allocated based on any skill, and most of those green cards are not awarded for broad-based skills and ability to assimilate -- but rather in crony visa programs. Which brings us back to the RAISE Act. This bill fulfills the blueprint I laid out in "Stolen Sovereignty" for cutting immigration by 40-50 percent by merely getting rid of the non-skilled, extended-family categories. By getting rid of the diversity visa lottery and extended-family visa preferences, this bill charts a path toward re-empowering Americans to determine who gets to join the civil society. Deeply rooted in the preamble of the Declaration and in consent-based governance is that the citizenry must decide every important policy issue. And the most important decision is the future orientation of the society. Converting our system to a skills-based criterion rather than a family-based one will place the keys of our immigration system back in the hands of the citizenry rather than special interests and the immigrants themselves. It will end the stolen sovereignty. On the employment side of the ledger, rather than submit the future of our society to individual corporations that lobby the most for visas, this bill would revamp the current visa system and replace it with 130,000 visas to be allocated based on a points system that prioritizes education, English-language proficiency, high-paying job offers, merit, and entrepreneurial initiative. Those with the most points will get first preference. This system would completely cut out the cronyism and is the sort of holistic reform of immigration that many of us want for health care . When you appeal to broad common-sense principles and cut out the crony middlemen, the American people are empowered and much of the politics goes by the wayside. On paper, even Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio , and an array of Democrats have said they want a system that is based on merit rather than family ties. Now is their time to back up their words. Do they really care about the immigration issue beyond the obsession with amnesty? Thankfully, President Trump is leading on this issue and actually endorsing a good piece of legislation. He should deliver a special address before Congress laying out the vision and unite the party behind it. A united GOP (one could only dream!) behind this issue would open up an entirely new front in the 2018 midterms. It's time we stop ceding the ground of common-sense reform to those who seek to perpetuate the failed status quo. Editor's note: This article has been updated to correct a typographical error. Find out what the mainstream media won't tell you about President Trump and his administration. Sign up to get CRTV's free White House Brief delivered right to your inbox once a day.

here are 2.1 million illegal and legal immigrants convicted of crimes , but 1.2 million criminal aliens remain at large in the United States and have not been deported. Language assimilation problems:

ALGEBRO It must be said: Algebro has one of the worst, punniest band names I've ever seen. Judging a band by its name is usually far safer than judging a book by its cover--you won't miss much, for example, if you avoid every group whose name includes the word "funk"--but this is one instance where such a snap decision would lead you astray. Algebro's mastermind, singer-songwriter Thom Cathcart, is a subtly clever lyricist who knows exactly how much humor he can inject into a song--like the sad-sack drinking ode "Meddling Italian Neighbors," from last year's self-released The Algebro Record --without turning it into a joke. And the fardled indie folk he spins to back up his words--an odd hybrid of the Mountain Goats and Ween--could easily stand on its own. Eddie Dixon & the Embassy headline; Baby Teeth and Algebro open. 9 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, 773-227-4433 or 877-435-9849, $8. --Miles Raymer LAURYN HILL Even though Lauryn Hill had already won a Grammy and earned several platinum awards with the Fugees when The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill came out in 1998, it was still a bit of a surprise to see it become a huge hit and a massive influence on the next decade or so of R&B--it was such an organic-feeling, quirkily intimate work of art, coming along at a time when pop music was so proudly plastic and impersonal. Obviously Hill wasn't quite prepared for its success either, and she's spent most of her time since then refining a hermit-genius persona, complete with rumors of a cultish spiritual adviser and vast troves of unreleased music --some of which leaked online last year as the grab-bag collection Khulami Phase . Over the past decade she's performed only sporadically, but now she's embarked on a proper tour. Advance word suggests that she's gone Wiggy Pop Auteur in the classical mode, showing up late and delivering onstage rants between reworked renditions of her old material that, depending on the listener, can seem puzzling, self-indulgent, or transcendent. 11 PM, House of Blues, 329 N. Dearborn, 312-923-2000 or 866-448-7849, sold out, 17+. --Miles Raymer MONDO DRAG It's easy to want to root for a thick and nasty psychedelic rock band coming out of somewhere like Davenport, Iowa, just because it seems so improbable. But Mondo Drag have a lot more to offer than an underdog backstory--they've got a tendency to sound like they're streaming live via satellite from the DayGlo cosmic spacescape of a Dr. Strange black-light poster. Last year's New Rituals (Alive) is a pileup of tricks and techniques pilfered from the halls of psych-rock history: the quintet has Blue Cheer's sonic heft, Hawkwind's disregard for radio-friendly running times, the Stooges' way of exploding a three-chord garage stomp into a howling lysergic freak-out, and Spacemen 3's ability to push guitar tones right up to the edge of pure noise. The fact that it sounds like the whole mess is held together by nothing but hair grease and pot resin is one of the things I like most about it. This show is part of Welcome 2 the Void: Chicago Psych Fest 2. Catacombz, the Great Society Mind Destroyers, Plastic Crimewave Sound, Dead Luke, and El Is a Sound of Joy open. 8 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, 773-227-4433 or 877-435-9849, $10, $15 two-day festival pass. --Miles Raymer ZELIENOPLE For most of its ten-year run, Zelienople has been a trio: singer-guitarist Matt Christensen, multi-instrumentalist Brian Harding, and percussionist Mike Weis. But many of the local combo's best shows, like last summer's eerily atmospheric collaboration with John Twells of Xela, have involved a fourth musician--which may be why the band has just added a new member, harmonium and keyboard player Dan Mohr. Mohr's role in improvisational drone collective DRMWPN (and its successor, Gleaming) bodes well for Zelienople's forays into uncharted space, and you can always count on them not to box themselves into any one sound. Just listen to their two most recent albums: Give It Up (Type) is full of moody, echo-laden songs about trying to live with failings and hardships you can't overcome, and Hollywood (Under the Spire) is a completely instrumental, mostly electronic set that sounds like Jon Hassell getting down with John Carpenter to soundtrack a ghost movie. Chris Connelly, Locrian, and Implodes open. 8:30 PM, Abbey Pub, 3420 W. Grace, 773-463-5808 or 866-468-3401, $12, $10 in advance. --Bill Meyer JASON & ALISON OF VERBOW Guitarist Jason Narducy and cellist Alison Chesley performed as a duo in the early 90s before they became the driving forces behind local alt-folk group Verbow. That band lost its heart when Chesley left in 2001, then split up in 2003; last May, Narducy and Chesley organized a one-off Verbow reunion and released Live at Schubas , a compilation of songs recorded at the club in 1998 and 2001. Since the band's breakup Narducy has been touring as a sideman for the likes of Liz Phair, Bob Mould, and Robert Pollard, while Chesley has struck gold as Helen Money , using her cello to build a wall of sound right on the line between experimental music and metal. At this concert--her first acoustic performance with Narducy in ten years--she'll show a more gently nostalgic side. Jeremy David Miller opens. 7 PM, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, 773-525-2508, $15, 18+. --Monica Kendrick DYLAN LEBLANC A number of stories I've read about Dylan LeBlanc cast him as a man who's packed a lot of living into his 20 years, grappling with drugs, alcohol, and a busted family. On his impressive debut album, Paupers Field (Rough Trade), he does his best to come across as an old soul--the son of a Muscle Shoals country songwriter, he sings in a voice that recalls the charming croak of Neil Young. But in every one of the album's first four songs, he's lamenting a woman who's either slamming the door in his face or running away from him--it's soon clear that his experience has its limitations. What Paupers Field lacks in profundity, though, it makes up for with beauty: LeBlanc uses eloquent pedal steel to punctuate strummy folk rock, and his gentle, melancholy melodies arrive in wave after wave. Reviews of his live show suggest that he's still learning how to translate his charisma to the stage, but on disc his fragile elocution and mumbly delivery artfully obscure his lyrics, giving his performances an elusive electricity. Lissie headlines. 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln, 773-525-2501, sold out, 18+. --Peter Margasak MOONSTONE CONTINUUM Lunarianism, the religion embraced by Minneapolis prog-psych sextet Moonstone Continuum , is supposedly an ancient belief system subject to cruel persecution for centuries and driven underground--its energies can only be summoned by alert, responsive audiences and a whole lot of swirling guitar effects. The band's leader and spokesman, the Reverend Micah Mackert, riles up the crowds and harangues them with sermons; his scripture is bundled with the band's debut, NR:4;3.1-3 (Totally Gross National Product), and his infrequently updated blog offers a sampling of his deliriously skewed starry wisdom. Musically, Moonstone Continuum play dazzling, complex old-school space-rock that brings to mind a a young, American version of French prog institution Magma. This show is part of Welcome 2 the Void: Chicago Psych Fest 2. Thunderbolt Pagoda, Sadhu Sadhu, Dark Fog, Black Wyrm Seed, and Verma open. 7:30 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, 773-227-4433 or 877-435-9849, $10, $15 two-day pass. --Monica Kendrick TONY CONRAD For this rare appearance--his first in Chicago since a mind-melting duet with Keiji Haino at the Empty Bottle in April 2009--violinist, composer, filmmaker, and cultural theorist Tony Conrad visits the Renaissance Society in conjunction with an installation by Irish multimedia artist Gerard Byrne, A Thing Is a Hole in a Thing It Is Not , which runs through the end of February. Byrne's multichannel film project concerns itself with famous moments in the history of minimalism, of which Conrad has personally lived quite a few (though they aren't the ones depicted in the installation). He's arguably still living several: he's played an important part in the ongoing minimalist renaissance that began in the mid-90s, and he has yet to resolve his dispute with former collaborator La Monte Young about the recordings they made in the mid-60s as part of Young's Theatre of Eternal Music. (Young insists he composed the music, and refuses to release it until the other surviving members acknowledge him as its author; Conrad says it was collaboratively improvised, and will do no such thing.) Because much of Conrad's musical output is so similar to the Theatre of Eternal Music's otherworldly, overwhelming drones--one of the grandest expressions of minimalism--Renaissance Society curator Hamza Walker found him a natural match for Byrne's installation. Now, all this history might have you expecting something dry, but what Conrad does is anything but that. Especially when he performs behind a curtain in backlit silhouette, as he will here, his supercharged violin droning--undulating with the odd intervals of just-intonation tuning, thickened with delay and distortion, and brain-extinguishingly loud--is among the most mesmerizing sounds ever created by a human. This concert is free, but seating is first come, first served. 8 PM, Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, 5811 S. Ellis, Bergman Gallery, Cobb Hall 418, 773-702-8670. --Monica Kendrick ARNOLD STEINHARDT On December 1, 2009, violinist Arnold Steinhardt posted the following on his blog, Fiddler's Beat: "Violinist in recently retired string quartet looking for work. . . . Proficient in chamber music. Works best with people willing to overlook occasional lapses in intonation, phrasing, and tone." Steinhardt's good-natured sense of humor, so appealing in his excellent memoir, Indivisible by Four , surely helped him survive as first violinist for all 45 grueling years of the Guarneri String Quartet's history. Would he have been as successful in a solo career? Possibly--he is a formidable instrumentalist--but his unpretentious, music-first style seems better suited to chamber music. Pianist Alan Chow accompanies him here in three works for violin and piano. First is Mozart's sunny Sonata in G Major, K. 301, from the composer's first group of mature sonatas, where an expanded role for the violin sparks lively dialogue between instruments. Next is Janacek's restless Violin Sonata, written in the shadow of World War I and by turns bruising and uplifting; it's followed by Schumann's gently ardent Intermezzo, from the F.A.E. Sonata he wrote with Brahms and Schumann's student Albert Dietrich. The concert closes with ubiquitous pianist Andrea Swan joining Steinhardt, violinist Blair Milton, violist Yukiko Ogura, and cellist Stephen Balderston for Dvorak's irresistible Piano Quintet in A Major, op. 81, a piece characterized by soaring melodies, rhythmic vitality, and incredible elasticity of phrase and mood. 7:30 PM, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, Northwestern University, 50 Arts Circle, Evanston, 847-491-5441, $24, $22 seniors, $12 students. --Steve Langendorf ESTROGEN HIGHS Connecticut quartet Estrogen Highs play a kind of post-60s jangle that's rooted as firmly in the arty econo-strum of the Urinals as it is in Loaded -era Velvet Underground pop cool. In some ways they're the epitome of the sound that's taken over their genre in the past few years, as the garage has given way to the bedroom--but even in a crowd of bands all making cheap, reverb-heavy home recordings, Estrogen Highs stand out. Their vocals have a "softer side of Sonic Youth" feel, and songs like "Logical Doctor" and "They Told Me I Was Everything" use tension-and-release freak-out hooks worthy of the Who. It might be that 2011 will be the high-water mark for bands that sound like this--the world has to be reaching its saturation point--but Estrogen Highs have obviously studied what makes songs work, so they ought to be fine even after the trend crashes. Vee Dee, whose third album is coming out next month on new local label BLVD Records, headline; Estrogen Highs and Mannequin Men side project Thee Hardy Mums open. 9:30 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, 773-276-3600, $8, free with RSVP to rsvp@emptybottle.com . --Brian Costello AFRIKA BAMBAATAA Canceled. Hip-hop is old enough that its history is taught at major universities, and a National Museum of Hip-Hop is in the works in New York. It's also young enough that you can still see one of its founding fathers in the flesh, spinning records like he did when he was honing his skills DJing at block parties in the 70s, back before he was a legend. Of course, Afrika Bambaataa has done a lot more than DJ. Any rapper who uses electronic sounds owes him a debt of gratitude for marrying hip-hop and synthesized funk with " Planet Rock ," which has influenced everything from Miami bass to sissy bounce. The way Bambaataa reinvented the figure of the Zulu as a symbol of black power and pride has provided a blueprint for a generation of ambitious pop artists hoping to entwine their own images with the currents of sociopolitical progress. He was instrumental in spreading the gospel of the four elements of hip-hop--graffiti, break dancing, DJing, and rapping--and he's widely credited with adding the fifth element, knowledge. But DJing was where he made his name, and even in 2011 there's no doubt Bambaataa can still spin with the best of them. Maker, Intel, Trew, and Shred One open. Canceled due to illness. 10 PM, the Mid, 306 N. Halsted, 312-265-3990, $12. --Leor Galil NIGHTLANDS Late last year Philadelphia's Dave Hartley--a member of the War on Drugs, among other groups--released Forget the Mantra (Secretly Canadian), the debut full-length by his solo project, Nightlands . He says that many of the musical ideas on the album came to him in dreams, and that he logged them on a tape recorder kept by his bed. From the sound of it, a few of those dreams must've involved Brian Wilson: Nightlands' surfeit of overdubbed vocal harmonies owes a clear debt to the Beach Boys, and Hartley even includes a Beach Boys cover, "'Til I Die," with damped guitar licks and tack-piano parts that could've been swiped from Pet Sounds . Of course, indie rock is hardly suffering from a shortage of acts that emphasize elaborate harmony vocals, from Panda Bear to Fleet Foxes, and Nightlands will never be confused with the Beach Boys--Hartley's pop confections are trippier, spacier, and way more lo-fi. There wouldn't be much worth remarking upon in his dense swirl of choral singing, acoustic guitar, tinny keyboard, rickety drum machine, and spacious percussion if his carefully structured, multipartite tunes weren't so catchy. Yawn headlines; Nightlands and Houses open. 9:30 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, 773-276-3600 or 866-468-3401, $8, $3 in advance. --Peter Margasak

ALGEBRO It must be said: Algebro has one of the worst, punniest band names I've ever seen. Judging a band by its name is usually far safer than judging a book by its cover--you won't miss much, for example, if you avoid every group whose name includes the word "funk"--but this is one instance where such a snap decision would lead you astray.

Over the course of a week, vandals at Illinois State University (ISU) defaced fliers belonging to College Republicans and Turning Point USA (TPUSA), slurring them as "Nazis" and "racists." When the College Republicans posted advertisements for a Friday, August 24 event featuring Nick Adams, an Australian author and Fox News commentator, they soon discovered that someone had crudely written "NAZI SCUM" and "No NAZIS on campus!" on two fliers. "The far left has increasingly become more hostile towards anyone that differs from their ideology." The following Tuesday, August 29, members of TPUSA , a non-partisan organization that promotes "the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government," left their first weekly meeting to canvass. They chalked slogans promoting their message on the pavement and posted fliers promoting their organization on bulletin boards outside ISU's Milner Library. TPUSA President Andy Byars told Campus Reform that he began to receive texts from group members the following day with pictures of the group's posters. One reading "big government sucks" now featured phrases such as "NAZI SCUM," "NO RACISTS ON OUR CAMPUS," and "LOVE TRUMPS HATE." Another poster proclaiming, "you are not entitled to what I have earned," had the added claim, "CAPITALISM=White Supremacy." That afternoon, a member of TPUSA witnessed a female student pouring water over one of the chalk messages, and asked why she was erasing the message. According to Byars, the female student "gave him the finger and ran away." Byars later discovered alterations to some of their chalk messages. "Capitalism cures poverty" became "Capitalism creates poverty," and "Free Markets / Free People" became "Free Markets / Great Depression." "We've been a club since last fall. This is the first thing like this that has happened," said Byars. "You hear about this stuff happening across the country, and then it happens to you. It's sad." Byars rejected the accusations of racism, arguing that "the far left has increasingly become more hostile towards anyone that differs from their ideology. They use name calling to try to shut them up." "The free exchange of ideas is a vital part of the educational experience on a university campus," an ISU spokesperson told Campus Reform . "To that end, Illinois State University strongly encourages civility in all discourse and debate and does not condone vandalism, defacement, or other destructive acts in the course of expressing opinions or beliefs." Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @SFarkas48

Over the course of a week, vandals at Illinois State University (ISU) defaced fliers belonging to College Republicans and Turning Point USA (TPUSA), slurring them as "Nazis" and "racists." When the College Republicans posted advertisements for a Friday, August 24 event featuring Nick Adams, an Australian author and Fox News commentator, they soon discovered that someone had crudely written "NAZI SCUM" and "No NAZIS on campus!" on two fliers.

When the Economic Development Authority of McDowell County in West Virginia announced the opening of a privately-owned prison in 2006, hundreds of laid-off coal miners expected jobs would flood into this rural county, where only one in three people is employed. In the following months, those jobs did come but a significant portion went to commuters from more prosperous counties in West Virginia and neighboring Virginia. The reason? Many McDowell applicants tested positive for opioids in initial drug screenings and had been marked ineligible for hire. In late September, I made the four-hour drive from Charlotte, N.C. to McDowell County, W.V., (pop. 19,835)--the 6th lowest income county in the United States and the poorest in West Virginia. Over the past year, I had written several articles about poverty in rural America, and knew full well the effect of deindustrialization on rural communities. Still, entering into McDowell County from the sleepy micropolitan towns of southwestern Virginia felt a bit like crossing a national border. Hundreds of abandoned houses, schools, banks, restaurants and motels line U.S. Highway 52, McDowell County's winding two-lane artery known as Coal Heritage Road. At midday, the unemployed sit out on their front porches overlooking the highway, smoking cigarettes and waving to passing cars. The political campaign ads running along the hollows--"Make West Virginia Great," "Bring Back Coal," "Trump Digs Coal"-- painted a picture of the county's political trajectory. On November 9, 75 percent of McDowell County voters turned out for Donald Trump. "There's nothing left in this town. There's no business left," Ed Shepard, 93, told me when I spoke to him at his Union 76 station in Welch, the McDowell County seat. "I'm just whiling away my time now... [I have] two or three clients a week." The decline and fall of a single industry town McDowell County sits at the top of many national poverty rankings. Of the families in McDowell who have children, 40 percent live in poverty, compared with 10 percent nationally. (In 2016 the U.S. government defined poverty as an anual income of $24,300 or less for a family of four.) Opioid addiction is rampant, as are chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and Black Lung--a respiratory disease of miners caused by exposure to coal dust. The average man in McDowell County does not live to be 64--13 years below the U.S. average. In the spring of 1959--57 years ago--Sen. John F. Kennedy (D-Mass.) made a presidential campaign stop in McDowell, during which he touched on many of the same issues that the county faces today. He said America had been "caught in the backwash of economic cycles, shifting markets, and automation." Shepard, 36 at the time, remembers Kennedy's visit to Welch, but recalls that the decline of the coal industry had only begun to take shape. "I shook hands with him. The motorcade was going around, and it stopped right there," Shepard says, pointing out of his shop window at the empty street. May 9, 1959--John F. Kennedy and Sen. Jennings Randolph (D-W.V.) talk with Harry Switch, John Bucciarelli and an unidentified miner at the U. S. Steel Cleaning Plant in McDowell County, W.V. (Photo: Jennings Randolph Collection / West Virginia State Archives) Every family in McDowell, the southernmost county in West Virginia, has been impacted by the decline of the coal industry. The aftermath of General Motors' downfall in Detroit is comparable to loss of the coal industry in McDowell. In 1950, McDowell was the leading producer of coal in the state, and the population was nearly 100,000. But the county underwent a rapid outward migration beginning in the late 1950s, following the mechanization of the coalfields. Today McDowell's population sits at just over 19,000--nearly the same as it was in 1900. "You put one machine in there and you replace 200 men," Shepard says. Though Shepard never wanted to work in the mines--his father was killed in a mining accident--he says the sharp decline in coal mining jobs affected his business. "The economy went down, down, down," Shepard says. "Much of your population here now is on welfare. We've still got coalmines, but they're being run with machines, so they don't need all the people they once did." Many West Virginians blame more recent pay cuts and layoffs in the coal industry on the Democratic Party's efforts to regulate coal emissions. Once a stronghold of unionized Democrats, West Virginia flipped political affiliations during the 2000 election, and has continued to prefer Republicans like George W. Bush and Mitt Romney whose policies focused on recovering rather than eradicating the coal industry. For West Virginians, Trump held a messianic appeal . Every single West Virginia county went to Trump, who campaigned heavily throughout the state, promising to repeal President Barack Obama's fossil fuel emission standards. Donald Trump campaigns in West Virginia wearing a hard hat. (Photo: The Last Refuge) Roy Williams Brown, 23, began mining for Alpha Natural Resources two weeks after he graduated from River View High School in 2011. But he says the possibility of losing his job is ever-present and one of the reasons unions are not as strong as they used to be. In February 2016, West Virginia passed "right-to-work" laws that severely weakened unions by allowing workers to opt of out of paying union dues. "The pay and benefits have dropped tremendously. People are getting laid off," Brown tells me while waiting in line at BW's Barbershop in Welch. "My pay went from $31.50 an hour to $26.50 an hour in three years." Between 1981 and 2015, union membership in West Virginia took a dive from 38 percent to 12 percent of workers. The scarcity of mining jobs in West Virginia has allowed coal companies to hire non-union miners who will work for lower wages. (Source: Hirch, MacPherson and Vroman (2001) and Unionstats.org) For generations, the men in Brown's family have worked in the McDowell County coalmines. But, after being laid off last year, Brown's father moved to Florida. "You never know what's going to happen. Mines are shutting down. The ones who have been laid off are just unemployed," Brown says. He got married after high school, but he and his wife, a nurse, are waiting for greater job security before they have children. Unlike highly diversified metropolitan economies, rural economies are typically dominated by a single industry--oil in east Texas, corn in central Illinois, potatoes in eastern Idaho. "The lack of economic diversification is a common theme with rural economies," says Lisa Pruitt, a professor of law at University of California Davis, whose work focuses on rural livelihoods. "In Appalachia, that lack of economic diversification is wrapped up with the dominance of coal, and so whenever anything threatens the coal industry, then that threatens further economic collapse." Built in 1908, to dig and load coal onto trains in Gary, W.V., the machine on the left required three men to do the work of 50. On the right, completed in 1978, the Bagger 288 is used to remove "overburden" when strip mining. Until the 1990s, it was the heaviest land vehicle in the world weighing in at 13,500 tons. (Photo: Lewis Wickes Hine / Kamil Porembinski) Life after coal For decades, poverty rates in the United States have been higher in rural areas than in urban ones. In 2011, 85 percent of persistently poor counties in the United States were non-metropolitan--the majority of these counties are clustered around Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta and the New Mexico/Arizona border. The United States Department of Agriculture defines "persistent poverty counties" as those in which more than 20 percent of the population hads been lliving below the poverty line for over three decades. The loss of coal mining jobs in McDowell led to the deterioration of the housing stock, roads and other infrastructure that coal companies built and maintained throughout the first half of the 20th century. "Originally, in McDowell County, [coal companies] put in the housing for the miners and they put in the water and sewer systems. These have greatly deteriorated," says Jeff Johnson, community development director at West Virginia's Region One Planning and Development Council. "I have a number of communities that, unfortunately, [still] straight pipe their raw sewage into creeks and waterways." Johnson has worked for 17 years to attract industries such as tourism, farm-to-table farming and prisons to West Virginia's six southernmost counties. "There's a big thrust to diversify the economy," he says. Efforts to expand the tourism and four-wheeling industries have been seen as the most promising, but the region's rugged topography and decaying infrastructure turn many businesses away. Out-of-state coal companies own millions of acres in West Virginia, making it difficult for new industries to develop the land. In McDowell County, ten landholders own over 60 percent of private land. Norfolk Southern, a Virginia-based railway company that also manages coal, natural gas, and timber resources, owns nearly a quarter of all private land in McDowell. (Source: wvpolicy.org) Those who are unfamiliar with rural economies might wonder why the people of McDowell do not give up on coal. Why do they continue to see coal's revival as the panacea to hard times--despite all the evidence that coal jobs are not coming back. "Everyone associates good times with coal. It's just the way people think, because it's just what they've known," says Paul Rakes, a professor at West Virginia University's Institute of Technology. Since topographical engineers from the Civil War first began to exploit Appalachia's coal reserves in the 1870s and 1880s, the coal-mining industry--much like agriculture and other extractive industries dominant in rural economies--has followed a boom-to-bust cycle. Miners have a saying: "Coal mining is feast or famine." When the demand for fossil fuels is high, coal-mining jobs with solid middle-class incomes flow into the community. "As an extractive industry," Rakes says, "it's the first to be affected by an economic downward trend, because you're supplying the natural resource. When other areas of the economy begin to slow, it's going to slow coal first, because they don't need those raw materials as much anymore." Despite the overall downward trajectory of the industry over the past 60 years, coal experienced upswings as recently as George W. Bush's presidency. This is one reason McDowell clings to the hope for a comeback. Compared with coal mining, jobs in tourism and agriculture are less attractive as they are seasonal and mark "something of a downward mobility" in terms of income for former miners, says Rakes. In 2015, coal miners in the United States made an average annual salary of $55,550. "[In the past], school, for a lot of students, wasn't as important because you could get a job in the coal mines," says Frazier McGuire, principal of River View High School in western McDowell County. "You didn't have to have a high school diploma, and you still made a pretty good salary. But over the last 15 to 20 years, it has gradually gotten to the point where you can't do that anymore. McDonalds and fast-food are about it." In McDowell, 5 percent of adults have college degrees and 65 percent have high school diplomas. Like prison jobs, many teaching positions in the McDowell County School District are filled by people from outside of the county. A coalfield map of McDowell and surrounding counties . (Image: coalcampusa.com) "We don't have people who can pass the drug tests or you have a population that's not prepared to take the jobs," says Nelson Spencer, the superintendent of McDowell County Schools. During some years Nelson is forced to leave teaching positions unfilled or hire teachers certified in other subjects. "I would much rather have a math certified teacher teaching math than a social studies teacher teaching math," he says. Does West Virginia matter? The steady loss of coal mining jobs in Appalachia marks a larger shift in the American socioeconomic landscape. Blue-collar jobs that do not require college degrees are no longer easy to come by. Since 2000, 5 million manufacturing jobs have been lost nationwide, and in Obama's first term alone, 50,000 coal-extraction jobs. The long-evolving transition from an economy that produces goods to an economy that produces services has triggered what Arlie Hochschild, author of Strangers in Their Own Land , calls "identity decline" for white working-class rural Americans, and an intractable nostalgia for a bygone America. A McDowell County resident talks on her phone outside her house on Highway 52, also known as Coal Heritage Road. (Photo: Lauren Gurley) Often pushed into the shadows of the national poverty debate, poor rural Americans took the spotlight throughout the 2016 presidential elections, as journalists scrambled to explain the advent of Donald Trump. "The rural poor and rural working class kind of come back into the national consciousness during the election season," says Pruitt, the University of California--Davis professor. Yet, many establishment Democrats and Republicans alike blame a "culture of ignorance" and a "culture of fear" for the "backwardness" of rural Americans, and in doing so they skimover the economic roots of rural poverty. Despite the Democratic Party's commitment to fighting inequality, its stance towards working-class whites in rural America is often defined by disavowal and contempt. "[Poor rural whites] have become sort of a scapegoat," Pruitt says. Nearly everyone I contacted and interviewed in McDowell expressed concern about speaking on the record about their community. Many declined to be interviewed, noting that reporters often come into the county seeking to capitalize on its poverty through negative portrayals of the local people and culture. "I don't care what people say. I don't care what people put in the books. You will never meet a better bunch of people than the people of McDowell," says Monique Rash, 41, a nurse at the Tug River Health Clinic in Welch. Rash, who is African-American and a native of McDowell County, left home in the early 1990s to study nursing, but her ties to the community were too strong for her to stay away--a sentiment felt by many among the county's small professional class. "I could go elsewhere, and make more money or do whatever, but it feels good to me to be here," says Rash. Like many other McDowell residents I spoke to, Rash questions the intentions of politicians and businesses that come into McDowell promising to bring change. "I try to stay out of the whole politics thing, but a lot of coalmines were shut down because of this 'clean coal.' You got to have all these guidelines," Rash says. Many progressive Democrats have difficulty stomaching the rural poor . Their values are seen as diametrically opposed to the Left's commitment to the environment, racial and gender equality, immigration and prison reform. This ideological disconnect has, with the recent exception of Senator Bernie Sanders's campaign for president, blinded the progressive movement to the possibilities of what can be gained by uniting the urban and rural poor. If the polarization of America's rural and urban working classes is the greatest lesson for Democrats in the 2016 election--as many progressives have argued in the aftermath of Trump's presidential victory--then mending this rift should be the movement's foremost assignment over the next four years. The publication of this story was supported by a grant from the Marguerite Casey Foundation's Equal Voice Journalism Fellowship Award. [If you like what you've read, help us spread the word. "Like" Rural America In These Times on Facebook. Click on the "Like Page" button below the bear on the upper right of your screen. Also, follow RAITT on Twitter @RuralAmericaITT]

When the Economic Development Authority of McDowell County in West Virginia announced the opening of a privately-owned prison in 2006, hundreds of laid-off coal miners expected jobs would flood into this rural county, where only one in three people is employed.

Written by Sergio Hernandez almost 3 years ago ROSEBURG, Oregon -- The gunman who opened fire at an Oregon college killed some of his victims after telling them to crawl across the classroom floor and shot one after saying he would spare her if she begged for her life, according to relatives of st... Written by Juana Summers almost 3 years ago After Thursday's shootings at an Oregon community college, that left at least nine victims dead former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush found himself under fire for two words: "Stuff happens." In a discussion about gun violence, the Republican presidential cand... From his angry address after Oregon, to his remarks through tears after Sandy Hook, these are the speeches Obama has given after shootings during his presidency. Written by Megan Specia almost 3 years ago Written by Chris Grasinger almost 3 years ago Hours after tragedy struck a community college in Roseburg, Oregon, thousands across the state gathered at vigils commemorating victims. A candlelight vigil was held in Roseburg's Stewart Park, where people held up candles as "Amazing Grace" played.... Written by Juana Summers almost 3 years ago The blame, Obama said, falls squarely on the shoulders of Americans and the politicians they elect to represent them in Congress who have so far rebuffed efforts to enact stricter gun control measures. Written by Juana Summers almost 3 years ago

Written by Sergio Hernandez almost 3 years ago ROSEBURG, Oregon -- The gunman who opened fire at an Oregon college killed some of his victims after telling them to crawl across the classroom floor and shot one after saying he would spare her if she begged for her life, according to relatives of st...

On Saturday's New Day on CNN, after reporting on the murders of two men in Portland who defended two women from being verbally harassed with anti-Muslim rantings, Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations was given an unchallenged forum to blame President Donald Trump for the violence. No room was made for any conservative voices who might have pointed out that anti-Muslim bigotry is inspired primarily by extremists like ISIS and al-Qaeda who have committed terrorism and claimed to do so in the name of Islam. As Hooper was interviewed by phone at 8:46 a.m. ET, co-host Christi Paul began by asking for his reaction, and he immediately went to indicting President Trump. Hooper: I think this is just representative of unfortunately of the overall rise in bigotry in our nation within the last months and the year particularly during the presidential campaign. And since the election in November, we've seen minorities increasingly targeted with violence and hate speech. American Muslims have been targeted. Hooper complained vaguely about President Trump's appointments as he continued: <<< Please support MRC's NewsBusters team with a tax-deductible contribution today. >>> Mosques have been targeted, but also African-Americans, Hispanics, refugees, immigrants. There's an overall rise in bigotry, unfortunately provoked to a large degree by President Trump's rhetoric, his appointments, his policy proposals. These things have led to an atmosphere in our society in which it seems to be acceptable to target minorities. Without any pushback, Paul made only one followup question: "So, Mr. Hooper, what would you say to the President if you could sit down with him? Do you think that he could help alleviate some of the problems here?" Not only was there no opposing viewpoint on Saturday's show, but on Sunday's New Day , former Vice President Joe Biden's scapegoating of President Trump in a commencement address were also highlighted without rebuttal. Below is a complete transcript of the segment with CAIR's Ibrahim Hooper from the Saturday, May 27, New Day on CNN: 8:46 a.m. ET CHRISTI PAUL: Mr. Hooper, we appreciate you being here. Thank you. What is your reaction, first of all, to this? IBRAHIM HOOPER, CAIR (by phone): I think this is just representative of unfortunately of the overall rise in bigotry in our nation within the last months and the year particularly during the presidential campaign. And since the election in November, we've seen minorities increasingly targeted with violence and hate speech. American Muslims have been targeted. Mosques have been targeted, but also African-Americans, Hispanics, refugees, immigrants. There's an overall rise in bigotry, unfortunately provoked to a large degree by President Trump's rhetoric, his appointments, his policy proposals. These things have led to an atmosphere in our society in which it seems to be acceptable to target minorities. PAUL: So, Mr. Hooper, what would you say to the President if you could sit down with him? Do you think that he could help alleviate some of the problems here? HOOPER: Yes. He needs to speak out directly and forcefully against this rising tide of bigotry. When the person at the top sets the tone either in a negative way or in a positive way, it makes a difference. And he really needs to speak out against particularly anti-Muslim bigotry. As we saw in this case, so often we see American Muslim women who wear headscarves or Islamic attire targeted in this way. But you see in this case, it wasn't just Muslims who were targeted. This person was apparently ranting about different groups as well. So it's really representative of the phenomenon we're seeing where all minority groups are being targeted -- and particularly American Muslims at this time when the President and his administration is really focusing on Islam and Muslims. PAUL: Ibrahim Hooper with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, thank you for sharing your perspective with us this morning.

On Saturday's New Day on CNN, after reporting on the murders of two men in Portland who defended two women from being verbally harassed with anti-Muslim rantings, Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations was given an unchallenged forum to blame President Donald Trump for the violence.

A little preface on me and China. The summer the government sent army tanks to mow down a bunch of highly intimidating unarmed college student protesters, I moved there, into a building right next door to a cat restaurant. So like, sometimes news happens in China that other people might classify as "huh" or "disturbing," and the disturbingness factor just flies over my head. Anyway! So Fendi just held a huge fashion show on the Great Wall of China , and the pics that came back were unplace-ably disturbing . What was it? Let's see.. there was Kate Bosworth in some weird furry monstrosity, and Tinsley Mortimer in some other weird furry thing, and Julia Restoin-Roitfeld in some... okay, so they're all in furs! Where humans have no rights animals aren't much better off!! But then, clicking through the feed of images from the same 24-hour period in Beijing, I noticed a bunch of shots of generalized Beijinger commonfolk, biking around wearing nothing but light cotton shirts. The fashion people are wearing fur and it's sixty degrees out ! But then... Just hours ago, Fendi concluded Red China's first major fashion show on the storied Great... Read more Read I looked closely at the captions on the commonfolk pictures, which were taken to illustrate another story on the coming winter times, and specifically how winter is synonymous with Beijing pollution. And then a little lightbulb went off! Maybe the celebrities were just trying to make a statement about the environment! Like: "We'd rather go naked than burn coal but since we're wealthy friends of Karl Lagerfeld we're just gonna wear fur if that's all right with you..." Gallery below.

o Fendi just held a huge fashion show on the Great Wall of China , and the pics that came back were unplace-ably disturbing .

After the accident in which Mikaela Wilhelmson received her devastating injuries If you want to test the winds of social change, pay attention to the courts. The decisions that judges hand down are a good index of what is becoming socially acceptable, even if they are challenged or overridden by legislation. A good example of this occurred last month in Vancouver in a motor vehicle accident compensation case. It shows that access to surrogacy is being treated as a human right for people who cannot otherwise have offspring. Justice Neena Sharma, of the British Columbia Supreme Court, awarded Mikaela Wilhelmson C$100,000 to cover the cost of hiring a surrogate to bear a child for her after she barely survived a car crash in which her fiance was killed. It is believed to be the first payment of this kind in Canada. The money was a component of a payout of $3.83 million from the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC). In 2011 Ms Wilhelmson was a passenger in the back seat of a car when it was hit head-on by cocaine-addled driver who was speeding on the wrong side of the road. She sustained serious damage to her spine and internal organs and was in an induced coma for weeks. The list of her injuries and complications, physical and psychological, makes gut-wrenching reading. It's not surprising that she was awarded the maximum amount for pain and suffering. Doctors also told her that a birth would be too dangerous for her. In her judgement, Justi ce Sharma relied upon an IVF expert who said that Ms Wilhelmson was prone to adhesions and could easily have an ectopic pregnancy. Based on the medical evidence presented, I find on a balance of probabilities that Ms. Wilhelmson will have significant difficulties conceiving a child in the future as a direct result of her abdominal injuries from the accident. I also find as a fact that Ms. Wilhelmson would be putting her health and welfare at great risk, to an unreasonable degree, if she were to carry a baby. I have no doubt that the best option for Ms. Wilhelmson to have a biological child would be to hire a surrogate. Ms Wilhelmson deserves all of our sympathy and compassion. But from a layman's perspective, this case has some very odd features. First , commercial surrogacy is illegal in Canada. However, across the border in the United States, it is not, so the $100,000 will be used to pay for an American surrogate. According to the judge, this will not contravene Canadian law. Second , although Ms Wilhelmson desperately wants a child, she has already had two abortions, one before her accident and one afterwards. Third , the judge awarded the maximum amount for pain and suffering not because Ms Wilhelmson had lost her fertility, but because she had retained it. She had an abortion after the accident because doctors said it would endanger her health, a decision which caused her great emotional pain. "Ms. Wilhelmson faces a future where she might be fertile and might be able to get pregnant again, but cannot safely carry a child," the judge argued. "Other than abstinence, no method of birth control is 100% effective. She therefore faces a possibility at the young age of 26 of again, getting pregnant and having to abort a child that she desperately wants to have." Fourth , the judge gave no consideration whatsoever to the welfare of a possible child, who is likely to grow up without a father. The unfortunate woman had been in two relationships before the accident and two afterwards. She is so physically and psychologically damaged now that marriage may only be a remote possibility. So the child will probably be raised by her and her mother. However competent and loving they may be, neither of them is a father. The unanswered question at the centre of this case is whether Ms Wilhelmson has a right to a child - even if she does not have a husband, even if her health does not permit it, even if the psychological effects of surrogacy are unknown, even if the ethics of surrogacy are controversial, and even if the child will grow up without a father. This poor woman has unquestionably been dealt a terrible hand. But why does this entitle her to demand a child? The judge has treated a child as material compensation for pain and suffering. It's a very strange reason to bring another human being into the world. Michael Cook is editor of MercatorNet.

After the accident in which Mikaela Wilhelmson received her devastating injuries If you want to test the winds of social change, pay attention to the courts.

Bruce Sterling: Climate Change Is Now A 'Melancholy And Tiresome Reality' Brad Johnson Dec 4, 2011, 2:32 pm Bruce Sterling, the science-fiction author and futurist whose book Distraction foreshadowed the Occupy Wall Street movement, spoke about the "melancholy and tiresome reality" of climate change at the 2011 Art + Environment Conference in Reno, Nevada this October. Sterling described the catastrophic drought and wildfires that have consumed his home state of Texas. He went on to explain how we now live in the Anthropocene , a term first coined in 2000 by Paul Cruetzen to describe a new geologic era in which the predominant factor on the Earth's surface is human activity. Sterling's 30-minute talk is a must-watch tour-de-force of sober acceptance of the world we have created, and what the future holds: A few quotations from Sterling's speech: Climate change has lost all its sci-fi tinge in my lifetime and is now a melancholy and tiresome reality . There hasn't been a year when I haven't written about climate change. It's one of the most obvious things to predict . It's just kind of a blunt reality that the fossil-fuel enterprise has done a regulatory capture of the entire planet , and we're involved in a war for oil, and it's the curse of oil, and it's a war for a curse that's endless and happening. You know, it gets boring running around being a Cassandra. Starting Earth Day in 1970 was a pretty late start considering the multicentury scope of this problem. I will pass the rest of my lifetime in the shadow of climate change. It's not about warning people in 2011, or trying to avert or defuse a misfortune. The wolf is beyond the door. The wolf is in the living room . This is the anthropocenic condition. This is how we live. This is force majeure. It's here. It's very obvious. There are no national forests. You cannot protect a forest with a nation. There are forests that protect nations . The global climate crisis is the climate crisis and it's global because the globe is an externality . "Don't pollute you, don't pollute me, pollute that fellow behind me." Just throw that into the atmosphere because the atmosphere is somebody else's problem. The thing that encourages me or sort of offers daylight is there's no pro-climate crisis party . There's no government that actually likes the idea of wrecking the climate. It doesn't really benefit anybody. It really is an externality. It's just something that's entropic. He closed with a stirring defense of the role of art, to confront the hard truths of the human condition in ways that other enterprises cannot do. (HT Boing Boing )

Climate Change Is Now A 'Melancholy And Tiresome Reality' Brad Johnson Dec 4, 2011, 2:32 pm Bruce Sterling, the science-fiction author and futurist whose book Distraction foreshadowed the Occupy Wall Street movement, spoke about the "melancholy and tiresome reality" of climate change at the 2011 Art + Environment Conference in Reno, Nevada this October.

And so the era of Obamanomics mercifully comes to an end. It goes out with a whimper, not a bang as the final jobs report for Obama found 156,000 new jobs in December. That's a mildly disappointing number and is consistent with a seven and a half year pattern of a 2 percent growth rut. Obama is touting more than 11 million jobs created on his tenure, but that is still at least four million short of the Reagan pace. This recovery has been a mile wide and an inch deep with growth rates in the economy that consistently fell behind the norm of recovery and for most Americans it felt like we were treading water financially. Even the 11 million jobs claim by the Obama team is more than a little misleading. About half the jobs under Obama fell into the categories of temporary employment and part time hiring, those aren't the kinds of positions you can raise a family on. Also, because the labor report survey counts a part time job as no different than a full time job, in many cases it took two Obama-era jobs to equal one full time job with benefits. The sub-5 percent unemployment number in this year has also been a statistical illusion. The more Americans dropped out of the workforce or gave up looking for a job, the lower the unemployment rate plunged. Obama leaves office with a labor force participation rate at or near its lowest level since the 1970s. Wages grew 2.9 percent in 2016 but this is the average wage, not the median wage. The rich saw big gains in the Obama years, while the middle class and poor flatlined on incomes. That was also the case in the George W. Bush years as well. All of this explains why voters in November didn't opt for four more years of Obamanomics. They voted for economic change and for millions -especially in the industrial midwestern states - that change can't come soon enough. I will close the books on Obamanomics giving this President a grade of gentlemen's C. The economy did pull itself out of a deep recession and the recovery has been lengthy with 75 months of job gains. The stock market rose swiftly in Obama's first term in the wake of the collapse. But look for Donald Trump to flick the switch on Obama's tax and regulatory policies into reverse on day one of the new presidency. That alone could be enough to pull America out of the 2 percent norm. If we can elevate to 3.5 to 4 percent growth in 2017 the economy will feel like it is soaring and Americans will come to appreciate what a real recovery looks like. We've been down so long, the nation has forgotten what prosperity really is. Stephen "Steve" Moore is a Fox News contributor. An economic consultant with Freedom Works, Moore previously wrote on the economy and public policy for The Wall Street Journal.

And so the era of Obamanomics mercifully comes to an end. It goes out with a whimper, not a bang as the final jobs report for Obama found 156,000 new jobs in December.

Because they usually lack the organization, training, funding, numbers and suicidal ideology of international terrorists, it can at times be difficult to distinguish domestic terrorists from ordinary psychopaths. But domestic terrorism has been a sporadic presence in the United States since at least radical Kansas abolitionist John Brown in the 1850s, running through the likes of Leon Czolgosz, Sacco and Vanzetti, the Black Panthers, Tim McVeigh, Ted Kaczynski, and more recenly Bruce Ivins and John Allen Muhammad. The causes they have killed for have ranged from the noble (Brown) to the nefarious to the outright deranged (Kaczynski), and their inspiration has ranged from the purely domestic to imitations of foreign movements like anarcho-syndicalism or Islamism. This being America, domestic terrorists have almost always done more harm than good to their stated causes. It appears that Scott Roeder, the man arrested for Sunday's murder of notorious late-term abortionist George Tiller, would qualify for membership in this group, given press reports that Roeder has a long record of extremism, possession of explosives and profession of belief in killing abortionists . Now, it's hard to generate much sympathy for Dr. Tiller himself; whatever moral blinders it may be possible for a man to wear regarding early-term abortions, anyone who has seen a sonogram or felt a child kick against its mother's womb can hardly imagine the cruelty required to repeatedly perform..."terminations"...of such helpless and innocent victims. But as long as we live in a nation of laws made by the people and as long as his conduct is permitted by law, the job of judging men like Dr. Tiller belongs to the Lord alone, and the job of stopping men like him remains with the democratic process and with peaceful protest and persuasion; the way of the domestic terrorist is the way of madness no matter the cause. You and I know this already. The Left, however, is late to the party in having a problem with domestic terrorists and their pals. Kimberly Ross Even before anything was known about Roeder, the left side of the blogosphere reacted to Dr. Tiller's murder as if it was Christmas morning and they just got a pony; I was following the Twitter feed of Markos Moulitsas , the man best known for reacting to the murder of American contractors in Iraq by declaring "screw them," and he and others were positively vibrating with giddiness about the possibility of using Dr. Tiller's murder to discredit pro-lifers in general and critics of Dr. Tiller in particular. Well, unlike the Left, some of us have been against associates of domestic terrorists all along. Most of us would, I think, agree that if Roeder somehow escaped prosecution, we would have serious reservations about supporting politicians who subsequently associated themselves with him in the process of cultivating favor with the Right. But that, of course, is exactly what Barack Obama did with Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. And anyone who supported Obama has zero credibility in criticizing anybody for associating with violent domestic extremists. Ayers and Dohrn, you will recall, were participants in the Weather Underground, one of the few domestic terrorist groups that was genuinely organized and operated over a period of years, engaging in bombings (including bombing the Pentagon), riots and vandalism; when a splinter group led by a friend of Ayers and Dohrn committed a sensational armed robbery and murdered a security guard and two cops , Ayers and Dohrn took in her son and raised him as their own. Dohrn ultimately landed on the FBI's Most Wanted List. To this day, they are wholly unrepentant. I discussed the cases at greater length here , here , here , and here . Obama not only appeared at Ayers' home in one of the coming-out events that launched his political career (again: imagine a Republican doing this at Roeder's home 20 years from now), he gave a glowing review to one of Ayers' books, made joint public appearances with him, and most tellingly of all, Obama in the only executive role of any kind he held before the White House funnelled millions of dollars to educational projects under Ayers' direction to help Ayers further a politicized educational agenda. Ayers was and is still dining out on the notoriety of his status as a domestic terrorist, and Obama abetted and financed Ayers in doing so. And the Left saw no problem with any of this. Associating with known domestic terrorists is a very bad thing. I'm glad the Left has belatedly awoken to this fact. Now perhaps the people looking to make political hay over Roeder will extend some of their outrage to Bill Ayers' benefactor in the White House.

Because they usually lack the organization, training, funding, numbers and suicidal ideology of international terrorists, it can at times be difficult to distinguish domestic terrorists from ordinary psychopaths.

One obvious, but rarely mentioned, fact about law is that it means nothing except in its enforcement. A law that only exists on paper might as well not exist at all. Thus when the public demands a new law, it is asking for new law enforcement as well. Often, a law that sounds wise and principled in its conception (e.g. banning handguns), may look far better on paper than it does in the actual process of enforcing it ( e.g. imprisoning poor black men on gun charges) After all, to "ban" something does not simply make it disappear, as by magic wand, but rather grants the government the power to inflict punishment on people who violate the ban. Thus when some French resort towns banned the "burkini," a wetsuit-like garment worn by some Muslim women, burkinis did not simply vanish from the country's beaches. Instead, the ordinances produced the inevitable event that occurred this week in Nice: uniformed police officers gathered around a Muslim woman and demanded that she strip her clothing off in front of them. However reasonable a "ban" may sound at the abstract level, in its actual consequences ("having the police force women to take clothes off") it may be far more extreme. Critics have charged that the burkini ban is simply Islamophobia on the part of French authorities. French secularists, however, would insist that banning a particular clothing item, which they feel harms women (and which creates an ill-defined "public safety" concern) is distinct from banning a religion. But when we look at the the necessity of enforcement, we see that it's factually impossible for the process of applying the law not to involve a religious test. That's because the burkini can't be readily distinguished, in any principled way, from an ordinary wetsuit. Whether a woman's full-body swimwear is a wetsuit or a "burkini" therefore depends entirely on how it is intended to be worn, rather than what parts of a person's body are being covered up. The French towns are not, in fact, banning particular items or actions (like covering your arms), unless they would likewise enforce a universal wetsuit ban. Instead, they are banning covering your arms for reasons of religion . Nobody can argue, then, that the ban targets particular behaviors rather than particular beliefs, since whether a certain form of covering is a "burkini" depends entirely on the belief of the wearer. This makes the whole idea of even sustaining a ban ludicrous, because it requires French police to comb the beaches for wetsuit-wearers, and then determine whether the wetsuit is religious or nautical in origin. That means finding out whether the wearer is a Muslim. (Actually, if we're being serious, it means finding out whether the wearer is a Muslim and whether she is wearing the covering for reasons of religious faith or water temperature. ) The whole process cannot be anything but farcical. The reality of enforcement also shows just how false the quasi-feminist defenses of the Muslim wetsuit ban are. French officials have insisted that Islamic dress constitutes the enslavement of women, and that religious body covering is incompatible with the French conception of women's liberty. But it's hard to reconcile a "female empowerment" defense with the reality of a law that involves quite literally policing women's swimsuits. If it's wrong to make women wear burkinis, it's surely it's just wrong to make them not wear burkinis, if the underlying principle is "women should be free of coercion." (In fact, it's obviously a far worse restriction, since requirements imposed by the state are far more coercive than those imposed by community convention.) And if someone believes that Islamic dress is a patriarchal form of oppression against women, then why are they using the police to harass the "victim" of that oppression (the woman upon whom the burkini is imposed), rather the perpetrator (the men who impose it)? Surely even on the theory that the burkini is enslavement, it makes little sense to harass and fine the enslaved person. The French sometimes have an odd conception of freedom. As political scientist Corey Robin noted, the scene from the Nice beach evokes Rousseau 's notorious maxim that people will be "forced to be free." From Robespierre to the burkini, the French conception of liberte has often seemed to entail very little actual liberty. It's unfair to blame an entire nation for a repressive policy. People are distinct from their governments, after all. But while we shouldn't speak of "the French" as discriminatory and repressive, there are certain particular French people we can hold responsible. These include the dozen or so beachgoers that watched passively as the police surrounded and harassed the Muslim woman in Nice. (In fact, some of them did more than silently observe; they applauded the police and shouted 'Go home' at the woman, causing her daughter to burst into tears.) By making no effort whatsoever to support the woman, and gawking as the police made her display her arms, each of these people shamefully participated in a humiliating act of authoritarian bigotry. The burkini ban is nonsensical in a hundred different ways. If one's concern is, as the ban proponents say it is, with France's national security, what purpose does it serve to have the police chase down Muslim women on beaches? Surely such a policy is more likely to enrage ISIS than to defeat them. And it's certainly a small irony to see police in combat boots telling a barefooted woman that she is inappropriately dressed for walking on the beach. Since all of its justifications collapse under a moment's rational scrutiny, the bans cannot be made in good faith. Thus even someone disturbed by Islamic religious requirements for women's body-coverings must conclude that it is prejudice, rather than principle, guiding France's municipal governments. Far from freeing Muslim women from the tyranny of their own religion, the requirements are similar to the " self-deportation " proposals offered by American anti-immigrant activists: make it so impossible and miserable to live as a Muslim in France that all French Muslims must either cease to be Muslims or cease to live in France. Anyone concerned with actual, rather than pretextual, feminism, can see how simple this issue is. As journalist Leigh Phillips noted, it's very easy to be consistent in opposing both patriarchal religious practices and bigoted civil liberties restrictions: nobody should make a woman wear a burkini, and nobody should make a woman not wear a burkini. The consistent lover of liberty understands that Rousseau's dictum is just as contradictory as it sounds; forced freedom isn't freedom, because freedom is the absence of force. If feminism means anything, it means not surrounding women with police officers and demanding they take off their shirts. And once we get past vacuous abstractions about secular values and the national interest, there's no way to see a wetsuit ban as anything other than a totalitarian absurdity.

Instead, the ordinances produced the inevitable event that occurred this week in Nice: uniformed police officers gathered around a Muslim woman and demanded that she strip her clothing off in front of them.

James Gandolfini, most famous for his role as Tony Soprano, charismatic head of the New Jersey organized crime family depicted in the HBO series "Sopranos" is dead from unknown cause at 51. A heart attack is suspected. "It is with immense sorrow that we report our client James Gandolfini passed away today while on holiday in Rome, Italy," voiced his managers, Mark Armstrong and Nancy Sanders. "Our hearts are shattered and we will miss him deeply. He and his family were part of our family for many years and we are all grieving." HBO announce the much-loved star of The Sopranos would be "deeply missed". HBO said in a statement. "He was special man, a great talent, but more importantly a gentle and loving person who treated everyone no matter their title or position with equal respect. He touched so many of us over the years with his humor, his warmth and his humility. Our hearts go out to his wife and children during this terrible time. He will be deeply missed by all of us." Growing up in Park Ridge, New Jersey, Gandolfini loved to play basketball and participate in school drama group events. James graduated from Park Ridge High School in 1979 and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication from Rutgers University. Gandolfini, born September 18, 1961, worked as a bouncer, bartender and bar manager prior to establishing himself as a self-supporting actor. James came to Broadway in 1992 where his career gained momentum in a breakthrough role-playing a mobster in the movie "True Romance." From the days of scraping together enough to pay his rent, Gandolfini's spectacular stardom netted him an estimated $77 Million dollar net worth. Gandolfini, born in Westwood, New Jersey, to His mother, Santa, a school lunch lady and James Gandolfini, Sr., a native of Borgotaro, Italy, a bricklayer, both of Italian background, Gandolfini never really planned on an acting career. "I dabbled a little bit in acting in high school, and then I forgot about it completely," Gandolfini told Vanity Fair in 2012. "And then at about 25 I went to a class. I don't think anybody in my family thought it was an intelligent choice." In an AP interview, December 2012, Gandolfini said he became an actor to get rid of his anger. "I don't know what exactly I was angry about," Gandolfini said. "I try to avoid certain things and certain kinds of violence at this point," he added. "I'm getting older, too. "I don't want to be beating people up as much. I don't want to be beating women up and those kinds of things that much anymore." James Gandolfini was an unlikely sex symbol, yet never the less women adored him. James was awarded the title "Class Flirt" in his senior yearbook. HBO reports Gandolfini was vacationing in Italy, planning to attend the 59 Taormina Film Festival in Sicily. Although he appeared in a diverse array of roles prior to his catapult to fame in the hit HBO series, his portrayal of panic-attack ridden Tony defines his stellar rise to stardom. Gandolfini starred in the series from 1999 - 2007: winning critical acclaim, 3 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and 3 Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series. In 2009, Gandolfini whowed Broadway theater goers in the Tony Award-winning comedy "God of Carnage." Most recently, Gandolfini stared in Steve Carell's "The Incredible Burt Wonderstoner" playing the role as a billionaire casino owner. According to the Hollywood Reporter, last month, HBO order 7 episodes of Gandolfini's latest project, "Criminal Justice." Recent films include "Zero Dark Thirty" and "Killing Them Softly." Television critic Bill Goodykoontz Gannett reports on the death of Gandolfini, stating, " He appeared in plenty of other things. He was great as the hitman in "True Romance," and Bear in "Get Shorty." ("Bur-ri-to.") He was also outstanding in the understated role of Leon Panetta in "Zero Dark Thirty." Just a sly chuckle was enough to impart years of experience mixed with admiration when he chatted with Jessica Chastain. But Tony Soprano was the role of a lifetime, of several lifetimes. The blend of humor, violence, compassion, anger, delusion, greed and gluttony was a godsend for an actor, and a perfect fit for Gandolfini. "The Sopranos" wasn't just good, it redefined how drama was made on television. Great shows that followed, like "The Wire," ''Deadwood," ''Breaking Bad" and "Mad Men" are inconceivable without it. And "The Sopranos" is inconceivable without Gandolfini." By: Marlene Affeld Critic on Gandolfini's death: 'Sopranos' star made us love a made man James Gandolfini: 'The Sopranos' Star's Best Moments In The Wake Of His Death (VIDEO) James Gandolfini Star Of "The Sopranos" Dead Of Unknown Cause At 51 added by Marlene Affeld on June 19, 2013 View all posts by Marlene Affeld -

James Gandolfini, most famous for his role as Tony Soprano, charismatic head of the New Jersey organized crime family depicted in the HBO series "Sopranos" is dead from unknown cause at 51. A heart attack is suspected.

Thursday, Aug 20, 2009, 8:15 am * By Roger Bybee AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka (center) with President Barack Obama. It's been a cruel, cruel summer for pro-labor progressives--until the last couple days when AFL - CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka and 60 House Democrats came out swinging for a Medicare-based public option in any healthcare reform plan. The summer started bright with promise: a popular Democratic president elected on a mandate for healthcare reform, a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority in the Senate, and an overwhelming majority in the House. But soon, labor law reform was stripped of important features like "card-check" recognition, in large part because of conservative, pro-corporate Democrats. Then these conservative Democrats--the Blue Dogs in the House, the Max Baucus/Evan Bayh-types in the Senate--turned their attention to chewing up health reform, converting some key provisions into major gifts to insurers and Big Pharma: A woman works in a textile factory in Chongqing, China. According to China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, as of February this year an estimated 20 million Chinese migrant workers had lost their jobs due to the shutdown of factories that produce goods for export. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images) In response to the financial crisis, governments around the world have spent "stimulus" money to promote job growth through infrastructure developments. Unsurprisingly, the success of these funding programs tends to be gauged in economic terms. But a top UN official says that nations should consider gender equality when determining which sectors stimulus money goes to, in order to guarantee economic opportunities for women. Speaking at the 14th Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Bangkok this month, Noeleen Heyzer stressed the need to pursue socially equitable policies as a crisis response, a suggestion intended to link economic development to women's rights in Asia. The recommendation comes on the heels of the Global Jobs Pact in Junem when UN member states adopted social and economic tenets intended to stimulate recovery. Heyzer, who serves as the United Nations Under-Secretary-General of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific ( ESCAP ), noted that Asia has the second highest ratio of employed women in the world--49 percent. Yet the troubling times in Western countries have rippled into Asia, a predominately export-oriented market. The falling demand in exports has been particularly trying in Asia, especially in the manufacturing industries where women are a majority. (Photo from eHow.com ) Those who graduated college last May have had to make some economic adjustments. The recession changed their job market and opportunities, so they think. They have been forced to make do, many with part-time or temp work. Some have become freelancers by default. They may think this is just temporary, the result of the current economic downturn, and that things will return to normal soon. Well, welcome to the new normal. Recent economic data reveals an interesting pattern. More and more college graduates will become freelancers. Jobs, you know the 9-5 variety, with health benefits, retirement plans, and vacations, are drying up. Thousands have become e-lancers, consultants and freelancers by default. These new road warriors are working more hours and are at greater economic risk than workers during their parent's generation. ELGIN , Ill.--Their complaints are endless but so is their hunger for work. They think they are being cheated out of money owed them, because the staffing agencies don't let them see the daily work sheets from the companies. But they are sure they are being cheated in some instances, since they are told to start their machines five or ten minutes before their time clocks start running. And then they are told they can't leave their machines until someone replaces them--a wait that can last up to a half an hour. But they are not paid for all the minutes off the clock. "If they do that to 200 workers every day the money adds up," suggests Tim Bell, an organizer for the Chicago Workers Collaborative, and a veteran worker with Chicago-area immigrants. "That might also be part of a deal between the company and the agency," (Photo by Jeff Bigelow, courtesy AFSCME Council 31) Earlier this year , I wrote about how workers often can't get a first contract even when they organize a union and win a National Labor Relations Board recognition election. Now in one particularly hard-fought case, workers may finally be getting a contract after more than two years of strike and lockout. Heartland Human Services, a small private social service agency, behaved like all too many employers. Having fought viciously against a union, it refused to negotiate or accept the union's offer to submit the dispute to arbitration. Tuesday, Aug 18, 2009, 11:27 am * By Emily Udell (Getty Images) The largest employer of union labor in the country reached an agreement this weekend with some 10,000 of its workers that includes a pay raise of nearly 9 percent over three years. Telecommunications giant AT&T made the deal, which has yet to be ratified, with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers , members of which are mostly located in Illinois and northwest Indiana. Some workers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New England, California and Pacific Northwest are also covered by the terms. Workers affected by the deal provide customer service and other support for the landline telecommunications network. Tuesday, Aug 18, 2009, 8:50 am * By Roger Bybee Healthcare reform protesters outside a town hall meeting in Montana. (Anne Sherwood/Getty Images) The Obama administration has delivered multiple signals of surrender on the 'public option' front, one of the most popular provisions in the Democrats' healthcare reform efforts. Ninety percent of rank and file Democrats support a government-backed public health insurance option. This capitulation to the power of for-profit insurers (and their loyal, well-financed chorus of Blue Dogs in the House and conservative Democrats in the Senate) is yet another illustration of how the insurance and drug companies have outgrown the constraints of democracy. As Franklin Delano Roosevelt observed in 1933, "The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself." The notion of a relatively strong public option based on Medicare was tossed overboard a while back in the Senate. It now seems very hard to envision how Democrats can regain the momentum to re-insert a Medicare-based public option in place of 50 scrawny state-based "co-ops." PATCO air traffic controllers strike in 1981. (Photo courtesy www.wsws.org ) Last week, when the Federal Aviation Administration ( FAA ) and the National Air Traffic Controller's Association ( NATCA ) reached agreement on a new contract, they ended four years of acrimony and apparently restored pay standards and scheduling flexibility to where they should have been all along. But it brought back bitter memories of 28 years ago, when Ronald Reagan, aided and abetted by former president Jimmy Carter and then-president of the AFL - CIO Lane Kirkland, fired 13,000 striking air traffic controllers, "permanently replaced" them, and drove the bar of U.S. labor relations so deep into the ground that we've never recovered. Here's how it went down. In 1981, members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization ( PATCO ), an independent labor union not affiliated with the AFL - CIO , voted overwhelmingly to strike the government. Within 48 hours of the walkout, Reagan (who ironically had been supported in his campaign by PATCO ), fired the lot of them and ordered the FAA to hire permanent replacements. Replacing strikers in this manner wasn't against the law, but it had always been considered a "nuclear option" not to be used. Strikers often were fired, to be sure, but when a contract settlement came within reach, the last item to be negotiated usually was a "return to work agreement" essentially rehiring the workers with full seniority, and often with back pay. (Getty Images) This fall a federal judge's ruling on a lawsuit against Google, the Internet search giant, could drastically shape the future of books and everyone associated with them-publishers, booksellers, libraries, readers and writers. And at least one organization of writers, the National Writers Union (a UAW local), is worried about what that future could look like. The Google case is another chapter in the unfolding story of what happens when traditional cultural forms can be digitized. It started in 2004, when Google reached an agreement with five major research libraries to copy all of their books, then make them available to search and read to different degrees on the internet. Google portrayed its grand universal library project as permissible under copyright law's exception for copying for "fair use." Various individuals and groups, including the American Association of Publishers and the Authors Guild, sued, claiming Google's project violates copyright law. The suits were consolidated in 2005. A Chinese steel worker labors in front of a blast furnace at the Chongqing Iron and Steel Factory in Chongqing Municipality, China. (Getty Images) Steel workers in China achieved a victory yesterday when the government of Henan Province called off the privatization of a state-owned steel plant in response to massive protests last week. 3,000 workers at the Linzhou Iron and Steel Company went on strike last Tuesday to protest the plan to sell the public company to private owners. The workers briefly detained a government mediator. Earlier this summer, 30,000 workers at the Tonghua Iron & Steel plant in the northern province of Jilin seized that mill to protest layoffs. The protest erupted after management threatened to lay off 25,000 workers in three days' time. Job losses are an especially dire prospect for Chinese workers, because unemployment is rampant in China and the social safety net is virtually non-existent.

It's been a cruel, cruel summer for pro-labor progressives--until the last couple days when AFL - CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka and 60 House Democrats came out swinging for a Medicare-based public option in any healthcare reform plan.

Early in Mission: Impossible--Fallout , there's a moment that seems intentionally to present a knowing contrast to that other famed international man of intrigue. In the midst of planning a hijacking mission, an exotic blond femme fatale plants an aggressive kiss on Ethan Hunt's lips. Bond, James Bond, would have accepted this as par for the course, a perk of the business, so to speak. And the audience would have been primed for the oh-so-sophisticated interlude that would surely occur later in the film.

Early in Mission: Impossible--Fallout , there's a moment that seems intentionally to present a knowing contrast to that other famed international man of intrigue.

Hungary's leader, Viktor Orban, desperately wants to be a wealthy dictator like Russia's Vladimir Putin. Much like Trump, he is completely enamored with Putin and his wealth. So much so, that he's been willing to hand over the rights of his own people and the Hungarian economy to Putin. How quickly Orban has forgotten his country's tyrannical oppressors of the old Soviet Union. Since Donald Trump won the presidency, Hungary has been courting the current administration as well or perhaps it's the other way around. Either way, the Putin/Orban bromance has spilled over to the Hungarian Ambassador/Trump administration love affair. Reka Szemerkenyi, Hungary's ambassador to the U.S. has even bragged publicly that she has met Trump and his entourage many times. She is fond of posting as such on her Twitter page . So what gives? Russia and Hungary Hungary has been a member of the European Union since 2004 even receiving a bailout from the EU in 2009 after the financial crisis. But instead of saying thank you, Hungary chose to give the EU a middle finger when it elected Orban in 2010. Orban quickly sided with Russia against the EU and NATO when it came to Russian sanctions for invading the Crimea and continues to do so. This turnaround is easily traced to the fact that Putin has been giving Orban's government loans through no bid contracts with Russian companies. Hungary has been dependent for years on gas from Russia through contracts with Gazprom. When Orban won re-election in 2014, his then financial adviser, Lajos Simicska, stated that Orban has considered buying a popular media outlet in order to shut down its negative reports of his administration. He reportedly told Simicska that Russian Atomic Energy Company, Rosatom would buy it for him . Though the threat never materialized, Simicska resigned in disgust. In 2015, Russian company, Metrowagonmash , was given a no bid contract for over 219 million euros to renovate the Budapest Public transit system. More recently, Russia won a no bid contract with Hungary to rebuild its nuclear power plant. As reported by Politico , the EU had virtually no reaction even though Russia had to give Hungary a 10 billion euro loan in order to secure the deal. | Story continues below | Orban has followed in Putin's footsteps by clamping down on Hungarian civil rights and liberal organizations. His government has literally re-written the Hungarian constitution to favor himself. He has shut down media and non-government organization watchdogs with tax fines and investigations. He also gutted the independent judicial system and replaced personnel that opposed him. Much like Republicans in the U.S., Orban has rigged the election system and installed voter registration requirements making it harder for citizens to vote. The Hungarian autocrat has become Putin's thorn in the EU's side. At EU meetings, it is Orban who argues against accepting refugees into the EU; refugees that were created by the Russian war in Syria. He has further stated that refugees are "the Trojan horse of terrorism," a sentiment echoed by Trump. In March, Hungary's parliament ordered refugees to be held on shipping containers until their applications were processed. This order has been deemed a human rights violation by an EU court. Trump administration and Hungary According to Hungarian ambassador Reka Szemerkenyi, she has met with Donald Trump three times since his election. She also boasted of meeting with Attorney General Jeff Seesions three times, Vice President Pence, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, HUD Secretary Ben Carson and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Very honored to meet President-elect #DonaldTrump yesterday. Hungary looks forward to working closely with the Trump administration. pic.twitter.com/7Cdv0FkHJw -- Amb Reka Szemerkenyi (@AmbSzemerkenyi) November 24, 2016 She also had many meetings with Trump staff and other Republicans: 11/23/16 - at Mar-A-Lago with Trump. 1/17/17 - Szemerkenyi tweeted, "With PEOTUS Donald Trump addressing Diplomatic Corps..." 1/18/17- she stated on her Twitter profile that she had met with disgraced former Trump national security adviser General Mike Flynn and Representative Ed Royce at Trump's hotel in D.C. at the invitation of Representative Devin Nunes. 1/18/17 - tweeted that she met with Michele Bachman (former Republican representative of Minnesota) , Representative Steve King (R-IA) and Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) at the Capital Hill Club. 1/19/17 - attended KT MacFarland speech at Business Council for International Understanding luncheon. 1/19/17 - attended the pre-inaugural ball Gaylord International. 1/19/17 - attended pre-inaugural ball at Heritage Foundation's Open House Reception. 1/20/17 - attended inauguration. 1/20/17 - invited by VP Mike Pence to Chairman's Global Black Tie Dinner at the Mellon Auditorium. 1/21/17 - met with Republicans Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO), Rep. Steve King (R-IA), Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR), Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) , Jeff Gordon (Trump's RNC national security adviser) and Susan Hutchinson (chair of WA Republican Party). 2/5/17 - at Mar-A-Lago again for Red Cross Diplomat's Panel to discuss "illegal migration." 2/6/17 - at White House event where she met with Trump, Pence and Ben Carson. 2/28/17 - invited to Trump's congressional address. 3/27/17 - Trump staff at new Hungarian embassy opening in D.C. Trump advisers Sebastian Gorka (former Hungarian political leader) and Jason Greenblatt attended. Foreign diplomats are afforded many opportunities to meet with current administration officials. It is part of their regular duties. However, because of Putin's hacking of the 2016 election in order to assist Trump in winning both the Republican nomination and the election, Trump's own ties to Russians, his administration's ties to Russians, the various investigations into the Trump ties to Russia, Orban being Putin's pet and one of Trump's own advisers (Gorka) being a former Hungarian political leader the high number of meetings and visits to Mar-A-Lago need further investigating. This does not pass the smell test.

Hungary's leader, Viktor Orban, desperately wants to be a wealthy dictator like Russia's Vladimir Putin. Much like Trump, he is completely enamored with Putin and his wealth.

As the Chief Executive of Griffin & Howe, Guy Bignell is leading the charge into a new category of extreme sport for the wealthy clients who typically purchase from him their Purdeys, Krieghoffs, Lebeau Courally and William & Son sporting shotguns. Mr. Bignell is renowned for his ascots, English shooting vest and famous pink slacks. Now imagine this dignified British gentleman head-to-toe in black tactical gear, armed with a Mossberg pump, kicking in the door of a shoot room ready to neutralize a hostage situation. With the same aplomb that Mr. Bignell morphed from chief executive of America's finest purveyor of shotguns and rifles into a tactical gladiator, his proficiency from racing classic Jaguars at Goodwood, West Sussex was quite evident as he strapped himself into the driver's seat of a beat-up reinforced Ford Crown Vic ready to strategically ram a car out of his way. Guy Bignell cautiously navigates a corridor in a shoot room at Blackwater USA. Now team up Mr. Bignell with Jim Sierawaski, the burly former Navy Seal and Vice President of Domestic Training at U.S. Training Center (which the media still calls Blackwater USA and you can still purchase Blackwater gear in the pro shop). Together they concoct a mind-blowing shooting and high-speed driving training session whose price of admission is worth the bragging rights alone. Why do we consider the Blackwater experience an extreme sport? In part because the stakes are so high, but also the undeniable fun factor makes you giddy after a lap on the course or a run-through in the shoot room with a pump gun. Fully immersed in the training, the grave consequences permeate every move and thought. You keep telling yourself "Don't screw up...this is serious." And yet the sensation that follows is not mere relief; it's a high-octane adrenaline cocktail that eggs you on to breathe more of the same air as bona fide heroes. If you have any doubt, watch our exclusive video of the Blackwater Evasive Driving Program . A steady drizzle ratcheted up the fear factor as you'll see car parts flying, high-speed pursuits and adversaries popping out from between parked cars shooting at us with percussion caps. You'll also hear tires squealing, engines racing, radio transmissions, our instructors in action and full metal-to-metal contact...some of it intentional, some accidental ( mea culpa ). Shotgun Life had received permission from Mr. Sierawski to bring a helmet camera for the Evasive Driving program - most likely making Shotgun Life the first publication to release personal footage of this thrilling experience. Jim Sierawaski wielding a Purdey Hammer Gun from Griffin & Howe, as he stands in front of a berm on the target range we used for the Home Defense course. The sheer ferocity and exhilaration of the Blackwater packages now being offered by Griffin & Howe give an entirely new meaning to "extreme sports." The practical aspect is that you walk away with a catalog of new skills capable of protecting your family in deadly situations. Upon completion, you'll have the knowledge to breach rooms, ram hostile vehicles aside for a safe escape, learn protective tips for home and business, and understand what it means to be fully aware and at-the-ready in a world gone mad. You'll also receive a certificate to frame and hang on the wall. Unfortunately, not everyone who applies for this course through Griffin & Howe will be accepted. Background checks are mandatory. Deposits are required up-front. And you must be willing to eat shoulder-to-shoulder in the chow hall the same portion-controlled, steam-table buffet served to elite military and police specialists from around the world. Mr. Bignell, along with Paul Chapman, Griffin & Howe's Vice President and Director of Gunsmithing, spent 48 hours with me in mid-April 2010 at the 7,000-acre compound of U.S. Training, stubbornly prominent as Blackwater after a parent-company name change in early 2009 to Xe (pronounced zee). The switch followed a controversy in Iraq that sparked international headlines. Later that year, a Federal judge exonerated the Blackwater security personnel of all charges. Griffin & Howe's Paul Chapman ready to breach a room. The Blackwater Lodge and Training Center, the subsidiary that conducts most of the international operations and domestic training, had been rebranded U.S. Training Center Inc. -the group that would lead our classes. This had been my second visit to Blackwater, but the first for Mr. Bignell and Mr. Chapman. My original intention was to field test a few pump guns for home defense - admittedly far flung from the coverage of fine shotguns and luxurious destinations that Shotgun Life readers and Griffin & Howe clients have come to enjoy. My second foray came in response to the enormous reception from Shotgun Life's initial Blackwater story titled The Accidental Commando published in July 2009. The idea of Mr. Bignell and Mr. Chapman attending Blackwater had actually been hatched over a dinner of Chinese take-out in the kitchen of Hudson Farm, where I had mentioned to Mr. Bignell my upcoming trip to Blackwater. He immediately identified several Griffin & Howe clients who would jump at the chance of enrolling in courses at the same legendary compound that trains Special Forces and law enforcement elite. Blackwater instructors include select Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, SWAT Teams and Special Forces from Australia, Canada and elsewhere. Under the tutelage of these professionals, our curriculum would include day one in Home Defense Training with a shotgun, and day two dedicated to learning the basics of Evasive Driving on Blackwater's private track designed for the fine art of eluding bad guys and saving your skin. Irwin Greenstein preparing to enter the one the Blackwater shoot rooms. In this photo, he "pies" off small sections in front of the door to determine if the area is occupied by friend or foe. The logistics between Shotgun Life and Griffin & Howe for our Blackwater adventure were finalized at the posh 6th Annual Bray's Island Shooting Expo held this year April 16-18 at the gated sporting community in Sheldon, South Carolina. Mr. Bignell and Mr. Chapman would drive to Blackwater after packing up their exhibit of fine shotguns and rifles. Meanwhile, I would drive straight to Moyock, North Carolina - the location of the Blackwater compound. We expected to rendezvous at Blackwater's Black Bear Inn at about 6:00 PM for cocktails and dinner. Arriving at Blackwater takes you by surprise. After you turn onto the narrow Puddin Ridge Road from busy Route 168, you suddenly enter a sedate, residential neighborhood. It's only about three miles later that you stop at the front gate where an armed guard asks for your credentials. You sit in the car, waiting for those three awesome words: "Good to go." The exhilaration of Blackwater is palpable as you drive another few miles to the Black Bear Inn. The compound conjures up a movie set. There's a sensation that the sprawl of military gear is a work-in-progress, as equipment is continually moved and updated to accommodate the standard and custom programs Blackwater offers to its international clientele. I was first to arrive at the Black Bear Inn. The log exterior suggests a luxurious hunting lodge. But top accommodations at the Black Bear Inn provide you with a tight room, single bed, cramped shower, folding chair and table, and an undersized TV. There's no closet, no iron and no moisturizer. Mr. Sierawaski said Blackwater expects to break ground on a hotel in a nearby plot where I last saw a mobile mess truck engaged in maneuvers. The new accommodations, slated for completion in 2012, will be more luxurious than the Black Bear Inn. Nevertheless, I do not foresee featherbeds and doilies. Part of the fleet of cars used by Blackwater for the evasive driving course. We took the wheel of these monsters on the track. After unpacking, I went to the parking lot for the last few minutes of sunset over the flat terrain. Automatic gun fire carried in the gentle breeze as the fireball sun sunk below the horizon. The Griffin & Howe Suburban pulled up and out stepped Mr. Bignell resplendent in his British attire from Bray's Island. In the ensuing hours, the three of us enjoyed cocktails and a dinner of Southern fried chicken before retiring to get an early start the next morning. We met in the mess hall for a soldier's breakfast buffet: scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, chicken patties, potatoes, breads, cereal, coffee - all you can eat. The vast, bright space was filled with military and law enforcement personnel. Ready to start, we drove to the armory. Ithaca Gun Company sent me their Model 37 Defense shotgun and Benelli had supplied a Nova pump for the evaluation. Blackwater, meanwhile, issued us a Mossberg 590A1. Next stop was a classroom where we would participate in the lecture portion of the U.S. Training Center Home Defense course. Our instructors were Russ Renner, a Blackwater Afghanistan veteran and the lead instructor in home defense; and Charlie Slocum, who spent nearly 29 years in Naval Intelligence and the Royal Marine Commandos and is a leading firearms authority. Both experts agreed that the shotgun was superior to a pistol for home defense. Mr. Renner explained: "The number of (shotshell) pellets in the body could shut down the nervous system, whereas a pistol may not affect a perpetrator high on drugs." In addition, "A pistol has more power to go through walls and hurt a bystander." Benelli's Nova Tactical Pump shotgun. Weapons aside, we were taught that the biggest deterrent to becoming a victim is developing a heightened sense of awareness. Although the course was called Home Defense, the tutorial focused on the bone-chilling message about remaining alert and attentive in public. Cell phones, ear phones and too many packages tend to distract us from monsters lurking in parking lots, garages and stores. As applied to our everyday lives, vigilance is the best defense. This is the kind of training that supported Mr. Sierawaski's assertion in his introduction to the morning session that "training is a living cycle." The classroom session soon moved along to the "Fundamentals of Shooting - Shotgun." Blackwater favors the Cruiser Safe Load where a shotgun may be "transported while at the same time being ready for use." Cruiser Safe Load involves the safety in the "on" position, bolt closed on the shotgun with a fully loaded magazine, and the chamber empty. When a threat appears, you shuck in a shell and the shotgun should be ready to fire. Always keep your finger off the trigger until it is necessary. Other shotgun topics covered in the classroom included Unloading, Stoppage Clearances, Weapon Deployment (including the proper stance, grip, trigger control and breathing), and Ready Positions. It's moments like this one that make the training at Blackwater USA an extreme sport. Irwin Greenstein is about to find out what's on the other side of the door. Use of the shotgun in home defense is complemented by a common-sense approach to home security measures. The syllabus states that "Criminals are inherently lazy by nature. They will be drawn to the easiest, least obtrusive target of opportunity." What does that mean to you? Make sure you have strong locks and doors. Blackwater shows you which types are the most effective. Pay particular attention to garage-door keypads. One useful tip is that worn keys leave a breadcrumb trail to the combination. When it comes to windows, check the locks. Let everyone know you have an alarm system by posting signs. You can even go as far as installing a video surveillance system. Ultimately, the course gives you a laundry list of safe practices to fortify your home. The objective is to make your residence a Hard Target. If breached, the assumption is that you are an adherent of the Castle Doctrine whereby you have the right to use deadly force to defend your home. As one of our instructors said, "Don't rely on the police to protect you. That's your responsibility." If provoked, we were taught to "only use deadly force as a last resort to defend life, not property." We subsequently covered the topic of House Movement. Before we even entered the shoot room, our instructors used the syllabus to teach us the systematic approach for examining a building that's been penetrated. Knowing this vital information could save your life and the lives of your loved ones. Topics covered in House Movement featured Slicing the Pie for looking around door jambs, Corner Clearing for interior views and Open Door vs. Closed Door in terms of searching for intruders and possible hostages. Before the afternoon in the shoot room, we were drilled in the basics of tactical pump guns. Paul Chapman on the range. After the classroom instruction, we broke for lunch followed by a session on Shooting Range 3, which is basically for pistol training. This is where I found the opportunity to compare the Ithaca Model 37 Defense, the Benelli Nova and the Mossberg 590A1 using both 1-ounce, #8 shot loads rated at 1290 fps, and slugs. Given that the course was "Home Defense," I conducted the informal tests at 20 yards or less. Here's a Tale of the Tape for the three pump shotguns we evaluated... Ithaca Model 37 Defense 12 Gauge Benelli Nova Tactical 12 Gauge Mossberg 590A1 12 Gauge In effect, I only spent about 15 minutes per shotgun shooting at 12-inch by 12-inch steel plate targets. We were on a schedule, plus I did not have access to the entire range since Mr. Bignell and Mr. Chapman were taking instructions next to me on home-defense shotgun tactics. Ithaca's Model 37 Defense shotgun with walnut trim defends your home in style. So chalk up the following results to quick impressions... -- The Benelli Nova patterned well at 20 yards shooting the 1-ounce, #8 loads. The action was smooth. It had the lowest recoil and muzzle jump of the three pumps. -The Ithaca Model 37 Defense shot somewhat high for me with those loads compared with the Benelli Nova. The disparity may be attributed to the difference in the dimensions. The drop at heel for the Model 37 Defense was 2 inches compared with 2 1/4 inches for the Nova. While the Model 37 Defense had a 14 inch length of pull, it was 14 1/4 inches for the Nova. The drop at comb was virtually identical for both shotguns at approximately 1 1/4 inches. I would just have to say that the Nova was personally a better fit. As a result, I also found the recoil to be somewhat heavier in the Model 37 Defense than the Nova. I would have to say that if both shotguns shared matching dimensions, the shooting experience would be nearly identical. -- Using the 1-ounce, #8 loads, the Mossberg 590A1 produced the lowest recoil and least amount of muzzle jump. But switching to the slugs brought out the ugly side of the Mossberg. Recoil was brutal and painful to the face, and the muzzle jump was extreme. -- Recoil with the slugs on the Ithaca Model 37 Defense went straight back into my shoulder for a controllable experience with far less muzzle jump than the Mossberg 590A1. -- Of the three shotguns, the Benelli Nova delivered the lowest recoil and muzzle jump with the slugs. Now which one would I buy? First, let's look at prices. The Ithaca Model 37 Defense 5-shot capacity in 12 gauge or 20 gauge cost $499 for the black gun and $539 in walnut. There's an 8-shot version of the Model 37 in 12 gauge only priced at $519 for the black model and $549 in walnut. The Mossberg 590A1 ranged in price from $574 to $608. And the Benelli Nova came in with the lowest price of $449. The Mossberg 590A1. Overall, I would give a tip of the hat to the Benelli Nova. That said, however, if the Ithaca had fit me as well as the Nova, I would go for the walnut model of the Model 37 Defense. Aesthetically, the Ithaca would be my personal favorite. You could easily argue the value of aesthetics in life-and-death situations with little resistance, but I just liked the looks of the Model 37 Defense in walnut. Ultimately, if you expect to fend off a marauding mob of crank-fueled crazies, there is no doubt the Mossberg 590A1 with Speedfeed stock is a must-have at $608. However, bear in mind that you'll probably need to fire only one or two rounds in a home-invasion crisis. Having the appropriate shotgun is valuable...using it for home defense can be another matter entirely. Mr. Bignell shared a welcome piece of advice that he gives to Griffin & Howe clients asking about purchasing a pistol for self-defense (Griffin & Howe does not sell handguns). Before sending the person to a reputable gun dealer, he counsels them to look in the mirror, when they wake up in the morning, for seven consecutive days. And each morning, he urges them to ask that face in the reflection: "Am I quite prepared to kill someone today?" Certainly, a sobering inquiry as we moved on to the shoot room. One of the exercises in the Blackwater shoot room was to determine if the person held a weapon or harmless object. Guy Bignell making a split decision on whether or not to pull the trigger. The shoot room is a mock-up of a home or office replete with rooms, doors and passage ways. Its walls are heavy plywood, the doors are designed to be quickly replaced after maneuvers. The shoot rooms at Blackwater also have cat walks for observing from above. We were issued Mossberg shotguns equipped with a Simunition conversion kit that lets your typical tactical weapon shoot Simunition cartridges and shells. In the Mossbergs, the conversion kit accepted specialized 2 3/4 and 3-inch hulls packed with tiny paint balls; otherwise, the Simuniton shotgun shells are designed to replicate the 12-gauge experience under live fire. Lighting was low, recreating the atmosphere of finding intruders who wake you in the wee hours. We engaged in an exercise called Shoot/No Shoot in which life-size, cardboard characters were holding different objects such as soda bottles, ordinary tools and weapons. As you entered a room armed with the shotgun, you had to make an instant decision whether or not the individual posed a threat based on the item he held. I ended up shooting a guy armed with a bottle of Classic Coke, which was easily mistaken for a gun. I my own defense, I was being subjected to a strobe light as one of the trainers harangued me with a tirade from a bullhorn while I went room to room with shotgun at the ready. Nonetheless, my blunder hit home hard - a chilling conclusion to day one. Our second day started in the mess hall again and we promptly drove to the Driving Track. A quick whiteboard session was followed up by time behind the wheel of law-enforcement favorites: Ford Crown Vic, Chevy Caprice and Chevy Suburban. The driving scenarios simulated car-jackings, ramming and other ploys to either take you hostage or kill you. The objective was to escape. Our instructors were not quite the same caliber as you meet when trying to qualify for your driver's license. These guys had seen combat - as did the cars, which were abused until rendered complete rubbish. Drive one of these vehicles and the Service Engine light in your car will never carry the same weight. The dashboards on the Driving Track cars were lit up with every malfunction, but still took an incredible hammering: power to American iron. Now watch our exclusive video of wheel time at the Blackwater Evasive Driving Program through our helmet-mounted camera. Just click here to get started. In the mean time, Griffin & Howe is currently offering their Blackwater programs in two, three and four-day courses. If you'd like additional information, please email [email protected] . Irwin Greenstein is the Publisher of Shotgun Life, the first online magazine dedicated to the best in wing and clays shooting, where this story originally appeared . You can read Shotgun Life at www.shotgunlife.com . Author's Bio: Irwin Greenstein Irwin Greenstein is the Publisher of Shotgun Life, the first online magazine dedicated to the best in wing and clays shooting, where this story originally appeared. You can read Shotgun Life at www.shotgunlife.com. https://bearingarms.com/author/ig-bearingarms/

Irwin Greenstein preparing to enter the one the Blackwater shoot rooms. In this photo, he "pies" off small sections in front of the door to determine if the area is occupied by friend or foe.

Posted By Dominic Umile on 03.25.15 at 02:00 PM courtesy LUMA Shaker chairs on pegs Of all the religious sects in the world, there is probably none more American than the United Society of Believers, or Shakers, who combined mysticism and a utopian vision with Yankee ingenuity, talent for entrepreneurship and PR, and excellent design sense. The Loyola University Museum of Art is currently showing three exhibits of their art, music, furniture, and architecture, collectively known as "Shaker in Chicago," the first major exhibit of Shaker art, architecture, and artifacts here. "The Shakers wanted to recreate what they thought heaven on Earth would be," says Pam Ambrose, the museum's director. "That was one of the tenets of Shakerism." It also provides the title for the first of the three exhibits, "As it is in heaven," which features Shaker art and music from the mid-1800s, the so-called "Era of Manifestations" when both Shaker membership and mysticism were at their height. "The Rock Cafe" is serving up some seriously solid foods at the Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art through June 7. Among the three meals on display is the "Paul Bunyan breakfast," which includes bacon made of onyx marble, sunny-side up eggs, the yolks of which are Mexican onyx, and a side of aragonite grits. For a midday snack: fruit salad (more Mexican onyx), cheese (feldspar), and to wash it all down a glass of ice water (calcite stands in for the cubes). The decadent dinner course consists of caviar (black onyx) with crackers (quartzite), steak (petrified wood), spinach souffle (jasper), and a dessert of gelatin squares (fluorite). Posted By Aimee Levitt on 03.18.15 at 01:00 PM Fantagraphics Books About three years ago, when she was 27 and single and awaiting the publication of her second book, the graphic memoir Relish: My Life in the Kitchen , comics artist Lucy Knisley had the opportunity to do some traveling. She spent one September in Europe, speaking at a comics conference, visiting friends, and having a sweet but doomed relationship with a Swedish man who lived on a commune. Six months later, she accompanied her grandparents on a Caribbean cruise as their caretaker. On both trips, as she does whenever she travels, Knisley kept a detailed travel journal in pictures. Afterward, when she looked at the two journals, she realized the trips were mirror images of each other: one about freedom and exploration and possibility, the other about responsibility and confinement and mortality. Now they've been published as companion travelogues: An Age of License , about the Europe trip, came out last September, while Displacement , about the cruise, appeared last month. Together, the books recreate a very particular stage of life. "You're at loose ends," Knisley summarizes. "You're flailing. You feel like, 'I am on Mars right now.'" Ute Brunzel, (c) MHK Thou-less by Doris Salcedo When in the presence of Doris Salcedo's artwork, it should be understood that though the pieces were created and overseen by Salcedo, the work isn't exclusively hers. The stainless-steel fused chairs of Thou-less or the encased shoes within the gallery walls of Atrabiliarios don't really belong to her--they belong to the countless individuals she's interviewed, as well as the thousands who have suffered from a war-torn country. They belong to human beings, and all those who have withstood heartbreak and death.

LUMA Shaker chairs on pegs Of all the religious sects in the world, there is probably none more American than the United Society of Believers, or Shakers, who combined mysticism and a utopian vision with Yankee ingenuity, talent for entrepreneurship and PR, and excellent design sense.

This article was first published by eXiled Online See that plush red and blue carpet cascading down the steps of the United States Capitol building, framing President Barack Obama as he makes his historic inaugural address? It's made from material manufactured by a Koch Industries subsidiary called Invista. Yes, that's right. You heard it here first: Charles and David Koch made the carpet used in Barak Obama's swearing-in ceremony. Liberals might have worshiped the ground Obama walked on, but the Kochs owned and manufactured the carpeting covering that hallowed ground. What makes it all so creepy is that just a month after that carpet was rolled up and Obama took his place in the White House, the Koch brothers launched the Tea Party revolt against their carpeting client. While this rank little oligarch-irony has evaded the American press corps, the Kochs have not been keeping it secret. They bragged about it in an April 2009 company newsletter, which was later published on their website : INVISTA helped make history when Barack Obama was sworn in as the U.S.A.'s 44th president. The red and blue carpet cascading down the steps of the U.S. Capitol and underneath the presidential podium was Bentley Prince Street's King's RoadTM carpet, made from INVISTA's Antron(r) LegacyTM fiber. Several thousand yards of Bentley carpet (the same type used for the inauguration) have been purchased for installation in the Koch Tower in Wichita. Invista, purchased by Koch Industries from DuPont in 2003 for $4.4 billion, is one of the world's biggest producers of polymers and fibers, and is best known for brands like Teflon, Lycra, Stainmaster and Coolmax--a material you'll find in socks made for REI-shopping liberal eco-yuppies. Charles Koch, who rules Koch Industries with an iron fist, bought Invista during a period of frenzied expansion. In 2005, he took control of Georgia-Pacific , a paper and pulp giant that makes Brawny towels, Dixie cups and a whole range of products we use on a daily basis, for $21 billion--with $13.2 billion of it paid in cash. That's the reach the Kochs have and the kind of money they can come up with, which shows you just how powerful the billionaire brothers have become in recent years. The weird inaugural carpet situation adds to the creepiness of it all, as if the Kochs were sending out a message to Obama and the country: "You might not see us and you probably don't even know we exist, but we're everywhere. We manufacture the ground you walk on, you stupid fucks. So no matter who you are or what you believe in, chances are you're buying our products and filling our coffers with your cash, and we'll recycle that cash back into political campaigns that fuck you even harder. So thank you for your business. And come again. Or don't--what do we care, you won't know when you're doing business with us anyway. " The Kochs were obviously mighty pleased with themselves for getting Invista this kind of high level product placement. They put the exact same type of carpet into their own offices to celebrate and mark the occasion. I wouldn't be surprised if a framed photograph of Obama standing on the Koch carpet is hanging up in Charles' office for everyone to see. This one would be perfect, for example: Hell, it would even look good in those customized Christmas cards the Kochs no doubt send to friends of the family like Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas every year: But Obama and his family weren't the only ones striking poses on the Koch carpet. Bush and his cripple mentat Cheney were also spotted lounging, along with Obama and Biden's bald spot, on Invistia's plush Antron(r) LegacyTM fibers. For your viewing pleasure, here are a few more photos of the Koch carpet from other vantage points:

This article was first published by eXiled Online See that plush red and blue carpet cascading down the steps of the United States Capitol building, framing President Barack Obama as he makes his historic inaugural address?

India's "Naxals" or Indian Maoists as the third most deadly terror organization in the world after IS and Taliban, according to data collated by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism of the U.S. State Department. While the U.S. State Department report stated, "the deadliest attack in India in 2016 took place in July, when the Communist Party of India - Maoist detonated explosives and opened fire on Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Bihar state," it failed to mention the region's longstanding history of struggle with the Central Reserve Police Force, CRPF. The so-called "terrorist attacks" led by the Naxals oppose commercial development and industrialization in forest areas that are home to India's tribal communities. Naxals who follow the doctrines of Mao Zedong are named after the 1967 peasant revolt in the West Bengal village of Naxalbari led by the left-wing guerrilla force against the Indian state. The Indian Maoists or Naxals represent some of India's poorest districts, and are spread across the tribal belt running through the areas in the western India, also known as the "Red Corridor." According to the Indian Constitution, the resources in the tribal areas belong to them. A 1995 commission also recommended that 50 percent of the industries' ownership in the tribal areas should rest with the community, while 20 percent with the landowner and only 30 percent with the investor. But the laws are rarely implemented. In 2016, a total of 11,072 terrorist attacks occurred worldwide, resulting in more than 25,600 total deaths and more than 33,800 people injured. The report revealed that although attacks occurred in 104 countries in 2016, 55 percent of all attacks took place in five countries -- Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines. India ranked third among countries that experienced the most terror attacks, the lethality of those attacks remained relatively low compared to other countries that also experienced a lot of violence in 2016. Out of 11,072 terror attacks in 2016 worldwide, 927 attacks took place in India, 16 percent rise from 2015. The number of deaths in India also rose 17 percent from 289 in 2015 to 337 last year while the number of injured increased from 500 in 2015 to 636 last year. In 2016, over half the attacks that took place in India occurred in the four heavily militarized states of Jammu and Kashmir (19 percent), Chhattisgarh (18 percent), Manipur (12 percent), and Jharkhand (10 percent). Jammu and Kashmir experienced nearly 93 percent an increase in attacks in 2016 compared to 2015.

India's "Naxals" or Indian Maoists as the third most deadly terror organization in the world after IS and Taliban, according to data collated by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism of the U.S. State Department.

Subway systems are circulatory systems, moving the lifeblood of a city from place to place beneath its skin. In the game Mini Metro , you get to be the engineer who maps out the veins, connecting all the stops in colorful tangles that keep the city moving as it grows around you. Some of the biggest cities in the world are your transportation playgrounds: London, Paris, Hong Kong, New York, Berlin. Familiarity may offer a slight advantage as well; although I was complete garbage at building a tube for London, when I tried designing a subway system in my former home of New York City, it felt far more intuitive. Although the map above looks complicated, and kind of is, the game begins very simply. You start with three stops, each one labeled with a shape--circle, triangle, square--and you connect them. The passengers at each stop are represented by shapes of their own, and your goal is to build lines that will efficiently route them to their similarly-shaped destinations. Unlike real life, these passengers aren't interested in reaching specific places; as long as a stop matches their shape, they'll happily disembark. Things get more complicated as new stops pop up throughout the city, often in very inconvenient places, and you have to figure out how to link them in without turning your metro map into an inefficient mess. Fortunately, you can demolish and build new lines instantaneously, but if you make too many passengers wait for too long, and it's game over. Read the rest

Subway systems are circulatory systems, moving the lifeblood of a city from place to place beneath its skin.

1. Thou shalt honour Me as your one true God and have faith in my religion of neoliberalism, globalization, free trade, and private ownership. 2. Thou shalt accept the impoverishment of the many and the enrichment of the few, for in my religion avarice is to be valued over social and economic equity, and competition over co-operation. 3. Thou shalt not oppose the decline of democracy. I will permit you the illusion of democracy. You may still vote for and elect parties that purport to be different, but since they now all bow down to Me, it matters not which forms the government. 4. Thy governments shalt provide my loyal corporate minions with ample grants and subsidies, and overlook their excesses in the noble pursuit of profit. 5. Thy governments shalt not tax my corporations beyond the limit of their tolerance, for the taxation of wealth and profit is the greatest evil. Any government so rash as to break this commandment will feel my wrath as I devastate its economy by relocating factories, jobs, and capital to more devout and compliant regions. 6. Thou shalt not hamper my corporations with restrictive rules and regulations. They must be allowed to treat their employees as they see fit, limitlessly exploit natural resources, and dispose of their toxic wastes and emissions without regard to the environment. 7. Thou shalt halt the excessive and unnecessary education of your youth. Education instills unreasonable expectations that could lead to clear and critical thinking. I require citizens who are docile and easily indoctrinated. You must therefore make your education system less accessible to aspiring students and more susceptible to corporate influence. This will include the incorporation of these Commandments in the school curriculum. 8. Thou shalt eliminate all barriers to the privatization of your public programs and institutions, including education and health care, so that corporations will be free to deliver these services on a profit-making basis. 9. Thou shalt endure without complaint the social costs of adherence to my Commandments, which put the rights of the rich and powerful above those of the less financially endowed majority. The strong must be free to flourish and the poor and weak allowed to succumb to poverty, hunger, and homelessness. This is the ideal society that my commandments are designed to create, and in which my corporate followers will best be able to thrive. 10. Thou shalt obey these Commandments without question, knowing that they have been passed down from on high to my apostles on Wall Street and Bay Street, and to my loyal mass media owners. The private newspapers and TV-radio stations have been entrusted with the crucial task of spreading my neoliberal free-market doctrine far and wide. Henceforth, you must believe everything they tell you, because you will know they speak for Me, your omniscient and omnipotent Capitalist God. The first version of this satiric parody was written nearly two decades ago by Brian Arden, while he was a member of the board of the Manitoba office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. The revisions and updates are mine. Like this article? rabble is reader-supported journalism. Chip in to keep stories like these coming.

1. Thou shalt honour Me as your one true God and have faith in my religion of neoliberalism, globalization, free trade, and private ownership. 2. Thou shalt accept the impoverishment of the many and the enrichment of the few, for in my religion avarice is to be valued over social and economic equity, and competition over co-operation. 3. Thou shalt not oppose the decline of democracy.

By Holly McKay, Fox News As U.S. and South Korean intelligence teams investigate the sincerity of Kim Jong Un's newfound willingness to engage in a denuclearization dialogue , they are also tracking reports the North Korean dictator is dealing with a variety of health issues. While there is little hard medical evidence, according to sources, Kim's family history, physical appearance, and behavior in recent years have led to speculation he may suffer from a range of conditions including gout, diabetes, high blood pressure, a sexually transmitted disease, and psychological issues. "Kim's health is something our own Intel community is trying to gain every possible insight on," said Harry Kazianis, Director of Defense Studies at the Center for the National Interest. "There are rumors that Kim might have had plastic surgery and purposely gained weight to look more like his grandfather, the founding ruler of North Korea, and channel some his popularity." U.S. intelligence sources acknowledged that piecing together an accurate "health profile" of Kim Jong Un, who is around 35 years old, was not only "critical intelligence," but the "bread and butter" of scores of experts. "Health conditions, including use of medicines or drugs, can impact a foreign leader's decision-making and an expected death or debilitation of a leader can cause instability in a country with potential consequences for US interests," Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at The Heritage Foundation 's Asian Studies Center and former CIA deputy division chief for Korea, told Fox News. So what is known about Kim's health? North Korean officials in 2014 acknowledged he was suffering from an "uncomfortable physical condition" after footage was captured of him looking evidently heavier, and walking with a pronounced limp. Experts quickly pointed to gout, which sparked speculation he also suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure. To read the rest of the article, please visit Fox News .

By Holly McKay, Fox News As U.S. and South Korean intelligence teams investigate the sincerity of Kim Jong Un's newfound willingness to engage in a denuclearization dialogue , they are also tracking reports the North Korean dictator is dealing with a variety of health issues.

A young Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland shooter, posted the image shown (above left) on his Instagram account . The date is unknown. The orange tip on the end of the gun signifies he is holding an "air-soft" gun that fires BB-like, spherical projectiles that are typically made of plastic. American youth are introduced to these guns at an early age. The lethal weapon Cruz is holding shoots a projectile at 500 feet per second. The term "air soft" is concocted by the wizards of Madison Avenue who represent the arms industry. The term conveys the idea that these guns are harmless. Remember Ralphie in "Christmas Story"? "You'll shoot your eye out kid!" The BB gun Ralphie got for Christmas, The Daisy Red Ryder, shoots BB's at 350 feet per second. Airsoft guns represent the starter drug of choice for the American arms industry. It has long been the strategy of this industry and its bankrollers at the Pentagon to wrap as many young fingers around as many triggers as possible - whether those triggers are virtual or real. The intoxicating effects of firearms provide the military a way to exploit the powerful, visceral connection to a child's soul. In this regard, Nikolas Cruz was the victim of a malicious system. Because airsoft guns look a lot like the real thing - and are dangerous in their own right - laws exist that affect their manufacture, purchase, and ownership. Find Law reports that individuals in the U.S. must be 18 years of age or older to purchase an airsoft gun. On the other hand, airsoft guns are not classified as firearms and are legal for use by all ages under federal law. New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and San Francisco outlaw airsoft guns entirely. National data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on non-powder gun injuries illustrates the inherent danger of these weapons. Between 2001 and 2011, non-powder guns injured 209,981 people nationwide, including 145,423 children age 19 or younger, and the numbers are rapidly climbing. Between 2007 and 2009 in Texas alone, 124 people (including 23 children under the age of 18) were killed in accidents involving BB guns, pellet guns, and other non-powder guns. Cruz's airsoft pistol is available on Amazon for $50. Similar, but much more powerful CO2-propelled handguns are available for sale for the use by children through the congressionally established Civilian Marksmanship Program , CMP. The image at the top right is an M1911 US Army pistol, a cherished collector's item. It served as the standard-issue sidearm for the United States Armed Forces for 75 years, from 1911 to 1986. The weapons are revered by millions. They're reliable. They'll kill the enemy, and they're American-made. Today, many American youth are enamored by these semi-automatic handguns, the way Ralphie was enthralled by his BB gun. American "Doughboys" display their M1911's during WWI. All that love for the M1911 pistol led the Trump administration to OK the release of the weaponry from the Army's ammunition depot in Anniston, Alabama to the CMP, also based in Anniston. The semiautomatic handguns are to be sold to the American public. The US stands alone as the only nation that offers its warehoused military weapons for sale to the public. Prudent nations destroy antiquated guns. The CMP has been recirculating used rifles to the public since 1903, but this is the first time the agency will be selling handguns. Soon, youth like Cruz will be allowed to purchase these extraordinarily lethal, semi-automatic weapons through the quasi-governmental CMP. Although President Obama authorized the sale of the M1911 when he approved his last National Defense Authorization Act two years ago, his administration held up the Army's actual shipment of the handguns to the CMP. Obama's Justice Department published a paper , obtained by the Huffington Post , saying the guns would eventually end up arming criminals. The Obama era DOJ argued, "The Army is concerned about loss of accountability of weapons after transfer to CMP; expanding the scope of CMP's mission to include handguns; and the potential negative impacts on public safety from the large amount of semi-automatic and concealable pistols that will be released for public purchase." The Army cited DOJ statistics that is has tracked an average of nearly 1,800 of these handguns being used in crimes every year over the last decade, including a significant number of those guns that were originally military surplus. The Department of Justice under Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been silent on the issue. The Army's initial cache of 100,000 of these handguns could net the CMP more than $50 million. Congress has been largely silent for the past twenty years regarding CMP weapons sales, a testament to the lobbying fire-power of the NRA. When Congress privatized the CMP in 1996, after Republicans took control of both chambers, Senator Paul Simon (D-IL) described the CMP as " an incomprehensible, irresponsible, baffling boondoggle for the NRA ."

The image at the top right is an M1911 US Army pistol, a cherished collector's item.

Ammunition Depot unveils new SwissGear Travel Backpacks with choice of Level IIIA Hybrid or Rimelig ballistic armor panels. Read More >>> The Adventure Cowboy, Clayton Marxer, epitomizes the Cimarron Firearms owner. He is a blogger, actor, rancher, hunter, archer and family man who loves the old west and Cimarron Firearms. Read More >>> Big Horn Armory's Model 89 lever action 500 S&W rifle will be a premium raffle prize at the 2018 Mega Sportsmen's Bash to raise money for the Castle Shannon Volunteer Fire Department. Read More >>> Secure Outcomes, designers and builders of the easiest, cost-effective and best supported digital livescan fingerprinting systems announce positive Q2 results and price reductions. Read More >>> Parabon NanoLabs is attending the Missouri Police Chiefs Charitable Foundation 2018 LE Combined Conference Aug. 3 - 5, in Osage Beach, Missouri. Parabon will discuss Snapshot and Genetic Genealogy. Read More >>> Jonathan Mossberg, industry veteran and executive leader, joins Kalashnikov USA as the new CEO. Read More >>> John Vlieger, Shell Shock Technologies sponsored shooter, placed 7th in the Open Division and 8th Overall at the 2018 US IPSC Nationals held July 13-15 in Frostproof, Florida. Read More >>> SENTRY, manufacturer of HEXMAG magazines, introduces its first pistol magazines starting with the GLOCK Model 17. Read More >>> Adaptive Tactical to display its shotgun and rifle accessories at Booth #510, July 26- 29, 2018 in Bellevue, Washington. Read More >>> Stop by the CMP Headquarters building anytime between July 15 to Aug. 4, 2018 to shop, get the latest on the matches, see new products and meet old friends. Read More >>> DoubleStar is a first-time exhibitor at Triggrcon 2018, bringing their STAR10-BX and ARP7 firearms plus all the new edged weapons like the PathSeeker and Chio Diablo-X. Read More >>> Ammunition Depot is now offering Rapid Firearms complete AR uppers in a variety of calibers and lengths and available for immediate order. Read More >>> Cimarron Firearms recreates the famous 1860 Henry rifle based on an actual model in the Aldo Uberti collection... Read More >>> Gunwerks Monster Steel Challenge PRS Match will be held in Cody, Wyoming, July 28-29 and is open to long-range shooters of all skill levels. Read More >>> The NAPED SIG Sauer P320 Thin Blue Line pistol is now available through NAPED member distributors across the country. Read More >>> Big Horn Armory to show AR500 rifle in 500 S&W and M89 rifles at Triggrcon July 26 - 29 in Bellevue Washington, booth #229. Read More >>> FMG Publications has created a philanthropic arm, Aiming To Help, supporting industry individuals in their time of need. Linda Powell, media relations director for Mossberg, is the first recipient. Read More >>> Big Horn Armory, makers of big bore guns such as the Model 89 and the new AR500, are proud to announce they will be donating a Model 89 in 500 S&W, plus prototypes to the NRA Firearms Museum. Read More >>> Morphix Technologies to exhibit at the National Sports Safety and Security Conference and Exhibition as large events are becoming more of a target for acts of terrorism. Read More >>> Trailblazer Firearms is celebrating the Fourth of July with a LifeCard .22 LR single-action, folding pistol, giveaway featuring a Cerakote flag finish by Mad Pig Customs. Read More >>> The 1st Annual Precision Rifle Expo will be held September 15 - 16, 2018 at the Arena Training Facility in Blakely, Georgia. This is a great opportunity for manufacturers and shooters alike. Read More >>> Creedmoor Sports releases their .30 carbine rifle ammunition combining Starline Brass with Hornady 110 gr FMJ bullets, available in 50 count boxes for $37.50. Read More >>> The five-time All-American Team NCAA Champion shooter and starting athlete on the Kentucky Murray State Rifle Team, Estes will now assist Creedmoor's Sales and Marketing Manager, Brent Books. Read More >>> John Vlieger, Shell Shock Technologies sponsored shooter, takes High Overall at 2018 USPSA Michigan Sectional Championship in Utica, Michigan, June 15 - 17, 2018. Read More >>> Posts navigation Rattlerjake : God gave three instances where the killing of a man has no "bloodguilt" - 1)War, 2)Judicial punishment, 3)Self defense Wild Bill : @Mark, I concur, and thank God that she is an uncivilized, discourteous, and obvious loser. She makes her own ideas,... allan King : she would be the first one to scream armed police to come to her aid when her home is being... Wild Bill : @Tcat, He must have gotten the wrong idea and made himself fit the hard core unemployable profile. Now, his career... VT Patriot : Hah, you used the words 'thought, facts and truth' and 'left' in the same sentence. That is a mistake....

Ammunition Depot unveils new SwissGear Travel Backpacks with choice of Level IIIA Hybrid or Rimelig ballistic armor panels. Read More >>> The Adventure Cowboy, Clayton Marxer, epitomizes the Cimarron Firearms owner.

The Titanic didn't sink because it hit an iceberg Historia/Shutterstock Alexander Graham Bell didn't invent the telephone Nils-Jorgensen/Shutterstock On the ABC show Shark Tank, the 'sharks'--aka investors--are big on asking entrepreneurs if they've obtained a patent on their product. Rightly so as without a patent an idea or invention could be claimed by someone else. Back in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell didn't need to watch Shank Tank to get their message: He wasn't the inventor of the telephone like we were all taught--he was the first to patent it. Turns out Bell was actually one of several men who were working on the telephone idea at the same time, but he got to the patent office before them. However, in 2002 U.S. Congress recognized an impoverished Florentine immigrant as the inventor of the telephone rather than Alexander Graham Bell. The Guardian reported, "Historians and Italian-Americans won their battle to persuade Washington to recognize a little-known mechanical genius, Antonio Meucci, as a father of modern communications, 113 years after his death." The resolution declared Meucci's "teletrofono", demonstrated in New York in 1860, made him the inventor of the telephone in the place of Bell even though it was Bell who took out a patent 16 years later. "It is the sense of the House of Representatives that the life and achievements of Antonio Meucci should be recognized, and his work in the invention of the telephone should be acknowledged," the resolution stated.

The Titanic didn't sink because it hit an iceberg Historia/Shutterstock Alexander Graham Bell didn't invent the telephone Nils-Jorgensen/Shutterstock On the ABC show Shark Tank, the 'sharks'--aka investors--are big on asking entrepreneurs if they've obtained a patent on their product.

On Protesting Patriarchy, Breaking the Rules, and Challenging Everyone in Order to Change Everything July 27, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us From a member of the Bay Area Revolution Club and Stop Patriarchy Five of us came together and most of us had never met. One young woman had gotten a babysitter that day and traveled from another county to protest pornography. She had been angry on the Internet so long, just seething about how women are endlessly exploited and abused in this world, and had been following Stop Patriarchy on Instagram for two years. She said, "It took me two years to muster up the courage to come out today." She brought a friend whose convictions were just as strong. Another woman met Stop Patriarchy at the Gay Pride parade. She is from an Asian country where porn is illegal but widely produced, purchased, and viewed. She had been shocked in coming to the U.S. to see such blatant sale of sex on every level, just out in the open, and such acceptance of it. After Pride, she came to Revolution Books to hear Sunsara Taylor's recent talk, " STOP the Assault on Abortion Rights! Break ALL the Chains that Enslave Women! " Everyone was nervous, and some had heard exactly how we would roll, while two had not. They had shown up out of sheer outrage. Our orientation was this: Pornography hurts women and brainwashes men to be about enslaving women. It's a kind of revenge against all the advances women have made--training men that they have a right to women's bodies, like it was more overtly in the old days. Dehumanizing women, and training men to expect their submission and servitude. Think of how quickly men can fly into a violent rage when they are rejected by a woman. That comes from the belief that women's bodies belong to men and they are being denied what is rightfully theirs when they don't get the submission of a woman. That's the stuff that porn is made of, and what it spreads like a disease, at the same time the industry is exploiting women's bodies, getting them hooked on drugs, raping them, sometimes selling them into slavery, and always discarding them in the end. There was a lot of agreement with this. And yet, it was said, there is a lot of confusion out there today about the reality of porn. The confusion comes from the same society that produces porn: Women really are treated as less than human. People think that being comfortable with sex means being comfortable with porn. That porn is sex. It's easier to watch a woman eat shit on the Internet than to get a real sex education in this country. People need to know what is in porn: not sex, but degradation of women . People need to feel emboldened to reject that shit--it has to be de-normalized. Others are very uncomfortable about the whole thing but don't feel they can say so (because people take it like you don't like porn you don't like sex). That's why we planned to go into these porn stores, recording, to expose what it is, take a stand and break the silence, and show others not only that they are not alone in their outrage at how women are exploited and objectified, but that there is a movement out there that is hell bent on ending pornography and every form of female enslavement. We'll recruit as many people as possible into this movement: denouncing porn, promoting abortion rights, and fighting to end patriarchy. Most of us had never been inside a porn store before. As we approached, one young woman said she was really, really anxious, and we slowed our pace a little. She was assured: Think of all the women that are being ground up by this industry that don't have a voice. So many women can't even walk alone at night in safety because all these men are running around all hopped up on entitlement and the drive to dominate, feeling that they have a right to women's bodies in particular, and these days the heightened sense that they are being robbed of what is rightfully theirs. Today you are taking a stand for every woman, and leading others to do the same. Her back straightened, she took a deep breath, and just said, "Yes." At first, one person led the way, expressing pure contempt for the ways that one movie after the next promoted violence against women, reduced them to body parts, divided them into racist "flavor" categories, and sexualized suffering. Soon others began to pull movies off the shelves, and read them out loud, with increasingly open disgust. We left the store a few minutes after they called the cops on us, ramped up with outrage at everything we had seen. We looked at each other, flush-faced. "Do you want to do it again?" It was enthusiastically unanimous. We crossed the street and went into another store. The first thing we saw in that store was a dismembered anus with a vagina hole, in a box that said: "KAITLYN" with the brand name "Fresh Innocence." The description said: "Young and Fresh! Pop her innocent young cherry with your large manhood again and again..." First we pointed out that this is literally a disembodied asshole and vagina with a female name. That is their view of what a woman is. Then we pointed to the fact that being "manly" always seems to involve destroying something beautiful, stealing innocence, and the idea of "ruining" a previously "pure" woman ("ruining" her, in particular for other men )... that is the view of woman-as-a-thing-to-be-defiled that is concentrated in that apparatus, and part of what coheres everything on the shelves. We went to the back, where they have booths for private viewing. We were told women were not allowed back there, so we kept going! We rudely interrupted of the sanctity of silence and privacy where men are encouraged to get off on the degradation and abuse of women, the penetration of women by many men at once, their suffering, and their dehumanization. We took one step out of that store before being immediately confronted by a man whose "process" had been disrupted by our outburst inside. He shoved out a wad of bills and said, "I will fuck any of you right now. One at a time or all at once." We told him he could fuck off. This only underscored the fact--it is seriously perilous to be a woman in a world where men see you as potential property that they have a right to, and sex is a form of revenge. As we split, we noticed the police had arrived at the other store, and we proudly strutted up to the busiest street in the city. Everyone was pumped up. One person was sick to her stomach at how much emphasis is put on the ravaging of children and very young women made to look like children. How that stuff crowds the shelves, and it's men's "right" to watch and get off on. The woman who had expressed her nervousness said, "I just needed to get worked up like that. I just needed to get really angry. I have it in me." We agreed! We also agreed that women in general, by virtue of being human beings who are regularly treated like human garbage, "have it in them" to really bring the pain to patriarchy, and we have to find them. One said, "How about how they're telling us to leave, and we just DON'T!" Everyone laughed. Going into a porn store in this way is a crazy rush! If you're a woman, you probably know on some level how you're being viewed in there, though probably not fully. The vibe is hostile and it's clear this place is not for you. In there, you are being brutalized, humiliated, and degraded in a whole lot of different ways. If you're a man, you actually are the intended audience, and if you are going into a porn store with Stop Patriarchy, there is a particular defiance you manifest, because you are refusing to be the wannabe slave master that this whole heartless culture demands you to be. Because fuck all that shit. No matter who you are. We had completely violated all related social "norms." This trash on the walls was openly being treated like trash. Not sexy. Not "taboo." Just putrid. You break the rules because the rules are all backwards. You get loud because you, along with so many others, have been forced to be silent, in a world of rape, where women's humanity is just being devoured by this shit. You do it because unleashing that fury is a crucial part of ending all this slave shit once and for all. When you confront the prevalent view of women as what it is (woman-hating), you could get overwhelmed and give up. Or, you stop trying to keep your voice down and play it safe, because that's part of keeping things exactly as they are. One woman said, with a bit of awe in her voice, "We are badasses." We furious five charged out onto Market Street, bullhorn blaring, chanting militantly, our sign up high, passing out many cards with the slogan, "If you can't imagine sex without porn... you're fucked" and ways to be part of this movement, as well as the article " Porn Is Real, and Really Must Be Ended If Women Are to Be Free ," from revcom.us. We were louder than life and full of pride and purpose, our voices echoing down the packed streets. "Stop watching porn! Start fighting patriarchy!" We chanted, "Women aren't objects, women aren't toys! Women aren't playthings for the boys!" Some people were repelled, and snatched their children away. Others straightened their backs, wanted to know what this was. We agitated on, exposing what we had just seen in the stores, connecting it to a whole epidemic of rape and violence against women, and issuing the call that everyone who is sickened at how women are degraded and dehumanized has got to get with this right now, and get with Stop Patriarchy all summer long. We swung around to the cable car turntables and told the truth about how women need the right to abortion, how the right is being taken away by woman-hating fascists. How this is part of a whole war on women, that requires a force of fearless fighters for women's liberation in order to defeat. We noticed a religious group nearby, but passed them up in the moment to call for the crowd to chant "Women are full human beings!" Then, because more of us wanted to get loud but weren't sure what to say, we took turns reading from the article "Porn Is Real" on the bullhorn and calling on people to stand for women. A white man in his 50s or so looked at us and said, "My wife is a sex object, and she loves it." She smiled and kissed him on the cheek. We said, "Man, you sound like a wannabe slave master. Do you think that's cool?" He asked what we meant, and we said, "An object is a thing. You're saying your wife is just a thing to be used for sex. You should be ashamed of yourself," and then we moved on. A young Black woman was joining us in saying "Women are full human beings!" when we specifically called out the crowd, "If you believe it, you have to say it, loud and proud!" and she did. She called across to a man on the other side of the line and she said, "Do you hear that?? FULL HUMAN BEINGS!" We asked her if she thought that guy in particular needed to be reminded of that? She said yes, he doesn't know how to treat a woman. We gave her some cards for her friends and she signed our list. Those guys up the block were attracting some attention and we were all in a fighting mood, so we went back to see what the fuck they were. They were preaching that the apocalypse would bring about the ruling of Black men over all the women of the world. That would be their reward for enduring slavery and oppression: They would be rewarded by God as the slave masters and oppressors of women. Just straight up. They had a poster with a picture of a Black man with a crown, standing over women of different nationalities on their knees at his feet, which said "ALL WOMEN WILL BOW DOWN TO THE BLACK MAN." There was another sign that had a Black man standing over a white man, woman, and baby who were all shackled with heavy chains. We engaged. These men told us that all women who have been raped are being punished for being "attention-seeking whores," and we "will get to see a real war on women" when the world ends, because women will be punished the most. We loudly denounced them, and soon people around were filming on their cell phones and several people were interjecting on the side of women. We yelled, "You sound 2,000 years old! Go back to the Dark Ages with that shit!" Some of us denounced the whole Bible as being a book full of slavery, and others argued that the liberation of Black people cannot come from the enslavement of women! And what a petty, vicious, and frankly juvenile aspiration anyway! You can see in the above video that after reading the scripture that says a woman without shame should be counted as a dog, one of them keeps insisting, "And what is a female dog?" (calling shameless women bitches while trying to still look pious). At this point, everybody was alive and outspoken, taking on the woman-hating, putting up stickers against rape and for abortion on the wall all around those guys. One woman stood next to one of them and did exaggerated bodybuilder poses, making a mockery of masculinity. After rallying a few people against those guys in the moment, we had gotten out over 200 flyers and cards, and made a proper scene wherever patriarchy had asserted itself. We sat in a circle in a calmer spot, caught our breath, and reflected on what happened, how it matches up with what's needed now, and why it matters. To be honest, there were a lot of people out there that could have joined us who didn't. That was one observation, and we talked about how to understand why that is. We went back to some of the problem that was posed as we were getting ready to go into the stores. It is just not an obvious fact to a lot of people that the oppression of women is real. Just look at the ways so many women experience violence and oppression as a very personal, private, shameful, individual experience. We were bringing out the truth that one in three women will be raped, and that every 15 seconds a woman is beaten, so that people can find their rage about all this, when so many people (and women in particular) know that something is going on, but don't connect it with a whole social phenomenon: a backlash of revenge against women. Someone else added that the most responsive people in the short time we were raising ruckus were younger Black women. Clearly something was holding most people back, but those who joined in chants and crossed out of their way to get flyers that day were overwhelmingly young women, and many were Black. One woman said this is a very sharp way to put the whole picture together for people: how the fascist assault on abortion rights and birth control and the increasing mainstreaming of violent and degrading porn is creating a whole brainwashing of a generation that a woman should be controlled and owned and punished for being a woman. We also summed up that so many more people can and should be getting with this, and one thing that we can always do is constantly and actively invite individual people to walk with us, stand with us, join with us right there. We were still more projecting "Join with Stop Patriarchy" without as much emphasis on the "RIGHT NOW" other than getting small crowds to shout "Women are full human beings!" There was definitely quite a bit of breaking of the "fourth wall" so to speak, but there could be more. A man literally tried to buy us that day. We were called a colorful variety of hateful terms. We were promised a future of hell and slavery for being so shameless. And we felt pretty damn good about ourselves, and driven to creativity about how to bring more people into the transformative and potentially earthshaking act of shamelessly challenging patriarchy, and being part of a force that is fighting for the liberation of women. Most women live life trying to avoid all this--for good reason!--and learn one way or another that it doesn't work that way. The system is generating all this violence and hatred, and it is those of us who find it intolerable to carve out a way forward for all those who don't know what they can do, or that there's anything to be done. One woman was just shocked and appalled at those Bible-wielding Nazis. That Black men could think that the compensation for their enslavement is the enslavement of women. Another woman said it did not surprise her at all. She had seen before that exact same interpretation of the Bible, but we also reflected on how many different versions there are of that. That's what porn is! It's what abolishing women's right to abortion is! The truth is that aspiration for revenge, or the slaves becoming the slave masters... no version of that can bring about anyone's liberation--gender, nationality, I don't care who. The slaves that seek to rule over others forever will eventually be ruled over again, because you are keeping the whole organization of people and production intact, with laws and a culture that will necessarily reinforce all that, just switching up what group is on top. You are keeping the whole infrastructure of exploitation, and the oppressive relations and culture that relies on and supports slavery. So your ideal future is nothing but a skipping record of tragedy and brutality. Everyone got a copy of the sampler, Break ALL The Chains: Bob Avakian on the Emancipation of Women and the Communist Revolution . The following, found in that sampler and also in the book BAsics , concentrates this fact with concision: You cannot break all the chains, except one. You cannot say you want to be free of exploitation and oppression, except you want to keep the oppression of women by men. You can't say you want to liberate humanity yet keep one half of the people enslaved to the other half. The oppression of women is completely bound up with the division of society into masters and slaves, exploiters and exploited, and the ending of all such conditions is impossible without the complete liberation of women. All this is why women have a tremendous role to play not only in making revolution but in making sure there is all-the-way revolution. The fury of women can and must be fully unleashed as a mighty force for proletarian revolution. -- BAsics 3:22 People were honored for fighting ferociously on the right side of what is a historical divide, in a time of great urgency, and pushed to explore Bob Avakian's analysis and synthesis of how to actually put an end to thousands of years of women's oppression along with all forms of exploitation and oppression. That at the same time we are moved by our outrage to fight right now and sound the alarm to bring others in, we should all also be digging into this--this represents the most advanced work that's been done to develop a vision, strategy, and plan for an actual revolution that can bring about a radically different world--free from patriarchy, and free from slavery in any form. Bob Avakian and the Revolutionary Communist Party are dealing with the real problems of what it would take to get from here to that society. Actions like what we did today are part of what is needed in that whole sweeping view: what people accept or reject when it comes to how women are treated, has a lot to do with getting to that world, as we had only begun to discuss in basic terms. People were very interested in this, glad to have the sampler, and we promised to be in touch about that, as well as future actions. We all left stronger than we had arrived, and with a renewed determination. To learn more about the fight to break the chains and unleash the fury of women as a mighty force for revolution: To get involved in the summer effort to Take Patriarchy By Storm: If you like this article, subscribe, donate to and sustain Revolution newspaper.

On Protesting Patriarchy, Breaking the Rules, and Challenging Everyone in Order to Change Everything July 27, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us From a member of the Bay Area Revolution Club and Stop Patriarchy Five of us came together and most of us had never met.

It was my first time visiting the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, and the name plate read "Araminta Ross." I stood in disbelief as if someone was going to pull my Black Card, because while I knew the story and the face, I had no idea that Harriet Tubman's real name was Araminta Ross. It was then I realized that my U.S. education was questionable at best, as I knew my own ancestors only by nicknames and pseudonyms. The kindergarten through 12th grade education system, like most America systems, is an oppressive structure that serves as the catalyst to the erasure of black history, which ultimately is American history. Unfortunately, black history is often treated and disseminated as a small footnote in America's comprehensive history, and even then, said black history comes with major gaps between the start of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and now. The use of major event markers in our history tend to focus black history around three very pivotal time periods in the United States for African Americans: slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, and the election of Barack Obama. March 1965: American civil rights leader Martin Luther King (1929 - 1968) (centre) with his wife Coretta Scott King and colleagues during a civil rights march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital in Montgomery. (Photo by William Lovelace/Express/Getty Images) Our story is often characterized as one of "progress," yet the fact that we were fully civilized in Africa prior to the invasion of Europeans often gets lost. The colonization of black people was and is a part of the conditioning process that causes us to understand our history through a white lens. This whitewashing of our history has been a hotbed for white supremacy, and black Americans have subsequently, and unknowingly, assimilated into it. That assimilation was the reason that I fought to play the lead role as Abraham Lincoln in a Black History Month school play called "This Land is Your Land" in the third grade. As black children, we are taught white history by default and it's often in the context of the "savior complex." The white forefathers were depicted as catalysts for change, who stood up against the oppressive powers of Britain, yet our own constitution once considered blacks three-fifths a person and only gained the right to vote through an amendment to the original supreme law of the land. Slavery itself is even watered down in history books, often taught as if it were simply a mistake or decision that went too far. This rather than the truth, which is that the system of slavery was the foundation of our economy, and a top commodity for which many of our current financial institutions such as Bank of America and Wells Fargo, gained their initial capital. President Lincoln is then sold as the American Hero who saved black folk with his "Emancipation Proclamation," reinforcing the notion that black freedom can only come at the hands of a white man with a good heart. Erasing the fact that black people were being used as a pawn in a war against the South, and that our freedom was only granted to cripple its economy and put us on the front lines as Union soldiers during the Civil War. This whitesplaining of our history is conducted all throughout our K-12 education, which noticeably happens more further along in schooling. Portrait of Civil War 'contrabands,' fugitive slaves who were emancipated upon reaching the North, sitting outside a house, possible in Freedman's Village in Arlington, Virginia, mid 1860s. Up to 1100 former slaves at a time were housed in the government established Freedman's Village in the thirty years in which it served as a temporary shelter for runaway and liberated slaves. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) I remember Black History Month in elementary school being as celebratory as Halloween. We were allowed to dress like our favorite ancestors and feel empowered, even if only for a limited time. Much of my history was taught to me by white teachers, using white centered textbooks, whitesplaining our history in effort to soften the blow of what happened to our people versus what is told. This pipeline of erasure continued throughout middle school and high school. By the time I reached high school, learning history became a choice that almost never included black history. Every construct in education was used to erase the power, presence, and significance of black people outside of how they helped white people. The biggest offense, however, has been the conditioning of our history, which is reduced to one month of recognition and not all year round. The unfortunate truth about this conditioning is that it happens subconsciously and can only be broken when noticed. Breaking that conditioning takes years, and for many in the black community, that revelation never happens. The instant disassociation with black history once March 1 rolls around every year is not done purposely, as much as it was by design. While black people wait all year to celebrate this month, much of our country can't wait for it to end. To be sure, there's a strong correlation between the suppressing of black history and how it's celebrated. Allotting only a few short weeks to celebrate our history is very much like a token of appreciation for all the work we have done in this country. The challenge is, as with every structure of oppression, making the necessary changes to how we engage black history will likely not happen without white validation. Otherwise any attempts to change the narrative falls on death ears, because: racism. With black history, however, we have an opportunity to circumvent that system in our own homes and communities. What if, we as a people decided to teach our youth outside the classroom? What if we decided that one month is simply not enough, and created our own celebratory days that happened each month to spread our important and rich history throughout the entire year? With the use of social media as a vehicle, we are now able to celebrate our history whenever we want. Hash tags like #BlackJoyMatters, #BlackLivesMatter, #AllBlackEverything are now used as ways to trend our stories of triumph and tragedy as a record-keeping tool to preserving our culture. That day in the National Museum of African American History and Culture changed my life forever. Although I felt as if my entire blackness was about to be called into question, I knew that it was nothing that I had done wrong. It was the system rather that had done me and my people wrong. Going forward, we as black people have a call to duty. If the education system is unwilling to teach our history, then we must do it ourselves. Black History is American History. And t here is no system that could ever change that. George M. Johnson is a journalist and activist based in the Washington, D.C. area. He has written for EBONY.com, TheGrio, JET, Pride.com, Thebody.com, and The Huffington Post on topics of health , race, gender, sex, and education. Follow him on Twitter: @iamgmjohnson .

While black people wait all year to celebrate this month, much of our country can't wait for it to end.

We used to walk, well run, to school being chased by the bigger boys, but in Eastern Thailand you get a much bigger companion to accompany you to school. The bullies wouldn't have messed we us, if we had these animals taking us to double maths. These two kids walk to school with their two pet elephants, an animal revered in Thailand. Nong, seven and Ong, five take a mile long walk cradling the young elephants ear with the older one following along to keep them company. The siblings love their elephants so much they even lie down with them on grass clearings, if they need a rest, or even, do their homework! These brilliant snaps were captured by Arunan Sathiyanathan, 36, on a visit to the childrens' remote village in Surin province, in East Tailand. Arunan from Chennai, India, said: "I travelled through Thailand and heard about this small village where the people are very close to elephants. "They have a lot of the creatures there. Every house has one or two elephants that they keep as pets. Even the hotels have a resident elephant. "I noticed the two children with their pet elephants and arranged to take pictures of them walking the creatures to school. "It was amazing how close they are. They can even lie down together with the young elephant and feel totally safe. "The people of the village have a unique bond with the elephants that I don't think is found anywhere else in the world." 76 SHARES

We used to walk, well run, to school being chased by the bigger boys, but in Eastern Thailand you get a much bigger companion to accompany you to school.

You're five times more likely to be killed by ISIS if you're Paris Hilton . Not really. But that's basically what she thinks. The star believes that she's a prime target for the terrorist group, just because she's famous. Paris was speaking to Ibiza news outlet Diario de Ibiza when she made the bizarre comment. She said, It's horrible what is happening, the recent bombing in Nice and Germany are terrible, something disgusting and scary. They are things that go through my head as I travel a lot and when I think about it, it frightens me. I'm moving and traveling from one country to another, I'm a famous person who can be a clear target of an attack and it's something that sometimes terrifies me. Riiiight. Twitter was relentless with its sass: Our hearts go out to you for your concerns, Paris. If you weren't already on ISIS' radar, you probably are now. They say all publicity is good publicity. But that's probably not accurate when it means getting attention from the Islamic State.

You're five times more likely to be killed by ISIS if you're Paris Hilton .

951-Riverside (7,234 posts) Concerns growing about militia members at Bundy ranch Source: CBS - Las Vegas LAS VEGAS -- Concerns are growing about members of the militia surrounding rancher Cliven Bundy. Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford, sent a letter to Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie about the safety of residents in the Bunkerville area. Horsford says his constituents have "expressed concern" over the presence of armed militia groups from out of state. According to Horsford, his constituents say the militia have set up checkpoints where residents must prove they live in the area before they are allowed to pass and have set up a "persistent presence" along federal highways, and state and county roads. They also claim some have established an armed presence in the community. Horsford told the sheriff that the militia are making people feel unsafe. Armed people from across the country arrived in Bunkerville weeks ago to support Bundy in his fight with the Bureau of Land Management over cattle the agency says are illegally grazing on federally managed lands. Horsford's concerns come at the same time the U.S. Capitol Police confirmed they are looking into threatening statements made against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Read more: http://www.8newsnow.com/story/25371465/concerns-growing-about-militia-members-at-bundy-ranch [img] [/img] Mon Apr 28, 2014, 08:00 PM Mon Apr 28, 2014, 10:37 PM JohnnyRingo (12,277 posts) 65. I know a few gun worshippers... ... and most of them don't have sick delusions about secession or taking over the govt. They just collect firearms and enjoy shooting. I'm not covering for them, but It's all about the gun and going to work to buy more guns to them. These guys in Nevada see their guns as functional tools for their absurd and unreasoned goal of sovereignty. While a gun nut might accidentally shoot you, these people might accidentally miss. It's all about intent, and this is the worst. Just sayin' that calling these people "gun worshippers" is like calling them "men". It's absolutely true, but it has nothing to do with what they're up to. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 01:17 PM Tue Apr 29, 2014, 02:48 PM JohnnyRingo (12,277 posts) 141. That's a sexist comment used by those who have no interest in something. I hear it often from people who are happy driving a Saturn to someone else who buys a Dodge Viper. Those who don't like guns love to use the barb as an excuse why someone would buy a Colt Viper. Either way, there are myriad reasons why people buy things that others don't care much for. What that blanket generalization ignores, is that often people are just interested in performance, aesthetics, or financial investment. A bright red 1956 Ferrari 250 GTO isn't just a statement of the sexual id, it's viewed by many a vintage work of automotive art. Not many enthusiasts a Honda Hayabusa because they got shunned in the bedroom, and few buy a hundred year old Smith & Wesson because of sexual shortcomings. Sometimes it's an investment, appreciation of the design, or maybe even as a deathwish, but I don't believe everything revolves around the male sexual ego. I wouldn't dream of telling a woman that the number of shoes she owns is equates to her inability to sate a sexual partner, but a sexist might. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and sometimes it's just about the aromatic enjoyment. I don't like cigars, but I wouldn't assume others do only because they have a tiny dick. In this case, I'm sure those men are gun nuts, but they see their guns as tools for anti govt action. They aren't typical of most gun owners, just as not every Lamborghini owner isn't a divorced orthodontist trying to recapture his glory days. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 05:32 PM Scuba (53,475 posts) 153. I agree; it's not the ownership of the gun, it's the shoot-out fantasy these guys are having. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 10:08 PM JohnnyRingo (12,277 posts) 168. I wish it was a fantasy world they live in. World of Warcraft is a fantasy, this is more serious. Unfortunately, these kooks seriously believe they're needed by the rest of us to salvage our freedom. Much like every armed political activist since JW Booth, they think the public will hoist them upon our collective shoulders and parade through the streets after they emerge victorious. Many more are waiting at home, hopeful that some of them will be martyred for the cause. As much a spectacle as this is, a paramilitary honor guard at the national funeral will be much bigger as groups like the Hutaree join in. Instigators like Hannity will declare that "their only crime was loving their country too much". "Gun nut" doesn't begin to define these people and their woeful ambition. I believe that's why the Feds stood down. This has the potential to become the nucleus of a very real armed movement in the US. It's a monsterous byproduct created by over 200 years of poorly regulated freedom. I'm not trying to be overcritical of you, but this stuff makes me nervous, and I don't have a solution that puts the Genie back in the bottle. If another democratic president takes the oath in 2016, and I hope that one does, it may be the bloodiest first term since Lincoln. Thanx Fox News. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 12:40 PM Maraya1969 (14,001 posts) 113. I usually don't post links to my own posts but here I think it is appropriate. Let those asses know what they are really up against and they'll run right home to Mommy. http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024872081 Mon Apr 28, 2014, 08:03 PM 2. seditious terrorists Mon Apr 28, 2014, 08:03 PM 3. I don't want violence... .. but I am curious about whether or not the Federal government can enforce Federal laws. I'm curious about whether groups of armed men can control public land and highways. I'm curious about whether groups of armed men can threaten Senators. These assholes will probably just lose interest and go away, but what's to keep them from doing it again? Just sayin'.... Mon Apr 28, 2014, 08:06 PM Kelvin Mace (17,469 posts) 6. Violence is inevitable The rhetoric on the right has been escalating for years. They are painting themselves into a corner where violence will be the only way out. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:00 PM mikekohr (2,312 posts) 23. It'll be well over a hundred in a few months, they'll wilt like pansies on a hot griddle. While this standoff will probably peter out, sooner or later there will be blood. These kinds of things always end badly. Inspite of the most ardent attempts to avoid violence on behalf of the Feds something, someone, from either side, will ignite a firefight. As President John F. Kennedy said, "There's always some son of a bitch that never gets the message." Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:48 PM Warpy (96,479 posts) 43. I think the hope now is that they get drunk and start shooting each other In the meantime, they're just adding to the charges against Freeloader Bundy by being his personal army, raised to challenge the the US of A. Every one of those traitors belongs in a cell in Gitmo. Since Obama was forced by a GOP Congress to keep the place open, we might as well put it to appropriate use. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 11:14 AM Dark n Stormy Knight (6,664 posts) 101. If only the world worked like that. You know, fairly. Unfortunately, in real life justice is seldom served. And these bastards will by martyrs if the Feds hurt one little hair on their seditious little heads. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 11:43 AM Warpy (96,479 posts) 103. Let's hope Mrs. Bundy gets sick of cooking for the whole shebang and Mr. Bundy gets sick of the garbage around their accommodations and they both get sick of the lines at the bathroom. Having the Feds pick them off one at a time with no fanfare would be ideal. RobinA (6,157 posts) Ya got that right. The government can't win in these things. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 08:36 AM Sunlei (21,957 posts) 98. you're not kidding it gets hot out there in Americas remote Nevada desert public lands. If Bundys' friends/family want to continue to guard his driveway dirt road, they better get some shade built or those guns will get to hot to touch. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 05:40 PM 155. no doubt water availability along with a shortage of beef and bacon will become issues. although, there are those who thrive on desperation. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 01:02 PM calimary (48,689 posts) 119. Sometimes I wonder... whether folks like these are WANTING this. The whole idiotic, misguided "go out in a blaze of glory" thing. And. They. Are. IDIOTS! Must have watched way too many Steven Seagal and Rambo movies. Or something. Blaze of glory, yeah, suuuuuuure. Some sort of twisted purported fantasy "martyrdom," I suspect is what it boils down to. Makes me wonder what their versions of those fanciful "78 virgins in heaven" would be. Domestic terrorists. That pretty well sums it up. A completely and thoroughly accurate label, seems to me. The only difference is the language spoken, and the style of dress. Otherwise, very little difference between shouting "Allah akbar" and "freedom-freedom!" However, I haven't yet heard of any Islamic version of "get yer gummnt hands off mah Medicare!" Tue Apr 29, 2014, 02:53 PM 142. It'll be the next... Ruby Ridge or Waco if things progress as they seem to be. One of those loons will accidentally (or intentionally) pop off at a federal agent or a civilian, blood will be shed, and the national guard will rain down teargas before they can say "RKBA." They're on the wrong side of the law and the wrong side of history. They're bringing it all down upon themselves. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:44 PM Tue Apr 29, 2014, 01:29 PM The Stranger (11,297 posts) 127. Why are you "curious" about what are unquestionably crimes and violations of criminal statutes? Of course the federal government can and should enforce the law. No one -- but no one -- is above the law. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 02:00 PM glinda (14,807 posts) 134. Jail. If they can arrest peaceful protestors they can arrest these people. They are just lazy and Tue Apr 29, 2014, 03:18 PM Ash_F (5,861 posts) 146. It is not just that. Last edited Tue Apr 29, 2014, 04:16 PM - Edit history (3) For the Feds, this is like going after their own. They would be hungry to break out their own guns out if these were minorities. Yes, we have a Black President because the demographics of the country are changing, but there is going to be decades of lag before that shift cascades through the entire bureaucracy. This conflict is about the balance of power in the country among ethnic groups. 'Sovereignty' is just a euphemism. What you see here is White racists lashing out as they feel their power slipping away, trying to assert themselves. Since they are currently getting away with it, it looks like they are asserting themselves quite well. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 03:09 PM Ash_F (5,861 posts) Mon Apr 28, 2014, 08:03 PM jmowreader (39,105 posts) 4. Hang on for a second here... People who want to pass have to prove they live in the area, to people who don't? VERY few of Bundy's militia supporters are from that part of Nevada; they've come from Idaho and other out-of-area places. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 08:10 PM Ruby the Liberal (25,956 posts) 10. Thats what stood out to me too Who gave them the right to blockade streets and demand proof of citizenship? They need to be taken down a peg or two before some kid gets shot by some yahoo waving a loaded weapon around. 14. Wonder how they would respond if people set up similar blockades around their own homes... Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:10 PM Ruby the Liberal (25,956 posts) 29. With their stand-yer-ground sekond amendment rights They would be impeded by 'foreigners' afterall... Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:27 PM 951-Riverside (7,234 posts) 37. Ironically they cannot stand checkpoints of any type even at airports and borders Yet they subject citizens to ILLEGAL checkpoints on public roads and the dopey sheriff, the inept FBI, the clowns at the Nevada Highway Patrol and the bozos at Homeland security allows this. Oh and what happens if you don't live in the area and don't feel like explaining to Mr Beer Gut that it's none of his damn business to check who you are on public land? The Nevada Highway Patrol actually shut down a major highway and helped these bozos go after the BLM a few weeks ago. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:33 PM Ruby the Liberal (25,956 posts) 38. That would be the g'ubmit They are the [strike]well regulated[/strike] unregulated militia that the founding fathers (insert cherubic choir) referenced... Mon Apr 28, 2014, 11:03 PM Bartlet (172 posts) 76. Pretty sure These guys aren't militia the founders were contemplating considering considering one of the founders, Washington, had to put down a rebellion from just such a group of "militia". Tue Apr 29, 2014, 07:05 PM Ikonoklast (23,973 posts) 162. They also hated paying taxes imposed by a federal government. And considered themselves "true patriots". States Rights, yanno. Same shit for three hundred years now. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 10:02 PM freshwest (53,661 posts) 53. Can you link that so I can read the full story on the NHP shutting the highway down? TIA. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:34 PM VanillaRhapsody (21,115 posts) 39. What I find astonishing is.....the people who claim govt is too intrusive.... have "intruded" THEMSELVES into the people of this towns lives.....of course they are born without an irony meter...so there is that! Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:58 PM Thinkingabout (30,058 posts) 51. I agree, too much over reach by the anti-guberment bunch, they are setting up check points and Bundy grazes his cattle on public lands, guess who the real intruder is. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 02:16 AM VanillaRhapsody (21,115 posts) 92. Yeah you cannot write this stuff...... they are in the midst of setting up a Police State....yet they have no self-awareness of it at all! Tue Apr 29, 2014, 01:35 PM 128. That was my question too You can't just drive down a state road Mon Apr 28, 2014, 08:05 PM Bjorn Against (12,041 posts) 5. So now gun nuts think they can set up armed checkpoints These thugs say they are protecting freedom, but armed checkpoints are not things you see in a free country they are things you see in a fascist country. It is appalling that these nuts are being allowed to threaten the community like this. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:27 PM AAO (3,300 posts) 36. If you refused to stop would they shoot ya? We're bound to find out. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 11:11 PM 79. Let's see... Things I've from the mouths of their ilk, "Freedum is somethin' worth fightin' for (ergo) it ain't freedum if you didn't haf ta fight." And the ubiquitous... "Ever heard of SSS?" These guys see all disagreement as a fight to the death... and of course they are always right and somebody has to pay for disagreeing with their life or at least their future physical well-being. just sayin'... besides - This is unquestionably an armed insurrection that needs some attention (which I'm sure it's getting, just not on the evening nooz). Seems like they've pulled off just about enough rope o hang themselves... one of 'em will kick the chair out soon. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 01:23 PM 124. Borrow a tanker of low-level medical waste, preferably the bio-hazardous kind (radioactive would work, too.) I doubt they'd shoot at that! Just be sure to wear a bright yellow Dev-O suit as well as a respirator If they ask you to turn around because they don't want it going through their "territory" make sure you get it stuck in a ditch or tangled up in the barbed-wire fencing Mon Apr 28, 2014, 08:06 PM bloomington-lib (946 posts) 7. If this was in the day of their beloved Founding Fathers, the govt would send in an army to fix Bernardo de La Paz (25,222 posts) 8. Armed checkpoints just like the pro-Russian militias in Ukraine. Next is Next up, kidnappings? Except for the guns this would be a bunch of immatures parading around thinking they are important. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:48 PM freshwest (53,661 posts) 44. The MO is the same. Claim elected authority is illegitimate, intimidate those who don't agree. n/t glinda (14,807 posts) Mon Apr 28, 2014, 08:08 PM jalan48 (7,683 posts) 9. Brown Shirts Mon Apr 28, 2014, 08:59 PM Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:39 PM mountain grammy (18,330 posts) 41. Yes, that's it. Itching to start something. Don't they have jobs or are they all on welfare? Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:49 PM freshwest (53,661 posts) 45. Yes, that's exactly what it is... It ain't aout 'Murika.' Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:54 PM Mon Apr 28, 2014, 11:11 PM RKP5637 (52,421 posts) 78. Yep, pretty much cut from the same cloth IMO. And these are domestic terrorists! And they are getting a free pass. I'm of the nature that I would refuse to stop and let these assholes bully me. Fuck Them!!! Tue Apr 29, 2014, 01:38 PM Stargazer09 (1,855 posts) 129. They would not hesitate to shoot you They are proud of what they are doing. Letting you bypass their checkpoint would be adequate grounds to kill you, in their eyes. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 03:46 PM RKP5637 (52,421 posts) 148. I have absolutely no doubt about that, and from what I've read, the local authorities would not give a damn. This, is an example of the wild land these individuals want, running around shooting people up in the name of their warped concept of patriotism, wherein our forefathers would have rounded them up and jailed them all. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 04:51 PM Mon Apr 28, 2014, 08:10 PM Mon Apr 28, 2014, 08:11 PM Tue Apr 29, 2014, 07:48 PM freshwest (53,661 posts) 163. Meanwhile, in Colorado... SSDD... http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014778297#post21 And earlier in the Eastern USA: And Koch money behind all of it. Remember how Charles Koch crawled out from his rock to confront Harry Reid for calling out the GOP doing the bidding of the Koch brothers, with links and everything. Now the media went off those facts so damaging to them, unless they were never on it in the first place, and this happens, and in Harry's state. Also there have been death threats made against Reid. This is brownshirt facism on steroids, fueled by the social and network media that these people live by. And it's national. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 08:18 PM Martin Eden (8,378 posts) 13. Those smiling pricks think their dicks are getting longer by strutting around with gunz. But their idiotic fantasy will not end in satisfaction for them, and probably worse. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 11:14 PM RKP5637 (52,421 posts) 80. Yep, they are just itching to jerk off their guns in a confrontation. What a bunch of losers! n/t Mon Apr 28, 2014, 08:22 PM muntrv (12,050 posts) 15. Cliven, you lay down with the dogs, you get fleas! Mon Apr 28, 2014, 08:23 PM cosmicone (11,014 posts) 16. I'll say this once again and in the interest of peace The federal government must use maximum and overwhelming power to suppress and silence these people forever with the use of helicopter gunships and tanks if necessary. They seem to think that guns are the only way to seek justice -- then let it be. I don't care if it is another Ruby Ridge or Waco -- these people are dangerous and an opportunity to get them en masse is a golden one. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:03 PM A Simple Game (9,214 posts) 25. I hate to do this because it isn't the way I usually feel, but I agree with you. If the reporting is true it is insurrection and must be squashed. You are right, use overwhelming force and make sure Bundy is in the circle when it closes. We still have Blackwater, or whatever they call themselves now, on speed dial don't we? Give them an hour to surrender and there are no negotiations. Sounds like they don't like drones so time it so there are 5 or 6 low flying drones overhead which are carrying ominous packages when they receive the no negotiation message. Or what might work better is spread the rumor that the BLM is giving the names of all militia members to Social Security to see if any of them are on disability or SSI. That should clear out a lot of them. The local sheriff is obviously incompetent and/or sympathetic to the militia. No state police in Nevada? Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:09 PM Fred Sanders (22,777 posts) 28. I disagree. Blocking some dirt roads will grow tiresome, and the locals will either kick them out or the idiot militia will start something and forever be scorned by America and the press. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:39 PM VanillaRhapsody (21,115 posts) 40. Nominate idea number 2 as as DUzy I literally laughed out loud....thankful I wasn't taking a sip of something at that moment! Mon Apr 28, 2014, 10:44 PM Habibi (3,169 posts) 68. Do these idiots have a FB page for their "cause"? 'Cause that would be an excellent place to start spreading this rumor. On edit: Yes, yes they do, and it is something to behold: https://www.facebook.com/bundyranch Mon Apr 28, 2014, 10:58 PM JohnnyRingo (12,277 posts) 73. Hand their names over to the justice dept for a fishing expedition? That's funny because that's how right wingers discourage minorities from voting, and I'm pretty sure this group of idiots thinks that's a good thing. Serve 'em right. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 01:46 PM Stargazer09 (1,855 posts) 132. Let's not make it a rumor The authorities have probably already identified these seditious idiots, so force them to prove that they are still entitled to disability and/or SSI payments. If they are threatening the United States government and have been labeled terrorists, they certainly don't need our financial support. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 01:23 PM LanternWaste (30,812 posts) 125. What specifically leads you to believe additional violence is the most effective and efficient means Violence is rarely the most effective or efficient manner in which to prevent more violence. Patience on the other hand, is. What specifically leads you to believe additional violence is the most effective and efficient means? Tue Apr 29, 2014, 02:40 PM cosmicone (11,014 posts) 139. At what point would you consider an all out attack? Do people have to die before that happens? What if they never kill anyone but beat some guy up thinking he is a federal agent - then what? We beat up a random teabagger or NRA member? They are setting up checkpoints to prevent free passage of Americans on American land. How much longer before they set up their own (kangaroo) court system and punishing those who are against teabaggers/NRA types? What is your limit at which point you'd order a full fledged invasion of the compound? Wed Apr 30, 2014, 12:18 PM LanternWaste (30,812 posts) 174. An overt, intimidating, and aggressive act of collective violence on their part... "What is your limit at which point you'd order a full fledged invasion of the compound?" An overt, intimidating, and aggressive act of collective violence on their part... Yet I still wonder, what specifically leads you to believe that government sanctioned violence is the most effective and efficient way to deal with this particular concern? Mon Apr 28, 2014, 08:33 PM alittlelark (16,539 posts) 17. Don't these whackos have JOBS ?!? How are they able to just 'come a runnin' .... Families?.... WHO is paying them for this? Mon Apr 28, 2014, 11:08 PM 951-Riverside (7,234 posts) 77. *cough* Disability checks and EBT cards *cough* They probably got a massive tax payout from the IRS for the 6 kids they don't actually have but a few of them are probably felons hiding out on the ranch. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 08:51 PM Fred Sanders (22,777 posts) 18. Leave them there until it gets over 120 in the shade, until then the locals and the idiots can sort it out. Patience, they will do themselves in all on their own, or go bankrupt. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 11:02 PM JohnnyRingo (12,277 posts) 74. We know they have a good supply of steaks out back. Hahahaha. Let 'em eat Bundy out of house & home. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 08:54 PM Earth_First (14,910 posts) 19. The longer this shit is allowed to happen...the more emboldened they become. This is happening because someone at a law enforcement level ALLOWS it to happen. This could have been stopped YESTERDAY. Nothing good will become of this... Mon Apr 28, 2014, 10:33 PM Ilsa (49,155 posts) 64. Exactly. And I don't understand why the neighbors Aren't screaming bloody murder on having to answer to these shitheads blocking public roads. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 11:23 PM 951-Riverside (7,234 posts) 82. Actually I can't blame them for that I'd stay low too These armed insurgents answer to no one and are accountable to no one. All it takes is one lone nut to show up at your house if you start speaking up. This is why we have law enforcement but apparently they're standing down. Bundy: "I wanna continue mooching off public land!" Gov: "Sure thing Mister Bundy!" Bundy: "I's gonna set up checkpoints near my house on public roads, check townspeople for I.Ds and tear down toll booths, I don't want know trouble you hear?" Gov: "Yes sir Mister Bundy! You won't get any trouble from us Mister Bundy!" Bundy: "And I don't want any liens placed on my land, cattle or properties!" Gov: "You betcha Mister Bundy! We're sorry Mister Bundy!" Insurgents: "YOU SEE!!!! ...You SEE how they is harassin' Cliven? MSNBC... Al Sharpton ...Incomplete sentences ...They's a-comin' fer our GURNS!!!!!!" Mon Apr 28, 2014, 10:53 PM 72. On the other hand... The longer this goes on without undue media attention, the more bored they become. Having the Feds show up with muscle will bring it all back to full boil. Regardless of how one feels about Occupy Wall St, once the TV cameras disappeared, so did the protesters. I just hope the lack of attention doesn't make them trigger happy, because then the Feds can't sit back & watch from a distance (which I'm sure they are). Mon Apr 28, 2014, 11:27 PM 951-Riverside (7,234 posts) 86. I agree with the idea of waiting them out but... I think the main problem here is the checkpoints and harassment of locals in this town. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 12:19 AM JohnnyRingo (12,277 posts) 88. I know I wouldn't be happy. I get upset that I have to stop at DUI checkpoints. I'd probably get in trouble if some carpet baggin' yahoos thought they could detain me without cause. I believe it's possible that the locals will dismiss them on their own without violence. Once the ringleader quits (whoever that is), they'll all go home. They're only in town because they've been led to believe they're welcome and needed. That sentiment appears to be evaporating by the day. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 08:56 PM geckosfeet (9,644 posts) 20. I am still trying to get my head around the fact that someone is actually named Cliven. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:00 PM The Wizard (9,586 posts) 22. Surround them with military armor and start walking artillery rounds into them. A few 8 inch rounds landing in close proximity will have them soiling their drawers. Have some fighter jets fly over at treetop level The white flag will be up in short order. After they surrender charge them with treason and punish accordingly. Patriots don't take up arms against their own country because the President is a shade darker than they are. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:51 PM freshwest (53,661 posts) 47. That's what they want to have happen. Obama won't give them that kind of show. n/t Tue Apr 29, 2014, 12:01 PM RobinA (6,157 posts) 105. No Show Mon Apr 28, 2014, 11:19 PM RKP5637 (52,421 posts) 81. When jerks like this use the word patriot, I wonder what country they are patriots of, becasue they certainly do not represent America, but rather just their warped authoritarian values. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 05:32 AM jmowreader (39,105 posts) 94. All the M110 howitzers have been retired And they'd be WAY too much firepower anyway. The Nevada National Guard has at least one platoon of 88mm mortars, and mortar fire would be more than sufficient. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 12:07 PM 106. Yikes! An 8" Round? There's a lot of bang in the warhead in a shell that large. As you get closer, the shock wave is too big and colaterial damage risk goes way too high. Must be a better idea than that. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 12:15 PM 108. In 1968, in Dian, Vietnam I was in a bunker and an 8 inch landed too close for comfort. I thought it was the end of the world. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:02 PM 24. Word is out in the Las Vegas press also: Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:04 PM greenman3610 (3,563 posts) 26. this needs to be exposed far and wide these are the real "show us your papers" quasi-taliban fascists. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 12:07 PM Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:06 PM Tue Apr 29, 2014, 07:50 PM Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:13 PM tom_kelly (715 posts) 30. How long before one of these baggers shoot themselves or someone else by accident? Mon Apr 28, 2014, 10:19 PM Spitfire of ATJ (32,723 posts) 59. How long before their paranoia tells them it was all a trap.... Let's tell them we got all of their license plates and their faces and IDs are recorded in the FBI database. <scary voice> We know who you are and where you live. </scary voice> Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:14 PM billh58 (6,049 posts) 31. All of them are "responsible" gun owners just exercising their Second Amendment rights to water the tree of Liberty with a little blood -- perfectly understandable if you support the right-wing gun lobby. Or, conversely they are right-wing NRA dickheads looking to "skeer" somebody with their big old guns, and prove their non-existent manhood, as seen by the rest of us. YMMV depending on your political point-of-view. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:16 PM Blue Owl (14,488 posts) 32. Looks like Ted Nugent back there Puttin' the dung in his dungarees, no doubt... Tue Apr 29, 2014, 05:46 PM Ahpook (1,523 posts) 158. Yeah where is the Motor Mouth Madman? Hiding again when his country needs him? He's such an ass Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:23 PM AAO (3,300 posts) 33. Hypothetically speaking of course: 1 MOAB would end the problem. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 03:28 AM 93. Or a spent rocket booster, landing "off course." Or a "misfire" of one of the orbital x-ray laser platforms. Which reminds me of the "news" in Robocop Tue Apr 29, 2014, 10:58 AM AAO (3,300 posts) kentauros (29,414 posts) Tue Apr 29, 2014, 05:39 PM AAO (3,300 posts) 154. As long as the big boom is recorded and put on youtube I had nothing to do with it! Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:24 PM think4yourself (668 posts) Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:27 PM Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:49 PM GReedDiamond (3,372 posts) 46. What would these armed assholes do if... ...somebody just ignored them, and blew through their "checkpoints"? How is what they're doing not unlawful detainment? And why does local "law enforcement" allow these freaks to set up checkpoints? Just wondering...because if it were me, I'd refuse to stop for them. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 10:00 PM freshwest (53,661 posts) 52. Don't stop! Especially if one is female, who might be kidnapped for use as a human xhield! n/t Mon Apr 28, 2014, 10:09 PM Major Nikon (28,703 posts) 56. The problem is you're talking about people who are a few fries short of a happy meal Anyone stupid enough to set up a non-governmental checkpoint on a public road is certainly stupid enough to shoot at you if you ran it. From what I've seen so far the checkpoint story seems to have originated from an email sent to Rep. Horsford. If it is true and the Sheriff's office won't do anything about it, I think it's time for the state police to move in and make sure the roads stay clear of the armed shitstains. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 10:22 PM GReedDiamond (3,372 posts) 61. I hear ya, they probably would shoot a "checkpoint" runner, wouldn't they? In which case, "law enforcement" would have no choice but to confront them and put them down like the rabid fucks they are. Better that they are dealt with before that can happen, but the longer they are allowed to run their vigilante checkpoints, the more likely it will not end well. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 09:52 PM Jerry442 (1,265 posts) 48. I'm not a lawyer, but... ...it would seem to me that Bundy's debts have now reached such a level that the BLM could legally seize his ranch. Once they have legal control over the ranch, wouldn't it be then straightforward to get a court order requiring all present on the ranch to either vacate the premises, or to have warrants made out for their arrest for contempt of court? How many of these Walter Mittys do you think will hang around when they realize that if they do, they'll have an outstanding warrant on their butts for the next forever? Do you think they all will be cool with living on the run for a long, long time? I doubt it. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 10:32 PM SeattleVet (2,579 posts) 62. I'd lay even money that some of them *already* have outstanding arrest warrants, and that they really don't care. surplus , Iraqi war, drones, laying around, that could be put to good use!!! Mon Apr 28, 2014, 10:02 PM Thinkingabout (30,058 posts) 54. Investigate the militia as domestic terrorists, see if they have warrants, see if they are on disability. If they are on disability then they should not be out playing war games. Shut down the cameras, leave them to try to get their story out, maybe Cliven will be able to take the tie off, what a fake. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 10:05 PM Kablooie (14,290 posts) 55. Sounds like they are itching for a fight. These jerks have spent so much time and money gearing up for war they must see this as their opportunity to finally kill somebody. The government had better prepare because they may deliberately push the limits and break the law in order to force the government to try and arrest them. If this doesn't happen here, it seems at some point this boiling kettle of hate will have to spill over somewhere, for no reason other than to please imbeciles who want to destroy the government and become martyrs in the process. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 10:11 PM olddad56 (5,609 posts) 57. why are these people referred to as militia rather that terrorists? Mon Apr 28, 2014, 11:24 PM Mon Apr 28, 2014, 10:14 PM Spitfire of ATJ (32,723 posts) 58. The main concern,...don't these guys have a life? Mon Apr 28, 2014, 10:38 PM 66. If they keep pushing it, they soon won't. n/t Mon Apr 28, 2014, 11:51 PM Spitfire of ATJ (32,723 posts) 87. Must be nice to take a few weeks off to stop and smell the cow manure. glinda (14,807 posts) Tue Apr 29, 2014, 05:41 PM glinda (14,807 posts) 165. Oh it's you again! lol! I totally agree. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 10:21 PM oneofthe99 (712 posts) 60. This isn't correct for the check points and Rep. Steven Horsford was misinformed It is the dirt road where Bundys ranch is , he owns the dirt road it's not public. They do not have check points on public roads stopping cars and people walking asking to prove if they live there. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 10:32 PM JohnnyRingo (12,277 posts) 67. Checkpoints? Isn't that against the very freedom they tout so patriotically? Way to go Bundy, you turned your ranch into a right wing circus of potential violence, drawn there like nutty UFO hunters to Roswell. I hope your hospitality and beef supply outlasts their steely eyed determination to make a stand, or you may lose the farm to another more malevolent form of governance. Dumbass. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 10:45 PM Mon Apr 28, 2014, 10:52 PM geek tragedy (68,868 posts) 70. At what point does this become an armed insurrection to which the national guard becomes the appropriate responders? Mon Apr 28, 2014, 11:02 PM truebluegreen (9,033 posts) 75. Anybody remember the Freemen in Montana? Wait 'em out. Summer is coming. Mon Apr 28, 2014, 11:25 PM HooptieWagon (17,064 posts) 84. The question the WH should be asking...What is the most effective response... Predator, Blackhawk, or A-10? Tue Apr 29, 2014, 08:01 AM Wed Apr 30, 2014, 10:01 AM Mon Apr 28, 2014, 11:26 PM Auntie Bush (17,523 posts) 85. Poor neighbors! I'd sure hate it to have those terrorists in my community! It's an outrage we have laws that support this behavior. Thank you SCJ Roberts! What the hell was he thinking? Tue Apr 29, 2014, 12:40 AM KittyWampus (55,894 posts) 89. Imagine if these were Muslims or African Americans setting up check points w/guns? Tue Apr 29, 2014, 01:05 AM Historic NY (30,721 posts) 90. Homeland Security should send over a drone.... and a few porta-potties. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 01:29 AM DeSwiss (27,137 posts) 91. These patriotic losers are living-out their greatest orgasmic fantasy...... ...with guns and camp outs and sage and bugs and snakes and farts at night under the full moonlight and dreaming about white women (for front line protection) and songs by the campfires. All served with gallons of beer. Hurrah. - So do these people have jobs, or are they all on Social Security-Disability like the scout troop guy who turned over the standing stones??? K&R Tue Apr 29, 2014, 07:17 AM Sunlei (21,957 posts) 96. He can let people camp on his 150 acre, hot, remote, desert scrub land forever if he wants. Far as I know that is legal. Sure must be 'fun' to have 100 or so people asking to use your tiny homes restroom or peeing on the bushes in your back yard. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 10:56 AM GeorgeGist (20,214 posts) 99. Isn't this the kind of gathering of terrorists that drones are good for? Tue Apr 29, 2014, 01:40 PM KittyWampus (55,894 posts) 131. not until there's a wedding. sorry, feeling unbelievably snarky today. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 01:56 PM jberryhill (52,192 posts) 133. Bound to be one sooner or later in Nevada Maybe set up a decoy wedding chapel to lure them out. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 11:25 AM JoeyT (6,785 posts) 102. The feds had better get off their asses and do something about them. Preferably before someone refuses to be subjected to one of their bullshit searches and demands for papers and gets shot. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 12:18 PM Tue Apr 29, 2014, 12:28 PM WHEN CRABS ROAR (3,813 posts) 110. Just like a third world nation. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 12:28 PM mahatmakanejeeves (18,197 posts) 111. Sheriff urged to clamp down on armed militiamen around Bundy ranch Hat tip, Gawker: Nevada Militia Sets Up Armed Checkpoints, Demands to See Drivers' I.D. Sheriff urged to clamp down on armed militiamen around Bundy ranch By Kyle Roerink Monday, April 28, 2014 | 4:16 p.m. A growing number of Bunkerville residents want to see the armed militiamen guarding rancher Cliven Bundy leave Nevada, according to a letter from Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., to Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie. Horsford, whose congressional district includes Bunkerville, wrote that his constituents are concerned about Bundy supporters carrying weapons near local churches, schools and elsewhere. .... The letter also says militiamen have a presence on state and local roads as well as federal highways. In some areas, according to the letter, militiamen have set up checkpoints where drivers are stopped and asked to provide a proof of residency. .... Bundy owes the BLM $1 million in grazing fees. Earlier this month, the agency called off a roundup of Bundys cattle after escalating tensions between federal agents and militia members. STEVE MARCUS Reid Hendricks of Camden, Tenn., and Jim (no last name provided) of Las Vegas take up a position on a hill by Cliven Bundys ranch near Bunkerville on Tuesday, April 15, 2014. Hendricks is a former Marine (honorably discharged) and has worked as a police officer and a high school history teacher, he said. Hat tip to commenter "RedWhiteBlue" for this: THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF NEVADA, Article 1, Section 2 Sec: 2. Purpose of government; paramount allegiance to United States. All political power is inherent in the people[.] Government is instituted for the protection, security and benefit of the people; and they have the right to alter or reform the same whenever the public good may require it. But the Paramount Allegiance of every citizen is due to the Federal Government in the exercise of all its Constitutional powers as the same have been or may be defined by the Supreme Court of the United States; and no power exists in the people of this or any other State of the Federal Union to dissolve their connection therewith or perform any act tending to impair[,] subvert, or resist the Supreme Authority of the government of the United States. The Constitution of the United States confers full power on the Federal Government to maintain and Perpetuate its existance [existence], and whensoever any portion of the States, or people thereof attempt to secede from the Federal Union, or forcibly resist the Execution of its laws, the Federal Government may, by warrant of the Constitution, employ armed force in compelling obedience to its Authority. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 12:29 PM 951-Riverside (7,234 posts) 112. Bundy Ranch Supporter Talks About Shooting "Deserters" in the Back, Refers to Ranch as a Battlefield Starting at 2:20 (They're referring to the Oafkeepers leaving the Ranch). Insurgent wearing the black shirt: "This man and The people that obeyed that order have violated my personal creed." Other insurgent: "Absolutely" Insurgent wearing the black shirt: "You don't fucking walk in and say I'm sorry and you're back in brother, you can walk in and say you're sorry and you're lucky that you're not getting shot in the back because that's what happens to deserters on the battlefield" Other insurgents: "Amen brother, amen" Tue Apr 29, 2014, 12:41 PM Catherine Vincent (32,997 posts) 114. What is the local sheriff department doing about this? Isn't the area their jurisdiction? Tue Apr 29, 2014, 01:08 PM 951-Riverside (7,234 posts) 121. He's respecting their 28th amendment right The 28th amendment specifically says: "A militia member shall quarter public roads and install checkpoints when it is necessary to protect a wealthy rancher who doesn't want to pay his grazing fees but still wants to use public land to embiggen his own net worth. The militia shall have unlimited access to methamphetamine and ephebophilia shall be mandatory." This is how it works: Bundy: "I wanna continue mooching off public land!" Gov: "Sure thing Mister Bundy!" Bundy: "I's gonna set up checkpoints near my house on public roads, check townspeople for I.Ds and tear down toll booths, I don't want know trouble you hear?" Gov: "Yes sir Mister Bundy! You won't get any trouble from us Mister Bundy!" Bundy: "And I don't want any liens placed on my land, cattle or properties!" Gov: "You betcha Mister Bundy! We're sorry Mister Bundy!" Insurgents: "YOU SEE!!!! ...You SEE how they is harassin' Cliven? MSNBC... Al Sharpton ...Incomplete sentences ...They's a-comin' fer our GURNS!!!!!!" Tue Apr 29, 2014, 12:48 PM Oldtimeralso (1,726 posts) 116. An Idea Isn't this near Nellis AFB, the home of the Thunderbirds, maybe they could practice some low-level flybys, Tue Apr 29, 2014, 01:15 PM kentauros (29,414 posts) 122. I was wondering what a MACH-1 or -2 low-level flyby does to the human body, specifically, the ears... However, someone could just paint up a crop duster in all the emblems of the militia, battle flags, and so forth, then do an Agent-Orange flyby. That way, they'd accept the plane and pilot as one of their own, until it's too late Tue Apr 29, 2014, 12:49 PM malthaussen (12,674 posts) 117. Where's the 82nd Airborne when we need them? I cannot believe these people are being allowed to get away with this crap. It must be an effort to give them enough rope to hang themselves. Well, mustn't it? -- Mal Tue Apr 29, 2014, 12:57 PM tofuandbeer (1,314 posts) 118. You do peaceful protesting in the U.S. and they hit you with pepper spray, rubber bullets and create new devises to control and disperse you. You take over a town with guns, and they stand down. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 01:29 PM maggies farm (79 posts) 126. Mormon Militia and the Mountain Meadows Massacre Cliven's great great grandfather is Dudley Leavitt. Do you know about the Mountain Meadows Massacre? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Meadows_massacre "The militia, officially called the Nauvoo Legion, was composed of Utah's Mormon settlers (members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or LDS Church). Intending to give the appearance of Native American aggression, their plan was to arm some Southern Paiute Native Americans and persuade them to join with a larger party of their own militiamendisguised as Native Americansin an attack. During the militia's first assault on the wagon train, the emigrants fought back and a five-day siege ensued. Eventually fear spread among the militia's leaders that some emigrants had caught sight of white men, and had likely discovered the identity of their attackers. As a result militia commander William H. Dame ordered his forces to kill the emigrants." That is right. The Mormon polgaymist commune settled in Bunkerville around 1877. Some that came were people involved with the Mountain Meadows massecre. Mormons using indians (much like the Boston Tea Party) to kill white immigrants. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunkerville,_Nevada http://www.mesquitenv.gov/mesquite-highlights/history This Conversation below occurred on : http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/blm-siege-at-bunkerville-the-real-story#comment-1359462690 Canada Free Press is a conservative Mormon site. About: "Espousing Conservative viewpoints, cornerstone of which focuses on love of God, love of family, love of country, CFP maintains a loyal and growing readership." Arlene Jefry Tober 16 hours ago You are not sure that maternal lineage legally matters? Are you serious? The reason the 'place' was purchased in 1948 was that was when his parents were a young couple just starting out. Obviously family land was offered. If you go to the BLM site you will see that the BLM did not get into tracking cattle on the lands in western states until the late 40s and into the 50s, so there is not record of who ran what cattle where before that point in time . . . often to the 70s in different areas. No one is going to have record of "IF" cattle were run on the land by family prior. I don't make too much of that. Neither of my husband's grandparents had birth certificates. That doesn't mean that they were not born. It meant a heckuva time getting Metis certificates, mind you, in this world where people seem to believe if there was no paper record it did not happen . . . hard to explain the presence of his mother. Cliven's ancestral rights come from these ancestors in this order: Cliven's mother Margaret Bodel JENSON-Bundy - (Cliven's grandmother), Margaret's mother; Abigail Christina ABBOTT-Jenson - (Cliven's great grandmother); Mary Jane LEAVITT-Abbott. (Abigail "Christina" Abbot-Jenson's mother); Cliven's great great grandfather Dudley Leavitt, (Mary Jane Leavitt-Abbott's father). Rootsweb is the search for the certificates. This sight won't let me leave the link. Jefry Tober Arlene 3 hours ago Arlene it is a delight to be able to talk to someone about the history of this region. I always appreciate anything regarding history,settlement of the west, Native Americans, homestead, etc. I am most interested in learning how Bundy and his relations interacted with the Paiute. From the Mormon perspective they were bullied by non mormons and the US government. From the Paiute perspective the Mormon monopolized the water and brought in too many cows and overgrazed the area. From the white perspective we were murdered in schemes like the Mountain Meadows Massacre. You have water rights affiliated to your real property nothing more and that is on paper. This is NOT the State of Deseret. We told you once and we will tell you again and again. No you can not make a theocratic state out of our country. You were once citizens of our country before the fraud of your religion was imagined. You trashed the desert with your cows and I have been working for 30 years to end that. A Mormon judge ruled against Clivens crazy talk. Better find better lawyers because I personally find you a threat with your guns and Militia's not the US government - me. Get your damn cows off public land and keep it on your private land. It is long done Clark County has the grazing allotment. You know it I know it. You need to get out of 1877 and move into 2014. I think you would have more savvy if you thought of it as a matter of overpopulation rather environment. Mining fizzled in 1905, grazing fizzled in 1993 (which is Bundy's damn fault). recreation brings in more dollars. FACT. maybe that Bunkervile commune might invest their cattle herd to the Mormon polygamy sects in canada or mexico. If Bundy has a right why not the Paiute? Arlene the whole story is going to come out. I sure hope there are no child brides on that ranch. Right now you are riding on a wave of novelty coupled with frustration of cronyism and dysfunction of this government. You are capitalizing on a lie and a fraud. Reid and BLM are no saints either but not those Bundys/Leavits. For the American public this appeared out of nowhere, but we in the west know this has been brewing for quiet awhile. We The People need a public discovery of ALL of the facts. All of the players Bundy, Clark County, BLM, Reid etc etc etc Whatever proof Bundy has regarding his illusionary water rights he better prove it. All of this legal mumbo jumbo.... The Bunkerville Mormon commune stole the water from the Paiute. You know they do ceremony up in that allotment to this day correct? Tue Apr 29, 2014, 01:38 PM Tue Apr 29, 2014, 02:04 PM lillypaddle (6,008 posts) 136. I just want to slap the shit out of them what a lot of mutherfuckin nerve! Damn. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 02:33 PM perdita9 (1,077 posts) 138. Non-gunowners appear to have no rights in this country The gun toting lunatics can threaten us at will Tue Apr 29, 2014, 02:46 PM 140. Drop a drone on them If they're good enough for wedding parties in Yemen, they're good enough for American terrorists in Nevada. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 03:06 PM Ash_F (5,861 posts) 143. If they weren't white, they'd be drone-bombed by now. /nt Tue Apr 29, 2014, 03:08 PM CrispyQ (24,853 posts) 144. I wouldn't want these fuckers anywhere near my community. I cannot believe they are allowed to do this: ...his constituents say the militia have set up checkpoints where residents must prove they live in the area before they are allowed to pass and have set up a "persistent presence" along federal highways, and state and county roads. They also claim some have established an armed presence in the community. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 03:40 PM toby jo (1,269 posts) 147. Imagine these kooks on your street. Kay...rist in a handbasket. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 04:23 PM Tue Apr 29, 2014, 04:46 PM cntrygrl (356 posts) 150. Still waiting for Sarah (I can shoot the broad side of a caribou - NOT!) Palin to show up with her .225-caliber Winchester. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 05:10 PM 152. They must be blind. The photo looks like there's a black man or at least an Hispanic at the front. They would never allow that if they could see the man's skin tone. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 05:42 PM mikeysnot (3,448 posts) 157. No, these are just law abiding citizens demonstrating their 2nd amendment rights... nothing to see here. Good guys with guns. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 06:02 PM Swede Atlanta (3,596 posts) 159. If these are public roads/highways...... the local sheriff needs to arrest them as they have no legal authority to block public roads/highways. I believe the minimum sentence for this kind of vigilantism is 20 years. If it is a NV highway they will rot in a NV prison. If a federal highway it is something like 20 years. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 06:07 PM Rocknrule (5,697 posts) 160. They want another Waco to make Obama look bad And to inspire some McVeigh wannabe among them to "water the tree of liberty" again Tue Apr 29, 2014, 06:52 PM Curmudgeoness (18,217 posts) How do they have the time to hang out patrolling Bunkerville? I suppose that they are all freeloaders. Tue Apr 29, 2014, 09:53 PM penultimate (1,110 posts) 166. Well that sounds highly illegal. Time to send in the cavalry to clean these morons up Unfortunatly I think that's what they're trying to get to happen. Wed Apr 30, 2014, 02:58 AM Wed Apr 30, 2014, 03:13 AM 170. Oh brother. Anonymous needs to get their facts straight and while they're at it, maybe a get new camera. Wed Apr 30, 2014, 03:38 AM freshwest (53,661 posts) 171. Yeah, script was biased. Didn't like the music or the Ayn Rand Aryan Superman type at the end. n/t Wed Apr 30, 2014, 11:51 AM Arkana (24,347 posts) 173. You mean that a bunch of violent, armed thugs are causing people distress? Well I NEVER!

951-Riverside (7,234 posts) Concerns growing about militia members at Bundy ranch Source: CBS - Las Vegas LAS VEGAS -- Concerns are growing about members of the militia surrounding rancher Cliven Bundy. Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford, sent a letter to Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie about the safety of residents in the Bunkerville area. Horsford says his constituents have "expressed concern" over the presence of armed militia groups from out of state. According to Horsford, his constituents say the militia have set u

Adolf on the best selling poster in Bandung T he Empire has developed a complex system of slapping faces and humiliating all those who defy its dictate. It has also become increasingly generous when rewarding its allies and lackeys. Of course no medals are distributed. But much better goodies are offered. The Empire uses all sorts of propaganda tricks, even "employing" some international organizations, like the United Nations, to reward its best pawns. Very often then, what is obviously black is redefined and propagated as white. Something dreadful is hailed as a great indisputable achievement. And some totally collapsed, failed country or city is suddenly singled out and showered with praises and rewards. This is exactly what took place in 2015, when the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) put the Indonesian city of Bandung on its newly created list of "World Creative Cities". * Bandung-city of learning There is absolutely nothing creative about Bandung. Its 2.5 million inhabitants, like the inhabitants of all other Indonesian cities, are condemned to only three "social and cultural activities": eating, family gatherings and praying. Not one permanent concert hall now brightens the life of this former Dutch hill station turned into some sort of "city of learning". There are no art cinemas and not one decent museum (save one that, had it been located in the People's Republic of China, could serve no more than a city of 50,000 inhabitants). There are a few parks in Bandung, but they are tiny, dirty and disconnected. There are several malls and commercial cinemas showing the lowest level pop Hollywood junk. The rest is, as elsewhere in Indonesia, an over-commercialized and desperate urban sprawl with no planning. Of course there are hundreds of "boutiques", or more precisely, of makeshift, badly put together shops selling fake goods to both locals and foreigners. These fakes are so openly 'forgeries' that the sellers are even rating them; depending on how closely they resemble the originals. To be precise, there are 5 levels of "forgeries". One wonders whether these mountains of counterfeit garments and apparels are what UNESCO actually considers to be an expression of "creativity", as in Bandung there seems to be very little else. Certainly, the inspectors and investigators of the World Trade Organization (WTO) would raid the city, were it on the territory of a Western foe, like China or Vietnam, But since the 1965 massacres orchestrated by the West, during which between 2 and 3 million local Communists and intellectuals were slaughtered, Indonesia is firmly considered a friend and a trusted ally. Bandung has seen its share of massacres. Could those slaughters be considered "creative", could they still be hailed and commemorated by the "international community", after all those years? Am I being too cynical, or is it the UN that is cynical? * Public spaces or call it sidewalks in creative city Bandung Bandung has no public transportation to speak of. Imagine a city the size of Amsterdam and Brussels combined, or like Nagoya, choking on its fumes, over flooded by stinking scooters, a city without subways, without a heavy-duty train network, without trams, without underpasses. But it gets much worse: there are no large libraries, no art projects except for one or two decent galleries located on the outskirts of the city. When my Chinese-Indonesian friend (a concert pianist and a graduate of the renowned Manhattan School of Music) was forced to return from New York to Bandung by her conservative Christian family, she tried to resist the deep gloom by working and trying to enlighten her city. She bought a keyboard (no tuners were found for concert pianos) and she practiced day and night. And she played concerts, at least once a year. These concerts were of the highest world caliber. But she did not last long. Her art went totally unappreciated. The last blow came during her appearance at the French Cultural Institute, where she was attempting to play Chopin. The dirty and small hall was rat-infested, but it was the only option available with a concert piano. During the concert, the public would get up and come up to her. People were sticking their mobile phones and cameras straight into her face, with the flashes blinding her. After this, she sold everything and began losing her hair. That was it for her, life as a musician in Bandung, "a creative city". * There are several bizarre institutions in Bandung, like an extremely popular Nazi bar, called "SoldatenKaffee". It is full of Swastikas and portraits of Adolf Hitler. Is this really what UNESCO means by "creativity"? There is also an outdoor amphitheater, which periodically performs Angklung, a traditional form of Indonesian music, an art form based mainly on bamboo pipes, which has made it on to the list of intangible world heritage. The problem is that the place has cannibalized, literally perverted its own heritage, as the orchestra mainly performs Western pop music using traditional instruments. You can hear plenty of Delilah and I did it my way, and very little of the great original West Javanese music. UNESCO should complain and threaten, but it doesn't. Yes, a city of 2.5 million, almost entirely stripped of creativity, is now declared a "World Creative City". Life without great music, without theatre, daring architectural concepts, parks, public places; it is all the result of 50 years of horrendous turbo-capitalism and anti-intellectualism injected there by the West and implemented by the treasonous cadre - General Suharto - and his cohorts. This is exactly how things are supposed to function in the Empire's colonies. Brainless television shows, pop music, crappy films, urban fragmentation, collapsed infrastructure, all sorts of religious and oppressive family structures. No variations, no escape. This is where Indonesia has ended up. So let's celebrate the great "creativity" of the city, which has redefined boredom and tastelessness! Right near the city center, there is a huge statue of Rambo holding a shoulder missile launcher. There are Hitler's posters sold by the road. There is a poor tiny blindfolded little monkey forced to dance to a Sudanese tune, right next to the highway entrance into the city center. And there are child beggars and vendors and deformed people, all calling for our attention. I would like to see UNESCO's criteria for this inscription. I would like to meet the person who worked on putting Bandung on the list; a person no doubt so thoroughly obsessed with promoting a fascist state and concept implanted by the Empire. "Shame on you!" I would say to him or her. * Rich will not listen to his song: child beggar violinist in Bandung There is one place in Bandung that UNESCO should be interested in, but isn't. It is perhaps one of the most important structures in Asia, and it is called the Museum Of Asia Africa Conference in Bandung. This is where the great 1955 conference of the non-aligned movement was held, bringing together nations that were resisting imperialism. But it is not even inscribed as a world heritage site. This magnificent tropical art deco building is where the roots of Bandung and Indonesia's collapse really lie. This is where the great Indonesian leader, President Ahmed Sukarno spoke against colonialism. And after that, the West decided: it is time to destroy the country and its government! "Bandung world creative city", is nothing other than a stamp of approval UNESCO has given to the terror that Indonesia has been suffering by the United States, Europe and its own whoring elites. And how paradoxical and cynical this stamp really is! UNESCO stands for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. During and after the 1965 coup, education, culture and science were thoroughly destroyed in Indonesia. Today, this fourth most populous nation on earth does not have one single writer, thinker or scientist of international caliber. Train in Bandung * Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. His latest books are: Exposing Lies Of The Empire and Fighting Against Western Imperialism . Discussion with Noam Chomsky: On Western Terrorism . Point of No Return is his critically acclaimed political novel. Oceania - a book on Western imperialism in the South Pacific. His provocative book about Indonesia: Indonesia The Archipelago of Fear . Andre is making films for teleSUR and Press TV. After living for many years in Latin America and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides and works in East Asia and the Middle East. He can be reached through his website or his Twitter .

Adolf on the best selling poster in Bandung T he Empire has developed a complex system of slapping faces and humiliating all those who defy its dictate.

In 2016 Kenneth Briggs wrote a book called, "The Invisible Bestseller" that detailed how the Bible was both "everywhere and nowhere." His premise was simple. The Bible is prevalent in American society, with median average of three copies per home. And if you forget to take one on a business trip or vacation, chances are good your hotel will have one as well. Yet, despite its pervasiveness, fewer Americans than ever are actually familiar with what is inside the text. It's probably little coincidence that, as Albert Mohler notes , fewer than half of our population can even name the four Gospels detailing the life of Jesus. It's a peculiar reality, to be sure: the same people who will get up in arms if you announce plans to remove a picture of the Bible from the public square can't read or identify much of what is in that Bible. For instance, Walt Disney company recently announced an end to the 35-year run of an event called "Night of Joy" in their American theme parks. Night of Joy was a Christian music festival geared towards youth that was notorious for creating difficult and problematic behavioral issues for park workers. But that explanation for ending the festival didn't stop an onslaught of well-intentioned Bible warriors descending onto the Disney fan forums to denounce the fact that they cancelled an explicitly Christian event that "instills Biblical values in the general population." Even a peripheral survey of those often perverse and hostile rebukes of Disney indicate that the commenters could profit from an infusion of some Biblical values themselves. Hopefully it isn't necessary to say this, but those using profane and disrespectful words to advocate for more appreciation of the Bible are doing substantial damage to the perception of the Bible's power. The best way to entice others into understanding the Bible's significance is to live a life transformed by its truth. It should go without saying that we can't be transformed by it if we don't open it. Public assaults on God's Word are becoming increasingly common and progressively intense. And there's no question that with groups like Freedom From Religion Foundation suing every vestige of the country's Judeo-Christian heritage in an effort to expel it from the public square, that there is a need for public defense of the superiority of Biblical thought and its cultural influence. I'm certainly not suggesting otherwise. What I am suggesting is that those who wish to conduct such a defense at least familiarize themselves with the "Good Book" before launching Facebook rants and Twitter broadsides. Life-transforming, cultural-revolutionizing, world-changing power is found inside the covers of that dusty Bible on the shelf. Perhaps a renewed commitment to promoting its study would be more profitable than warring over its symbolic popularity? Jack you are right! We Christians are to be the "salt of the earth"; setting the example so others may see "the joy of serving Jesus with a smile" (Otis Deaton). In our present day the Church is being overly influenced by modern culture which is totally out of step with Christianity. Many who claim the faith have no understanding of the faith because they don't study the Bible and attend a church that still teaches and preaches the truth of the Bible. If you attend a church that does not teach a message of sin and the need for salvation you are in the wrong church! Some of our so-called 'mainline' protestant churches have "sold-out" to the secular gospel of "health, wealth and happiness" which can be achieved by throwing a lot of money in the offering plate! NO, that is not what the Bible teaches. Come to the front of the sanctuary, shake hands with the preacher and join the church an you are "saved". NO, that is not what it means to become a Christian. Christians are to "be in the world but not of the world". We don't need to isolate ourselves from the world, just separate ourselves from the wrongs of the world. It is easy to say you are a Christian but difficult to be one! @Katherine: My father is "Mr". I'm Jack. Or Krevin. And the matter is fairly straight forward. Either you dictate the culture or the Left does. It has nothing to do with betraying your principals or even mellowing your position. Hell, the Left is very "in step" with culture and they've only become even more hardline because of it. While I wouldn't disagree with reading the book you ostensibly are advocating for I find your position too passive. Especially in light, as you note, that there is a dedicated effort to erase your faith from the public square. As you've noted "Christianity" is increasingly out of step with the nation's culture which makes any sell difficult. That, due to the Left, many of its positions are now "sinful" to use your type of vernacular in the eyes of the greater majority of people. A profane facebook page that allows you to keep a toehold influencing the culture is a worth a lot more than piousness.

In 2016 Kenneth Briggs wrote a book called, "The Invisible Bestseller" that detailed how the Bible was both "everywhere and nowhere." His premise was simple.

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The United States is helping Saudi Arabia bomb the poorest country in the Middle East. We need to stop. The nation of Yemen stands on the brink of starvation. Serious famine could result from the continued application of American might; we will be party to even more serious crimes if we continue to back the Saudi regime's agenda. Yesterday, a primary school was hit in an air strike by Saudi forces. Last fall, the Obama administration decided to block arms deals to Riyadh. That's not enough. Our fingerprints are all over this one. The Yemen conflict started on March 26 of 2015, but the strife is one with a long backstory. The simplest version goes like this: to quote the World Bank, "An Arab coalition of nine countries led by Saudi Arabia initiated a military campaign to restore President Hadi's government to power." In other words, the Saudis and their friends, including America, are intervening in Yemen. The Saudis are afraid that Iran is setting up a new puppet government there, so they want to put the old moderate government back in charge. That's the clinical explanation. What's actually happening is that a lot of poor people are being killed by missiles, and bombs, and other munitions. Washington nods, and smiles, and gives the go-ahead. Americans refuel Saudi aircraft. Americans provide coordination with the Saudi military. Americans offer the Saudis a hundred other little favors. We are co-conspirators. As a wise man once said, there are two powers in the world, America, and global opinion. A good rule of thumb for understanding world politics: whenever an American ally makes a big move in the realm of foreign affairs, the ally usually clears it with the American government first. This is not universally true, but it's usually the safe way to bet. That's why this country is tangentially complicit in so many different kinds of human rights outrages. America pretending to have clean hands in world politics is like the beat cop pretending to not notice organized crime operating under his nose. Where our allies are concerned, we have a huge amount of influence. Example: until recently, the Americans peddled all kinds of munitions to the Saudi military; we sold $20 billion of them in 2015. We only stopped on Dec. 13, 2016, when the Administration halted a sale by Raytheon to the Saudi Kingdom. The White House was getting it from human rights groups and couldn't proceed as before. In fact, the Obama administration, to quote Reuters, has sold the Arabian Kingdom over $115 billion in various war goods, more than "any U.S. administration in the 71-year U.S.-Saudi alliance." Remember, this is all being done under the watch of a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, so it's totally morally cool. Twenty-three illegal air strikes, using our weapons, have killed children and other civilians. This all got noticed, by the way, when our weapons flattened over one hundred and forty people last October, during a funeral in Yemen. The funeral in question occurred in the al-Sala al-Kubra community hall during the mourning for Ali al-Rawishan, the father of the government's interior minister, Jalal al-Rawishan. The funeral time and guest list was announced on Facebook on Oct. 7. The two munitions, dropped at 3:30 PM, were--it is alleged--deliberately planned to land during the peak hour of mourning, when the civilian population would be the greatest. According to Human Rights Watch: Human Rights Watch identified the munition used as a US-manufactured air-dropped GBU-12 Paveway II 500-pound laser-guided bomb. The identification was based on a review of photos and footage of an intact guidance fin assembly with legible manufacturer's markings and other weapon remnants. The photos and video were taken at the scene of the attack by Mwatana, a leading Sanaa-based human rights organization, journalists from the British news channel ITV, and a local activist, who visited the site on October 9. As NPR points out, although our efforts in Syria and Iraq are famous, our involvement in Yemen is not so well-known: Since March 2015, the U.S. has been providing support to a Saudi-led military coalition fighting Houthi rebels. The Houthis ousted Yemen's government and forced the president, Abed Mansour Hadi, to flee to Saudi Arabia. Initially the Saudis thought they could easily uproot the Houthis, but the conflict has ground on much longer than the Saudis expected. The Washington Post described a "bloody and futile intervention in Yemen" by Saudi Arabia: Pushed by its ambitious, 31-year-old deputy crown prince, the kingdom plunged into Yemen's civil war in 2015 and since then has carried out some of the most brutal attacks in a war-ravaged Middle East with substantial American support. Human rights groups have accused the Saudis of bombing hospitals, schools and other civilian sites and of employing cluster munitions, all in violation of international law. According to writer Ben Norton, a famine monitor "created by the U.S. government has said the conflict is responsible for creating the gravest food security crisis on the planet." MEANWHILE IN YEMEN If you're surprised that this is happening, and that we're involved, it's understandable. This isn't the kind of conflict you see on the nightly news; it doesn't make an inspiring story. Beltway opinion likes the Saudis very much, and so most of the mainstream media prefers to keep quiet about our morally-compromised alliance with an absolute monarchy. But in the past several months, our involvement has become too problematic to deny. What follows is a lot of names and information you might find strange, and details that may at first seem boring. I promise this is important. These are real people. This is a real place. Look at a map of the Arabian Peninsula. See the lower left corner of that region, the part that touches Africa? That's Yemen, home to 24 million people. Yemen is a Muslim country. Fifty-five percent of the citizens of Yemen are Sunni; the rest are Shia. Yemen had a revolution in November 2011, an Arab Spring of their own. The uprising threw out a strongman named Saleh. This led to a new government being put in place, by Saleh's deputy, Hadi. Hadi became President. The government in Yemen was Sunni, and was recognized as legitimate by the international community. As you might imagine, there are a lot of problems for a new government in an ex-authoritarian, impoverished country. To quote the World Bank again, "Yemen was facing challenges on several fronts that have been exacerbated by the conflict--high population growth, severe urban-rural imbalances, food and water scarcity, female illiteracy, widespread poverty, and economic stagnation." There is a clan inside Yemen named the Houthi, who follow a version of Shia Islam, like Iran. After Hadi took over, his Sunni government struggled to maintain control of its territory. Houthis seized parts of the north, and eventually took over the capital. Hadi and his regime fled. Here's where it gets a little tricky. The Houthis are an independent sort of people. They fought against Saleh when he was in power. They are currently fighting the Hadi government. But guess who also wants the new Hadi government gone? The former boss, Saleh. He is now in an alliance with the Houthi. If this seems confusing and contradictory, welcome to Middle Eastern politics. It is alleged that Iran is funding and giving weapons to the Houthi. Per the International Business Times : The degree to which the Houthis are being funded by Iran is unclear, although most Yemen watchers believe Tehran is funnelling both weapons and military advice to the rebels. Just like its backing of Lebanese militia group Hezbollah, the Houthis make an excellent proxy on the border of Iran's most significant ideological and geopolitical enemy, Saudi Arabia. But analysts equally see the hand of Saleh behind the Houthi advance, which may also serve to explain why the Houthis have been willing to spread so far from their north-western heartlands. As you may know, in the Middle East, there is a long-running struggle for power between Saudi Arabia (Sunni Islam) and Iran (Shia Islam). As the IBT points out, the Saudis do not want an ally of Iran on their doorstep. They have struck an alliance with the Yemeni government to fight the Houthi rebels. So it's the Saudis, various allies, and the government of Yemen on one side, and Iran and the Houthi on the other. In steps the United States, friend to Saudi Arabia. WHICH BRINGS US TO TODAY In other words, this conflict comes down to a fight for power in a small country in the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Is it worth this cost? We should care that thousands of ordinary people are being killed in the crossfire, and we are still helping. We're like a man who shut down his dog-fighting ring Tuesday and declares himself ready for sainthood on Wednesday. According to the BBC, More than 6,800 people have been killed and 35,000 injured since March 2015, the majority in air strikes by a Saudi-led multinational coalition that backs the president. The conflict and a blockade imposed by the coalition have also triggered a humanitarian disaster, leaving 80% of the population in need of aid. Just under half of the population is below eighteen. The BBC continues: The UN says 3.1 million Yemenis are internally displaced, while 14 million people are suffering from food insecurity and 370,000 children under the age of five are at risk of starving to death. More than 1,900 of the country's 3,500 health facilities are also currently either not functioning or partially functioning, leaving half the population without adequate healthcare. There is no clear victor yet, and twenty-one months of fighting have not changed the position of the combatants. The last hope for a peace settlement was in Kuwait in April 2016. Three months later, the discussions failed, and everyone went back to the knife. Forget the other issues: that Yemen sits atop the Bab al-Mandab strait, a water-passage that most of the world's oil passes through. Choke that one point, and you could slowly starve the engines of the world. This conflict could "destabilize the region," to use the easy phrases of international relations, but forget that too. We can rationalize away any malfeasance if we throw the net of justification wide enough. Instead, we should focus on the important details: the deaths we have directly caused, and the damage to the infrastructure of Yemen, which is about to develop into a humanitarian crisis. We must stop playing in, and paying for, this game. This once, perhaps we ought to focus on the only side that really matters--the people's.

The United States is helping Saudi Arabia bomb the poorest country in the Middle East. We need to stop. The nation of Yemen stands on the brink of starvation.

Twitter Participants unfurl a rainbow flag a Mumbai pride on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2014. Staff Reports Twitter Participants unfurl a rainbow flag a Mumbai pride on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2014. MUMBAI, India -- A record crowd estimated at over 5,000 participants turned out for gay pride in Mumbai on Saturday, the first pride event since the country's supreme court reinstated a colonial-era law that criminalizes gay sex. Now in its seventh year, Mumbai's pride event was bigger and bolder, attracting crowds from across the globe for a festive and highly charged atmosphere, reports DNA India . "Ideally, the march is about taking pride in what you are. But this year's upsurge in numbers is a reflection of the community's anger and hurt over being re-criminalized," said Ashok Row Kavi, one of India's leading gay rights activists. "If courts think they can brush us off and treat us like sub-humans they need to see how they have ended up giving the movement a shot in the arm instead. This movement will grow and succeed." Article continues below India's Supreme Court ruled in December that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (unnatural sexual offenses) -- a 153-year-old law that criminalizes homosexuality -- was constitutionally valid, and that only lawmakers and not the courts could change the law. The ruling struck down a 2009 lower court decision that decriminalized gay sex. The ruling dealt a blow to gay activists who have fought for years for the chance to live openly in India's deeply conservative society, and has drawn sharp criticism from human rights advocates worldwide. The law, dating back to the 1860s, when Britain ruled over South Asia, states that "whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal" can be punished by up to 10 years in prison.

MUMBAI, India -- A record crowd estimated at over 5,000 participants turned out for gay pride in Mumbai on Saturday, the first pride event since the country's supreme court reinstated a colonial-era law that criminalizes gay sex.

A study sponsored by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario found that women who had undergone abortion experienced: 4 times higher rate of hospitalization for infections 5 times higher rate of a surgical event nearly 5 times higher rate of hospitalization for psychiatric problems. The Ontario study compared abortive women to those who had not undergone abortion. In 2000, the UK's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists established that the immediate physical complication rate of induced abortion is at least 11%. (1) This figure does not include complications that arise after days, weeks or months. Applying that rate to the the 100,000 abortions in Canada means that over 11,000 women suffer complications each year due to abortion. An American study from 2000 found an even higher complication rate of 17%. (2) Immediate physical complications include: Perforations Sepsis Pelvic Inflammatory Disease Pain due to endometriosis Uterine hemorrhage Retained fetal or placental tissue Long-term complications include: Uterine perforation - can cause infertility Cervical damage Placenta previa Breast cancer Premature births Ectopic pregnancy Future offspring have a higher risk of prematurity. Cerebral palsy and other disabilities result from prematurity Breast cancer Estrogen is a known carcinogen. When a pregnancy is suddenly interrupted by abortion, especially before the 32nd week, the cancer-vulnerable breast tissue remains in an immature stage(breast lobule maturation is completed at 32 weeks gestation) while being exposed to high levels of estrogen. This results in an exponentially higher risk of breast cancer. Abortion as a risk factor in breast cancer has been supported by more than 20 peer-reviewed, published scientific studies. The scientific studies average a 30% increased risk of breast cancer due to abortion. (3) Therefore, we can say that carrying a child to term presents far less health risk than does abortion. To learn more about the abortion-breast cancer link, visit www.abortionbreastcancer.ca, www.abortionbreastcancer.com, and www.hushfilm.com. Coercion & pressure Despite the rhetoric of pro-choice politicians and the abortion industry, those who are getting abortions are not doing so because of freedom of choice. They're doing so because they feel they have no freedom and no choice. Women are doing so out of desperation. Most women getting abortions feel hemmed in by outside pressures. Very often it is a boyfriend coercing her to get the abortion. Sometimes young women will even feel pressured by a family doctor or a parent who suggests that her life circumstances are not conducive to having a baby. Other times it is the fear and uncertainty of external circumstances. The "freedom of choice" slogan does not reflect the reality of where these women are. Several studies have been conducted offering evidence of the coercion/pressure as a major instigator of abortion decisions. Following are examples: 64% of women who had abortions report that they felt pressured to abort by others (4) A survey of women conducted 15 years after their abortions found that 75% regretted having the abortion and by their own testimony, said they made the wrong choice. (5) As many as 60% to 83% of women undergoing abortion would have actually preferred to give birth if only their circumstances would have been better. (6) Therefore, we pro-lifers are really the ones who are increasing the freedom of women when we give them the many alternatives to abortion: the support ministries offered in the church, through pregnancy centres, etc. The powerful book, Forbidden Grief, by psychotherapist Theresa Burke contains testimonials from many of her patients who were pressured into abortion by a boyfriend, husband, family, doctor or parent. It is a must-read and can be purchased at our on-line store . Post-traumatic stress disorder Abortion touches the most intimate part of a woman's being. Her very femininity is connected to, and defined by, the potential for motherhood. At some level, the destruction of a pregnancy is felt as a deprivation; an act of violence against herself. For a large percentage of women therefore, abortion is experienced as a traumatic experience. Reporting procedures for psychological harm after abortion do not exist in Canada. However, some statistically-valid studies have been conducted which establish a baseline. These studies indicate that 14% - 20% of women who abort will experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD ) . (7) This means that every year, up to 20,000 Canadian women will experience PTSD after having an abortion. Furthermore, this baseline estimate is conservative and the actual rate of PTSD may be much higher. These same studies also found that: 50% of women had many but not all, of the symptoms of PTSD. (8) 65% of women experienced multiple symptoms of PTSD. (9) Suicide risk A study done in Finland found that the suicide rate associated with abortion is 6 times higher than the suicide rate associate with childbirth. (10) In September 2011, the prestigious British Journal of Psychiatry published a study consisting of the most powerful meta-analysis ever done on the mental health risks of abortion. The researcher, Priscilla Coleman, conducted a meta-analysis of 22 separate studies which analysed the experiences of a total of 877,000 women, of whom 163,831 had had an abortion. The results revealed that women who had undergone an abortion experienced an 81 per cent increased risk of mental health problems, a 155 percent greater risk of trying to commit suicide, and that nearly 10 per cent of the incidence of mental health problems were shown to be directly attributable to abortion. (11) Maternal death after abortion The same Finnish study of authoritative government statistics established that women who undergo induced abortion experience a death rate nearly four times greater than women who give birth. (12) This excludes death from suicide. Why aren't women being told? If a woman has a right to choose, she certainly has a right to KNOW all the risks associated with a medical procedure. Otherwise she cannot give informed consent. Consider sharing these facts with your doctor and your representative of provincial or federal government. Footnotes Elizabeth Ring-Cassidy and Ian Gentles, "Women's Health After Abortion". (Toronto: Deveber Institute, 2003), 10 ibid, 12. Cassidy and Gentles cite the work of Major B, Cozzarelli C, Cooper ML, Zubek J, Richards C, "Psychological response of women after 1st trimester abortion", Archives of General Psychiatry, Aug 2000 ibid, 17 Theresa Burke with David C. Reardon, Forbidden Grief: The Unspoken Pain of Abortion", (Springfield, IL: Acorn Books), 115. Burke cites the work of Rue, "Induced Abortion and Traumatic Stress", op. cit. (ch.1 site 1) Peter Kreeft, "Moral Theology of Homosexuality", http://www.peterkreeft.com/audio/11_moral-theology/peter-kreeft_moral-theology.mp3 . Kreeft cites the research of psychologist David C. Reardon from his books "Rachel Weeping" and "Abortive Women: Silent No More". Theresa Burke with David C. Reardon, Forbidden Grief: The Unspoken Pain of Abortion", (Springfield, IL: Acorn Books), 114. ibid, 116. Burke cites 2 studies. One by Catherine Barnard, "The Long-term psychological effects of abortion". The other by Rue, "Induced Abortion and traumatic stress". ibid, 116. Citing Barnard's study of 80 women at a Baltimore clinic who had undergone abortion 3 to 5 years earlier. ibid, 116. Citing Rue's study of 217 American women. Elizabeth Ring-Cassidy and Ian Gentles, "Women's Health After Abortion". (Toronto: Deveber Institute, 2003), 92 Priscilla Coleman, "Abortion and mental health: quantitative synthesis and analysis of research published 1995-2009", (The British Journal of Psychiatry, September 2011), Elizabeth Ring-Cassidy and Ian Gentles, "Women's Health After Abortion". (Toronto: Deveber Institute, 2003), 91

Women are doing so out of desperation.

Arizona: 'Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West' Emma Kapotes/Rd.com Cormac McCarthy's epic novel tells the story of a young runaway--aptly named "the kid"--who encounters a gang of outlaws that massacres Native Americans for bounty along the U.S.-Mexican border. This is a grim, violent novel, but one that taps into the mythology and history of the "Wild West." Arkansas: 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings' Emma Kapotes/Rd.com This autobiography of American writer and poet Maya Angelou delves into gritty themes like racism and overcoming adversity as well as timeless topics like self-identity, love, and sexuality. Written in 1969, the book hearkens back to Angelou's childhood, starting when she was three years old, and ends after she gives birth as a teen. As the book progresses, readers bear witness to Angelou's transformation from an a victim of racial and social prejudice to a strong, independent woman. You'll want to memorize these Maya Angelou quotes . California: 'East of Eden' Emma Kapotes/Rd.com Like other John Steinbeck novels, East of Eden is set in the Salinas Valley in northern California. In this novel, Steinbeck tells the story of two brothers, Adam and Charles Trask, and their tumultuous, competitive relationship. Widely considered Steinbeck's magnum opus, East of Eden reimagines the book of Genesis, complete with themes of jealousy, betrayal, and innocence lost.

Arizona: 'Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West' Emma Kapotes/Rd.com Cormac McCarthy's epic novel tells the story of a young runaway--aptly named "the kid"--who encounters a gang of outlaws that massacres Native Americans for bounty along the U.S.-Mexican border.

Capturing everyone from punk pioneers to rap revolutionaries, iconic music photographer Janette Beckman is always pointing her lens toward the future For over 40 years, British photographer Janette Beckman has been a fixture on the underground scene, creating a body of work that is stored deep in the memory banks of music fans everywhere. You may have seen her shots on the covers of seminal albums like the Police's Outlandos D'Amour , New Edition's Candy Girl , and EPMD's Unfinished Business , or on singles like the B-52s' "Love Shack," Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car," and Run-DMC's "Mary, Mary." One thing is for sure: Janette Beckman is everywhere. Whether shooting music, fashion, portraiture, or documentary work, Beckman's commitment to celebrating cutting-edge culture has made her one of the most important photographers of our time. But Beckman never rests on the success of her past achievements. Now 57 and living in New York, you can find her most recent work in the pages of Interview magazine, capturing up and coming female rappers. Or in the new Levi's campaign--creating block party vibes for the new millennium. Whatever the case, Beckman is always in the mix, celebrating the spirit of rebellion, freedom, and self-determination that exemplifies the DIY culture that she has long helped shape. How did you get into photography? When I was young, I wanted to draw like David Hockney and go to art school. My parents did not want me to be an artist, but my mom let me go to St. Martins School of Art. I lived in a squat in Streatham, a suburb of London. We'd all sit around drawing each other, stoned in the basement. I then went to London College of Communication where I took up photography. That's when I began to shoot people on the street. I became obsessed with August Sander's book People of the 20th Century . I remember checking it out of the college library for so long that I didn't dare take it back. As a matter of fact, it's still sitting on my bookshelf. There was a lot in England to photograph during the 1970s. While I was in college, I discovered disco, punk, reggae, and rockabilly. Rebel culture was happening all around. England is very embedded in tradition. The monarchy and the class system are well in place. I was very attracted to punk--I thought it was going to change the country. Boy George, London, 1981 Tell me more about your early punk street photography. When I came out of art school, there were all these exotic-looking people with mohawks wandering around. King's Road was a big mecca for street fashion. There would be people hanging out in front of Town Hall drinking, and I would always find people to shoot. And whenever I went to shoot bands, there was always a lot of downtime. While I was waiting, I would turn my camera around to the fans. After a bit, I became more obsessed with taking pictures of the fans than the bands. Mod Girl, London, 1976 When did you start shooting musicians? I started shooting for Melody Maker magazine in 1976. It wasn't a problem that I was a woman; it was that I was an art student. They didn't understand it. They were old rock guys who loved Led Zeppelin and wore jeans with cowboy boots, and I was there in Converse, pajama bottoms, and punky T-shirts. But the work got divided well--the editors weren't that receptive to punk and I wasn't into rock. The photo world is predominantly male, but for me, being female was positive. I'm not intimidating. I'm friendly. I'm chatty. I was never a groupie. I was there to take pictures, tell the story. When The Face magazine came out in 1980, I was in my element. The first issue had my photograph of the Islington Twins in their parkas. I could photograph the Alternative Miss World contest that artist Andrew Logan arranged where men came dressed in drag, I went to music festivals and illegal fight clubs in South London. It was all very casual and allowed me to shoot what I loved. The Islington Twins, London, 1979 What made you decide to move to New York? My first visit to New York was in 1975. It was around the time of the garbage strike. It was very cold and kind of great. My friend took me to the East Village, which was a desolate wasteland. It was so exciting. I came back in 1982 to visit that same friend on Franklin Street. She told me about an empty loft next door and asked if I wanted to stay for a bit. My window looked down on the alley where the Mudd Club was, and we'd always go to Dave's Hot Dogs on Canal and Broadway after a night out. I was hanging out, meeting people, and getting work. I had a "What Went Wrong?" column in Mademoiselle where they showed photographs of fashion mistakes. Some friends started a magazine called Paper and I worked with them for the first five years shooting fashion and downtown celebrities. I was still working for Melody Maker and The Face ; they knew I was in New York so they started giving me work. Queen Latifah with artwork by Lady Pink, NYC, 1990/2016 How did you get into hip-hop? The first hip-hop show I ever shot was in London in 1982 for Melody Maker . I got the assignment because I put my hand up--the writer said something like, "This is just a fad and it's never going to last," which is hilarious. Before the show, I went to the hotel and there were all these people looking really different from London's dowdy punks. I started taking pictures that afternoon of Dondi, Futura, Rammellzee, Fab 5 Freddy, Afrika Bambaataa, GrandMixer DST--and I didn't even know who they were! Then I went to the concert and it was just amazing. On stage, the double-dutch girls, the Rock Steady Crew, Fab 5 Freddy, and Afrika Bambaataa were all performing while Dondi and Futura were painting. We had never seen anything like it. Rapping, poetry, breakdancing, graffiti--it had all of this positive energy. Female rappers [top row, left to right]: Sparky D, Sweet Tee, Yvette Money, Ms. Melodie; [middle row]: Millie Jackson, Peaches, a dancer for Sparky D; [bottom row]: a dancer for Sparky D, Roxanne Shante, MC Lyte, Synquis, NYC, 1988 How did you re-connect with the hip-hop scene once you came to New York? The Brits like to be ahead of everyone when it comes to music. Melody Maker and The Face started calling me to photograph this new thing called hip-hop. So I went to the Bronx to photograph Bambaataa, to Queens to photograph Run-DMC, to Brooklyn, and to Harlem. There was a new group called Salt-N-Pepa and I got the assignment to photograph them for Sky , a teen magazine. They came around my place on Avenue B. It was their first photo shoot. We were hanging out on the Lower East Side and they were just having fun. They liked the picture so they asked me to shoot their first record cover. They showed up wearing amazing leather jackets by [legendary Harlem designer] Dapper Dan. They introduced me to their manager, and he introduced me to other groups. Run-DMC and their posse, Hollis, Queens, 1984 How did being an outsider work for you in that scene? When I came to New York, being a British woman and going out to the Bronx, I didn't know it at the time, but not being from here and not being a guy--as a white person going into African-American culture--really helped. They didn't look at me as someone who had a bunch of preconceptions. I didn't know what the South Bronx was like. I'd just jump on the train by myself with some film, one camera, and one lens. I didn't know where I was going and what I was doing so I was fearless. Free Download: Great Dames! Get inspired by some of our favorite interviews, featuring Dolly Parton, Solange, Tina Fey, Jessica Williams, Kathleen Hanna, Laverne Cox, the Broad City gals, and more! Plus, keep up with the latest from BUST. Camae aka Moor Mother, NYC, 2018 I've read that that when you first started showing your work to record labels, they were like, "It's too rough!" I had been working for The Face and Melody Maker and had shot important punk bands like the Clash and the Sex Pistols. I had done one or two album covers for the Police. I thought, I am going to go to New York with my portfolio and I will be the new Annie Leibovitz! So I started making appointments at record companies and they said, "It's not really our style. It needs to be airbrushed and people's hair isn't combed, and you can see the zits on their faces. This stuff just doesn't look right." Then suddenly, I got my first record cover for the Fearless Four, a rap group, and I was like, Yes! Your respect for the cultures you capture keeps you on the cutting edge. Tell me about the pictures you took of gangs in East L.A. in 1983. I was staying with a friend in Los Angeles for the summer when I read a piece in LA Weekly about a gang in East L.A. I was fascinated and asked the writer to introduce them to me. We drove to a park in the neighborhood. I showed the gang members my photos of the British punk scene and asked if I could photograph them. It was like meeting a big family. They took care of me. I was invited to their homes, met their mothers and grandmothers and relatives. Everyone was telling me, "It's really dangerous." But I didn't pay any attention. By the time [El Hoyo Maravilla, the photo essay containing those pictures] came out as part of an exhibition in 2014, about 90 percent of the people in those pictures were dead or in jail. It was really deep. I went out to Los Angeles and reconnected with three women I had photographed. They still lived in the old neighborhood, walking distance from each other. They were still tight. One works in gang rehabilitation; another works for the D.A.'s office; and the third works in human resources at a large company and drives a Mercedes. They survived and made it out of gang life. East L.A. gang girls, 1983 Describe your vision as a photographer. I am attracted to cultures and to people who are passionate about doing things in a different way. Collaboration is really important to me. Most of the musicians I photographed were not celebrities yet. They were just starting off. They were fresh and creative. We were at the same level and had the immediate collaboration thing. It's about the culture and being a part of it. You are consistent. Whether it's punk or hip-hop or bike crews in the Bronx, you keep moving to the next thing that represents the culture. I am lucky that I have my archive and I do shows. If I had been a fashion photographer back in the day, I wouldn't be selling photos in a gallery. I just signed with the Fahey/Klein Gallery in L.A. L: Protester at an anti-Trump demonstration, NYC, 2016; R: Protester at the Women's March on Washington, 2017 Congratulations! You know, what I love about what you do is that there is always a DIY element. It must be my punk aesthetic. Making money has never been my primary thing. I've been lucky that I've been able to float through. Some really great things have come to me because people have respect for my punk and hip-hop work. I just shot for Levi's, and they hired me to photograph block parties in Jersey City and Brooklyn. They got double-dutch dancers, breakdancers, kids on custom bicycles, and we were casting people off the street. In Jersey City, two old ladies came out. They were in their 80s, so we gave them director's chairs and threw trucker jackets on them. I was like, This is it! By Miss Rosen All images by Janette Beckman Top photo: Salt-N-Pepa, NYC, 1987 This article originally appeared in the April/May 2018 print edition of BUST Magazine. Subscribe today!

I was very attracted to punk--I thought it was going to change the country. Boy George, London, 1981 Tell me more about your early punk street photography. When I came out of art school, there were all these exotic-looking people with mohawks wandering around.

The irony in the controversy that has broken out about whether Australia should impose a total ban on Muslim immigration to combat ISIS terror is that if only Iraq had been able to close its borders to Western invaders back in 2003, this whole ISIS shit could have been avoided. The Australia First Party will not be able to use the Eureka flag as its logo on ballot papers in the federal election on July 2. Their application was ineligible because it had not been advertised for 30 days as required by law. However, the application will be considered again in 100 days' time, well after voters head to the ballot box. In 1939, as Europe stood on the verge of all-out war, Nazi Germany, true to their promise, had issued and implemented 400 different decrees for the regulation of the public and private lives of Jews. Their properties were confiscated, and their businesses and synagogues were burned down. These laws effectively purged Jews from schools, academia, business and public life, and declared them "undesirables". Many Jews were forced to seek asylum in other Western countries.

The irony in the controversy that has broken out about whether Australia should impose a total ban on Muslim immigration to combat ISIS terror is that if only Iraq had been able to close its borders to Western invaders back in 2003, this whole ISIS shit could have been avoided.

I had prepared a rather lengthy post for yesterday, to mark the black-anniversary of December 6th, 1240 - the day when the Mongols finally broke into Kyiv and completely destroyed the city. I was going to accompany that history with a photo essay (of my own photos even!) about contemporary Kyiv - but the site difficulties persisted for most of the day, and by the time they were resolved there was only time to quickly toss up a short text version for the date. You can find that here . But the quick summary is that Kyiv had grown from very little before 1000 into, by the early 13th century, the second largest city in Europe - with a population of 50,000 making it second only to Paris - and the leading eastern outpost of civilization. That changed abruptly on December 6th, 1240. In any case, I business-travel to Ukraine quite frequently, and in April 2007 I was actually "stranded" (by scheduling) in Kyiv for a weekend. Spring was just creeping into bloom, but the weather was strangely marvelous. So by popular demand from yesterday's post, I'll try to assemble here a "walking tour" of Kyiv. If nothing else, I guess that this can go into the "cultural upliftenment" category. To set the mood, get this going. Alex Parker I have no idea what the guy was doing with the photos, since they've got nothing to do with Kyiv. This is just a clever way to imbed six or so minutes of music to provide appropriate accompaniment for the photos and text that follow. The view from the bluffs (the reason for the location of Kyiv) overlooking the Dniepro, looking eastward over the vast plains that stretch off into central Asia. Upon those bluffs, Prince/Saint Volodymyr keeps watch. The magnificent St. Michael's monastery. The original, which dates to 1108, was destroyed by the communists in 1936; it was rebuilt to match the original, and re-opened in 2001. The (appropriately) stark and disturbing memorial commemorating the "Holodomor" at the main gate of St. Michael's. St. Andrei's cathedral, which is "different" in some ways because it had an Italian architect. The memorial statue of the great Ukrainian national hero Bohdan Khmelnitsky. After leading a successful revolt against Polish rule in 1648, Khmelnitsky tried to form an alliance with the Russian tsar, only to find out that the tsar didn't accept allies - only vassals. Khmelnitsky was enraged, but after a few days of fuming he realized that his only other choice was to return Ukraine to Polish rule. He thus became an unwilling vassal of the tsar, and Ukraine became a Russian vassal until 1991. Khmelnitsky is a tragic hero. The St. Sophia monastery, with its magnificent bell tower. The recreated Zoloti Vorota, the legendary "Golden Gate" which is best-known from the famous Mussorgsky/Ravel use as the final scene in "Pictures at an Exhibition" as "The Great Gate of Kiev." With the original having been destroyed in 1240, only stories and legends persist - no one knows what it actually looked like. This rendition was actually a Soviet-era creation, built in the early 1980s - as far as I can tell, because the Intourist people noticed that they were always being asked, "Where's the 'Great Gate?'" When I was there in April 2007, this recreation was in pretty rough shape, as the photo shows. It always amazes me that Roman construction is still good after 2500 years, but Soviet construction is crumbling after 25. Fortunately, the Zoloti Vorota underwent a massive renovation later in 2007, and has had its majesty restored. But at least the location is apparently correct; the street along which I was standing to take that photo is clearly along the bottom of the old moat that ran outside the city walls. The lovely St. Volodymyr cathedral. The first hints of spring in Kyiv's wonderful (and extensive) Botanical Gardens. The famous statue of Taras Shevchenko, the Ukrainian national poet. Shevchenko was a 19th century poet who got himself into all sorts of trouble for having the gall to write in Ukrainian (rather than Russian) - and for glorifying the Ukrainian cossacks (who resisted Tsarist control). Spring blooms in Kyiv.

I had prepared a rather lengthy post for yesterday, to mark the black-anniversary of December 6th, 1240 - the day when the Mongols finally broke into Kyiv and completely destroyed the city.

ADDENDA : Shockingly, Elizabeth Warren did not respond to an invitation to take a DNA test to confirm her claims of Native American heritage. [Capitalism] encourages and requires fierce individualism, self-interested disregard for the other, and resentment of arrangements into which one deposits more than he or she withdraws. As a business-savvy friend once remarked: Nobody gets rich off of bilateral transactions where everybody knows what they're doing. Capitalism is an ideology that is far more encompassing than it admits, and one that turns every relationship into a calculable exchange. Bodies, time, energy, creativity, love -- all become commodities to be priced and sold. That's Elizabeth Bruenig, writing in a newspaper owned by the richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos . Really? "Nobody gets rich off of bilateral transactions where everybody knows what they're doing?" What exactly is Amazon, then? Is it somehow exploitative when you send money to Amazon and they send you things you want? Who's being exploited? Is the corner store more or less exploitative? Does the philosophy that any bilateral transaction in a capitalist system represents disregard and resentment apply to Bruenig's gig as an opinion columnist at the Washington Post? She's not writing, and sharing her time, energy, and creativity on a volunteer basis. The Post gives her a paycheck, benefits (I presume), and a platform to reach a much wider audience than she would have her own. She gives them a column of interest and value. (Go ahead, laugh, get it out of your system. Look, not every decision in a capitalist system is going to work out!) What's fascinating is that Bruenig's contention, that the free exchange of goods and services for money is somehow inherently unfair, exploitative, and morally wrong, is . . . not all that different from Donald Trump's argument against the current free-trade status quo. We don't operate on the barter system; we (or more specifically, America's companies) purchase things from suppliers overseas. They send us iPads, cell phones, and cars, and we send them money. But then all of those companies buy things from us: aircraft, beef, corn, soybeans, trucks, tractors, coal. In the case of China, Japan, Germany, Mexico, and Ireland (!), we buy more stuff from them than they buy from us. What you hear less about is that Hong Kong, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Belgium, and Australia buy more from us than we buy from them. Overall, we're running a trade deficit. We could worry about this in certain circumstances, i.e., our fighter jets need a certain component that is only produced in a foreign country. But those circumstances are pretty rare. There are fair arguments against some trade practices. American workers can compete with anyone in the world . . . provided that those workers are not in slave-labor camps, as in China . We've banned the import of "merchandise mined, produced or manufactured, wholly or in part, in any foreign country by forced or indentured child labor -- including forced child labor." It's fair to ask if we're doing enough to keep goods produced by indisputably exploited labor from the shelves of American stores. Similarly, if a country's environmental, workplace-safety, or other laws differ from ours dramatically, we may conclude that purchasing their products represents an endorsement of exploitation. If a foreign company is subsidized by the government so much that it can afford to sell a product at less than it cost to make that product, then we don't really have free trade; American workers and companies are competing against both the foreign producer AND the foreign government. But Trump rarely if ever makes his arguments on those terms. In Trump's mind, if the United States is buying more of another country's products than they're buying of ours, we're inherently "losing." But we have to make the deals fair. You know, with Mexico, as an example, we probably lose $130 billion a year. Now, for years, I've been saying -- for the last year and a half, I've been saying $71 billion, but it's really not. And they have a VAT tax of 16 percent, and we don't have a tax. And, at some point, we have to get stronger and smarter, because we cannot continue to lose that kind of money with one country. (In 2016, Mexico bought $230 billion in U.S. goods, and Americans bought $294 billion in Mexican goods.) When Breunig calls for "a kind of socialism that would be democratic and aimed primarily at decommodifying labor, reducing the vast inequality brought about by capitalism, and breaking capital's stranglehold over politics and culture," she probably imagines something like Norway without all the oil drilling. As many observers have noticed, nations and cultures aren't all the same, and you can't expect the United States to just adopt a Norwegian economic and political model and expect everything to run smoothly. (In another essay , I pointed out that the Scandanavian societies that progressives keep staring at in envy have a slew of problems that aren't as bad here in the United States -- high cost of living, xenophobia and an unwelcoming attitude towards foreigners [immigrants, not tourists], and violence against women.) Donald Trump and Elizabeth Bruenig don't agree on much, but they do agree that you currently have too much freedom to buy what you want, when you want, how you want, from wherever you want. What's Really Wrong with Us But just because Bruenig is wrong in her suggested solution doesn't necessarily mean she's off-base in her assessment of the problem. She writes, "Americans appear to be isolated, viciously competitive, suspicious of one another and spiritually shallow; and that we are anxiously looking for some kind of attachment to something real and profound in an age of decreasing trust and regard." Some might argue these are just updated versions of familiar complaints: the "Me Decade" of the Seventies, the alleged greed of the Eighties, the domestic paranoia and facile techno-utopianism of the Nineties. But most of us who love our country, and look around at it, would acknowledge that not everything is as good as we would like, and in fact we're facing some serious problems. A Venn diagram of the Right's diagnosis of America's problems and the Left might have a decent amount of overlap. You can chase your dream, but a lot of people keep picking the same dreams. A couple years ago, Saturday Night Live did a sketch imagining if the Nobel Prize Awards were covered like the Oscars. It was reasonably funny, but also revealing. We can name lots of movie stars, but few inventors or medical researchers. We have long lists of favorite bands, but no lists of favorite diplomats or peacemakers. Across bars, water coolers, and talk radio, Americans debate professional athletics at length, but no one has a fantasy team of philanthropists and innovators. It is unsurprising that people would aspire to a role that is celebrated and applauded and glamorized. When a society celebrates the stars of movies and television shows, pop music, and professional athletics more than any other role, it's not surprising that you'll see overwhelming interest in achieving that role. My suspicion is that a lot of children and teens dream of a role where they'll regularly hear thunderous applause and enjoy overwhelming wealth . . . and then feel a little disappointed when adult life gives them a career in a cubicle, or behind a store counter, or on a construction site. We talk a good game about " the inherent dignity of work " but we don't really practice it. And it's not merely wages. We don't really offer much salute or even respect for the quiet difficult task of getting up every morning, going to work, being courteous to everyone around you, taking care of your family, paying the bills, and just keeping going, even when it feels like drudgery. I'd argue that all too often, our society celebrates those it should denounce and denounces those it should celebrate. Indeed, we do live in an era of "decreasing trust and regard." Some would argue that reflects the growth of a " progressive aristocracy " at the top of the country. When the children of the powerful slide into great opportunities with ease , when having the right political views buys you indulgences with the moral code of our time, when you're literally forgiven for voting a certain way if you're a member of the preferred party , people trust their leaders less and hold them in lower regard. The Joy of 'Fierce Individualism,' and/or Limited Empathy You know what's nice about the "fierce individualism" that Breunig laments? It's a relief not to have to care about some people. That may sound callous to some ears, but honest-to-goodness, all of us have a give-a-hoot credit card, and some people in our lives max out that credit line really fast. You probably know at least one person like this in your own life. They've got a problem, and they're in deep denial about it. They need to get into a twelve-step program. They need to either quit the job and look for a new one, or stop complaining. They gripe about their marriage and/or other important relationships but refuse to do something about it. They fume about slights, insults, indignities, and setbacks that are fairly routine in modern life. They're looking for sympathy and reassurance that none of this is their fault. You probably offered it to them in the beginning, and they liked it, and now they keep coming back, hoping you'll offer more. They really like reveling in their victimhood, and/or being saluted for their martyrdom -- they do so much for everyone, and others take advantage of them so frequently. You gently remind them that there were warning signs, but they aren't interested in discussing that much, and they certainly don't want to change their approach to these problems in the future. Jordan Peterson writes, "Set your house in order before you criticize the world." Fix what's fixable on the personal scale before you set about a grand redesign of human society. Of course, this is frightening and scary. It requires taking a hard look at our own lives and our past decisions. It means admitting we're not as smart and wise as we thought we were. It means committing to changing ourselves, and probably encountering friction in our lives as we stop being the victim. I think this demographic of dysfunctional-and-desperately-avoiding-taking-responsibility is actually overrepresented in the world of politics. I think a lot of people set out to recognize the world because they're avoiding reorganizing their own life. Or they've experienced some setback, disappointment, or heartbreak, and they desperately need a scapegoat. It's too embarrassing or frightening for a young woman to acknowledge she chose to go out with a jerk, so she concludes that he reflects the "toxic masculinity" inherent to all men. The guy who got turned down for a date doesn't want to believe that he came across as a creep, so he concludes she's been "brainwashed by feminism." The fired employee doesn't want to admit he's lazy, so he decides that his old workplace reflected the inherent injustice of capitalism. Your failure to achieve your dreams may reflect an inherent injustice in society. But it probably doesn't. ADDENDA : Over at Newsbusters , Clay Water lays out how the national media insisted primary day represented some great omen for Texas Democrats . . . despite the fact that their "biggest primary turnout in 16 years" was about two-thirds the Republican primary turnout. ADDENDA : The National Review Institute is continuing to hold events in the coming weeks to mark ten years since the passing of William F. Buckley Jr. and celebrate his legacy. The upcoming events will be held March 6th in Dallas, Texas; March 7 th in Houston, Texas; March 27 th in San Francisco, Calif.; March 28 th in Newport Beach, Calif., and April 12 th in Chicago, Ill. Details can be found here . We can always find a good reason to be outraged about some injustice in the world, and we can always point to that injustice as to why we can no longer go about our daily routine. Never mind that attending school and getting an education is the process that's supposed to equip us with the tools we need to bring about the changes that we want to see in the world. The case involved the Trump administration's ability to ignore environmental laws in the construction of the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The project had been challenged by several environmental groups and the state of California. "Every human society involves trade-offs. . . . In theory you can avoid wealth disparity through socialism, but collectivism destroys the incentives to create, innovate and work hard, and a corrupt few inevitably rise to the top, creating new wealth disparities. ADDENDA : If companies think that cutting ties to the NRA is going to buy them goodwill or a public relations win, they're completely wrong. A new survey finds that Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Norton Antivirus, Lifelock, MetLife, Alamo, National Car Rental, and SimpliSafe all saw their public opinion decline in the past week. We learned, in recent days, about the police responding 39 times to emergency calls at Cruz's home over a seven-year period. Long before he slaughtered 17 people at the South Florida high school he once attended, Nikolas Cruz had a disturbing way of introducing himself.

We learned, in recent days, about the police responding 39 times to emergency calls at Cruz's home over a seven-year period. Long before he slaughtered 17 people at the South Florida high school he once attended, Nikolas Cruz had a disturbing way of introducing himself.

As the Black Panthers turn 50, we take a look back at how queer liberation became part of their mission. The lesbian soccer pro and Olympian says the "overtly racist" backlash to the NFL star's national anthem protest "disgusted" her. September 06 2016 10:16 PM Updated Black Lives Matters' protest at Los Angeles City Hall, designed to draw attention to police violence, is still going strong after 50 days. September 01 2016 7:09 PM August 31 2016 1:24 PM The comprehensive policy statement from the Movement for Black Lives directly impacts LGBT people. So when will leading LGBT and civil rights groups weigh in about those policies? August 31 2016 6:33 AM

As the Black Panthers turn 50, we take a look back at how queer liberation became part of their mission.

In a new interview with the Queer Eye's Fab Five from Vulture, culture guru Karamo Brown reveals that he recently met with Mike Pence's wife at the White House. Said Brown: "I met with Karen Pence and her chief of staff. It was phen... Read If you thought Netflix's Queer Eye reboot couldn't get any gayer, we've got something to show you. The new Fab Five are celebrating their upcoming second season with a music video featuring burgeoning gay icon, Betty Who. The pop si... Read Queer Eye's Karamo Brown proposed to his partner of eight years, Ian Jordan, last night at sbe's HYDE Sunset in Los Angeles. He said yes! @KaramoBrown just proposed to his longtime partner, Ian Jordan, in a surprise event with family and... Read Queer Eye's cultural guy Karamo Brown sat down for a wide-ranging Facebook Live interview with Marc Malkin where he was grilled about topics past and current, the most current being Shania Twain, who apologized this week after saying tha... Read Netflix is rebooting the 2003 phenomenon Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and introduced the new cast who will be taking on roles originated by Jai Rodriguez, Kyan Douglas, Carson Kressley, Ted Allen, and Thom Filicia. The new cast above, left to right... Read

In a new interview with the Queer Eye's Fab Five from Vulture, culture guru Karamo Brown reveals that he recently met with Mike Pence's wife at the White House.

Oliver Willis - September 5, 2017 Donald Trump, the infamous attention-seeker who loves to see himself and his name everywhere, is refusing to face the backlash from his decision to... Kaili Joy Gray - September 5, 2017 Welcome to a new daily series at Shareblue Media, providing you with links to important news, interesting stories, useful information about actions of resistance,... Oliver Willis - September 4, 2017 Donald Trump has gone 200 days without holding an official presidential news conference. Since taking office, he has held only one such event, on Feb.... Oliver Willis - September 4, 2017 History has shown that the way to Donald Trump's heart is through a direct appeal to his considerable ego, a fact proved once again... Kaili Joy Gray - September 4, 2017 Issuing a proclamation in observance of a national holiday is a standard practice for most American presidents. During his brief time in office, however, Donald... Oliver Willis - September 4, 2017 Donald Trump is planning to end the program for undocumented immigrants who came to America as children, putting thousands of people in peril --... 1 ... 613 614 615 ... 1,023 Page 614 of 1,023

Donald Trump, the infamous attention-seeker who loves to see himself and his name everywhere, is refusing to face the backlash from his decision to...

Earlier this year, I dove in to the world of ISIS propaganda with a piece explaining that ISIS is using digital media to both recruit new members, and make it more difficult for international intelligence officials to track terror threats. ISIS is really good at propaganda. Their use of social media... The world is horrible today. This week. This month. Year? Let's not quibble about when the horribleness started. Earlier I was scrolling through the blog and I realized that, for the most part, everything that we (and by "we," I mean conservatives at large) have been focusing on is either soaked... Wednesday, Bloomberg released a poll that captured national attitudes on America's commitment to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees. In the wake of Friday's Paris attacks, 53% of Americans polled opposed continuation of plans to assist in the resettling of Syrian nationals seeking refugee status. According to Bloomberg, "Just 28 percent would keep... As it turns out, the Affordable Care Act is not exactly affordable after all. With the third Obamacare open enrollment in full swing, consumers nationwide are reeling from health insurance premium sticker shock. Which explains why healthcare costs and access to healthcare remain the single most important issue to Americans. A few weeks... The publicity surrounding the disruption of an Israel Studies event at the University of Texas at Austin by the UT-Austin Palestine Solidarity Committee continues to escalate, with local media in Texas taking up the story. For full background, see my prior posts, Anti-Israel students target UT-Austin Israeli Studies prof after disrupting his speech and New... I've previously written here about the Florida movie theater shooting, in which retired police officer Curtis Reeves shot and killed Chad Oulson in claimed self-defense after the two men argued about Oulson's use of his cell phone in a movie theater: Florida Theater Shooting Induces Another Round of "Stand Your Ground" Mania... We recently reported that San Francisco's "sanctuary sheriff" lost his re-election bid, defeated in large part because of the release of an illegal immigrant accused of killing Kate Steinle while she walking on the city waterfront with her father. This defeat has helped fuel the launch of an initiative so that California... Carly Fiorina appeared on the Kelly File last night and offered a harsh rebuke to President Obama's recent remarks regarding the terror attacks in Paris. Fiorina pointed out that Obama is more comfortable attacking Republicans than he is talking about America's enemies and laid blame at the feet of the president and... I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when the rise of political correctness began to slow and our planet began to heal. A.F. Branco has released Comically Incorrect, a collection of his best cartoons, some... Ah yes, Caitlyn Jenner. Hero of transdom or betrayer of feminism? Lately, consensus sides with the latter. Formerly Bruce, now Caitlyn Jenner has the self-professed feminist community up in arms. Named one of Glamour's Women of the Year, Jenner's remarks aren't quite the homer he (she?) may have hoped. According to Glamour's... Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal announced Tuesday afternoon he was ending his presidential campaign. Jindal is the third Republican candidate to suspend his campaign, and also the third Governor. Governor Jindal made his announcement during Bret Baier's Special Report on Fox News. Speaking to Baier, Governor Jindal said: "It has been a great honor... A couple of months ago we posted here about the effort of Florida legislator Dennis Braxley to change Florida's self-defense immunity law: Major Change Proposed for Florida Self-defense Immunity Law. Under the proposed change a person claiming self-defense immunity for their use of force against another could be denied that immunity... A soccer match between Germany and the Netherlands has been canceled over the "concrete threat" of a planned bomb attack. Hanover, Germany is the latest site of two separate terror scares in the wake of Friday's massacres in Paris, France. French intelligence officials gave the all clear just moments ago (as... Yesterday morning we posted about an incident at UT-Austin, in which protesters from the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC), led by law student Mohammed Nabulsi, disrupted an event hosted by Professor Ami Pedahzur of UT's Institute for Israeli Studies. The invited guest speaker was Dr. Gil-Li Vardi from Stanford University. For full details, see Anti-Israel students target... Way back in September, when we were still young and naive in our belief that conservatives would overcome the odds and rally around The One sooner rather than later, I attended an anti-Iran nuclear deal rally on Capitol Hill. The event was headlined by Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, and featured... Today the Russian Federal Security Service confirmed that a terrorist bomb was responsible for the crash and destruction of a Russian passenger jet in the Sinai last month. 2.2 pounds of TNT explosives were used to bring the plane down in what officials are saying was "definitely a terrorist act." Alexander...

Earlier this year, I dove in to the world of ISIS propaganda with a piece explaining that ISIS is using digital media to both recruit new members, and make it more difficult for international intelligence officials to track terror threats.

Trump Swarmed By Media While Entering Court House For Jury Duty 9:49 AM 08/17/2015 NEW YORK -- Republican Presidential candidate and current primary front-runner Donald Trump was swarmed by media as he entered the New York City court house on Centre Street to serve jury duty. Trump showed up slightly later than expected. His campaign told one local outlet, NY 1, that they initially went to the wrong address. "The wall will work," Trump told a reporter who asked about his immigration plan he released over the weekend. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives for jury duty at Manhattan Supreme Court in New York Aug. 17, 2015. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson) (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson) Trump, who pulled up in a black stretch limousine, was immediately engulfed in microphones and cameras was asked if he thinks he would be picked for jury selection. "We'll see what happens. I was sent a notice; I have to do it." Trump later added he hopes he does not get selected. A number of other New Yorkers entered the court house to serve jury duty before and after Trump arrived. One potential juror told The Daily Caller it made no difference to him that he was called for jury duty on the same day as Trump. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson) (REUTERS/Brendan McDermid) Heather Swanson of Manhattan stood in line for jury duty behind Trump. She described the scene this way: "He was perfectly lovely. He looked a little lost without his posse. You know because he's a little used to having people saying, 'Do this, go there.' You know, because he's not used to doing it all on his own. But it was perfectly fine." Swanson said that his body guards left his side once he entered the court house. "He was just sort of in line," she explained. "He wasn't chatting anyone up. He just sort of smiled, and I smiled back. He was just waiting for about 10 minutes, and then he realized that he didn't have a bag so he could go into this other line, and then he went into the jury room. Andrew Alloi, another Manhattan resident, called for duty, told TheDC that Trump took his seat in the courtroom and did not say a word to anyone. "He just sat stoically in the seat that he sat in. Nobody bothered him," Alloi said.He added, "He should be here. Should he be on a trial if he's selected, I have mixed feelings about that-because of the fact that he's in the middle of a campaign now. Perhaps there could be some deference to that for him. There's no particular favor on my part, but that would be a fair thing to consider. It might be a good enough excuse." According to New York law everyone who is eligible, must serve when called on. One can postpone serving jury duty only once online at least one week before the date one is called to appear. Jurors who do not sit on a jury trial could serve up to two days. However, even if a juror is released, he or she may be asked to be on call for up to five days. If one is selected for a trial, one must sit on jury duty for the duration of the trial. Trump exited the courthouse and was greeted by the same media mob. Leaving the courthouse for a lunch break, Trump told reporters the New York court system is "amazing." "There are really amazing people. They run a really terrific operation," he said, later noting that his campaign is going well. As he walked toward his limousine amnesty activists began shouting at Trump, "Donald!, Donald! What about immigration?"

While Entering Court House For Jury Duty 9:49 AM 08/17/2015 NEW YORK -- Republican Presidential candidate and current primary front-runner Donald Trump was swarmed by media as he entered the New York City court house on Centre Street to serve jury duty

DANA ALEXANDER Stand-up comic, Yuk Yuk's Downtown, April 10-14. Dana Alexander is one of the Canadian stand-ups who've recently left the country for the UK. Her fierce, fearless act - which takes on dating, racism and being a tall black woman - is much missed here. But you can catch her headlining a week of sets at Yuk Yuk's Downtown, and look out for appearances on the Strombo show and at the Flying Beaver, all in preparation for her third Edinburgh Fringe appearance. You've been living in the UK for the past few years. How are the comedy audiences different? There are a lot more of them, for a start. A bit more sexist perhaps - lots of "lads." And there are strange racial sensitivities (from white people mostly) on behalf of others. I call them "the racism police." How are the men different? My gaydar is messed up there. I have a hard time differentiating "posh" from gay. I'm still confused as to how a straight man can have a lisp and a ruffle shirt. What do you miss most about Toronto? Korean BBQ on Yonge. And down-to-earth people who aren't afraid to say what they think. What do you miss least about Toronto? Expensive liquor and liquor stores that close early. A few years ago I wrote that you had the potential to be one of the best stand-ups, period. Are you there yet? Yes. (Ha! Jokes!) I always aspire to be better, and hope that continues forever. You seem absolutely fearless onstage. Does anything scare you? Onstage, not really. Maybe audition-type shows, I guess. In life, broken condoms. Have you been following the Mayor Ford fiascos here? Just googled. That guy was a gong show from the start. I had never voted until I saw his horrible red face... and he still won. Boooo! Ugh. Are we surprised? Theoretical: you don't have a great set and I'm in the audience. What do you do afterwards? I won't have a terrible set. But if I do I'll re-evaluate. It's the bad shows you learn the most from. Who would you want to play you in the movie of your life? Me. Just like Fantasia did. I am too young to be portrayed by someone else. My only celeb look-alike is Vanessa from The Cosby Show, and she's older than me so.... Advice to aspiring comics? Be yourself. Take risks. Be original.

DANA ALEXANDER Stand-up comic, Yuk Yuk's Downtown, April 10-14. Dana Alexander is one of the Canadian stand-ups who've recently left the country for the UK. Her fierce, fearless act - which takes on dating, racism and being a tall black woman - is much missed here.

Blanketed in love by our caring readers LITTLE Lubove Seurtu would like a doll for Christmas -- but she's not likely to get one. Her best hope is to stay alive. News Group Newspapers Ltd 3 Lubove Seurtu will be warm this winter because of your response to our campaign Thanks to you, our caring Sun on Sunday readers, she now has a better chance. She'll be warm this winter because of your fantastic response to our Knit A Kid A Blanket campaign . This week she got one of 600 blankets readers made to help needy kids in Europe, Syria and Britain. With a brave, hopeful half-smile Lubove says: "Thank you to the people who made this blanket." We thank you too for making hundreds of kids a little safer this Christmas. Today's Sun on Sunday is the last of 2016 -- and what a year it was. We had Brexit: the biggest thing to hit Britain since World War Two. Like the war, it will reverberate for decades. We know it won't be easy -- but we also know it's for the best. We had a new PM: While Theresa May looks like she's of the right stuff, Labour looks lost, led by an unelectable throwback who somehow managed to get re-elected. We had a US revolution: Trump's extraordinary win shocked the world. Now the world waits to see what he is going to do. We had destruction: Syria, a blot on humankind. We had sorrow: Bowie, Ali, Wogan and the other stars who we lost. We had shocks: Leicester's Prem win. We had inevitabilities: England losing to Iceland then losing two managers. We had glory: Our best Olympics for a century, a tennis player on top of the world. We wish you and your loved ones a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. We'll be back on January 1 with more great news, sport and entertainment. See you in 2017! 3 David Miliband has sly dig at brother Ed over Syria He says the ex-Labour leader's decision to block British troops being sent to deal with the despicable President Assad was a "failure of monumental proportions". That neatly sums up Ed's entire career. David -- a former foreign secretary who Labour moderates hope may one day return to rescue the party -- said lack of action on Syria has created a western leadership "vacuum". It's clear he was also referring to the space between Ed's ears. Clink again on jails 3 Liz Truss says HMP Birmingham rioters should face full force of the law OUR prisons are in a dangerous mess. Decades of mismanagement and under-investment have brought us to this: Riots, escapes, suicides, gangs, drugs. Justice Secretary Liz Truss is right to say the full force of the law must descend on those responsible for the trouble at HMP Birmingham. More resources are needed -- and she promises reforms and 2,500 new guards. But how do you stop a disastrous 46 per cent of criminals re-offending within a year? We must punish and protect but we also need to rehabilitate. Is it time to clink the unthinkable?

Blanketed in love by our caring readers LITTLE Lubove Seurtu would like a doll for Christmas -- but she's not likely to get one.

EDIT: As if to spite us, shortly after the publishing of this little piece, The Emoji Movie gained its first positive review, moving the score up to a brawny 3% fresh. Look folks, some things you just can't see coming. Some events are beyond the capacities of the human race to predict. Who can say if you'll be shocked when you stick a fork into an electrical outlet? Who can reasonably say that each successive year being the hottest ever recorded might have something to do with climate change? These mysteries are clearly not meant for man to understand. Case in point: Who could possibly have predicted that The Emoji Movie , on the day of its release, would be able to brag of a perfectly catastrophic 0% score on internet review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes? Certainly not us--that's not the kind of thing you would have heard us saying last week, or last month, or the first time we ever heard the concept. We thought the idea of a talking fecal emoticon was pure gold that couldn't possibly fail. Nevertheless, it would seem that those rascally film critics thought differently, alternatingly referring to the film in such colorful terms as "bad" and "really, really painfully bad." Fronted by comedian T.J. Miller (whose misogynist attitude toward female comedians we recently lampooned) as a rebellious "Meh" emoji, the film also stars the vocal talents of a slew of unfortunate actors: Ana Faris, James Corden, Maya Rudolph , Sofia Vergara, Rob Riggle and even poor old Patrick Stewart as the aforementioned pile of human shit. Do you need help, Sir Patrick? Who made you sign on for The Emoji Movie ? Here are a few choice lines from reviews, as they continue to roll in: "A viewer leaves The Emoji Movie a colder person, not only angry at the film for being unconscionably bad, but resentful of it for making them feel angry." - Charles Bramesco, The Guardian "A soulless endeavor and a painful viewing experience. Your kids deserve better." - Brian Orndorf, Blu-Ray.com "As far as expanding on smartphone-related IP, this is an even weaker starting point than Sony Animation's recent The Angry Birds Movie." - Vadim Rizov, AV Club "If only this smartphone-centric dud, so happy to hawk real-world apps to its audience, could have done the same in its release strategy - coming out via Snapchat, where it would vanish shortly after arrival. But even that wouldn't be fast enough." - John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter "T.J. Miller's ticket to oblivion." - Roger Moore Ouch, Roger. That seems a little personal, even to us. True, yes--but personal. Keep an eye on The Emoji Movie 's score this weekend as it attempts the difficult feat of remaining at 0%. Can it accrue enough rotten reviews to become the highest-volume 0% rated film of all time? Only time can tell, but we like its chances.

As if to spite us, shortly after the publishing of this little piece, The Emoji Movie gained its first positive review, moving the score up to a brawny 3% fresh.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department recruit Julio Cesar Jimenez got his first taste of real police work about two months into his academy training -- when he was arrested by Sept. 11, 2017 Indiana - A former assistant police chief's five-day suspension for excessive force has been approved by the Police Merit Commission. Sgt. Rob Hahn was suspended five days PORT ORCHARD, Washington -- A Poulsbo police officer was charged Wednesday with theft and felony drug possession after she confessed to repeatedly taking narcotics left in city hall's prescription drug

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department recruit Julio Cesar Jimenez got his first taste of real police work about two months into his academy training --

After 9 years of being a pioneer and leader in alternative news aggregation, RedFlagNews.com closed its doors on December 31, 2017. With more than 10M readers who visited both our app and website, we had built a community of trust and loyalty in online news media; something rare to find in 2018; nevertheless, it was clearly not enough to sustain the onslaught of suppression by Google and Facebook after the 2016 election. To our amazing community, thank you for your generous support and daily visits over the years. It was a good run with you by our side. Thousands have asked us where we will be getting our daily fix. As you continue your journey of seeking both balance and truth in your news diet, we strongly recommend the following two independent and trusted news aggregation websites. In the end, independent thinking is a battle that we cannot afford to lose.

After 9 years of being a pioneer and leader in alternative news aggregation, RedFlagNews.com closed its doors on December 31, 2017

After Belgian police requested social media silence during a series of anti-terrorism raids in Brussels on Sunday, Twitter responded with the viral hashtag #BrusselsLockdown and hundreds of cat pictures. It all started when Defense Minister Steven Vandeput requested that the public not report their movements, nor the location of police activities, on social media. Belgian police echoed Vandeput's request, asking the public to observe "social media silence." Belgians obliged both requests, albeit in a manner neither Vandeput nor the police expected. That's because #BrusselsLockdown went viral with pictures of cats, cat memes and other cat-related shenanigans. It all began when Hugo Janssen , a Dutch television cameraman, tweeted a picture of his cat Mozart : "Instead of tweets about police activity in Brussels, here's a picture of our cat Mozart." Others in Brussels, across Belgium and elsewhere in Europe followed suit, tweeting pictures of their cats or others' cat memes instead of reporting on their activities. -- JaneAustenMaMaschio (@ExTimUpperClass) November 22, 2015 16 arrests were made during the raids. During a press conference, prosecutors' spokesperson Eric Van Der Sypt thanked everyone for their social media silence. No official comment was made during the presser about the trending hashtag and its accompanying photo gallery. However, Belgian police offered a friendly "thank you" to "all the cats who helped us" during the raids. Pour les chats qui nous ont aide hier soir... Servez-vous! #BrusselsLockdown pic.twitter.com/7O5ENF6nXa -- Police Federale (@PolFed_presse) November 23, 2015 Check out the clip above, via France 24. [h/t France 24 ] [ Image via Twitter ]

After Belgian police requested social media silence during a series of anti-terrorism raids in Brussels on Sunday, Twitter responded with the viral hashtag #BrusselsLockdown and hundreds of cat pictures.

Karl Nerenberg Canadian Politics October 6, 2015 Migrant farm workers march for their rights, Learnington, Ontario, October 2010 * Photo by Gerardo Correa. Jason Kenney is currently Stephen Harper's defence minister, but he made his mark as the Conservatives' high profile minister of immigration, a post he held from 2007 to 2013. A government of Canada website awards Kenney the distinction of having been the longest-serving immigration minister in Canadian history. That is only technically true, however. The longest serving minister responsible for immigration was actually Wilfred Laurier's minister of the interior, Clifford Sifton, who served from 1896 to 1905. Sifton made his place in history by aggressively pursuing massive immigration in order to settle what was then seen as the vast and mostly unpopulated western frontier. The fact that the Canadian prairies were long inhabited by the Indigenous and Metis peoples was of scant concern to the government of the day. Sifton encouraged immigrants from the traditional sources, the British Isles and the United States, but also from Central and Eastern Europe. When Canada's version of "know-nothing" nativists criticized him for bringing in strange folk who spoke in foreign tongues, Clifton defended his charges, calling them "stalwart peasants in sheepskin coats" who would help build the young country. Building the new Dominion in the northern half of the continent was what Sifton was all about. And nation-building is also how Jason Kenney sometimes described the role of his immigration policy, more than a century later. But where Sifton encouraged a massive influx of mostly unschooled migrants, boatloads of prospective settlers for the as-yet untilled prairies, Kenney took a targeted approach. Bending immigration policy to business needs Aiming to align immigration with labour market needs, he de-emphasized family reunification and worked to attract younger, highly skilled workers, already fluent in English or French. And Kenney gave the private sector a major role in immigration determination. One of his signature reforms was to allow Canadian businesses to directly recruit employees from a government-provided list of qualified prospective immigrants. Kenney's policy responded, in part, to the legitimate concern that, historically, Canada might have admitted too many immigrants who, while highly trained, had skills that were simply not in demand in this country. But there is more to it than that. The employer-selection program was not, at heart, an effort to solve a problem based on facts and evidence. It mostly reflected the Conservatives' fundamentalist free-market ideology, part of their penchant to focus on a short-term and narrowly-defined vision of Canada's economic self interest. The much-expanded temporary foreign worker (TFW) program resulted from that same impulse. Some bad publicity -- most notably a CBC expose of how the Royal Bank was using temporary workers not to fill gaps, but to replace some of its permanent employees -- caused the Harper government to turn 180 degrees on TFWs. Until that reversal, the government had built up the TFW program to such massive proportions that Canada was taking in almost as many temporary workers as immigrants. In 2013, Kenney, in his new role as employment minister, steered the government's u-turn on TFWs in a full-court press effort at damage control. Until that shift, however, the Conservatives had proudly touted easier access to TFWs as one of the ways in which they had cut "red tape" for business. It was the labour movement that stepped up to remind the Harper government that creating a disenfranchised and exploited army of guest workers does not qualify as nation building. The Canadian Labour Congress counselled the government that if it wanted to engage in genuine nation building, it should replace temporary foreign workers with full-fledged immigrants who would have a clear path to citizenship. The government did create such a path -- but only for an elite, highly skilled class of temporary workers. It pointedly excluded the large group Kenney described as low skilled. Those workers should know Canada only wants the sweat of their brow, and for a limited time. Harper's star minister implied that while Canada was happy to avail itself of the cheap labour of a kind of mobile, worldwide proletariat, it had zero interest in those workers as human beings. Vancouver protest against deportations, March 15, 2015. The father of the small child in the photo was deported to Honduras. Photo posted on w2media.org. Forget family values When it comes to immigration, human and humanitarian concerns are a tiresome bore to the Harper Conservatives. And the Conservative policy is not a mere abstract matter of numbers and quotas. It has had a devastating impact on some truly vulnerable people. This writer has heard the stories of tax-paying, well-integrated immigrants, who are now citizens, and who wish to bring aging parents to live with them. Conservative Parliament Hill staffers openly scoff at such folks. They tell them the sort of family reunification they seek is no longer a priority for the government. The most the Conservatives will do is begrudgingly tolerate aging parents' presence on annually renewable visitors' visas. One of the Conservatives' rationales for this mean-spirited approach is that they don't want new elderly immigrants to become a "burden" to the health-care system. Health care is a provincial responsibility, of course, and, when asked, provinces such as Ontario say they are quite prepared to accommodate parents and other family members of citizens who came here as immigrants, regardless of the cost. That does not move the Harper government. The Conservatives' 2012 omnibus budget famously eliminated a queue of over a quarter of a million immigration applications from skilled workers and their dependents. Jason Kenney justified this draconian move with the argument that wait-times for these people had grown unacceptably long. It was cruel, he said, to make such people wait years before their cases were decided. Kenney did not, however, evince any concern for the thousands of people who had just waited years for nothing. Refugee policy: a study in meanness Where Kenney and the Harper government have really showed their fangs, however, is on refugee policy. Here they have engaged in a near demagogic appeal to fear and resentment, trucking in such phrases as "queue jumpers," "bogus refugees" and "welfare seekers." But their bite has proven much worse than their bark. The Harper Conservatives' policy on refugees has been marked by breathtaking callousness, as evidenced by the changes it made to the Interim Federal Health program in order to deny medical care to refugees from so-called safe countries as well as to rejected claimants -- a move the Federal Court judged "cruel and unusual." In the decision, Judge Anne Mactavish paid particular attention to the implications for children, arguing that the measures "potentially jeopardize the health, the safety and indeed the very lives, of ... innocent and vulnerable children in a manner that shocks the conscience and outrages Canadian standards of decency." Which is not to say that Canada's refugee policy had historically been especially compassionate, notwithstanding Canada's receipt of the Nansen Prize in 1986, the first and only time the United Nations High Commission for Refugees gave the award to an entire people. Following the First World War, the Canadian government resisted admitting stateless refugees because they could not subsequently be deported. Nor would Canada recognize the "Nansen passport" for post-war refugees, named for the League of Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees, Fridtjof Nansen, who also gave his name to the Nansen Prize. Again, the Canadian government worried that Nansen's plan did not allow for the forcible return of refugees deemed undesirable. During the Nazi regime in Germany, starting in the early 1930s, the Canadian immigration department was notoriously anti-Semitic and worked to exclude all Jewish refugees. Following the Second World War, the official policy became more inclusive and, between 1946 and 1962, Canada admitted nearly 250,000 refugees. Even then, however, according to the Canadian Council for Refugees, "selection criteria were guided by considerations of economic self-interest, racial prejudice and political bias." In 1951, Canada declined to sign the newly drafted United Nations Convention on Refugees. Pleading concern about security issues, the government wanted the right to deport refugees whom they believed to be communists. Canada did eventually sign the Convention in 1969, and both Liberal and Conservative governments have since grappled with refugee policy. Both have worried that the refugee process could become a back-door route for would-be immigrants. In 1987, when a boat full of Sikhs seeking refuge arrived on the shores of Nova Scotia, the Mulroney government reacted almost with panic. It portrayed the event as a sort of invasion and introduced a tough new law that allowed the government to seize ships suspected of carrying such "illegal migrants" at sea and to fine the companies carrying them. The current Conservative government took this tough approach even further, partly in response to the much more recent arrival of two boats carrying Sri Lankan Tamil refugees. Hungarian fascists march past housing project where many Roma live in the northeastern city of Miskoic, October 2012. In Hungary and throughout Europe, the Roma confront a rising tide of deadly racist terror. To see the full photograph, go to spiegel.de and search for "Far Right Protest Targets Roma in Hungary." The photo is credited to Reuters. No refuge for the Roma In Harper's Canada, the most vicious treatment of refugees by far has been reserved for the Roma. After the fall of the Soviet empire in the early 1990s, Canada regularized relations with former East Bloc countries, most of which joined the European Union as soon as they could. As part of this process, Canada dropped visa requirements on visitors from these countries. In the late 1990s, some Roma in the Czech Republic and Slovakia learned that they could get to Canada on direct flights and claim refugee status at the airport, on arrival. In their home countries, their lives were generally miserable. In the Czech Republic, for instance, after most of the Roma had been exterminated by the Nazi occupiers during the Holocaust, those who remained were subject to serious discrimination at the hands of the Communists, who insisted they abandon their migratory way of life and take up work largely in low-skilled industrial jobs. While officially discouraging anti-Roma bigotry, the Communists were themselves selectively cruel to the Roma, even forcibly sterilizing some Roma women, for instance. Among the majority population, the Roma were often viewed with thinly-veiled contempt, and that veil was torn off in post-Communist Eastern Europe when decades of simmering hatred and bigotry erupted. Almost all the Roma quickly lost their jobs and were kicked out of their government-supplied housing, which was privatized and put on the market. Extreme right groups made the Roma minorities the main target of their venom and violence. In countries such as the Czech Republic, the Roma had legitimate cause to feel genuine fear. Officials of Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), created in 1986 to adjudicate refugee claims at arm's length from government, took their reports of persecution seriously. The IRB conferred refugee status on many, who formed, for the first time, a Roma community in Canada, centred in Toronto and Hamilton. In 2008, many Hungarian Roma began to come to Canada, at one point forming the single largest group of refugee claimants. Their stories of persecution at the hands of extremists, egged on by Hungary's ultra-nationalist Jobbik party, were even more horrific than those of Czech and Slovak Roma. The government also imposed a visa requirement on Mexicans to stem an influx of refugee claimants, many victims of persecution based on gender or sexual orientation. The Mexican government protested, but lacking the bargaining power of the EU, it was ignored. In 2010, the Harper minority government's response to the more vexatious EU problem was to introduce measures in a package of refugee reforms that would sift out what it called "bogus" from so-called genuine refugees. That original refugee legislation also included some useful reforms, such as the creation of a new Refugee Appeal Division (RAD) which would give rejected refugee applicants a fact-based review of their cases. But its main thrust was to streamline the refugee process. The government's purported solution to the influx of Roma refugees from the EU -- and others, such as Mexicans, whose claims it considered bogus -- was to create a distinct class of refugee claimants from so-called safe Designated Countries of Origin. Asylum seekers from those countries would be put on a fast track, with the aim of deporting most of them as quickly as possible. But the Harper Conservatives only had a minority at the time, and had to compromise with opposition parties. Liberals and New Democrats supported the idea of getting rid of backlogs in the clogged system, but forced Immigration Minister Jason Kenney to soften his legislation in several key ways and make it fairer. For instance, the power to decide which countries to rank as safe would belong to a non-partisan panel of human rights experts. And refugee claimants from countries designated as safe would have access to a fact-based review of their cases by the new RAD. After accepting a long list of opposition amendments, Kenney actually said they made his bill better and showed how a minority parliament could work effectively. He must have been crossing his fingers behind his back because, once the Conservatives won their majority, Kenney scrapped the compromise legislation and brought in a package of far more severe measures. The minister of immigration would now have the unilateral, unfettered power to determine the safe-countries list, and asylum seekers from those countries would be given an impossibly short time to establish their claims, with no right of appeal. The new legislation also included harsh measures, including detention, to deter refugees from coming to Canada by what the Conservatives called irregular means, such as by boat. It was all part of a Conservative law-and-order strategy -- and it worked. Kenney had always been Stephen Harper's point person on outreach to multicultural communities. Perhaps surprisingly, Kenney's tough refugee measures appealed to many new Canadians -- as did the government's decision to kill the longstanding refugee health program. The courts have ruled the latter decision unconstitutional, but the Conservatives have appealed and virtually ignored the order to reinstate the program. Kenney's veiled attacks on the beleaguered European Roma, in particular, found resonance in Canada's east and central European communities. European bigotry against the hated "Gypsies" dies hard. It is widespread and deeply rooted and continues to infect even some European socialists and greens. Nobody, it seems, ever loses politically by picking on history's scapegoats, of whom the Roma must be numbered among the most persecuted. Mainstream media outlets evaluating the Harper cabinet tend to give high marks to Jason Kenney. The Globe and Mail has been trenchantly critical of some major Harper government initiatives, such as the Fair Elections Act and Bill C-51, the so-called anti-terror legislation. But it has been an ardent cheerleader for everything Jason Kenney has undertaken, including his manifestly unjust refugee policy reforms. Harper's media-anointed star performer, Kenney has shamelessly partaken in the age-old demagogic strategy of finding convenient scapegoats and mercilessly targeting them for political gain. Despite the plaudits he has earned from his near-sighted media admirers, nothing defines Kenney so much as his willingness to stoop to those tactics. This article appeared in the September/October 2015 issue of Canadian Dimension (The Harper Demolition) . Subscribe today and receive every issue of Canadian Dimension hot off the press.

Sifton made his place in history by aggressively pursuing massive immigration in order to settle what was then seen as the vast and mostly unpopulated western frontier.

It's no secret that former Governor of Arkansas and GOP 2016 Clown Car member Mike Huckabee strongly opposes any and all gun control legislation. To illustrate this extreme position, he is now calling for gun dealers to engage in "mass civil disobedience" to defy a potential executive action that would require background checks for those purchasing guns from dealers who sell more than a certain number of firearms each year. Huckabee, is, of course, no stranger to telling people to break the law. He infamously supported Rowan County, Kentucky clerk Kim Davis in her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in direct defiance of the Supreme Court. Now, this potential action seeks to close legal background check loopholes by seeking to "impose background checks on individuals who buy from dealers who sell a significant number of guns each year." Huckabee is a good gun nut, and he says that if this action becomes law, he and his fellow Christian gun hoisters "have to stand up and say, 'no, we're not going to do it.'" Then again, the GOP presidential contenders never did put much stake in common sense on any issue, and this one is no different. Unsurprisingly, it looks like Huckabee will be leading the pack in this latest bout of proposed lawbreaking. Watch video of Huckabee's remarks, below, via Right Wing Watch : Featured image via Flickr October 29, 2015 at 5:05 am Att: Mike Huckabee Before you start worrying about gun laws - look at the obesity genes you have passed on to your son. He won't make it long at the way he is going. OR are your boys just plain ole fat from living with a fanatic like you. To have a father and obviously a mother who supports the same crap you are killing your kids. I bet they are not allowed an individual thought or feeling. Look inside Mike - you are committing murder to your own kids - all without the use of a physical gun. June 24, 2017 at 11:08 am

It's no secret that former Governor of Arkansas and GOP 2016 Clown Car member Mike Huckabee strongly opposes any and all gun control legislation.

DHAKA, BANGLADESH - Mahe Noor left her village in southern Bangladesh after Cyclone Sidr flattened her family's home and small market in 2007. Jobless and homeless, she and her husband, Nizam Hawladar, moved to this crowded megalopolis, hoping that they might soon return home. Two years later, they are still here. Ms. Noor, 25, and Mr. Hawladar, 35, work long hours at low-paying jobs - she at a garment factory and he at a roadside tea stall. They are unable to save money after paying for food and rent on their dark shanty in Korail, one of the largest slums in Dhaka. And in their village, more people are leaving because of river erosion and dwindling job opportunities. "We're trapped," Ms. Noor said. Natural calamities have plagued humanity for generations. But with the prospect of worsening climate conditions over the next few decades, experts on migration say tens of millions more people in the developing world could be on the move because of disasters. Rather than seeking a new life elsewhere in a mass international "climate migration," as some analysts had once predicted, many of these migrants are now expected to move to nearby megacities in their own countries. "Environmental refugees have lost everything," said Rabab Fatima, the South Asia representative of the International Organization for Migration. "They don't have the money to make a big move. They move to the next village, the next town and eventually to a city." Such rapid and unplanned urbanization is expected to put even further strains on scarce water, energy and food resources, said Koko Warner, who works in environmental migration at the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security in Bonn. In Bangladesh, a largely flat, riverine nation where more than 140 million people live in one of the most densely populated countries in the world, past generations often moved to cities seasonally. They worked to send money home to their villages and usually returned there during planting season. But in recent years, the moves are more likely to be permanent. More intense storms and floods, salinization damage to crops caused by the encroaching sea and especially worsening river erosion have left many people rootless, Ms. Fatima said. Dhaka, the capital, is often the only real option in this region. It is the fastest-growing megacity in the world, according to the World Bank. At least 12 million people live in Dhaka, and there are more than 400,000 newcomers each year. The World Bank predicts that the population could grow dramatically by 2020. Like the rest of Bangladesh, Dhaka is also extremely vulnerable to climate change: It is just a few meters above sea level and is regularly hit by cyclones and floods. The environmental group WWF recently rated it among the megacities most vulnerable to the effects of global warming, after Jakarta and Manila. As many as half of the people in Dhaka live in shantytowns and slums, says Atiq Rahman, a climate change researcher and executive director of the Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies. Of those, Mr. Rahman and Ms. Fatima estimate that three million people have been displaced by environmental degradation or disasters. The most destitute people live in clusters of improvised tents made of plastic sheets and discarded bamboo and often erected on private land near markets, railroad tracks and the city's rivers. Most poor, working-class families end up in minicities like Korail, where Ms. Noor, the migrant from southern Bangladesh, lives with her husband and two daughters. Ms. Noor's third child, a son, lives with his grandmother in the family's village. Korail sits on public land and is shared by at least 40,000 people crowded into cramped, cockroach-infested rental shanties made of mud, bamboo and corrugated tin. Barefoot children play with broken marbles on narrow mud lanes filled with garbage and streams of raw sewage. A few enterprising residents have opened vegetable stands, tailor shops, carpentry mills and teahouses in tiny shacks. Aid groups run primary schools in Korail and other slums, but many children work or stay home to mind younger siblings while their parents work. Child trafficking and arson are serious problems, experts here say. Ms. Noor says she worries she will come home one day and find her young daughters kidnapped, or worse. "Every day I hear about a fire or about someone's child missing," Ms. Noor said. Ms. Noor's next-door neighbor, Aklima Akhter, 22, also lost her home and her family's small market in her southern Bangladesh village to flooding caused by Cyclone Sidr. Another neighbor, Mukhles Rahman, 38, and his brother Mohammad Farid Uddin, 56, left their village of Chawlakathi in the division of Barisal eight years ago because of river erosion. Their family once grew rice, jute, sugar cane, mustard seed and radishes on four hectares, or 10 acres. Over a couple of decades, the Sandhya River washed away the farmland and the family home. "My father could cross the river just by jumping across," said Mr. Uddin, who finished high school and ran a small school in his village. "Even when I was a youngster in the 1960s, we could swim across. Now it's so big." These days, the two brothers live in a tiny shanty with Mukhles Rahman's wife and young son. "We are trying to find another place to go, because all the land back home is dissolving," said Mukhles Rahman, who works as a security guard at a garment factory. "But there aren't jobs in other cities or in villages." For migrants displaced because of the environment, Bangladesh hopes to begin helping them find opportunities in cities other than Dhaka, said Saleemul Huq, a Bangladeshi scientist who is a senior fellow in the climate change group of the International Institute for Environment and Development in London. Bangladesh and other countries hit hard by climate change are supposed to receive money from a $100 billion annual green climate fund approved by the negotiators at the Copenhagen summit meeting in December. Smaller amounts of aid have been pledged for the next few years. The larger amounts of environmental aid are not expected to begin flowing until 2020. Later this year, Mr. Huq will open and lead the International Center for Climate Change and Development, an institute based just outside of Dhaka and aimed at helping vulnerable countries come up with practical ways to adapt to climate change. "We are going to have low-lying areas in Bangladesh that are not going to be inhabitable anymore, so those people will have to go somewhere," Mr. Huq said. While Dhaka has managed to absorb millions of migrants, he said that this "can't go on forever. Dhaka can't take it, and neither can the people." Rashida Akhter, a local manager for BRAC, a nongovernmental organization that operates across Bangladesh as well as in several other poor countries, says that more than 90 percent of the Korail slum's residents never leave because they cannot save enough money to move. Ms. Noor and Mr. Hawladar say they cannot imagine growing old in a dank, depressing place like Korail. They still dream about returning to their home village of Nandikathi, a poor, waterlogged hamlet of about 3,000 people. "It's our home, not Dhaka" Mr. Hawladar said. Their 6-year-old son is in Nandikathi with his grandmother. They have not seen him for a year. If they lived there, their daughters, ages 8 and 3, would be able to go to school, instead of being stuck alone all day in a tiny rented shack. Ms. Noor, who remembers a modest but more comfortable life in Nandikathi, talks about rebuilding the family's shattered hut and reviving her drowned backyard garden of greens and gourds. Mr. Hawladar says he wants to open another market there and add a tea house. He was badly injured in a road accident a few years ago and cannot do physical labor, so he spends 15-hour days in a wooden roadside stall in an affluent Dhaka neighborhood, brewing tea for businessmen. He makes 150 taka, or $2, a day. Ms. Noor makes about $1 a day at the garment factory. They count their earnings at night, in silence, on the wooden plank that serves as the family bed. They never have enough money. Even if they could save enough money to rebuild their home, the prospects are bleak in Nandikathi. The nearby Dhanshiri River has become more unruly, eroding land and livelihoods. Ms. Noor says she sometimes stays up until the morning, worrying that the next big flood will just wash the village away. "Where will people live then?" she asked. Joanna Kakissis reported with the help of a grant from the International Reporting Project. Sumon Kaiser of bdnews24.com contributed reporting.

DHAKA, BANGLADESH - Mahe Noor left her village in southern Bangladesh after Cyclone Sidr flattened her family's home and small market in 2007. Jobless and homeless, she and her husband, Nizam Hawladar, moved to this crowded megalopolis, hoping that they might soon return home. Two years later, they are still here.

In 1996 Racetraitor began their brief but brutal assault on the local hardcore scene, using thrashy, grind-happy metalcore as an over-the-top vehicle for their political messages. Their polarizing shows were notorious for containing more rhetoric than music--they were largely made up of readings, guest speakers, and rants by front man Mani Mostofi and guitarist Daniel Binaei about racism, imperialism, war, justice, and veganism. Talk to any old hardcore dude today and he'll be happy to tell you exactly how much he either loved or hated Racetraitor. By 1999 the band had called it quits, but their influence was still being felt: they planted the seed for a sprawling family tree of aggressive Chicago music that includes branches to big-time punk acts like Rise Against as well as Fall Out Boy--which was founded by Racetraitor drummer Andy Hurley and sometimes-bassist Pete Wentz. And when the band's outspoken members eventually began to stray from the scene, they put their money where their mouths were and forged prolific careers in the fields of human rights, social work, public health, and international law. Considering the dudes are so deeply steeped in ideals--and not prone to gimmicks and sell-out moves--I was a little wary when they announced their first show in 17 years. But they're making it clear that this isn't a nostalgic cash grab but a chance to make their voices heard during an especially turbulent moment in American history. Along with this reunion show comes the crushing brand-new flexi-disc "By the Time I Get to Pennsylvania" b/w "Damaged" (Organized Crime), which might be the best music Racetraitor have ever recorded. -- Luca Cimarusti

Their polarizing shows were notorious for containing more rhetoric than music--they were largely made up of readings, guest speakers, and rants by front man Mani Mostofi and guitarist Daniel Binaei about racism, imperialism, war, justice, and veganism

SHE recently admitted she's a big fan of nature programmes so it's perhaps no surprise that the lovely Georgia May Jagger cuddled up to this adorable little pup during this New York City photoshoot yesterday. Wearing a bright orange jacket and most definitely channelling a hipster vibe with her trademark tousled tresses, she looked effortlessly chic as she promoted the latest designs for Sunglass Hut. Getty Images 2 Caring Georgia May cuddles up to Charlie the rescue dog in NYC And her cuddly little companion who goes by the name of Charlie certainly brought some brightness to artistic Georgia May's day. She said: "My new friend Charlie was rescued from a kill shelter". After posting a photo to her instagram account, fans were immediately delighted with her decision to promote animal welfare. Indeed she was lauded as a 'fab example' and was even called an 'angel' by supporters. And animal welfare is not the only cause Georgia May helps to promote. Indeed the beautiful 24 year-old jetted back to Manhattan for work after spending time back home in the UK volunteering on a blood-donor drive in Ashford, Kent. She had taken time out of her busy schedule to promote charity DKMS which aims to increase the pool of lifesaving blood stem cell donors. Getty Images 2 Arty Georgia May looked effortlessly chic as she smiled for the cameras The amazing organisation, which helps cancer sufferers, was just one of a string of important engagements Georgia May had. But as well as working she also checked in with her friends. READ MORE HOT BOD David Gandy poses topless to launch new M&S summer line - and the photos will brighten every woman's day Model sisters You won't believe who these adorable cherubs grew up to be What a lucky guy Bradley Cooper's girlfriend Irina Shayk looks smokin' hot on a yacht in beautiful new fashion campaign Knickers-bocker glory Rosie Huntington-Whiteley shows us her smalls as she models undies for M&S Super girls Naomi Campbell gives Kate Moss' new man the seal of approval during brunch Legs like a racehorse! Abbey Clancy shows off enviable pins in bikini snapshot from her family holiday As well as having a passion for photography and illustration, Georgia is also a dab hand in the kitchen and enjoys nothing better than cooking a nice roast for her friends now she's back in North London. She recently revealed that she loves to cook alongside her brother James and that the pair even cook Christmas dinner together! A post shared by Georgia May Jagger (@georgiamayjagger) on Jun 14, 2016 at 10:33am PDT Slender Georgia May loves to cook but she also keeps herself trim by doing yoga and she has a simple solution to getting plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. She told the Evening Standard: "I don't like it to be very thick and with bits. "But I'll do a green juice; cucumber, apple and spinach or something. A post shared by Georgia May Jagger (@georgiamayjagger) on Apr 13, 2016 at 10:38am PDT "Sounds horrible but it's actually quite nice. You've got to put some apples or pears in it -- you can't just put vegetables." Funny Georgia also admitted she has a rather unorthodox approach to her exercise routine. She added: "I think people assume that all models are working out in the gym but I'm really not that kind of person. "I find it quite boring. I carry my suitcase around a lot, though. I drag it up and down." Got a story? email digishowbiz@the-sun.co.uk or call us direct on 02077824220

SHE recently admitted she's a big fan of nature programmes so it's perhaps no surprise that the lovely Georgia May Jagger cuddled up to this adorable little pup during this New York City photoshoot yesterday.

Genetically modified food has sparked an intense debate these last few years. As the science has weighed in, there still is a significant fear factor among first-world populations regarding the safety of GMOs. What's the difference between selective breeding and GMOs? Selective breeding involves selecting organisms with desirable traits and breeding them so that certain characteristics are perpetuated. However, this is limited to naturally occurring variations, which is where genetic engineering comes in. Genetic engineering introduces genes into an organism from a totally unrelated species. This is a practice that is commonly carried out on crops, agricultural animals and bacteria. These genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are designed for many reasons, including: pesticide and disease resistance, drought/frost resistance, increased yields, enhanced nutritional content and as a way to produce drugs or vaccines at low cost on a large scale. When most people consider GMOs they think of agriculture, but the medical implications are wide ranging. For example, genetically engineered bacteria now produce insulin, saving the lives of millions of type 1 diabetics. The debate is varied, from human health to corporate greed, but one thing is undeniable: humans have been intervening to change how crops grow for over millennia. Look: In the photo below, you can see how selective breeding over time has dramatically changed corn. So what sparked the modern anti-GMO movement? From IFLS: A lot of fear was sparked about the safety of GM foods after a scientist named Gilles-Eric Seralini published a study that found rats fed with Monsanto's glyphosphate-resistant corn developed more tumors and died earlier than controls. After these results, many demanded tighter regulations whereas others called for an outright ban on the corn. However, numerous problems with the study came to light which led to its retraction from the journal. First off, Seralini is an outspoken anti-GMO activist. At the time of initial publication he had conflicting interests- he was releasing a book and a documentary on the research. For the experiments, Seralini used Sprague-Dawley rats that are prone to developing spontaneous tumors. He also only used 10 rats for each group, for a period of two years which is almost a rat's lifespan. The study was described as a "statistical fishing trip" by reviewers - if you test enough variables for long enough, you'll get a result from something. This is not good science. The recommendation for carcinogenicity studies is that 65 or more of each sex should be used. There is a high probability that the results were due to chance. Furthermore, there have been mounds of better designed studies that have found no health issues , further suggesting that poor study design is the likely reason for the results, not the GM maize. Facebook Comment February 9, 2015 at 6:31 pm How do you like eating corn that makes insects stomachs explode? February 9, 2015 at 7:12 pm The anti GMO people are idiots. They also believe the world is flat and vaccines cause autism. What a bunch of fools. February 9, 2015 at 7:35 pm Some people oppose GMOs because of the way Monsanto is handling them. They don't like the Roundup Ready Crops and the way they force farmers to use their seeds. February 9, 2015 at 8:55 pm Sorry but no. I'm against GMO crops that are not advertised a such on the label of the food I'm buying. As a consumer I have the right to know what I'm putting in my body. GMO crops should also not be planted out in the open enabling cross-pollination with the wild type. Long term studies need to prove them safe first. And no, I am not a member of the Flat Earth Society and I think people who don't vaccinate their kids should have their parenting rights removed, not only for endangering their own kids but also other people who for legitimate reasons can't get vaccinated. Herd immunity is needed to keep those few who really can't get vaccinated safe. But when it comes to GMO crops I prefer to err on the safe side. The fact is that often when humans start messing with something, it goes wrong (BSE, anyone? Created by humans who fed ground sheep to cattle.) February 9, 2015 at 9:21 pm The anti gmo movement may have begun with doubt, however when monsanto genetically modifies its corn to withstand treatment after treatment of glyphosate, which is a known carcinogen and hormone disruptor - (i.e. Roundup Ready corn, we know it well) it gives me the food creeps. Genetically altered and doused in herbicides and pesticides. I will DEcide not to eat that crap. Eat what you want, I'm not eating that corn. February 9, 2015 at 10:46 pm I don't believe the world is flat. Nor that vaccines cause autism. And it you can't tell the difference between plants that are changed by selective breeding over centuries, with the change being due to naturally occurring genetic mutations, and plants that have been changed by inserting created genes designed especially to react-or rather not react!-to certain very toxic pesticides, you are the fool. But go ahead and keep believing everything one of the most corrupt organizations in the world keeps telling you. Monsanto rules...because of fools....like you. February 9, 2015 at 11:19 pm Selective breeding is nothing like creating GMO's. Its like comparing apples to tomatoes. In one case you are dealing with current genes and taking advantage of natural mutations. In the other you are injecting beneficial genes that come from completely different species. As with many arguments, there are idiots on both sides. On the pro GMO side they can be found saying that "humans have been modifying their food for thousands of years, GMO's are no different". February 9, 2015 at 11:21 pm Additionally, the insulin used by Type 1 diabetics comes from YEAST (a fungus) and not bacteria. mike z February 9, 2015 at 11:56 pm listen to each their own. Im on the fence as to its safety. but why won't they make labeling mandantory? another example of government protecting profits over people February 10, 2015 at 12:22 am Jeb do us all a favor and contiue to eat GMO foods as well as take your vaccinations. Once you and the like die from all that poison we shall inherate the Earth. Let's see who the foolish ones are. February 10, 2015 at 12:43 am I am anti-GMO in the sense that I don't like the business behind it. I also know the Earth is round and vaccines have no link to autism...way to generalize an entire group of people though. February 10, 2015 at 2:19 am Likewise, queenb, I'll take my vaccinations and be safe from diseases that have plagued our species since time immemorial. Darwin do his job the next time Polio passes by your neighborhood. Oh, I totally agree on GMOs, but Vaccines? Come on. Suz B. February 10, 2015 at 2:29 am The reason labeling isn't mandatory is because right wing fanatics will call it to much regulation and government over reach, as they do with all regulations that are meant to keep us safe. Jess Burgen February 10, 2015 at 2:35 am Tip -- Brush up on your spelling before you "inherate" the Earth, m'kay? Otherwise it looks like you don't "reed" enough to know anything about it. February 10, 2015 at 2:53 am Jeb, you are the fool and a idiot. Don't group people like that. February 10, 2015 at 2:53 am February 10, 2015 at 3:00 am As a scientist, my problem is with Monsanto's apparent disregard for maintaining genetic diversity. Once almost all corn, for example, is their GMO variety, if something comes along to decimate the crops we will not easily be able to replace those. February 10, 2015 at 3:28 am Well, there you go, kernel corn is gmo, seedless water melons as well. Pretty simple, you don't need labels, just eyes. February 10, 2015 at 3:49 am This gives a good breakdown on some of the *other* effects of GM crops--namely, how herbicide treatments have changed, and how herbicides are now in our food (sometimes even in non-GM food, if it's used to kill the crop at the end of the growing cycle, for faster harvesting): February 10, 2015 at 4:01 am Good point, Rosemary! The Potato Famine in Ireland came about in part because Ireland's one varietal of potato was particularly susceptible to the blight (a fungus, iirc). The same blight went through South America at the same time, but people were far less impacted because it was traditional to grow many varieties of potatoes, and many of those varieties had stronger resistance to the blight. Personally, I think this is one reason Monsanto and other seed companies have established that "seed bank" off Norway (in a huge vault), as well as why they go after farmers who save seed, and part of why they created terminator seeds (Monsanto supplies the seed, you grow the crop... but the crop produces no viable seed for seed savers, so you have to buy more seed from them next time). So one reason they created that seed vault, where they've squirreled away a great number of natural varietals, is that if/when major problems crop up (pun intended) with the GMO and non-GMO varieties they sell, they'll be the only source for other varietals to replace crops that are a problem or get wiped out by disease. In short, it's yet another money-making tactic and attempt to monopolize, at the expense of our food supply and our health: they push to reduce the number of varietals of a crop that are actually planted and in use, and do their best to ensure that the *only* one(s) planted and provided are *their* patented seeds. Then, if something goes wrong, or a disease wipes out that varietal, they're the only ones possessing other varietals that can replace it, which means they can charge through the nose for, say, other varietals of corn, or soy, etc. (And btw, I've seen info from organic farmers that there *is* no longer any non-GMO canola, because not enough was done to prevent the GMO canola from cross-pollinating the organic versions. It pretty much wrecked the canola market with foreign buyers who want non-GMO.) February 10, 2015 at 4:07 am It's pretty tasty. That comment of yours is a false equivalency. Insect stomachs aren't the same as human stomachs. February 10, 2015 at 4:58 am yeah thats why when they eat a little bit of baking soda they die (stomachs explode) while we actually use a little of it in water while we are sick or dehydrated to replenish electrolytes. February 10, 2015 at 5:11 am With a global food system that squelches biodiversity, controlled by a small number of chemical companies, we are teetering on the brink of disaster. Humans have made a huge mistake turning over our food supply to a small number of people who are limiting the number of plants we eat and, thru GMO's trying to reduce biodiversity even more. Get ready for a mega volcano like Tambora in 1815. This is how our planet renews itself and its past time for a renewal. Tambora created so much sulphur laden dust in our atmosphere, all crops failed in the northern hemisphere for 2 years. Millions of people and animals died of starvation. We should rely on regional food systems and be growing many species of plants that nature has produced thru natural selection over 20 million years. Collect and save seeds! It is our problem that we have let chemical companies take over our food system. It's nobody's fault but our own. Take it back. There are80,000 edible plants among 350,000 plants on Earth. Why don't you figure out how to grow some of these in your garden and figure out how to feed your self? Support local farms. Stop buying food grown in the global agricultural system and be the resourceful human that nature intended us to be! Be prepared for the inevitability of our planet's renewal. February 10, 2015 at 5:13 am There's also the issue of one corporation being able to own a patent on a major food crop. Neurotic Knight February 10, 2015 at 6:33 am what do you feel about beans that cause kidney failure in dogs, or weed that can kill certain beetles. February 10, 2015 at 6:43 am Well I see a few old tropes, and some missing information here.... First of all, let me offer a little correction to the original article. I was expecting it to be another tiresome catastrophizing diatribe, but it's actually pretty neutral. The one thing I would add is that "Genetic Modification" as discussed is not limited to "introduces genes into an organism from a totally unrelated species." That is part of it, but there is also a lot of work done with introducing genes from other strains of the same, or closely-related species, just like "regular" breeding, but faster and less likely to bring-about unfortunate side-effects because of its precision. Plants that are sterile (seedless bananas or oranges) or with very long generations (apples, chestnuts) are targets of this. There are also techniques that do not introduce genes at all, but "knock-out" or "up-regulate" existing ones, to decrease the production of an undesirable chemical (like a carcinogen precursor in potatoes) or increase the amount of a desired one (vitamins, minerals). As for the whole "because, MONSANTO!!1!" trope, I hope people by now know that there are other labs out there, including in universities and governments. It is not Monsanto's fault that they are among the few with deep enough pockets to get their products out there. If "Golden Rice" or any of the other "GMOs" that have been, or would have been developed could get to market, many people including the poorest and sickest would benefit. And (you'll know whom you are), glyphosate is not "a known carcinogen and hormone disruptor" unless there is some exciting new credible research that is just about to be ballyhooed everywhere. I suggest that, if you are interested in finding-out about the whole "GMO" thing without histrionics, and with honest rational discussion, you visit the site Biofortified.org. There you will find the texts of all the research papers, including Seralini, as well as analysis, commentary and honest discussion. February 10, 2015 at 7:39 am Sorry, Jeb, but a lot of highly intelligent people are not pro-GMO's and they don't believe the world is flat or vaccines cause autism. I don't want to eat food that can be sprayed with chemicals, then harvested. There are so many permutations that have not been studied or approved. And, Monsanto is not a very ethical company, at all. Why should anyone believe such a horrific company, but someone who gets a profit from them. What is your story? February 10, 2015 at 7:48 am Although in this case, the insect may edge out in the brains department. Although, my exoskeleton HAS been a bit soft ever since I started eating more corn... Oh, right... I'm not an insect. That's skin. False alarm, people, carry on... Ann Clinical Psychologist February 10, 2015 at 7:59 am Uh, no. Selective breeding and hybridization are modifications to the plant, still a species, while GMO add in genes from completely unrelated organisms. Science has very often in the past been unable to predict the consequences inherent in messing with nature. February 10, 2015 at 8:50 am You trust a company with the track record Monsanto has to mess with your food. Who's the fool? Jello Biafra February 10, 2015 at 9:00 am Thank you for an eminently sensible and cogent point. A world with only one strain each of corn, wheat and rice is their goal, and that world is a recipe for mass starvation. February 10, 2015 at 10:23 am It only does so because of a comformational (that's a fancy name for "shape" that they use in chemistry) change caused by a protein only found in the target insects. Also, they don't explode, they're shredded from the inside. February 10, 2015 at 10:36 am The nice thing about GMOs is they're a target gene that we know very well what protein it produces and how it works. Mutations aren't always so safe and pretty. For example, Huntington's disease is a human mutation that is extremely harmful to an individual. Round up is actually a plant hormone that makes plants grow themselves to death. There are two hormones, one that causes roots to grow and another that causes the stalk and leaves to grow. Flooding the roots of plants with second causes the plant to grow its leaves and stalk to the point where it dies from lack of nutrition from under-developed roots. Plants that have been desensitized to external hormones are "roundup ready." They lack the ability to uptake the hormone through their roots February 10, 2015 at 10:40 am Nobody gets out alive, but I'd put my money on vaccinated people that eat GMOs and have a low intake of High-Fructose corn syrup lasting longer. I hope you don't get organic produce thinking its "nontoxic"... they're typically GMO because its cheaper to buy plant seeds that produce their own pesticides than pay someone to go pull bugs off of leaves. February 10, 2015 at 10:41 am Go look at the labels in your fridge. If it says "organic" or "high fructose corn syrup" is listed in the ingredients, you've bought GMOs. February 10, 2015 at 10:42 am Oh look an intelligent comment. I have to point out we do have seed banks for such a contingency. February 10, 2015 at 12:37 pm Actually the main thing isn't about genetically modified food in the sense of eating it, it's about a farmer. Has to buy seeds from that company. No say a farmer across the field who uses his own seeds he harvested like his father and generations before gets his field pollinated by the genetically superior plants across the road. Well, the company that patented that seed (who have inspectors who go around to fields) test an sees that your field is their seeds and you didn't pay for their seeds, they can sue you and pretty much take your farm because you'll be bankrupt trying to fight them in court. I. The mean time your seed will be on hold till the court ruling is over. Buy that time the farmer ran out of money, has to sell the farm or just give in and pay moneseto a % for that corn and basically use their seeds from then on. February 10, 2015 at 12:42 pm Jeb, you are the idiot. you have no idea who the readers here are, yet you lump 2 different groups together as one. Also, corn is not very nutritious for humans as tasty as it is (mostly fat and carbs, Mooooo!). In my estimation it's food to fatten cows. And on that note I'd like to know if the meat I buy was fed with GMO products so I can exercise my freedom of choice to make a purchase or not. Just because YOU say it's safe makes me NOT want to buy anything containing your poison-resistant Franken-product. But, you, go ahead eat and have as much as you want. February 10, 2015 at 2:39 pm You are eating that corn. The only reason that "0rganic" even exists is years of PEOPLE selectively breeding and modifying crop species in order to make them hardy enough to withstand increasing environmental strains. To think that you can drop any seed in the ground and produce enough food to sustain the earth is absolutely ridiculous. The anti GMO PEOPLE have their head up there asses so far they can't see daylight. February 10, 2015 at 4:30 pm Jeb: Asking a company to put a label on the food they are selling disclosing how it was genetically modified does not make one an idiot. Nor does it make them believe the earth is flat. However, YOUR comment makes you look like a judgmental douche-bag, troll. Hired(or suckered in) by the corporate propaganda machine. Way to bite the hook, line and sinker you pathetic sycophant. February 10, 2015 at 4:45 pm I am all for making sure our vegetables, fruits and grains are safe but I am sorry the pre modified versions of those foods look like they would taste like ass. February 10, 2015 at 6:30 pm I am: 1. Non-Christian, anti-theiest 2. College educated, in the soft sciences 3. I vaccinate 4. I HAVE an autistic child and an AHDH child, and they are not on the hocus pocus diets. 5. I am a skeptic, about just about everything. 6. I am anti-GMO. I would be more open to GMO if it was worldwide, and backed by private scientists rather that Monastato. Believing Monastato that GMO's are healthy is like taking Marlboro's word on tobacco safety, Big Oil's on pollution, or better yet Romney's advice on anything...its called an agenda. Its our job to be critical and find out facts independently and not buy into biased storytelling. February 10, 2015 at 7:34 pm The bT (Bacillus thuringiensis) toxin that's been bioengineered into Monsanto (and its patent licensees - read: everyone else, too) corn was rushed to market with only minimal animal trials. The scientific evidence that it was showing up in the cord blood of infants was all but gagged and... well, hey, it's america, most fat bastards gorging themselves on Big Macs would just call me a "fagit soshulist librul demoncrap" for trying to warn them. Dee Dee February 10, 2015 at 8:34 pm While I agree that eating GMOs has not proven unhealthy, there are other issues with GMO. This article is hinting that selective breeding is GMO, it is not. Selective breeding is manipulating the plants' existing DNA by cross-breeding. GMO is Modifying the DNA by splicing non-plant DNA into plants (or fish). For most crops, in order to make them more hardy against herbicides, which has led to the dramatic increase in the use of herbicides, which has in turn led to many weeds becoming resistant to the herbicide, which in turn has lead scientists to create yet more GMO crops that are resistant to harsher herbicides, etc. etc. ad nauseam. Dee Dee February 10, 2015 at 8:36 pm That's absolutely not true. I'm not afraid to eat GMO, I'm very worried about the impact that using 10 TIMES the amount of herbicide on crops is having on the environment. Dee Dee February 10, 2015 at 8:39 pm That should say "For most crops, a gene is inserted..... " oops. February 11, 2015 at 3:15 pm The silly arguement keeps coming up over and over. GMO, as it's commonly used, does NOT refer to hybridization and selective breeding. February 11, 2015 at 6:26 pm How do you like eating 'organic' corn that also makes insect stomachs explode because they spray said 'organic' corn with the same bacteria they took the insecticide gene from? February 11, 2015 at 6:37 pm Farmers have been planting gmos for 20 yrs and you have been eating them/ using them for that long too haha there is such a misunderstanding of these crops that it makes me sick no company is forcing farmers to plant them. They do because they are good for the land and their increased production vs. Organic crops is NEEDED to feed our starving world! Call a farmer for credible information. February 12, 2015 at 12:15 am We eat rice, rice can makes birds stomach "explode". We eat chocolate which is bad for dogs, and foods with baking soda in them which can be bad for cats. You comment is unbelievably pathetic. February 12, 2015 at 3:53 am You know, chocolate and grapes and onions can kill dogs, too. Ban em all! Or, I don't know, be a responsible pet owner and watch out for what they eat? February 12, 2015 at 6:40 am Farmers aren't forced to buy from Monsanto. There are dozens of options in my surrounding area. February 12, 2015 at 1:22 pm Or more or less taking tomato genes and putting them in an apple to make them redder February 13, 2015 at 2:29 am Do you know there is a difference between field corn and SWEET Corn. Maybe you should spend a year on a farm before you speak We put in 18-20 hour days to feed the world. a banana was cloned 2000 years ago !!! February 13, 2015 at 4:30 am I love the fact that Monsanto is always brought up when dealing with GMO's. When Dow(Mycogen), DuPont (Pioneer), and Syngenta all either have or are trying to develop GMO's. February 14, 2015 at 3:31 pm Seriously trying to convince us with lies will never work.. DEMAND GMO food be labeled. We have a right to know before we purchase. February 14, 2015 at 3:48 pm You actually might want to do a little research on that my friend. Bill Clinton was in bed with Monsanto every bit as much as was George W. Bush. And as for the Labeling Act...the GOP and the Dems were pretty united on that one: I am a Conservative and support GMO labeling...be careful with that generalizing my friend. You know that old saying don't you? United we stand, divided we fall. February 14, 2015 at 4:00 pm Right on, Cathryn! Monsanto's desire to control the world's food production without ANY concern for the safety of consumers or the preservation of farmers' livelihoods, is where peoples' concerns should be! If people continue to believe Monsanto's lies, we'll all be lost. The comment about "no company is forcing farmers to plant them" is not true! Monsanto has been charging farmers for having GMO crops (which they don't want in the first place - and actually ruin the farmers' heritage seed production) on their land, when the GMO plants have cross-pollinated the farmers' crops! This just disgusts me - as does the rant of those who have been bought out by Monsanto! February 14, 2015 at 4:04 pm Absolutely, Marianne! I am a beekeeper who is disgusted by how Monsanto has used GMOs to change food production and created a need for pesticides that are simply not acceptable to bees - or humans, for that matter! Colony Collapse Disorder is a direct result of the introduction of neonicotinoids! Paid supporters of Monsanto will tell you that the pesticide isn't present at the time of blossoming, but that is a load of crap! February 14, 2015 at 4:06 pm You've been brainwashed, Jeb! You are the fool to believe that Monsanto's pollination of the world is acceptable! Read more - educate yourself! February 14, 2015 at 4:08 pm February 14, 2015 at 4:14 pm Your comment is completely unfounded! Using more pesticides is not the way to feed the world! Empowering more people to grow their own food and save their seeds, is the way to sustainability. If you believe that Monsanto's plans will feed the world, you've been brainwashed! Monsanto has done nothing but build an empire for their own profits that has dramatically affected the health of our planet! They need to be stopped! March 17, 2015 at 3:18 am Mike Maxson. Had to smile at the comment that GMO corn can't take the roundup via its root system being a plant person I know that round is sprayed on the leaves and is take. Up via the leaves not the roots. If I can recall from my Hort class roundup is like a high dose of fertilizer and it burns the plant to death?? June 22, 2017 at 2:50 pm I just want to say I am new to blogs and truly savored you're page. Most likely I'm likely to bookmark your website . You actually have terrific writings. Cheers for sharing with us your web site. June 30, 2017 at 6:29 pm Noticeably compelling highlights you have mentioned, a big heads up for setting up. September 5, 2017 at 11:16 pm Thanks for your information. its realy usefull Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Genetically modified food has sparked an intense debate these last few years.

North Vietnam sustained heavy material losses in the brutal attack of August 4. But the imperialists failed in their objective, which was either to provoke a major war or demoralize the revolution. On the contrary, the bombings have galvanized the Southeast Asian masses into more opposition than ever. They have alerted the defenses of China and other countries who may be attacked. They have solidified the alliance between North Vietnam and China. And they have further weakened the corrupt regime of puppet-dictator Khanh, who, already on the skids, has declared martial law to conceal the fact that nobody supports him. Imperialism is tough and terrible, but it is dying. And the masses are fighting for a system that is just being born--and they are unconquerable. Anti-war protest in Times Square, New York, Aug. 8, 1964. In front of picture, arms folded, is Dorothy Ballan, a founder and leader of Workers World Party. Times Square rally against Viet War; Police break it up! By L. Richie NEW YORK, August 8--Mounted police today charged into a crowd assembled in Times Square to protest the U.S. war in Vietnam. Hundreds of onlookers were stunned by the fascist thoroughness of the cops. At least one person was trampled and others were pummeled. The right of freedom of speech was also trampled and 17 were arrested. But leaders later called for another demonstration in the same place next Saturday. Vincent Copeland, Editor of Workers World, was the first to be grabbed and arrested by police as he defiantly continued his speech attacking the U.S. assault on Northern Vietnam after police had scattered spectators with their charge. The meeting was sponsored by the May 2nd Committee and Youth Against War and Fascism. The meeting began at 4:00 P.M. Saturday just north of crowded Times Square at Broadway and 47th Street in a large street island called Duffy Square. The listeners gathered in front of a statue there while speakers mounted the base of the statue. Levi Laub, an official of May 2 Committee, opened the meeting and was followed by Philip Luce, acting chairman of the May 2nd Committee. A squad of police began to move in as Luce introduced Vincent Copeland of Workers World. Copeland welcomed all to the protest against the U.S. action in Viet Nam and said, "The threat of Goldwater's itchy trigger finger has now been replaced by the bloody hand of Johnson." The squad of cops then moved in and surrounded the speaker and others at the base of the statue. "Let him speak; let him speak!" the crowd began to chant. The chant continued until Luce raised his hand for silence and announced that, "The police say they are not going to allow us to speak." At this point the mounted police charged into the audience. The horsed cops drove the people to the far ends of the square and into the street. One man fell under the horses' hooves and the police rider trampled him. Some of the scattered spectators climbed on raised stone areas to escape the horses. Many still held up signs demanding that U.S. troops be withdrawn from Vietnam. At this point Copeland had gotten an electronic megaphone and he resumed his speech as thousands of spectators stopped on the sidewalks to view the action. "Look at the fascist cops--is this what we're supposed to be fighting for in Vietnam?" he said. Copeland continued speaking until two cops grabbed him and jerked him to a waiting car. A large group of youthful onlookers then marched over to the police station on West 47th Street, where the arrested people were being held, shouting and chanting slogans of freedom for the prisoners and peace in Vietnam. Among others arrested were Key Martin of Youth Against War and Fascism, Levi Laub of Progressive Labor, and Fred Jerome, Editor of Challenge. As the 17 arrested were released Saturday night they assembled with a hundred or more supporters who had come to the night court to support them. An announcement was made that those arrested had met while inside the jail and had drawn up a press statement which ended with a call for another protest meeting to again defy the warmongers--on Saturday, Aug. 15 at 4 P.M. Aug. 27, 1964 47 arrested for defying Times Square ban second time Youth cry: 'Stop Vietnam War!' NEW YORK, Aug. 16--Hundreds of people returned to Times Square yesterday to hold the most powerful demonstration yet seen in this country against the U.S. war in Vietnam, and to protest the police-made law banning demonstrations in Times Square which has been in effect for two years. The demonstrators were viciously and repeatedly attacked by the police, including Gestapo-like plainclothesmen. The demonstration had been called by the 17 people arrested the previous Saturday in a similar Times Square demonstration, as soon as they had been released from jail. Both demonstrations were sponsored by the May 2nd Movement and Youth Against War and Fascism. Vincent Copeland, editor of Workers World, who was arrested at the August 8 demonstration, was arrested again yesterday as soon as he arrived at Times Square at 4:00 P.M. Throughout the demonstration, the cops tried to pick off leaders. They later arrested Fred Goldstein, National Organizational Director of Youth Against War and Fascism. The cops pushed the assembled demonstrators out of Times Square at 47th Street. The crowd resisted, first chanting "Let them speak." The demonstrators moved east on 47th Street, hoping to be able to speak when they reached the UN Plaza. The demonstrators brought out their signs opposing the war in Vietnam, gave out their leaflets, and chanted "fascist cops" and "Nazi cops." Soon the cops were pushing a sea of demonstrators toward Sixth Avenue. When the demonstrators reached Sixth Avenue, the police charged into those at the front of the line, fighting them and dragging them along. The crowd began to shout "Police brutality"; and then, "Stop the war in Vietnam--bring the troops home." Between Sixth and Second Avenues, the cops continually fought and arrested demonstrators. They crushed the crowd against automobiles, and tore shirts. Key Martin, National Chairman of Youth Against War and Fascism, was twice beaten to the ground and clubbed in the stomach. Other demonstrators were cut in the head, injured in the knee, and injured in the ribs. ... In all, 47 were arrested, nearly half of them youth in their late teens and early twenties. ... At night court, bail was set for the demonstrators, singly and in pairs, all through the night and into the morning. Bail was high, $500 for alleged disorderly conduct and $1,000 for heavier charges. A large crowd of sympathizers welcomed the defendants as they were brought into court and bailed out. The demonstration exposed the phony unity behind the war that the ruling class politicians called for. It showed that the war is the war of the rich, not ours. Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved. Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011 Email: [email protected] Subscribe [email protected] Support independent news DONATE

Anti-war protest in Times Square, New York, Aug. 8, 1964. In front of picture, arms folded, is Dorothy Ballan, a founder and leader of Workers World Party.

President Donald Trump's decision last week to pull the trigger on his oft-repeated threat to cut off subsidies to health insurance companies is having widespread fallout, with many states scrambling to approve higher insurance rates for 2018 to make up for the loss and keep insurers from fleeing the market altogether. Because the insurance companies are required by law to cover everyone regardless of their health status and lower the cost of care for low-income patients, and because many had assumed the government would keep making the cost sharing reduction (CSR) payments, Trump's move has thrown them into turmoil. The vast majority either had raised their rates already in anticipation of the CSR cut or are filing for emergency rate hikes now. And while these rate hikes will not impact the more than 80 percent of individual market enrollees who get government tax credits, they will cost the government billions of dollars as those tax credits creep upward to cover the difference. The rate increases will also slam the millions of middle class Americans whose individual health plans are unsubsidized. The timing of the announcement--mere weeks before the start of open enrollment period for 2018 and just after insurers had already signed contracts for participating --could not have been worse. "Potentially the biggest effect of all this is just to create confusion," warned Larry Levitt, the vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation. "It would be quite understandable if consumers are perplexed about whether subsidies are still available for them, which they are." Rates on the rise Across the country, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has predicted about a 25 percent increase in insurance rates over two years solely due to the subsidy cuts. Already, in markets where insurance companies did not originally price for the yanking of the CSRs, that prediction is coming true. On Friday, Oregon's Department of Consumer and Business Services ordered health insurance companies on the state's individual market to hike their 2018 rates by 7.1 percent, "in order to ensure carriers can continue to offer coverage in Oregon." "This increase will affect plans both on and off HealthCare.gov, and will compensate for the $49 million worth of cost-sharing reduction payments that the federal government will no longer be making to Oregon insurance companies in 2018." Alaska ordered a similar rate increase of 5 to 6 percent. In Arkansas, where insurers submitted two sets of rates--one assuming Trump continued funding CSRs and one assuming last week's cutoff--the state approved the much higher rate, leading to a 25 percent jump in costs for some non-subsidized residents. In Pennsylvania, the increase will be near 30 percent , and in Florida, patients will pay between 26 and 72 percent more next year. Many states are only hiking the rate of their silver-tier plans to cover the cost of the lost subsidies, but others, like Indiana , are raising rates across board. According to an AP analysis, Republican-controlled states that did not expand Medicaid, and that voted for Trump, will be the hardest hit . "Middle class consumers will get hurt, but that's not what's happening in most places," Levitt explained. "It's really hitting tax payers, because the added cost of the increased tax credits will exceed the federal savings from cutting CSRs." Courtrooms and chaos On Friday, nearly 20 state attorneys general sued the Trump administration over the abrupt subsidy withdrawal, arguing the move violated the text of the Affordable Care Act and the Administrative Procedure Act. The states aim to force the White House to make its October payment via a temporary restraining order while the case is heard, and other legal actions could be close behind. Because Trump ordered the payments to cease immediately and the rate hikes don't go into effect until 2018, insurance companies have to eat the loss of tens of millions of dollars between now and the end of December. "I've heard of insurers exploring their options to get this money back through legal action," Levitt told TPM. "Under the law they still seem to be owed this money." Yet not only have insurers not filed lawsuits yet, they have not fled the markets en masse as many predicted. Though some individual insurers, most vocally in Montana, have threatened to drop out of the marketplace if their rate increases are not approved by regulators, the vast majority are gritting their teeth and staying put. "For the most part, insurers had a sense this could be coming," Levitt said. "Those that didn't feel they could manage it had already left. But because this was just one of several actions the Trump administration has taken to undermine the marketplace, the question on insurers' minds is: what might come next?" Read More -

President Donald Trump's decision last week to pull the trigger on his oft-repeated threat to cut off subsidies to health insurance companies is having widespread fallout, with many states scrambling to approve higher insurance rates for 2018 to make up for the loss and keep insurers from fleeing the market altogether.

Russia is invading its neighbors, China is expanding its claims over the western Pacific, and Islamic militants are terrorizing Syria, Libya, Yemen, Nigeria and other nations. But fear not, America: President Barack Obama has ordered his forces to deploy high-yield tactical hashtags across social media. As the administration drastically cuts the U.S. military, the State Department's Jen Psaki launched a brutal fussilade of tweets at Vladimir Putin, complaining that Moscow wasn't living up to " the promise of hashtag ." Today, a pouty Michelle Obama is facing down Nigeria's murderous Boko Haram with a hashtagged photo uploaded to Instagram . Let's all pray North Korea doesn't march south or Chuck Hagel will have to curate an anti-Juche Pinterest board.

Russia is invading its neighbors, China is expanding its claims over the western Pacific, and Islamic militants are terrorizing Syria, Libya, Yemen, Nigeria and other nations.

According to Soccernomics - Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski's book on the use of data in football - talent scouts are more likely to recommend blond players than anyone else. Not because they're better, but simply because they stand out on the pitch and linger in the memory as a result. Does ministerial incompetence follow a similar pattern? The many howlers of Boris Johnson stand out because of his outsized media profile and distinctive blond mop. The haplessness of Chris Grayling, a member of the cabinet since 2012, goes largely unnoticed and unreported, perhaps because he has hardly any public profile and even less hair. Instead, he has cultivated a kind of inconspicuous incompetence. The year he left the Ministry of Justice in 2015, all youth offenders' centres but one were found to be unsafe. He was shuffled to Leader of the Commons, traditionally regarded as the antechamber between full cabinet rank and the wilderness, then rescued from the scrapheap by Theresa May, who promoted him to Transport Secretary. Transport policy moves at a glacial place and it may be many years before the repercussions of Grayling's tenure are properly felt. One civil servant describes him as a "placebo-effect minister": a secretary of state who has little effect on the inner workings of his department and meagre ability to defend his patch from the fiscal constraints imposed by the Treasury. As a cabinet minister, Grayling has been unable to advance his successive departments' interests in Whitehall or in cabinet. He was an early supporter of May, whose leadership campaign he ran, as well as one of the six Cameron-era cabinet ministers to back a Leave vote. This means that he is safe in the cabinet for the foreseeable future. It is his predecessor at transport, the party chairman Patrick McLoughlin, whose job is most at risk. McLoughlin has achieved something that has eluded every Conservative politician since the Brexit vote: he has united most of his party's MPs. Unfortunately, he has united them in a belief he should be sacked. Tory backbenchers blame him for the disastrous general election and for the calamitous party conference that followed. At a bad-tempered reception for failed candidates and defeated Conservative MPs, one of their number asked McLoughlin: "I've lost my job. Why should you keep yours?" However, when you ask Conservative MPs to lay out the precise charges against McLoughlin, the list is thin. The case for sacking him is that he is nearly 60 and values loyalty highly, which means that he is unlikely to become a difficult backbencher in the way sacked ministers often do. That said, McLoughlin did cost the Conservatives seats in 2017: it's just the damage was done while he was at Transport, and it was a result of his success there. During McLoughlin's tenure from 2012-2016, transport spending was used to ease the pain of austerity and keep voters in the Conservative fold. The result was a significant improvement in the condition of England's rail and road networks: provided that you lived in the Tory-voting south. McLoughlin's unnoticed success in improving commuter routes into London collided headfirst with a record of failure at the Department for Communities and Local Government. A series of housing ministers came and went in the Cameron era, all with the same private diagnosis of the problem: our restrictive planning laws are a conspiracy of the homeowning classes against the rest. Each, in turn, was frustrated by the need, real or perceived, to keep older Tory voters on side. The result? The number of homeowners aged under 45 has dropped by 904,000 since the Conservatives came to power in 2010. That brings with it a decline in the number of people who are inclined to vote Conservative. In 2017, the Tories led Labour by 22 points among homeowners, but trailed by 17 points among renters. To make matters worse, the section of the homeowning population that tends to vote Labour despite its economic interests - relatively affluent social liberals - is being priced out of its traditional enclaves in England's great cities. Expensive housing plus solid commuter rail and road links mean these voters are spreading across the south of England. The most eye-catching consequence is the slew of Labour gains in places such as Reading East and Brighton Kemptown on 8 June. A less reported trend is the drip-drip of historic gains by the opposition in council by-elections since then. This suggests that the Tory losses of 2017 were part of a trend: more liberal, culturally-inclined Labour voters are leaving the inner cities and taking their voting habits with them. Conservative MPs from marginal seats are all too aware of the depth of the housing crisis, in part because even an MP's salary is not sufficient to get on the housing ladder in parts of the South. Communities Secretary Sajid Javid, the latest minister to grapple with the housing crisis, is making the right noises about the problem, and Chancellor Philip Hammond is under pressure to address it in his Budget. But more - and therefore cheaper - houses in southern England are only part of the answer. Improving transport links within the north and Midlands must be prioritised, too. If young graduates can commute easily to work near their families, they won't have to move in such large numbers to the capital. To change that would require more than a placebo-effect minister. So far, Grayling has not even managed to accomplish the electrification of key rail lines in the north, or increase connections in Wales. The political repercussions of McLoughlin were bad enough for the Tories. But the political consequences of Grayling may be more long-lasting. On Wednesday evening, Twitter began stripping the verified badges from a set of mostly far-right users such as the English Defence League's former leader Tommy Robinson and US alt-right figurehead Richard Spencer. The de-verification was part of a "review" of verfied accounts to exclude those that Twitter believes have broken a new set of guidelines against behaviour such as "promoting hate and/or violence", supporting hate groups and "inciting or engaging in harassment of others". Those who suddenly found themselves without that little white-on-blue tick - which is meant to signify someone is who they say they are - cried censorship. Of course, they did so on the platform they claimed was censoring them. Under more normal circumstances the sight of proto-fascist commentators adapting the "first they came for" poem written in response to Nazi persecution would be funny. In a world where neo-Nazis regularly march through the streets of the US, it's not quite so much of a laugh. Twitter's decision to take away what is seen as a mark of approval from people who use the platform to stir up hatred is on one level a very good thing. Many of those targeted regularly use Twitter to stir up hatred, and very often spread disinformation with malign intentions. The scale of the move also seems promising after the failure of Twitter's mostly ad hoc approach to tackling abuse on its platform. And yet, both the company's ability to simply take away the authority it has bestowed, and the fact it had the power to bestow it the first place, underline the way big tech platforms have radically changed the way trust and authority work online. The verification system was of course designed to help solve the problem of people being dishonest online about their identities - the fact that "on the internet, nobody knows you're a dog". Coincidentally a reminder of the pitfalls of online anonymity had played out only hours earlier during the first stages of the coup in Zimbabwe. The BBC, in both articles and Radio 4's Today programme, quoted an account purporting to be the official mouthpiece of now-deposed despot Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF. The fact it wasn't verified should have at least given pause for thought, enough time perhaps to search through the account's tweeting history and see a range of posts indicating it was almost certainly a parody account . But even if verification has proved a useful way of indicating that someone is probably who they are, it's impossible to disentangle from the assumed endorsement that any kind of exclusive mark provides, and the highly sought after status boost it provides. Something Twitter itself acknowledged: 2 / Verification has long been perceived as an endorsement. We gave verified accounts visual prominence on the service which deepened this perception. We should have addressed this earlier but did not prioritize the work as we should have. -- Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) November 15, 2017 As so often with the modern world, web comic XCD gets to the heart of the problem. -- XKCD Comic (@xkcdComic) November 10, 2017 Twitter of course means well. It's trying to clean up the noise and disinformation on the system it built. But the problem isn't the intention, it's the concentration of power in the hands of just one organisation, with one set of goals and one culture. It's not unique to Twitter - it hits almost all dominant online platforms and is perhaps most acute with Facebook, which only this morning began trialing its own "trust indicators" on news articles . The point about these platforms is that they, and only they, control the environment in which we are all competing for trust. It wasn't always like this - even online. Both in the early days of the web, and before it, the intangible assets of trustworthiness and authority were derived from a more complex environment. Yes, being on a TV channel or writing in a newspaper provided a base level of authority, but there was competition between those sources and between the individuals using them. It was messy and imperfect, but at least a heterogeneous combination of people and organisations were deciding who and what should be trusted. But on Facebook and Twitter ultimate control has passed to single opaque organisations that set all the rules themselves, and can change the game with the flick of a switch. It's great that Twitter is trying to ensure it isn't accidentally giving some of its worst users a stamp of approval - but it would a lot better if it wasn't in charge of handing them out in the first place. Those looking back on this Brexit debate in the years to come might do so with a sense of bewilderment. Not only is Parliament set to approve a Bill that most members seem to disagree with, but they are proceeding despite being left in the dark by the UK government about the true impact of Brexit. Good governance rests on accountability - that is what Parliament is for. That is why I make the long journey from my constituency of North East Fife to Parliament each week. I wonder what would have happened if it had passed. Perhaps it would now be liberating the government from its present chaos by forcing it to come to its senses. The Leave campaign promised Scotland lots of new powers, including over immigration . It was also promised that the UK would have full access to the single market and, as the Foreign Secretary recently repeated, PS350m a week for the NHS . The public still deserves the truth. The promises made by Vote Leave have failed to materialise, yet current UK ministers who made commitments during the campaign must stand by them. And what is the point in demanding the return of a sovereign parliament unless the claims of those elected are subject to robust scrutiny? Another virtue lacking in our politics is compromise. Unfortunately, the UK government and its Brexiteer backers have refused to meet us even half way.

According to Soccernomics - Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski's book on the use of data in football - talent scouts are more likely to recommend blond players than anyone else. Not because they're better, but simply because they stand out on the pitch and linger in the memory as a result

This is a popular historical canard that has everything going for it except objectivity, rationality, and impartiality. Do schools need to go back to teaching basics like cooking to ensure that kids have the tools and responsibility to succeed in the real world? Using cash seized by drug lords to beef up border security looks like good policy and good politics. The latest research by developmental psychologists shows that American children are not competent at crossing busy streets until they are at least 14. Marching is an expression of subjective emotions. Science is an attempt to put subjectivity aside to discover how nature works. Those who pursue the vocational path aren't dumb; they often possess the very traits employers are looking for. It has become common for many Americans and Europeans to denounce the West because of its past sins. Over the weekend, The Washington Post brought an interesting West Virginia school fight to the forefront. Neil deGrasse Tyson released a new video on what he sees as a growing anti-intellectualism in the U.S.. Lawrence Reed, president of FEE, went to the University of Colorado-Denver to deliver a lecture on Ancient Rome. It didn't go well. The attraction of libertarianism is also its main defect: it offers neat solutions to complex problems. If scientists really want to know who's to blame for bad science, they need to look at themselves. The reason that Tolkien's greatest love story has been largely unknown is that it is little more than a footnote in 'The Lord of the Rings.' During a recent stop in Omaha, Sen. Bernie Sanders said efforts by students to silence conservative speakers signals their own intellectual weakness. Oxford has now declared it racist to "avoid making eye contact" with others or asking an individual "where they are 'originally' from." Repression of speech. Justifying and committing violent acts against speakers you disagree with. Where is all this heading? But the bad news about socialism is not limited to economic deprivation for the masses. The system also leads in many cases to totalitarianism. Over 80% of Americans now live in urban areas. But a growing number of those who do wonder if they should pack it in and migrate to smaller towns. The only way we can get out of this mess is to stop using the internet as a crutch for thinking.

This is a popular historical canard that has everything going for it except objectivity, rationality, and impartiality. Do schools need to go back to teaching basics like cooking to ensure that kids have the tools and responsibility to succeed in the real world?

Hence boys are now called Job, Zephaniah and even Lucifer. But how much better those biblical names than the fad for calling your darling after a retail outlet - famously Teekay and Dkny (which rhymes with bikini). Clinique and Olay (cosmetic creams) are mercifully still rare names for babies but not unknown. Celebrities are the worst baby namers and their example to the rest of us has been disastrous. Children of the famous are statistically a highly suicide-prone group and it's not hard to see why. David Bowie's son changed his name from Zowie Bowie to boring Duncan Jones as soon as he could and who can blame him? His step-sibling is - wait for it - Stacia Larranna Celeste Lipka from his mother's relationship with musician Drew Blood. Guitarist Frank Zappa named his daughter Moon Unit and his son Dweezil. Rock star Bono's daughter is called Memphis Eve. Gwyneth Paltrow famously has a daughter called Apple and Sylvester Stallone a daughter called Sistine. Kate Winslet and her idiotically self-named husband Ned Rocknroll (he changed it by deed poll) have called their baby Bear Blaze, the poor wretch. Windswept states are popular names in Hollywood - Dakota, Montana and Alaska - but they seem almost sensible by comparison to first names like Rebel, Blood Sage and North. Posh hippie names in Britain include Sky, Storm, Autumn and River. These children tend to be the offspring of parents who were smoking strange substances while making babies in teepees at rock festivals in the 1970s. The sobering truth is the legacy of names is very important. Your name can become your destiny - as the famous Asian New York lawyer called Soo Yu is the first to admit. In 1958, a foolish father called Lane named one son Winner Lane and the other Loser Lane. The result? Loser became a great success but changed his named to Lou. Winner has a string of convictions and his life is a disaster. The family became the source of several case studies. The brothers of course don't speak. Would, one wonders, the film director Michael Winner have been so well known had he been called Michael Loser. Research in the United States shows how an unwise choice of name can condemn you to a life of under-achievement. For decades there was an overlap between white and black names. Then along came a surge in black pride and it all changed. In recent years in California, 40 per cent of black baby girls received a name that was not bestowed on a single white baby. In the 1990s Unique became very common, with spelling variations Uneek and Uneque and stupid variations such as Imunique.

Hence boys are now called Job, Zephaniah and even Lucifer. But how much better those biblical names than the fad for calling your darling after a retail outlet - famously Teekay and Dkny (which rhymes with bikini).

AP Photo/Seth Perlman UPDATE: On Saturday, the Human Rights Campaign revoked its endorsement of Sen. Mark Kirk and switched its support to Rep. Tammy Duckworth, after a vote by its leadership. For details, click here. After a tweet by the Human Rights Campaign calling on Republican Sen. Mark Kirk to apologize for mocking his Democratic opponent, Rep. Tammy Duckworth, her immigrant background and her family's history of military service, Kirk did just that, with a tweet of his own, In a Twitter post Friday, Kirk wrote: "Sincere apologies to an American hero, Tammy Duckworth, and gratitude for her family's service." Sincere apologies to an American hero, Tammy Duckworth, and gratitude for her family's service. #ilsen -- Mark Kirk (@MarkKirk) October 28, 2016 The apology comes the morning after their Senate debate Thursday in Springfield, Ill., in a race that is unusual in itself in that both candidates are disabled. Duckworth spoke proudly of how her family has "served this nation in uniform going back to the Revolution." Kirk quipped he had "forgotten (that her) parents came all of the way from Thailand to serve George Washington." Watch the clip below from NBC News: Duckworth, a native of Thailand, has a mother of Chinese descent and a father who first went to Southeast Asia to serve with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam. It is he who traces his heritage to the Revolutionary War, as revealed in a 2002 profile in Mother Jones.

On Saturday, the Human Rights Campaign revoked its endorsement of Sen. Mark Kirk and switched its support to Rep. Tammy Duckworth, after a vote by its leadership. For details, click here.

Likely Democratic gubernatorial nominee Phil Murphy paid a visit to South Jersey Monday night. JT Aregood for Observer GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP -- The frontrunner in New Jersey's Democratic gubernatorial primary attacked Gov. Chris Christie's record on transportation Monday and pledged to support a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River. Phil Murphy, the former U.S. ambassador to Germany, said securing funding for the Gateway rail tunnel would be a top priority as governor. Transportation has moved to the forefront of the governor's race following two NJ Transit derailments in recent weeks and a separate crash in Hoboken in which one woman was killed. Murphy said a different tunnel project called ARC, which Christie canceled in 2010, may not have been perfectly thought out -- but it would have been good enough for commuters needing to get to Manhattan without delays. "According to everybody who looked at it, it was an imperfect tunnel, so it wasn't a perfect solution," Murphy said. "But it would have been the first tunnel we would have put into New York City in over 100 years." "This is the most powerful governorship in the country and if it's in the wrong hands you get bad decisions," he added. Murphy also said he favors apprenticeship programs to improve unemployment numbers in South Jersey cities such as Camden, which suffer from a dearth of skilled workers. Apprenticeship programs from Germany, where he served as U.S. ambassador under former president Barack Obama, would serve as the model, he said. "They're restricted to their members. We need to broaden that," Murphy said of the state's existing union vocation training programs. The Cooper health care system in South Jersey provides a model of what could be done, Murphy said. "When a big car manufacturer like Mercedes decides that they want to build a factory to make cars, they'll cut a deal with the local county, township and state and build a huge academy right beside the plant." he said of the German system. "My guess is this is going to be the ultimate public-private partnership." Murphy, who spent 23 years at Goldman Sachs before entering government, is leading the Democratic field following a sweep of the state's county conventions, meaning that he will have pride of place at the top of the ballot in June when he will go up against fellow Democrats in the primary.

Likely Democratic gubernatorial nominee Phil Murphy paid a visit to South Jersey Monday night. JT Aregood for Observer GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP --

"You treat people like human beings. That's the main point," he said. "It goes back to the whole thing -- 'treat me really bad and pay me well.' It's not going to lead to happiness, it's going to lead to, again, the same thing. Everyone's going to be sick." On Sunday, Jones expanded on how the unemployment rate for African-Americans has been dropping since the Obama administration. "And I gave Trump -- continuing a lot of trends that have been going on anyway, black unemployment is pretty good," Jones told CNN's Brian Stelter on "Reliable Sources." "Should he get credit for it? Jay-Z said something you don't hear from many billionaires. He said, you know what? It's not about money. It's about the respect. "I mean, he could have come in and done stuff that reversed that trend. He could have come in and done terrible things. And he didn't. So there was a bull market under Obama. He kept that going, maybe accelerated it. Unemployment was coming down. He kept that going. Great. But you're not listening to the voices of the black community who say that's not enough to make up for S-hole countries. That's not enough to make up for insulting black football players, saying all of our communities are terrible." Scholars attribute the disparity in unemployment rates to a combination of factors: Hiring discrimination, lower educational attainment and a higher rate of people with criminal records, who are barred from many occupations. There has been improvement over the years. In 1990, only 11.3% of African Americans had four-year college degrees, compared to 22% for whites, according to Census data. In 2017, those numbers had risen to 24% and 34.5%.

On Sunday, Jones expanded on how the unemployment rate for African-Americans has been dropping since the Obama administration.

"I'm going to ask some questions about your story, Mary Katherine. And behind me -- behind this window, actually -- is a video camera that's going to record what you say. Don't be nervous. Just relax and tell the truth. Everything you say will be considered evidence. So, like I said, tell the truth." Why does this guy keep reminding me to tell the truth? Who the hell would lie about something like this? The room felt like 80 degrees, but I asked for a blanket. "And do y'all have a teddy bear or something?" I was 13 years old and felt ridiculous for asking. But as soon as the words left my mouth, a child advocate named Cheryl popped into the room with a panda bear and a blanket. She sat down, reached for my hand, and said, "Honey, the hardest part is already over. He can't hurt you anymore. All you have to do now is tell your story. Just hold this bear and tell your story, okay?" "Okay," I said, curling up behind a stack of pillows. "One more thing," Cheryl said. "No matter what happens, it's important that you know this: We believe you, MK. We believe you." We believe you. Those three words gave me the courage I needed to finish. Through grand jury and humiliating cross examinations, I was able to hold strong. Because they believed me. When the defense attorney attempted to slander my character and paint me as a sexual deviant, I stood my ground. Because they believed me. Three years later, when my abuser was convicted and the local news cast their doubts as to his true guilt, I turned the channel and held my head high. Because they believed me. From the moment I reported the abuse, I was surrounded by people who validated my story -- people who believed me. And that belief was the lifeboat I needed to survive the storm. It's heartbreaking for me to realize just how lucky I was at the time. You see, I was born and raised in Alabama, the current hotbed of political controversy where Roy Moore, a white, evangelical politico, has been accused of sexually abusing at least eight children. Yah, eight . You read that right. One after another, these courageous women have come forward to tell their stories, and one after another, they have been publicly castigated. Needless to say, the abusive dialogue surrounding Roy Moore's accusers makes me sick. Not only because I am a survivor of similar abuse, but because I am now a CASA (court-appointed special advocate) and happen to know that an immense amount of data supports the probability that these women are telling the truth. For instance, did you know that in 98% of child abuse cases reported to officials, the victims' statements are found to be substantiated? (NSW Child Protection Council, cited in Dympna House 1998) The sad thing is, that even though they are telling the truth, 73% of victims do not tell anyone about their abuse for at least one year, and 55% of victims w ait longer than five years to report their abuse, or they never disclose. (I waited eight years). (Broman-Fulks et al, 2007). Clearly, the delay between the event and the reporting makes it challenging to prosecute these crimes. And we wonder why these women have a hard time coming forward? Even when they do come forward, justice is rarely served. For instance, for every 1,000 rapes reported , less than six perpetuators are incarcerated. The rest walk free. Not only that, it appears some get elected to public office. People, do you hear what I am trying to say? When a person tells you that they have been abused, recent or not, there are only three words you should say in response to that claim. I. Believe. You. I don't give a damn who it is being accused. I don't care if it's your best friend, your priest, or Davy Crockett. I don't care if it's someone you like and the whole thing deeply upsets you. You know what should upset you more than someone you like being accused of child abuse? Child abuse. I am done with the trolls, done with the deniers, done with the horrible human beings who call these women to task for sharing their stories. We already know that chances are they are telling the truth. We also know, statistically speaking, there are even more who are remaining quiet because they are terrified to speak up. We can believe victims who come forward, while still ensuring that everyone has their day in court. Now, surely, after all of this, you can see why. People, don't be a part of this problem. Don't be one more reason a victim is fearful to come forward. Perhaps it's a 55-year-old stranger whose story is in the news today, but it could very well be your child tomorrow. And if it was, how would you want the world to respond? I know what I would hope for. I would hope for a champion like my child advocate, Cheryl. Someone who would take my child's hand, look them straight in the eye, and without hesitation say, "I believe you." Because that's the only way we should respond to these stories. The only way. To Roy Moore's accusers: We believe you. To the victims whose stories remain untold: We believe you. There is nothing left to say in the face of these devastating statistics. The children of our world are being abused. They are waiting years and years to tell us about it, if they ever tell us at all. And when they finally speak up, I will not have them being met with a chorus of shame and denial. I'm going to be the person who hands out a lifeboat . I will affirm their story and believe them. And I'm asking you, begging you, to please do the same.

"I'm going to ask some questions about your story, Mary Katherine. And behind me -- behind this window, actually -- is a video camera that's going to record what you say.

ISIS is by all accounts is so utterly brutal that its arrival in a location probably does feel like Allah's wrath is descending like a ton of bricks on the heads of those who haven't fled in time. Al Qaeda, which terrorism experts refer to as a 'brand that has great weight' in radical fundamentalist circles, has officially disassociated itself from the group , fearing it might damage Al Qaeda's image due to its unvarnished brutality. The background to this is reportedly a long-running dispute between the late Osama Bin Laden and the equally late (or even later, if you will) Abu Musab al Zarquawi, the Jordanian street thug who founded al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, which eventually became known as 'Al Qaeda in Iraq', the group that has in the meantime mutated into ISIS or ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, resp. the Levant). Rumor has it (letters exchanged between OBL and Zarqawi have apparently been found) that OBL disapproved of Zarqawi's harsh tactics, rightly fearing they would alienate Sunnis in Iraq. AQI was indeed almost defeated when Iraq's Sunni tribes turned against it. The movement regrouped in Syria, evidently got its hands on a great many weapons and was joined by jihadists from around the world. However, it continued with its brutal ways, imposing harsh sharia laws wherever it took over. Videos of beheadings and other gruesome executions perpetrated by ISIS fighters have flooded the internet. Undoubtedly ISIS' reputation was a great help in getting Iraqi soldiers to flee their posts when the group recently swept across Northern Iraq. Al Qaeda, under its new leader Ayman al-Zawahiri finally completely disowned the group, with the disavowal being made official in early February of this year. As one observer remarked, Al-Qaeda seemed to have concluded that "not all press is good press". Ironically though, ISIS is farthest along the goal of actually establishing an Islamic Caliphate, a long term plan of Al Qaeda. And the break seems not to have slowed its momentum one bit. It also appears it has changed its approach in Iraq, so as not to repeat Zarqawi's strategic mistakes. Iraq's Shi'ite prime minister Maliki has made a grave mistake as well - he has failed to promote unity among Iraq's religious sects. The Sunni tribes in the North are disaffected and are therefore giving ISIS a chance - their help was probably a crucial element in the group's successful conquest of cities in the area. ISIS Propaganda Still, one wonders how a group with such a medieval throwback outlook is able to attract so many dedicated followers. We happen to believe that radical Islamist fundamentalism is a kind of reaction to modernity that is ultimately doomed. And yet, it appears to attract not only the Arabian equivalent to white trash. The conflict between Sunnis and Shi'ites is actually faintly reminiscent of the 30 year war between Catholic and Protestants - with the main difference that the latter was fought nearly 400 years ago (it was comparably brutal). ISIS has just released its fourth propaganda movie, Saleel al-Sawarim 4 (the Clanging of the Swords) a fairly slickly produced movie made by what is apparently its own film production subsidiary al-Furqan Media. The movie is even available with English sub-titles, presumably so as to be intelligible to potential recruits abroad, of which the group has reportedly attracted 3,000 so far. The video contains a lot of gruesome footage, including a scene that shows three men being forced to dig their own graves, many IED attacks on armored vehicles, various sniper shots and executions by gun-shot, but is surprisingly short of beheading scenes (there is only one in the whole movie, and that scene is edited in such a way that the act itself is not shown, only its result - which is stomach-turning enough). Clearly it is not something very enjoyable to watch. After a while all the killings, bombings and executions actually get kind of boring - it is a bit like the Islamist version of torture porn. Now that you have been given fair warning, the video can be seen here (it keeps getting taken down at you-tube for violation of you-tube etiquette). Much of the video is obviously not really worth watching, however, it does have a few interesting parts. For instance, it shows several scenes of high ranking Iraqi counter-terrorism officials being picked up in their homes in the middle of the night for the purpose of executing them. The kidnappings involve jihadists masquerading as soldiers of the Iraqi army so as not to alarm their victims. They also man check-points clad in official army outfits, duping unsuspecting political officials and bureaucrats of all stripes into revealing their identity, only to be killed. One of the conclusions from this must be that ISIS has infiltrated the Iraqi state at many levels. It has to have access to sensitive intelligence (e.g., one presumes that the home address of a high-ranking counter-terrorism official is not exactly common knowledge). There are other interesting scenes in the video. Once it takes over a town, ISIS holds town hall meetings for the purpose of bestowing 'forgiveness' on Sunni officials (civil servants, policemen and the like) who swear they will henceforth no longer serve the Iraqi government. While they obviously lose their livelihood, they get to keep their lives, and generally look rather relieved. There is also one scene showing an ISIS-affiliated preacher berating a group of villagers regarding the perceived injustices of the Maliki government. So evidently the movement is trying to project the image of 'savior from evil Maliki' to the Sunni population. The by far most interesting part can however be found starting at approximately 21:30. A young man - apparently a well-to-do and quite articulate one - from Bahrain is shown giving a speech (the title to this post "The cheerful, yet lethal prophet" was taken from this speech. It is the young man's description of the prophet Muhammad). The speech outlines the ideology and political goals of ISIS and ends with him ripping up and burning his Bahraini passport, while telling the leaders of Bahrain where they can stick their threats (apparently, the political leadership of Bahrain threatens citizens who join ISIS with the revocation of their passports and citizenship). Reminding the government of Bahrain ("the tyrants of the Khalifa family") that they are subordinates of the Saudis and hence lapdogs of the US, the man explains that the "Sykes-Picot borders mean nothing to ISIS". Don't the Khalifas know that the Islamic Caliphate is one land? Don't they realize that their citizenship, their threats, their constitutions and their laws mean nothing? He then announces that ISIS is planning to expand and expand until it "sweeps your thrones away" and adds "we won't rest until we've hammered the last nail into your coffins". We take it that "thrones" refers to more than just one throne, which makes it very ironic that there the Saudis are allegedly benefactors of the group, because they (for now) hate Assad and Maliki even more than they fear ISIS. We conclude however that they have every reason to fear the organization. We have no idea if its recent conquest of Northern Iraq will stick or if it will be beaten back one more time with the help of US air power. It seems to us that it will actually be quite difficult to get rid of these guys from the air. They often dress as Iraqi soldiers or blend into the population of the cities they control. How can they be bombed into submission? The obvious risk for Maliki is that he will end up alienating Iraq's Sunnis even more. At the BBC we can see Shi'ites voluntarily joining the army and/or Shi'ite militias in order to mount a counter-offensive. They seem to be in a reasonably good mood, but somehow they strike us not as motivated as the stern jihadists, who are battle-hardened and utterly ruthless as well. So this is what has ultimately come of destabilizing the region - it could well be that Al Qaeda's major political goal is about to be realized by an organization that is even worse than Al Qaeda. The secular bulwarks against religious extremism have been removed or weakened to the point where they no longer pose a challenge. Perhaps they would eventually have fallen anyway - we cannot go back in time and see what would have happened had Saddam and Assad been left alone. We can however see what has happened. Addendum: Al-Baghdadi It has come to our attention that the photographs of Al-Baghdadi (the ISIS leader) we showed last week are not authenticated ones. Apparently the only photos of the man which are considered definitely authentic are two old out-of-focus mugshots: Abu-Bakr a-Baghdadi mugshot in b/w (Photo source unknown) And here the only authenticated color mugshot of the man. A reward of up to $10 m. has been put on his head. (Photo source unknown) Dear Readers! You may have noticed that our so-called "semiannual" funding drive, which started sometime in the summer if memory serves, has seamlessly segued into the winter. In fact, the year is almost over! We assure you this is not merely evidence of our chutzpa; rather, it is indicative of the fact that ad income still needs to be supplemented in order to support upkeep of the site. Naturally, the traditional benefits that can be spontaneously triggered by donations to this site remain operative regardless of the season - ranging from a boost to general well-being/happiness (inter alia featuring improved sleep & appetite), children including you in their songs, up to the likely allotment of privileges in the afterlife, etc., etc., but the Christmas season is probably an especially propitious time to cross our palms with silver. A special thank you to all readers who have already chipped in, your generosity is greatly appreciated. Regardless of that, we are honored by everybody's readership and hope we have managed to add a little value to your life. Bitcoin address: 12vB2LeWQNjWh59tyfWw23ySqJ9kTfJifA

ISIS is by all accounts is so utterly brutal that its arrival in a location probably does feel like Allah's wrath is descending like a ton of bricks on the heads of those who haven't fled in time.

Joni Mitchell was not just another longhaired folky girl from the '60s. Though Mitchell did write some very influential songs during the folk revival, she pushed the boundaries of what it meant to be a female singer-songwriter--blending rock, world, jazz, and more with her folk sensibilities over the course of her four-decade career. Deeply in tune with her artistic evolution and prone to taking creative risks, Mitchell wasn't afraid to even sacrifice record store category, accessibility, and fans for her art. She also wasn't afraid to share her most private emotions through her music, a style that, up until her era, was not nearly as prominent an aspect in pop songwriting. Most importantly, Mitchell is one of the first women to narrate the feminine experience honestly and truthfully through her art and share that in the public sphere. Her courage has paved the way for so many women artists of all genres, and expanded the definition of what a pop song could be. It is truly a feat to sum up Joni Mitchell 's vast, varied, and incredible songbook, but in an attempt to do so, we've ranked her 16 best songs. 16. "Down to You" With spiraling, interwoven orchestration, Court and Spark 's "Down To You" rightly won a Grammy for Best Arrangement Accompanying a Vocalist in 1974. With Mitchell's quintessentially raw self-awareness, the lyrics almost certainly seem to be a reflection on her own character and the thrill she finds in new lovers. But, like the true poet she is, she never explicitly states to whom she's speaking, which allows listeners to insert themselves and their imaginations into the song. 15. "You Dream Flat Tires" Off Mitchell's first album with Geffen Records, Wild Things Run Fast , "You Dream Flat Tires" is driven by the bass playing of Mitchell's ex-husband, Larry Klein. A musing about the inflation and sudden deflation of love, "You Dream Flat Tires" memorably compares precious romantic feelings to a metaphorical tire. What's more, Lionel Richie comes in to a call and response with Mitchell, creating a dialogue between man and woman that's honestly thought provoking. 14. "You Turn Me on I'm A Radio" According to the book Girls Like Us , Mitchell wrote this song in response to her label's request that she write a "hit." Mitchell didn't like being told what to do, but wrote this more accessible single nonetheless, adding in obvious references to radios as jabs at her label. This song is the first of many she wrote in her exasperation with fame and the inner-workings of the music business, but ironically, "You Turn Me on I'm a Radio" became Mitchell's first American Top 40 hit in 1972. 13. "Help Me" The previous on the list being Mitchell's first Top 40 hit, "Help Me" is her highest ranking on the Billboard Charts, at No. 7. "Help Me" is another thoughtful exploration of romantic relationships of 1974's Court and Spark , which dives into the tug and pull between wanting to be committed to someone while also wanting to "love our freedom." Behind a lilting melody sung by Mitchell, Tom Scott's L.A. Express Jazz Band plays a burning arrangement, and legendary studio guitarist Larry Carlton fades it out with a stunning solo. 12. "Coyote" "Coyote" is the first track off Hejira , Mitchell's 1976 album. It features the masterful electric bass player Jaco Pastorius, and Mitchell's uncanny ability to write long, lyric-filled passages that sound both musical and natural. Mitchell often goes on lyrical tangents, but then brings them all back around at the end to bolster the overall meaning of the song. For instance, she takes a whole half-verse to describe a burning farmhouse on the roadside, a seeming-diversion that ends up underscoring the other themes in the song. Many artists have tried to imitate this well-crafted, poetry-loaded lyric style, but none seem to achieve it with the same ease. 11. "I Had a King" "I Had a King," the very first song on Mitchell's 1968 debut album, Song to a Seagull , is also one of its most poignant. Looking back on a lost love, she sings of a king who has "swept with the broom of contempt / and the rooms have an empty ring." It was the first of many indications--not including, of course, the hits she had already written for other artists by the time she recorded Seagull --that Mitchell could wring a deep sense of introspection and complexity from just a few chords and a lilting melody. In this case, her failed marriage to musician Chuck Mitchell provided the material she needed to open one of the most storied recording careers in folk-music history. 10. "Free Man in Paris" Like "You Turn Me On I'm A Radio," "Free Man in Paris" is about Mitchell's disillusionment with the music industry. "Everyone's in it for their own gain," she sings, "You can't please them all." And laters she continues, "There's a lot of people asking for my time / Trying to get ahead / Trying to be a good friend of mind." Travel is an escape for Mitchell, a place for her to be anonymous. And, as the verse climbs to the chorus--"I was a free man in Paris"--the music, too, releases, with short spurts of lyric becoming sustained notes. It's like a held breath is suddenly released. 9. "Amelia" This song hits right in the gut. Another piece of literary genius from Hejira , "Amelia" uses the life and disappearance of solo woman traveler Amelia Earhart as a metaphor for Mitchell's own wanderlust and search for meaning. The result is a tome of a song full of wisdom. Take the line, "People will tell you where they've gone / They'll tell you where to go / But till you get there yourself you never really know." 8. "Chelsea Morning" The cheerful, bright guitar accompaniment and Mitchell's youthful, lilting voice personify a sunny morning in Chelsea, her New York neighborhood at the time. It's the perfect vignette of a seemingly unimportant moment, a snapshot of Mitchell's ability to freeze time and paint with sound. Mitchell, who went to art school, considers herself a painter first and a musician second. This song is the perfect blending of the two skills--a still life set to sound. 7. "Trouble Child" An introspective reflection, "Trouble Child" is autobiographic and gives the listener a window into Mitchell's personal challenges, especially her mercurial nature at the center. Although written in second person, her self-reflection takes on a more general tone, as well, helping listeners see themselves in Mitchell's self-revealing. This is one of the biggest strengths of Mitchell's music: by sharing her own struggles, she brings out the humanity in us all. 6. "River" The saddest Christmas song ever written, "River" captures a flipside to the season. "River" is off the transcendent Blue , which broke ground as one of the most emotionally raw albums ever recorded at that point. The candor of songs on the album like "River" was scary to many record executives, who warned Mitchell that she was sharing too much. But luckily, she didn't listen. To this day Blue is one of the most beautiful examples of the strength in vulnerability, and by extension, femininity. 5. "Carey" According to a recent article in NPR , "Carey" was a friend Mitchell met on a trip to Crete in the early '70s. Cary Raditz worked at a taverna in town and became close with Mitchell during her trip, and the song was a present to Raditz from Mitchell on his 24th birthday. Like most of the tracks on Blue , "Carey" is driven by Mitchell's quintessential dulcimer playing, and metaphorically weaves together Mitchell's travelogue with her search for direction and belonging. 4. "Circle Game" "Circle Game" is the song that put Mitchell on the map. In the late '60s, two prominent artists, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Tom Rush, recorded the song on their albums. This exposure led Mitchell to her first record deal. Exploring the cyclical nature of life, "The Circle Game" explores one boy's growth into adulthood. The particular genius of this song, too, is its music box quality, and the repetitious chord structure that always ends up back where it started. Again, the Mitchell's lyrics combined her thoughtful musical composition underscore the song's overall poignancy. 3. "Woodstock" "Woodstock," is Mitchell's melancholy tribute to the music festival and the greater hippy movement that defined her generation. Mitchell was forced to miss the festival because of an engagement on The Dick Cavett Show and mourned missing out on the experience by writing this the song in her hotel room. It is one of the anthems of the event, so perfectly capturing Woodstock's greater significance, and Mitchell didn't even attend. 2. "A Case of You" Arguably the most vulnerable song on Blue , "A Case of You" is an intimate window into Mitchell's personal life. In 1979 Rolling Stone interview, Mitchell said, "The Blue album, there's hardly a dishonest note in the vocals. At that period in my life, I had no personal defenses. I felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes." Said to be inspired by her breakup with Graham Nash, "A Case of You" is yearning and raw. And interestingly, that's James Taylor on guitar in the back, Mitchell's love interest at the time. 1. "Both Sides, Now" If Mitchell's career was devoted to encapsulating life's journey in one perfect song, she did it with 1969's "Both Sides Now." Inspired by a passage about clouds from the 1959 Saul Bellow novel, Henderson The Rain King , "Both Sides Now" has become one of Mitchell's best-loved songs. The original version was recorded when she was only 26, but at 57, she recorded the song again with a full orchestra. That 2000 version is the pan-ultimate recording of the song: the strings swoon in the back, as Mitchell sings in the smoky, warbled voice, of a woman wizened to both sides of life.

Joni Mitchell was not just another longhaired folky girl from the '60s. Though Mitchell did write some very influential songs during the folk revival, she pushed the boundaries of what it meant to be a female singer-songwriter--

Today at 2:30 PM at the Collingwood Library and Museum portion of George Washington's original Mount Vernon estate, a Who's Who of the conservative movement's leaders unveiled and signed The Mount Vernon Statement : a document defining the movement's principles, beliefs and values in light of the challenges facing the country. The full statement is below, and you can add your name in support here . The Mount Vernon Statement Constitutional Conservatism: A Statement for the 21st Century We recommit ourselves to the ideas of the American Founding. Through the Constitution, the Founders created an enduring framework of limited government based on the rule of law. They sought to secure national independence, provide for economic opportunity, establish true religious liberty and maintain a flourishing society of republican self-government. These principles define us as a country and inspire us as a people. They are responsible for a prosperous, just nation unlike any other in the world. They are our highest achievements, serving not only as powerful beacons to all who strive for freedom and seek self-government, but as warnings to tyrants and despots everywhere. Each one of these founding ideas is presently under sustained attack. In recent decades, America's principles have been undermined and redefined in our culture, our universities and our politics. The selfevident truths of 1776 have been supplanted by the notion that no such truths exist. The federal government today ignores the limits of the Constitution, which is increasingly dismissed as obsolete and irrelevant. Some insist that America must change, cast off the old and put on the new. But where would this lead -- forward or backward, up or down? Isn't this idea of change an empty promise or even a dangerous deception? The change we urgently need, a change consistent with the American ideal, is not movement away from but toward our founding principles. At this important time, we need a restatement of Constitutional conservatism grounded in the priceless principle of ordered liberty articulated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The conservatism of the Declaration asserts self-evident truths based on the laws of nature and nature's God. It defends life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It traces authority to the consent of the governed. It recognizes man's self-interest but also his capacity for virtue. The conservatism of the Constitution limits government's powers but ensures that government performs its proper job effectively. It refines popular will through the filter of representation. It provides checks and balances through the several branches of government and a federal republic. A Constitutional conservatism unites all conservatives through the natural fusion provided by American principles. It reminds economic conservatives that morality is essential to limited government, social conservatives that unlimited government is a threat to moral self-government, and national security conservatives that energetic but responsible government is the key to America's safety and leadership role in the world. A Constitutional conservatism based on first principles provides the framework for a consistent and meaningful policy agenda. It applies the principle of limited government based on the rule of law to every proposal. It honors the central place of individual liberty in American politics and life. It encourages free enterprise, the individual entrepreneur, and economic reforms grounded in market solutions. It supports America's national interest in advancing freedom and opposing tyranny in the world and prudently considers what we can and should do to that end. It informs conservatism's firm defense of family, neighborhood, community, and faith. If we are to succeed in the critical political and policy battles ahead, we must be certain of our purpose. We must begin by retaking and resolutely defending the high ground of America's founding principles. February 17, 2010 Edwin Meese, former U.S. Attorney General under President Reagan Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America Edwin Feulner, Jr., president of the Heritage Foundation Lee Edwards, Distinguished Fellow in Conservative Thought at the Heritage Foundation, was present at the Sharon Statement signing. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council Alfred Regnery, publisher of the American Spectator David Keene, president of the American Conservative Union David McIntosh, co-founder of the Federalist Society William Wilson, President, Americans for Limited Government Elaine Donnelly, Center for Military Readiness Richard Viguerie, Chairman, ConservativeHQ.com Kenneth Blackwell, Coalition for a Conservative Majority Colin Hanna, President, Let Freedom Ring Kathryn J. Lopez, National Review

Today at 2:30 PM at the Collingwood Library and Museum portion of George Washington's original Mount Vernon estate, a Who's Who of the conservative movement's leaders unveiled and signed The Mount Vernon Statement : a document defining the movement's principles, beliefs and values in light of the challenges facing the country.

James Gunn : H.G. Wells: The Man Who Invented Tomorrow : "In his autobiography (1934)... Ann Leckie **: The 10 Best Science Fiction Books : "These are ten of my favorites.... If your favorites aren't here... From Ten Years Ago: I See the Stars at Bloody Warrs in the Wounded Welkin Weeping (Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality...) : Teresa Nielsen Hayden writes about Poul Anderson: The purpose of this weblog is to be the best possible portal into what I am thinking, what I am reading, what I think about what I am reading, and what other smart people think about what I am reading... "Bring expertise, bring a willingness to learn, bring good humor, bring a desire to improve the world--and also bring a low tolerance for lies and bullshit..." -- Brad DeLong "I have never subscribed to the notion that someone can unilaterally impose an obligation of confidentiality onto me simply by sending me an unsolicited letter--or an email..." -- Patrick Nielsen Hayden "I can safely say that I have learned more than I ever would have imagined doing this.... I also have a much better sense of how the public views what we do. Every economist should have to sell ideas to the public once in awhile and listen to what they say. There's a lot to learn..." -- Mark Thoma "Tone, engagement, cooperation, taking an interest in what others are saying, how the other commenters are reacting, the overall health of the conversation, and whether you're being a bore..." -- Teresa Nielsen Hayden "With the arrival of Web logging... my invisible college is paradise squared, for an academic at least. Plus, web logging is an excellent procrastination tool.... Plus, every legitimate economist who has worked in government has left swearing to do everything possible to raise the level of debate and to communicate with a mass audience.... Web logging is a promising way to do that..." -- Brad DeLong "Blogs are an outlet for unexpurgated, unreviewed, and occasionally unprofessional musings.... At Chicago, I found that some of my colleagues overestimated the time and effort I put into my blog--which led them to overestimate lost opportunities for scholarship. Other colleagues maintained that they never read blogs--and yet, without fail, they come into my office once every two weeks to talk about a post of mine..." -- Daniel Drezner

James Gunn : H.G. Wells: The Man Who Invented Tomorrow : "In his autobiography (1934)... Ann Leckie **:

W. Thomas Smith Jr. --a former U.S. Marine rifleman --is a military analyst and partner with NATIONAL DEFENSE CONSULTANTS, LLC. Visit him at uswriter.com Most Recent Articles by W. Thomas Smith Jr.: 1 2 3 Next Page Feb 3, 2017 -- W. Thomas Smith Jr. Last night before hundreds of gathered family, friends, and supporters at the historic Robert Mills Courthouse in Camden, South Carolina; Thomas Stowe "Tom" Mullikin announced his candidacy for U.S. Congress for the 5th District of S.C., the seat held by Trump's recently tapped budget chief Mick Mulvaney. It'll be something of an 80-day dash to the special election this summer. Mullikin is not the only candidate running. But in my estimation, he's far-and-away the best-suited for the job. Here are a few reasons why. Jan 5, 2017 -- W. Thomas Smith Jr. Sheriff Leon Lott was sworn-in for his sixth term as sheriff of the Richland County Sheriff's Dept. (RCSD), one of the largest law enforcement agencies in South Carolina, this week. Sheriff Lott, who penned a public safety piece for Canada Free Press - and will be writing a regular column going forward - is widely held to be an expert in community bridge-building among law enforcement leaders, nationwide. The ceremony held Tuesday at Central Baptist Church in Columbia, S.C. (the heart of Richland County) was attended by approximately 2,000 invited guests - including deputies and representatives from other law enforcement agencies, military officers, local business leaders, state legislators, and members of the community served by the RCSD. Nov 16, 2016 -- W. Thomas Smith Jr. Richland County (S.C.) Sheriff Leon Lott has long-been recognized as one of the most creatively innovative, bridge-building law enforcement leaders in the nation, even internationally. And it is not necessarily the easiest "title" - for him or any other law enforcement leader - to obtain, particularly in the increasingly polarized, racially and politically charged realm of police officers operating-in and relating-to the diverse communities they serve. But for Lott, it has been a series of challenges and sub-challenges that both appeal to him (for reasons I'll explain momentarily) and one which he has embraced with great surety and a comfortable, natural deftness. Jul 19, 2016 -- W. Thomas Smith Jr. In the wake of the nationwide ambush-shootings of police officers and the obviously escalating polarization between law enforcement and many within America's largely African-American communities, Richland County (South Carolina) Sheriff Leon and his Richland County Sheriff's Dept. (RCSD) reflect an entirely different dynamic wherein a mutual respect and public trust seems to exist between all parties. This was clearly demonstrated in last month's S.C. Democrat primary in which Lott easily defeated former SLED (State Law Enforcement Div.) agent James Flowers, an African-American challenger, in a county that is nearly split down the middle in terms of Black-White racial makeup (45.9 are black or African American, and 47.3 percent are white) not including other races. As we recently reported, Lott's success as a public servant, is largely due to his establishment - beginning many years ago - of a culture of community outreach developed not by "simply knocking on doors, standing on the front porch and talking. [Lott] steps inside, sits down and breaks bread with families." May 23, 2016 -- W. Thomas Smith Jr. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - combat stress, shell shock, battle fatigue or any of the other labels used to refer to PTSD - is one of the most-debilitating albeit least understood emotional disorders suffered by those living in the wake of experienced trauma. The military services, military medical practitioners, and a number of military veterans groups have only just begun to appreciate the risk of PTSD to combat veterans. But it's still only a surface understanding. The symptoms are varied. Rarely is there any preemptive training to mitigate the symptoms of PTSD. The public is becoming increasingly aware of PTSD, but if a non-sufferer is not impacted by it, PTSD becomes something of an "out of sight, out of mind" non-issue. Richland County (S.C.) Sheriff Leon Lott is striving to change that dynamic within his Richland County Sheriff's Dept. (RCSD), a force of some 700 deputies including patrol officers and those involved in counter-gang and drug-interdiction operations in the county encompassing the state's capitol city, Columbia. Dec 7, 2015 -- W. Thomas Smith Jr. A few days before the 74 th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attacks, I was introduced to a little book which revealed to me one of the most amazing stories of Christian conversion I had ever heard or read. The book--FROM PEARL HARBOR TO CALVARY (originally published in 1959 as From Pearl Harbor to Golgotha)--tells the story of Capt. Mitsuo Fuchida, a pilot in the Imperial Japanese Navy, who commanded the entire first wave of the attacks on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941. What makes Fuchida's story extraordinary is that he not only participated in the infamous "sneak attack" which led to America's entry into World War II; but he led the initial attack from the front. He survived the war, including two crash landings and an assignment as leader of a suicide-attack squadron; he become a Christian after the war, and in time a missionary in the U.S. leading others to Christ. Oct 14, 2015 -- W. Thomas Smith Jr. National Defense Briefs is a series aimed at informing readers with timely U.S. military and homeland security news updates, trends, definitions, and short commentaries. Canada Free Press highlights the "National Defense Briefs" that matter. Oct 1, 2015 -- W. Thomas Smith Jr. The Medal of Honor Society is ramping up public awareness of its planned new Medal of Honor National Museum in a just-released video highlighting the proposed features of the museum which officials say will open in Mt. Pleasant (Charleston), S.C. in 2019. The video--introduced by actor Gary Sinise --which aired for the first time, Sept. 17, during the Society's annual national convention in Boston, Mass., features a virtual tour of the museum's exhibits including a "fly-over" and "fly-thru" of the new museum and education center. Jun 30, 2015 -- W. Thomas Smith Jr. National Defense Briefs is a series aimed at informing readers with timely U.S. military and homeland security news updates, trends, definitions, and short commentaries. Canada Free Press highlights the "National Defense Briefs" that matter. Jun 18, 2015 -- W. Thomas Smith Jr. National Defense Briefs is a series aimed at informing readers with timely U.S. military and homeland security news updates, trends, definitions, and short commentaries. Canada Free Press highlights the "National Defense Briefs" that matter. Feb 6, 2015 -- W. Thomas Smith Jr. National Defense Briefs is a series aimed at informing readers with timely U.S. military and homeland security news updates, trends, definitions, and short commentaries. Canada Free Press highlights the "National Defense Briefs" that matter. Jan 29, 2015 -- W. Thomas Smith Jr. ( Editor's Note: National Defense Briefs is a series aimed at informing readers with timely U.S. military and homeland security news updates, trends, definitions, and short commentaries. Canada Free Press highlights the National Defense Briefs that matter .) U.S. State Department officials met Jan. 28, 2015 with the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Benghazi a day after the committee's chairman, Congressman Trey Gowdy (R-SC), "complained about resistance [from the White House] and vowed to 'ratchet up' his inquiry.to schedule interviews with up to 22 potential witnesses who work for the State Department or have knowledge of the attacks," according to reports. Frustrated that the investigation has stalled, Gowdy said, "Letters haven't worked. Southern politeness hasn't worked. We're going to ratchet it up." See benghazi.house.gov and foxnews.com ] Oct 3, 2013 -- W. Thomas Smith Jr. Of the literally hundreds of books in my personal library, one of the most-cherished is my 1970 edition of the Boy Scout Handbook. Weather-worn from years of return-reading, it is easily one of the best combination-primers of leadership techniques, good citizenship, first aid, outdoor survival skills, and the finer points of manly virtue ever published. I say "most-cherished" and "best" because I've read an untold number of great leadership and survival books over the past few decades - everything from business-management books, Marine Corps guidebooks, various military field-manuals and treatises on successfully competing in the world and surviving everything from war to economic downturns to the world's most dangerous big-game animals. But few match the Boy Scout Handbook in terms of its conciseness, thoroughness, simplicity, and yes, its uniqueness as a practical guide for what it takes to be - not just a man - but a good man (sadly, a dissipating natural role). Oct 4, 2012 -- W. Thomas Smith Jr. COLUMBIA, S.C. - The Palmetto State will host the U.S. Army Special Forces Association's national convention in 2014. And Columbia and Charleston will serve as dual-destination cities for the annual celebration Jun 3, 2011 -- W. Thomas Smith Jr. Less than 24 hours after learning that QUIET HERO: SECRETS FROM MY FATHER'S PAST -the heart-wrenching story of an American journalist and her relationship with her Polish resistance-fighter father - had earned a spot on both the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists, the Polish government has issued a public statement of gratitude. Jan 26, 2011 -- W. Thomas Smith Jr. COLUMBIA, S.C. - A legislative initiative aimed at preventing "a court or other enforcement authority" from enforcing foreign law in the Palmetto State was introduced today in both the S.C. House and Senate by Rep. Wendy Nanney (who drafted the bill) and Sen. Mike Fair respectively, who say the bill will preempt violations of a person's constitutional rights resulting from the application of foreign law. Legislators and other proponents of the bill say America has unique values of liberty which do not exist in foreign legal systems. Yet foreign laws are increasingly finding their way into U.S. court cases, particularly in the area of family law, involving divorce and child custody where, for instance, Islamic Shariah Law has been invoked in several U.S. states. Oct 6, 2010 -- W. Thomas Smith Jr. "Come in, come in, buddy," said the broad-shouldered, barrel-chested man with thinning white hair and a big happy-to-see-me smile, as I stepped inside his room at the Mills House Hotel in Charleston, S.C., last week. "You're getting ready to play the part of the president of the United States." The man - a retired U.S. Army sergeant major (whose name I won't mention for obvious reasons) was a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for combat valor - had asked that I come to his room an hour before the national Medal of Honor convention's Patriot's Dinner, and tie his bowtie and fasten his Medal of Honor around his neck. Sep 14, 2010 -- W. Thomas Smith Jr. When retired U.S. Navy SEAL Commander Richard Marcinko decided to design a series of next-generation combat knives that would be the choice of special operators worldwide, he knew the knives had to have a number of features that would address operational problems he had experienced in the field himself. Jun 29, 2010 -- W. Thomas Smith Jr. (I am rather surprised that you did not question being "awarded" Royal Laotian para wings, a country which has not existed for 35 years. But I gather that you did not see this so-called Laotian General -Maj. Gen. Khambang Sibounheuang,- in his made up uniform . As an Army officer I am surprised that you would not question the number of phoney items on the uniform, such as wearing the French Abn Beret badge, not the Laotian, the USA CIB, SF DUI,etc. and one could go on If you really want a story, you might like to take the time to read who this so-called General really is, as exposed 20 years ago in Senate Hearings. He has been conning the military community for many years and continues. Senate Select Committee - XXXVII Dissemination of Unreliable Information Harry Pugh .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ) [originally published in HUMAN EVENTS] In the movie, Black Hawk Down, actor Tom Sizemore plays the role of real-life U.S. Army Ranger Lt. Col. (today retired Col.) Danny R. McKnight, the hard-bitten convoy commander whose inspirational leadership literally kept his men alive during the near-disastrous Battle of Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993. 1 2 3 Next Page

W. Thomas Smith Jr. --a former U.S. Marine rifleman --is a military analyst and partner with NATIONAL DEFENSE CONSULTANTS, LLC. Visit him at uswriter.com Most Recent Articles by W. Thomas Smith Jr.: 1 2 3 Next Page Feb 3, 2017

Paris: The family of the young boy saved by "Spiderman" Mamoudou Gassama in a daring rescue that won him global acclaim and a promise of French citizenship has thanked the Malian youth for his quick thinking. Mamoudou Gassama. Reuters Gassama, 22, scaled four storeys of an apartment bloc in France on Saturday to rescue the four-year-old who was spotted dangling from a balcony. French authorities began the first steps towards making him a citizen in recognition of his bravery. The boy's father, who had been living alone with him in Paris, had left him alone to go out to the shops and then remained on the street to play Pokemon Go, according to French investigators. The boy's mother learned the news of the rescue on Reunion Island: The French Indian Ocean territory where she and the father were born and where she still lives. Reacting to Gassama's intervention on Antenne Reunion radio late Monday, the woman, who was not identified, said: "We can only thank him and thank heaven he was so reactive." She said French police phoned her to tell her the news. "Then I saw video on the internet. But I should not have watched it because you know it's your son in the video." Just half an hour earlier she had spoken to both father and son in a video call, she said. "Things could have turned out much worse so I am relieved," she said, adding that she was impatient to be reunited with her son and husband. The boy's paternal grandmother, who also lives in Reunion, told RMC radio Tuesday that she was "very moved" by the images of the rescue and sent "huge thanks" to Gassama. "He's really a hero," she said. "He did not stand by and watch, he saved my little sweetpea." Gassama, who had been living in France illegally since September 2017, arriving via the Mediterranean migrant route, told President Emmanuel Macron on Monday that he "did not think twice" before springing into action. The video of his rescue has been viewed millions of times online. On Tuesday, he was to visit a fire station after being offered a job with the fire service. The child's mother, who had planned on moving to Paris in June along with the couple's second child, aged one, is due to travel on France on Tuesday, the BFM news channel reported. The father, who was arrested on charges of neglecting his parental duties, was released from custody and reunited with his son on Monday under the supervision of social services. The mother said her husband, who is in his 30s, was "shaken" by the incident. While saying she could not justify his actions she said "it could have happened to anyone." The Paris prosecutor's office said he had admitted his guilt and expressed "profound regret."

Paris: The family of the young boy saved by "Spiderman" Mamoudou Gassama in a daring rescue that won him global acclaim and a promise of French citizenship has thanked the Malian youth for his quick thinking.

"5Q" is an online-only column featuring five questions about stage productions in the Metro Area. Periodically, "5Q" will take the form of an interview with actors, directors, writers, etc. to shed some light on the production process. Minnesota Opera transports audiences to the deserts and oases of fourth-century Egypt in their final mainstage show of the 2017-18 season: Thais. The most beautiful courtesan in Alexandria, Thais, holds the entire city in her thrall. A devout monk seeks to convert Thais and save the sinner, but he realizes too late that his obsession is based in lust, not religion. Lucas Meachem takes the stage as Athanael, the Cenobite monk who makes it his mission to convert Thais to Christianity and persuade her to enter a convent. Grammy Award winner and internationally sought-after Baritone, Meachem has graced the world's most important operatic stages. Lucas Meachem You got your start like a lot of singers, imitating your favorite artists until you found your voice. How do you make the leap from artists like Steven Tyler and Whitney Houston to winning a Grammy for Best Opera Recording? Lucas Meachem: Unlike mainstream genres of music, the operatic voice takes years to develop. There's no American Idol or The Voice for opera singers and there are also no operatic child prodigies. There is no shortcut to singing opera, only small steps. It's a long marathon, not a sprint. Because of this, each singer has to cultivate their voice over time and training. With a slow and upward momentum, I became the singer I am today. I began by studying music in my home state of North Carolina, then moved onto Eastman and Yale. I quickly landed an apprentice position at the San Francisco Opera. The career followed. I worked hard every day and that hard work pushed me down the long road to where I am today. My passion for the art form and the experience of hearing the unamplified human voice kept me moving forward. The Grammy is a nice cherry on the top. Most people would think that a much sought-after opera singer like yourself would set up shop somewhere like New York or Europe. And you're from North Carolina--what about the Minnesota opera scene drew you to make this your home base? LM: Having a busy travel schedule is par for the course for an opera singer and it's no different for me. I lived in New York City for 6 years before moving to Minneapolis. NYC is great when you are still auditioning but I don't do much of that anymore. What changed for me was getting married to a Minnesotan. We decided to move to Minneapolis because of her family. An opera singer needs to live by a major airport, and Minneapolis has got that. The flight is easy from Minneapolis to Europe and we're central in the U.S., so most domestic flights are pretty quick. After traveling the world for opera gigs, I want to come home to a city where things are relaxed, easy, and fun and Minneapolis is definitely that. It's got the combination of the Northern work ethic and the hospitable nature of the South--a perfect combination for a Southern boy with an international opera career. Now that I'm here, I'm Minnesotan and proud. Set Renderings by Lorenzo Cutuli for Thais You wrote in your blog that when you're learning a new role you only listen to recordings once or twice to avoid imitating the way it's been done before. When you're approaching a role, what aspects do you look for when deciding where to infuse your own spin on a character? LM: I dive into the libretto (text) and the music score--that's where I find everything I need to interpret an operatic role. The text becomes a dramatic road map throughout the score and I pay close attention to the important musical moments in my part and the orchestra. It's important to distinguish between those two elements because we're making music while telling a story. They go hand in hand. Opera characters can often come across as parodies of themselves if over-acted. This can make opera characters seem inauthentic. Even though opera is a grand art form, subtlety goes a long way for me when I'm on stage. Creating an intimate moment in the midst of all that grandeur is most striking. Classical music is all about preparation, so it seems like you're in the moment and reacting to the music and story in a fresh way. It's like football. You go into the huddle, get your play from your team, and everyone knows their part. When the ball is hiked, something is not going to go exactly according to plan. The play is still the play, but you have to make adjustments along the way for the team. Tell us about Athanael and his battle between spiritual desire and lust. Based on a novel set in 4th century Egypt, why does this type of internal struggle permeate through the ages and find its way into so many artforms? LM: As evolved as we think we are, humans still have the same emotions as cavemen. We feel pain, loss, happiness, and lust today just like we did hundreds of years ago. So when I interpret a historical character like Athanael, regardless of whether I've personally experienced what it's like to be an Egyptian monk from the 4th century, I know what it's like to have had a crush. Everyone has! Most adults have had an experience that rocked their world, so Athanael, who is facing those crossroads with his faith and an earthly love, suddenly becomes more relatable to today's audience. We've all been tempted by things that don't seem right and that's where I can breathe some modern life into the character. Set Renderings by Lorenzo Cutuli for Thais Athanael has been described as "an evening-long role," with a sustained intensity. That type of role isn't easy for an actor, let alone singing. How do you approach such a demanding role? LM: That's a great saying because it's exactly what it's like! Even though the singing aspect of this role is insanely challenging, the hardest thing about being on stage for 90 percent of a three-hour show is creating a dramatic arc throughout the night. I can't arrive at the pinnacle of my character until two hours into the show. Keeping that in mind, I start out the opera with that gleeful ignorance suspecting nothing is going to go wrong, then create a huge shift later on. Meaning, I can't peak too soon with my voice or the drama. I have to pace myself and only give in at certain, strategic moments. It's like going to a fancy restaurant with a 10-course meal. You're not going to start out with a bone-in pork chop. You're going to start with an amuse-bouche , then move onto a soup, salad, some fish, then end up with porterhouse steak toward the end and a dessert basket. And you can't eat too much bread along the way! The bread guy keeps bringing you freshly baked rolls, but you have to say no and stay focused or else you'll get too full. Thais runs at the Ordway Center for Performing Arts May 12-20. For more information and to purchase tickets, head to www.mnopera.org .

"5Q" is an online-only column featuring five questions about stage productions in the Metro Area.

Americans' finances are in danger from regulatory rollbacks against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. By Joe Valenti Uncertainty surrounding the Trump administration's approach to the U.S.-Mexico relationship has left water allocations in limbo for 35 million Americans living in the West. By Ryan Richards The new national security advisor needs to start with damage control. By Vikram Singh and Peter Juul President Donald Trump is poised to launch a backdoor assault on America's cornerstone environmental protections by going after their foundation: science. By Alison Cassady The president's recent comments and behavior serve to undermine the nation's democratic ideals and foster a creeping sense of nihilism about the institutions that serve public interests. By Sam Fulwood III The ACA replacement document circulated by House leadership today is a recycled list of unpopular ideas that lacks necessary details--not a real plan. By Thomas Huelskoetter The Bureau of Land Management's planning processes are at risk under the Congressional Review Act. By making forward-thinking investments in infrastructure and helping communities prepare for a changing climate, the Trump administration can cut federal disaster spending, save lives, and help all Americans prosper. By Cathleen Kelly Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's visit to Washington highlighted that the North American relationship on climate change is in danger of regressing--but states, provinces, and cities can push it forward. By Gwynne Taraska, Sam Adams, Howard Marano, and Andrew Light The upward redistribution of income caused by growing inequality is taking a significant and growing toll on Social Security's financial outlook. By Rachel West and Rebecca Vallas Despite millions of Americans fearing the loss of their coverage if congressional Republicans repeal the Affordable Care Act, the insurance lobby is working in secret with opponents of the law to turn back the clock on reform by cutting benefits and kicking the most vulnerable consumers off their plans. By Maura Calsyn, Kellan Baker, and Topher Spiro Donald Trump is actively considering barring millions of immigrants from legally entering the United States to reunite with their families under the pretext that they are not rich enough. By Silva Mathema, Rachel West, and Shawn Fremstad The anti-democratic procedures of the Congressional Review Act have turned Congress into an auction house, where the bigger a special interest group's campaign contributions, the faster its targeted environmental rule is overturned. By Matt Lee-Ashley and Jenny Rowland The courts are a critical independent check on this unpredictable and dangerous administration's attack on the Muslim community. By Anisha Singh and Billy Corriher The Trump administration's focus on the Muslim Brotherhood is driven by anti-Muslim bigotry rather than any real assessment of whether it's a terrorist organization. By Ken Gude

Americans' finances are in danger from regulatory rollbacks against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. By Joe Valenti Uncertainty surrounding the Trump administration's approach to the U.S.-Mexico relationship has left water allocations in limbo for 35 million Americans living in the West.

Grindr, the largest dating app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people, is launching an initiative to combat what they describe as "sexual racism." In a video posted on Instagram, several voices are heard discussing the concept. "When someone says something like, you know, I don't date black people, talking all black people, that would be referred to as sexual racism." "I'm just fixing everything that is wrong with the world; I'm going to do it all tonight," the video concludes. "It's time to play nice," the caption says. A post shared by Grindr (@grindr) on Jul 27, 2018 at 11:42am PDT Grindr is calling the initiative "Kindr." According to the Kindr website, the initiative will be revealed on September 19. According to a statement released to The Advocate , the head of communications of Grindr confirmed that the initiative will combat different forms of discrimination. "Sexual racism, transphobia, fat-shaming, and other forms of discrimination are a major problem that pervade our community," the statement said. "As the leader in the gay dating space, Grindr has a responsibility to not only protect our users, but to take a stand on these issues and lead by example." The Kindr initiative is "built around education, awareness and specific policy changes in the Grindr app," and will be the first step to create "a more inclusive and respectful community" on the app. An opinion writer for The Advocate even considered suing Grindr for having "a hostile atmosphere" after coming across a profile that said, "not interested in Asians." "It's absurd for Grindr to suggest that being attracted to certain races and genders, or finding fitnesses attractive makes you a bigot," Brad Polumbo, a self-described gay conservative political commentator, told The Daily Wire. "You can't control who you're attracted to, shouldn't they of all people understand that?" Polumbo claims he has never seen the types of labeling mentioned in the Grindr statement but claims that sometimes people post their preferences and "almost no one commonly writes 'no fats' or anything so blunt." He added, "I'm not sure how much of an actual problem they're responding to." Twitter users had mixed reactions to the announcement: Having racial dating preferences is not racist. Not personally wanting to date transgender folks is not transphobic. Finding fitness and health attractive is not body-shaming. You. Can't. Control. Who. You. Are. Attracted. To. This is absurd. https://t.co/d9Sxdsq8AW -- Brad Polumbo (@brad_polumbo) August 1, 2018 Grindr wants users to stop being so racist and start being "kindr"-But is that even possible? https://t.co/0H92RSt3JA -- Russ (@russfla) August 1, 2018 Is more a preference than a racism. I chose who to date and who to have sex with. What's next? Choosing a car over another it's racism?everyone have a type and be a man about it. Stop controlling our minds, and freedom of choice. -- The Arabia (@yousifali1987) July 27, 2018

Grindr, the largest dating app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people, is launching an initiative to combat what they describe as "sexual racism." In a video posted on Instagram, several voices are heard discussing the concept.

As the "super committee," created by the contentious Budget Control Act (BCA), grapples with its mandate to find $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction savings, many are urging it to "go big." And no wonder. Since July 31, the eve of the BCA's enactment, the federal government has continued to hemorrhage debt to the point that debt held by the public has increased by $371 billion since then. By November 23, the super committee's reporting deadline, debt held by the public will have increased by approximately $490 billion. Every day the nation is racking up $2.2 billion in new debt. Congress must get serious about the nation's spending and debt crisis now. Budgets are about setting priorities. Sadly, there is not enough emphasis on this point emanating from the super committee. Instead it seems to be cobbling together a collection of disparate good and bad policies, desperately trying to arrive at its $1.5 trillion target. The super committee must set priorities and make bold decisions to solve Washington's spending and debt crisis, preserve its ability to protect the nation, and assist a return to a strong, vibrant economy--without raising taxes. How Large Is the Challenge? The federal budget is in crisis. At $1.3 trillion, the deficit for fiscal year (FY) 2011 was the third consecutive year of deficits exceeding $1 trillion. These deficits are larger than the largest deficit during World War II when adjusted for inflation. Even under President Obama's February budget, which includes many unrealistic assumptions and budget gimmicks, the deficit would never fall below about $750 billion. From there, the President's proposed deficits would rise back into the trillion-dollar range by the end of the decade. These unprecedented and chronic deficits are driving government debt to unsustainable levels. The President's budget would increase debt held by the public to nearly 90 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2021. That, too, is a post-World War II record. Federal spending reached $3.6 trillion in FY 2011, another all-time record. When adjusted for inflation, it is more than three times the peak level of spending during World War II ($1.17 trillion in constant 2011 dollars). But federal spending is projected to rise even more dramatically in the future: Under the President's February budget, spending is supposed to reach $5.7 trillion by 2021, with a cumulative deficit of $7.2 trillion. This is the crisis that Congress must address. Yet under the BCA, even assuming that the first round of scheduled cuts all occur, spending would be only $840 billion less over the next decade. When considering that the past three years' deficits totaled $4 trillion, the BCA's reductions are laughably small. The super committee's charge to find an additional $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction is likewise deplorably inadequate. As bad as it is, the next decade is the least of the nation's budget woes; those that follow are far worse. Driven by entitlement programs--Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid--total federal spending will explode from 24 percent of GDP in 2011 to nearly 35 percent by 2035 while the debt held by the public is projected to reach a staggering 185 percent of GDP. By mid-century, these three programs alone would devour total tax revenues, crowding out other vital priorities such as national defense. Three Pillars of Reform Given the nation's gloomy budget scenarios, it is both urgent and imperative that Congress set the right course for solving the budget crisis. But details matter. If the super committee arrives at a rag-tag assortment of desperate deficit reduction policies simply to meet an arbitrary target, the committee could do more harm than good. To prevent perpetuating the current misguided policies that have exacerbated the budget crisis, the super committee should use the following three pillars to guide their work. 1. Fully Fund National Defense. It is paramount that the super committee fully fund defense. The U.S. military faces a readiness crisis. After a decade of constant combat and ever-increasing disaster relief and homeland defense missions, readiness among all U.S. military services--National Guard and reserves included--has been dangerously lowered. Symptoms include delayed, shortened, and less diverse training; plugging personnel and equipment shortfalls in deploying units with resources from others; reduced maintenance for worn-out equipment; and shortened rest time before redeploying overseas. Additional cuts would only exacerbate this tenuous situation in dramatic ways. Across the military, longstanding readiness problems are worsening ; breakdowns are happening more frequently. For example, Navy maintenance funding will be cut by almost 20 percent this year. Even this relatively small reduction could render a Navy with 250-280 ships today capable of keeping only 60 ships at sea. Barely half of all Air Force units are fully mission-capable, and this will get worse if there are more budget cuts. Because defense has no clear baseline, some deny there have been any cuts at all. But serious efforts to reduce military spending began in April 2009, when President Obama and Congress canceled (or delayed) the purchase of more than 50 major equipment programs on everything from missile defense to fifth-generation fighters. The defense reduction efforts continued in April 2010, when then-Secretary Robert Gates announced an initiative to save roughly $101 billion over five years. Next up was the White House budget office telling the Pentagon to cut another $78 billion as part of its 2012-2016 defense budget. The recently passed 2011 defense budget was not spared the axe, either, coming in roughly $20 billion below the President's request. Today, the military is absorbing additional cuts set forth by the BCA and confronting the specter of many more over the next 10 years. Congress is barreling down the tracks with versions of the 2012 defense spending bills that cut the President's already inadequate funding proposal. Major plans and programs of the armed forces are at risk. The Senate's version of the 2012 defense appropriations bill provides only $513 billion for the base defense budget. This is nearly $26 billion less than President Obama's requested level. Using President Obama's pending 2012 budget request as a baseline, the additional defense budget cuts going forward are in the neighborhood of $460 billion, not $350 billion as claimed by the White House. Using the President's second defense budget request in FY 2011 as a baseline, the total defense cuts relative to what the Pentagon said it needed then and planned to spend now, the military has already absorbed roughly $754 billion in spending reductions. No matter what baseline is used, additional cuts to military spending and programs will severely affect the military's already deteriorating readiness. Ever more defense cuts will require genuine mission tradeoffs. Unfortunately, the most likely outcome is that the military will continue to do everything the nation asks--only with fewer people and rusting resources. The super committee should not risk this vital role of the federal government with additional unwise defense cuts. Providing for America's national defense is the first duty of the federal government. The super committee should ensure full funding for America's armed forces. 2. Transform Entitlement Programs. The super committee must tackle entitlement spending, the biggest driver of deficits in the future. While spending should be the focus, the character of the reforms is at least as important as the magnitude. Real reforms must alter the fundamental structure of entitlements, improving both the financing and the prospects of economic security for the nation's seniors and younger generations. But looking solely at policies to reduce spending or the deficit would be sorely misguided. Many policies being discussed are ineffective or even harmful. For example, continued cuts to Medicare and Medicaid providers--from physicians to diagnostic services--could deliver significant savings but would leave patients and the health care market far worse off. Instead, Medicare should first focus subsidies on those who need them the most through changes to today's structure. Ultimately it should be transformed from an unsustainable, open-ended, defined-benefit program to a premium-support program that allows retirees to select health plans in a competitive market that best suit their needs. Such an approach would spur better quality at a lower price. Medicaid for low-income Americans should similarly be converted to a program that provides direct support to families for purchasing private health insurance so they can buy, own, and keep the plan of their choice--independent of their place of work--and gives states greater latitude to serve the most vulnerable in society. Like Medicare, Social Security benefits should be targeted to those who need them the most. The program should gradually be transformed from an income-replacement system to a flat benefit that protects seniors from poverty, as originally intended, and assures a decent retirement income. The super committee must begin these kinds of bold changes not only to ensure that entitlement programs are affordable but also to vastly improve them. 3. Do Not Raise Taxes. There are many calls for tax hikes (though they are often couched as "additional revenues") as a part of a so-called balanced deficit reduction package. Do not be fooled. The very notion that deficit reduction must be a mix of spending cuts and tax increases is a kind of fiscal moral equivalency that fundamentally misstates the problem. Taxes are low today at around 15 percent of GDP (versus the 18.4 percent historical average), but this is the continued fallout from the global recession and the myriad of bad policies that have occurred since, plus some temporary tax cuts. The government's deficits and debt are a problem of excess spending. Consider these facts: By 2021, tax revenues will exceed their historical average of 18.4 percent of GDP--even if the Bush-era tax policies are made permanent; Spending in 2021 will reach 26.4 percent of GDP--higher than the historical average of 20 percent; and After 2021, spending will explode, reaching nearly 35 percent of GDP by 2035, fueled largely by entitlement spending. Hiking taxes would exacerbate the nation's economic challenges, and with unemployment stubbornly above 9 percent and not expected to improve any time soon, it would be especially misguided. Even talking about hiking taxes chills economic activity. As for the budgetary impact of tax hikes, unless entitlements are fundamentally overhauled, their unbridled spending growth would drive taxes ever higher. So solutions that rely on taxes now will mean even higher taxes in the future. Lastly, if tax hikes do end up as part of any package, it is inconceivable that Congress would reserve this revenue to "pay for" deficit reduction. Instead, the rich history of Congresses past tells us that these tax hikes would be used for new spending. There is no greater testament to this kind of behavior then Obamacare, with its 18 new tax hikes that over 10 years raise $500 billion in additional revenue to pay for $1.39 trillion in new spending. Only by taming runaway spending can Congress truly reduce deficits, reduce the size and scope of government, and move toward fiscal balance. Raising taxes is not a necessity but a choice--a bad choice that the super committee should resoundingly reject. The Risk of a Bad Deal The BCA is a deeply flawed structure that could end up weakening the country's defense posture while throwing together an incoherent set of spending cuts and tax hikes under the illusion of reform. It could easily create a bad deal that is worse than no deal at all. The only way the super committee can redeem the process is by adopting a bold set of policies that preserve the nation's security, apply real structural reforms to the government's major entitlement programs, and reject higher taxes. The Heritage Foundation has set forth such a path in Saving the American Dream . [1] If this sounds like a high standard, compare it to the magnitude of the government's spending and deficit crisis. Inadequate responses would only push the inevitable day of reckoning down the road and make it that much worse. Alison Acosta Fraser is Director of, and Patrick Louis Knudsen is the Grover M. Hermann Fellow in Federal Budgetary Affairs in, the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies, and Mackenzie Eaglen is Research Fellow for National Security in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies, a division of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies, at The Heritage Foundation.

As the "super committee," created by the contentious Budget Control Act (BCA), grapples with its mandate to find $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction savings, many are urging it to "go big."

feature image via shutterstock.com Hey there dream weavers! Do you know what day it is? It's Friday! And you do you know what we do on Fridays? We talk about our feelings! So it should come as no surprise that it's time for this week's Friday Open Thread . Two weeks ago we made some Fall Resolutions . We thought about how this year getting "back to school" would be different and all the changes we were going to make. Some of those panned out, others didn't. That's okay! Still, I bet for some people with all these big plans came some anxiety or anger. Maybe some of us know that going into the cold weather means the onset of some seasonal sadness or depression. That's why this week I'm thinking a lot about positive coping skills! Positive coping skills are healthy ways to deal with anxiety, depression and anger. Things that you know preemptively to use to help you to cope with stress or difficult situations. You know, things other than outbursts, self medication, anxious avoidance or self harm. The good stuff that helps you get through the bad shit. I have a lot of trouble with anxiety. Like anxiety about being busy with school , when relationships are good , when relationships are bad , and generally existing in this world as a human person. But fortunately over the years I've developed some really great positive coping skills! Here are some of my most-used coping skills: When I feel extremely overwhelmed by the number of things I have to do that day, I write them all down in sharpie on a sheet of computer paper, cross off two that I'm not going to do and check each other thing as I complete it. In all sorts of stressful situations, I calmly repeat affirmations in my head. Some of my favorites are "I have other strengths," "I don't have to be the best," "I accept things the way they are" and "That is in the past and I'm moving forward." When I feel jittery and overwhelmed I take five deep slow breaths. If that doesn't work I take a hot shower and take deep breaths in the shower. If deep breaths doesn't work, I do guided meditation and mindfulness, focusing on each part of my body feeling relaxed. When I feel frustrated by a situation I write a list of things that I like about that situation or are funny about that situation . So those are some of my coping skills! Maybe you have others! Maybe yours involve going for a run or drawing or calling your best friend! Whatever you do I want to know how you keep yourself going! Tell me how you are all actively and positively coping with the changing weather and our changing moods! How To Post A Photo In The Comments: 1. Find a photo!This is the easy part. Find a photo on the web, right click (on a Mac, control+click), hit "Copy Image URL" and then... 2. Code it in to your comment! Use the following code, and use a DIRECT LINK to the image. Your image link should end in .JPG or .GIF or .PNG or .CallMeWhateverYouWant even. I don't care, but it should be an image suffix! <img src="http://imageurlgoeshere.jpg"> If you need to upload the photo you love from your computer, try using imgur . To learn more, check out Ali's step-by-step guide . How To Post A Video In The Comments, Too: 1. Find a video on YouTube or Vimeo or WHATEVER and click "embed." Copy that code, but first make sure it's for 640px wide or less. If your player is too large, it will not display properly. 2. Copy the code and paste it directly into your comment. 3. Go forth and jam.

Two weeks ago we made some Fall Resolutions . We thought about how this year getting "back to school" would be different and all the changes we were going to make. Some of those panned out, others didn't

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SIR Cliff Richard has been urged to stop his campaign to give anonymity to those accused of sex crimes. The pop superstar has teamed up DJ Paul Gambaccini, the MP Nigel Evans and the widow of former Home Secretary Leon Brittan to try and change the law to give protection to those accused of offences. Sky News 4 Sir Cliff has joined forces with fellow victims DJ Paul Gambaccini (left) the MP Nigel Evans (right) Getty Images - WireImage 4 Singer Cliff is trying to change the law to protect the identities of those accused of sex crimes All were named in the media as suspects in investigations before having the charges dropped. But women's rights campaigners have called on the group to reconsider to "show respect for - and prevent significant harm to - both survivors of abuse across the UK, and the UK's legal process." In a letter, the End Violence Against Women Coalition said: "While we sympathise with how you feel about your treatment in the media, we do however believe your campaign directed at the criminal justice system, and specifically the rules on anonymity, is a grossly misdirected one." related stories HIGH COURT CASE Sir Cliff Richard sues BBC and South Yorkshire Police over broadcaster's live coverage of raid on his home 'Is that it?' EastEnders under fire from viewers over lack of cliffhangers as episode ends with Jane sitting on sofa 'LOVELY, HAPPY GIRL' Tributes to mum-of-two, 26, found stabbed to death in her home as cops quiz man found on nearby cliffs TYRED FOR SOUND Sir Cliff Richard gets all revved up for his long-awaited album as historical sex assault claims are dropped CLIFF IN THE CLEAR Decision not to prosecute Sir Cliff Richard over sex abuse allegations 'was correct', CPS rules THE SHOW GOES ON Sir Cliff Richard unveils his 37th calendar - as he continues to fight sex abuse allegations hanging over him ASSASSINATION WORRIES Nigel Farage quit as Ukip leader after death threats increased following Brexit vote Shock doc 'I struggled with the fact I called Savile a friend' Louis Theroux revisits his documentary with the child abuser Abuse on camera Disturbing footage shows Jimmy Savile groping teenage girl while being filmed by Louis Theroux while at a restaurant Speaking with Sky News , Co- Director Sarah Green said that naming the suspect enables other victims to come forward before the conviction. She said: "Our legal system is an open justice system. It's very important that the whole community knows who's accused of a crime, what they may be charged with and the evidence." Both entertainer Rolf Harris and disgraced PR guru Max Clifford were successfully convicted of historic sex crimes after more victims came forward following the give publicity around their arrests. Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders told Sky News: "In some cases where people have been named post-charge, more complainants have come forward. "So more offending has been brought to light, so there's a very careful balance." Cliff is suing the police and the BBC over the corporation's live coverage of a raid on his home in 2014. And his campaign has received huge support from ordinary families who have had their lives ripped apart and their reputations tarnished after loved ones were wrongly accused. In her first exclusive interview, Jo Martin, from South Wales, told Sky News her family went through 20 months of "hell" after her teenage son was accused of rape. She says suspects should only be named following their conviction after her lad was named in a local paper. She said: "It was an extremely terrifying moment, he was only 18. 4 Following a tip off, the BBC broke the story Sir Cliff was being investigated with live coverage of the raid at his home 4 His Berkshire mansion was raided by cops but two years later, the CPS decided there was not enough evidence to press charges "When it was printed in the press, screenshots were taken of it - it was banded around Facebook, my son received threats on Facebook calling him a rapist." The case against Jo's boy was quickly thrown out of court with the accuser's own legal team even admitting she was "not a complainant of truth". However, there was no mention of the court's decision in the press which made it difficult for her son to rebuild his reputation. Jo said: "Unfortunately there is no recourse for families like ours, we are the collateral damage in these types of cases." Jo runs a support group for families who have had a loved one wrongly accused of sex crimes. Cliff's campaign is backed by former police officer and Mayoral candidate Brian Paddick - who is leading proposals for a change in the law. The life peer believes the change, giving anonymity to those accused of sex crimes, could be made by the end of the year. He said: "Particularly in the wake of the Jimmy Savile revelations, most people are very well aware of the impact historical child abuse has had on the survivors of such offences, but the meeting is to give parliamentarians the opportunity to hear from those who have been affected by being falsely accused of such offences. "No matter who they are - whether they are a local school teacher whose arrest makes it into the local newspaper, or whether it's somebody like Cliff Richard, who has never been arrested but the allegations against him were all over the BBC and the national media, clearly it can have a devastating effect both on the individual's reputation and potentially on their careers. "The higher the public profile the more devastating the impact can be because of the weight of publicity that is given to it." Singer Sir Cliff and broadcaster Gambaccini are set to address peers and MPs about the "devastating impact" on their lives of being wrongly accused of sex crimes. The proposal to amend the Policing and Crime Bill would make it illegal for anyone to publicly name someone arrested on suspicion of a sex crime, unless they were charged. We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips @the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368

IR Cliff Richard has been urged to stop his campaign to give anonymity to those accused of sex crimes.

The election of Donald Trump has introduced a sea change in American foreign policy. Trump's vision has fateful and potentially devastating ramifications for the Middle East, and Iran in particular. In a nutshell, Trump was propelled to power by a brand of populism known as "national-racial populism" (as opposed to the progressive class-based populism embraced by the Left). During the campaign, Trump spoke out against Mexicans, Muslims and other minorities who, in his view, threaten the national interests of America's white population. Since Trump provided very few details about his foreign policy, and some of the details were confused and contradictory, it is difficult to decipher what the specifics are. The contradicting statements he made both before and after the election have kept Washington's allies and enemies waiting for a clear sign of the direction Trump's foreign policy will take. However, national-racial populism correlates with international isolationism, a sentiment that Trump has repeatedly emphasized. Trump, who repeatedly described the agreement between Washington and Tehran over Iran's nuclear program - officially the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - as the "one of the dumbest deals ever," has already called for abolishing it. This may provide Congress with an opportunity to pass additional legislation to create a new set of unilateral American sanctions. Although the United States cannot unilaterally abrogate the JCPOA, the Congress has already moved to impose additional sanctions on Iran, by the extension of the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) which expires in December 2016. The Israel lobby organizations like the Iran Project of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) - an emotional force that is harming American national interest - which took a leading role in trying to undermine the vote on the JCPOA in Congress in 2015, is behind the new wave of activism. Following Donald Trump's election, Congress is rushing to block the sale of Boeing passenger planes allowed by President Barack Obama's administration. Congress further seeks to merge the measures with another bill that would prohibit the Export-Import Bank from helping to finance deals involving Iran. Unlike President Obama, President-elect Donald Trump is not expected to veto the anti-Iran bills, setting a relatively low bar for their passage. As of this writing it is impossible to predict the outcome of the anti-Iranian stand in Washington. Potentially, the consequences on the internal politics in Iran can be substantial. The presidential election in Iran is scheduled for May 2017 and it is essential for current President Hassan Rouhani to show an improvement in the economy to win. Further sanctions may erode whatever success Rouhani - who has assembled a team of leaders dubbed the "Normalizers" for their calls for normalizing relations with Washington - have scored, and usher in a hardline opponent of rapprochement into office. Should this scenario play out, there is even a possibility that Iran would default on its JCPOA commitments. At the very least, the hardline players in Tehran will adopt a more aggressive approach, and would be less open to a cooperative policy in the region. Some analysts and policy makers, mostly those who support Israel's views on the issue - suggest that the Trump administration should torpedo the nuclear pact, and pursue firm policies in countering Iran's militaristic, hegemonic and ideological ambitions. Countering Iran, they argue, would lead to significant changes that would reduce the regional tensions. But it is important to note that the JCPOA has served as the basis for cooperation between Tehran and Washington in countering the ISIS terror group, which has taken over parts of Iraq and Syria. Torpedoing the American part of the JCPOA, not only will not help build on those gains in the pursuit of stability in the region, but it would further lead to destabilization. Not to mention that with the emergence of ISIS, both Tehran and Washington gained a surprising mutual interest in fighting the same enemy. The United States did not want to see Iraq and Syria fall into the hands of extremists, and Iran did not want to see them fall into the hands of forces, backed by Saudi Arabia. Moreover, Washington understood that Tehran could act as a partner, not only to fight common enemies, but also to promote regional security due to the fact that Iran has sufficient capability to exercise political power and to facilitate conflict resolution in contested grounds in the region. Countering Iran and scrapping the nuclear deal could undo Washington's gains in Iraq, let the war in Syria to continue, and the instability would spread throughout the entire region, particularly in the areas which Iran has influence and capability to exercise political power, including Baghdad, Damascus, Kabul, Beirut, and Sanaa, practically one-fifth of the Arab world. Analysts have already advised that it is in Washington's best interests that Iran use that influence constructively. Otherwise, the United States would have to fight Tehran's influence, while fighting against terror groups without any cooperation from Tehran. In other words, the immediate result of scrapping the JCPOA will be the rise of Iran's power and expansionism in the region at least in the foreseeable future. This result will be in conflict with the wishes of those who call for the containment of Iran. The new U.S. administration should work to improve relations with Iran instead. Because it is not in America's interest to see Iran forced to abandon the JCPOA. Therefore, embracing a neorealist foreign policy, Washington should seek to mend fences with Tehran. For all of these reasons, the Trump administration (assuming that he would act to serve American interests) should accept the JCPOA and focus on its implementation. Pushing Iran may please the critics of the JCPOA - including Republicans in the Congress, Israel, and Saudi Arabia - but it will not serve Washington's interests in the region. What the region needs is peace and stability by eliminating the ISIS terror group and it is almost impossible without cooperation between Iran, the United States and other regional countries. Dr. Farhad Rezaei is a research fellow at Center for Iranian Studies (IRAM) in Ankara, Turkey.

The election of Donald Trump has introduced a sea change in American foreign policy. Trump's vision has fateful and potentially devastating ramifications for the Middle East, and Iran in particular.

From the early days of her pop music career , singer Miley Cyrus has served her own brand of rebel girl realness. Quick to ditch her wholesome Disney alter ego Hannah Montana, Miley became set on letting the world know she was her own woman, as evidenced by that controversial bare-shoulder photo with Annie Leibovitz when she was just 15. Miley's first non-Hannah hit, in 2009, was "Party in the U.S.A.," and she's been doing just that, or haven't you seen all those scandalous social media photos that circulate of Miley with a bong, a Bob Marley birthday cake, and other wild child accoutrements? The 23-year-old has had a blast sticking out her tongue, twerking, and straddling a wrecking ball these past six years, but there is one thing she's been dead serious about all along: LGBT rights. Ever since she was an adolescent, Miley, who came out as pansexual and gender-fluid this year, has fought fearlessly for all LGBT people, especially our youth. Here's a timeline of just some of Miley's activism: April: During the annual Miss USA pageant, Miss California Carrie Prejean tells contest judge Perez Hilton she believes only heterosexual couples should be allowed to legally marry. Afterward, in a Twitter conversation about the remark to Hilton, 16-year-old Miley tweets, "Everyone deserves to love and be loved and most importantly smile." 2 011 May: Miley uses Twitter to denounce both ultra-right-wing presidential candidate Rick Santorum and Urban Outfitters, letting fans know that the hip lifestyle store with ties to conservative politicians helped fund Santorum's campaign. "Not only do they steal from artists but every time you give them money you help finance a campaign against gay equality," she tweets. (She also mocked conservatives: "IF WE ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE NEXT THING U KNOW PEOPLE WILL BE MARRYING GOLD FISH"). July: Miley tweets a photo of her latest tattoo, an equality sign on her middle finger, with the message "All LOVE is equal." February: Miley's op-ed piece in Glamour magazine reveals that she had received hate mail from the conservative Christians in her fan base for her stance on marriage equality. But she sticks to her guns, writing that it made her "feel sick to my stomach" to think same-sex couples would be denied legal marriages. She also displays a nuanced understanding of the legal and financial ramifications of the issue. "Without legalized same-sex marriage, most of the time you cannot share the same health benefits, you are not considered next of kin and you are not granted the same securities as a heterosexual couple," she writes. "How is this different than having someone sit in the back of the bus because of their skin color?" June: Miley tweets a photo of herself wearing a pin that says, "Homophobia is a social disease." December: Miley tells an interviewer that London is her favorite place to perform, in part, because she's "never seen more gay people in my whole life." She went on, "I just feel like they are so much more open, much more than here in the U.S. where they're feeling trapped, where it's like, Can I even say I believe in gay marriage? Can I say that my favorite fans are my gay fans?" June: Miley helps LGBTQ employees at Facebook headquarters kick off Pride month by posing enthusiastically for several photos with them. Also in June, during a Twitter conversation with out bisexual actress Evan Rachel Wood, Miley commends her old employer, the Disney Channel, for featuring a lesbian couple on the series Good Luck Charlie. July: With her hair now in a stylish pixie cut, Miley tells one interviewer she hears repeatedly that the short cut makes her look like a lesbian, and she uses the opportunity to make her feelings about the subject clear: "Everyone said I was a lesbian but I'm like, 'Being a lesbian isn't a bad thing. So if you think I look like I'm a lesbian, I'm not offended.'" January: Miley tweets a photo of herself wearing a pro-gay T-shirt from the Marc by Marc Jacobs line. The shirt features a drawing of a female couple with their child and text that reads "I pay my taxes. I want my rights." October: Miley donates $500,000 to amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, and attends its L.A. Inspirational Gala. "It's so important for me, of all people, to represent because I have a voice and I want to start an open dialogue," Miley says. March: Miley quickly weighs in on Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act by Instagramming a photo of Gov. Mike Pence, who signed the antigay bill, with a message that begins "You're an asshole." Also in March, Miley tweets a rainbow-licious collage featuring out Apple CEO Tim Cook to thank him for publicly denouncing the Indiana RFRA and similar legislation. April: Miley calls out U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas after Cotton suggests that LGBT folks unhappy with discriminatory legislation in the U.S. should have "perspective," because "in Iran they hang you for the crime of being gay." Outraged, Miley tweets his office phone number to her 20 million Twitter followers with a message to "stir shit up." May: The singer launches the Happy Hippie Foundation , a nonprofit organization that raises awareness, support, and funds for homeless LGBT youth and other underserved populations. Also in May, the singer collaborates with punk icons Joan Jett and Laura Jane Grace, the transgender front woman of Against Me!, to create a video for the trio's cover of the Replacements' 1984 song "Androgynous." The video is one of the Happy Hippie Foundation's early "Backyard Sessions," exclusive Facebook videos encouraging viewers to donate to the nonprofit. June: Miley indicates that she's had relationships with both men and women and considers herself to be gender-fluid during an interview with Paper magazine. In subsequent reports, the media grapples with a label for the singer's sexuality. Also in June, Miley l aunches the #InstaPride campaign in partnership with Instagram. The campaign seeks to highlight the "resilience" of LGBT youth by inviting them to share their stories on the social media site. August: Miley, as host of MTV's VMAs, invites LGBT youth affiliated with the Happy Hippie Foundation to introduce the singer for the show's closing number. Onstage, Miley wears a giant rainbow flag costume as she performs alongside a dozen or so RuPaul's Drag Race drag queens. Also in August, the singer defines her sexuality as "pansexual" during an interview with Elle U.K. October: Miley hosts the season premiere of Saturday Night Live. During her opening monologue, she sings the Sinatra classic "My Way" while the SNL cast pokes fun at the summer's most unfortunate newsmakers. These include Kim Davis, the county clerk in Kentucky who denied marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and greedy pharmaceutical entrepreneur Martin Shkreli, who earned the Internet's wrath when he hiked up the price of a medication for toxoplasmosis, an infection particularly threatening to people with HIV. November: Miley is the cover model for Candy , a "transversal" fashion magazine, using the NSFW photo shoot to toy with gender norms and, in the singer's own words, "break the wall for what a woman should be." Also in November, as she is honored by the Los Angeles LGBT Center's Vanguard Awards, Miley calls on other celebrities to join her in her work for LGBT youth. "We have been given this megaphone. And it is our responsibility as human beings to do everything we can to protect our fellow people, environment, and we cannot forget about the animals," the singer insists. Earlier in the evening, Miley, prodded by singer-songwriter Linda Perry, licked a piano that was being auctioned for charity. It netted $50,000.

From the early days of her pop music career , singer Miley Cyrus has served her own brand of rebel girl realness. Quick to ditch her wholesome Disney alter ego Hannah Montana, Miley became set on letting the world know she was her own woman, as evidenced by that controversial bare-shoulder photo with Annie Leibovitz when she was just 15.

Monday, Apr 18, 2016, 5:49 pm * By Bruce Vail Among the 307 Democracy Awakening 2016 activists arrested at the U.S. Capitol were, left to right, Rev. William Barber of North Carolina's Moral Monday movement, Tefere Gebre of the AFL-CIO, Chris Shelton of the Communications Workers of America, Cornell William Brooks of the NAACP, Annie Leonard of Greenpeace, and Aaron Mair, President of the Sierra Club. At right (with beard) is social justice activist Dick Gregory. Keith Mellnick/ AFL-CIO WASHINGTON, D.C.--About 300 activists in organizations devoted to progressive reforms in the federal government were arrested Monday in a civil disobedience action on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. Embracing legislative issues common to labor unions, civil rights groups, environmentalists, and immigrant rights advocates, the coalition known as Democracy Initiative engineered the arrests as a way to punctuate its springtime "Democracy Awakening 2016" campaign. According to spokesperson Sean Trambley, key demands of the campaign are reversal of the Citizens United Supreme Court case favoring corporate financing of elections, restoration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, full consideration by the U.S. Senate of President Barack Obama's stalled appointment to the Supreme Court and related legislative proposals. Monday, Apr 18, 2016, 11:53 am * By Brian Joseph (antinee / Flickr) This article first appeared at FairWarning.org. Darkness had enveloped the Newell Recycling yard by the time Erik Hilario climbed into a front-end loader on a cold evening in January 2011. Just 19 years old, Hilario, an undocumented immigrant , had followed his father from Mexico to an industrial park in East Point, Ga., near Atlanta, where they worked as low-skilled laborers amid jagged piles of scrap metal bound for the smelter. Hilario drove to a paved section of the nine-acre yard known as the defueling or car-processing area. Here, according to witnesses in a court case, gasoline was removed from junked cars through a crude process employing a 30-foot crane and a long spike welded atop a metal trough. A claw attached to the crane would pick up cars and smash them, gas-tank first, onto the spike, spilling gasoline into the trough. The crane then would swing the cars across the pavement and drop them onto a pile, dripping gas along the way. Hilario was using the loader - which Newell later would say he was not trained or authorized to operate -- to scrape up bits of metal left behind. Hilario was slowly pushing the scraps into a pile when an intense fire suddenly engulfed him. A spark had ignited gasoline on the ground. "Help me!" he screamed, co-workers later testified in the case. Thursday, Apr 14, 2016, 6:21 pm * By David Moberg Day one of Fight for 15 strike in Chicago, July 2013. (Steve Rhodes / Flickr) As dawn was breaking today, a crowd of roughly 100 gathered in Chicago around a McDonald's restaurant in the largely black, working-and middle-class residential neighborhood of South Shore. They were part of an international wave of protests, which started in New York City during November 2012 as protests against fast food shop working conditions. In these early actions, fast food workers walked off the job, usually without warning, and often with only a fraction of workers joining protestors outside. Most of the strikers returned the next day, often accompanied by supporters to guarantee their right to their jobs. Those insurgent disruptions expanded into Chicago, then other cities, as the local fights coalesced into the Fight for 15--$15 an hour minimum pay and the right to form a union. Now there are simultaneous actions around the world, well-organized and publicized like the global protests today. Jordan Barab, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). (House Committee on Education and the Workforce Democrats / Flickr) This article first appeared at FairWarning.org For nearly five years, Darrell Whitman was a federal investigator who probed whistleblowers' complaints about being fired or otherwise punished for exposing alleged corporate misconduct. He wanted to help whistleblowers, viewing them as a crucial line of defense against employers who violated health and safety standards or wasted taxpayer dollars. But now Whitman, 70, is blowing the whistle himself. And he is accusing the agency where he used to work, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the branch of the Labor Department whose duties include protecting whistleblowers. Thursday, Apr 14, 2016, 6:33 am * By Bill Fletcher, Jr. Due to a hung supreme court, the 'Friedrichs' case is dead, for now. (Matt Wade / Flickr) This article first appeared at BeaconBroadside.com I was driving to a meeting listening to the news this morning and a special segment was announced. It was described as a discussion on the Supreme Court's decision on "union dues." The second time that I heard this promo I stopped my car and called the station. Though I did not reach a human being, I left a pointed message to the effect that this case-- Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association --was NOT about union dues. So, if it was not about union dues, what was it about and why would the news station make such a basic error? The Friedrichs case involved an effort taken by individuals against the California Teachers Association , the union that legally represented them for purposes of collective bargaining. The plaintiffs were arguing that they should not have to pay what is called an agency fee since that, allegedly, interfered with their Constitutional right to freedom of speech. The sophistry contained in this case is unbelievable, and the fact that it reached the US Supreme Court was, itself, unbelievable and unacceptable. This is the sort of case that should never have seen the light of day. Tuesday, Apr 12, 2016, 1:24 pm * By Elizabeth Grossman Filipino domestic workers march for labor rights. (ILO / Flickr) Ninety percent--or 60 million of the world's estimated 67 million domestic workers, some 80 percent of whom are women--labor without any basic social security protections, says a new International Labor Organization (ILO) report . Developing countries have the biggest gaps in coverage but wealthier nations are not immune to this problem. According to the report, 60 percent of domestic workers in Italy are outside the country's social security system, as are 30 percent of domestic workers in France and Spain. And here in the U.S., domestic workers--housekeepers, house cleaners, nannies, child and elder care providers among others--are not covered by many of the basic workplace protections that most employees take for granted. Tuesday, Apr 12, 2016, 12:26 pm * By David Moberg CWA and IBEW union members join forces against the telecommunications juggernaut. (Thomas Slatin / Flickr / Creative Commons) Leaders of the unions representing nearly 40,000 Verizon telecommunications workers in big cities and small towns from Maine to Virginia announced today that their members would be going on strike at 6 a.m. Wednesday without "a major change in direction" in contract talks now underway, according to Communications Workers of America (CWA) president Chris Shelton. The unions--CWA and IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers)--are fighting to keep high-quality working class jobs in the United States. Teachers from the rank-and-file caucus of New York City's teachers union, the Movement of Rank-and-File Educators. (Labor Notes / Facebook) Every two years since 1981, the Detroit- and Brooklyn-based monthly newsletter Labor Notes has rallied union members and wannabe members, as well as some union staff and elected leaders, to join in a long weekend of sharing stories, strategies and wisdom gained in their workplace skirmishes. They are the sort of people that bosses everywhere--and a few union officials--might call "troublemakers," and they have adopted the moniker as a badge of honor (including holding "troublemaker schools" and producing tactical handbooks for do-it-yourself organizers). Last weekend, around 2,200 labor activists, from diverse age groups, industries, personal experiences and nations (about 150 visitors from 22 countries), gathered in Chicago for a packed line-up of workshops and plenary sessions in the largest of these conferences. Wednesday, Apr 6, 2016, 4:59 pm * By Andrew Tillett-Saks (xddorox / Flickr / Creative Commons) American unions appear on their deathbed. The percentage of workers in unions is at its lowest point in 75 years, corporate politicians have spread union-busting right-to-work laws to more than half the states in the union and labor's traditional strongholds (from manufacturing to the public sector) are rapidly being eroded. But an opportunity for labor to reverse its fortunes looms large in the Black Lives Matter movement , the largest wave of anti-racist struggle in recent memory. If American labor is going to reverse its declining fortunes, it must begin with attacking American racism. Racism is the lynchpin that holds corporate America together--as well as the shoals upon which American labor has sunk for centuries. Racism in America--past and present, from the colonial to the Trump era--divides workers so to prevent an effective united front. The American labor movement must seize the opportunity presented by the current upsurge and put its institutional support behind the anti-racist movement. It is more than a moral matter. Organized Labor's very existence depends on it--no American worker movement will succeed so long as racism remains rampant in America. Activists in the labor movement must recognize that the question of which must take priority, anti-racist or labor struggle, is a false one. The two are inextricably intertwined and mutually dependent. The labor movement will never succeed without fighting and eradicating racism. Likewise, we cannot eliminate racism without eliminating the material inequality upon which it feeds. Racism is not a mere idea floating in the cultural clouds; it is an ideology rooted in and dependent on material inequality along racial lines. In the question of ending racism and economic inequality in America it is not one or the other, but both or none. (Adrien Fauth / Flickr) In an address on Middle East policy last month, Bernie Sanders --the first Jewish American to win a presidential primary--did something virtually unheard of in contemporary U.S. politics when he called for an end to "what amounts to the occupation of Palestinian territory" by Israel. The only candidate to skip the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC's annual conference in Washington, Sanders instead delivered a speech from Utah in which he acknowledged that "today there is a whole lot of suffering among Palestinians" due to the occupation. "For a presidential candidate to break from the mold, like it seems maybe Sanders is doing, and to talk about the fact that the occupation needs to end, is something that's exciting to Palestinians," says Manawel Abdel-Al, a member of the general secretariat of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU).

Monday, Apr 18, 2016, 5:49 pm * By Bruce Vail Among the 307 Democracy Awakening 2016 activists arrested at the U.S. Capitol were, left to right, Rev. William Barber of North Carolina's Moral Monday movement, Tefere Gebre of the AFL-CIO, Chris Shelton of the Communications Workers of America, Cornell William Brooks of the NAACP, Annie Leonard of Greenpeace, and Aaron Mair, President of the Sierra Club. At right (with beard) is social justice activist Dick Gregory.

Rupert Murdoch at 87 ranks among the world's most successful businessmen. He has built a global media empire of unparalleled extent, and he is still going strong. Since his stock-in-trade is information, opinion, influence and entertainment, he has been admired, feared and reviled. He has seen off detractors and defied biographers, who either succumb to his charm or resort to apoplexy. Apart from Murdoch's own family, Irwin Stelzer is virtually the only courtier to survive in the billionaire's retinue, almost throughout his career. An academic economist, Stelzer is the kind of intellectual tycoons like to have on hand, flattering their egos and ready with the occasional quote. His loyalty is absolute. If Murdoch crashed, I am sure Stelzer would be there on the windy heath, playing Fool to the great man's Lear. He has now written the case for Murdoch's defence, which he says is "unauthorised". It hardly needs to be, but it scores some deft blows. Murdoch's riches-to-riches saga is well-known. He was sent to Geelong school in his native Australia and then Oxford, where he felt an "outsider", ran for the Labour club committee and had a bust of Lenin in his room. When he was 22, his father gave him a tabloid newspaper in Adelaide and he spent a decade making it pay. His downmarket methods so appalled his mother that, in 1964, she shamed him into founding Australia's first serious national newspaper, the Australian . He has sustained its losses ever since. From the start, a running theme of Murdoch's career has been a battle between vulgarity and respectability. By 1968 Murdoch was rich enough to come to London and play the big time. He tried to buy the Daily Mirror and found himself with the News of the World and the ailing Sun . He galvanised them both and struck gold. Yet he was ostracised from "society", largely for publishing Christine Keeler's lurid Profumo memoir. He adorned the Sun with topless girls - the idea was his editor Larry Lamb's - and doubled its sales in two years. He was treated everywhere as a crude antipodean, and mauled outrageously by David Frost on television. Murdoch left for America in a huff, contemptuous of the pomposity and hypocrisy of the British establishment. But he kept his papers. In America, Murdoch founded the scurrilous National Star and bought the New York Post , which lost much of what the Star made. In 1981 he could not resist revenge, returning to Britain to buy the establishment's Times and Sunday Times . Driven to distraction by the print unions, in 1986 he undertook the biggest gamble of his career, moving his entire British print works to Wapping in London's Docklands, computerising the production process. Every other proprietor - and indeed a group of staffers on the Times - had dreamed of doing this. But no one offered Murdoch a word of support, until he won. Within months, the whole of Fleet Street followed suit. As a result, a declining industry was transformed. While papers were closing across Europe and America, Britain enjoyed a decade of new titles, rising sales, soaring pagination and a boom in journalism. One of the founders of the Independent , Andreas Whittam Smith, admitted that it owed its existence to Wapping. The experience further fuelled Murdoch's loathing for "the system". Despite being born with a silver spoon - perhaps because of it - he was obsessed with "us" against "them". He called his tabloids "popular" papers, and his broadsheets "unpopular" ones. Stelzer has him deriding one of his columnists for winning a Pulitzer Prize. The feeling was mutual. He said he never wanted to be a press lord, so the system leaked that he had been proposed for an honour and been deemed "unfit". One of the many ironies about Murdoch is that so much about him should appeal to the left - perhaps a reason that it cannot stand him. The establishment continued in his sights. He founded Sky to compete with the BBC/ITV duopoly - and has underwritten Sky News's losses ever since. In America, Fox TV was an assault on the NBC/CBS/ABC oligopoly. Fox News was founded to undermine what he regarded as America's liberal media stranglehold. When it boasted its coverage was "balanced", the word was altered to "balancing". Murdoch was so obsessed with the power of the New York Times he stalked the Wall Street Journal relentlessly, paying twice what it was worth when he got it in 2007. There were spills aplenty along the way. Murdoch's Chinese Star TV proved a fiasco. Attempts to break into this burgeoning market saw him shamefully exclude the BBC from its satellites, fearing it would upset the regime. He got his comeuppance when in 1993 he boasted that his satellites were "an unambiguous threat to totalitarian regimes everywhere". The boast was directed at Russia, but Beijing thought otherwise and was "incandescent". Murdoch was eventually eased out and lost a fortune. Murdoch misread the digital revolution. He bought Myspace in 2005 for $580m, but then allowed it to be knocked sideways by Facebook. Myspace peaked in value at an astonishing PS12bn in 2007, but was sold four years later for $35m. Perhaps understandably, Murdoch came to despise the duopolistic "content thieves" of Google and Facebook. Having spent a lifetime seeking to dodge regulators, he found himself lobbying for them to intervene. Stelzer's search for "method" in all this is half-hearted. It is reminiscent of Talleyrand on Napoleon's strategy: whatever opportunity is offered by what he did last. Working for Murdoch in the early 1990s was an exhilarating but eerie experience. Those with whom he "fell in love" would find him kind, generous and a good listener. He was a natural tabloid journalist - sub-editor rather than writer -with none of the bombast of a Hearst or a Beaverbrook. He hated corporate bureaucracy, loathed committees, consultants and strategy - an aide said he regarded them as "corporate masturbation". He was always trying to leave meetings. His greatest virtue was decision - intuiting that a bad decision was better than none at all. Murdoch mostly honoured the "editorial non-interference" conditions of his ownership of the Times , in contrast to his direction of the Sun and the New York Post . Of the latter he would say, why own a paper if you can't edit it - which left open the question of why he wanted the Times . As every editor knows, the great interferer is not policy but money. When I was at the Times in the early 1990s the paper was losing money and Murdoch was facing bankruptcy. He blitzed it with staff cuts and price rises - and complaints when the circulation dropped. It was the price a free press pays for capitalism's charity. Murdoch was a poor people manager. Turnover at News Corp was high and Stelzer remarks on Murdoch's cowardice in always getting minions to fire even old friends. His staff reacted in various ways. I remember standing on a Colorado street during a get-together and asking the Fox studios wunderkind, Barry Diller, how he was getting on with Murdoch. He replied by borrowing a Harley-Davidson and roaring off up a local mountain, telling me afterwards that he needed to scream "Fuck Murdoch" into the sunset. I gather they are still on good terms. I am sure Stelzer is right that Murdoch's fascination with the media is not just a matter of money, or the classic media mogul's fixation with power. His motivation is complex, psychological as much as politico-commercial. Above all, says Stelzer, he is addicted to risk, always "seeking the next oil well to drill". When in 1989 he was in London hunting both the Financial Times and the publisher William Collins, I pointed out that the government would not let him buy the first, and he did not want the second, as he had once said, "Publishing is a job for kids in attics." He lost the first, won the second, and loved every minute of it. It was the thrill of the chase. I doubt if Murdoch ever desired to dominate the world. He just wanted to play with it. His politics were an unsophisticated bundle of mostly conservative prejudices, which he was happy to argue and even concede. He hated his papers boasting: he "bollocked" the Sun 's then editor Kelvin Mackenzie for the headline, "It's the Sun wot won it", in 1992. Murdoch has been almost whimsical in his favourites, variously backing Wilson, Heath, Thatcher and Blair. Some Murdoch papers were for Leave in the EU referendum, others for Remain. In 2010, he liked Gordon Brown and was upset when his son James Murdoch, who was running the Sun at the time, went for David Cameron. He tolerated embarrassment from Fox News, defending it as much for its disruptive populism as for its neocon rants. He did not tamper with the legally required impartiality of Sky News. Stelzer is clearly upset by Murdoch's inability to define the obligations of those who own media outlets. At one point Murdoch declared that "anybody who, within the law of the land, provides a service that the public wants, at a price it can afford, is providing a public service". Stelzer retorts that there are "externalities" to the media's "service". They include "the special responsibility of a media company to truth and decency". This concept of responsibility constantly gnawed at Murdoch. His mother, Elisabeth, would constantly phone to deplore some vulgarity. "Every time she calls," Murdoch said, "it costs me $5m." He was not beyond being shocked at what was done in his name. He sacked an executive for staging a striptease at his annual beano in Aspen, intended to show that audiences will always watch sex before seriousness. I was in the audience and we did watch, but Murdoch was furious. He eventually rid himself of the Sun 's page three girls. For all that, he gave his tabloids free rein in their muck-raking and intrusion, until they came back to hit him in the hacking scandal, leaving him grovelling and diminished before a Commons committee. Like a mischievous child, Murdoch seemed to revel in disrepute - and then be peeved at the response. He loved the loss-making New York Post "for the thrill of owning a paper in New York", despite an alleged refusal by Bloomingdale's to advertise, because "your readers are our shoplifters". He loved it because smart New York hated it. More telling have been Murdoch's efforts at reputational rescue. Apart from subsidising the Times and the Australian , he gave generously to his old university, Oxford, even mooting the possibility of a college named after him. He sustained the TLS , New York magazine and Village Voice . Contrary to what Stelzer says, he did start a Sunday Times book section - I edited it - despite being warned that it would get no ads. Asked its purpose, he replied, "So I don't have to read the books." Stelzer finally portrays the Murdoch empire not as world-ruling but as dynasty-bridging, a link between his parents, himself, and his offspring. His family is his obsession. But all empires decay as they grow. Murdoch has recently divided his domain (as did Diocletian) between his sons, Lachlan and James. But division did not save the Roman empire. Only one chapter of the book, on Murdoch's niceness and generosity (to Stelzer) is oleaginous. Otherwise he gets a qualified bill of health: that the "net benefits to society outweigh the not inconsiderable costs". Since Stelzer quotes Gertrude Himmelfarb on the costs as "the coarsening of the nation's culture and the trivialisation of morality itself", the term "not inconsiderable" might be thought an understatement. There is also the considerable cost of Fox's support for Donald Trump. I would give Murdoch more limited credit. I have no doubt that the Wapping revolution is why London still has eight daily newspapers, more than any comparable city and as many as when Murdoch arrived in the 1960s. For that, I will take a dollop of coarsened culture. Simon Jenkins is a former editor of the Times and the Evening Standard The Murdoch Method: Notes on Running a Media Empire Irwin Stelzer Atlantic, 320pp, PS20

Rupert Murdoch at 87 ranks among the world's most successful businessmen.

The Canary has a copy of a letter that confirms the Garda (the Irish police service) had a "relationship" with British undercover police officer - or 'spycop' - Mark Kennedy. And the revelation increases pressure on the Pitchford inquiry into undercover political policing, which is currently restricting its investigations to just England and Wales. Demand for report to be public In October 2016, Irish justice minister Frances Fitzgerald made a request [paywall] to Garda commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan for a report on the presence of Kennedy in the Republic. Politician Paul Murphy is now demanding that report be made public. Murphy is also requesting that Enda Kenny, Ireland's Taoiseach (or prime minister), clarify who gave permission to Kennedy, an officer with the National Public Order Intelligence Unit , to operate in Ireland. Kenny said he will raise the matter with the British Northern Ireland Secretary of State, James Brokenshire, in Dublin. Meanwhile, a letter dated 23 March 2011 from the Commissioner of Police Martin Callinan to the Secretary General, Department of Justice and Law Reform, references Kennedy's status. That letter is here [pdf] in full. "Relationship" with Kennedy In one section of the letter, Commissioner Callinan states that the police were fully aware of Kennedy's "presence" in the Irish Republic. And they may have been monitoring his activities, as Callinan states he was not aware Kennedy committed any crimes. But this appears at odds with a recent statement by Murphy in the Dail (the Irish parliament): [Mark Kennedy] was arrested by the gardai in Dublin on 3 May 2004... Callinan also acknowledges the perception that Kennedy was in the Republic with the "consent" of the Irish police. And that there was a "relationship" between the Irish police and the British undercover police officer: Callinan emphasises the importance of that "relationship", adding how such 'arrangements' were in the interests of "national security". Further, he argues how it was essential that the police protect Kennedy and any other undercover police officers: Kennedy's spycop activities in Ireland Kennedy took part in several protests in Ireland between 2004 and 2006. Including against President Bush's visit to Ireland for an EU-US summit in 2004 ; and the Shell to Sea campaign in County Mayo in 2006. Spycop Mark Kennedy (centre) at the Shell to Sea protests Murphy told the Dail that US citizen Sarah Hampton was in a protest group while in Ireland in 2005. And during that period, she was in a relationship with Kennedy. Hampton has since been given an apology for the way she was exploited by Kennedy. Murphy also told the Dail: we know of at least three other undercover British police officers who operated in this State - Jim Boyling , Mark Jenner and John Dines . Meanwhile, activists Alice Cutler, Helen Steel , Jason Kirkpatrick , Kate Wilson , Kim Bryan, Sarah Hampton and ' Lisa Jones ' have demanded to see files they believe the Garda hold on them. Spycop Mark Kennedy in Ireland 2005, with Sarah Hampton and Kim Bryan. Implications for Pitchford's spycops inquiry Kennedy's undercover activities were prolific , covering not just Ireland but as many as 22 countries . In February 2017, environmental activists won the right to a judicial review into the activities of Kennedy in the north of Ireland, as well as that of other undercover operatives in the province. Also at a conference in Dublin, the women who were in relationships with Kennedy spoke out to demand the Pitchford inquiry widen its investigations. Namely to include Ireland. For now, with the publication of the 2011 letter, the cat is well and truly out of the bag. UPDATE (21 April) : The claim of Kennedy operating in '22 countries' appears to have been a case of 'self-aggrandisement' by Kennedy. The real figure is believed to be 11. Get Involved! - Find out more about the Undercover Policing scandal from Police Out of Our Lives . - Read "Undercover Research: Corporate and police spying on activists" by Eveline Lubbers ( pdf ). - Read Spies at Work by Mike Hughes.

The Canary has a copy of a letter that confirms the Garda (the Irish police service) had a "relationship" with British undercover police officer - or 'spycop' - Mark Kennedy.

Yesterday hundreds of thousands marched in Mexico city and tens of thousands more in dozens of other cities across Mexico to protest at the kidnapping of 43 student-teachers from Ayotzinapa. They were clear in pointing the finger squarely at the Mexican state. The actions were part of a widespread nationwide 48 hour student strike which continues today. Join members of the International Marxist Tendency and the Marxist Student Association for this year's North East Regional School on 1 November. Speakers from Belgium and Canada will speak on the Arab Revolution and the Student and Youth movements throughout the Americas. More info below. The undersigned organisations join in the call by students from the Rural Normal of Ayotzinapa and the National People's Assembly for a day of action on October 22 and we extend internationally. We appeal for the organisation of protest actions at Mexican embassies and consulates around the world that day. It is now a month since the beginning of the movement of students at the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) in Mexico. This is a huge movement involving tens of thousands of students in dozens of schools, mass assemblies with thousands of participants, which has forced the national government to make important concessions in order to prevent a general explosion of the youth movement. The horrendous incident in which police officers opened fire on students killing 6 people and injuring 17 and then kidnapped another 43 and handed them over to a drug cartel, has brought out sharply the depth of the rottenness of the Mexican capitalist state, to what degree its structures are linked with those of the drug cartels, and finally, how they stop at nothing in suppressing anyone they perceive as a threat to their interests. Late on Wednesday night the terrible news of the macabre assassination of comrade Robert Serra and his partner Maria Herrera was announced. According to the Minister of Interior and Justice, Rodriguez Torres, the two bodies were found in their home in La Pastora, Caracas.

Yesterday hundreds of thousands marched in Mexico city and tens of thousands more in dozens of other cities across Mexico to protest at the kidnapping of 43 student-teachers from Ayotzinapa. T

1 Backwoods_Sleuth Sep 30, 2016 * 10:58:24am down 15 up report Here Is Donald Trump's Newly Released Videotaped Deposition https://t.co/E9GEjqCFMW via @wagnerreports @buzzfeednews 2 Tigger2 Sep 30, 2016 * 10:59:41am down 11 up report the skies will open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will be singing.... https://t.co/emoAHbuulw pic.twitter.com/Cb1l1krDgR 3 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 10:59:56am down 4 up report The very best temperament though. Just ask him. 4 Belafon Sep 30, 2016 * 11:01:43am down 17 up report I don't think Clinton has to do anything now to set Trump off. He's already raging and I don't think it will stop. 5 Anymouse Sep 30, 2016 * 11:04:02am down 6 up report I don't think Clinton has to do anything now to set Trump off. He's already raging and I don't think it will stop. I'm sure she is loaded for bear though: If he stops raging or if his campaign can get him back on track, I'm pretty sure she has other things to unload on him. If Ms. Machado set him off this easily, what would the accusation he broke the law by exploring deals in Cuba do? And if he is stupid enough to bring up her husband, she can nail him to the wall. 6 FormerDirtDart Sep 30, 2016 * 11:04:37am down 21 up report This paper has not endorsed a Democrat for president in its 148-year history. Until now. Here's why: https://t.co/jkBTMIH3eQ pic.twitter.com/ApcfFiv3U6 7 Kragar Sep 30, 2016 * 11:05:07am down 21 up report I saw the words "Trump Sex Tape" in a head line, but luckily my coworkers were able to stop me before I committed seppuku. 9 jaunte Sep 30, 2016 * 11:13:56am down 7 up report Everyone should pound him and his surrogates on the "Miss Housekeeping" slur. "What did he mean by that, Boris, Kellyanne?" 10 wrenchwench Sep 30, 2016 * 11:15:57am down 4 up report The very best temperament though. Just ask him. And the thinnest of skins. So thin. The best thin skin. You'll see. Believe me. 11 Stanley Sea Sep 30, 2016 * 11:22:07am down 4 up report [Embedded content] HOLY SHIT UT is so ultra republican. 12 Anymouse Sep 30, 2016 * 11:25:49am down 3 up report Boston radio host Howie Carr said Barack Obama "didn't have to work" and "was handed everything because he is black." Carr accused Obama's administration of attempting to unravel "the greatest society in human history," then launched this racist attack. 13 Skip Intro Sep 30, 2016 * 11:28:01am down 4 up report re: #1 Backwoods_Sleuth Short take after wading through 59 pages of this. Trump doesn't know anything, it was all Jr. and Ivanka's doing. 14 Sir John Barron Sep 30, 2016 * 11:28:20am down 1 up report re: #11 Stanley Sea HOLY SHIT UT is so ultra republican. which newspapers have endorsed the Dumpster I wonder? Any? 15 Single-handed sailor Sep 30, 2016 * 11:29:48am down 31 up report FYI: Trump's 18 years of fat shaming Alicia Machado is the longest commitment he's ever made to a woman. A couple of other papers endorsed him in the Republican Primary. I think that's about it. 17 dangerman Sep 30, 2016 * 11:32:13am down 4 up report re: #14 Sir John Barron which newspapers have endorsed the Dumpster I wonder? Any? National Enquirer - enough said New York Observer - trumps' son in law New York Post - nuff said Santa Barbara News-Press California - circulation around 25k quite the portfolio 18 sagehen Sep 30, 2016 * 11:33:54am down 2 up report re: #14 Sir John Barron which newspapers have endorsed the Dumpster I wonder? Any? National Enquirer, Brietbart, and the one Ivanka's husband owns. 19 Stanley Sea Sep 30, 2016 * 11:36:12am down 3 up report re: #14 Sir John Barron which newspapers have endorsed the Dumpster I wonder? Any? National Enquirer & his son in law's rag the Observer. 20 Dr. Matt Sep 30, 2016 * 11:37:30am down 11 up report In one fell swoop, Trump proved Clinton's point that Trump is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be POTUS. Well played. 21 Kragar Sep 30, 2016 * 11:37:42am down 8 up report DEPOSITION VIDEO: Trump, under oath, says comments calling Mexicans "rapists" were planned https://t.co/qlVf6UpATp pic.twitter.com/EwvnEiTbNq [Trump makes disgusting remark] TRUMP FAN: He NEVER said that! Liberal media is lying again! [Trump doubles down] TRUMP FAN: He's RIGHT! 23 Dr. Lexus Sep 30, 2016 * 11:38:25am down 5 up report The 3 am call is a tweet from a madman. 24 Dr. Matt Sep 30, 2016 * 11:39:42am down 23 up report Boom! This is...unhinged, even for Trump. A few notes. What kind of man stays up all night to smear a woman with lies and conspiracy theories? Alicia deserves praise for courageously standing up to Trump's attacks. And he has the gall to blame her for his cruel behavior--and even say he "helped"? When something gets under Donald's thin skin, he lashes out and can't let go. This is dangerous for a presidential candidate, never mind a president. What's more: This is a pattern of flying off the handle at women who defy, criticize, or otherwise displease Trump. To Donald, women like Alicia are only as valuable as his personal opinion about their looks. He obsessively bullies Rosie O'Donnell, an accomplished actor. He calls female reporters and news hosts who question him ""crazy"" and "neurotic," or worse. He insulted Kim Kardashian for her weight--when she was pregnant. It's pathetic. We've heard Donald's insults for years, and his policies reflect this disregard--even contempt--for women: On equal pay, Trump says women should just "do as good a job" as men. He thinks women who get an abortion should be "punished." He called pregnancy an "inconvenience" to employers. Wives working are "dangerous." He's never hidden how he truly feels about women, but it's never been clearer than right now: he doesn't respect half the population of this country--and he doesn't deserve to lead it. 25 Anymouse Sep 30, 2016 * 11:40:09am down 1 up report My own local newspaper, the Scottsbluff Star-Herald (conservative-leaning), back on July 6 chose to endorse neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump. This was back when Senator Sanders was still in the race. The opening of the article (a magic balance fairy argument that both are equally bad): Do you want to know why Bernie Sanders is still in the presidential race? It's because he actually cares about this country and making it better. And he's made a difference. He pushed so hard, some of his stances are being added to the 2016 Democratic platform. However, we have two presumptive nominees who only care about themselves and say whatever they need to in order to get elected. Hillary Clinton is capitulating because Sanders brings to light all the ways government has failed Americans. On the other side, we have an egomaniac who is the most racist and bigoted candidate I've seen in a long time. Donald Trump does nothing but sling mud, spew hate and provide vapid responses that crowds cheer over. He then falls back behind the "I'm not saying we should do this, but maybe we should think about it" rhetoric as an excuse to claim he's not responsible for the garbage he says. 26 Charles Johnson Sep 30, 2016 * 11:41:15am down 22 up report "What? Russia's attacking Europe? Hang on, let me finish this great Infowars article." @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/gOCg9j0mwb 27 Kragar Sep 30, 2016 * 11:42:02am down 15 up report If you lay off the cocaine, you might be able to get some sleep @realDonaldTrump 28 Dr. Matt Sep 30, 2016 * 11:42:55am down 3 up report Commission on Presidential Debates releases statement on Trump mic, says there were "issues" with Trump's audio that affected sound level 29 Belafon Sep 30, 2016 * 11:44:06am down 0 up report re: #28 Dr. Matt The same guy who said it wasn't the moderators job to fact check the candidates. 30 lawhawk Sep 30, 2016 * 11:45:15am down 9 up report It's worth noting that 3AM in New York is 10 AM in Moscow 31 Backwoods_Sleuth Sep 30, 2016 * 11:45:56am down 1 up report Trump's rally today at 5 pm in Novi, Michigan, will no doubt be his best one yet... 32 FormerDirtDart Sep 30, 2016 * 11:47:13am down 4 up report re: #28 Dr. Matt Commission on Presidential Debates releases statement on Trump mic, says there were "issues" with Trump's audio that affected sound level Yeah, they probably kept trying to adjust his audio to filter out his annoying breathing... 33 dangerman Sep 30, 2016 * 11:47:55am down 2 up report re: #28 Dr. Matt [Embedded content] [Embedded content]Commission on Presidential Debates releases statement on Trump mic, says there were "issues" with Trump's audio that affected sound level - it was set too sensitive so it oversampled -- see thats what we said - oops, i misread, it undersampled and so didnt pick up everything -- we knew it all along look - as long as it didnt universal translate his words this is asinine 34 Backwoods_Sleuth Sep 30, 2016 * 11:48:47am down 2 up report [Embedded content] They shouldn't have hidden the mic inside his nose... 35 Mike Lamb Sep 30, 2016 * 11:48:56am down 0 up report [Embedded content] [Embedded content] Hold on...I've almost finished...watching the "Machado" tape...ok...there, done. Who is this again? 36 gocart mozart Sep 30, 2016 * 11:49:35am down 5 up report @realDonaldTrump Mr. Trump, will Ivanka be FLOTUS? pic.twitter.com/fl9NO2tnqt 37 lawhawk Sep 30, 2016 * 11:50:17am down 3 up report . @realdonaldtrump 's 3am tweets - the sound of one hand tweeting about former Miss U, sex tapes (not involving Miss U), and sleep deprivation 38 allegro Sep 30, 2016 * 11:50:18am down 7 up report Yeah, they probably kept trying to adjust his audio to filter out his annoying breathing... I had no trouble at all hearing his every nonsensical and nasty interruption and utterance. And cocaine sniffing. A lot of that. 39 mr.fusion Sep 30, 2016 * 11:51:06am down 3 up report re: #36 gocart mozart That photo of a teen Ivanka and Donald Trump is disturbing every time I see it. 41 Charles Johnson Sep 30, 2016 * 11:54:54am down 5 up report Automatic blocking function: activated. pic.twitter.com/e4Fw3lVYHJ 44 Kragar Sep 30, 2016 * 11:56:17am down 19 up report Hate to say "I called it exactly three years ago," but, well... pic.twitter.com/LsmZqCt2Cl 45 CuriousLurker Sep 30, 2016 * 11:56:24am down 7 up report I just noticed that Thanos did a page on this , so if you're going to tweet it you might want to do it from there. Alabama: 'Ten Commandments judge' suspended for rest of term for defying federal judiciary over #SSM : https://t.co/WYiMcK1PNO #p2 #tiot re: #28 Dr. Matt Commission on Presidential Debates releases statement on Trump mic, says there were "issues" with Trump's audio that affected sound level The audio was only affected inside the hall, not in the TV broadcast to 81 million people. Hillary's Tweetstorm==> 48 FormerDirtDart Sep 30, 2016 * 11:58:32am down 0 up report Commission on Presidential Debates: "...there were issues regarding Donald Trump's audio that affected the sound level in the debate hall." re: #46 Charles Johnson The audio was only affected inside the hall, not in the TV broadcast to 81 million people. Exactly. But, Trump and his deplorables will use it as "fact" that the debates were rigged. 50 Nyet Sep 30, 2016 * 11:59:34am down 0 up report re: #26 Charles Johnson He's watching random sex tapes at 3 AM. 51 FormerDirtDart Sep 30, 2016 * 11:59:34am down 18 up report Supporters of the Republican nominee for President of the United States are sending me PornHub links in an effort to back up his 3 AM tweet. Deplorable Trumporrhoids think the Stubby Fingered Fascist's Midnight Tweets are Teh Awesomesauce! @ProgsToday @gatewaypundit Not afraid to get his hands dirty and not hide behind expendable trolls. re: #52 The Vicious Babushka He has the Russian troll army working for him tho. 54 Dr. Matt Sep 30, 2016 * 12:01:51pm down 11 up report Rush chimes in about Trump's all night coke bender tweetstorm: Tweeting out about this woman, this Alicia Machado babe , even at 3:00 this morning, while other issues are much more important, the issues that frame and define Hillary Clinton as unqualified and unfit and as corrupt. And they wish Trump would stop this. Too many other things, it's getting too close to the election to be side-tracked by all of this. And especially, this Alicia Machado thing is a set up. It was a fix that has been in and has been planned by the Clinton campaign for a long time, just like Sandra Fluke was. Talk about an acrobatic feat to conflate Machado and Sandra Fluke. Wow. Impressive. 55 Nyet Sep 30, 2016 * 12:02:56pm down 2 up report Trump could be our Chavez Ouch. This one draws blood. 56 Sir John Barron Sep 30, 2016 * 12:03:49pm down 1 up report re: #54 Dr. Matt Rush chimes in about Trump's all night coke bender tweetstorm: Talk about an acrobatic feat to conflate Machado and Sandra Fluke. Wow. Impressive. I don't even know what Rusty is trying to say here, Trump should tweet at 3 am about Machado, he should not, other important issues, a set up. Rusty sounds coked up. 57 Kilroy01 Sep 30, 2016 * 12:04:07pm down 4 up report Russian Troll Army ready for duty 58 Sir John Barron Sep 30, 2016 * 12:04:16pm down 0 up report [Embedded content] Can "Machado Meltdown" be the name of any time a man loses it because other people point out he's be a misogynist? 60 Sir John Barron Sep 30, 2016 * 12:05:22pm down 1 up report I am not Chavez, OK. Chavez died, I do not die, believe me. 61 CuriousLurker Sep 30, 2016 * 12:06:46pm down 8 up report re: #52 The Vicious Babushka RT from @EditorialTime 's timeline, right before I blocked them: Unbelievable: @HillaryClinton is considering @LorettaLynch for the Supreme Court.This is why Americans think the system is rigged. pic.twitter.com/tZMqSwJnaO Didn't the GOP say they'd refuse to even discuss Merrick Garland because whoever the people choose to be the next POTUS should have some say in it? Excuse me while I... 62 Dr. Matt Sep 30, 2016 * 12:06:51pm down 9 up report 63 Anymouse Sep 30, 2016 * 12:07:51pm down 11 up report Mr. Jim Wright at Stonekettle weighs in on the hypocrisy of people like Newt Gingrich and his revolving door of wives, Donald Trump claiming he was showing "restraint" for not bringing up Bill Clinton's peccadillo in the White House, and Mr. Trump's attacks on Alicia Machado. Newton Leroy Gingrich, a man who married his high school geometry teacher when he was 18 (and really, no creepy factor there, right, Conservatives? Nooo), then cheated on her (while she was in the hospital recovering from cancer) with the woman who would become his second wife. Then cheated on his second wife with his third wife - while at the same time attempting to impeach Bill Clinton for lying about having an extramarital affair. All of which, somehow says something bad about Hillary Clinton's character, I guess. Apparently. Nothing to see here, move along, move along. This tactic was so successful for Newt that it got him booted from office and made Bill Clinton into one of the most popular presidents in recent history. But, yeah, Trump should listen to this guy, because Newt, he's what Republicans nowadays consider an intellectual. And in to further cement his intellectual credentials, Newt just had to weigh in on fat chicks. Last night during the annual Republican Spirit of Lincoln Dinner, SPIRIT OF LINCOLN DINNER BAWAHAHAH ... The whole article is at the link above. As usual, Mr. Wright nails the hypocrisy of this bizarre week that started with the debate. 64 Skip Intro Sep 30, 2016 * 12:08:28pm down 11 up report re: #56 Sir John Barron I don't even know what Rusty is trying to say here, Trump should tweet at 3 am about Machado, he should not, other important issues, a set up. Rusty sounds coked up. Sounds like the obese, thrice divorced narcotics addict is blaming Hillary for his attacks on Sandra Fluke that cost him his advertisers. So much personal responsibility in the GOP. 65 Anymouse Sep 30, 2016 * 12:09:01pm down 3 up report Can "Machado Meltdown" be the name of any time a man loses it because other people point out he's be a misogynist? Or the name of a ska-country fusion band. 66 Nyet Sep 30, 2016 * 12:09:35pm down 0 up report 67 makeitstop Sep 30, 2016 * 12:10:19pm down 3 up report [Embedded content] What a pig he is. His crash and burn will be a very welcome sight. 68 Eclectic Cyborg Sep 30, 2016 * 12:11:10pm down 0 up report 69 Dr. Matt Sep 30, 2016 * 12:11:28pm down 8 up report 70 Nyet Sep 30, 2016 * 12:12:27pm down 2 up report 71 Stanley Sea Sep 30, 2016 * 12:12:55pm down 24 up report These adorable baby pandas just made their world debut: https://t.co/ovrtIh3U9W pic.twitter.com/phYl969Npw 72 Skip Intro Sep 30, 2016 * 12:13:42pm down 3 up report Trumpy's going to keep his lawyers busy after the election suing people who want to remove his brand from their properties. I imagine that by now the value of his brand is zero, if not negative. I wonder when Ivanka will start using her husband's last name? Maybe the two psycho sons will go back to Drumpf. 73 Dr. Matt Sep 30, 2016 * 12:14:18pm down 12 up report This needs to be tweeted out over and over and over..... 74 Nyet Sep 30, 2016 * 12:16:02pm down 8 up report Well, that's quite a pandemonium. 75 Sir John Barron Sep 30, 2016 * 12:19:57pm down 2 up report re: #73 Dr. Matt This needs to be tweeted out over and over and over..... [Embedded content] 76 gocart mozart Sep 30, 2016 * 12:20:02pm down 7 up report "Check out sex tape" pic.twitter.com/UEmf0f6XkN 77 Dr. Matt Sep 30, 2016 * 12:20:29pm down 7 up report RT from @EditorialTime 's timeline, right before I blocked them: [Embedded content] I want to see Hillary appoint Justice Michelle Obama. 79 gocart mozart Sep 30, 2016 * 12:20:47pm down 3 up report RT from @EditorialTime 's timeline, right before I blocked them: [Embedded content] 81 Sir John Barron Sep 30, 2016 * 12:21:40pm down 6 up report re: #78 The Vicious Babushka I want to see Hillary appoint Justice Michelle Obama. and Barack Hussein Obama. And William Jefferson Clinton. 82 Nyet Sep 30, 2016 * 12:22:16pm down 2 up report re: #79 gocart mozart He just can't help falling into Hillary's traps... 83 Nyet Sep 30, 2016 * 12:23:19pm down 5 up report re: #81 Sir John Barron and Barack Hussein Obama. And William Jefferson Clinton. And Stephen Colbert. 84 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 12:23:36pm down 1 up report re: #79 gocart mozart Let's thank Charles for the ability to tweet pictures! That made it easy for me to do that. Thanks, Charles! 85 makeitstop Sep 30, 2016 * 12:24:19pm down 52 up report As some of you might have seen, our older cat passed away suddenly two weeks ago. We took him to the animal hospital to arrange cremation that night, and I got a call that I could pick him up this morning. I got home and looked at the lovely wooden box that his remains are contained in, then noticed another box and opened it. This made me cry like a baby and realize how much I really miss the little guy. It's now on a shelf right above my desk so I can see it and think of him every day. 86 Nyet Sep 30, 2016 * 12:24:31pm down 5 up report Let's thank Charles for the ability to tweet pictures! That made it easy for me to do that. Thanks, Charles! 87 gocart mozart Sep 30, 2016 * 12:24:39pm down 18 up report 88 Charles Johnson Sep 30, 2016 * 12:25:24pm down 7 up report More evidence for my theory that orange eggs are almost always the worst kind of egg. pic.twitter.com/UeUHUpPomQ 89 Backwoods_Sleuth Sep 30, 2016 * 12:26:40pm down 6 up report 90 Tigger2 Sep 30, 2016 * 12:27:24pm down 12 up report Federal court orders new investigation of Wisconsin voter ID law after @thenation exposes systemic failures at DMV https://t.co/3xgqELJPQa 91 Charles Johnson Sep 30, 2016 * 12:27:42pm down 28 up report Update on hacker attack on @Newsweek aftr story posted on Trump breaking Cuba embargo. Lots of IP addresses involved; main ones are Russian. 92 FormerDirtDart Sep 30, 2016 * 12:29:13pm down 11 up report This tape not available at campaign office on South Street, Philadelphia. They closed the door on me when I asked. https://t.co/V9FoaWkxkT Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate? re: #89 Backwoods_Sleuth I'm tearing up right with you. And here I go again. 94 Backwoods_Sleuth Sep 30, 2016 * 12:30:06pm down 3 up report {{hugs}} 95 makeitstop Sep 30, 2016 * 12:30:52pm down 2 up report re: #91 Charles Johnson Update on hacker attack on @Newsweek aftr story posted on Trump breaking Cuba embargo. Lots of IP addresses involved; main ones are Russian. We need another Eichenwald to connect the dots and show the world whose side Trump is really on here. 96 Belafon Sep 30, 2016 * 12:30:52pm down 4 up report Oh, no, Clinton helped someone become a US citizen! What's this world coming to?! *Fainting* 97 Nyet Sep 30, 2016 * 12:31:45pm down 4 up report Why The ADL Is Wrong About Pepe The Frog https://t.co/azHr0NEHWN #Pepe #ADL pic.twitter.com/QVSu5Rpf07 Classic. Daily Caller defends a symbol universally adopted by neo-Nazis and white supremacists. @DailyCaller https://t.co/cPW8xgLamE 99 Belafon Sep 30, 2016 * 12:33:12pm down 16 up report We need another Eichenwald to connect the dots and show the world whose side Trump is really on here. As Thanos points out, Republicans in Congress are blocking the FBI from investigating Trump's Russian connections . One part is that they are butthurt that the FBI didn't find anything they could prosecute Clinton on, but I also believe the lesson they're taking away from Nixon is to not allow Republicans to be investigated. 100 A wild WITHAK appeared! Sep 30, 2016 * 12:33:54pm down 5 up report X/lI/c6GBpcQM48/T1PvoCo2x9pM9ROodHmYBl/kTZcYmUE+Z1z6SNdqtpY3dSgEwBXh8nnhFTdmKtT6mOJsb4dn62ghZoNnK8q8x3qIsD5+n5YCwR+TXNzjUZ4y7N8wty1ARzzmSNZooOnz0xgqFMSTIYWGONBwz/JlagFGdzO2S+fRCjxFTaJZqPWaSQWG6z5hE03hs+41QY1U69p8CWmdF/J15lkoeczXXP4Q6IQ= 101 Nyet Sep 30, 2016 * 12:34:40pm down 2 up report re: #98 Charles Johnson ADL's take was in fact very nuanced: they emphasized that most uses of Pepe are not by neo-Nazis. Something DC doesn't mention. re: #98 Charles Johnson I'm not clicking on The Daily Caller but let me guess. Because "Pepe The Frog" was created by a Latino it therefore doesn't matter if it has been completely co-opted by nazis & kluxxers. 103 Nyet Sep 30, 2016 * 12:36:00pm down 4 up report Meanwhile the 538 stats are still going in the right direction. 104 A wild WITHAK appeared! Sep 30, 2016 * 12:36:19pm down 1 up report As Thanos points out, Republicans in Congress are blocking the FBI from investigating Trump's Russian connections . One part is that they are butthurt that the FBI didn't find anything they could prosecute Clinton on, but I also believe the lesson they're taking away from Nixon is to not allow Republicans to be investigated. I think your link is the wrong one... 105 A wild WITHAK appeared! Sep 30, 2016 * 12:36:52pm down 1 up report So is Sam Wang's model, though it looks like he is more bearish on the chances for the Senate. 106 FormerDirtDart Sep 30, 2016 * 12:36:53pm down 4 up report @anamariecox Seems the Media can be baited w/ a tweet, too. Fewer pieces on the Cuba or Trump Foundation today than expected. (Sad!) 107 Eric The Fruit Bat Sep 30, 2016 * 12:37:09pm down 1 up report 108 A wild WITHAK appeared! Sep 30, 2016 * 12:38:34pm down 5 up report [Embedded content] LOL, the media is pivoting from one really bad Trump story to another really bad Trump story, and apparently it's all because Trump is playing 5D parcheesi. Right. 109 Belafon Sep 30, 2016 * 12:39:14pm down 1 up report re: #104 A wild WITHAK appeared! I think your link is the wrong one... Fixed. Thanks. Copy shortcut didn't seem to want to copy it; I had to open it in a new windows. 110 Tigger2 Sep 30, 2016 * 12:39:56pm down 22 up report @OsborneInk @Kragar_LGF @mattbevin Let's take away their tax except status and see how much they like preaching politics from the pulpit. 111 nines09 Sep 30, 2016 * 12:40:38pm down 2 up report And lest anyone wonder where the heart of the GOP truly lies, listen to the silence on the right. NeverTrump my ass. 112 Nyet Sep 30, 2016 * 12:40:47pm down 0 up report Fixed. Thanks. Copy shortcut didn't seem to want to copy it; I had to open it in a new windows. You've been caught watching the math porn!!1 113 Backwoods_Sleuth Sep 30, 2016 * 12:41:22pm down 15 up report Inside Trump's Machado Rage Spiral https://t.co/Gr5hQ1uOcC via @TPM pic.twitter.com/3aXVwSP40V 114 Kragar Sep 30, 2016 * 12:41:25pm down 14 up report ICYMI: @realDonaldTrump just told the world that he's up at 3AM watching porn and fat-shaming women he doesn't like 115 Charles Johnson Sep 30, 2016 * 12:42:10pm down 3 up report re: #102 The Vicious Babushka I'm not clicking on The Daily Caller but let me guess. Because "Pepe The Frog" was created by a Latino it therefore doesn't matter if it has been completely co-opted by nazis & kluxxers. Worse. He's arguing that the ADL declared it a hate symbol in order to raise money. 116 calochortus Sep 30, 2016 * 12:42:46pm down 2 up report [Embedded content] Hmmm, women having sex is disgusting? Thanks, Trump! 117 Backwoods_Sleuth Sep 30, 2016 * 12:43:26pm down 15 up report GIULIANI says Trump tonight will "demand that President Obama not pardon Hillary Clinton" for any possible legal issues 118 Dr Lizardo Sep 30, 2016 * 12:44:39pm down 2 up report Hmmm, women having sex is disgusting? Thanks, Trump! Actually, Trump probably meant that women having sex with anyone else except him is "disgusting". And I'm pretty sure that's exactly what he thinks. In his mind, he's The Man With The Golden Gun Schlong. 119 Romantic Heretic Sep 30, 2016 * 12:45:03pm down 8 up report More than anything else that the dirtbags who have stolen the title of 'conservative' do, it's their suppression of voting that makes me loathe them. It's one of the cornerstones of democracy, the one freedom that is the foundation to all others. People died, and worse, for that freedom. These scumbags show their true authoritarian beliefs when they suppress the vote. 120 Dr. Lexus Sep 30, 2016 * 12:45:18pm down 2 up report 121 Nyet Sep 30, 2016 * 12:46:29pm down 3 up report re: #118 Dr Lizardo Actually, Trump probably meant that women having sex with anyone else except him is "disgusting". Esp. Ivanka? 122 calochortus Sep 30, 2016 * 12:46:33pm down 2 up report re: #118 Dr Lizardo Actually, Trump probably meant that women having sex with anyone else except him is "disgusting". And I'm pretty sure that's exactly what he thinks. In his mind, he's The Man With The Golden Gun Schlong. I dunno, I'm starting to think he has a very, very unhealthy relationship with his own body. Wanting something that is disgusting and all that. Goes with being a germaphobe. 123 A wild WITHAK appeared! Sep 30, 2016 * 12:46:42pm down 3 up report 124 Kragar Sep 30, 2016 * 12:51:25pm down 13 up report Overweight slob, belligerent, detested by colleagues, sexist, obsessed with "law and order", dresses like shit...Donald Trump is Mitchell. pic.twitter.com/SCm3C0dNxj 125 Tigger2 Sep 30, 2016 * 12:52:15pm down 8 up report Another good polling day for Clinton. This time with live-caller polls too, not just internet/automated. https://t.co/ibi9IiGVlq 126 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 12:53:09pm down 2 up report Trump and his sexual assault lawsuit. Trump is a complete pig! https://t.co/pj0PD21oXp 127 Dr Lizardo Sep 30, 2016 * 12:53:35pm down 3 up report For some reason, that whole weird dynamic reminds of Aguirre, The Wrath of God , the ending of that fine film. "I, the Wrath of God, will marry my own daughter and with her I will found the purest dynasty the world has ever seen. Together, we shall rule this entire continent. We shall endure. I am the Wrath of God! Who else is with me?" 128 calochortus Sep 30, 2016 * 12:53:59pm down 2 up report Predictwise (betting analysis) has Clinton at 77%, Trump at 23%. 129 Jebediah, RBG Sep 30, 2016 * 12:55:16pm down 1 up report So good for the nerves. Hope Ziggy sees this too. 131 makeitstop Sep 30, 2016 * 12:56:34pm down 6 up report [Embedded content] We're gonna have to come up with a different epithet than 'pig.' Pigs are downright lovable compared to this pile of crap. 132 BeachDem Sep 30, 2016 * 12:56:38pm down 5 up report I'm only up to page 58, but he's giving his stump speech over and over in his deposition--he sounds like a complete loon. Which, of course, he is. And also doing his "I know nothing" crap when they ask him anything about details of the lease or the deal or anything remotely business related other than that he's the biggest and bestest businessman evah. 133 Franklin Sep 30, 2016 * 12:57:12pm down 13 up report "DEMAND PRESIDENT OBAMA NOT PARDON HILLARY CLINTON" - LGF Meme Machine -> https://t.co/nzQjI1UTXs via @Green_Footballs pic.twitter.com/eMjHWYM1hu 134 Belafon Sep 30, 2016 * 12:59:30pm down 12 up report Last thread we were going over the NYT piece about millenials. Here's evidence of the crappiness of that article: Polls (DK link). I can't copy the table while I'm at work, but Millenials are the only age group giving more than 50% of their support to Clinton, and by extension, the group with the largest gap between Clinton and the rest of the field. So, the millenials here can enjoy the fact that their group is far more sane than the rest of us. The rest of can yell at the idiotic stories written about millenials. 135 allegro Sep 30, 2016 * 12:59:33pm down 26 up report [Embedded content] I lost my 16 year old spaniel about a month ago. I was fortunate to find a vet (an angel if there ever was one) who provides home end of life pet services including euthanasia. My precious boy felt no fear or discomfort, resting easily on his favorite blankie on our bed. The vet and her assistant were so caring and compassionate, giving us considerable time together to share our last goodbyes here in the privacy of our home. With her help, it was a final loving gift and moving experience. I cannot recommend enough choosing this option when possible - it made a world of difference. Having been through this many times before, I opted to not have his ashes returned or his paw print made, though it was offered. Spreading ashes is, to me, just a repeat of the goodbye and too painful. His picture on my dresser that I see every night and first thing in the morning when I wake is enough to keep him alive in my heart (that's still broken but getting better). I hope for all of us who have lost our dear ones recently that the grief is replaced by joyful memories soon. 136 CuriousLurker Sep 30, 2016 * 12:59:38pm down 18 up report [Embedded content] 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 137 Belafon Sep 30, 2016 * 1:00:23pm down 1 up report re: #132 BeachDem I'm only up to page 58, but he's giving his stump speech over and over in his deposition--he sounds like a complete loon. Which, of course, he is. And also doing his "I know nothing" crap when they ask him anything about details of the lease or the deal or anything remotely business related other than that he's the biggest and bestest businessman evah. "Did you cheat on Ivana?" "I know nothing!" 138 ObserverArt Sep 30, 2016 * 1:00:28pm down 2 up report That photo of a teen Ivanka and Donald Trump is disturbing every time I see it. That probably would get a lot of daughters removed from the home if child protective services saw it. You know, I always thought the guy was pathetic scum, but damn he has gone above and beyond proving it to everyone. And then on top of it...not a lick of remorse. He is so over after this election. Who would do business with him after all this? And it is going to cost the kids too. They are going to be mocked for life. 139 Kragar Sep 30, 2016 * 1:02:33pm down 22 up report Did you remember to factor in that you're a fucking idiot? @mitchellvii [Embedded content] Who the fuck is that guy? 141 Kragar Sep 30, 2016 * 1:05:34pm down 0 up report Some RWNJ radio host in Charlotte 142 dangerman Sep 30, 2016 * 1:06:51pm down 0 up report alex, is that you? 143 CuriousLurker Sep 30, 2016 * 1:06:51pm down 8 up report Spreading ashes is, to me, just a repeat of the goodbye and too painful. This. Everyone at the veterinary clinic I went to was very kind (they even followed up with a card a few weeks later), but when asked if I wanted her ashes I said, "No. The part that made her Layla is gone now--whatever is left is just a shell." His picture on my dresser that I see every night and first thing in the morning when I wake is enough to keep him alive in my heart (that's still broken but getting better). I hope for all of us who have lost our dear ones recently that the grief is replaced by joyful memories soon. I have many, many photos of Layla, but I can't bear to look at them unless I prepare myself beforehand. Even then... *sigh* 144 gocart mozart Sep 30, 2016 * 1:08:52pm down 26 up report okay believe it or not the headline is *not* the funniest thing here... pic.twitter.com/uSrK1X7b6m re: #144 gocart mozart That would be cause for divorce in a fairly large number of cases. 146 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 1:10:04pm down 4 up report re: #140 Blind Frog Belly White Who the fuck is that guy? He's in charge of the Women's Outreach branch of the Trump for POTUS organization. He's the CIO (Conspiracy Information Officer). 147 makeitstop Sep 30, 2016 * 1:10:55pm down 13 up report I lost my 16 year old spaniel about a month ago. I was fortunate to find a vet (an angel if there ever was one) who provides home end of life pet services including euthanasia. My precious boy felt no fear or discomfort, resting easily on his favorite blankie on our bed. The vet and her assistant were so caring and compassionate, giving us considerable time together to share our last goodbyes here in the privacy of our home. With her help, it was a final loving gift and moving experience. I cannot recommend enough choosing this option when possible - it made a world of difference. Having been through this many times before, I opted to not have his ashes returned or his paw print made, though it was offered. Spreading ashes is, to me, just a repeat of the goodbye and too painful. His picture on my dresser that I see every night and first thing in the morning when I wake is enough to keep him alive in my heart (that's still broken but getting better). I hope for all of us who have lost our dear ones recently that the grief is replaced by joyful memories soon. Pippin is the second cat we've lost inside a year - we lost our Zoey on the day after Christmas last year, and he had been very sick for a long time. We felt that rather than prolong his suffering, we'd say our goodbyes and send him over the bridge. It was so difficult, but it was a small comfort that he was no longer an young cat trying to get around in an old cat's body. It was just better to let him go. Pippin was the jokester - a feral who would do everything to cheese me off, but would make me laugh out loud while doing it. I just couldn't get mad at him. But we gave him a good like and he gave us his kitty presence, which brightened an awful lot of days around here. I couldn't have asked for more. 148 Eric The Fruit Bat Sep 30, 2016 * 1:11:22pm down 40 up report @AdamWeinstein And wives of these lunatics breath signs of relief. 150 EPR-radar Sep 30, 2016 * 1:12:08pm down 8 up report re: #144 gocart mozart I'm sure that Mr. Robertson would squeal like a stuck pig at a proposal that US women enact the Lysistrata option vs. Trump-voting or Republican husbands. Just one more way this man is an obnoxious sexist pig. 151 Charles Johnson Sep 30, 2016 * 1:12:45pm down 18 up report @mitchellvii Are you competing with @gatewaypundit for the title of Stupidest Man on the Internet? If so, keep going - you have a real shot. 152 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 1:13:50pm down 18 up report re: #148 Eric The Fruit Bat Having a very old dog who is almost at that stage...that cartoon has me balling my eyes out. 153 CuriousLurker Sep 30, 2016 * 1:14:36pm down 10 up report Having a very old dog who is almost at that stage...that cartoon has me balling my eyes out. Me too, and I don't even have a dog. 154 gocart mozart Sep 30, 2016 * 1:14:44pm down 5 up report Makes sense "Trump" is German for "Amway." https://t.co/mOoBU6dy6v Pippin was a feral that we rescued, and he never had the best hygiene - he depended upon our oldest cat to groom him. Once Zoey was gone, he just kind of went downhill. My wife believes that without Zoey to be his pal, he just kind of gave up. Thank you for the hugs, and hugs back to you. This morning my wife said that cats and dogs shouldn't be allowed to grow old. An impossibility, but one I totally agree with. 156 Backwoods_Sleuth Sep 30, 2016 * 1:16:30pm down 21 up report Hillary Clinton baiting Trump at her FL rally. Says he finds it easier to insult women than to confront the president of Mexico re his wall. 157 allegro Sep 30, 2016 * 1:16:48pm down 12 up report [Embedded content] OK, now I'm sitting outside on my patio blubbering. The concrete guys working on the drive are looking like they don't know whether to ignore me or come give me a hug. 158 plansbandc Sep 30, 2016 * 1:18:15pm down 6 up report It's beautiful but so sad. :( 159 makeitstop Sep 30, 2016 * 1:18:36pm down 5 up report OK, now I'm sitting outside on my patio blubbering. The concrete guys working on the drive are looking like they don't know whether to ignore me or come give me a hug. {{allegro}} 160 Sir John Barron Sep 30, 2016 * 1:19:20pm down 6 up report re: #143 CuriousLurker This. Everyone at the veterinary clinic I went to was very kind (they even followed up with a card a few weeks later), but when asked if I wanted her ashes I said, "No. The part that made her Layla is gone now--whatever is left is just a shell." I have many, many photos of Layla, but I can't bear to look at them unless I prepare myself beforehand. Even then... *sigh* I keep the ashes now. It comforts me somehow. 161 makeitstop Sep 30, 2016 * 1:21:07pm down 5 up report re: #160 Sir John Barron I keep the ashes now. It comforts me somehow. As do we. Two cats, one dog that we've had since being married. Just for the memories, because the memories are good. Hmmm, women having sex is disgusting? Thanks, Trump! I will bet the farm Trump claimed "Prima Nochte" from her and she refused him. That's where this is coming from. 163 Eric The Fruit Bat Sep 30, 2016 * 1:24:03pm down 5 up report re: #148 Eric The Fruit Bat Both my mom's Scottie and my petulant Persian are getting up there...it's just a matter of time for me as well. 164 Jenner7 Sep 30, 2016 * 1:24:17pm down 4 up report My mouth is literally gaped open. Some Trump surrogate is turning herself into a pretzel excusing Trump's actions regarding Alicia Michado. My god. 165 Backwoods_Sleuth Sep 30, 2016 * 1:24:32pm down 5 up report US citizens in Jamaica: Routine consular services suspended October 3, 4; Shelter in place during Hurricane Matthew. forecasters saying it may be upgraded to Category 4 soon. 166 Sir John Barron Sep 30, 2016 * 1:28:12pm down 2 up report As do we. Two cats, one dog that we've had since being married. Just for the memories, because the memories are good. especially helps during the transition, right after the pet's death and in the weeks and months ahead. 167 Ziggy_TARDIS Sep 30, 2016 * 1:28:32pm down 0 up report re: #165 Backwoods_Sleuth Them, Cuba, and Haiti need to duck and cover. Models are discouragingly vague for what happens afterwards. 168 Jenner7 Sep 30, 2016 * 1:28:53pm down 5 up report So Mollie Hemingway can just go on CNN & claim Machado was involved with drug lords and shouldn't have been allowed to become a US citizen. 169 Ziggy_TARDIS Sep 30, 2016 * 1:28:59pm down 3 up report Q/FH/My7xkgguRHnFIAkSGH66+xptxDaDOkZpUTMKSbrQ6YCVxiTiKxecC+OGBkr 170 Tigger2 Sep 30, 2016 * 1:29:23pm down 3 up report [Embedded content] @AdamWeinstein @patrobertson "Wives need to boycott sex with their husbands if they're planning to vote for Trump", see it works both ways 171 allegro Sep 30, 2016 * 1:30:06pm down 14 up report re: #160 Sir John Barron I keep the ashes now. It comforts me somehow. I did that for a long time. Finally after years, numerous pets (dogs, ferrets, birds) and having the ashes of my mom, dad, and my husband included it started to seem creepy and maudlin. A friend took my brother and I out on Galveston Bay on his boat to spread the family ashes and I left the ashes of my "kids" under a tree I planted at our house where we had spent most of our lives together. Damn, I'm blubbering again. 172 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 1:30:12pm down 10 up report It's beautiful but so sad. :( It's especially hard for me since we thought, two days ago, that we had to take that walk. Since we have some pain meds left over, we used them and that has helped a lot. She can walk again. But we are being cautiously optimistic at this point. I hate this part of dog ownership. They all mean the world to us. 173 sagehen Sep 30, 2016 * 1:31:43pm down 11 up report "Bill!" Who can keep a President waiting? Why, another President of course @BarackObama @billclinton @POTUS https://t.co/rPlvoI87xQ 174 makeitstop Sep 30, 2016 * 1:32:07pm down 25 up report "Dogs' lives are short, too short, but you know that going in. You know the pain is coming, you're going to lose a dog, and there's going to be great anguish, so you live fully in the moment with her, never fail to share her joy or delight in her innocence, because you can't support the illusion that a dog can be your lifelong companion. There's such beauty in the hard honesty of that, in accepting and giving love while always aware that it comes with an unbearable price. Maybe loving dogs is a way we do penance for all the other illusions we allow ourselves and the mistakes we make because of those illusions." - Dean Koontz, from The Darkest Evening of the Year 175 CuriousLurker Sep 30, 2016 * 1:33:42pm down 20 up report [Embedded content] 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 176 Tigger2 Sep 30, 2016 * 1:34:44pm down 6 up report [Embedded content] 177 CuriousLurker Sep 30, 2016 * 1:35:17pm down 4 up report re: #160 Sir John Barron I keep the ashes now. It comforts me somehow. Everyone handles grief differently. If it gives you comfort, then I'm glad you chose it. 178 FormerDirtDart Sep 30, 2016 * 1:35:47pm down 21 up report Charles, I think a challenge has been laid down.... Trump's new yard signs... pic.twitter.com/tN1KDXpFJO Donald Trump, when that critical 3AM call comes #tcot #UniteBlue #AliciaMachado pic.twitter.com/rCXmrdh92q 180 sagehen Sep 30, 2016 * 1:36:58pm down 17 up report THREE PEOPLE WITH ENOUGH WIVES TO FIELD A BASEBALL TEAM: "We're worried about Clinton's respect for traditional values" https://t.co/oowIQMvuuU 182 Stanley Sea Sep 30, 2016 * 1:39:32pm down 11 up report I am crying ya'll, 183 ObserverArt Sep 30, 2016 * 1:40:56pm down 0 up report Who the fuck is that guy? A fucking idiot! 184 Stanley Sea Sep 30, 2016 * 1:42:11pm down 0 up report My mouth is literally gaped open. Some Trump surrogate is turning herself into a pretzel excusing Trump's actions regarding Alicia Michado. My god. Was it the Huckabee spawn? That's what I just watched on CNN. 185 makeitstop Sep 30, 2016 * 1:44:12pm down 15 up report re: #182 Stanley Sea I think we're having a big LGF crying jag, and I feel kinda responsible for it. Don't mind me. It's a dreary day here in NY, and I'm feeling nostalgic. Good to have a community to share it with, though. Thank you all. 186 FormerDirtDart Sep 30, 2016 * 1:45:03pm down 0 up report I think it loses something in the smaller point-sizing 187 Great White Snark Sep 30, 2016 * 1:45:19pm down 6 up report 4AY48aU9qKfzC2d6LfhySwuKYy9OPDXY00AkD55HFlWaXKfdwZ4hynX7Rh/DnK6K0lJj1GB5RIPLl45GzIpVeQ4zpwAbgdennJZTc3QU3SHsWbetaxKSXX35b/B7NQtGIXpwThJbxUbAHQL6JimmF4BJoqrDtZNiOxF5TJzsWqqbZTheMc5PQUJQ+CtRbbZbAwkhWRgJ57hpEz44WBog004tfJT4Uwu8jEuJv0rdK2pZyytW5X+4XE1vfWGBcICsyBeCYOK2lR/sNiqbRX5yDV0X4IdOSrWWgdq5Nn/oF61SqAuIZ2gC/vdxorUDZflWN9TeZoXy/6iyYGfXZvF24y7bvDpVnDoe 188 Jenner7 Sep 30, 2016 * 1:45:43pm down 1 up report re: #184 Stanley Sea It was Mollie something, from The Federalist. So, not a surrogate, but she sounded like one. 189 De Kolta Chair Sep 30, 2016 * 1:46:23pm down 12 up report If it's Friday it must mean a TV's Frank twofer: Trump thinks doing a sex tape makes you disgusting but being a proven sexual harasser like Roger Ailes makes you a friend and top advisor. Too bad Screw Magazine isn't still around, because it would have been Trump's first major newspaper endorsement. It was Mollie something, from The Federalist. So, not a surrogate, but she sounded like one. Got it, I tuned that person out. 191 Dr. Matt Sep 30, 2016 * 1:47:35pm down 3 up report 192 ObserverArt Sep 30, 2016 * 1:47:40pm down 10 up report [Embedded content] Damn. This has been a tough thread to read with all the pet love...and that did me in. I'm not a pet owner, but I have always been close to my friends animal friends and this spring and summer my dog trainer buddy has lost his last two remaining dogs who many times I pet sat for. So, I certainly understand the feelings. You're all good people for having the love you have for your buddies. Sniff. 193 gocart mozart Sep 30, 2016 * 1:48:37pm down 8 up report The Crosbyfication of @daveweigel is going as planned. We have entered Phase IV. pic.twitter.com/vQJHEjP1M8 194 makeitstop Sep 30, 2016 * 1:49:58pm down 0 up report The best part is that we didn't request it, it just showed up. I'm going to request it in the future, though. I never even knew that they offered it. Thank Manksy for me. :) 195 gocart mozart Sep 30, 2016 * 1:51:32pm down 9 up report This is the best thing ever. "Bill!" Who can keep a President waiting? Why, another President of course @BarackObama @billclinton @POTUS https://t.co/rPlvoI87xQ [Embedded content] wTkKeSwk3jofB5Xx7R+qP69LxlETEAQ7a54lVdff+8mOPdOJMA9uZptKvUKxAWV6ZDTec/w3mKMBKBrU+NTKGOQg7qEoOG31voezIq99IRRbVCSRVLRKd/di+Q2R5N3UkSYIW0Q7HAk3LW58CpkIdwVw2iLnk3jkE6ZFsBKl8pp/AKhkcNOipzhq32qmTip6tf/RI7arcFFQppwJ/8vvhbisEyrJb9MeNQS/6Ad62VOPJLDDO6BP80j+6ZPgNZq9UuWkBx99zC20Dh6RU77XFptd8tKEK/orKGDYORDPKtw+0ayuvIJzEA4oQTBKHwTdwhwGo4bS+zClMC+qvsmb/wYaYnhIe6SV5CQjX+tM5aE= 197 Eric The Fruit Bat Sep 30, 2016 * 1:56:29pm down 9 up report re: #185 makeitstop I think we're having a big LGF crying jag, and I feel kinda responsible for it. I'll gladly take the blame for posting that tear-jerking cartoon that I ran across on Ritholtz's blog a day after he had to put his beloved Maxmillion down last year. 198 FormerDirtDart Sep 30, 2016 * 1:56:40pm down 11 up report 199 nines09 Sep 30, 2016 * 1:57:46pm down 2 up report He's way off. It was a tiny chip transponder in her left frontal lobe, that was actively supported by 18 people with lightning fast internet servers. AND... A "heads up" screen in her head that also gave answers and text. Simple! 200 FormerDirtDart Sep 30, 2016 * 1:58:09pm down 0 up report re: #193 gocart mozart I saw someone tweet that he looked like he was on the cast of Narcos 201 CuriousLurker Sep 30, 2016 * 1:59:28pm down 20 up report I have to go do some end-of-month paperwork for my job, but I'll leave you all with this, which is one of my favorite poems because it says so much with so few words: Separation ---------- Your absence has gone through me Like thread through a needle. Everything I do is stitched with its color. --W. S. Merwin 202 De Kolta Chair Sep 30, 2016 * 1:59:31pm down 12 up report He was my generation's Francis Scott Key Richard D. Trentlage, 87, Who Wrote 'The Oscar Mayer Wiener Song,' Dies https://t.co/KTUpcqGrWP This giant panda cub took a tumble from the stage at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China. Luckily, the distance wasn't too big Photo: China Daily/Reuters 204 Targetpractice Sep 30, 2016 * 2:00:59pm down 7 up report I'm loving the cognitive dissonance among wingnuts: "Hillary was so wrong to go after all those women who made allegations about Bill, but any woman who makes an allegation against Trump is a lying bitch who probably made money doing pornos!" The saddest part? I'm hearing this shit mostly from female wingnuts. Where's that fucking meteor?! 205 ObserverArt Sep 30, 2016 * 2:04:57pm down 8 up report Do any of these Trump supporters realize they are just solidifying how horrible Trump is by being just as disgusting? Damn what a ship of fools. 206 dangerman Sep 30, 2016 * 2:06:15pm down 2 up report Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Trump adviser, complained on CNN that the media kept asking about the matter, even when host Carol Costello pointed out that Trump was the one helping to keep it in the news. "He's made it very clear when he's attacked, he is going to respond, and that's what he's doing today," Sanders said. "But again, I think the media can easily change the narrative of this race. Let's talk about the things that Americans care about." you know, all those things that everyone says *should* have been brought up in debate: emails, benghazi, and monica 207 The Vicious Babushka Sep 30, 2016 * 2:06:18pm down 16 up report 208 (((The Engineer Lobuno))) Sep 30, 2016 * 2:06:50pm down 6 up report Having a very old dog who is almost at that stage...that cartoon has me balling my eyes out. I don't have a pet (currently), and my eyes are more than misty... 209 (((The Engineer Lobuno))) Sep 30, 2016 * 2:07:54pm down 3 up report 210 Charles Johnson Sep 30, 2016 * 2:09:10pm down 7 up report Thanks for sharing that link to a blog I've never heard of, guy with "Alt-Right" & "Killary" & "MAGA" in your bio. But I think I'll pass. 211 Backwoods_Sleuth Sep 30, 2016 * 2:09:16pm down 4 up report Hurricane #Matthew now Category 4! Max wind 140mph (up 40mph in 12 hr) Min Pres 949mb (down 30mb in 12 hr) Latest at https://t.co/2xMTnC68op pic.twitter.com/GB61Iu9rRK 212 gocart mozart Sep 30, 2016 * 2:10:00pm down 10 up report Nope, @realDonaldTrump : the only things that keep your mind racing at night are your next racist, sexist tweets & disgusting lies. Deplorable Exhibit # 1,455,106 Jimmy Marr, the Trump supporter who drives a truck emblazoned "Trump: Do the White Thing" messages, was arrested for disorderly conduct, station KATU reported. Police charged that Marr had put a hate message on continuous loop. Marr installed a large speaker on top of his building. The speaker piped out the message at a group that was rallying against hate crime in a nearby park. Approximately 30 people lodged a complaint against the noise. 214 Ziggy_TARDIS Sep 30, 2016 * 2:11:52pm down 0 up report re: #211 Backwoods_Sleuth Hurricane #Matthew now Category 4! Max wind 140mph (up 40mph in 12 hr) Min Pres 949mb (down 30mb in 12 hr) Latest at nhc.noaa.gov pic.twitter.com With a name like "Matthew", I wouldn't expect anything less. 216 goddamnedfrank Sep 30, 2016 * 2:13:23pm down 11 up report This has literally been the Trump campaign's only response to the revelation that they weren't licensed to solicit or accept donations from others. Trump adviser Boris Epshtyn on CNN trying to claim that only a lawyer, not a reporter like @Fahrenthold , should talk about Trump Foundation 217 allegro Sep 30, 2016 * 2:13:40pm down 2 up report [Embedded content] That sucker better turn north (and out to sea preferably). If it heads into the Gulf I will be testy. 218 danarchy Sep 30, 2016 * 2:15:13pm down 4 up report re: #208 (((The Engineer Lobuno))) I don't have a pet (currently), and my eyes are more than misty... Yeah, my furry friend is only seven, so if the universe is kind I still have some time with her, but just thinking about it has me tearing up. Think I'll order mexican takeout for dinner and binge watch Luke Cage on netflix to make it all better. 219 Charles Johnson Sep 30, 2016 * 2:15:18pm down 13 up report When you check in with Twitter and see there's a story involving Newt Gingrich, Donald Trump, a former Miss Universe, AND Benghazi pic.twitter.com/WjiuCYojDC 220 ObserverArt Sep 30, 2016 * 2:16:55pm down 1 up report This has literally been the Trump campaign's only response to the revelation that they weren't licensed to solicit or accept donations from others. [Embedded content] [Embedded content] If I was the owner of a yuuuge farm, I'd hire Boris as my manure spreader. It doesn't even need to be sun dried, he can go fresh! 221 Targetpractice Sep 30, 2016 * 2:17:17pm down 2 up report This has literally been the Trump campaign's only response to the revelation that they weren't licensed to solicit or accept donations from others. [Embedded content] [Embedded content] A standard that has not stopped Mr. Trump or any member of his campaign from endlessly opining about the Clinton Foundation or her email server. 222 gocart mozart Sep 30, 2016 * 2:18:05pm down 1 up report The full Mary J. Blige/Hillary interview is now live: https://t.co/b1g63CZttt Trump surrogates reduced to repeating this lame shit==> Who, as Sec of State, couldn't be bothered to get up at 3am when our guys were being murdered in Benghazi? https://t.co/LFPhNIZR7l 224 allegro Sep 30, 2016 * 2:19:57pm down 1 up report Yeah, my furry friend is only seven, so if the universe is kind I still have some time with her, but just thinking about it has me tearing up. Think I'll order mexican takeout for dinner and binge watch Luke Cage on netflix to make it all better. I'm having a patio dinner party this evening to celebrate our first day of not-hot outside. (I'll celebrate most anything and it's an excuse to pig on yummy nosh. And wine, lots of wine.) Got Luke Cage on my planner to binge tomorrow. Whee! 225 dangerman Sep 30, 2016 * 2:21:08pm down 5 up report have y'all seen this: "Imagine a woman who showed up [to a presidential debate] unprepared, sniffling like a coke addict and interrupting her opponent 70 times. Let's further imagine that she had 5 kids by 3 men, was a repeated adulterer, had multiple bankruptcies, paid zero federal taxes and rooted for the housing crisis in which many thousands of families lost their homes. Wait... there's more: she has never held any elected office in her life." -Michelle Vitali 226 Backwoods_Sleuth Sep 30, 2016 * 2:21:23pm down 20 up report It's pretty telling that Donald Trump thinks the problem with his sexist tweets is the time that they were sent. https://t.co/jF09wLSwao Wow look at all the white people where he will make another appeal to "African Americans" Donald Trump is speaking at a rally in Novi, Michigan. Watch on @CNNgo : https://t.co/UYpqI3w42L pic.twitter.com/lE4PTItgmK 228 gocart mozart Sep 30, 2016 * 2:22:58pm down 8 up report Howard Dean Directly Blames Mainstream Media For Trump | Crooks and Liars https://t.co/Tj6Xe7eYHu TOTALLY! Delete your networks 229 Backwoods_Sleuth Sep 30, 2016 * 2:26:29pm down 6 up report re: #227 The Vicious Babushka Wow look at all the white people where he will make another appeal to "African Americans" [Embedded content] [Embedded content] There's a priest, imam, and rabbi standing behind Trump at the rally in Novi, MI. You think they're planted? 230 Khal Wimpo (no longer entitled to his own facts) Sep 30, 2016 * 2:28:31pm down 3 up report Warning: possibly lifeless horse flogging to commence in this comment. Responding to a question from MsJ about the whole "Trump is demented-no, seriously, as in medically demented" -- about whether I've done a compare/contrast between Trump in his 80s/90s heyday, and Trump now ... yes I have. (Text of reply to MsJ's polite and very thoughtful question copied below) Going back to the - admittedly limited - archive of things from the 80s, he showed no signs of the volatility, repetition and meandering that now mark his public appearances. Then again, most of his video appearances from that epoch were scripted. Then again again, most of his appearances these days are scripted as well. He just lacks the self-control to stick to the script. Check out the faster pace of his sentences. And yeah, he jumps from subject to subject, but there *is* a throughline there, and the sentences come out in an order that has a beginning-middle-end. Nothing there about a 10-year-old kid who is great with his Apple IIc, or a 400-lb person on a bed, or Rosie O'Donnell (or the 80s equivalent, which would be Ruth Buzzi). 231 gocart mozart Sep 30, 2016 * 2:28:58pm down 11 up report He thinks females are objects. He is a serial adulterer who uses women as trophies & props. He's an insecure loud-mouthed racist misogynist. pic.twitter.com/Ki3uJp6ETa 232 gocart mozart Sep 30, 2016 * 2:30:14pm down 12 up report "I'm not sure anyone's more qualified than @HillaryClinton to be President of the United States," @GovBillWeld tells @chucktodd . 233 allegro Sep 30, 2016 * 2:30:42pm down 6 up report re: #229 Backwoods_Sleuth There's a priest, imam, and rabbi standing behind Trump at the rally in Novi, MI. You think they're planted? Maybe not, but there's gotta be a punchline. 234 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 2:31:01pm down 12 up report [Embedded content] [Embedded content] I think Weld wants off that ticket bad. Johnson's been beclowning himself a lot lately. 235 Backwoods_Sleuth Sep 30, 2016 * 2:32:49pm down 4 up report Donald Trump is such a liar he is in Novi Michigan I lived in Michigan and there is no place in Novi that would hold 20,000 people 236 Backwoods_Sleuth Sep 30, 2016 * 2:33:33pm down 4 up report @cnnbrk Trump's imaginary crowd numbers keep rising each time he states them at his Novi, Michigan rally. #bullshitartist 237 goddamnedfrank Sep 30, 2016 * 2:33:49pm down 11 up report Trump surrogate Jack Kingston on @msnbc : "The reality is what goes on on Twitter is not the campaign message." TRANSLATION: Our candidate is an undisciplined shit-gibbon, entirely beyond our ability to reason with, educate or control. https://t.co/gjBiiE2ufY re: #229 Backwoods_Sleuth Who is the Imam, so I know who NOT to listen to. 239 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 2:35:07pm down 1 up report [Embedded content] Endless excuses for the shit gibbon. 240 austin_blue Sep 30, 2016 * 2:36:34pm down 0 up report re: #215 Dr. Matt With a name like "Matthew", I wouldn't expect anything less. you're a baaaaaaaad man! 241 FormerDirtDart Sep 30, 2016 * 2:37:23pm down 8 up report Libertarian Party Vice Presidential Candidate William Floyd "Bill" Weld... "I'm not sure anyone's more qualified to be POTUS than Hillary Clinton." -Bill Weld to @chucktodd just now. Lies like a rug Trump claims, "I'm spending $100 million," on his campaign. 243 EPR-radar Sep 30, 2016 * 2:38:02pm down 4 up report I think Weld wants off that ticket bad. Johnson's been beclowning himself a lot lately. I haven't been following Johnson closely, but he must be bad to be significantly worse than generic libertarians. After all, generic libertarians are at least 3/4 of the way to a full beclowning at all times. 244 Targetpractice Sep 30, 2016 * 2:38:14pm down 4 up report [Embedded content] Yeah, I'm sure foreign leaders will take seriously the argument that what the president belches out on Twitter at 3am does not reflect the position of the Office of the President. 245 Ziggy_TARDIS Sep 30, 2016 * 2:38:24pm down 1 up report Bernstein said something earlier about Weld. Considering how idiotic Johnson is, maybe Weld is going to abandon ship to save himself. 246 Backwoods_Sleuth Sep 30, 2016 * 2:39:07pm down 4 up report Trump: "If you're not gonna make it, if you'll be gone by the end of November. I don't give a damn, show up and vote on November 8th." 247 Pawn of the Oppressor Sep 30, 2016 * 2:40:18pm down 5 up report There's a priest, imam, and rabbi standing behind Trump at the rally in Novi, MI. You think they're planted? Maybe not, but there's gotta be a punchline. Tonight's special guests, Father Chris T. Crackers, Rabbi Iceberg, and Imam Sheikh Yerbouti. THEY ARE ALL REAL PEOPLE, THE BEST GUYS, I ASSURE YOU 248 Jenner7 Sep 30, 2016 * 2:40:29pm down 2 up report Jeebus, he's screaming in the mic. 249 Jenner7 Sep 30, 2016 * 2:42:09pm down 2 up report He asks Obama to pledge not to pardon Hillary. 250 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 2:42:30pm down 1 up report Speaking of Republicans and Clinton. I read John Warner's endorsement of her. It's a strong endorsement. Talks about how when both were on the Armed Forces committee that she was respectful and notes very strongly that the Republican ticket is not. This is a funny election for us in Virginia. We got a former senator in Warner and governor in Holton (Tim Kaine's father in law) backing Clinton and Jim Webb's former chief adviser Dave Saunders endorsing Trump and Webb while he has not endorsed either seems more empathetic to Trump than Clinton. I've always respected former senator Warner for his independence. We're talking about a man who voted against Robert Bork's confirmation for the Supreme Court, opposed Ollie North's run for Senate, and never towed the so-con line. 251 FormerDirtDart Sep 30, 2016 * 2:42:43pm down 10 up report . @ScottAdamsSays I was drowning at the public pool and the liberal lifeguard wouldn't rescue me until I said Benghazi was good. [Embedded content] Someone get Scott a wahbulance. 253 Jenner7 Sep 30, 2016 * 2:43:25pm down 2 up report He's re-litigating Bill Clinton "scandals". lol 254 goddamnedfrank Sep 30, 2016 * 2:43:41pm down 4 up report 255 Targetpractice Sep 30, 2016 * 2:43:47pm down 5 up report He asks Obama to pledge not to pardon Hillary. Says the guy whose legal troubles are growing by the day. 256 Khal Wimpo (no longer entitled to his own facts) Sep 30, 2016 * 2:44:21pm down 8 up report re: #100 A wild WITHAK appeared! [Embedded content] 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 257 Targetpractice Sep 30, 2016 * 2:44:39pm down 4 up report [Embedded content] But how can that be, when we've been assured again and again that the debate wouldn't change anybody's mind? 258 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 2:44:48pm down 2 up report 259 Jenner7 Sep 30, 2016 * 2:45:03pm down 5 up report Don't you have to be convicted of a crime to be pardoned? 260 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 2:45:23pm down 1 up report But how can that be, when we've been assured again and again that the debate wouldn't change anybody's mind? I think a lot of people realized "Oh holy shit, THAT guy may become president." 261 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 2:46:03pm down 1 up report Don't you have to be convicted of a crime to be pardoned? No, Nixon wasn't convicted of anything when Ford pardoned him. That said, most pardons are of people who have been convicted of things. 262 Targetpractice Sep 30, 2016 * 2:46:18pm down 5 up report I think a lot of people realized "Oh holy shit, THAT guy may become president." The debate seems to be having much the same effect as the RNC did: Reminding millions of Americans of just how fucking insane Trump really is. 263 Jenner7 Sep 30, 2016 * 2:46:30pm down 9 up report I really think going after Bill Clinton will work for Trump. 264 dangerman Sep 30, 2016 * 2:47:11pm down 2 up report Don't you have to be convicted of a crime to be pardoned? 265 Timothy Watson Sep 30, 2016 * 2:49:07pm down 22 up report S4glohkDAkIyknfHT49cgSSMfj6jZpJfmBLHpwvq4BN/ksInTuC1yAUKZWyndvqlOfs8/7jGxBtDYU3334aklU7LahDWC5Tg8ajQwxz2ODJNfA+j0zPyLJkmquzKZATSAVCUpI6zytEvaW+NT+hrp8uFGUa/UcWx 266 GlutenFreeJesus Sep 30, 2016 * 2:49:31pm down 5 up report re: #227 The Vicious Babushka Wow look at all the white people where he will make another appeal to "African Americans" [Embedded content] Remember however that when one accepts a pardon it is legally considered an admission of guilt ( Burdick v. United States ) 268 Skip Intro Sep 30, 2016 * 2:50:31pm down 1 up report re: #202 De Kolta Chair He was my generation's Francis Scott Key [Embedded content] That's the song we ought to be singing at ball parks. 269 mr.fusion Sep 30, 2016 * 2:50:50pm down 8 up report The freaking irony: "BuzzFeed News obtained the footage from online-only Buffalo, New York-based adult video store, Cinema Cornucopia." https://t.co/kSgXrml5Yq 270 Barefoot Grin Sep 30, 2016 * 2:50:53pm down 4 up report If you feel the need for a good cry, listen to act one of a recent "This American Life" about people in the Tohoku region of Japan using a defunct telephone in a telephone box in a man's garden to call their dead and missing family from the 3.11 tsunami and earthquake. 272 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 2:52:46pm down 2 up report Seems to me that Trump is the one getting October surprised. 273 FormerDirtDart Sep 30, 2016 * 2:52:48pm down 16 up report Kinda fun Trump called Machado "disgusting" for reality TV sex, but appeared (benignly) in a 2000 Playboy porn video https://t.co/kSgXrml5Yq pic.twitter.com/8bUjLxqZ0e [Embedded content] I hope Clinton brings that up at the next debate just for the look on his face. 276 gocart mozart Sep 30, 2016 * 2:55:13pm down 2 up report Curious how much Trump makes in residuals off his appearance in a porn movie https://t.co/mEHvgQG5DN 277 Backwoods_Sleuth Sep 30, 2016 * 2:55:14pm down 9 up report "Michigan can't afford a president who ... chooses to make his suits and ties in China & Mexico." - @RonBieberMI https://t.co/Z5TE3HQ8iQ 278 Jenner7 Sep 30, 2016 * 2:55:22pm down 2 up report Hillary wants to give the internet away... 279 FormerDirtDart Sep 30, 2016 * 2:55:25pm down 2 up report Hillary wants to give the internet away... The fuck does that even mean. 281 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 2:57:07pm down 1 up report Leave it to Trump though to expose the blanket hypocrisy of family values conservatives though. Of course, when he does lose, they're going to act like they wanted nothing to do with him because they've got no sense of actual moral integrity just like him. 282 darthstar Sep 30, 2016 * 2:57:52pm down 15 up report @BillinPortland I'm still on the f-f-f-fiiiiiirst one. 283 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 2:58:08pm down 2 up report [Embedded content] [Embedded content] I'm hoping this is something that he's hit on in states like Michigan. He's made himself out to be "NAFTA is the worst deal in American history" yet he's had a lot of his clothing manufactured in Mexico. 284 The Vicious Babushka Sep 30, 2016 * 2:58:47pm down 12 up report Only person suggesting moving jobs out of Michigan is @realdonaldtrump #factcheck #Trump #1uvote https://t.co/NS8pbGuFji Trump's Great Jobs Plan: Move jobs OUT of Michigan! https://t.co/sAEctZy1oW #tcot #UniteBlue pic.twitter.com/ohMRehE4Vi 286 Jenner7 Sep 30, 2016 * 3:01:37pm down 6 up report Trump: Working that microphone was a heck of a lot more difficult than working Crooked Hillary Clinton 287 The Vicious Babushka Sep 30, 2016 * 3:02:23pm down 9 up report 288 FormerDirtDart Sep 30, 2016 * 3:02:43pm down 7 up report White House wants to add new racial category for Middle Eastern people. @gregorykorte scores again! https://t.co/3EIdpY7NrY "...Under the proposal, the new Middle East and North African designation -- or MENA, as it's called by population scholars -- is broader in concept than Arab (an ethnicity) or Muslim (a religion). It would include anyone from a region of the world stretching from Morocco to Iran, and including Syrian and Coptic Christians, Israeli Jews and other religious minorities..." "...Under current law, people from the Middle East are considered white, the legacy of century-old court rulings in which Syrian Americans argued that they should not be considered Asian -- because that designation would deny them citizenship under the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. But scholars and community leaders say more and more people with their roots in the Middle East find themselves caught between white, black and Asian classifications that don't fully reflect their identities..." 289 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 3:03:46pm down 0 up report re: #287 The Vicious Babushka [Embedded content] I've said it before but man does he whine a lot. 290 Eric The Fruit Bat Sep 30, 2016 * 3:04:15pm down 2 up report I feel like description from @maggieNYT does not quite capture the full flavor of Trump's remarks. pic.twitter.com/B8TXkQNpOk 291 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 3:04:15pm down 0 up report [Embedded content] Wait so under this new law Zedushka is MENA (his grandfather was Palestinian Jew) but I am white? We're biracial? What does that make our kids? 293 Joe Bacon Sep 30, 2016 * 3:05:43pm down 5 up report @mitchellvii How much coke did you snort to come up with that bit of insanity? I was born White (with trace amounts of Pakistani), but became Muslim, and am now closer to a Pakistani Family than my own. So, what do I identify as? 295 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 3:06:20pm down 1 up report re: #230 Khal Wimpo (no longer entitled to his own facts) Warning: possibly lifeless horse flogging to commence in this comment. Responding to a question from MsJ about the whole "Trump is demented-no, seriously, as in medically demented" -- about whether I've done a compare/contrast between Trump in his 80s/90s heyday, and Trump now ... yes I have. (Text of reply to MsJ's polite and very thoughtful question copied below) Going back to the - admittedly limited - archive of things from the 80s, he showed no signs of the volatility, repetition and meandering that now mark his public appearances. Then again, most of his video appearances from that epoch were scripted. Then again again, most of his appearances these days are scripted as well. He just lacks the self-control to stick to the script. [Embedded content] Check out the faster pace of his sentences. And yeah, he jumps from subject to subject, but there *is* a throughline there, and the sentences come out in an order that has a beginning-middle-end. Nothing there about a 10-year-old kid who is great with his Apple IIc, or a 400-lb person on a bed, or Rosie O'Donnell (or the 80s equivalent, which would be Ruth Buzzi). I saw this one and thought exactly the same thing. Same words (disaster, etc.) but none of the crazy stuff we see now. Further, I do not think you are beating a dead horse. I am not a fan of long distance diagnosis, nor is most anyone else, but the guy is off, as I said here . 296 Lidane Sep 30, 2016 * 3:06:52pm down 5 up report Supporters of the Republican nominee for President of the United States are sending me PornHub links in an effort to back up his 3 AM tweet. re: #292 The Vicious Babushka Multi-racial! This will reduce the number of white Americans by 1-3%, down to just 60-61%. And moves the US towards minority-majority forward several years. 298 Kragar Sep 30, 2016 * 3:07:36pm down 8 up report Yup, you win again. @mitchellvii What a nutter pic.twitter.com/DfyYX0bKGU Watch President Obama wait impatiently for Bill Clinton on Air Force One https://t.co/A0mrEwaX2Q pic.twitter.com/LyoFqrfbJH 301 Lidane Sep 30, 2016 * 3:08:54pm down 13 up report Related: I am now stating with 100% certainty that Hillary was using a projected teleprompter build into her lectern and CHEATED at the debate. 100%. Ease off on the jug wine, bro. https://t.co/I63TPtSx4Q Reminder: Rick Wilson is not a Democrat. 302 Tigger2 Sep 30, 2016 * 3:09:27pm down 4 up report Full Frontal contributor @AllanaHarkin searches for common ground with a Trump supporter. pic.twitter.com/7tnerI3W1x @FullFrontalSamB @AllanaHarkin It really is hard to figure out what Republicans are saying sometimes. I just don't live in their world. 303 Joe Bacon Sep 30, 2016 * 3:10:45pm down 6 up report @ScottAdamsSays So your fantasy is to be Trump's jockstrap... 304 calochortus Sep 30, 2016 * 3:12:35pm down 2 up report [Embedded content] OqH3AMDwxs64Vz4DQjqsUx4njjSMMMTa87Qkn4JUUslbPXXKg32zPHQhr4gfhr6afY1MHjQe8iaC8ruBKRT0CH49N8KiKY6tIdnKz0fMXbcQvDtWPP0BjgQ9nWsmuHgOKHuhLQTR3dg0QHo9vZpp1Flc6rSXzudlk7SUQoor2h/yOASoZV4sH2/dIUDcT213DIcdiMmA+YZ16TmDygUTzBdqKITL6g54wKwxWkLoyxvUbXEoWTvWpceZ/PeT4ysNZtXnVa62N57Cqr3mLLtVDFhq8UFPD+iKLbeAyZ4v5a1Y6OHGtdXb7WHJrsdlVYO5Yq995pepHMc= 305 austin_blue Sep 30, 2016 * 3:13:06pm down 4 up report [Embedded content] I have a friend who always identifies herself as African American. She's as pale as aspirin and has red hair, but she was born in Cape Town. 306 Lidane Sep 30, 2016 * 3:13:33pm down 4 up report Proof that God is a Democrat. https://t.co/XuDtxKqA58 308 austin_blue Sep 30, 2016 * 3:15:01pm down 0 up report re: #292 The Vicious Babushka Wait so under this new law Zedushka is MENA (his grandfather was Palestinian Jew) but I am white? We're biracial? What does that make our kids? United States citizens. Also, people. 309 Lidane Sep 30, 2016 * 3:15:17pm down 3 up report 310 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 3:16:01pm down 1 up report Fox is all over the Bill's sexual history and what Hillary said. They are also stumping for Ron Johnson, showing his ad against Finegold. Now, it's Planned Parenthood in Arkansas. Ah, Fox. 311 Eclectic Cyborg Sep 30, 2016 * 3:16:01pm down 2 up report Ugh, Rep Mike Kelly (PA) is on CNN right doing a tremendous job shoving his head firmly up Donald Trumps ass. 312 Eclectic Cyborg Sep 30, 2016 * 3:16:40pm down 7 up report And I have I mentioned how I think American election cycles are WAY TOO FUCKING LONG??? 313 calochortus Sep 30, 2016 * 3:18:46pm down 1 up report re: #294 Ziggy_TARDIS I was born White (with trace amounts of Pakistani), but became Muslim, and am now closer to a Pakistani Family than my own. So, what do I identify as? 314 Big Beautiful Door Sep 30, 2016 * 3:18:52pm down 5 up report re: #54 Dr. Matt Rush chimes in about Trump's all night coke bender tweetstorm: Talk about an acrobatic feat to conflate Machado and Sandra Fluke. Wow. Impressive. It was diabolical how Hillary forced Rush to talk about Sandra Fluke for three hours a day on his radio show for days./ 315 EPR-radar Sep 30, 2016 * 3:19:25pm down 3 up report re: #312 Eclectic Cyborg And I have I mentioned how I think American election cycles are WAY TOO FUCKING LONG??? Too long and too close. We have months and months of Satan's Anus vs. a normal human being, and that naturally tends to normalize the idea of Satan's Anus as President of the US. 316 Eric The Fruit Bat Sep 30, 2016 * 3:19:53pm down 6 up report Another fine example of America culture: Student arrested after wearing gorilla mask, handing out bananas at Black Lives Matter protest 317 sagehen Sep 30, 2016 * 3:20:00pm down 4 up report re: #305 austin_blue I have a friend who always identifies herself as African American. She's as pale as aspirin and has red hair, but she was born in Cape Town. 318 Lidane Sep 30, 2016 * 3:20:31pm down 6 up report re: #312 Eclectic Cyborg And I have I mentioned how I think American election cycles are WAY TOO FUCKING LONG??? I've been saying that for ages. Primaries should have a minimum of five states per week starting on February 1. Knock all of the primaries out by May 1. As soon as the nominees are decided, everything stops cold -- no ads, no campaigning, no town halls, nada -- until the conventions. After that, it's balls to the wall through election day. I wish we'd do this. But we won't. 319 Eclectic Cyborg Sep 30, 2016 * 3:22:23pm down 0 up report re: #318 Lidane Or if you want to make it real simple just pass a law stating that candidates cannot campaign or fundraise earlier than x number of months before election day. 320 freetoken Sep 30, 2016 * 3:22:54pm down 1 up report What's good for business is good for America... and elections are now a business??? 321 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 3:23:10pm down 4 up report New national Fox poll taken after the debate: Clinton 43%, Trump 40%, Johnson 8% 322 Eclectic Cyborg Sep 30, 2016 * 3:23:55pm down 3 up report In Canada I think the lost election cycle we ever had like 120 or so days. An entire election from start to finish in four months. That's how you make time on the calendar to get other shit done. 323 Lidane Sep 30, 2016 * 3:24:07pm down 1 up report 324 Eclectic Cyborg Sep 30, 2016 * 3:24:36pm down 0 up report Trump still within 3? The hell? 325 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 3:25:13pm down 4 up report Trump still within 3? The hell? Fox. 'Nuff said. 326 Lidane Sep 30, 2016 * 3:25:47pm down 3 up report re: #322 Eclectic Cyborg In Canada I think the lost election cycle we ever had like 120 or so days. An entire election from start to finish in four months. That's how you make time on the calendar to get other shit done. IIRC Mexican election cycles are 3-4 months long. I wish we had a shorter cycle. This 18-19 month election cycle is bullshit. People were announcing their candidacy last April, for fuck's sake. That's way, way too long. 327 Tigger2 Sep 30, 2016 * 3:26:01pm down 0 up report FOX poll. 328 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 3:26:09pm down 10 up report SD Union-Tribune endorsed Republicans from 1868-2012. Today they endorsed Clinton. Another streak broken: https://t.co/HGq0MxM32K pic.twitter.com/1qVsI8f7e7 This is Fox. 330 Patricia Kayden Sep 30, 2016 * 3:26:53pm down 9 up report There is no way that Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell can handwave away Trump's tweets attacking a private citizen, calling her a slut, and encouraging his supporters to search for a non-existent porn video (even though the Republican platform is anti-porn). This is beyond disgusting and is certainly not presidential. His obsessive need to attack his detractors shows that he lacks the demeanor and temperament needed to hold the most powerful position in this country (and arguably, the world). Some Millennials are waking up to why voting for Secretary Clinton is so important. livebloggingmydescentintomadness.tumblr.com 331 Big Beautiful Door Sep 30, 2016 * 3:27:07pm down 2 up report re: #78 The Vicious Babushka I want to see Hillary appoint Justice Michelle Obama. I would prefer President Michelle Obama. 332 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 3:27:18pm down 2 up report 334 Kragar Sep 30, 2016 * 3:28:51pm down 3 up report Manic Sean Hannity predicts impending apocalypse: 'America lives or dies in 39 days' https://t.co/WVLTT7qZpb [Embedded content] Sean Hannity and his racist self can take several seats. I'll never forgive him for puffing up George Zimmerman. 336 Eric The Fruit Bat Sep 30, 2016 * 3:30:03pm down 15 up report Mike Pence Tells Wrongfully Convicted Man He Won't Act On Pardon Request After waiting more than two years to act on the request, Pence informed Keith Cooper this week that he would not grant his pardon "out of respect for the judicial process." 337 darthstar Sep 30, 2016 * 3:30:52pm down 4 up report re: #312 Eclectic Cyborg And I have I mentioned how I think American election cycles are WAY TOO FUCKING LONG??? This one started in 2013 when Hillary left the State Department. Immediately the media began talking about her running for President in 2016. She, to her credit, took a year off and refused to talk about it. But by 2014 it was apparent the wheels were in motion. That was about the time Jeb! started making noises. We're not even to November yet and fucking Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are laying the groundwork for 2020. In other words, we don't have an election cycle here. We have perpetual electioneering. As a country, we have a pretty good democracy, but we suck at the process of Democracy. 338 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 3:31:07pm down 5 up report For possibly the first time ever, I agree with Hannity. 339 Stanley Sea Sep 30, 2016 * 3:31:14pm down 1 up report It is quite insane. I yelped when I read that. 340 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 3:31:21pm down 2 up report [Embedded content] There's that wingnut attitude about our country that I love. If we do what I want, we're great, if we don't, we're doooooooooomed. 341 Lidane Sep 30, 2016 * 3:32:33pm down 15 up report Mental health break. I've finally found the droid I was looking for: The best part of waking up is this R2-D2 coffee press https://t.co/FP1SnFePP7 pic.twitter.com/vqN7qbnxon 342 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 3:32:58pm down 2 up report re: #331 Big Beautiful Door I would prefer President Michelle Obama. I wouldn't mind her running for the Senate in Illinois. Durbin's getting up there in age. And I think Michelle and Tammy Duckworth would be quite a tandem for the people of Illinois. 343 Nyet Sep 30, 2016 * 3:33:01pm down 2 up report re: #329 Ziggy_TARDIS Hey, the polls are good. Feeling better? ;) 344 darthstar Sep 30, 2016 * 3:34:01pm down 0 up report Mental health break. I've finally found the droid I was looking for: [Embedded content] [Embedded content] 345 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 3:34:03pm down 2 up report NBC Nightly News is, right now, all over those midnight tweets. 346 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 3:34:37pm down 1 up report NBC Nightly News is, right now, all over those midnight tweets. I think the media's finally playing hardball with Trump. 347 Ziggy_TARDIS Sep 30, 2016 * 3:34:50pm down 1 up report Yep. Especially now as I now that, while I haven't made a friend here in Dallas, I did make a friend in DC. See above, I can even show some proof. However, I will not stop hitting 538, because they are still including some shoddy shit. Namely CVoter, which has been been caught doing corrupt stuff in India. 348 The Vicious Babushka Sep 30, 2016 * 3:35:49pm down 5 up report re: #308 austin_blue United States citizens. Also, people. My two oldest kids were born in Jerusalem. oxSg0VFnxtcenMIhsKCxVeMjUP4LugTTAMSFGQgEgROiYNqpLPKMPhOL8N832IXjvL6JqLehM0SstsHPFidReG/B5cWesqRA86xfe6YNOKt90mueg5Az17m7PX6izNsJTf8tsPC1ncO/KZgYA0iXQfFklQAS0R4CT2/Qt1UbyF8/3Djzc8jCqowznhm/BpJGo4vycH7CEyhwUH9v2nC6QIyaHjuJpAaO4vf/24iJNmPwz5KgQRpnVayL0ULtk0UwjDjEwJQ/ffw4aip7Rt6mvyCodfYQVVzQ6TL0y6UTFkmaQ9936E0vI9aogG4NaebnsMjNr/bjym00BnA9g776HDr0v3zPH7RR2UuKyicHcJolb//QdzxfpDZqWute0bAUoBBtUSIzARgKbLToJ0d766t8kiJONAWC5jWQ1Zbh3lR4441364U/7uEFd8NTxvGFsAs61yQhalZOZpIoT7ez9fnHKf6LmKobOb8DlLXWv7ueGmyDt8KW/XOmcI51PI3/LEQfuTVmX8pE2KvcUg36FvUfSH7qvE3SJOhJBNOVKRKa+wigel3Dc3aQkxeu7K+08lIOtJxIwocJZtrXDGNQ6LThY348ozvyGMBsZdApy9A= 349 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 3:35:50pm down 3 up report I think the media's finally playing hardball with Trump. Now it is Cuba. NBC made a small almost sidenote on Cuba. 350 darthstar Sep 30, 2016 * 3:36:43pm down 5 up report I think the media's finally playing hardball with Trump. Talk about seller's remorse. We've been promoting what to the presidency? Shit, sorry about that historians. Didn't mean to make a farce of America's political system. 351 Nyet Sep 30, 2016 * 3:36:50pm down 2 up report Here's Trump's sex tape: 352 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 3:37:07pm down 4 up report Talk about seller's remorse. We've been promoting what to the presidency? Shit, sorry about that historians. Didn't mean to make a farce of America's political system. Too. Fucking. Late. 353 Eric The Fruit Bat Sep 30, 2016 * 3:37:32pm down 0 up report Unless one single event that totally changes the picture happens, we're pretty much stuck until election day. 354 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 3:37:43pm down 1 up report Talk about seller's remorse. We've been promoting what to the presidency? Shit, sorry about that historians. Didn't mean to make a farce of America's political system. No kidding. 355 Skip Intro Sep 30, 2016 * 3:38:12pm down 12 up report Donald Trump Said He Promised Ivanka He Wouldn't Date Girls Younger Than Her Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said in a 1999 interview that he once promised his daughter Ivanka he'd never date a girl younger than her. Ivanka Trump would have been 17 in 1999, when Trump made the claim to radio host Howard Stern, according to the New York Daily News. "I have a deal with her. She's 17 and doing great -- Ivanka. She made me promise, swear to her that I would never date a girl younger than her," Trump said. "So as she grows older, the field is getting very limited." What a guy! What will power! 356 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 3:38:24pm down 1 up report Now it is Cuba. NBC made a small almost sidenote on Cuba. You know as I do that she's going to mention at the next debate. I hope Kaine brings up it with Pence too. 357 Ziggy_TARDIS Sep 30, 2016 * 3:38:24pm down 12 up report There's some cringe worthy quotes on @bencjacobs I'm not posting. 359 Nyet Sep 30, 2016 * 3:39:01pm down 1 up report re: #353 Eric The Fruit Bat Unless one single event that totally changes the picture happens, we're pretty much stuck until election day. Unf. there are forces out there that might try to make it happen. ISIS, Putin and the likes of them. 360 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 3:39:18pm down 9 up report re: #355 Skip Intro Donald Trump Said He Promised Ivanka He Wouldn't Date Girls Younger Than Her What a guy! What will power! Goddamn he's a creepy bastard. You know, I never liked him but I never realized just how frigging creepy he is. 361 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 3:40:00pm down 0 up report Still got a long month to go but I feel good about this. 362 Nyet Sep 30, 2016 * 3:40:05pm down 0 up report re: #357 Ziggy_TARDIS It's about as explicit as Machado's so-called "sex tape". 363 Tigger2 Sep 30, 2016 * 3:40:13pm down 0 up report NBC Nightly News is, right now, all over those midnight tweets. I think some of the MSM TV version is seeing what all the news print media is doing (Endorsing Hillary) and calling out Trump, so they are jumping on board. 364 Ziggy_TARDIS Sep 30, 2016 * 3:40:49pm down 0 up report 365 Nyet Sep 30, 2016 * 3:41:52pm down 0 up report re: #364 Ziggy_TARDIS He merely ejaculates some champagne on the bunny. 366 Skip Intro Sep 30, 2016 * 3:42:04pm down 5 up report This creeped me out, and I saw it months ago. Then there's her sitting on his lap next to a statue of two screwing parrots. 367 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 3:42:22pm down 3 up report I think some of the MSM TV version is seeing what all the news print media is doing (endorsing Hillary) so they are jumping on board. It is amazing to read about all these newspapers that have either never endorsed a Democratic candidate for President or haven't done so in a few generations endorsing her over him. I honestly don't know how big of a role newspaper endorsements play in voting patterns but I do think it could have a small positive impact for her. 368 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 3:43:04pm down 3 up report re: #366 Skip Intro This creeped me out, and I saw it months ago. [Embedded content] Then there's her sitting on his lap next to a statue of two screwing parrots. Those two got a very weird relationship. 369 scottslemmons Sep 30, 2016 * 3:44:15pm down 0 up report [Embedded content] Someone please tell him Hillary sicced the Demogorgon on 'em... 370 calochortus Sep 30, 2016 * 3:44:43pm down 1 up report re: #366 Skip Intro This creeped me out, and I saw it months ago. [Embedded content] Then there's her sitting on his lap next to a statue of two screwing parrots. And why is he on the phone in the photo? Ivanka on his lap kissing him is creepy. Trump on the phone is weird. 371 Ziggy_TARDIS Sep 30, 2016 * 3:44:48pm down 7 up report 372 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 3:46:10pm down 11 up report Donald Trump Said He Promised Ivanka He Wouldn't Date Girls Younger Than Her What a guy! What will power! Honestly, I have never seen a person like this. I mean...jesus christ on a crutch. What a complete creeper. 373 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 3:47:37pm down 4 up report I think some of the MSM TV version is seeing what all the news print media is doing (endorsing Hillary) and calling out Trump so they are jumping on board. I think you're right. I think the television media needed cover...because they're fecking pussies. They couldn't state the truth until the print media gave them cover. 374 Nyet Sep 30, 2016 * 3:48:04pm down 10 up report Adams' top tweet is a retweet of Chuck Johnson's creepy wesearchr on Machado. Everything you need to know about Adams. 375 darthstar Sep 30, 2016 * 3:48:08pm down 4 up report Someone please tell him Hillary sicced the Demogorgon on 'em... While it probably won't happen, hearing her say "I'm not going to be lectured on values by a guy who fucked his daughter." during a debate would raise a few eyebrows. 376 darthstar Sep 30, 2016 * 3:49:01pm down 12 up report I think the media's finally playing hardball with Trump. Welcome to the party, pal. A Lannister pays their debts, so...no. 379 Khal Wimpo (no longer entitled to his own facts) Sep 30, 2016 * 3:50:55pm down 11 up report [Embedded content] Had to stand up and walk out of the room. Can't breathe for a minute. I keep telling myself that the love that I feel for those furry clowns is a testament to my humanity and capacity for love. That this pain is a good thing. It comes from a place of love and appreciation, and that the best reaction that I could possibly have is just to extend that love to the furry clowns currently in my life, and to the humans and other creatures that share this rock with me. 380 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 3:52:30pm down 10 up report Those two got a very weird relationship. I was super close with my dad...both of my parents, actually. When I was little, I would crawl into their bed and mom would take one hand and dad the other and we would lie there and talk. My dad and I had Sunday morning outings every single week for the first 12 years of my life. Like I said, we were super close. What I see between these two is not a normal closeness, even when you are really very, very close with a parent. And I think I speak from my own experience with my own parents and how close we were. My dad never touched me like Trump does Ivanka. Trump completely creeps me out. He's like a clown hovering over you after you wake up from a nightmare about clowns. 381 Nyet Sep 30, 2016 * 3:52:37pm down 14 up report 382 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 3:53:27pm down 0 up report re: #380 MsJ I was super close with my dad...both of my parents, actually. When I was little, I would crawl into their bed and mom would take one hand and dad the other and we would lie there and talk. My dad and I had Sunday morning outings every single week for the first 12 years of my life. Like I said, we were super close. What I see between these two is not a normal closeness, even when you are really very, very close with a parent. And I think I speak from my own experience with my own parents and how close we were. My dad never touched me like Trump does Ivanka. Trump completely creeps me out. He's like a clown hovering over you after you wake up from a nightmare about clowns. It's the way he talks about her and yeah the way he touches her oto. 383 Timothy Watson Sep 30, 2016 * 3:53:29pm down 3 up report Honestly, I have never seen a person like this. I mean...jesus christ on a crutch. What a complete creeper. Anyone else would have Child Protective Services and the police all up in his shit. Trump? No worries. 384 darthstar Sep 30, 2016 * 3:54:03pm down 3 up report I had a cat who did that. Could be a total asshole. 385 Skip Intro Sep 30, 2016 * 3:54:16pm down 2 up report re: #383 Timothy Watson Anyone else would have Child Protective Services and the police all up in his shit. Trump? No worries. And the True Christians just love him. 386 Skip Intro Sep 30, 2016 * 3:54:57pm down 17 up report The girlfriend said my place looks like a bachelor pad. So she's putting things in bowls to make it more homely. pic.twitter.com/NqKkSfvUIV I had a cat just like that. Nothing on a table was safe from him. 388 Eric The Fruit Bat Sep 30, 2016 * 3:57:03pm down 0 up report Everything you need to know about Adams. Since he's thrown in with the Rage Furby, he's now effectively a Fellow Traveler. 389 darthstar Sep 30, 2016 * 3:57:51pm down 3 up report @mitchellvii Bill.... This is how I would build the podium with the mini-projector. It is a pretty accurate dimensionally pic.twitter.com/JybaqwAh5v 390 Nyet Sep 30, 2016 * 3:57:52pm down 9 up report On Scott Adams' twitter page I get these "follow" recommendations: You may also like * Refresh 391 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 3:58:51pm down 1 up report There's also a conspiracy that she had an ear piece feeding her answers. Sad to say that a friend of mine is pushing that shit. 392 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 3:59:26pm down 0 up report On Scott Adam's twitter page I get these "follow" recommendations: Familiar with Cernovitch but not the others. 393 Nyet Sep 30, 2016 * 4:00:01pm down 11 up report There's also a conspiracy that she had an ear piece feeding her answers. Sad to say that a friend of mine is pushing that shit. I find it good. You know why? They concede she won. 394 Nyet Sep 30, 2016 * 4:00:33pm down 1 up report Familiar with Cernovitch but not the others. All alt-right and/or conspiracy douches. 395 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 4:00:59pm down 0 up report I find it good. You know why? They concede she won. Heh that's one way of looking at it. I just find all the excuses for Trump performing like crap hilarious. 396 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 4:01:17pm down 0 up report All alt-right and/or conspiracy douches. Yeah doesn't surprise me. 397 scottslemmons Sep 30, 2016 * 4:01:31pm down 1 up report While it probably won't happen, hearing her say "I'm not going to be lectured on values by a guy who fucked his daughter." during a debate would raise a few eyebrows. On one hand, that would be delightful to hear. On the other hand, I know exactly what the press reaction would be: "OMG, Hillary said a swear word!" I was super close with my dad...both of my parents, actually. When I was little, I would crawl into their bed and mom would take one hand and dad the other and we would lie there and talk. My dad and I had Sunday morning outings every single week for the first 12 years of my life. Like I said, we were super close. What I see between these two is not a normal closeness, even when you are really very, very close with a parent. And I think I speak from my own experience with my own parents and how close we were. My dad never touched me like Trump does Ivanka. Trump completely creeps me out. He's like a clown hovering over you after you wake up from a nightmare about clowns. The pic with him on the phone - man, that's creepy. Especially if you step back, remove the Father/Daughter relationship between the two subjects, and look at what it is. You have a bed, and on it a guy on the phone looking harried while an attractive young girl throws her bare legs over him and pulls him to her to kiss him. If you didn't know who they are, you'd assume that it was a guy torn between doing business on the phone, and fucking the obviously hot-for-him babe. Now, let's add back the fact that she's his daughter. And then let's add in her age - she looks under 14. Yeesh! It's one of the creepiest things I've ever seen that wasn't designed to be creepy. 399 Big Beautiful Door Sep 30, 2016 * 4:05:00pm down 1 up report [Embedded content] Pat looks like his wife is voting for Hillary, so he's taking care of himself. 400 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 4:08:41pm down 4 up report Just to be clear: it's a "smear" to point out Machada posed in Playboy; it's not to point out Trump's appearance? https://t.co/xAqqsDwz3d 401 Big Beautiful Door Sep 30, 2016 * 4:09:13pm down 3 up report re: #162 The Vicious Babushka I will bet the farm Trump claimed "Prima Nochte" from her and she refused him. That's where this is coming from. Many people say so. 402 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 4:09:54pm down 2 up report [Embedded content] Also is a smear to say she's "Angel Dark" who isn't even the same nationality as Alicia. 403 Charles Johnson Sep 30, 2016 * 4:10:11pm down 5 up report I don't know what I would call such a person, but I would like to sincerely invite you to go fuck yourself. @MkWstbrook 404 FormerDirtDart Sep 30, 2016 * 4:11:31pm down 8 up report A Lannister pays their debts, so...no. 405 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 4:11:51pm down 4 up report @Green_Footballs @MkWstbrook I'd call them someone who believes that the National Enquirer is a serious journalistic publication, and Alex Jones speaks the truth. Interesting.... On phone, @patrickhealynyt asked Trump if he'd do 2nd debate, "I want to do the next debate, but everybody is talking about the mic." 407 Decatur Deb Sep 30, 2016 * 4:13:43pm down 2 up report I'd call them someone who believes that the National Enquirer is a serious journalistic publication, and Alex Jones speaks the truth. I'd call that deplorable. 408 Ziggy_TARDIS Sep 30, 2016 * 4:14:16pm down 1 up report re: #378 The Ghost of a Flea You've got a point there, though the books state that they are no longer able to do so, as of the time of the books. 409 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 4:14:22pm down 0 up report [Embedded content] By everyone he means himself. 410 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 4:15:15pm down 0 up report By everyone he means himself. And the voices in his head. 411 FormerDirtDart Sep 30, 2016 * 4:19:32pm down 10 up report 412 jaunte Sep 30, 2016 * 4:19:49pm down 7 up report Here's the full Trump riff on voter fraud from this evening in Novi. Mich., in which he urges his supporter to monitor polling places. pic.twitter.com/S3Vt1TzOvW 413 Stanley Sea Sep 30, 2016 * 4:21:40pm down 2 up report Heading out to a jazz concert! See ya'll later! 414 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 4:22:57pm down 3 up report [Embedded content] Doing everything de- legitimize his likely defeat. Pathetic. 415 Decatur Deb Sep 30, 2016 * 4:24:17pm down 5 up report [Embedded content] Short-fingered man does not quite understand the subtleties of poll watching. 416 Big Beautiful Door Sep 30, 2016 * 4:24:35pm down 2 up report 417 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 4:24:55pm down 3 up report Okay, I don't like Tecate but I'll buy one because of how clever that ad is. 418 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 4:25:02pm down 15 up report That fucker is going to get someone killed on election day. I hope that every business concern he has dries up and blows away and that we will never have to hear this asshole's name ever again. 419 jaunte Sep 30, 2016 * 4:25:39pm down 2 up report re: #415 Decatur Deb He's not too clear on the meaning of "on the up and up" either. 420 Charles Johnson Sep 30, 2016 * 4:29:21pm down 6 up report Ah ha! Just figured out why the close button on the bottom-right anchored video sometimes disappears. Reload the page and this problem will be gone. 421 Ziggy_TARDIS Sep 30, 2016 * 4:29:28pm down 2 up report New Hurricane Hunter plane is in Matthew, it is still strengthening: 000 URNT15 KNHC 302302 AF303 0914A MATTHEW HDOB 14 20160930 225230 1352N 07138W 6964 03055 9955 +081 +081 105072 073 061 023 03 225300 1350N 07139W 6970 03033 9936 +083 +083 106072 074 063 008 00 225330 1349N 07140W 6968 03025 9926 +083 +083 104075 078 067 009 00 225400 1347N 07142W 6958 03029 9914 +084 +084 102082 084 070 015 03 225430 1346N 07144W 6978 02990 9890 +088 +086 099086 088 071 008 00 225500 1344N 07145W 6965 02987 9877 +085 +085 097092 095 079 008 00 225530 1343N 07147W 6974 02951 9852 +084 +084 095102 107 084 016 00 225600 1341N 07148W 6971 02926 9828 +082 +082 089114 117 083 051 00 225630 1339N 07150W 6964 02891 9782 +082 +082 078123 127 088 082 00 225700 1338N 07152W 6955 02872 9733 +086 //// 072126 128 103 083 05 225730 1336N 07154W 6982 02808 9691 +090 +089 059128 133 /// /// 03 225800 1334N 07156W 6986 02788 //// +092 //// 044123 126 /// /// 05 225830 1331N 07157W 6994 02756 9626 +098 //// 025114 124 132 069 01 225900 1328N 07157W 6965 02763 9605 +102 //// 006118 126 133 066 05 225930 1326N 07157W 6971 02733 9523 +117 +111 349100 123 /// /// 05 230000 1324N 07155W 6963 02735 9503 +163 +113 330063 085 /// /// 03 230030 1324N 07153W 6984 02677 9456 +179 +116 314029 051 /// /// 03 230100 1325N 07151W 6961 02692 9443 +176 +123 295014 019 033 000 03 230130 1327N 07150W 6981 02659 9427 +182 + 130 269005 011 024 000 03 230200 1329N 07150W 6978 02652 9411 +190 + 137 076010 015 024 000 03 $$ ; Pressure is now 941 mb, with winds of 130 knots, or 150 mph. It is still gaining power. That fucker is going to get someone killed on election day. I hope that every business concern he has dries up and blows away and that we will never have to hear this asshole's name ever again. I said a while ago that I thought the Presidential run would destroy Trump's brand and I continue to hope that happens. I guessing his kids are beginning to realize that as well and may be panicking with the realization that the gravy train could come to an end. I love the idea of his kids being forced to take a real job. Entitled brats all. 423 Decatur Deb Sep 30, 2016 * 4:32:02pm down 2 up report re: #421 Ziggy_TARDIS If you're a coastal American city, and you're going to get torn up by a hurricane, an election year is a VERY good time to do it. op. cit. Joint Task Force Andrew. 424 Ziggy_TARDIS Sep 30, 2016 * 4:32:02pm down 3 up report re: #422 A Cranky One I don't think they have the abilities to take a real job. 425 Ziggy_TARDIS Sep 30, 2016 * 4:33:12pm down 6 up report re: #423 Decatur Deb Or Sandy. Though, FEMA under Obama is work of art in how competent it is. Helps Obama took the Florida Head of disaster response for FEMA head. He knows what he is doing. 426 The Ghost of a Flea Sep 30, 2016 * 4:33:45pm down 3 up report He's not too clear on the meaning of "on the up and up" either. Vagueness works better as a tactic. That way anything can be slotted into the conspiracy narrative as "proof" of foul play. 427 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 4:34:04pm down 11 up report re: #425 Ziggy_TARDIS Or Sandy. Though, FEMA under Obama is work of art in how competent it is. Helps Obama took the Florida Head of disaster response for FEMA head. He knows what he is doing. As compared with Bush who made a horse racing commissioner his. 428 wrenchwench Sep 30, 2016 * 4:35:43pm down 0 up report re: #420 Charles Johnson Ah ha! Just figured out why the close button on the bottom-right anchored video sometimes disappears. Reload the page and this problem will be gone. And if I didn't have this problem, what will happen if I reload? 429 austin_blue Sep 30, 2016 * 4:36:24pm down 2 up report And if I didn't have this problem, what will happen if I reload? Boom! 430 A Cranky One Sep 30, 2016 * 4:36:52pm down 12 up report Speaking of furry friends, what happens to a cat when you leave it locked in a room with a Trump rally on TV? 431 Jay C Sep 30, 2016 * 4:36:56pm down 5 up report Here's the full Trump riff on voter fraud from this evening in Novi. Mich., in which he urges his supporter to monitor polling places. pic.twitter.com/S3Vt1TzOvW So, Mr. Trump what, exactly IS this "big, big problem" that "no one has the guts to talk about"?? Is it that too many of the "wrong" type of people are voting?* And that the "right" sort of voters ought to be doing their best to, ummm.. convince them that they should go home/stay home if they arfen;t going to vote the "right way"? *probably Obama's FEMA was tested by Sandy, and it passed with flying colours. 433 Skip Intro Sep 30, 2016 * 4:37:27pm down 7 up report re: #422 A Cranky One I want to see pictures of all the businesses that were stupid enough to pay to use the "Trump" brand name jackhammering it off of their properties. 434 dangerman Sep 30, 2016 * 4:37:46pm down 1 up report The San Diego Union-Tribune has endorsed Republicans for president from 1868 through 2012, but today they backed Hillary Clinton. 435 Kragar Sep 30, 2016 * 4:38:04pm down 2 up report The nerve would be the "funny bone". You're hilarious. https://t.co/QakZKUQakP You can tell you hit a nerve at Hillary Central when suddenly thousands of Hillbots you've never seen before hit your feed saying same words [Embedded content] Or it could be that you're a special kind of idiot, Bill but don't flatter yourself. 437 Skip Intro Sep 30, 2016 * 4:39:12pm down 0 up report You folks are giving a D level talk show host way too much attention. 438 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 4:39:33pm down 1 up report 439 The Ghost of a Flea Sep 30, 2016 * 4:42:40pm down 5 up report re: #426 The Ghost of a Flea Seriously, the rhetorical path that politics is taking right now is...not good. Conspiracy logic is ramping up. It's been present for awhile...various versions of the Stab In The Back--but now we've got the nominee of one of the two major parties leaning hard on the idea that everything that goes wrong is a conspiracy--and he's not getting push back from his allies of followers. His fellow "conservatives" can only walk so far away from his rhetoric, since they're still relying on milder versions of the same idea. 440 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 4:44:08pm down 9 up report But but Clinton foundation. 442 Skip Intro Sep 30, 2016 * 4:46:26pm down 2 up report re: #424 Ziggy_TARDIS I don't think they have the abilities to take a real job. After reading Jr.'s deposition, he doesn't appear to be qualified for the job he has. 443 Skip Intro Sep 30, 2016 * 4:48:25pm down 3 up report Nobody does DARVO like a Trump. 444 Backwoods_Sleuth Sep 30, 2016 * 4:52:19pm down 8 up report 2: he was heard in the auditorium. Seems little reason to believe this is actually true. But it wld matter what people in the room cld ... 445 gocart mozart Sep 30, 2016 * 4:53:11pm down 4 up report 124-year-old patent solves the 'over versus under' toilet paper roll debate pic.twitter.com/kuUvyB41ab 446 Jay C Sep 30, 2016 * 4:54:22pm down 4 up report re: #442 Skip Intro After reading Jr.'s deposition, he doesn't appear to be qualified for the job he has. From what I've seen and read of Trump's sons, neither seem like they would have much in the way of skillsets for any job that doesn't involve the phrase " Would you like fries with that? " And probably neither with most of the ones that do.... 447 Skip Intro Sep 30, 2016 * 4:56:56pm down 7 up report As Donald Trump loss looms, US republican party chairman Reince Priebus sits in dread of ritual head-shaving, and awaits the Donkey of Shame pic.twitter.com/kCvXaKoFye 448 Charles Johnson Sep 30, 2016 * 4:58:02pm down 11 up report LOL! Absolutely no self-awareness at all. pic.twitter.com/Gd6eaEHQdg [Embedded content] Wonder what happens to Reince if Trump loses and they lose the Senate. 450 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 4:59:01pm down 3 up report [Embedded content] I swear Charles, do conservatives live in a different reality? Just amazes me how these people think. 451 teleskiguy Sep 30, 2016 * 4:59:58pm down 4 up report Dilbert guy points out that Master Persuaders often stay up all night, angry and nude, tweeting sexist rants. "It's 4-D chess," he explains 453 MsJ Sep 30, 2016 * 5:01:23pm down 6 up report Women #Survivors of abusive relationships find #Trump 's behavior scarily familiar https://t.co/eXuFaPJuwS via @HuffPostWomen 454 dangerman Sep 30, 2016 * 5:02:50pm down 0 up report [Embedded content] im not to bright myself but its a town hall they can pass the same mike back and forth - just like the audience will do 455 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 5:05:33pm down 0 up report [Embedded content] Doesn't surprise me especially with the fact that Ivana alleged he was. 456 stpaulbear Sep 30, 2016 * 5:05:43pm down 9 up report I swear Charles, do conservatives live in a different reality? Just amazes me how these people think. Via Balloon Juice . Tattoo artist: "all right, what'll it be?" Man: "Well, I don't ever want to get laid again." Tattoo artist: "Say no more." pic.twitter.com/3gG18j3mWE [Embedded content] I bet he's fun at parties. 458 Ziggy_TARDIS Sep 30, 2016 * 5:07:19pm down 2 up report Matthew is now 150mph, with pressure of 945 mbar. 459 plansbandc Sep 30, 2016 * 5:09:06pm down 4 up report One of my twitter followers just proclaimed that HRC treats women as badly as Trump does. How is it possible to be that ignorant? And she's a teacher too. FFS 460 dangerman Sep 30, 2016 * 5:09:59pm down 1 up report One of my twitter followers just proclaimed that HRC treats women as badly as Trump does. How is it possible to be that ignorant? And she's a teacher too. FFS 461 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 5:10:21pm down 0 up report One of my twitter followers just proclaimed that HRC treats women as badly as Trump does. How is it possible to be that ignorant? And she's a teacher too. FFS Yeah I don't get it. 462 Skip Intro Sep 30, 2016 * 5:12:06pm down 5 up report re: #459 plansbandc One of my twitter followers just proclaimed that HRC treats women as badly as Trump does. How is it possible to be that ignorant? And she's a teacher too. FFS Fox News/Talk Radio reality distortion field. Apparently it's contagious. 463 dangerman Sep 30, 2016 * 5:14:49pm down 0 up report One of my twitter followers just proclaimed that HRC treats women as badly as Trump does. How is it possible to be that ignorant? And she's a teacher too. FFS seriously though i gotta wonder sometimes how many people truly "believe" this stuff. i think a lot of it is just words strung together to create the appearance of a coherent argument and then the argument is just pulled out and used with no real context or care whether its true false relevant or really, anything. its not even lets throw a bunch of stuff at the wall and see what sticks. its more like lets just throw a bunch of stuff, full stop. 464 teleskiguy Sep 30, 2016 * 5:21:18pm down 1 up report 465 dangerman Sep 30, 2016 * 5:25:39pm down 1 up report anyone want to start guessing the headlines after the vp debate? its' not gonna be kaine beat pence or pence beat kaine it's gonna be pence way more presidential than trump (even i who missed so many obvious things this week can see this one coming - in fact i'd bet the story is already written and finished in lots of newsrooms) 466 freetoken Sep 30, 2016 * 5:35:01pm down 1 up report It's just going to be so strange. Few care about the VP debates. But still, I expect Pence to pitch hard to his religious-right base, to get the Je$u$ crowd fully into the fold. 467 EPR-radar Sep 30, 2016 * 5:35:12pm down 4 up report anyone want to start guessing the headlines after the vp debate? its' not gonna be kaine beat pence or pence beat kaine it's gonna be pence way more presidential than trump (even i who missed so many obvious things this week can see this one coming - in fact i'd bet the story is already written and finished in lots of newsrooms) I'm sure that's the GOP establishment plan B. If Trump wins, they will try to find a way to get rid of Trump in favor of Pence, preferably before inauguration day. The GOP establishment wants to rule America and steal everything in sight. Random nuclear armageddon started by a Trump Twitter meltdown interferes with this agenda. 468 freetoken Sep 30, 2016 * 5:36:00pm down 0 up report If anything, the VP debate is about Who Is Kaine?? I doubt if even most Democrats know anything about him. 469 Kragar Sep 30, 2016 * 5:36:29pm down 0 up report The problem there would be it would show how far Trump falls short from Evangelical ideals 470 Backwoods_Sleuth Sep 30, 2016 * 5:38:32pm down 2 up report #HurricaneMatthew is now a dangerous high end category 4. 6 mph from Category 5. Please prepare now, Jamaica! pic.twitter.com/gHrfT13rb8 471 EPR-radar Sep 30, 2016 * 5:39:12pm down 3 up report seriously though i gotta wonder sometimes how many people truly "believe" this stuff. i think a lot of it is just words strung together to create the appearance of a coherent argument and then the argument is just pulled out and used with no real context or care whether its true false relevant or really, anything. its not even lets throw a bunch of stuff at the wall and see what sticks. its more like lets just throw a bunch of stuff, full stop. Tribal politics 101. Movement conservatives in the US believe that they and everything they do is good, and that liberals and everything liberals do is evil. Once that attitude is fully adopted, debates, arguments to rationally justify public policy positions, political compromise, etc. all become completely irrelevant and are totally opposed. 472 451_Montag Sep 30, 2016 * 5:40:05pm down 4 up report Jeffrey Lord being utterly reamed by Anderson Cooper and Anna Navarre. He is such a wanker. 473 PhillyPretzel Sep 30, 2016 * 5:42:22pm down 0 up report re: #470 Backwoods_Sleuth That is not good. I know it is far away from Philly but I will keep an eye on it. 474 EPR-radar Sep 30, 2016 * 5:42:34pm down 5 up report The problem there would be it would show how far Trump falls short from Evangelical ideals How so? Trump is a bigoted hater. The US religious right has always been about the hate. Many/most US evangelicals stand exposed as bigoted haters in view of their support for Trump. Trump does not depart from Evangelical ideals (as practiced by most religious right leaders and followers) in any meaningful way. 475 teleskiguy Sep 30, 2016 * 5:47:49pm down 5 up report 476 freetoken Sep 30, 2016 * 5:49:48pm down 3 up report Create your own slogan with the LGF Trump Bumper Sticker Generator! https://t.co/mYPssbueiO via @Green_Footballs pic.twitter.com/MMamefmgDv 477 darthstar Sep 30, 2016 * 5:53:28pm down 1 up report Okay people, I need your help. I'm at my mother in law's. I bought her an iPhone (my wife likes iPhones and it's her mother) last year (6S) and because she's getting on in years I disabled all passcodes or lock screens. Makes it easy. She turns it on and she can call us. Well, she got upgraded to iOS10 it appears, and now her phone is asking for a non-existent 6 digit passcode. I already tried the hard reset (home & Power hold for reboot) and it doesn't even blink. I'm up to 15 minute lockout now which sucks (fuck you in your grave Steve). Any thoughts? What the fuck is this password shit when I never set one? 478 Backwoods_Sleuth Sep 30, 2016 * 5:54:12pm down 3 up report "I think Melania for the good of the county should try to smother him with a pillow when she sees him reach for that Twitter"-- @ananavarro 479 PhillyPretzel Sep 30, 2016 * 5:54:23pm down 0 up report Charles so that you know I removed my bank account and my debit card from PayPal. I will use the square. 480 PhillyPretzel Sep 30, 2016 * 5:55:37pm down 0 up report Either call Apple or go into an Apple store and get their genius people to reset it. 481 darthstar Sep 30, 2016 * 5:57:22pm down 2 up report Either call Apple or go into an Apple store and get their genius people to reset it. "Genius" is just another word for minimum wage worker who follows a script. re: #471 EPR-radar Tribal politics 101. Movement conservatives in the US believe that they and everything they do is good, and that liberals and everything liberals do is evil. Once that attitude is fully adopted, debates, arguments to rationally justify public policy positions, political compromise, etc. all become completely irrelevant and are totally opposed. I work in a very Republican area and have RWNJ coworkers. While I avoid talking politics at work, they know I'm a liberal (I complained about a TV in the lab playing FOX all day). At least some have realized liberals don't match the caricature they're been fed. And when they discover I'm knowledgeable (to a greater extent than they are) about issues it seems to disturb them even more. 483 teleskiguy Sep 30, 2016 * 5:58:36pm down 2 up report Forgot that Buster Keaton was on a Twilight Zone. Had some trouble with his Time Helmet. pic.twitter.com/xTXgQZGx32 484 PhillyPretzel Sep 30, 2016 * 5:59:31pm down 1 up report I have found that the Apple employees really do know their stuff. Try taking it to an Apple store and getting someone there to help you. 485 teleskiguy Sep 30, 2016 * 6:00:29pm down 6 up report Hey @mitchellvii that design is close but this seems closer to the truth tbh @jonfavs pic.twitter.com/beYaG5OnPH 486 EPR-radar Sep 30, 2016 * 6:00:43pm down 0 up report re: #482 A Cranky One I work in a very Republican area and have RWNJ coworkers. While I avoid talking politics at work, they know I'm a liberal (I complained about a TV in the lab playing FOX all day). At least some have realized liberals don't match the caricature they're been fed. And when they discover I'm knowledgeable (to a greater extent than they are) about issues it seems to disturb them even more. Some of the followers can be reached, but the propaganda line from Rush, Fox News, GOP officials etc. is absolutist as hell. 487 Ziggy_TARDIS Sep 30, 2016 * 6:02:20pm down 3 up report Now Matthew is up to 155 mph, 943 mbar. 488 Barefoot Grin Sep 30, 2016 * 6:03:31pm down 2 up report re: #477 darthstar Okay people, I need your help. I'm at my mother in law's. I bought her an iPhone (my wife likes iPhones and it's her mother) last year (6S) and because she's getting on in years I disabled all passcodes or lock screens. Makes it easy. She turns it on and she can call us. Well, she got upgraded to iOS10 it appears, and now her phone is asking for a non-existent 6 digit passcode. I already tried the hard reset (home & Power hold for reboot) and it doesn't even blink. I'm up to 15 minute lockout now which sucks (fuck you in your grave Steve). Any thoughts? What the fuck is this password shit when I never set one? When it comes to BLTs, PBJs, and basic pasta, I'm a genius. But I will echo another lizard: maybe also too pay for a visit to the Apple store for that info and a training session. 489 Decatur Deb Sep 30, 2016 * 6:04:16pm down 4 up report Life is good. 490 Jebediah, RBG Sep 30, 2016 * 6:06:53pm down 10 up report What a fucking fuck knuckle. 491 teleskiguy Sep 30, 2016 * 6:08:19pm down 2 up report Upding for "fuck knuckle." 492 Eric The Fruit Bat Sep 30, 2016 * 6:10:09pm down 0 up report 493 FormerDirtDart Sep 30, 2016 * 6:15:57pm down 4 up report @Green_Footballs I think you meant "I IS A MORAN" pic.twitter.com/7Sv3Yn6Drx 494 FormerDirtDart Sep 30, 2016 * 6:17:10pm down 1 up report After recent quakes hit near Salton Sea, authorities issue an earthquake advisory for Southern California: https://t.co/dPWzOZTPID pic.twitter.com/0y24Vfdone 496 freetoken Sep 30, 2016 * 6:20:10pm down 0 up report 497 Backwoods_Sleuth Sep 30, 2016 * 6:20:43pm down 11 up report FBI holds emergency conference call with FL election supervisors after finding evidence of attempt to tamper with voting system Clay County elections chief Chris Chambless declined comment on FBI call, but emphasizes that FL system is fully secure 498 Backwoods_Sleuth Sep 30, 2016 * 6:22:04pm down 12 up report GOP: Obama has defiled the dignity of the Office! Trump: I was in a porno! GOP: Trump: No fat chicks! GOP: Trump: <smiles> GOP: FML 500 Skandal Sep 30, 2016 * 6:25:05pm down 5 up report @ananavarro on @andersoncooper talking about Trump: "For 3 or 4 weeks he stuck to the TelePrompTer... we'd almost forgotten he was insane." pic.twitter.com/xZ62eaWzp0 501 FormerDirtDart Sep 30, 2016 * 6:26:47pm down 4 up report We've all been there, on both sides of the coin... OK, maybe not with a 747 waiting on us... I've watched this video several times and am not yet done being amused by it pic.twitter.com/113jRAWUm0 502 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge Sep 30, 2016 * 6:27:48pm down 10 up report I haven't caught up yet, but if it's not ripping off a scab by this point, I just wanted to say how sorry I am about makeitstop's cat Pippin. As some of you may remember, we lost our yellow tabby Pumpkin on Labor Day Sunday--and today would have been his 15th birthday, so I was kind of sad anyway. Sometimes I think it's not worth it, but then I think of all the good times we had together, and I know it is. Just remember he wouldn't have changed a thing.... 503 HappyWarrior Sep 30, 2016 * 6:35:05pm down 1 up report [Embedded content] A county that went overwhelmingly for Romney but hey Democrats only do fraud. // 504 FormerDirtDart Sep 30, 2016 * 6:36:38pm down 3 up report Fast read, and here's the Politico article they cited Link Trump raised $18 million in 24 hours after the debate. Or did he? https://t.co/P0SrQVHBw7 505 teleskiguy Sep 30, 2016 * 6:40:41pm down 8 up report I perused The Dilbert Guy's Twitter. The Dilbert Guy is a fucking sociopath. 506 teleskiguy Sep 30, 2016 * 6:42:25pm down 6 up report Tweet me if you were threatened or assaulted for being a Trump supporter. #Clinton @MSGHR2010 We're sorry about the seeds. Please reach out here with your feedback: https://t.co/XHRSfKy65x . Thank you. There's some very funny replies to Scott Adams' tweet. I said they were hurting veterans but they said "Only black lives matter" then they pantsed me and called me "honkey balls" @ScottAdamsSays heh thanks! This election has us all pulling out our favorite swears... 509 De Kolta Chair Sep 30, 2016 * 7:27:03pm down 0 up report re: #215 Dr. Matt With a name like "Matthew", I wouldn't expect anything less. Hey, I have a dear friend named Matthew who I've known since he was a gleam in his father's eye and a mere mote in his mother's, and he's a cool grown-up (sorta) now. 510 De Kolta Chair Sep 30, 2016 * 7:48:04pm down 5 up report So presidential. Sad. Seven years ago, Trump called on Carrie Prejean to release a sex tape she made at age 17. https://t.co/sfzIbdAUDv 511 majii Sep 30, 2016 * 7:51:44pm down 2 up report "I honestly don't know how big of a role newspaper endorsements play in voting patterns but I do think it could have a small positive impact for her." I agree. I've also been thinking that it has to depress the hell out of GOPers who tend to think that if they live in a red state, no media outlet should have anything good to say about Democrats. The newspapers in red states that have endorsed HRC are being attacked by Republicans who view them as "traitors" to the conservative cause, whatever the hell that it. 512 retired cynic Sep 30, 2016 * 9:28:32pm down 0 up report re: #480 PhillyPretzel Either call Apple or go into an Apple store and get their genius people to reset it. Your local phone store should be able to reset it, also. 513 retired cynic Sep 30, 2016 * 9:32:39pm down 1 up report

1 Backwoods_Sleuth Sep 30, 2016 * 10:58:24am down 15 up report Here Is Donald Trump's Newly Released Videotaped Deposition https://t.co/E9GEjqCFMW via @wagnerreports @buzzfeednews 2 Tigger2 Sep 30, 2016 *

Instead of driving an intellectually dishonest and corrosive wedge between an already divided American public, we should take meaningful action and protect our students. Returning to the origins of the word - and understanding how its meaning has changed through time - gives us a new way to think about modern loneliness, and the ways in which we might address it. Mark Meechan, the Scottish man who taught his girlfriend's pug to perform a Nazi salute, was found guilty of a hate crime Tuesday. Given the impact therapy dogs can have on student well-being, schools and universities are increasingly adopting therapy dog programs as an inexpensive way of providing social and emotional support for students. In 'What's Wrong with the World,' G.K. Chesterton argued that capitalists and socialists alike show little interest in defending our most basic social unit. There's no doubt Hawking's death is a huge loss to physics. But personally, what I will miss most is his humour and the general feeling of inspiration I got from being around him. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been described as a Byzantine Emperor in style, positioning Russia as the "third Rome." In western history books, on the other hand, the Bzyantine Empire is all but ignored, pointing as it does to the east. A 2015 study found that women were paid $0.73 dollars per dollar earned by men, a 27% gap. But evidence does not support the claim that this wage gap is the result of systemic gender discrimination Patrick's own writings and early accounts of the saint's career reveal many interesting details about the life of this patron saint of Ireland. Today's society works overtime to proclaim its devotion to women and their right to be anything they want to be... but does it ignore a woman's foremost desire? "I feel like the media tends to focus a lot on the anger, hurt, and destruction of our youth in society," Alessa Love, who attends Westlake High School in Saratoga Springs.

Instead of driving an intellectually dishonest and corrosive wedge between an already divided American public, we should take meaningful action and protect our students.

AN Australian man allegedly caught with methamphetamine and ecstasy during a raid on a villa where he was staying in Bali has been formally charged. The Melbourne man, who has been identified by police as Ricky Shane Rawson, could face up to 12 years in jail if convicted. It is alleged he was found with a small bag of methamphetamine and two ecstasy pills at a villa where he was staying in the upmarket area of Seminyak during a raid on Saturday. Police in Bali on Monday said they intended to charge Rawson with possession, adding that the offence carried a penalty of between four and 12 years in jail. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) on Tuesday confirmed that a 48-year-old Australian man from Victoria had been formally arrested and charged with possession. "He has appointed a lawyer to represent him," a DFAT spokesperson said. "Consular officers are providing consular assistance to the man and his family."

AN Australian man allegedly caught with methamphetamine and ecstasy during a raid on a villa where he was staying in Bali has been formally charged.

The Guttmacher Institute released a study today showing that in 2011, abortion rates reached a low since data began being collected after the Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973. From 2008 to 2011, abortion rates dropped 13%, while the number of abortion providers dropped 4% and clinics dropped 1%. via Guttmacher Institute Why have abortion rates been dropping so significantly? I know you're thinking it's definitely because of the 205 draconian abortion laws enacted over the past few years, but this study collected all its data before that really started happening, and actually suggests that abortion rates are going down because of birth control and family planning. And the economy sucking. And maybe possibly a little bit the shitty laws that were put in place before 2011, but the statistics don't support that a ton. Here are five things you should know from the study: 1. Abortion Rates Have Gone Down Across the U.S. This drop is not statistically skewed by a certain region of the U.S. Abortion rates dropped across all four U.S. regions: by 17% in the Midwest, 15% in the west, 12% in the South, and 9% in the Northeast. "The five states with the lowest abortion rates were Wyoming, Mississippi, South Dakota, Kentucky and Missouri (1-5 abortions per 1,000 women). Yet, rates are based on state of occurrence; in 2009, substantial proportions of abortion patients who lived in South Dakota (26%) or Wyoming (more than 90%) went out of state to obtain an abortion. Thus, the actual abortion rates... in these states are likely higher." Just in case you were really dying to know what your IUD looks like to X-Ray technicians. via Nevit Dilmen 2. IUDs Are Mega Effective Data from the National Survey of Family Growth suggest that Long Acting Reversible Contraceptive (aka LARC often known as intra-uterine devices aka IUDs) have become more popular with the under-twenty-five crew. This means that there are fewer chances for birth control to be skipped or for sperm to find themselves uninvited in uteri that aren't prepared to send them packing, which means fewer unintended pregnancies. "You have SO MANY options to procure your hasty abortion. Let me tell you about them." via Shutterstock 3. Use of the Abortion Pill has Increased Since its introduction in 2000, mifepristone, or the medication abortion, has steadily increased in use. Between 2008 and 2011, early medication abortions went up by 20%, going from representing 17% of all abortions in 2008, to 23% in 2011. This is likely because more abortions are being obtained from nonspecialized clinics that only offer this kind of abortion. It's the economy stupid. via Shutterstock 4. People Know Kids are Expensive, and Plan Accordingly Surprise! Kids are expensive, and so are abortions. The birthrate in the U.S. decreased 9% between 2008 and 2011, a drop attributed to the economic recession. When the economy seems unstable, people don't just have fewer kids, they have fewer pregnancies. This reflects people taking extra care to avoid pregnancy and the financial strain that comes with it. "Presumably, then, more [people] were making conscious decisions to avoid pregnancy and so resumed or continued using contraceptives. This strategy would be expected to have a bigger impact on the rate of intended pregnancies than on the abortion rate, but could also have averted the 5% of abortions that followed intended pregnancies." via MSNBC 5. It is Still Difficult to Tell How New Abortion Restrictions Affect Numbers of Abortions While the study did not find that the overall drop in abortions was attributed to restrictive abortion laws, data in a few states indicated that laws intended to restrict access to abortion may have created barriers for people seeking abortions, thus resulting in lower rates. There are a lot of sentences in the report like, "Many of the laws would not be expiated to have a measurable impact on abortion incidence. ...because the overwhelming majority of abortions occur in the first trimester, bans and limits on later abortions implemented in Arizona, Arkansas, Nebraska and Utah would likely have little effect on abortion incidence." "Regulations for in-person counseling and a 24-hour waiting period in Missouri, may have posed a barrier to service for some women, and [targeted regulation of abortion providers (TRAP)] laws like the one implemented in Louisiana may have disrupted clinic services, thereby reducing abortion incidence." These are awkward distinctions to make, because even if the restrictions aren't creating statistically significant drops, they're still limiting people's options, and have probably resulted in at least a few people not having access to procedures they needed. I know there are all sorts of technicalities about what conclusions you're allowed to draw from statistics, but I did really badly in stats, which my professor attributed to my being a feminist. Jezebel is excited about this statistical insignificance , because it highlights, as Erin Gloria Ryan writes, "Anti-choice politicians are not helping; they're offering a solution to a nonexistent problem at great expense to the taxpayers who fund the myriad of state legal battles that ensue in the wake of abortion restrictions." But my first thought was that we might start hearing from anti-choice assholes after this that abortion laws still aren't doing enough to limit abortion access. I hope I'm wrong.

"Anti-choice politicians are not helping; they're offering a solution to a nonexistent problem at great expense to the taxpayers who fund the myriad of state legal battles that ensue in the wake of abortion restrictions."

ISIS religious leader Abu Omer, who is notorious for executing gay men by throwing them from buildings, has escaped justice by paying a $7,500 bribe. Omer was captured by Iraqi security forces last week after civilians in Mosul reported his hideout t... Read Iraqi security forces have captured Abu Omer, a notorious ISIS executioner known for stoning people and throwing gay men from buildings. Local media is reporting that civilians in Mosul had reported Abu Omer's hideout to security forces. According to... Read Donald Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner is in Iraq at the invitation of Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the NYT reports: The president has also charged Mr. Kushner, who has no previous government or diplomatic exp... Read Last June when the documentary Out of Iraq first aired, we reported on Nayyef and Btoo, Iraqi soldiers who fell in love during the Iraq war, were separated for several years, sought asylum in the west, and are now married. Btoo and Nayyef now... Read Khizr Khan, the father of slain US Army soldier Capt. Humayun Khan, responded to Donald Trump's claims about the Iraq war in a statement released during last night's debate. RELATED: Second Presidential Debate Between Trump and Clinton: R... Read Matt Lauer was widely panned on social media for his poor moderation of last night's Commander-In-Chief Forum Town Hall on MSNBC. But at the top of grievance lists was Lauer failing to challenge Donald Trump as he blatantly lied about his posit... Read A new documentary tells how two gay Iraqi soldiers met and fell in love during the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq. Out of Iraq, which premiered at the L.A. Film Festival earlier this month and debuts on June 13 on Logo, follows Nayyef Hrebi... Read TODAY. Democrats and Republicans hold primaries in Indiana. 57 delegates are up for grabs for Republicans in a winner-takes-all situation, and Democrats will proportionally distribute the 92 delegates up for grabs in their race. 2016 ELECTION. Donald... Read ISIS has reportedly killed another man for being gay by hurling him from a building as a crowd of onlookers gathered on the street below. The Islamic State released photos of the lead up to the execution as well as the execution itself, claiming the... Read The horror of the Paris massacres is rightfully a shock to every decent human being on the planet. Seeing young people out on the town slaughtered while enjoying food, music and art is more than anyone should have to witness in a lifetime. Clearly ou... Read

om a building as a crowd of onlookers gathered on the street below. The Islamic State released photos of the lead up to the execution as well as the execution itself, claiming the... R

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, the nation's most pro-abortion governor, is President Obama's new choice to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the largest of the government agencies and the one handling most of the nation's social conservative policy issues. Like President Obama, Mrs. Sebelius has embraced pro-life rhetoric in an attempt to camouflage her radical record on the abortion issue. When faced with a choice between abortion rights and other women's rights, Sebelius generally backed the women's rights position, thus seeming to reject a pro-abortion position. When Sebelius vetoed legislation requiring disclosure on information from providers of late-term abortions, her colleagues suggested that she feared the legislation would compromise women's medical privacy. She signed a bill, commonly called "Alexa's Law," that would criminalize violence on a fetus; she also signed a bill requiring abortion providers to submit fetal tissue samples when the mother is younger than 14 years of age. Republicans in Kansas explain that the governor signed the legislation only because it was part of a mega package containing other legislation that she supported. Her record is important because at HHS, Gov. Sebelius would in be charge of health care concerns, with influence on federal and state policies on a wide variety of controversial issues, including abortion policies, parental notification, conscience rights protections, and destructive embryonic stem cell research. She has taken extreme positions on preventing third-term abortions and protection against born alive abortions. Sebelius vetoed "every piece of legislation aimed at a 'woman's right to know' about abortions, including legislation on statistical reporting and on requiring women to look at sonograms before going through with the procedure." In addition, Sebelius was endorsed by Planned Parenthood, and they conducted fundraising campaigns for her election. As pointed out by Clarke D. Forsythe and Denise M. Burke, two distinguished lawyers with Americans United for Life, Gov. Sebelius has vetoed late-term abortion measures requiring medical reasons for late-term abortions, requiring abortion providers to report the diagnosis that necessitated a late-term abortion, and permitting injunctive relief for illegal late-term abortions or additional legal support in prosecuting violations of the prohibitions against late-term abortions. Last year she vetoed important specifics that strengthened the parental notification laws. Earlier she cold-heartedly vetoed legislation that would have strengthened abortion accountability, including cleaning up shockingly unsanitary conditions in Kansas abortion clinics. Forsythe and Burke also note the Governor's cozy relationship with late-term abortionist George Tiller. Tiller, along with 25 of his friends and employees, and Nebraskan abortionist LeRoy Carhart, were honored at the Governor's Mansion in April 2007. John Hanna, an Associated Press reporter, documented the event with photographs. Tiller faces 19 counts of illegally performing late-term abortions, with his trial set for March 16. Sebelius appointed one of Tiller's outspoken supporters, John Carmichael, to the Human Rights Commission, though she quietly withdrew the nomination later. She appointed Howard Ellis, another abortionist, to the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts, even though he had surrendered his medical license in Missouri rather than face disciplinary charges. Ellis resigned and shortly thereafter was charged with trying to persuade a physician to falsify records. Mrs. Sebelius is also the daughter of a governor; her father, John Gilligan, is former governor of Ohio. A popular Democrat in a longtime red state, Sebelius has the support of both the GOP senators from Kansas, Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback. She will have the support of the Democrats in Congress, as well as that of the two senators from Maine, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, who are pro-abortion Republicans. Cortney O'Brien No doubt, both the president and Mrs. Sebelius will trumpet the fact that the abortion rate in Kansas declined during her term in office and that it declined more than the national rate during that time (14 percent decline in Kansas to 9 percent decline nationally). As I noted earlier, Governor Sebelius has talked the pro-life talk, and she signed some pro-life legislation while governor of Kansas, but her record is overwhelmingly pro-abortion; as she said in the Wichita Eagle, "certain inalienable rights are not applied in utero." Obviously, President Obama will choose an HHS Secretary who supports his positions, but one has to wonder why he would appoint back-to-back HHS nominees with such controversial abortion records. With Sebelius, he will have a fight on his hands that will give the pro-life movement good experience and perhaps a strong victory before the battle over his first Supreme Court nominee sometime in the next three years.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, the nation's most pro-abortion governor, is President Obama's new choice to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the largest of the government agencies and the one handling most of the nation's social conservative policy issues.

People rally outside the Statehouse, Wednesday, June 20, 2018, in Boston, to protest how immigrants are being treated both on the border with Mexico and in Massachusetts. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) As a writer, I depend on other writers. So do...other writers. I'm not out on the street, with a notepad in my pocket and a pencil in my ear. Neither are the vast majority of people writing these days. We glean from one another. We research. We find information on the web, in newspapers, in reports, in books, in magazines, or other places. And lately, getting clear facts has become more difficult than ever, thanks to the left-wing bent of even supposedly right-wing journalists (please see this ). What is a migrant? What is an asylum seeker? These are confusing terms, when used to mean something at best more specific and at worst wholly different. When euphemisms are employed for those breaking the law, not only is the notion of law diminished, but the clarity of the story suffers significantly. Kira Davis Go on social media right now: I guarantee you can find someone who believes those seeking asylum have to sneak across the border and be put in a cage. Why do they think that? Partly due to the media's unwillingness to use proper terms even when it obstructs the facts. People seeking asylum can do so at a port of entry. But not according to the stories I read. If the numerous articles regarding family separation are to be believed, "migrants" are being captured and put in cages. If someone breaks into your house, are they a domestic "migrant?" Is that a fair description? At times, I find myself exerting ridiculous effort to get to the reality of a story, so I can relay it. What is this person? Someone running from execution in their home country, someone just wandering the plains, someone immigrating to America, or somebody breaking the law? It's hard to tell. Of course, anymore, virtually zero stories are told about actual immigrants. "Immigrants" are those who come here legally; however, in an effort to skew the truth, the media have taken that word and used it to refer to ILLEGAL immigrants so much that it has almost ceased to be utilized any other way. The impression, therefore, is twofold: There is no way to enter the country legally. The only (read: correct) way to enter America is to sneak in. The result is a very confused public. Not a day goes by that I don't see regular people online, raving about what Donald Trump is doing to "migrants." "Asylum seekers." "Immigrants." I know those are not the proper terms, but I don't believe they do. And I hear songs and see talking heads and typing radicals telling us we're a nation of immigrants. To that, I say: NO, WE ARE NOT. We are NOT a "nation of immigrants." Not when the word "immigrants" means, instead, "illegal immigrants." Words mean something, and the Left is poaching the language (illustrated here ). As in so many other cases, sadly, the Right seems to be following suit. How about this: how about, everyone say what they're actually talking about? So I don't have to waste time consulting my Baloney-to-English dictionary, and social media isn't filled with the rants of fools commenting on something that doesn't exist, because the media was too weak to describe what does. We can't have a healthy debate in this country, if the terms being used in the discussion have no direct relation to the ideas behind them. In that event, everyone is talking about something different. And very few know what they are talking about at all. At the very least, let us say what we mean. Me, you...this American conservative base. Let us not kowtow to the demands of those who want nothing more than to mislead the ignorant into the hypnotically comforting belief they are informed. That is what is happening: "migrant" is the new "illegal immigrant," and stupid is the new smart. Let's put a moratorium on stupid. Let's build a wall against it. Keep it out of ports of entry. Protect the borders of our nation's understanding of truth. And in doing so, may we have a conversation in that light, in that mutual acceptance and agreement. Because without the clarity of reality, "nothing" is the new anything. For more on the culture, please go here and here . Find all my RedState work here . And please follow Alex Parker on Twitter .

People rally outside the Statehouse, Wednesday, June 20, 2018, in Boston, to protest how immigrants are being treated both on the border with Mexico and in Massachusetts. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) As a writer, I depend on other writers.

Douglas V. Gibbs Douglas V. Gibbs of Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary, has been featured on "Hannity" and "Fox and Friends" on Fox News Channel, and other television shows and networks. Doug is a Radio Host on KMET 1490-AM on Saturdays with his Constitution Radio program, as well as a longtime podcaster, conservative political activist, writer and commentator. Doug can be reached at douglasvgibbs [at] yahoo.com or constitutionspeaker [at] yahoo.com. Most Recent Articles by Douglas V. Gibbs: 1 2 3 Next Page Last Page Mar 27, 2018 -- Douglas V. Gibbs First of all, when we talk about the Omnibus Bill that really shouldn't have been signed by President Trump, let's understand something - It was written by the establishment . . . Democrats and Republicans alike. Only the Tea Party Freedom Caucus stood against it. Trump had been putting sticks in the spokes of the establishment machine, and they finally became desperate, and presented the monstrosity of an omnibus bill (rather than a budget) with the timing and language that could not be responded to in any way without it being a disaster for Trump. Veto it? The government shuts down, and the blame would be squarely on him. Sign it? The establishment gets most of its pet programs and leftist garbage paid for. Mar 26, 2018 -- Douglas V. Gibbs I am a firm believer that there is always more than what you see on the surface. I also believe that the road to hell is paved with the best of intentions. Sometimes the evil is in the motive behind what is going on, and sometimes the evil was not in the motive but the path something takes once it takes hold. What we must realize is that nothing is ever what it seems. What we see now may not necessarily be what it will be tomorrow. Therefore, careful attention must be paid in everything we do. The Founding Fathers realized this when they wrote the United States Constitution. They recognized the importance of our individual Natural Rights, and the danger of allowing the federal government any opportunity to infringe on our right to keep and bear arms. I didn't always fully understand these things. For most people, it takes a large number of life experiences for us to come to the realizations that we recognize as we become older and wiser. Wisdom often comes with age, and always requires a long list of epiphanies which often slam painfully into our brains, and our egos, through our life's journey. Mar 12, 2018 -- Douglas V. Gibbs A young man asked me, "I wanted to ask you a constitutional question regarding Attorney General Jeff Sessions' ability to sue California for protecting illegals with sanctuary status." I responded, "It begins with a question about authority." After the United States Justice Department filed a lawsuit against California, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said , "California absolutely, it appears to me, is using every power it has - powers it doesn't have - to frustrate federal law enforcement. So you can be sure I'm going to use every power I have to stop them." Feb 22, 2018 -- Douglas V. Gibbs The shooting at a high school in Florida that left 17 dead has left students in America emotionally drained. They have witnessed the horror of gun violence, and they've been told by the public school system, media, and other sources that the only way to end such situations is through more gun control; and ultimately, the full confiscation of every gun in the country. After the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in an attempt to show solidarity with their fellow students nearby, Florida students from a neighboring school walked out of class to participate in their own protest against gun violence . Jan 30, 2018 -- Douglas V. Gibbs I was skeptical of Donald Trump when he first emerged on the political scene during the 2016 Election Season. My wife, an immigrant from Mexico who naturalized in 2007 was a fan of Mr. Trump right out the gate, the moment he said the word, "Wall." She was brought to the United States when she was a baby. Her parents spent many years saving up their money to make the move. When asked about illegal aliens, my wife says, "It's a slap in my dad's face. My dad didn't bring us here to be Mexicans. He brought us here to be Americans. My dad followed the law and the rules, and those rules are there because it weeds out those who really don't want to truly be Americans, and those who pose a danger to the United States." She had been talking about a wall long before Trump did. Hers, however, was a little more practical, and a little more fierce. She wanted gun turrets, broken glass and inverted nails at the top, and a moat with alligators. The moat, however, would also provide the dirt needed in New Orleans to shore up their levies, and the 'gators would come from Florida. "Everyone's happy," she commented, when I asked her about it. Jan 12, 2018 -- Douglas V. Gibbs Maxine Waters has represented, in the U.S. House of Representatives, a region of communities on the southside of Los Angeles since 1991. She is criticized for not even living in her district, one of four members of Congress in California to make the claim . However, truth be told, her lavish mansion in South Los Angeles used to be in her district, but redistricting shifted Waters and a few of her neighbors, into the 37th District now represented by Democratic Rep. Karen Bass. Waters now resides .1 mile outside the boundary of the district she represents . Waters has spent many of those 37 years in Congress as head of the Black Congressional Caucus . Now, she's also seen as a rockstar in the #resist movement. But, like the boundaries of her district, times have changed. Dec 16, 2017 -- Douglas V. Gibbs The Net Neutrality argument is an old one that has been around much longer than the internet. Long before today's technology was even a nugget of thought in science fiction novels the concept of statism existed. In today's America, the Marxist idea of collectivism and utopia goes a little something like, if the federal government doesn't maintain some kind of control over something the big bad corporations will take away our freedom regarding that something - whatever it may be. Think about that, for a moment. The liberal left believes that freedom is maintained by big government control. It sounds like an oxymoron because it is. Dec 15, 2017 -- Douglas V. Gibbs Bob Ley, leading the Friday Four on ESPN's Outside the Lines , mentioned on a recent episode that the NFL's Thursday Night Football game on television lost 27% of its audience, compared to last year's numbers from the game during the same time of the year. That's more than a quarter of its viewers! Faced with such a stunning revelation of reality in 2017, he asked if the violence of the game was turning off viewers. In a conversation with an anti-Trump friend of mine who is an avid football fan in the Pacific Northwest, he said to me that the empty stadiums and declining numbers in television viewership was a direct result of the public's recent awareness and anger over the NFL's inability to deal with the rising numbers of "concussions" and "head injuries" in the game. Are these people that stupid? Dec 11, 2017 -- Douglas V. Gibbs The Christian Baker who refused to bake a cake with a homosexual wedding message on it lost everything. The business is gone. They went bankrupt. The court case, however, lives on, and The United States Supreme Court has heard the oral arguments on it. This is dangerous. I am not excited when the federal government, especially the courts, begins to stick their fingers into issues regarding our rights. In fact, the Constitution strictly forbids it. Natural Rights have five characteristics, four of which are listed in the Declaration of Independence. We are entitled to our natural rights. Our rights are self-evident. We were endowed with our rights by our Creator (rights are God-given). Our rights are unalienable. The rights of one person extends only to the limits of the rights of another. Dec 10, 2017 -- Douglas V. Gibbs Remember when, under the presidency of Barack Obama, we were told that high unemployment rates and sluggish growth of the economy was the new normal? We were told that there was nothing that could be done about it. Two terms of the brilliant blind lashing out against the problems we faced as a nation by the messiah, Obama, could not fix it, so it could not be fixed. Get used to it, misery is now life as we know it. In less than a year under the Donald J. Trump administration's efforts, the current 4.1% unemployment rate is the lowest we've seen in 17 years . Unemployment claims have fallen to the lowest level in 43 years . The economy has been improving at a rate greater than what was accomplished during any of the years Obama was president, and with tax cuts on the horizon, a sudden boost to the economy is ready to roar . Dec 7, 2017 -- Douglas V. Gibbs "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah [and] against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it." (Zechariah 12: 2,3) The verses from the Bible were written thousands of years ago. The prophet Zechariah said that there would be a time, a time close to what Christians call the "End Times", that Israel would be the center of world strife. Israel was destroyed in 70 A.D., and the temple in Jerusalem was taken apart brick by brick. Dec 5, 2017 -- Douglas V. Gibbs John Conyers, a Democrat member of the House of Representatives, has been caught up in the plague of sexual impropriety scandals infesting the liberal left ever since they decided to open Pandora's Box with their false accusations of Alabama's Judge Roy Moore. Conyers has been irreverent in the face of the accusations, suggesting that he is somehow immune to such things, and above the law, because of his position in government. Conyers' colleague, Jim Clyburn, was asked about the accusations against Conyers , while walking to an elevator with Congressional Black Caucus chairman Cedric Richmond (D-LA). The question posed was, "Other men in other industries have faced similar accusations ... and gotten out of the way, resigned, stepped down, far faster than he has, right ... Harvey Weinstein, Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer?" Dec 2, 2017 -- Douglas V. Gibbs We have created this culture, and now we have to live with it. We have allowed the liberal left to rip up the Constitution, and move us away from the rule of law. We now reside in a land governed by the rule of man, and truth, justice, and the American Way has been tossed out the window as a result. Kate Steinle was a lovely young woman of only 32 who died in her father's arms after being murdered in 2015 in San Francisco by an illegal alien, Garcia Zarate, who had been released by a San Francisco jail despite a standing federal deportation order. Deported five times before, the illegal alien's murder of Kate Steinle became a battle cry for those calling for the federal government to enforce immigration law, which, under President Barack Obama, had not been happening. The Trump Campaign in the 2016 Presidential Election used the incident as a rallying cry, providing that the Steinle murder was proof positive that sanctuary city status kills Americans. Nov 17, 2017 -- Douglas V. Gibbs Can someone figure out who you are today by examining your actions from 39 years ago? I am not who I was 39 years ago, or 29 years ago, or 9 years ago. As human beings, we tend to learn, grow and mature. I do not believe Roy Moore is guilty of what he is being accused of, but isn't it strange that all of this suddenly appeared within 30 days of an election regarding a guy who is not only a threat to the Democrats, but the moderate establishment Republicans? Nov 15, 2017 -- Douglas V. Gibbs Since the current White House disagrees with his liberal left philosophies, and his blind religiosity concerning the man-made climate change myth, California Governor Jerry Brown has decided to go over the head of the President of the United States in a manner some may consider seditious. Governor Brown is in Germany , right now, negotiating an alliance with foreign countries, in defiance of the Trump administration, and the United States Constitution (which is the Law of the Land). Oct 2, 2017 -- Douglas V. Gibbs Never mind Concussions. The end of the NFL won't be because of how brutal the game is, but because of how stupid its players and management are. As a business, they have stuck their middle-finger in the faces of most Americans who appreciate and respect the American Flag and the National Anthem. But, they know not what they do. Like trained circus animals, they are simply obeying the demands of cultural Marxism, which demands that they stand by a false premise as they destroy their product and lose the loyalty of their consumers. California an Accomplice in Terrorism Sep 27, 2017 -- Douglas V. Gibbs In a discussion with Melissa Melendez, my assemblywoman in Sacramento, she pointed out to me that a Democrat colleague of hers (Reggie Jones-Sawyer of Los Angeles) actually stated that in California, they don't need to adhere to the U.S. Constitution. "We do it anyway." To the far left Marxist liberal Democrats in Sacramento, the law of the land and the rule of law means nothing to them. All that matters is their agenda. Congress has the authority to make immigration legislation as per Article I, Section 9 of the United States Constitution. As per Article VI, any law a State makes that is contrary to constitutional laws on the books made by the United States Government are unconstitutional, and therefore, illegal. Sep 26, 2017 -- Douglas V. Gibbs California Republican Assemblyman Travis Allen is a minority voice in the wilderness of liberal left Democrat Party domination. California's Democrats have gone into full socialism and "kill-the-golden-goose" mode since regaining a supermajority in California's State Legislature that essentially has rendered the Republican opposition moot and unable to stop any of the madness the Democrats have planned for the once golden State of California. State Senate Bill Number 1 (S.B. 1) signed by Governor Jerry Brown on April 28, 2017, and filed with the Secretary of State on the same day, launched an assault of crushing taxation upon the residents of California that had also been tried in 2003, but led to the recall of Governor Gray Davis . Sep 16, 2017 -- Douglas V. Gibbs St. Louis, Missouri spent the evening in chaos. Mob violence. They called the gatherings a "protest," but protests are normally peaceable assemblies, not looting, fighting, breaking windows and the setting of fires. The reason for the upheaval was because a white police officer, Jason Stockley, was found not guilty of murdering a black suspect he had shot while serving on duty. The suspect, Anthony Lamar Smith, way back in December 2011, was unwilling to comply with the commands of police as they approached him, used his vehicle to slam it into the police cruiser, fled in a high-speed chase that reached speeds of up to 87 miles per hour, appeared to be pulling out a firearm at the end of the chase, and was on parole for gun and drug charges, so the police officer, fearing for his life, fired upon the suspect in self-defense, killing him. Sep 7, 2017 -- Douglas V. Gibbs I normally support my president. For the most part, I am happy that Donald Trump is President of the United States. He's got intestinal fortitude of a magnitude the Republican Party hasn't had since the GOP Revolution in 1994, and we haven't seen in a President since Ronald Reagan. Donald J. Trump's rise to popularity was largely as a result of his tough stance on immigration. "Build That Wall!" became a regular chant at his rallies. And, during the campaign, he said he would end Obama's unconstitutional executive action called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The White House illegally mandated the Dream Act into (law?) without legislative authority to do so. The leftist law failed to pass Congress a number of times before Obama decided to unconstitutionally take it upon himself to unilaterally put it into action. 1 2 3 Next Page Last Page

Douglas V. Gibbs Douglas V. Gibbs of Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary, has been featured on "Hannity" and "Fox and Friends" on Fox News Channel, and other television shows and networks.

TeleSur | - - Speaking last month of reducing restrictions on drone usage, President Trump resorted to biblical language, saying "retribution will be fast and powerful." The United States is preparing to eliminate several major restrictions and regulations on the use of drones, making it easier to use the controversial form of warfare more frequently, [...] By Rebecca Gordon | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | - - Think of it as the Trojan Drone, the ultimate techno-weapon of American warfare in these years, a single remotely operated plane sent to take out a single key figure. It's a shiny video game for grown ups -- a Mortal Kombat or Call of Duty [...] TeleSur | - - Human rights organizations argue the U.S. government has grossly underestimated the number of civilian deaths caused by drones. The United States government accepted responsibility Friday for inadvertently killing up to 116 civilians in strikes in countries where America is not at war, a major disclosure likely to inflame debate about targeted [...] By Jack Serle | ( Bureau of Investigative Journalism) | - - US drones hit Taliban more than terrorist networks despite end of Afghan war The majority of US airstrikes in Afghanistan in 2016 have been in support of ground troops including Afghan forces fighting the Taliban, rather than targeting suspected terrorists. An investigation by [...] TeleSur | - - Protesters say the base is being used to coordinate U.S. drone strikes in several countries which they argue violates German constitution. Several thousand demonstrators formed a human chain along the perimeter of a U.S. Air Force Base in southwest Germany Saturday in protest against drone operations by the United States. The [...] David Stupples | (The Conversation) | - - The relationship between Russia and the West is becoming increasingly dangerous with potential flashpoints developing in both eastern Europe and Syria. After repeated incursions into Turkish airspace by Russian warplanes on bombing raids over Syria, NATO's secretary general Jens Stoltenberg warned Moscow that it stands ready to [...] By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) - The tragic deaths last January, just now being revealed, of two Western hostages in drone strikes on a relatively empty housing complex in northern Pakistan near the Afghanistan border underlines that the Obama administration is killing people from the air without knowing who they are and is killing [...] By Gregoire Chamayou | (Tomdispatch.com) Initially, the English word "drone" meant both an insect and a sound. It was not until the outbreak of World War II that it began to take on another meaning. At that time, American artillery apprentices used the expression "target drones" to designate the small remotely controlled planes at which [...]

US drones hit Taliban more than terrorist networks despite end of Afghan war The majority of US airstrikes in Afghanistan in 2016 have been in support of ground troops including Afghan forces fighting the Taliban, rather than targeting suspected terrorists.

Police arrest Harvard, Boston school professors at DACA protests Published 9:36 AM, September 08, 2017 Updated 12:02 PM, September 08, 2017 'IMMIGRANTS ARE WELCOME HERE.' Police bring Reverend Jonathan Walton and other protesters to a waiting police van after they barricaded a street outside Harvard in Cambridge on September 7, 2017. Photo by Melvyn Calderon MASSACHUSETTS, USA - Chanting "education, not deportation," hundreds of professors, students, and staff of Harvard and Boston universities marched outside the gates of Harvard in Cambridge on Thursday afternoon, September 7 (early Friday morning, Manila) to denounce the Trump administration's decision to end an amnesty that protects young immigrants in the country. The protest, which began with fiery speeches from students and professors inside the campus and followed by a march outside, was marked by the arrest of more than a dozen protesters after they briefly barricaded a portion of Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, right outside Harvard's Johnson Gate. Among those arrested was Reverend Jonathan Walton, a minister at the Memorial Church and a Harvard professor. "We are here to say to the US president and all insecure leaders that no human being is illegal," Walton told the crowd during a short program before he was brought to a police van along with other protesters. He accused US President Donald Trump of using young immigrants as "scapegoats" for his insecurity. Police said the arrests were made because the protesters' human barricade blocked traffic. "It's not because of the content of your rally," a policeman told the crowd. The Harvard Crimson said more than 20 of those arrested were professors from Harvard and other universities in the Boston area. Quoting Cambridge Police Department spokesperson Jeremy Warnick, the Crimson said the arraignment will take place on Friday, September 8 (Saturday in Manila), and that bail will be at $40. DEFEND DACA. Students and teachers at Harvard march outside the university compound in support of young immigrants. Photo by Melvyn Calderon Ahmed Ragab, a professor at Harvard's Divinity School who was also at the rally, noted the irony of his presence since he had just come from a most important appointment on Thursday: his oath-taking as an American citizen. "I took my oath today as a citizen, but my students are not allowed to do the same. We stand here today because we want to shout that no one is illegal," Ragab told the crowd. "We regret the misguided discourse that vilifies their parents." 'I'M UNDOCUMENTED.' Rosa Marquez, a sophomore at Harvard, says young immigrants like her are not leaving the US. Photo by Melvyn Calderon Rosa Vazquez, a Harvard sophomore from Mexico, proclaimed to the crowd that she is undocumented and is not ashamed of it. "We are not leaving. We are not afraid, because we matter," she said. The protesters chanted, "Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here!" Up to 800,000 young immigrants face deportation in the US after President Donald Trump ended on September 5 an amnesty program set by his predecessor, Barack Obama. The move is expected to affect thousands of Filipino immigrants who have been granted protection by the program. SAY IT LOUD, SAY IT CLEAR. Immigrants are welcome here, chant protesters at Harvard on September 7, 2017. Photo by Melvyn Calderon Genevieve Clutario, a Filipino history professor at Harvard, joined the march with her son and other Filipinos. "I am here to support DACA," she said, referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals which was implemented 5 years ago to help bring the children of undocumented immigrants out of the shadows of illegality, permitting them to study and work without fear. - Rappler.com

12:02 PM, September 08, 2017 'IMMIGRANTS ARE WELCOME HERE.' Police bring Reverend Jonathan Walton and other protesters to a waiting police van after they barricaded a street outside Harvard in Cambridge on

Dan Bongino explained to Dana Loesch, in much clearer terms, why he exploded on Mark Caputo and how the whole thing began in the first place. Watch: I totally agree with Dan . . . Dan Bongino took to his Facebook to post a video explaining what happened with Politico reporter Marc Caputo in an earlier expletive-ridden exchange (you can watch it here). He calls Caputo a "fraud" . . . The Obama administration is revealing today that the FBI has discovered nearly 15,000 new emails not previously disclosed by the cankled commie harridan otherwise known as Hillary Clinton. From the Washington Times: . . . In yet another unbelievable story of, "didn't every single conservative warn that this would happen?!" the State Department is now warning Americans that they're being targeted for capture by Iran after we . . . IN a very long but incredibly entertaining call, Dan Bongino absolutely loses it and rips into Politico reporter Marc Caputo over an article he says is being unfair to him. The audio . . . Dana Bash actually did a pretty good job making Robby Mook, the campaign manager for Hillary, answer to all the criticisms lobbed at the campaign about the Clinton Foundation this week. Watch . . . It looks like Kellyanne Conway really is going to change Trump's policies, even his key issue of immigration. Today when pressed by Dana Bash on whether he would keep his "deportation force," . . . Hillary showed her racist roots again by panicking and blaming a black guy for the stupid things she done while at the State Department. When the black guy, who was later discovered . . . A Lousiana man called out the "Black Lives Matter" movement and the Black Panthers for running to organize when a black man is shot by police but completely ignoring black lives when . . . After days of every single Trump spokes-moron coming out and lying to us that everything is fine, there's no problem with Paul Manafort, he was fired today. Of course the guy who he . . . The lovely and brilliant Dana Perino tried to use logic and reason to explain to Trumping O'Reilly that the polls are very accurate, and always have been accurate, and it's stupid to . . . According to the AP, Paul Manafort has just resigned from the Trump campaign in the wake of the Breitbart takeover and the Ukraine revelations: BREAKING: Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort resigns in . . . As we reported before, the formerly stalwart "Never Trump" advocate Brad Thor has FLIPPED and endorsed said he would vote for el Trumpo after being persuaded by GOP establishment tool Hugh Hewitt, . . . This is another one of those stories where you go, "of course that happened!" but it's still kinda shocking. Breitbart's Matt Boyle literally did what Trump morons accuse us of - he . . . Brexit champion Daniel Hannan, a very serious person who not only understands but greatly appreciates America and her Constitution, hit back at Donald Trump today for claiming that he would be known . . . Dana Perino wants to make sure that the 2012 poll delusion doesn't happen again in 2016, so she took to Twitter last night to give her honest assessment of the election: Getting . . . Apparently Ben Shapiro isn't the only former Breitbart employee who doesn't like Steve Bannon. With apologies for using Media Matters, here is Dana Loesch revealing how she really feels about Bannon: DANA . . . It finally happened - Eric Bolling freaked out on Fox News' "the Five" when people started confronting him about the bad Trump polling. He starts screeching that polls don't matter and we . . . There's been a lot of response this morning on Twitter to the news of the Breitbart takeover of Trump's campaign. And as you might imagine, much of it is quite sarcastic and . . . This might be the best news you'll hear all day. The despicable British Muslim Imam Anjem Choudary is finally going to prison and faces a possible 10 years in jail for encouraging . . .

Dan Bongino explained to Dana Loesch, in much clearer terms, why he exploded on Mark Caputo and how the whole thing began in the first place. Watch: I totally agree with Dan

With no visa, no job prospects, and no command of English, Jesus was anxious for weeks before heading 3,000 miles north to the Mexican border. After crossing into the U.S., he made the long journey to Florida, where he reconnected with a cousin who lived in a small apartment in Kendall. For the first nine months, Jesus worked odd jobs until he caught a break when an acquaintance introduced him to a wealthy Coral Gables businessman who needed help with landscaping and maintenance. A few years later, a big-time auto dealer hired him to do the same kind of work. Before leaving his job in the Gables, Jesus arranged for his younger brother to take his place. Jenry arrived sometime in 2003, cramming into a small two-bedroom apartment with his brother and two roommates. After taking care of groceries, rent, and the rest of the bills, the siblings scraped together between $300 and $700 a month to send back home to their father. Although they shared a bedroom, Jesus says he barely saw his brother. At the end of a long day in the hot Florida sun, they'd come home exhausted, sinking into a deep sleep before waking up to do it all over again. Whenever they did venture out, the brothers would head to Bayside Marketplace, where they could wander around and check out the views of Biscayne Bay without having to spend anything. Around 2005, that's where Jenry met Gaudelia, a curvaceous Peruvian with a round face and straight dark hair that fell almost to her elbows. Like him, she was undocumented, having overstayed her visa following a gig as a nanny and housekeeper. The two fell in love fast, and after a few short months, she moved into the apartment with Jenry and his brother. Jenry approached him with a plan to sell the home, liquidate their assets, and move back to Peru. Facebook Twitter More shares recommend reddit email Over the next few years, two other brothers arrived from Peru and the group moved into a new rental in Coral Gables. Without papers, Gaudelia stayed home, cooking and cleaning, while Jenry started his own landscaping company, J. Jave Lawn Services, in 2008. Because of his gregarious personality and uncanny ability to turn strangers into friends, his list of clients ballooned. Before long, he'd hired an entire team of men to help him mow lawns and landscape properties across the county. Business was steady in Miami's year-round tropical climate, and by November 2013, Jenry had socked away enough money to buy a house in West Perrine. With an additional $55,000 from family in Peru and $30,000 from Jesus and his girlfriend to add to the down payment, the house was a precious investment the family hoped would appreciate in value. For Jenry and Jesus, life as undocumented immigrants was risky but manageable. Jesus was more cautious, sometimes declining invitations to parties at Jenry's home for fear he might get pulled over for driving without a license. Jenry simply hacked his way around a legal status, buying vehicles in his company's name or using a friend as a straw buyer. As his business grew, he learned to withdraw money from the landscaping account in amounts small enough that the bank teller wouldn't ask for ID. Everything changed in 2016, though, as it did for so many undocumented residents. As presidential candidate Donald Trump rose to popularity by bashing immigrants and promising to "build the wall," Jesus says they both felt the heat. In January 2017, just a few weeks before Trump took office, Jenry approached his brother with a plan to sell the home, liquidate their assets, and move back to Peru. What Jesus didn't know, he says today, was that his brother was already hatching a secret backup plan to secure legal status. After Jenry Jave-Castillo's sudden death at the age of 38, his parents in Peru worry they might lose their life savings to his secret wife. Courtesy of the Jave-Castillo family One week before Trump's inauguration in D.C., Jenry headed to the Coral Gables District Courthouse with Madeline Velez and left with a marriage license. Exactly three days after the required waiting period, they returned to the makeshift wedding chapel -- a drab, office-sized space with yellow walls and fluorescent lighting -- and vowed to love, honor, and comfort each other for all their living days. Pronouncing them husband and wife, a deputy clerk sent them on their way. The January 18 wedding cost a total of $116 -- $86 for the marriage license, $30 for the ceremony -- but in reality, Jesus believes his brother paid much more. According to Jenry's longtime girlfriend, Jenry actually forked over $6,000 as payment for his bride's hand in marriage, with an additional $6,000 due after his application for residency was reviewed. (Velez and her attorney deny any such arrangement.) If Jenry indeed paid cash in exchange for a marriage license, his case is far from isolated -- especially in South Florida, where there's a long and colorful history of sham marriages. The topic first garnered major attention in 1985 when the Miami Herald published a searing investigation into the gray-market industry. Flipping through 50,000 marriage licenses, reporters looking for blatant examples of fraud found 175 cases where either the bride or groom had engaged in sketchy behavior, such as marrying multiple people within a short time frame. They found other giveaways too: Numerous newlyweds claimed to have the same personal address in Wynwood, while an unusually high number of them had their wedding ceremonies performed by the same woman at a Little Havana immigration service. When undercover reporters visited Carmen P. Hernandez, whom they described as "a plump blonde who wears gold, wire-rim glasses," she quoted them a $4,000 fee and began rattling off a list of practice questions for their immigration interview. "You'll have to study hard for two weeks. You have to do what I say," she told the reporters, who posed as a Haitian immigrant and his concerned friend. "I have 100 percent success because people do what I say." After the Herald piece was published, U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum, a Central Florida Republican, sponsored a bill to crack down on so-called green card marriages. At the time, the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service estimated that 30 percent of weddings involving a foreign spouse were fraudulent, calling sham marriage a $20-million-a-year business. "We need to put a halt to the new alien theory of 'buy a bride, get a green card,'" McCollum told reporters at the time. President Ronald Reagan signed McCollom's Immigration Marriage Fraud Act into law in November 1986, increasing the maximum penalties for a fraudulent marriage to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The new law formalized the requirement for couples to pass an intensive interview about their relationship -- answering questions as mundane as where they kept the toilet paper -- and said newlyweds must remain together at least two years before the foreign spouse could be granted permanent residency. After the bill became law, though, the 30 percent figure quoted by lawmakers and media was widely debunked. An independent 1988 study showed the feds had based it solely on agents' suspicions and not any actual data. But by then, it was too late. Immigration law didn't change drastically again until 1996, when President Bill Clinton inadvertently caused a nationwide surge of courthouse weddings by signing the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which made it easier for the feds to deport undocumented immigrants. In Miami-Dade, the number of marriage applications doubled before the law went into effect April 1, 1997. "Without a doubt, it's got to do with the new law," Roberto Reboso, head of the Dade County Marriage Licensing Bureau, told the St. Petersburg Times . "Our population hasn't increased that much in Dade County to show such a huge percentage of increase in marriage applications." Despite the extra restrictions, Florida remained a hot spot for fake nuptials. In 2001, an undercover Key West cop busted her co-workers at a Duval Street T-shirt shop, where at least one marriage-for-papers was arranged for $2,500. Two years later, an Immigration and Naturalization Service agent in Miami was nabbed after he was discovered rubber-stamping hundreds of residency applications for fees as high as $10,000. One of the largest raids came in 2005, when the feds picked up 30 people in a marriage-fraud sting dubbed Operation Honeymooners. The enterprise, which included elaborately staged videos of wedding receptions with champagne toasts and cake, involved 112 immigrant spouses, a paralegal, and even a paid-off county clerk employee. But it turns out the bubbly was as fake as the marriages -- investigators said the flutes used to toast the bride and groom were actually filled with soda. In recent years, marriage fraud has even been framed as a national security issue thanks to a number of terrorists who married U.S. citizens or residents. The 9/11 Commission found in 2005 that many arrested in terror plots from 1990 to 2004 obtained residency through a spouse, including El-Sayyid Nosair, an Al-Qaeda member later indicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Ali Mohamed, a double agent for the CIA and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad who trained Osama bin Laden's bodyguards. By one count, at least nine terrorists were involved in sham marriages. "I never knew about their marriage. I know that was not a legitimate marriage." Facebook Twitter More shares recommend reddit email The 2015 attack in San Bernardino sparked more concerns about fraud at the altar. After probing the plot that left 14 dead at an office holiday party, investigators discovered that the friend who provided Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik with guns had obtained residency through a bogus marriage. Immigration attorneys say the 2015 attack had a noticeable effect on the federal agents who interview couples to determine whether a marriage is legit. "No one ever gets in trouble for denying, but if you approve someone you're not supposed to approve, then you're on the hook for the next San Bernardino shooter," says Lackey, who has helped hundreds of immigrant spouses apply for residency in Miami. "If they approve one person that shouldn't have been approved, they get fired." Quantifying sham marriages is difficult, but every year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services denies about 8 percent of applications submitted for foreign spouses to obtain residency -- about 19,000 cases. But because the agency decides only if a marriage is "bona fide," not whether it's fraudulent, few people are ever arrested for marriage fraud. Usually, those arrests come only as part of a larger investigation into sham-marriage rings. Jenry and his wife never made it to the immigration office for their own interview. Less than two months after they exchanged vows at the Coral Gables courthouse, he was rushed to the hospital with severe back pain. Only 59 days into their marriage, his new bride became a widow. In the weeks after Jenry's death, Jesus says he made repeated plans to meet Velez at her Coral Gables office, only to have her bail at the last minute. With no news on her end, he finally filed court paperwork to take over his brother's affairs in late May. But what seemed like a straightforward court procedure turned into a bitter fight over the estate when Velez suddenly lawyered up and began fighting for Jenry's assets. Jesus was stunned. Though he knows little about his brother's relationship with Velez, he says he had no doubt their marriage was arranged. If he was truly in love, his brother would have invited him to the wedding -- or at least told him about it, he says. "I never knew about their marriage," Jesus insists. "I know that was not a legitimate marriage, that my brother did not marry her to be a true spouse." Jenry and his girlfriend, Gaudelia Roche, lived together until the day he died. Jenry's brothers (right) are fighting for his estate in Miami. Courtesy of the Jave-Castillo family The day he was laid to rest, April 2, Jenry's body was sealed away in a mahogany casket and hoisted over his brothers' shoulders. In the mountainous countryside of Peru, hundreds of townspeople followed the brothers down a dirt road to a hand-dug gravesite to say their final goodbyes. Using a few pieces of rope, the villagers lowered the coffin into the ground and heaped soil on top. Fourteen years after leaving his country, Jenry was finally home. But his sudden death was a startling reminder of exactly how much he had sacrificed to work in the U.S. Standing at Jenry's gravesite, his family felt both the burden of his loss and the weight of potentially losing their life savings to a woman they didn't know. "It's like losing another son," Jesus says. In the months since Velez filed for the rights to Jenry's estate, the two sides have prepared for an epic legal fight. A friend of the Jave-Castillo family who works as a private eye has combed for evidence that the marriage was arranged, while Velez's attorney is building a case to prove they were an ordinary couple that intended to start a life together. Though the details of Jenry's case are unusual, it's not uncommon for sham marriages to go horribly sideways. Because they risk prosecution or deportation, foreign spouses are particularly vulnerable, often forced to cater to the whims of their sponsor, the American spouse. "There are two common problems," says Wernick, the New York attorney who answers immigration questions in a twice-weekly syndicated column. "One is that before the process is over, the U.S. citizen demands more money. The other is that sometimes the U.S. citizen demands sexual relations when that was not originally contemplated." Lackey, the Miami immigration attorney, says his past consultations with immigrants stuck in abusive marriages have been eye-opening. In one of the craziest cases, he remembers a woman showing him explicit text messages where her husband threatened to sabotage her green card application, saying, "If you don't suck it three times a week, you're done." "That stuff makes your skin crawl," Lackey says. "If it's not sex, it's domestic violence." And he says the abuse can come from women too. On one occasion, he was approached by an immigrant husband who said his American wife forced him to become an unpaid handyman for her friends at his own expense. In another case, Lackey remembers hearing about a woman who got belligerently drunk and smashed a guitar over her husband's head. Jesus began talking to Jenry's friends, and no one had ever met Velez. Facebook Twitter More shares recommend reddit email Neither Wernick nor Lackey was aware of any case like the one involving Jenry, though. Sham marriages are exceedingly rare, and because the majority of people who enter such arrangements aren't wealthy, there typically wouldn't be an estate to fight over even in the unlikely instance where one spouse were to die. Even then, it's almost impossible to prove that a marriage was fraudulently arranged, especially in situations where one spouse is dead, Wernick says. "Finding the marriage was not bona fide -- those cases typically involve a confession," he says. "Where one of the parties is deceased, how are you going to prove it was a phony marriage unless you can find a contract, a piece of paper, a witness who can testify to it?" But Jesus says he has zero doubt that his brother's marriage was a fraud. When he began looking into the mystery bride, he learned that Velez worked as an administrative assistant for Jenry's main client in Coral Gables. But no one seemed to know exactly how they'd met. Velez and her attorney declined to answer questions from New Times about her and Jenry's relationship, and besides the marriage license, there's not a single public record to shed light on their courtship. Jesus began talking to his brother's friends, and although Jenry was known to invite a long list of acquaintances to his raucous house parties, no one had ever met Velez, Jesus says. During weekly phone calls and weekend dinners, Jenry frequently turned to his older brother for advice, but he never mentioned having feelings for anyone but his live-in girlfriend, Gaudelia. In fact, ten days after the courthouse wedding to Velez, Jesus shot video of Jenry and Gaudelia dancing at their favorite Peruvian restaurant in Allapattah. Jesus' legal team turned up more clues that the marriage was sketchy. Over the summer, the family's pro bono investigator discovered that Jenry's girlfriend was still using his bank accounts and living in the West Perrine home. Photos also show Jenry and Gaudelia celebrating Jesus' birthday and Valentine's Day together in the weeks after the wedding. If the relationship were real, Jesus asks, why can't anyone produce a photo of his brother and Velez together? Armed with those arguments, the family's lawyers filed a petition in July to establish the marriage was a sham. "Because the marriage was the product of an illegal contract, the marriage between Madeline Velez and [Jenry] is void," the petition reads. "As a direct and proximate result of the fraud... Madeline Velez is not entitled to any spousal rights or benefits under Florida law." A Miami-Dade circuit judge has yet to rule on those claims. But Bugay, Velez's attorney, says she will be vindicated once a decision is made. He declined to provide any specifics about Jenry and Velez's relationship, saying he couldn't reveal his legal strategy while the case is pending. "There are enough facts where we feel confident that the court will find that this was a legitimate marriage," he tells New Times . Jesus Jave-Castillo and his family pitched in $85,000 to help his brother purchase a West Perrine home in 2013. Photo by Fujifilmgirl At a crowded cafe inside the Barnes & Noble in Coral Gables, Jesus dabs his eyes as they well with tears. It's been six months since the death of his younger brother, but the mention of Jenry's name still brings up intense grief -- and resentment that his family might lose everything he worked for. "Madeline wants to keep all of my brother's belongings, things that don't belong to her," Jesus says in Spanish. "These things truly belong to my mother, who has worked hard her whole life." As Jenry's family grapples with the legal battle with his widow, experts nationwide are still studying the effects of Trump's harsh stance on immigrants. Although it's difficult to prove, immigration attorneys believe Trump's election has spurred countless couples to head to the altar. Just seven weeks after the votes were tallied, a New York Times analysis showed that clerks' offices across the nation were reporting a surge in marriage applications and courthouse wedding ceremonies. In New York City, the number of licenses issued in November 2016 jumped 23 percent compared to November 2015 figures, while Chicago's Cook County saw a nearly 40 percent increase. Miami-Dade County experienced a smaller "Trump bump" of 8.5 percent. There's no way of knowing how many of those marriages involved fraud, but Lackey says there's no question that Trump's hard-line rhetoric has forced many undocumented immigrants to make tough decisions about how to stay in the country. "The political climate is really bad," he says. "What I'm seeing, in one word, is fear. Fear to the hundredth power." Among the administration's attacks on undocumented people, there are signs that a new crackdown on sham marriages could be in the works. In April, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memo about a "renewed commitment to criminal immigration enforcement" that directed federal prosecutors to make immigration cases, including marriage fraud, a higher priority. "For those that continue to seek improper and illegal entry into this country, be forewarned," Sessions said in a speech announcing the initiative. "This is a new era. This is the Trump era." "The political climate is really bad. What I'm seeing... is fear. Fear to the hundredth power." Facebook Twitter More shares recommend reddit email That directive is now playing out in communities all across the country, even for couples in legitimate marriages. Since March, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have burst in on marriage petition interviews from Texas to Pennsylvania to round up undocumented immigrants in front of their horrified American spouses. Those arrested at marriage interviews include a Salvadoran man in Houston and a Honduran man with two children in Cincinnati. A Brazilian woman and Dominican man reporting for separate interviews with their spouses were among five immigrants detained at a government immigration services office in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Lackey says he also witnessed ICE agents arrest an immigrant spouse at an interview in Miami earlier this year. "They've never been in the field offices, and now they're in the field office, the 'border boys,'" Lackey says of the agents. "That is a novelty." In hindsight, Jesus believes those concerns were weighing on his brother's mind when Jenry brought up the idea of moving home. Although he can't say for sure why Jenry married Velez, he knows it was getting harder and harder for his brother to run a business and live his life without the proper papers. If you like this story, consider signing up for our email newsletters. You have successfully signed up for your selected newsletter(s) - please keep an eye on your mailbox, we're movin' in! After Jenry's death, Jesus says he considered finally returning home, but the indignation of losing his family's investment is a cross he can't bear. Without Jenry, Jesus says he and his five brothers will be forced to work overtime to help care for their sickly father. The family's financial situation is dire enough that his 68-year-old mother might have to return to work in the rice fields. "They'll be destroyed for the rest of their lives," he says. Spurred into action by the situation, Jesus married his longtime girlfriend, a legal permanent resident from Ecuador, earlier this summer and has vowed to stay put until the score is settled. No matter how long it takes, he says, it's the right thing to do. "Because my mother is not here physically, I want to be her representative," he says in Spanish. "I'm going to fight it on her behalf."

With no visa, no job prospects, and no command of English, Jesus was anxious for weeks before heading 3,000 miles north to the Mexican border. After crossing into the U.S., he made the long journey to Florida, where he reconnected with a cousin who lived in a small apartment in Kendall.

The West finds much to celebrate about the country, but it has the largest prison population in the Middle East and world's highest per-capita use of teargas. Zoe Holman reports on the state of Bahrain Country ratings Income distribution Life expectancy Position of women Freedom Literacy Sexual minorities NI Assessment (Politics) Last month, some 10,000 visitors funnelled through the Bahraini capital, Manama, for the country's inaugural international arms fair, organized by the British company Clarion. The event included US and Russian pavilions, with representatives from the UK Department of International Trade among its patrons. Attended by simultaneous outcry from human rights campaigners, the fair seemed to emblematize the geostrategic role of the tiny Gulf kingdom that has throughout its history relied on the protection - and patronage - of international players. Locals horse riding in the desert. Alamy/Giuseppe Masci There has been no real effort on the part of the regime to deliver greater equality Bahrain, meaning 'two seas' in Arabic, is the only island nation in the Middle East, connected to Saudi Arabia by a 25-kilometre causeway to the west. It was in 2011, when Saudi tanks ploughed across the bridge to put down peaceful mass demonstrations, that the country entered the international spotlight. But it has been on the radars of Western and regional powers for at least two centuries. Bahrain came under Britain's informal empire in 1820 when its Arab sheikh rulers were afforded status as a protectorate in exchange for co-operation in combating piracy. This bilateral dynamic has endured well beyond Britain's imperial decline and Bahrain's independence in 1971, though the UK navy bases were taken over by the US Fifth Fleet. With its minority Sunni Muslim elite ruling over a Shia majority, the island has also been perceived as a battleground between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The entrenched rule of the Al Khalifah royal family has kept Bahrain firmly within Riyadh's orbit, and pleasure-seeking Saudi sheiks may be found enjoying the greater liberty of Manama's bars and resorts. However, persistent Shia dissent in Bahrain has continued to stoke anxiety among Saudi rulers aware of their own restive Shia population. The modern souk in Manama. Alamy/Jack Malipan It is this narrative of sectarian rivalry that has been vigorously - and erroneously - employed by the Al Khalifahs to characterize popular opposition to their rule. The mass protest in 2011 brought forth well-worn regime claims of 'Iranian-backed terror', 'sectarian violence' and 'Shia extremism'. Yet the campaign did not initially call for regime change or revolution and it was rather the bloody and disproportionate counter-force with which the regime and its Gulf backers met these nonviolent, cross-sect protests that fuelled popular hostility. This outrage has been palpable ever since in Shia villages around the capital, where nightly rituals of tyre-burning and Molotov-throwing have persisted as local youths clash with the security forces. The animosity is, however, driven by injustice and not ideology. Nor have such small-scale insurrections dented the monolith of Al Khalifah authority. The country has the largest prison population in the Middle East and world's highest per-capita use of teargas Despite the official 'reform' programme unfolded in 2011 to much Western applause, there has been no real effort on the part of the regime to deliver greater equality - for example, through overturning rules excluding Shia from the security forces and parliament. Instead, human rights in Bahrain have nose-dived . The country has the largest prison population in the Middle East and world's highest per-capita use of teargas. Torture, arbitrary detention and killing in its notorious jails are well-documented and the death penalty was revived earlier this year to execute alleged terrorists in what have been deemed extrajudicial killings. Activists have been routinely stripped of their citizenship. Opposition political parties have meanwhile been banned and freedom of expression further stifled. A Bahraini law student - there are more opportunities for women than in neighbouringSaudi Arabia. Alamy/Michael Austen All this has taken place not only without sanction from the international community, but in many cases, with its active support . Some PS1billion ($1.3 billion) of UK Foreign Office funds have, for example, been poured into 'training' Bahraini police and security forces since 2011, while Britain is estimated to have sold over $85 million worth of arms to the country between 2010 and 2016. Small wonder then that, despite the atrocities, the West is finding much to celebrate about Bahrain. A demonstration by Bahrainis in London demanding democratic rights in their country. Alamy/Peter Wheeler Fact file Leader King Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah succeeded to the throne in 1999 after the death of his father Isa bin Salman, who had ruled Bahrain since 1961. Economy GNI per capita $22,700 (Saudi $21,750, UK $42,390). Monetary unit Bahraini dinar. Main exports 60% of Bahrain's national income is from oil exports, with other primary industries including aluminium and textiles. People 1.4 million. Population annual growth rate: 3.8%. People per square kilometre: 1,848 (UK 271). Health Infant mortality 5 per 1,000 live births (Saudi 13, UK 4). Lifetime risk of maternal death: 1 in 3,000 (UK 1 in 5,800). HIV prevalence rate: 0.1 per cent. Environment Large areas of Bahrain are at risk of desertification from the degradation of its limited arable land and coastline, which is being destroyed by unbridled sand-dredging and oil-spills. Culture Bahrain's population is majority Arab (around 49%) with various South Asian (mostly Indian) immigrants constituting around 45% alongside African, European and other ethnicities. Religion 71% Muslim, 10% Christian, 10% Hindu, 9% other. The Muslim population is estimated to be around 70% Shia. Language Arabic is the official language, though English is widely used, as well as South Asian languages. Human Development Index 0.824, 47th of 188 countries (Saudi 0.847, UK 0.909). Country ratings in detail Income distribution Though few Bahrainis live below the poverty line, crony capitalism, corruption and uneven distribution of resources have produced severe and growing income inequalities. 1998 Literacy 95% Bahrain has the highest female literacy rate in the Arabian Peninsula at 93.5%. Public education is free and mandatory for both girls and boys up to age 14. 1998 Life expectancy 77 years (Saudi 74, UK 78). Freedom Since 2011, the government has escalated its crackdown on freedom of the press and expression and now owns all broadcast outlets, with de facto control over print outlets. Government surveillance is rife and Shia religious and political figures face serious barriers to operating freely. 1998 Position of women Bahrain ranks well in measures of formal gender equality compared with other countries in the region. Women hold around 19% of parliamentary seats, while abortion is legal and contraception readily accessible. 1998 Sexual minorities Although the current legal status of same-sex relations under Bahraini law is ambiguous, recent years have seen reports of both women and men charged and imprisoned for homosexual activity. Non-gender-conforming individuals also face harassment and abuse by police and civilians. Previously reviewed 1998 New Internationalist assessment Bahrain is nominally a constitutional monarchy with regular parliamentary elections, but the political process is far from free or fair. The government has made concerted efforts to erode the Shia majority through promoting citizenship for foreign-born Sunnis. Formal political parties are illegal and registered opposition 'societies' have since 2011 - when the country came under martial law - had their activities further curtailed or have withdrawn from elections in protest at gerrymandering and corruption. 1998 This article is from the December 2017 issue of New Internationalist . You can access the entire archive of over 500 issues with a digital subscription. Subscribe today >>

The West finds much to celebrate about the country, but it has the largest prison population in the Middle East and world's highest per-capita use of teargas.

The gay deputy editor of Durham University's The Tab magazine has blasted heterosexuals who have put rainbow flag icons on their Facebook images, even calling the LGBT lobby's "fairweather allies" potential "dangerous foes". The comments, which will seem bizarre to those who have been lobbied for decades to become allies of the LGBT lobby's political agenda, come soon after left-wing writer Owen Jones called on corporates to stop supporting gay pride because it was becoming "too mainstream". Charles White wrote on his website today: Call me a cynic, but how long do you really think these pictures will stay up? In a few days, they're bound to disappear -- one by one, Rainbow filters will be replaced by Instagram Valencia again. You're not celebrating anything because you haven't fought anything, you probably haven't done anything other than raise an eyebrow reading the BBC News app before following a trend to drape yourself in the Pride flag. Are you willing to wait for global freedom before you change it? Not that we need you. Queers don't need your patronising ally bullshit. He said that people using the rainbow flag were "appropriating... something quintessentially homo". It's a bit rich to see Pride being appropriated by the straight community. It's like you can't help it, just slowly sucking every life form of ours away to make it your own. Just like you changing your profile picture. Well done: yet another thing to steal from us. We can't even have fucking Pride as our own. We have to share it with you lot now, invite you down, and engage you. Some bright spark at Facebook HQ probably thought it was a great idea to take something quintessentially homo and use it to show we care about the homos. Bizarrely, White also claimed that putting the rainbow flag in one's profile picture didn't mean anything unless the person's children were gay in 30 years time. Maybe I'm being harsh. I've not been lynched (yet) so perhaps everything is great. We'll see in 30 years time if your daughter comes home with her girlfriend. Then we'll see how much your rainbow flag profile picture meant.

The gay deputy editor of Durham University's The Tab magazine has blasted heterosexuals who have put rainbow flag icons on their Facebook images, even calling the LGBT lobby's "fairweather allies" potential "dangerous foes".

Twitter does nothing as trolls actually cost human lives 308 FormerDirtDart 9/20/17 8:02:43 pm ReplyReply w/ QuoteRetweetVideo ReplyReply w/ Quote Let me say this again, in case the subtitle is lost: right-wing trolls are causing human victims of the quake in Mexico City to die. They are posting the names of liberals and activists as "trapped and needing help," diverting rescuers from saving children stuck under the rubble of ... We finally made it 12/07/16 5:55:50 pm Wednesday, December 7, 2016 at 5:55 pm PST * Views: 43,686 And you don't need an LGF account to use it A deep dive into a Javascript pool

Twitter does nothing as trolls actually cost human lives 308 FormerDirtDart 9/20/17 8:02:43 pm ReplyReply w/ QuoteRetweetVideo ReplyReply w/ Quote Let me say this again, in case the subtitle is lost:

White dudes getting fired up. Photograph: Associated Press Exit polls demonstrate that, contrary to the popular narrative of frustrated working-class folks voting for an anti-establishment candidate, Trump's supporters are overwhelmingly rich whites. For a little bit of sense, Vancouver Rape Relief offers solidarity statement with women globally after last night's events: "We hope that Trump's victory is the final blow to break the denial of how deeply embedded racism, misogyny and capitalism is in our society. We stand in solidarity with women in America and women worldwide. We remain hopeful and unyielding in our shared fight for women's freedom." The not-so-honourable Stephen Harper, on the other hand, offered up a statement of solidarity with Donald Trump and the destruction of the earth: Jess Martin is a public relations professional, an aspiring writer, and an assistant editor at Feminist Current. She prefers to write about feminist topics, disability, or environmental issues, but could be persuaded to broaden her horizons in exchange for payment and/or food. In her spare time Jess can be found knitting, gardening, or lying in the fetal position, mulling over political theory that no one in their right mind cares about. Like this article? Tip Feminist Current!

White dudes getting fired up. Photograph: Associated Press Exit polls demonstrate that, contrary to the popular narrative of frustrated working-class folks voting for an anti-establishment candidate, Trump's supporters are overwhelmingly rich whites.

State Department considers it a local matter Arriving at St Joseph's church in the Nigerian town of Gashua, Father John Bakeni knew he was taking on a tough posting. A flyblows settlement near the northern border with Niger, his new parish was smack in the heart of Boko Haram territory, and in the previous three years, all but a fraction of its 3,000-strong Christian minority had fled. Sent by his bishop to show that the diocese had not deserted the town, he spent much of the following year trying to reassure the 200 remaining parishioners. But nearly every time he ventured from his rectory, a reminder would await him of the difficulty of his mission. "Several times a week I would find a dead animal had been thrown in the compound, usually a chicken, goat or sheep, but sometimes dead cats too," said Fr Bakeni, 38. "Stones would get thrown at the church almost every day, and sometimes also people would bang the gates and shout: 'Infidel, we are going to kill you.' "Almost every priest who had been posted to Gashua had the same experience, so I knew it was going to be hard. But I was not sad to leave." Fr Bakeni's mixed feelings about his time at St Joseph's reflect a sense among Nigeria's Christians of a losing battle in the north, where Boko Haram's kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls is seen as part of a wider onslaught to drive them out for good. With Muslims among the missing pupils as well as Christians, international reaction to the crisis has been to emphasise Nigeria as united in anger against a foe that targets both faiths with equal ferocity. But the platitudes do not disguise the fact that Christians now feel particularly vulnerable in the north, where they form a small but highly visible minority that Boko Haram has specifically vowed to "eradicate". The threats have not proved idle. Christian groups estimate that up to a quarter of the 4,000 people killed by Boko Haram since 2009 have been Christians, and more than 700 churches have been attacked in the last seven years alone, according to the Nigerian Catholic Bishop's Conference. Across the troubled north-east, many Christian neighbourhoods are now ghost towns as tens of thousands of residents flee south. It is one of the biggest Christian exoduses of the century, yet largely unremarked outside of Nigeria. Religion of Peace(tm) Via Human Events : . . . According to recent Arabic news media, "a Syrian nun testified to the Vatican news agency that some Christians in Ma'loula were crucified for refusing to convert to Islam or pay jizya" (tribute subjugated Christians are required to pay to their Islamic conquerors in order to exist as Christians, per Koran 9:29). Incidentally, they were crucified by the al-Qaeda linked Nasra Front (so much for Daily Mail's portrayal of al-Qaeda "distancing" itself from the apparently "extra-extremist" ISIL for crucifying its victims). Sister Raghad, the former head of the Patriarchate School in Damascus who currently resides in France, told Vatican Radio how she personally witnessed jihadi rebels terrorize Ma'loula, including by pressuring Christians to proclaim the shehada--Islam's credo that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger--which, when uttered before Muslim witnesses transforms the speaker into a Muslim, with the death penalty for apostasy should the convert later "renege" by returning to Christianity. According to the nun, those Christians who refused to embrace Islam were: "...killed in atrocious and violent ways that cannot be described. If you want examples, they crucified two youths in Ma'loula for refusing to proclaim Islam's credo, saying to them: "Perhaps you want to die like your teacher [Christ] whom you believe in? You have two choices: either proclaim the shehada or else be crucified." One of them was crucified before his father, whom they also killed. In fact, according to earlier media reports from October 2013, soon after Ma'loula fell to the jihadis, one "shaky voiced" elderly Christian man had reported that he heard the invading jihadis shouting, "Convert to Islam, or you will be crucified like Jesus." It is, of course, a documented fact that some Christians in Ma'loula were put to death for refusing to convert to Islam, such as Minas, an Armenian man, while other families succumbed to pressure and converted to Islam. Oddly, there seems to be a lack of stories about Christians killing Muslims who refuse to convert to Christianity. Via Christian Today : A young man named only as Haroon, 22, has reportedly been shot and killed for his faith by a Muslim co-worker in Pakistan. According to a news release from the advocacy group the Center for Legal Aid and Settlement in the UK (CLAAS), Haroon had recently started work in Lahore as a road sweeper, where he worked alongside Muslim security guard Umer Farooq. Farooq mocked Haroon's Christian faith on a daily basis and tried to persuade him to convert to Islam. He told Haroon he was good looking, and should embrace Islam. Farooq also promised Haroon a prosperous life and marriage to a rich Muslim woman, but Haroon did not care about these things and refused to convert. When Haroon told his father what was going on, he advised him to ignore Farooq. On April 16 2014 Haroon went to work. Farooq again started a conversation about religion and began pressurizing him to embrace Islam. CLAAS said Haroon asked Farooq politely why he was so keen for him to convert. Harroon refused to convert, saying he was a follower of Jesus Christ. Farooq then shot Haroon, with a bullet hitting him the head, killing him on the spot. He la ter started shouting that Haroon had attempted suicide. ZIP | April 23, 2014 8:58 am | Comments The slaughter continues. (Reuters) - Gunmen killed more than 100 people in an attack on three villages in central Nigeria, an area where longstanding disputes over land, religion and ethnicity often erupt into violence, two local government officials said on Sunday. Police confirmed the raids by Fulani herdsman late on Friday on the villages of Ugwar Sankwai, Ungwan Gata and Chenshyi, in Kaduna state, but declined to give a death toll. Hundreds have been killed in the past year in clashes pitting the cattle-herding and largely Muslim Fulani people against mostly Christian settled communities like the Berom in Nigeria's volatile "Middle Belt", where its mostly Christian south and Muslim north meet. The unrest is not linked to the insurgency in the northeast by Boko Haram, an al Qaeda-linked group which wants to impose sharia law in northern Nigeria. However, analysts say there is a risk the insurgents will try to stoke central Nigeria's conflict. Though most of the Islamist sect's attacks are contained further north but it did claim a 2011 Christmas Day bomb attack at a church in Jos. "Fulani gunmen came across from neighboring Plateau state and just opened fire on the villagers at around 11 p.m.," said Daniel Anyip, vice chairman of the Kaura local government authority. "We are still picking bodies out of the bush but so far there are more than 100 killed." Andrew Kazah, another local councilor, said at least 96 had been killed, but that the toll was likely to go up. Human Rights Watch in December said sectarian clashes in the nation's religiously mixed central region had killed 3,000 people since 2010, adding that Nigerian authorities had largely ignored the violence, an accusation they denied. ZIP | March 16, 2014 9:05 pm | Comments The slaughter continues. JOS, Nigeria (Morning Star News) - Suspected Muslim herdsmen slaughtered 37 Christians in coordinated attacks on four Plateau state villages early this morning after Boko Haram terrorists killed at least 34 Christians in Borno state earlier this month, sources said. In attacks on the four predominantly Christian villages that started at 1 a.m. in the Barkin Ladi Local Government Area in Plateau State in central Nigeria, ethnic Fulani herdsmen killed 37 people, injured many others and destroyed homes, the military's Special Task Force spokesman, Salisu Mustapha, said in a press statement. "The attackers killed 13 persons in Katu Kapang, eight in Daron, nine in Tul and seven others in Rawuru," he said. Mustapha told Morning Star News by phone that the heavily-armed assailants were believed to be Muslim Fulani herdsmen. Soldiers were still trying to repel the attackers as he spoke. [...] Christian leaders otherwise at a loss to explain the increase in attacks believe Islamic extremist groups are inciting Fulani Muslims to attack them in Plateau state as well as in Kaduna, Bauchi, Nasarawa and Benue states. They fear that the herdsmen, with backing from Islamic extremist groups, want to take over the predominantly Christian areas in order to acquire land for grazing, stockpile arms and expand Islamic territory. Hit-and-run, guerrilla-style attacks on Christian villages in which children are shot to death as they sleep support their suspicion that the assaults are motivated by desire to eliminate Christianity. ZIP | November 27, 2013 6:04 pm | Comments McRINO's "freedom fighters" strike again. Via ICN : The bodies of 30 Christian civilians, including women and children, killed by Islamist militias, have been found in two separate mass graves, in the city of Sadad. The number of Christian civilians confirmed dead in this small town halfway between Homs and Damascus has reached 45. Many are injured and several are missing. The city of Sadad, a Christian settlement, was invaded and occupied by Islamist militias on 21 October. It was recaptured in recent days by the Syrian regular army. When the representatives of the Patriarchate and families of the victims returned to their town they found to their horror two mass graves, where they found the bodies of their relatives and friends. In an atmosphere of grief, outrage and emotion, the funerals of the 30 Christians were celebrated by Archbishop Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh, Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan of Homs and Hama. . According to eyewitnesses, many of the civilians were killed by militia gangs of 'Al- Nusra Front' and 'Daash'. The city has been completely destroyed and looted. Some of the militants who invaded the city were holed up in the Syriac Orthodox Church of St Theodore, which was profaned. Sadad is an ancient Syriac village which dates back to 2000 BC located in the region of Qalamoon, north of Damascus. It had 14 churches, a monastery, temples, historic landmarks and archaeological sites. Archbishop Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh said: "What happened in Sadad is the most serious and biggest massacre of Christians in Syria in the past two and a half years... 45 innocent civilians were martyred for no reason, and among them several women and children, many thrown into mass graves. Other civilians were threatened and terrorized. 30 were wounded and 10 are still missing. "For one week, 1,500 families were held as hostages and human shields. Among them children, the elderly, the young, men and women. Some of them fled on foot travelling eight kilometres from Sadad to Al-Hafer to find refuge. About 2,500 families fled from Sadad, taking only their clothes, due to the irruption of armed groups and today they are refugees scattered between Damascus, Homs, Fayrouza, Zaydal, Maskane, and Al-Fhayle". The Archbishop said: "There is no electricity, water and telephone in the city. All the houses of Sadad were robbed and property looted. The churches are damaged and desecrated, deprived of old books and precious furniture. Schools, government buildings, municipal buildings have been destroyed, along with the post office, the hospital and the clinic". ZIP | November 5, 2013 1:50 pm | Comments And yet the McRINO Brigade continues its blind support for the rebels. Via Al Monitor : Syrian Christians as a whole have not thrown their support behind either side in the Syrian war. Nevertheless, Christians in Syria have been subjected to a lot of pressure by both the regime and the opposition, which failed to give them (or any religious or ethnic Syrian component) any assurances or support. Some armed groups have accused the church of supporting the regime. And many of the opposition's statements and video clips do not reassure minorities that they will be participants in the new Syria. In the revolution's first months, Christians did join the protests in various towns and villages. One day of protests was even called "Good Friday." In several areas, the churches opened their doors to displaced persons and those affected by the war, as in Daraa, Aleppo and Hama. But when the revolution was militarized and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) was formed, Christians started fearing for their future role in light of the growing Islamist trend in the various armed opposition battalions. Matters became worse after some oppositionists in the field accused the regime of supporting the Christians, citing celebrations in al-Kassa'a and Bab Touma in Damascus. Christians' fears were reinforced after bombings, shelling and clashes broke out at churches in Damascus and other sites such as Irbeen in the Damascus countryside, Homs and Deir ez-Zor. In addition to all that, the political opposition has failed miserably to reassure the Christians and has neglected to address many worrisome events. Father Fadi Haddad was killed in Katana, in the Damascus countryside. Bishops Boulos al-Yazigi and Youhanna Ibrahim were kidnapped in Aleppo. Father Paolo Dall'Oglio disappeared in Raqqa. Clashes recently reached Maaloula in the Qalamun. And there was news about attacks on churches and monasteries in Ras al-Ain. [...] The commanders of the Islamist brigades, who have declared more than once that their project was to establish a caliphate, have repeatedly indicated that no one will persecute the Christians or drive them out of their homes because they are "people of the book" and dhimmis (non-Muslim citizens of the Islamic state), so there are no problems with them, unlike the rest of the communities such as Shiites, Alawites and Druze. ZIP | September 16, 2013 1:13 pm | Comments Consider this post from McRINO's perspective: These rebels are "moderates" and them shouting "Allahu Akbar" is no different than an American soldier saying "thank God." AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- Rebels including al-Qaida-linked fighters gained control of a Christian village northeast of the capital Damascus, Syrian activists said Sunday. Government media provided a dramatically different account of the battle suggesting regime forces were winning. It was impossible to independently verify the reports from Maaloula, a scenic mountain community known for being one of the few places in the world where residents still speak the ancient Middle Eastern language of Aramaic. The village is on a UNESCO list of tentative world heritage sites. The rebel advance into the area this week was spearheaded by Jabhat al-Nusra, or the Nusra Front, exacerbating fears among Syrians and religious minorities about the role played by Islamic extremists within the rebel ranks. It was not immediately clear why the army couldn't sufficiently reinforce its troops to prevent the rebel advance in the area some 45 kilometers (25 miles) from Damascus. Some activists say that Assad's forces are stretched thin, fighting in other areas in the north and south of the country. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said Jabhat al-Nusra backed by another group, the Qalamon Liberation Front, moved into the village after heavy clashes with the army late Saturday. He said around 1,500 rebels are inside the town. "The army pulled back to the outskirts of the village and both (rebel groups) are in total control of Maaloula now," Abdul-Rahman said. Initially, troops loyal to President Bashar Assad moved into Maaloula early Saturday, he said, "but they left when rebels started pouring into the village." Now, Abdul-Rahman said, the army is surrounding the village and controlling its entrances and exits. A Maaloula resident said the rebels, many of them sporting beards and shouting God is great, attacked Christian homes and churches shortly after moving into the village overnight. "They shot and killed people. I heard gunshots and then I saw three bodies lying in the middle of a street in the old quarters of the village," said the resident, reached by telephone from neighboring Jordan. "So many people fled the village for safety." This is the second time al Nusra Front backed by FSA units have taken Maaloula. ZIP | September 8, 2013 6:02 pm | Comments Think about it, the U.S. is backing Muslim radicals killing Christians, and the low information voters don't have a problem with that? Via Reuters : Syrian rebels killed at least 11 people, including civilians, in an attack on a checkpoint west of the city of Homs on Saturday that official state media described as a massacre. Most of those killed were Christians, activists and residents said. Some were from the National Defence Army, a militia which fights alongside President Bashar Assad's soldiers, and others were civilians, they said. "Terrorists today committed a massacre, killing 11 people ... in Homs countryside," the state news agency SANA quoted an official as saying. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebel gunmen had attacked the checkpoint, killing five militia fighters and six civilians, including two women. It said the rebel fighters had also sustained losses. A resident who visited the site of the overnight attack said he saw the remains of a destroyed checkpoint and two civilian cars nearby, whose passengers may have been caught up by chance in the fighting. He said the checkpoint had been used as an artillery base to bombard the rebel town of Hosn, about 2 km (1 mile) away, which lies below the towering Crusader castle Crac des Chevaliers. ZIP | August 17, 2013 3:00 pm | Comments Christians saw their properties seized by the Islamists and their possessions sold on the black market to buy weapons and ammunition. "Everything now is in Jabhat al-Nusra's hands," an Assyrian refugee told the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA). "All the Muslims stayed here, but if any Christians want to go back they have to become Muslim or else they will be killed."

According to the nun, those Christians who refused to embrace Islam were: "...killed in atrocious and violent ways that cannot be described. If you want examples, they crucified two youths in Ma'loula for refusing to proclaim Islam's credo, saying to them:

Here's some common ground between America's religious right and the jihadis of ISIS: ISIS Bans Teaching Evolution in Schools . The new Mosul curriculum, allegedly issued by al-Baghdadi himself, stresses that any reference to the republics of Iraq or Syria must be replaced with "Islamic State." Pictures that violate its ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam will be ripped out of books. Anthems and lyrics that encourage love of country are now viewed as a show of "polytheism and blasphemy," and are strictly banned. The new curriculum even went so far as to explicitly ban Charles Darwin's theory of evolution -- although it was not previously taught in Iraqi schools. Maybe this is why the religious right and social conservatives are so hell-bent on fear-mongering about ISIS -- they recognize a mirror image of themselves. Their worst enemy.

Here's some common ground between America's religious right and the jihadis of ISIS: ISIS Bans Teaching Evolution in Schools . The new Mosul curriculum, allegedly issued by al-Baghdadi himself, stresses that any reference to the republics of Iraq or Syria must be replaced with "Islamic State."

PARLIAMENT is putting on a show of defiance this morning with MPs going about their normal business - less than 24 hours after a terror attack brought death and destruction to the heart of London. A minute's silence was held in the House of Commons with Theresa May set to lead the tributes to those killed in the Westminster attack yesterday with a statement later on. 14 MPs held a minute's silence in the House of Commons this morning 14 MPs will show defiance by carrying on their business in Parliament as usual Getty Images 14 MPs wanted to show defiance after yesterday's shocking attack on the heart of London With the benches full and heads bowed, the debating chamber usually full of noise fell quiet at 9.33am. This was in respect for PC Keith Palmer, 48, a father and husband killed in the attack, who wore the shoulder number of 933. Speaker John Bercow said: "Colleagues, in respectful memory of those who lost their lives in yesterday's attack and of all of the casualties, we shall now observe a minute's silence." 14 The Speaker began proceedings with a minute;s silence in the Commons International Trade Secretary Liam Fox added: "As we begin our questions today, I think it's appropriate we recommit ourselves to the values this Parliament represents. "Those who carry out such wicked and depraved acts as we saw yesterday can never triumph in our country and we must ensure it is not violence, hatred or division but decency and tolerance that prevails in our country." MPs said "hear, hear" at the end of Mr Fox's comment. 14 Theresa May was in the Commons after leaving Downing Street this morning Getty Images 14 She was whisked to Parliament with a police escort as Parliament re-opened for business MPs have cancelled trips away from Westminster to demonstrate the terror attack that left three innocent people dead was a "futile gesture". Members said they wanted to attend the House of Commons to show a commitment to freedom and democracy, and get "back to business". Senior Tory MP Neil Carmichael said he was due to travel to Peterborough but had stayed in Westminster because "you've got to be in Parliament on a day like this to demonstrate that total commitment to getting back to normal as quickly as possible". Getty Images 14 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn passes through the security cordon into Parliament this morning And despite the shock of the attack, MPs were determined to get back to work, with Barry Gardiner, shadow international trade secretarysaying: "Everything has to be seen to get back to normal as quickly as possible so that people realise that this sort of attack is ultimately a futile gesture. "I think the police have been absolutely right not to release details of the attacker, to give it no publicity. "What happened yesterday was sordid, shameful and vile." He added: "I think everyone in Parliament will want to pay tribute to the security services and the police and how they responded yesterday, and the officer who tragically died." 14 Flowers are laid outside Scotland Yard, where a minute's silence was also held Both the Commons and the House of Lords are sitting at their normal times, despite the surrounding area still being an active crime scene as police investigate yesterday's atrocities. PC Palmer, a member of the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Squad, was killed as he tried to stop the attacker at just after 2.30pm , while two members of the public were also fatally injured. The suspect, who was armed with two knives, injured around 40 others as he mowed down pedestrians with a car on Westminster Bridge before crashing at the gates in front of Parliament and stabbing the policeman before being shot dead by armed officers. 14 The area is still an active crime scene as police investigate yesterday's killings 14 Flags are flying at half-mast at the Palace of Westminster Today's statements: 10:30 - Prime Minister - London attacks followed by Leader of the House: Business statement -- Leader's Office (@CommonsLeader) March 23, 2017 The Prime Minister praised the bravery of the police last night as it was announced Westminster would attempt to run as smoothly as normal. In a statement from Downing Street, she said: "Any attempt to defeat those values through violence and terror is doomed to failure. "(Thursday) morning, Parliament will meet as normal. We will come together as normal. MOST READ IN POLITICS WREATH OF SHAME Corbyn with wreath for Palestinian 'martyrs' near Munich terrorist's grave PM'S HALAL ROW No10 accused of trying to censor photo of PM visiting halal butcher IDS RAPS FIRMS IDS blasts bosses not 'bothering' to find Brits for jobs given to EU workers 'HAMAS HQ' Corbyn pranked by Jewish activists with sign on his fence of extremist links JEZZA'S NAZI JIBE Shocking video emerges of Jeremy Corbyn comparing Israel to Nazi Germany IT'S A BOJOKE! Tory chiefs' barmy plan to send BoJo for diversity training after burka jibe "And Londoners - and others from around the world who have come here to visit this great city - will get up and go about their day as normal. "They will board their trains, they will leave their hotels, they will walk these streets, they will live their lives. "And we will all move forward together, never giving in to terror and never allowing the voices of hate and evil to drive us apart." Getty Images 14 PC Keith Palmer has been named as one of those killed in the attack Getty Images 14 Deputy Commissioner Mark Rowley confirmed four people were killed in yesterday's events The police investigation has developed overnight, with Scotland Yard revealing seven people have been arrested in raids in London, Birmingham and elsewhere linked to the Westminster terror attack . Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police's senior anti-terror officer, said six addresses were raided overnight. He said it was still his belief the attacker worked alone and was inspired by "international terrorism", adding that there was no specific information to suggest any further threat to the public. 14 Theresa May will lead tributes to those killed with a statement in the Commons Getty Images 14 Police confirmed four people were killed in the incident - with at least 40 injured Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme the Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said the "working assumption" was that the attack was linked to "Islamic terrorism in some form". On the police investigation he said: "They have been working right through the night, looking into his background, how he got hold of the vehicle, where the vehicle has been in the last day or two, and who may, or may not, have helped him." Asked if he was known to police, Sir Michael said: "I can't confirm that, you will have to ask the police that." For all the latest on the incident follow our coverage of the Westminster attack here

PARLIAMENT is putting on a show of defiance this morning with MPs going about their normal business - less than 24 hours after a terror attack brought death and destruction to the heart of London. A minute's silence was held in the House of Commons with Theresa May set to lead the tributes to those killed in the Westminster attack yesterday with a statement later on.

This report by Channel 4 News in the UK, covering Edward Snowden's application for asylum in the Russian Federation and his revelations of collaboration between Microsoft and the National Security Agency struck me as everything that US "news" coverage is not. The reporters don't just parrot the Washington line. They point out that the transit [...] As Bolivian President Evo Morales was returning from Moscow in a private jet after consultations on energy, his pilot was suddenly informed that France and Portugal had revoked overflight permissions, along with Spain and Italy. Spain ultimately relented, and Morales's plane refueled there, before heading to Vienna to overnight. The Bolivian government is furious at [...] The American political class and corporate press professed itself shocked, shocked, when Russian President Vladimir Putin declined to order the arrest Edward Snowden, marooned in a transit lounge at the Moscow airport, or his return to the United States. Among Putin's major projects has been making Russia a Great Power, recovering some of the stature [...] The Guardian is reporting that: "Foreign politicians and officials who took part in two G20 summit meetings in London in 2009 had their computers monitored and their phone calls intercepted on the instructions of their British government hosts, according to documents seen by the Guardian. Some delegates were tricked into using internet cafes which had [...] Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday deplored the Russian plan to ship S-300 anti-aircraft systems to Syria, saying that it will not lead to peace. The batteries would constrain Israel from bombarding targets in Syria and so would be a game-changer for Israeli security, and they would likely put paid to any talk of [...] The Iranian press is reporting that Russian President Vladimir Putin has vehemently warned Israel against further airstrikes on Syria. Putin is said to be accelerating shipments of anti-aircraft batteries to Syria. Meanwhile Syrian leader Bashar al-Asad's decision to permit guerrilla attacks on Israel from Syrian soil was welcomed by the Popular Front for the Liberation [...] The phone call between President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin after the Boston Marathon bombers were identified as Chechens, in which Obama thanked Putin for Russia's cooperation on counter-terrorism and promised more such collaboration, was probably the most cordial exchange the two countries have had for some time. The thaw was occurring as Syrian [...] The USG Open Source Center translates a reaction from the Caucasus Emirate Islamic insurgency on the news that the Tsarnaev brothers are accused of the Boston Marathon bombing. The CEII casts doubt on their guilt and also on the plausibility that these are jihadis, given their internet profiles at Russian-language sites. It does not claim [...]

This report by Channel 4 News in the UK, covering Edward Snowden's application for asylum in the Russian Federation and his revelations of collaboration between Microsoft and the National Security Agency struck me as everything that US "news" coverage is not.

Although Karl Marx, not Adolf Hiter, was arguably the most destructive German ever born, Bret Stephens writes in the New York Times that Western intellectuals will go to extreme lengths to deny it. Why is Marxism still taken seriously on college campuses and in the progressive press? ... These aren't original questions. But they're worth asking because so many of today's progressives remain in a permanent and dangerous state of semi-denial ... They will insist that there is an essential difference between Nazism and Communism ... balance acknowledgment of the repression and mass murder of Communism with references to its "real advances and achievements." "They will write about Stalinist playwright Lillian Hellman in tones of sympathy and understanding they never extend to film director Elia Kazan" because Marxism is ostensibly a moral enterprise . However many millions it killed, it meant well. The irony of this defense is that the Communist Manifesto argued morality doesn't exist. It was simply a construct of the Party. Chapter 2 of the Manifesto says: When the ancient world was in its last throes, the ancient religions were overcome by Christianity. When Christian ideas succumbed in the 18th century to rationalist ideas, feudal society fought its death battle with the then revolutionary bourgeoisie. The ideas of religious liberty and freedom of conscience merely gave expression to the sway of free competition within the domain of knowledge. "Undoubtedly," it will be said, "religious, moral, philosophical, and juridical ideas have been modified in the course of historical development. But religion, morality, philosophy, political science, and law, constantly survived this change." "There are, besides, eternal truths, such as Freedom, Justice, etc., that are common to all states of society. But Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience." If you want to know what's moral read the papers, the right ones, of course, because it's changing all the time. There is no morality but class morality and the party defines what class morality means. Marxism styles itself not as the servant of some objective virtue but its maker. It defines good. Through this, the Manifesto deliberately sets itself against the psalmist who acknowledges an external truth which it is man's purpose to discover. In the familiar words "the Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower." It is there. I will find it. The psalmist tries to understand reality in contrast to the progressive who decides what virtue is to be and re-evaluates the past accordingly. They are two points of view and ways of thinking, with Marxism winning the argument -- at least in the academy, the media and entertainment -- through most of the 20th century. But in the 21st century , first slowly but with gathering speed the Internet has collapsed the Narrative and laid bare the corruption of Hollywood, politics and the media. For the first time in a century, the assumption progressives are a uniquely moral people pursuing a virtuous enterprise is impossible to sustain.

Although Karl Marx, not Adolf Hiter, was arguably the most destructive German ever born, Bret Stephens writes in the New York Times that Western intellectuals will go to extreme lengths to deny it. Why is Marxism still taken seriously on college campuses and in the progressive press? ...

Editor's note: This post was originally published on November 16, 2016. It has been updated to include information about the Bladensburg cross case and to correct typographical errors. Later this week, we will celebrate Thanksgiving, a day rooted in a national call to prayer and fasting that goes back as far as the Continental Congress and our first few presidents. If federal judges understood the true meaning of Thanksgiving, they'd probably rule it unconstitutional on the grounds that it violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. For example, consider the case of Felix v. City of Bloomfield , which was decided last year by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, in which Judge David Ebel, a Reagan appointee, affirmed a lower court's 2014 decision (by another Republican-appointed judge) to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments because of the perceived "motivation" and the nature of the ceremony inaugurating the monument. In 2011, at the behest of several city council members, Bloomfield, New Mexico, erected a replica of the Ten Commandments in front of its city hall. Private sources, including several members of the council, completely funded the monument. Symbols like this have been erected in many local and federal government buildings since before our Founding. Anyone who visits the House of Representatives will see a large image of Moses -- the man who delivered the Ten Commandments from God -- from atop the gallery. Yet the city council still felt it necessary to inscribe a message on the monument that reads: The City has intentionally opened up the lawn around City Hall as a public forum where local citizens can display monuments that reflect the City's history of law and government. Any message contained on a monument does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the City, but are statements from private citizens. If you would like to display a monument in this forum, please contact the City Clerk, who can give you a copy of the ordinance that explains the procedures for displaying a monument. During any other era -- from our Founding until the past generation -- this disclaimer would have been considered ridiculously apologetic and gratuitous. The city council even erected other monuments, such as the Bill of Rights and the Gettysburg Address, to divorce their displays from religious significance. However, it wasn't enough for the ACLU and those who seek to enforce a secularist inquisition and countermand our entire heritage. The ACLU got a Republican district judge to mandate the removal of the monument in September 2014. Then the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision: "We cannot speculate what precise actions a government must take" to make a public monument secular enough, the opinion of Senior Judge David Ebel reads. "But we are satisfied here that Bloomfield has not undertaken sufficiently purposeful, public, and persuasive actions to secularize the Monument's previous 'principal or primary' religious message ... In fact, it has taken no public, purposeful, and persuasive action to distance itself from the sponsor and his message other than two ineffective disclaimers--one small, the other vague." In a more recent example, a veterans' memorial -- originally erected almost a century ago by the American Legion -- at a busy intersection of Bladensburg, Maryland, faces removal because judges have ruled it is a similar violation of the Establishment Clause. You can learn more about it here: The truth about the First Amendment's Establishment Clause Like most aspects of constitutional jurisprudence among the contemporary legal elite, the Establishment Clause has been contorted beyond recognition. What was originally intended to be a legal backstop to keep the federal government from picking denominational favorites has now turned into a means that the judiciary can and will use to scrub anything remotely theistic from the public square -- even among local governments. To begin with, Justice Clarence Thomas is correct in his long-standing view that the Establishment Clause applies only to federal -- not state and local -- government. Even if one buys into the specious "Incorporation Doctrine" that claims every aspect of the Bill of Rights was retroactively applied to the states by the adoption of the 14th Amendment, that only holds true for the individual rights expressed in those amendments, not the Establishment Clause. Indeed, nine of the 13 states had established religions at the time the Constitution was ratified, and that is precisely the reason why the Framers wanted to keep it out of the federal government.[1] However, more foundationally, none of these issues we are confronted with today rise anywhere near the threshold of a violation of the Establishment Clause, even by the federal government. During the House floor debate over the First Amendment on August 20, 1789, James Madison explained the purpose of the Establishment Clause as follows: Congress should not establish a religion, and enforce the legal observation of it by law, nor compel men to worship God in any manner contrary to their conscience. But this understanding has been turned on its ear to the point that local governments can no longer be viewed as endorsing such controversial theocratic principles as, "Don't kill people," "don't lie about people," and "don't steal people's stuff." Nobody is compelled to do anything by the mere existence of even blatantly religious symbols that have been in existence since long before our Founding, nor is anyone hurt by acknowledging their role in informing our system of government. Rather, as has been noted elsewhere on the site, the real, ongoing violation of the Establishment Clause is that of enforcing the public demands of sexual revolutionaries on private citizens because that worldview is actively enforced against individual business owners (and now even churches), compelling them to violate their conscience with their own personal property. The disconnect here is tragically laughable. The courts have no such power and must be reined in How can a plaintiff even get standing in court to say he is offended by a policy, much less a monument that is all over our country? That is why we have city councils and state legislatures. If you don't like having the statue there, get rid of it the right way: by petitioning your local government, making your case and changing people's minds. Yet Judge Ebel granted two polytheistic Wiccans standing to sue because the monument is in their view when they go to pay their water bill at the city hall complex! Federal courts were never given such power to serve as a judicial veto where no individual rights are in jeopardy. As Scalia famously wrote a few years ago, it is not the job of the Constitution or the court to "prevent hurt feelings" or to protect those annoyed by religious symbols more than anyone annoyed by the public playing of rock music.[2] In the Bloomfield case, that a series of Republican-appointed judges can agree to such a radical post-constitutional jurisprudence overturning our heritage and bastardizing the First Amendment shows how existing constitutional construction within the legal profession is too much to overcome by simply "appointing more conservative judges." It only highlights the need for wholesale judicial reform. Our heritage, Constitution, and Declaration of Independence (which identifies God as the source of all inalienable rights) have been ruled unconstitutional even by Republican-appointed judges. They take an amendment -- which is inherently favorable to religion and merely prohibited the coercion of religious service through threat of penalty -- and interpret it as a ban on all innocuous display of anything associated with America's Judeo-Christian Founding. Is Thanksgiving "unconstitutional?" If you ask these guys, it should be. Fast-forward to today. It's actually remarkable that we still have a day of Thanksgiving recognized as a national holiday, seeing as the first celebrations of the holiday were overwhelmingly Judeo-Christian in nature. Does it not violate the Establishment Clause in the same fashion to give salaried government employees the day off, given that history? In order to give thanks, you have to give thanks to something. Is this not prohibited government speech? Or perhaps, in the estimation of Judge Ebel, there is enough football and hedonistic Black Friday madness associated with Thanksgiving that reflect "sufficiently purposeful, public, and persuasive actions to secularize" the holiday's "previous 'principal or primary' religious message" to render it permissible. Fortunately, the ACLU wasn't around when President Washington first called for a day in November "to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be." Otherwise, we might all be working Thursday. The most interesting stories aren't told in the headlines. They're in the FOOTNOTES! Get Conservative Review's daily roundup of the most interesting, underreported, and unconventional news. Sign up today! * indicates required [1] As Justice Thomas once wrote, "[A]pplying the Clause against the States eliminates their right to establish a religion free from federal interference, thereby "prohibit[ing] exactly what the Establishment Clause protected." [Town of Greece v. Galloway 572 U. S. ____ (2014) (Thomas, J., partial concurrence) slip op. at 4]. [2] Elmbrook School District v. John Doe 573 U. S. ____ (2014), cert. denied, (Scalia, J., dissenting). In this case itself, Thomas and Scalia dissented from the Supreme Court's decision not to grant appeal after the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which included several Republican appointees, completely misread the First Amendment. Which is yet another example of how the lower courts are destroying democracy while the Supreme Court quietly allows the ruling to stand. Author: Daniel Horowitz Nate Madden

In 2011, at the behest of several city council members, Bloomfield, New Mexico, erected a replica of the Ten Commandments in front of its city hall.

A teacher who has been working for over 20 years was caught on video kneeing down a special needs student. Amelia Stripling, a special needs instructor who had been working in Georgia schools for over 20 years, has resigned after footage surfaced of her using a knee to push one of her students onto the floor. Stripling worked at the Tift County Pre-K Center in Tifton, GA. Video surveillance shows her walking in a hallway before abruptly kneeing a then-3-year-old child with a backpack, causing him to fall. She and another adult pick him up off the floor, and she pushes him into the classroom. His mother, Sarah Patterson, told WALB her son turned just four on Wednesday. According to Tift County School officials, the boy was not injured, and they have "reported the incident to the Division of Family and Children Services." A spokesperson for the county schools, Stacey Beckahm, claims "an eyewitness said it appeared [Stripling] intentionally pushed the child." We have witnessed an alarming amount of teachers mishandle students-- in January, a teacher's aide hit a 9-year-old special education student, while two other students held him in place. When this occurs with such young students who have special needs, it is particularly galling. At least in this case, Stripling resigned almost immediately. Banner / Thumbnail : Pixabay / Wokandapix

A teacher who has been working for over 20 years was caught on video kneeing down a special needs student. Amelia Stripling, a special needs instructor who had been working in Georgia schools for over 20 years, has resigned after footage surfaced of her using a knee to push one of her students onto the floor.

What's wrong with Bush? "Bush doesn't have any plan for governing," Portal complained. And what's wrong with the junior senator from Massachusetts? "The problem with Kerry is the same," he submitted. But don't think that Portal, an adiabatic engineer who is trying to invent a motor powered by water and water pressure, is the rare exile who praises Fidel Castro . Like many Cuban Americans, the inventor was an early Castro supporter until el comandante 's obsession with Marxist-Leninism took hold after the 1959 ouster of the Batista regime. Today he has a different issue with Fidel: " The problem with Castro is that Castro is an official of the government of the United States ." Portal says the PJP doesn't have a candidate yet but is currently accepting applications for that position. Candidates for candidate should familiarize themselves with the PJP platform. Among its 24 planks are: 1. Eliminate taxes paid by retirees. 2. A comprehensive insurance plan for everybody. 3. Minimum wage: $7 per hour. 4. Two weeks vacation for everybody. 5. A 50 percent discount in gas for owners of four-cylinder cars. 6. Prison without bail for negligent parents. 7. Total elimination of drug traffickers. 8. Eliminate the power of all child abusers. 9. Televised trials of corrupt police officers. 10. People who are not born in the United States can be president. 11. The White House should be in Miami . 12. Immediate naval and aerial blockage against the Castro-communist regime. "This movement has shark's teeth," Portal warned. Some political watchdogs might have missed Portal's manifesto unveiling while their attention was on a press conference inside Versailles. There, Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez said the Democratic Party is attracting many new, friendly Latin members. As evidence he noted that listeners respond to him differently when he does radio guest spots. "I used to get cremated. Not anymore," he assured. Then ubiquitous pollster Sergio Bendixen presented some new data that held both bad and good news for Democrats. "We're not going to get the Hispanic vote in Miami-Dade County," he declared. "But we're going to win enough of it for Kerry to win Florida." Observing While Black King Downing , the man in charge of the American Civil Liberties Union's national racial-profiling awareness campaign, came to Miami Beach for Memorial Day weekend to assess the city's tension level as police and mostly young, black revelers met in the streets amid allegations of hip-hop surveillance and hostility from cops toward partiers. The 51-year-old Downing, who is African American, was promptly arrested. "It's a perfectly ironic situation," says Downing's local attorney (and occasional Bitch tormentor), John De Leon . "He's one of the foremost profiling experts in the country." Downing was on the phone with Terry Coble , president of the local ACLU chapter, when police arrested him early on the morning of Tuesday, June 1. Downing was observing an arrest on Ocean Drive, standing about 50 yards from the officers, talking on his cell phone and taking notes. "He was surrounded by a group of police and told to clear the area," DeLeon says. Coble, on the other end of the phone, heard Downing arguing with the police, saying, "I'm a reasonable distance away." Downing says the officers threatened to break his wrist if he didn't comply with their orders. He was charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest without violence. But doesn't someone have to be doing something worth getting arrested for in order to resist arrest in the first place? Police reports give a little context to the situation: Officers were called to Ocean Drive to break up a fight. Michael Zelaya of Pembroke Pines, who was involved in the fight, broke away from the group and ran from the police. In his unsuccessful escape attempt he forearmed a police officer, who was knocked off her bicycle and injured. Downing was watching police arrest Zelaya when the cops told him he was standing in the crime scene -- none of the police documentation says where Downing was standing. Murder in Coconut Grove Defense attorneys for Anthony Lee, the man accused of gunning down Coconut Grove businessman and socialite Jose Calvo in Calvo's driveway in September 2003, say a ballistics report from the Miami-Dade Police Department crime lab bolsters their theory that Calvo's wife Denise was the killer, not Lee. Since the shooting, police have recovered only one gun fired in the incident: a .38-caliber Colt revolver Denise told police she emptied at Lee while he fled. A DNA analysis found Lee's blood in the stolen 1989 blue Honda Civic hatchback that served as his getaway car. But detectives have only one spent bullet in their possession. They got that from Denise's father, Michael Caligiuri , two months after the shooting. Caligiuri said he found the projectile on a windowsill inside the Calvos' garage. (The feds called Caligiuri a member of the Gambino crime family while he was a fugitive for nine years; he eventually served five years in prison for racketeering and cocaine possession with intent to distribute.) MDPD forensic specialist Thomas Fadul concluded that the bullet could have been one of the six that Denise fired. But owing to damage -- "corrosion and erosion" -- he could not make a conclusive match to the .38 caliber Colt. Unless detectives link Lee to a gun, it will be easy for his lawyers to raise the specter of reasonable doubt and continue pointing their fingers at Denise. "You have one bullet, probably fired by Denise's gun," submits Robert Barrar, one of Lee's attorneys. "You have no other bullets there. And if Anthony is firing shots at either Denise or the husband, you're going to find some physical evidence to back that up. There is none." Which means Lee's lawyers can still float the notion that the bullet that went into the back of Jose Calvo's head and out his right temple could have been the one that landed on the garage windowsill and could have been fired by his wife. The State Attorney's Office confirms the investigation into Denise Calvo's possible role in her husband's death is still open. Through her lawyers, Calvo has maintained her innocence. Chambered, Tabled, Closed Irrepressible, relentlessly self-promotional, unembarrassable Seth Gordon , when not lobbying vigorously on the right of the Bacardi liquor conglomerate to make undisclosed political cash gifts, spreads goodwill as president of the Coconut Grove Chamber of Commerce. Disgruntled chamber members tell The Bitch that Gordon recently orchestrated a sort of surprise impromptu election to install new chamber board members, disallowing absentee ballots with no warning. One new board member is Manny Alonso-Poch , whose Commodore Plaza-based Academy of Arts and Minds, now scheduled to open in August, has been plagued by code problems. Klingon Cats The Bitch thinks she may have discovered the real reason Merrett Stierheim often looks so cranky at Miami-Dade School Board functions -- and it's not from fretting over his muddled legacy or grinding his molars to a nub over Rudy Crew's big house . The problem is that late-night cat orgies have been keeping the soon-to-be-former superintendent awake all night. It seems that the south-of-Miami Village of Pinecrest, where Stierheim resides, is overrun with stray cats. This according to an irate e-mail Stierheim's wife, Judy Cannon , sent to Miami-Dade County Commissioner Joe Martinez . Cannon berated Martinez for not supporting legislation to require cat owners to register their roving pets. The unsupervised cats, Cannon complained, reproduce with abandon, having "orgies that sound like Klingon mating rituals" in her garden, and sometimes leaving dead kittens there as well. Larry Buck, a Miami-Dade Police Department lieutenant , told The Bitch that while the county only requires dogs to be licensed, neither dogs nor cats are permitted to roam. "That would be in violation of the law for the pet owners," not the pets, Buck clarifies. Cindy Hewitt , executive director of Miami's Cat Network , says Cannon's complaint is a common one: "People feel about stray cats kind of how they feel about landfills. They have to go somewhere but not in their back yard." She adds, "There's just nowhere for these animals to go." If you like this story, consider signing up for our email newsletters. You have successfully signed up for your selected newsletter(s) - please keep an eye on your mailbox, we're movin' in! People who want to find out about helping homeless cats can call the network at 305-255-3482. The Little Strange Things Here are some of the possibly edible by bonobos, so-called food items being distributed (shown actual size above) during the Design District's gallery and showroom walk, which took place this past Thursday: a medjool date wrapped in a piece of bacon , acquired, strangely, from a place that offers very expensive kitchenware, and what The Bitch believes to be the tiniest piece of cheese in the world. (Some) Sounds of the Caribbean Kevin "Ital-K" Smith, whose late-night weekend show Sounds of the Caribbean was ripped from WLRN's airwaves this past November, has quietly returned to the station's broadcast forum. Smith, a traffic director at WLRN-FM (91.3), is host to the weekend edition of the BBC World News and fills in as well on Clint O'Neil 's Caribbean music program in O'Neil's absence. "I'm still working towards the reinstatement of my shows, the Sunday and Monday weekend edition of Sounds of the Caribbean ," Smith tells The Bitch. Another one of the few outlets in South Florida for Caribbean news and music, WAVS-AM (1170), was recently sold , raising the question as to whether the new owners will keep the Caribbean-centric programming intact. Rumors are circulating that another AM home for Caribbean programming, WSRF-AM (1580) , is up for sale as well.

What's wrong with Bush? "Bush doesn't have any plan for governing," Portal complained. And what's wrong with the junior senator from Massachusetts? "

Women loyal to the Houthi movement hold up rifles as they take part in a parade, Sept. 6, 2016 / REUTERS BY: Reuters October 20, 2016 11:01 am By Yara Bayoumy and Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters)- Iran has stepped up weapons transfers to the Houthis, the militia fighting the Saudi-backed government in Yemen, U.S., Western, and Iran ian officials tell Reuters, a development that threatens to prolong and intensify the 19-month-old war. The increased pace of transfers in recent months, which officials said include missiles and small arms, could exacerbate a security headache for the United States, which last week struck Houthi targets with cruise missiles in retaliation for failed missile attacks on a U.S. Navy destroyer. Much of the recent smuggling activity has been through Oman, which neighbors Yemen, including via overland routes that take advantage of porous borders between the two countries, the officials said. That raises a further quandary for Washington, which views the tiny Gulf state as a strategic interlocutor and ally in the conflict-ridden region. A senior U.S. administration official said that Washington had informed Oman of its concerns, without specifying when. "We have been concerned about the recent flow of weapons from Iran into Yemen and have conveyed those concerns to those who maintain relations with the Houthis, including the Omani government," the official told Reuters. Oman denies any weapons smuggling across its border, and its officials could not be reached for comment. Yemeni and senior regional officials say the Omanis are not actively involved with the transfers, but rather turning a blind eye and failing to aggressively crack down on the flow. (Graphic: http://tmsnrt.rs/2dNo0nL ) In an interview with Saudi newspaper Okaz last week, Omani Foreign Minister Yousef bin Alwi said: "There is no truth to this. No weapons have crossed our border and we are ready to clarify any suspicions if they arise." The Iran -allied Houthis gained a trove of weapons when whole divisions allied to former Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh sided with them at the start of the war last year. But Saudi Arabia and Yemen's exiled government say they also receive substantial amounts of weapons and ammunition from Iran . Tehran views the Houthis as the legitimate authority in Yemen, but denies it supplies them with weapons. Some Western officials have been more skeptical of the view that the Houthis are receiving large-scale support from Iran . The U.S. and Western officials who spoke to Reuters about the recent trend in arms transfers said it was based on intelligence they had seen but did not elaborate on its nature. They said the frequency of transfers on known overland smuggling routes had increased notably, though the scale of the shipments was unclear. Even U.S. officials warning of Iran' s support for the Houthis acknowledge intelligence gaps in Yemen, where the U.S. posture has been sharply reduced since the start of the conflict. The sources all declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. "We are aware of a recent increased frequency of weapons shipments supplied by Iran , which are reaching the Houthis via the Omani border," a Western diplomat familiar with the conflict told Reuters. Three U.S. officials confirmed that assertion. One of those officials, who is familiar with Yemen, said that in the past few months there had been a noticeable increase in weapons-smuggling activity. "What they're bringing in via Oman are anti-ship missiles, explosives ... money and personnel," the official said. Another regional security source said the transfers included surface-to-surface short-range missiles and small arms. A senior Iran ian diplomat confirmed there had been a "sharp surge in Iran' s help to the Houthis in Yemen" since May, referring to weapons, training, and money. "The nuclear deal gave Iran an upper hand in its rivalry with Saudi Arabia, but it needs to be preserved," the diplomat said. Washington's Gulf allies have warned that U.S. President Barack Obama's rapprochement with Tehran through the landmark nuclear deal signed last year will only embolden Iran in conflicts in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and elsewhere. U.S. LOOKING INTO MISSILE ORIGIN The increase in transfers comes as the civil war drags on and threatens to pull the United States deeper into a conflict that has killed 10,000 people and which pits two regional powers, Saudi Arabia and Iran , against each other. A U.N.-brokered 72-hour ceasefire went into effect on Wednesday. Since the beginning of the war, the Houthis have used short-range Scud missiles, and the United Nations says they have also used surface-to-air missiles, improvised to operate as surface-to-surface rockets against Saudi Arabia. But a suspected Houthi missile attack against a United Arab Emirates vessel in a strategic Red Sea shipping lane this month, as well as the attempted strikes against the U.S. warship, raise worries about the rebels' capability to launch bolder attacks. The Houthis have denied attacking the USS Mason. Two officials said the United States was looking into whether components of the missiles, including the warhead, might have benefited from Iran ian parts or come from Iran but acknowledged the assessment was so far inconclusive. General Joseph Votel, the commander of the U.S. military's Central Command, said he suspected an Iran ian role in arming the Houthis and noted that Iran was one of the possible suppliers of the kinds of shore-based missile technology seen in Yemen. "I do think Iran is playing a role in some of this. They do have a relationship with the Houthis," he told a forum in Washington. A senior Western diplomat told Reuters that Iran' s role in helping the Houthis had increased substantially since March 2015, when the Saudis intervened to restore President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi to office. The diplomat said there was concern Oman had not tackled Iran ian smuggling as strongly as it should have done. "In my mind, the level of Iran ian arms smuggling probably doesn't get the attention it deserves." Washington has generally shied away from being too publicly critical of Muscat, especially as it played a historic role in brokering the nuclear deal. A senior Yemeni official told Reuters there had been an increase in smuggled weapons reaching the Houthis via Oman but could not say definitively whether the weapons were Iran ian. Yemen's army chief of staff, Mohammed al-Maqdishi, said in a recent interview on state television that Oman should be "a lot stricter" on smuggling. "We are now in the process of heavily guarding the border points more and more." A senior Yemeni military source told Reuters that one of the smuggling routes is through Shehen, a sort of no-man's land and entry point in Mahra province along the 288-km (179-mile) long Yemeni-Omani border. Although formally under government control, the region is a well known haven for smuggling and central authority is weak. In addition to smuggling via secondary ports along Yemen's coastline, the source said the frequency had also increased "because Iran feels the Houthis are in a difficult situation and want to show them they're with them till the end." This entry was posted in National Security and tagged Iran , Military , Yemen . Bookmark the permalink .

Iran has stepped up weapons transfers to the Houthis, the militia fighting the Saudi-backed government in Yemen, U.S., Western, and Iran ian officials tell Reuters, a development that threatens to prolong and intensify the 19-month-old war.

By Clay Waters | August 11, 2018 9:20 AM EDT Hope springs eternal for Democrats in the pages of the New York Times . Thursday's lead story by Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin provided Democratic predictions for winning the House in the November elections: "Clarity in Election Fog: Fall Holds Peril for G.O.P." The reporters made hay over GOP struggles, and again exploited criminal charges faced by Rep. Chris Collins to make a pro-Democratic prediction. Other stories alternately pushed female candidates and mocked them, depending on party label. By Clay Waters | August 10, 2018 8:29 PM EDT New York Times stringer Daniel Politi teamed with the paper's Brazil bureau chief Ernesto Londono to cover a failed attempt in Argentina to legalize abortion in the first 14 weeks of a pregenancy: "Though Abortion Bill Failed in Argentina, a Movement Took Hold -- A Narrow Loss Inspires Women." The text box to Friday's story assured the paper's pro-choice readership: "'Abortion will be legal soon. Very soon,' one woman said." The online version carried a Reuters photo of "An abortion-rights supporter in Buenos Aires on Thursday after a bill to legalize abortion was defeated." Who, by the way, was in the act of throwing a colored smoke bomb. The text ignored the eruptions of violence in the aftermath of the defeat of the abortion bill, which it usually does when it comes to left-wing protest violence By Clay Waters | August 9, 2018 4:03 PM EDT Thursday's New York Times showed itself all too eager to use new charges against Republican Rep. Chris Collins of New York to help Democrats. The front-page story was accompanied by an over-the-fold photograph of U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman announcing the charges against Collins, which the photo caption took care to identify as a Republican. The paper piled on with a story inside by Goldmacher, showing the paper already taking a sharp pro-Democratic partisan angle on the November elections. Contrast that instant identification by the New York Times to how the paper covered a Democratic congresswoman convicted and sentenced to five years in prison. By Clay Waters | August 9, 2018 8:16 AM EDT Rosie O'Donnell and a motley troupe of Broadway actors past and present bussed down from New York City for a protest "show" in front of the White House on Monday (Broadway's traditional day off) and the New York Times decided the silliness was worthy of the lead National section story slot Wednesday. Reporter-intern Alexandria Yoon-Hendricks' "A Free Broadway Show Starring Putin, Trump and Jean Valjean" ignored O'Donnell's unrepentant Trutherism and took her seriously as an anti-Trump voice, though the two had been personally feuding years before Trump's presidential campaign. By Clay Waters | August 6, 2018 11:33 AM EDT After Roseanne Barr lost her hit show over a tweet, the blurb introducing television writer James Poniewozik's report was morally convicting: "....when people decide to let racism slide, it costs the rest of us." A shame the Times chose not to apply that maxim to itself. Fast forward to the controversy over the paper's hiring of Sarah Jeong to write about technology for the paper's editorial board. Hours after the announcement came revelations from Jeong's obsessively anti-white and anti-police ravings on Twitter, and a defense of Jeong's hiring from the paper. By Clay Waters | August 5, 2018 11:55 AM EDT New York Times reporters Michael Shear and Adam Liptak's review of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and his involvement in Ken Starr's independent counsel investigation of President Bill Clinton, made the front page of Sunday's edition. It conveniently served as a defense of the Clintons against the "puritanical" "hatred" of Republicans: "Court Pick, Soldier in the Battle to Impeach Clinton, Has Regrets." The reporters's opening and closing quotes are from former Clinton adviser current Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, surely a nonpartisan source of objective wisdom on the matter at hand. By Clay Waters | August 4, 2018 4:44 PM EDT There was a recent outburst of respect for religion on two consecutive front pages of The New York Times, after Pope Francis changed the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Times desperately desires to get religion out of politics when it comes to companies like Hobby Lobby that refuse on religious grounds to pay for birth control, eagerly embraces Christianity when it comes to leftist issues like global warming, immigration, and now the death penalty. Friday's front page excitedly reported: "Pope Declares Death Penalty Always Wrong - Doctrine Change Could Hit U.S. Hardest." By Clay Waters | August 3, 2018 11:31 AM EDT Yahoo! writer Hope Schreiber made the site's front page with her contribution to the controversy over Sarah Jeong, the New York Times' new editorial board member with a long history of racist anti-white tweets. It's clear from the headline that Yahoo! considers the whole thing a right-wing hit-job against Jeong: "Right-wing websites target New York Times' new writer over what they call 'anti-white' tweets." Here's the Yahoo headline as it appeared in the tab for the story: "Alt-right targets journalist over 'anti-white' tweets." By Clay Waters | August 2, 2018 8:16 AM EDT Obituary writer Robert McFadden went past respect for the dead to mark the passing of hard-left former liberal congressman Ron Dellums in reverential fashion on Tuesday: "Ron Dellums, 82, Dies; Vocal and Unrelenting, He Upheld Left's Ideals." The text box: "A mantra over three decades in Congress: Stop war. Help people." A photo caption in the print version called Dellums "a lifelong champion for social justice." It's a standard the paper doesn't apply to conservative figures. By Clay Waters | July 30, 2018 10:44 AM EDT For years, Michiko Kakutani was the most feared and revered New York Times book critic. Now the reviewer becomes the reviewed with her new book with a self-explanatory title: The Death of Truth - Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump. On the plus side, it's short. Yet this slim, 173-page undersized hardback still manages to be a slow read, dense and repetitive. The widely read Kakutani uses boringly familiar quotes from predictable wells of anti-totalitarian wisdom like Hannah Arendt and George Orwell to attack Trump and the new GOP for abandoning truth, reason, even common decency. By Clay Waters | July 29, 2018 12:54 PM EDT From the "Liberals Spoil Everything" department, where everything is a problem, here's Vice writer Harry Cheadle: "Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of 'Animal House' by Tossing It in the Trash -- Drunken frat boys don't seem so charming anymore, and the film's gender politics are fucked beyond repair." From his 2018 perch, Cheadle tears into the offensive, vulgar, and extremely hilarious college comedy hit of 1978 for its general un-wokeness:."Animal House will never die. The question is, should it?" By Clay Waters | July 28, 2018 4:07 PM EDT Matt Viser, deputy Washington bureau chief of the Boston Globe , penned a nauseatingly flattering profile of Beto O'Rourke, a Democrat challenging Ted Cruz for his Texas Senate seat in November, in the September issue of Town & Country , a lifestyle magazine for the well-off. The headline deck: "Why So Many People Are Betting on Beto O'Rourke -- He's a Kennedyesque longshot in a roiling red state, but the Democrat from Texas just might have a chance at unseating Ted Cruz." The Kennedy mystique may be tarnished in the public's eyes during the current #MeToo movement, but Viser made no mention of the darker side of the Kennedy clan. By Clay Waters | July 27, 2018 11:39 AM EDT New York Times sports columnist Michael Powell attacked Milwaukee Brewer's pitcher Josh Hader from the front of Friday's Sports section, for old racist social media posts recently unearthed from several years ago, written when Hader was 17: "As Baseball Gets Whiter, an Ovation Follows Racist Tweets." Powell was unforgiving of the teen-aged Hader, who has apologized and will take "sensitivity training," and went full sociological on white baseball fans, even mentioning Trump in a story about tweets sent in 2011 and 2012. By Clay Waters | July 26, 2018 2:14 PM EDT New York Times reporters Katie Rogers and Maggie Haberman were offended that President Trump doesn't like to watch CNN, using a leaked anecdote from Air Force One for a full-page story Wednesday: "A Bit of a Stir' Aboard Air Force One: A TV Tuned to CNN." The headline writers went overboard. The text box: "A president who rages against reality wants to keep the remote control for himself." The online headline: "Spotting CNN on a TV Aboard Air Force One, Trump Rages Against Reality." So in Timesland, "reality" equals CNN? By Clay Waters | July 25, 2018 4:00 PM EDT In Wednesday's New York Times , Michael Wines targeted Commerce Secretary Wilbur L. Ross Jr.'s explanations for why the Trump administration added a question about citizenship to the 2020 census -- or more accurately, re-added and expanded. In "A Question's Murky Path Onto the 2020 Census," Wines went on the warpath against a very basic proposed Census question about citizenship, one that last appeared on a Census form -- the "long-form" version -- in 2000 (the next to last Census taking). By Clay Waters | July 25, 2018 7:10 AM EDT Jaclyn Peiser's front-page New York Times autopsy for a fading New York tabloid, "Daily News, Lean but Brassy New York Staple, Cuts Staff in Half." Peiser mourned the brutal downsizing announced at the local tabloid rival whose hard-left turn in recent years failed to save it. The right-leaning New York Post , on the other hand, is clearly loathed by the Times. By Clay Waters | July 23, 2018 4:00 PM EDT New York Times "Interpreter" writer Max Fisher made Monday's front page with his overwrought 1,500-word criticism of Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, as no longer democratic: "Israel, Riding Nationalist Tide, Puts Identify First. It Isn't Alone." The online headline suggests Israel is in the lead of the awful movement -- this after two years of fretful articles from the Times about the nationalist right taking hold in Hungary and Poland and Turkey: "Israel Picks Identity Over Democracy. More Nations May Follow." By Clay Waters | July 22, 2018 9:07 PM EDT The New York Times indulged in some self-owning irony on Sunday's front page under the byline of Jim Rutenberg and Ben Protess. The subject was American Media Inc., the tabloid company that publishes the National Enquirer : "Federal authorities examining the work President Trump's former lawyer did to squelch embarrassing stories before the 2016 election have come to believe that an important ally in that effort, the tabloid company American Media Inc., at times acted more as a political supporter than as a news organization, according to people briefed on the investigation." The high irony of that sentence evidently escaped The Times . By Clay Waters | July 22, 2018 3:40 PM EDT "Teenagers Fight Climate Change, From the Front -- Meet the Leaders of a National Movement Called Zero Hour," reads the headline. Is it a press release? An opinion piece? No, a full-page "news" story in Sunday's New York Times, , following the same laudatory tone and lack of journalistic rigor that characterized the paper's coverage of the last children's crusade, for gun control.. Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks, intern-reporter at the New York Times, orchestrated the fawning interviews of six representatives of the ostensibly teen-led movement at the D.C. offices of the Sierra Club. By Clay Waters | July 21, 2018 5:13 PM EDT Israel, always to blame at the New York Times . A front-page photo of fleeing Palestinian protestors at the Gaza border was deceptively captioned: "Israel Strikes in Gaza - Protesters at the Gaza border flee from an Israeli air assault on Friday. One Israeli soldier and four Palestinians were killed." The picture introduced Isabel Kershner's story , "Israel Launches Broad Air Assault in Gaza Following Border Violence." From neither headline would you learn that it was the Palestinians that attacked first by assassinating an Israeli soldier, with Israel retaliating. Kershner's story also implied faulty timelines making Israel appear the aggressor.

"Teenagers Fight Climate Change, From the Front -- Meet the Leaders of a National Movement Called Zero Hour," reads the headline. Is it a press release? An opinion piece? No, a full-page "news" story in Sunday's New York Times, , following the same laudatory tone and lack of journalistic rigor that characterized the paper's coverage of the last children's crusade, for gun control.. Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks, intern-reporter at the New York Times, orchestrated the fawning interviews of six representatives of the ostensibly teen-led movement at the D.C. offices of the Sierra Club. By Clay Waters | July 21, 2018 5:13 PM EDT Israel, always to blame at the New York Times . A front-page photo of fleeing Palestinian protestors at the Gaza border was deceptively captioned: "Israel Strikes in Gaza - Protesters at the Gaza border flee from an Israeli air assault on Friday. One Israeli soldier and four Palestinians were killed." The picture introduced Isabel Kershner's story , "Israel Launches Broad Air Assault in Gaza Following Border Violence."

Remember how People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) once accused SeaWorld of planting people in their organization to spy on them ? Well, as it turns out...they were right. Even before the documentary Blackfish made public the theme park chain's dubious animal treatment practices, SeaWorld and PETA waged a series of cold war PR campaigns against each other. CEO Joel Manby held a call with investors today, and though he did not apologize for his organization's practices, he said the company board would no longer spy on critics by having employees pose as animal rights activists. Management has been directed to "end the practice in which certain employees posed as animal rights activists," Manby said. "This activity was undertaken in connection with efforts to maintain the safety and security of employees, customers and animals in the face of credible threats," he added. SeaWorld employee Paul McComb might be at the heart of this decision, for it was half a year ago when PETA discovered him (and his activist alter ego). The organization claimed that he used the social media alias of Thomas Jones to get inside information about their activists, while spreading extreme rhetoric and calls to take illegal actions against SeaWorld. McComb was placed on administrative leave after being found out, but Manby said he has since returned to work and was reassigned to a new department. [h/t CNN Money ] [Image via PETA]

Remember how People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) once accused SeaWorld of planting people in their organization to spy on them ? Well, as it turns out...they were right.

"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" will go a long way to proving if George Lucas' space saga truly has legs. By "legs," we mean a sustainable franchise that can be stretched like taffy. It's the first film that won't feature a Solo or Skywalker (as far as we know...). It also won't include (we hope) the following five characters. We may love "Star Wars," but we could do without these annoying pieces of the beloved franchise: 5. Jar Jar Binks Who else? Everything you've read about this character is true. He's annoying, peculiar and rarely funny. Lucas' creation became the symbol of how poorly realized the prequels proved. Jar Jar also got slammed as a racist construct with his odd speech patterns, which recalled the Stepin Fetchit archetype to some. The black actor behind the portrait, Ahmed Best, would beg to differ .

We may love "Star Wars," but we could do without these annoying pieces of the beloved franchise: 5. Jar Jar Binks Who else?

A popular wedding venue in El Paso is under fire after turning away a Texas gay couple's request to hold a reception ceremony at the location. Grace Gardens reportedly told the couple that the event venue was "not allowed to have any services for same-sex marriage," KFOX14 reports : Monico Ramirez and Jonathan Luna plan to get married in the near future, and tell KFOX14 they were looking for the perfect location to host a reception or ceremony, but not the marriage itself. "I was looking for a place where I could have my same-sex ceremony, so I went to check out Grace Gardens," Ramirez said. "It was absolutely beautiful, and we decided we wanted to have it there." Ramirez said he and Luna began going over contract details with a staff employee, and that's when they informed the employee that they planned to have a same-sex reception. "She just looked at us weird," Ramirez said. "She took us to a lobby, and told us she had to go speak with a manager, we stayed there 15 minutes. She came out and said 'I'm sorry guys, but we are not allowed to have any services for same-sex marriage.'" But Ramirez told KFOX 14 they were not trying to have a gay marriage, they simply wanted to have a ceremoy or reception at Grace Gardens. Still, he says they were told Grace Gardens can, and would refuse service to them. "When she told me that, I felt like somebody was throwing a bucket of water on me, it was kind of sad and embarrassing," Ramirez said. "I don't think it's right to be discriminated like that." Sandra Rodriguez, the venue's owner, responded to the controversy in a statement saying that while it's true Grace Gardens 'does not host same sex ceremonies,' the couple's claim of mistreatment is unfounded. Says Rodriguez: At the commencement of the tour the gentlemen informed our sales associate that they were looking for a place to host a wedding ceremony, and they affirmatively stated that the female bride was out of town. It wasn't until the tour was almost completed that the gentlemen inquired as to whether Grace Gardens allowed 'wild parties with strippers.' It was this question that garnered the 'weird' look described by Mr. Ramirez. After responding that she would have to ask management for the answer, the gentlemen revealed that they were actually a same sex couple seeking to have their ceremony and wild party with strippers at Grace Gardens. Watch a news report of the story here .

Monico Ramirez and Jonathan Luna plan to get married in the near future, and tell KFOX14 they were looking for the perfect location to host a reception or ceremony, but not the marriage itself.

From the producers who brought you Carol and the studio that brought you Disobedience and the actor who brought you undisputed lesbian coming-of-age story Bend It Like Beckham comes a new film about the French writer/bisexual icon Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette. By Heather Hogan | July 24, 2018 | 16 Comments Your favorite queer Instagram dating account has changed its name to be more inclusive, is creating an app just for you, and is hosting a party in NYC to kickoff its crowdfunding efforts Wednesday night, June 13! Read our interview with creator Kelly Rakowski for all the hot details! By Alexis | June 12, 2018 | 5 Comments We asked Kelly Rakowski of Herstory Personals for some of the tips and tricks she's gleaned about writing a good personals ad from playing matchmaker to the queer lonely hearts Instagram crowd, and she was happy to oblige. By Vanessa | February 13, 2018 | 4 Comments Jessica Platt is the first out trans player in the Canadian Women's Hockey League, Disney gal pal pairing you'll freak out over, rare vintage photos of 18th and early 19th-century lesbians, 90-year-old lesbian veteran sues the U.S. Air Force, and lesbian herstory accounts you need in your life. By KaeLyn | January 14, 2018 | 11 Comments A record number of LGBTQ Texans running for office, Nafessa Williams as Thunder in Black Lightning (swoon), America's first lesbian mag herstory lesson, first trans woman in British Vogue suffragette spread, and choppin' a whole hell of a lot of cilantro. By KaeLyn | January 7, 2018 | 11 Comments Get to know Lisa Ben, please do not resurrect the wooly mammoth, what we think poverty looks like, lots on The Stonewall Generation, the role of midwives for queer and trans parents, that fcking climate change piece, and so much more! By Laneia | July 10, 2017 | 13 Comments "When I opened the bar in 1991, we had a jukebox. Yeah that's about it. Back then folks were not so intent on being in fabulous spaces. They just wanted a safe space to congregate." By Molly | June 23, 2017 | 8 Comments

From the producers who brought you Carol and the studio that brought you Disobedience and the actor who brought you undisputed lesbian coming-of-age story Bend It Like Beckham comes a new film about the French writer/bisexual icon Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette.

Team GB 'only started training after Brexit', claims Leave.EU When Leave.EU claimed that Team GB's smashing Olympic success is evidence of us being able to go it alone, many pointed out the following concerns with the group's 'logic': The period of uncertainty (which will cling to us like a McDonald's stink clings to the insides of a Peugeot 306) isn't going to be alleviated just... The week in satire Vol. #9 And what a week it was! A week in which Owen Smith proposed having ice creams with ISIS (Daesh), Nigel Farage's moustache was pictured canoodling with Donald Trump's wig, and Jeremy Corbyn let the world know he was too good for first class and sat on the floor in protest. But what else happened? Let's look back and... Smith flip-flops and says he's now "gunning for ISIS top boy" Owen Smith was somewhat embarrassed on 17 August when his proposal to sit round a table with Daesh (Isis/Isil) left many questioning the man's competence. In fact, the move was so widely regarded as evidence of a confused mind that even the logic laissez-faire brains behind Daesh didn't know what to make of... #ThingsOwenDid - What is Smith's Greatest Achievement? [POLL] In celebration of his recent fantasticness, the users of Twitter have come together to draw attention to the less appreciated achievements of Owen Smith's career under the hashtag #ThingsOwenDid. Some Tweets referenced Smith's political... Osborne accepted as a speaker for the 'After Dinner Circuit of Evil' When the anti-Brexit boat that Osborne had limply nailed his colours to capsized, most assumed his career was shipwrecked - doomed to spend eternity as well-remembered as the many sea vessels which weren't the Titanic. But others claim it's unlikely that Gideon will be forgotten, because he is set to go down in history as the most... Boris and Fox to settle foreign policy dispute by balloon race It was always expected that there would be tension between David Davis, Liam Fox, and Boris Johnson - the ministers who Theresa May appointed to clean up the mess that they... ...err... ...that is to say the ministers that she appointed to oversee Brexit, foreign trade, and whatever it is that Boris thinks he's doing. via... David Miliband to return from parallel universe where he's popular News is coming in that David Miliband - the New Labour king-in-waiting - is set to return from the parallel universe in which he's been sulking. If you're unfamiliar with David, he essentially looks like a child's drawing of Tony Blair that's been repeatedly photocopied until the definition has bleached out. In fact, the... Donald Trump tries new wigs to broaden his appeal Donald Trump has seen numerous setbacks over the last few weeks. The problems began when the idiot pollsters began "not doing polls good", and started claiming that the Donald was actually falling behind in the race. Obviously this was more than likely the result of a Hillary-led conspiracy, and so he encouraged his supporters to protect... What percentage Trotskyist are you? [QUIZ] As we all know, the Labour Party has a very serious problem with Trotskyist infiltrators - just like they previously had a very serious problem with: Droves of antisemites. Scores of sexists. Hordes of level 10 anti-aspiration vampires wearing cloaks of invisibility. The fact that only a minority of these individuals were... Tom Watson warns of Trotskyists pushing hard-left ideology outside schools Speaking in The Guardian, Tom Watson has been warning us all about THE EVER-PRESENT THREAT OF TROTSKYITES! This is what Tom had to say: We had a problem with Trots in the 1980s, but we managed to scare them out of the party by creating a fire-wall around us - a fire-wall which we set going by burning all our bridges with the... Page 12 of 17 ... 10 11 12 13 14 ...

eam GB 'only started training after Brexit', claims Leave.EU When Leave.EU claimed that Team GB's smashing Olympic success is evidence of us being able to go it alone, many pointed out the following concerns with the group's 'logic':

TEHRAN - Es'haq Al-e-Habib, the Iranian deputy ambassador to the UN, said on Tuesday that Iran opposes equating legitimate struggle against occupation with terrorism. 2018-06-27 16:45 TEHRAN - The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi on Tuesday condemned an intensified bombardments of Yemeni people by the Saudi-led coalition and urged international bodies to stop the Saudi-UAE "war crimes" in Yemen. 2018-06-27 16:29 TEHRAN -- Iran and Afghanistan have reached an agreement on water right of Heray Rud River, Hamoun wetland and Helmand River, Afghanistan's Ambassador to Iran Nasir Ahmad Nour has said./ 2018-06-27 16:25 TEHRAN - Iran national football team returned home early Wednesday amid warm reception by the Iranian fans. 2018-06-27 16:17 TEHRAN - A number of Iranian MPs wrote a letter to President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday urging him to change his economic team. 2018-06-27 16:10 TEHRAN - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif praised on Tuesday that the African Union's reactions to international developments including its support for the Iran nuclear deal. 2018-06-27 14:48 Leader of the Islamic Revolution met with Judiciary chairman and officials on June 27, 2018, On the occasion of the martyrdom anniversary of Ayatollah Beheshti and commemorating the national week. 2018-06-27 11:01 By Ramin Hossein Abadian TEHRAN - In 2015, to restore dictatorial rule to Yemen as well as plunder the country's oil and gas and its natural wealth, Saudi Arabia created a coalition of some of its regional and transatlantic allies, targeting Yemen which is the poorest Arab state. 2018-06-27 10:09 By Mehdi Maleki & Mohammad Ali Haqshenas TEHRAN - Australian Ambassador to Iran Ian Biggs highlighted that his country is definitely committed to Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). 2018-06-27 09:17 By Seyed Zafar Mehdi TEHRAN - When Karim Ansarifard scored the last-gasp equalizer against Portugal; ecstatic, adrenaline-fueled scenes were witnessed at Tehran's Azadi Stadium, where thousands of young football fans had gathered to watch live feed of the match. 2018-06-27 09:09 Photo depicts a flock of birds flying over Emad al-Doleh Mosque, a 19th-centry complex in Kermanshah, western Iran, on June 23, 2018. 2018-06-27 09:07 TEHRAN - The Saudi-led coalition has launched an extensive operation to occupy the important and strategic port of Al-Hudaydah in Yemen. In this operation, the UAE plays a very important role. One of the goals of the country's participation in the three-year invasion on Yemen was for the sake of dominating the Yemeni ports in order to resolve its geopolitical weakness. 2018-06-27 01:01 TEHRAN - The Judiciary chief on Tuesday lashed out at those who are "disrupting the economy" by funneling their huge assets into foreign currency and gold market, threatening that they will face "severe punishment" if their acts is recognized as "corruption on the earth". 2018-06-26 21:32 TEHRAN - Forces from the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) dealt a severe blow late on Monday to a Takfiri terrorist cell in the border province of Sistan-Baluchestan in southeast Iran. 2018-06-26 21:31 TEHRAN - Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi, the Tehran prosecutor general, has said that the "main provocateurs" who planned Monday's protests in Tehran's bazaar have been arrested. 2018-06-26 21:30 TEHRAN - Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani has urged leaders of regional countries to be optimistic about each other to resolve conflicts, Fars reported. 2018-06-26 21:29 'U.S. has launched psychological, economic war on Iran' TEHRAN - President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that the U.S. is seeking to "break" the Iranian people through "psychological and economic warfare". 2018-06-26 21:29 TEHRAN - Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, assured on Tuesday that the U.S. dream to limit Iran's nuclear activities through imposing sanctions will not be realized. 2018-06-26 21:28 TEHRAN - Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad who traveled to Tehran late Monday held talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. 2018-06-26 21:28 In an address to the UN Security Council on Monday, Iran's ambassador to the UN condemned states which spread Iranophobia with the aim of selling more arms in the region, Mehr reported. 2018-06-26 19:30 TEHRAN - A selection of short films are being screened in the "Iran, Country in Focus", a section dedicated to Iranian films at the 12th River Film Festival, which opened June 15 in the Italian city of Padova. 2018-06-26 19:29 TEHRAN - Iran's Cultural Office in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur and the Malaysian National Institute of Translation have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU). 2018-06-26 19:25 TEHRAN - The Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Abbas Salehi, arrived in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku on Tuesday to attend an Iranian cultural festival. 2018-06-26 19:22 TEHRAN - The Avaye Mahan Choir plans again to perform a number of greatest hits recorded by European and American singers and bands from the 1950s to the 1980s during three concerts in Tehran. 2018-06-26 19:17 TEHRAN - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has picked three Iranian cineastes to join the organization as the Academy has invited 928 new members from 59 countries. 2018-06-26 19:07 TEHRAN- Iran's gas exports increased by nine percent during the first quarter of current Iranian calendar year (March 21-June 21), according to a gas official. 2018-06-26 19:07 TEHRAN - The third edition of Iran's International Exhibition for Metal Working (AMB Iran 2018) kicked off on Tuesday at Shahr-e-Aftab International Exhibition Center in Tehran. 2018-06-26 19:06 TEHRAN- Government spokesman Mohammad Baqer Nobakht on Tuesday said that the government's main target is increasing the value of national currency, rial, however, the job will not be fulfilled without the support of the Iranian nation. 2018-06-26 19:06 TEHRAN- Bulgaria's ambassador to Iran said that U.S. withdrawal from Iran's nuclear deal (known as JCPOA) cannot prevent European companies from having trade transactions with the country, IRNA reported on Tuesday.

TEHRAN - Es'haq Al-e-Habib, the Iranian deputy ambassador to the UN, said on Tuesday that Iran opposes equating legitimate struggle against occupation with terrorism.

NEW YORK -- A partnership among abortion backers is showing cracks as feminists in the Global South are pushing back against environmentalists promoting population control measures. During the inaugural meeting of a new U.N. endeavor on the environment, one group took to social media to refute the "dubious linking" between population and climate change, arguing that "population control strategies inevitably lead to abuses, coercion, and the violation of women's fundamental rights." The Malaysia-based group ARROW advocates for feminist policies at the U.N., including access to abortion. They are skeptical of wealthy Northern countries' efforts to reduce the fertility of women in poor countries in the name of stopping climate change. ARROW tweeted an infograph showing countries with the highest rates of population growth are also those with the lowest rates of energy consumption. Strategies to address climate change "should not displace responsibility for carbon emissions upon those least responsible for them." Although feminists and population control groups are the leading international proponents of abortion, their divergent motives have historically set them at odds with each other. The two camps forged an uneasy partnership at the 1994 U.N. Cairo conference, which upheld the right of women to determine the number and spacing of their children. Now, as the global community works to set new objectives for development and environmental policy, the cracks in the "reproductive health" lobby are beginning to show again. At last year's Women Deliver conference in Kuala Lumpur, controversial ethics professor Peter Singer posited that women's desire to have children could be forcibly overridden to address environmental problems. Singer received a strong reaction from Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, head of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), who objected to "limiting the rights of people in this way." He pointed out rapid decreases in population is leaving countries with "more 65 year-olds than 5 year-olds." Osotimehin said consumption of resources, not just population growth, impacts environmental sustainability: "A homeless person in Denmark actually consumes more than a family of six in Tanzania." ARROW's social media campaign wade into this debate as the new United Nations Environmental Assembly is meeting this week in Kenya to address the "sustainability" component of the forthcoming Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These will replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which expire in 2015. Economist Jeffrey Sachs, the architect of the MDGs and a key contributor to the SDG process, recently touted Malthus' theory that excessive population growth frustrates economic development. He proposed the U.N. aim for "rapid voluntary reduction of fertility" to achieve sustainable development. In contrast, ARROW says linking population and climate change means "developed countries may be content with funding family planning in developing countries as climate change strategy," sacrificing poor women's fertility to protect their own high levels of consumption. While feminists are uneasy with the goal of population reduction, they continue to be outspoken in favor of legalizing abortion. But some environmentalist groups favoring a smaller human population are backing away from the controversy surrounding abortion. "The issue of abortion colors the family planning debate more than it should," said Andrew Foster, director of the Population Studies and Training Center at Brown University. "[It] gets in the way of a more proper discussion about family planning." Reprinted with permission from C-FAM.org .

Strategies to address climate change "should not displace responsibility for carbon emissions upon those least responsible for them."

J Mase III Facebook Janet Mock's advocacy and activism. Laverne Cox's rise to fame in Orange Is the New Black . Even Caitlyn Jenner's recent Vanity Fair cover . All eyes are on these trailblazing transgender women who have helped to highlight the people and issues surrounding the trans community. But what about the often less visible faces of transgender men of color? Here are just nine of the many trans men of color who are advocates, writers, ministers, scholars and entertainers making a lasting impact in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer space. 1. Kye Allums The Minnesota native made headlines when he came out in 2010 while playing on the women's basketball team at George Washington University. Allums became the first openly transgender Division I athlete in NCAA history. After graduation, he decided to focus on LGBT activism and has spoken at more than 32 colleges and universities about the trans* athlete experience. He has also written his first book, Who Am I? Allums identifies as a queer, fluid trans* and prefers the pronouns "he" or "him" and "they" or "them." 2. The Rev. Lawrence T. Richardson Richardson grew up in St. Paul, Minn., and felt compelled to serve in the ministry from the time he was a youth. After spending years trying to fit in at churches, he saw a commercial featuring a community of diverse people being rejected from the church. The commercial ended with "God doesn't reject people and neither do we." Richardson became an ordained minister and joined the United Church of Christ community. In 2010 he medically transitioned from female to male and now identifies as a transgender, queer-identified person. He says , "I used to be a miserable person ... physically sick and depressed all the time; and if I can be transformed and made whole by the love of God, anyone can be!" Broadus , who transitioned more than 20 years ago, is an attorney who focuses on LGBT law and transgender rights. He is the founder and director of the Trans People of Color Coalition , the only national organization dedicated to the civil rights of transgender people of color. The former Lincoln University of Missouri professor is also co-founder of the think tank the Transgender Law and Policy Institute . The Missouri native is the first transgender American to testify before the U.S. Senate in favor of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act. During his 2012 speech he said, "For me, the physical transition was about letting the outer world know my internal sense of self, of who really was inside this body. ... My transition was a matter of living the truth and sharing that truth for the first time in my life." Green is a writer, poet, scholar and filmmaker born in Oakland, Calif., who is dedicated to raising consciousness around self-care, self-love, sexual and emotional health, sexual and state violence, healthy masculinities, and black feminism. Green's short film It Gets Messy in Here examines the lives of transgender men and masculine-identified women of color and their bathroom experiences. Green is a professor and postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University in sexuality studies and African-American studies. 5. Victor J. Mukasa Mukasa is a human rights defender from Uganda who now lives in the U.S. Co-founder of Sexual Minorities Uganda and executive director of Kuchu Diaspora Alliance-USA , he was forced to seek asylum in the U.S. after fighting for LGBT rights. He was the first activist to address the United Nations about transgender issues in Africa. As part of the " Proudly African & Transgender: Self-Portraits in Writing " exhibition, he wrote, "For most Ugandans, any person that expresses 'him/herself' as the opposite sex is a homosexual and so this exposes transgender people to all the mistreatment that they would love to give a homosexual. All transgender people are seen as the obvious homosexuals. Therefore, on top of all the transphobia, there is homophobia even if you are not gay." Originally from Illinois, Sampson is a public defender in Philadelphia. The attorney has sat on the board of directors of the Mazzoni Center and the Attic Youth Center and is secretary of the board of directors of Gender Reel , a national film and performing-arts festival highlighting the experiences and identities of transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals. Sampson also helps organize the annual Philadelphia Trans-Health Conference , which focuses on educating and empowering trans* individuals, allies and health care providers on issues of health and well-being. An award-winning filmmaker and blogger and the first person to hold a Ph.D. in African-American studies from Northwestern University, Ziegler wrote and directed the 2008 feature-length documentary Still Black : A Portrait of Black Transmen, exploring the transgender man-of-color experience. Ziegler, who was named to The Root 100 in 2013, told the Huffington Post , "I've realized that the plight of being a black man in America is not what I understood it to be when I was not living as a black man in America. What I mean by that is just it's really sad the way people fear me. I'm very hyper-visible." Mitchell was the first "out" transgender-identified board member of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Raised in a black Baptist church in Los Angeles, he now lives in Massachusetts with his wife and young daughter and serves as the engagement coordinator for the Transfaith/Interfaith Working Group . Mitchell is also featured in the documentary Still Black: A Portrait of Black Transmen . 9. J Mase III Based in the Bronx, N.Y., the trans-queer author, performer and teaching poet is the creator of the national performance event Cupid Ain't @#$%!: An Anti-Valentine's Day Poetry Movement . J Mase is also the founder of awQward , a first-of-its-kind talent agency run by trans people that uplifts the work of trans and queer people of color. He began coming out as trans at the age of 19. He told the New York Times , "Back then, I believed in this very romantic myth of a cohesive LGBTQ community. ... What I discovered was that the reality of being a trans person of color is often talked about within the LGBTQ community, but not actually addressed." With the creation of awQward, he hopes that "[trans people of color] artists are able to preserve our history, culture and make a livable wage while doing what we love." Nicole L. Cvetnic is The Root' s multimedia editor and producer.

All eyes are on these trailblazing transgender women who have helped to highlight the people and issues surrounding the trans community.

"I am tired of being shamed because I'm a white male. You automatically think I'm a racist. How about you go the f*** back to India or wherever you came from?" Donald Trump's presidential campaign was nothing less than a hate-fest that attracted racists and bigots from all across the country to his rallies. The boisterous billionaire appealed to a certain demographic, so much so that before the election, his supporters were threatening to revolt if he did not win. However, now that he has successfully seized the victory from his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, it is not entirely shocking that his loyalists continue to harass people who raise their voices against Trump's intolerance and misogyny. Seattle's Socialist councilmember, Kshama Sawant, is just another victim of this disturbing fanaticism. During a post-election rally at Seattle City Hall, Sawant called for massive demonstration and nationwide shutdown on Inauguration Day to protest President-elect Trump. "Join me, I appeal to you, today at 4 p.m. at Westlake (Park)," she told the crowd. "Let's have a massive protest and tell America we do not accept a racist agenda and let's make sure that on Inauguration Day, on the 20th and 21st of January, let's do a nationwide shutdown and occupy inauguration." #BREAKING : #Seattle councilwoman @cmkshama calls on protesters to shut down @ realDonaldTrump 's Inauguration Day. https://t.co/JdHc4hIiaP pic.twitter.com/I1QgC0lCn5 -- KIRO 7 (@KIRO7Seattle) November 10, 2016 The video of Sawant's speech soon went viral, irking of hundreds of Trump supporters in the city. The councilmember's office is now reportedly flooded with hate mail, some of which are rather vicious. "Go back to India b****," read one of them, while another said, "I am tired of being shamed because I'm a white male. You automatically think I'm a racist. How about you go the (expletive) back to India or wherever you came from?" The irony. "We didn't riot with Obama was elected," wrote another apparent Trump fan. "Ever stop to think we see (Obama) as a racist? But we carried on and lived to fight another day. Stop being such a cry baby b**** and go hang yourself." Council spokesperson Dana Robinson Slote claimed "a staffer was told on phone: 'I will come and tattoo a swastika on your head and on that b****'s head.'" Read More There are also some repetitive emails, providing a terrifying glimpse inside the mind of those who elected Trump to the White House. Most of these messages contain phrases like, "Get the hell out of my country while you can," "Stop being a terrorist here" and "You need to go back where you came from." Sawant's call for an anti-Trump protest was not surprising. Apart from the fact that such protests erupted across the nation the moment the results came in, Sawant is known for participating and organizing demonstrations on social issues. She was also an integral part of the minimum wage protests held in Seattle. "It is our moral duty to speak out," she said. "I would say that elected officials like myself have an amplified responsibility to be out in the forefront of issues like this, where women and so many others are under attack." Seattle police is reportedly investigating some of the threatening emails. "Not all of the (writers and callers) are outright racist and misogynist," Sawant continued. "Many of them are people who voted for Trump because they believe that he stands for the working person, he will lower their taxes, that he'll create living wage jobs. Trump is not going to do any of those things," she said. Meanwhile, there is also an online petition demanding to recall Sawant for "abuse of power" -- because you can't stand up for your rights in the land of the free, apparently. "She's using her platform to incite violence and call for protests and riots," the petition states. "Our elected officials should be helping and bringing people together in our communities not promoting hate towards our democracy. Whether you like the outcome or not of the election, we look upon our officials to follow the laws of this country. Let's help bring people together and follow the laws to get things done not promote hate and dismay because this election did not go her way. et's send a message to our local mayor that she should step down from her position or be impeached. It is not appropriate for elected officials to call for protests." Read More

Donald Trump's presidential campaign was nothing less than a hate-fest that attracted racists and bigots from all across the country to his rallies.

I WANT to tell you a secret about the Tories: most of them aren't very posh. Theresa May grew up in a vicarage and David Davis was raised on a council estate. Justine Greening and Gavin Williamson attended their local comprehensives. Sajid Javid is the son of a bus driver. PA:Press Association 4 Justine Greening's Social Mobility Action Plan was disappointing and full of jargon For Conservatives, the idea that everyone should have the chance to go as far as they can in life, regardless of where they are from - what the policy wonks call "social mobility" - is an important part of their identity. Tories tend to believe that because Labour are fixated by their desire for equality, they level everything downwards. Only Conservatives, they argue, can help people to achieve their full potential. Of course no political party is uniquely capable of improving social mobility. In education, for example, because of Labour's relationship with the teaching unions, the Conservatives are the better school reformers. But Labour's willingness to spend more can sometimes help. PA:Press Association 4 The PM grew up in a vicarage and social mobility is an important part Conservative identity While spending money wisely is as important as how much you spend, Tony Blair's investment in childcare, for example, was a good thing, especially for women on lower wages. Social mobility in Britain, however, is stalling. According to the Social Mobility Commission, "for this generation of young people in particular," it is "getting worse not better." Only one in six people who were on low pay ten years ago have escaped low-paid work. Meanwhile, the top professions remain the preserve of the privileged: only six per cent of doctors, for example, come from working class families. Some policies are moving in the right direction. Conservative school reforms mean English children are better educated than ever before. Our primary schools are climbing the international league tables, and nearly two million more pupils attend good or outstanding schools than in 2010. 4 Conservative reforms mean English children are better educated than ever before Improving schools, however, is not enough, because the factors behind our stalling social mobility are complex. Home ownership is one of the crucial foundations for a socially mobile society. Yet the chance of owning your own home has been falling since before the financial crash. Our housing market is now so broken that more people in England now own their home outright than pay a mortgage. The labour market is changing fast and in worrying ways. We have more people in work than ever before, but after inflation average wages are lower than they were ten years ago. About three and a half million people say they would like to work more hours, but they cannot find the work. Estimates suggest that almost half of existing jobs are vulnerable to new technology. Young people have it especially bad. If they go to university, they emerge with average debts of PS50,000 - the highest in the world. For the majority of young people who don't go to university, we have completely inadequate technical education. This is why Justine Greening's Social Mobility Action Plan, released last week, was disappointing. Full of jargon but short on meaningful policies, it would have been better left unpublished. There was no attempt to analyse any of the problems I have just listed, nor the trends - like globalisation, changing technology, our ageing society, and the fall-out from the financial crash - that cause many of them. PA:Press Association 4 Michael Gove's 'no excuses' culture that has improved English schools On education, Greening is slowing down successful policies she inherited. There has been no new round of free school applications since before the election, and the Department for Education seems reluctant to implement the Government's proposals to encourage universities and independent schools to sponsor state schools. One of the Action Plan's proposals - to ensure teachers and heads "get full credit" from inspectors for working in tough schools - means bad schools will be given better ratings than they merit because they serve poorer communities. That is the very opposite of Michael Gove's "no excuses" culture that has improved English schools. What could the Tories do to turbocharge social mobility instead? A dramatic improvement in technical education would be a good start. The Government's existing proposals are too limited and too slow. Ministers should be prepared to convert a number of universities into institutes of technology and reform tuition fees so young people get a meaningful choice between academic and technical education. As part of a tuition fees review, they should reduce fees. They should ensure the national retraining programme is more ambitious, so people in jobs that are endangered by technology get the skills that will keep them in work. They should introduce new rights and protections for people working in the precarious "gig economy". Instead of slowing down school reform, they should press on with plans to get good new sponsors, like universities and independent schools, into the state system. They should improve access to childcare and do even more to get more houses built. What should the Tories be doing? Turn some universities into tech colleges Cut tuition fees Improve retraining for people whose jobs are threatened by tech New rights for 'gig economy' workers Speed up school reform with sponsors such as unis and private schools Intervene in flawed markets to stop firms ripping people off Do more to build homes Tax accumulated wealth more, tax working families less They should intervene in dysfunctional markets to stop firms ripping off customers and reduce bills. The Government should be prepared to redistribute more through the tax system : from the wealthy to working families with modest incomes. They should be prepared to increase taxes on accumulated wealth so they can cut taxes on income. They could raise more money through inheritance tax. They could abolish stamp duty and instead charge capital gains tax on house sales, helping young people on modest incomes. MOST READ IN OPINION Tony Parsons The vast majority of Brits would be very happy to never see a burka again BRENDAN O'NEILL Rowan's right, laughing at religion is our right -- we've fought for it LORRAINE KELLY I expected better from Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie than bitter divorce row LORRAINE KELLY Reach out to friends who are aching with grief -- one day you'll need them KARREN BRADY Let's help girls help themselves and stop them from self-harming ROD LIDDLE Think it's right to build houses on our green spaces -- maybe you should belt up It may be politically difficult, but at some point pensioner benefits, like the winter fuel allowance, will need to be means-tested and the triple lock - which has increased the state pension faster than workers' wages - will need to end. Many Tories would find some of these measures too radical. But if they really want to make the Conservatives the party of social mobility, and make Britain the world's Great Meritocracy, they will have to overcome their ideological assumptions - and do the right thing for the country. Political adviser Nick Timothy was Theresa May's Downing Street Joint Chief of Staff from 2016 to 2017. Education Secretary Justine Greening announces school funding will increase with inflation

I WANT to tell you a secret about the Tories: most of them aren't very posh. Theresa May grew up in a vicarage and David Davis was raised on a council estate.

I t is an article of faith in the Trump campaign that he will "bring our jobs back from China, from Mexico, from Japan, from so many places." (To be sure, at the cost of raising prices on American consumers -- but his campaign doesn't mention that part.) And The Donald is hardly alone in making this promise. While visiting a factory in Ohio last month, Hillary Clinton assured the audience that she had "always been committed to bringing back manufacturing." Similar promises can regularly be heard from Bernie Sanders, John Kasich , and even Ted Cruz. There's hardly a politician out there who doesn't want to "bring back American jobs." But here's an unwelcome bit of reality for Trump and all his emulators: Those jobs are not coming back. It is true that manufacturing is a much smaller portion of the American economy than it was in, say, the 1950s. Manufacturing's share of the U.S. economy is just 12.1 percent of GDP, compared with a peak of 28.1 percent in 1953. But that's not because, as anti-trade zealots would have it, "we don't make things any more." U.S. manufacturing's value added in 2014 hit an all-time high of $2.1 trillion, compared to just $110 billion in 1953 (in constant dollars). Yes, a lot of the things you find at your local Wal-Mart are made somewhere else, but that's because U.S. manufacturing has shifted toward high-end products. The U.S. manufacturing sector is so robust that the stock of foreign direct investment exceeds $1 trillion, far more than foreigners invest in our competitors. Manufacturing has declined as a share of the overall U.S. economy, not because our manufacturing sector has been "hollowed out," but because other industry sectors have grown even faster. This includes industries, like information technology, that barely existed in the 1950s. For instance, in terms of value added, professional, scientific, and technical services contribute four times more to GDP today than they did in 1955. That's a good thing. It's called progress. After all, do American parents really aspire to have their children sitting at a sewing machine making shirts? Or do they want their children to become doctors, computer programmers, or technology specialists -- good jobs with good futures. Manufacturing jobs have been declining for 40 years or more, a trend that started long before NAFTA or any of the other trade agreements that Trump so hates. There are many reasons for this decline, but they have little to do with China or Mexico "stealing our jobs." Rather, the single biggest reason that the manufacturing sector has shed so many jobs is that American workers are increasingly productive. Simply put, it takes fewer workers to produce the same thing. Even when manufacturers have been bringing factories back to the United States -- a small but positive trend in recent years -- that doesn't mean they are bringing back jobs . The biggest threat today to low-skilled workers is not China, but automation. Robots and automation have changed everything. The biggest threat today to low-skilled workers is not China, but automation. As detailed in the 2016 Economic Report of the President, jobs with an hourly wage of less than 20 dollars have a median probability of being automated 2.7 times higher than jobs paying 20 to 40 dollars. And robots are steadily getting smarter and able to handle more tasks. Think what self-driving cars could mean to everything from taxis to long-haul trucking. Again, that's a good thing. There is a story, likely apocryphal, about Milton Friedman. While touring China, he came upon a team of nearly 100 workers building an earthen dam with shovels. Friedman pointed out that with a bulldozer, a single worker could create the dam in an afternoon. A Communist official replied, "Yes, but think of all the unemployment that would create." "Oh," said Friedman, "I thought you were building a dam. If it's jobs you want, then take away their shovels and give them spoons." #share#Trying to preserve low-skilled manufacturing jobs in America today makes little more sense than Friedman's spoon brigade. And such jobs are only going to become less viable in the face of government policies that make workers even more costly compared to the amount of value their labor provides. This week, Governor Jerry Brown and the California legislature seem to have reached a deal to impose an increase in the minimum wage from its current $10 an hour to $15 an hour by 2022. California is currently home to some 600,000 low-skilled manufacturing jobs. The new minimum wage will put many of those jobs at risk. It makes little difference whether they are taken by robots or outsourced to China or simply eliminated. Those jobs will be gone. Trying to preserve low-skilled manufacturing jobs in America today makes little more sense than Friedman's spoon brigade. Moreover, many of the manufacturing processes moving overseas are designed to build products not to ship back to this country, but to better serve foreign markets. Shortening shipping distances, avoiding foreign trade barriers, and creating an on-the-ground presence in emerging markets can help U.S. firms sell more products to those countries. In fact, studies suggest that more than 90 percent of outsourcing jobs involves foreign-market considerations rather than labor costs. Slapping tariffs on foreign goods is not going to change that calculation. Indeed, all it would mean is that companies would sell still more of their products overseas and fewer here. Of course, the change in American manufacturing has been far from painless. Certain cities, regions, and individuals pay a disproportionate price. I was born in a small New England town that was once a center of the textile industry. But within a decade of my birth, that industry and its jobs were mostly gone. At that time they left not for Mexico or China, but for Southern states that had lower wages, lower taxes, and fewer regulations. The destination didn't matter much, though, for the people left behind. Losing that industry was devastating for the entire community. But it was also inevitable and had nothing to do with foreign trade. Instead of false promises about returning us to the 1950s, we would be better served if the candidates focused on how to create a climate for economic growth and entrepreneurship that will lead to new jobs -- jobs that will fit with today's economic reality. Our rate of new-business creation is half what it was in the 1980s, and we are only 33rd in the World Bank's rankings of how easy it is to start a business. Yet we see candidates like Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders promising to pile new taxes and regulations onto American businesses. Similarly, Donald Trump's proposal for 45 percent tariffs will not just hurt consumers; it will mean less investment in new jobs and new industries. There's a strange perversity to promising to bring jobs back from overseas while destroying the jobs that are here today. And, when you take into account that the promise of returning jobs is nonsense, while the job destruction is real, you realize that looking backward is more than just bad political rhetoric. We can't climb into a time machine and return to the 1950s even if we wanted to. What we can do is prepare for a vibrant new economic future. That means cutting taxes and regulations to boost entrepreneurship. It means breaking the stranglehold that the teachers' unions have over our schools so that we can educate future workers for future jobs. It means embracing economic growth as a goal. And it means understanding that free trade contributes to that growth and ultimately produces more winners than losers. Unfortunately, it is far easier for politicians to make promises that they know they can't keep. Michael Tanner -- Michael Tanner is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and the author of Going for Broke: Deficits, Debt, and the Entitlement Crisis . You can follow him on his blog, TannerOnPolicy.com. @MTannerCato

I t is an article of faith in the Trump campaign that he will "bring our jobs back from China, from Mexico, from Japan, from so many places." (To be sure, at the cost of raising prices on American consumers -- but his campaign doesn't mention that part.)

French Revolution France's King Louis XVI sent his navy and troops to help America gain independence from Britain, for which France gained very little in return, except enormous debt. On the verge of financial collapse, France experienced a famine in 1788. The people blamed the king. Anti-monarchists referred to Queen Marie Antoinette as Madame Deficit. According to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, when she was told the people did not have bread, her reply was: "Let them eat cake." Agitators stirred the people to riot, resulting in the arrest of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, who were then beheaded in Paris in 1793. The French Revolution began with a Reign of Terror. Maximilien Robespierre led the "Committee of Public Safety," France's version of Department of Homeland Security. He gave a speech to the National Assembly, Feb. 5, 1794, titled "The Terror Justified": "Lead ... the enemies of the people by terror. ... Terror is nothing else than swift, severe, indomitable justice." Robespierre began accusing, arresting, and beheading: first all the royalty then the wealthy then the farmers and businessmen then those hoarding food then the religious clergy then the former revolutionaries Over 40,000 were beheaded in Paris. It was an intentional campaign to de-christianize French society and replace it with a civic religion of state worship. Not wanting a constitution that was "Done in the year of the Lord," as the U.S. Constitution was, the French made 1791 the new "Year One." They did not want a seven day week with a Sabbath day rest, as this was derived from the Bible, so they devised a ten day "decade" week, and ten month year. French Revolutionary Time divided the day into 10 decimal hours, with each hour consisting of 100 decimal minutes, and each minute made up of 100 decimal seconds. Every measurement was to be divisible by ten, as ten was considered the number of man with ten fingers and ten toes. This was called "the metric system." The new secular government proceeded to: Forbid crosses as being offensive Religious monuments were destroyed Public and private worship and education outlawed Priests and ministers, along with those who harbored them, were executed on sight Christian graves were desecrated, including that of Ste. Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris who called the city to pray when Attila the Hun was attacking in 451 A.D. Churches were closed or used for "immoral," "lurid," "licentious," "scandalous" depravities Robespierre put a prostitute in Notre Dame Cathedral, covered her with a sheet, and called her "the goddess of reason" to be worshiped. The Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg was turned into a Temple of Reason. In America, Yale President Timothy Dwight gave an address on July 4, 1798, tracing the origin of the radical, left-wing Jacobin organizers who agitated a violent overthrow of France's government: "About the year 1728, Voltaire, so celebrated for his wit and brilliancy and not less distinguished for his hatred of Christianity and his abandonment of principle, formed a systematical design to destroy Christianity and to introduce in its stead a general diffusion of irreligion and atheism. ... With great art and insidiousness the doctrines of ... Christian theology were rendered absurd and ridiculous; and the mind of the reader was insensibly steeled against conviction and duty. ... The overthrow of the religious orders in Catholic countries, a step essentially necessary to the destruction of the religion professed in those countries. ..." Dwight continued: "... The appropriation to themselves, and their disciples, of the places and honors of members of the French Academy. ... In this way they designed to hold out themselves ... to dictate all literary opinions to the nation. ... The fabrication of books of all kinds against Christianity, especially such as excite doubt and generate contempt and derision. ... The being of God was denied and ridiculed ... The possession of property was pronounced robbery. Chastity and natural affection were declared to be nothing more than groundless prejudices. Adultery, assassination, poisoning, and other crimes of the like infernal nature, were taught as lawful ... provided the end was good. ... The good ends proposed ... are the overthrow of religion, government, and human society, civil and domestic. These they pronounce to be so good that murder, butchery, and war, however extended and dreadful, are declared by them to be completely justifiable." The anti-christian French government sent its army to a rural, very religious Catholic area of western France called the Vendee. Hundreds of thousands of religious citizens who refused to embrace secularism were killed in a what is considered the first modern genocide. French General Francois Joseph Westermann wrote to the Committee of Public Safety stating: "There is no more Vendee. ... According to the orders that you gave me, I crushed the children under the feet of the horses, massacred the women who, at least for these, will not give birth to any more brigands. I do not have a prisoner to reproach me. I have exterminated all." A young French officer, named Napoleon, pleaded poor health in order to avoid participating in the slaughter. In 1799, Alexander Hamilton condemned the French Revolution's attempt to overthrow Christianity: "... (depriving) mankind of its best consolations and most animating hopes, and to make a gloomy desert of the universe. ... The praise of a civilized world is justly due to Christianity; - war, by the influence of the humane principles of that religion, has been stripped of half its horrors. The French renounce Christianity, and they relapse into barbarism; - war resumes the same hideous and savage form which it wore in the ages of Gothic and Roman violence." Hamilton wrote further: "Opinions ... have been gradually gaining ground, which threaten the foundations of religion, morality, and society. An attack was first made upon the Christian revelation, for which natural religion was offered as the substitute. The Gospel was to be discarded as a gross imposture, but the being and attributes of god, the obligations of piety, even the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments, were to be retained and cherished." (Lodge, Henry Cabot, "The Works of Alexander Hamilton," vol. 8, G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1904, pg 425-426.) During this time, French privateers ignored treaties, and by 1798 had seized nearly 300 American ships bound for British ports. Talleyrand, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, demanded millions of dollars in bribes to leave America's ships alone. Talleyrand was a master of deceitful political speech called "obfuscation" - intentionally being obscure, speaking out of both sides of his mouth to as convince both sides he supported them. Talleyrand state: "We were given speech to hide our thoughts." Known as the XYZ Affair, the American commission of Charles Pinckney, John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry refused to pay bribes. The cry went across America, "Millions for defense, not a cent for tribute." College campuses were being infiltrated by "decadent, ungodly and immoral Francophiles" - the term used to describe those fascinated with French culture, infidelity and irreligion which was being exported from France. As America and France came perilously close to war, second President John Adams asked George Washington, now retired at Mount Vernon, to again be Commander-in-Chief of the Army. Washington agreed, writing the year before he died, July 13, 1798: "Satisfied ... you have ... exhausted, to the last drop, the cup of reconciliation, we can, with pure hearts, appeal to Heaven for the justice of our cause; and may confidently trust the final result to that kind Providence who has, heretofore, and so often, signally favored the people of these United States. ... Feeling how incumbent it is upon every person ... to contribute at all times to his country's welfare, and especially in a moment like the present, when everything we hold dear and sacred is so seriously threatened, I have finally determined to accept the commission of Commander-in-Chief." President Adams declared a day of fasting, March 23, 1798, and again, March 6, 1799: "The people of the United States are still held in jeopardy by ... insidious acts of a foreign nation, as well as by the dissemination among them of those principles subversive to the foundations of all religious, moral, and social obligations. ... I hereby recommend ... a Day of Solemn Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer; That the citizens ... call to mind our numerous offenses against the Most High God, confess them before Him with the sincerest penitence, implore His pardoning mercy, through the Great Mediator and Redeemer, for our past transgressions, and that through the grace of His Holy Spirit, we may be disposed and enabled to yield a more suitable obedience to His righteous requisitions. ... That He would interpose to arrest the progress of that impiety and licentiousness in principle and practice so offensive to Himself and so ruinous to mankind. ... 'Righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people.'" In retrospect, it was seen that France's abandonment of sexual restraints was followed by an abandonment of societal and physical restraints, leading to open violence. France's godless Revolution became the blueprint for every Communist revolution, where a bloody killing off of the old order was justified as a necessary transition to usher in the promised utopian paradise, which sadly always proved to be a totalitarian dictatorship. Best-selling author Os Guinness stated in an interview with Dr. Albert Mohler, ("Thinking in Public," June 5, 2017): "The culture war now at its deepest roots is actually a clash between 1776, what was the American Revolution, and 1789 and heirs of the French Revolution." President John Adams' leadership and call to prayer successfully led the young nation of the United States to avert war with France. Where France pulled away from God, America experienced a religious revival called the Second Great Awakening which spread across country. In contrast to the irreligious French Revolution, in America religious enthusiasm spread from frontier camp meetings to college campuses, where was begun a foreign missions movement impacting the world, reaching as far away as the Caribbean, Burma, China and Hawaii. Organizations were formed promoting Christian values, including the American Bible Society, the Society for the Promotion of Temperance, the Y.M.C.A., the Salvation Army, which leading to founding of hospitals, prison reform, care for the handicapped and mentally ill, and eventually the abolitionist movement to end slavery. Brought to you by AmericanMinute.com .

French Revolution France's King Louis XVI sent his navy and troops to help America gain independence from Britain, for which France gained very little in return, except enormous debt. On the verge of financial collapse, France experienced a famine in 1788.

"Diversity is our strength," or so the left constantly claims. That bumper-sticker view of the world is used to justify endless immigration from decidedly non-Western cultures... but now reality is starting to set in. Sweden's experiment with mass Islamic immigration is definitely bringing "diversity," but it's much more violent than liberals want to admit. The left-leaning European country "has been experiencing an unprecedented surge of gang shootings, bombings and sexual assaults," reported the U.K. Times. "In Malmo, where a fifth of the 340,000 inhabitants are under 18, children as young as 14 roam the streets with Kalashnikov assault rifles and bulletproof vests," the newspaper reported. "The average age of gang members is 22, the vast majority of them hailing from migrant families." The situation is becoming so bad that Swedish officials are now admitting that they don't have the resources to investigate rapes immediately, because violent gang crimes are so prevalent. "We are forced to choose between two evils," police told the Times. Government officials and the media may try to dance around the issue, but the simple fact is that much of the rising crime is linked to groups of immigrants, many from Muslim nations. "For a long time the Swedish establishment played down the decay of immigrant-dominated suburbs, but it can no longer ignore the explosion of violence," reported The Times. "Statistics published last week revealed the percentage of women who reported being victims of sex crimes rose from 1.4% in 2012 to 4.1% in 2016. In 2014 a study on the geography of outdoor rape in Stockholm found two-thirds of the suspects were non-Swedish citizens," the paper elaborated. In many ways, what is happening in Sweden is a microcosm of trends here in the United States. Liberals who claim to stand for feminism also promote the mass importation of cultures that have appalling track records on women's rights -- and the same leftists who let them in are then "shocked" at the results. "Our government declared itself the world's first feminist government, yet they have quietly abandoned women," stated Paulina Neuding, a Swedish author who is speaking out about the impact of mass immigration. "There is mounting evidence that large-scale migration of men from extremely patriarchal cultures is limiting women's freedom," she continued. Let's be honest: "Extremely patriarchal cultures" is a roundabout way to say Islamic. It really isn't that hard to understand. Despite the posturing of liberals, not all cultures are the same, and not every group of people has the same values. Some are closely compatible with Western values and do well in countries like Sweden. Source: Conservative Tribune (Visited 264 times, 1 visits today)

"Diversity is our strength," or so the left constantly claims. That bumper-sticker view of the world is used to justify endless immigration from decidedly non-Western cultures... but now reality is starting to set in. Sweden's experiment with mass Islamic immigration is definitely bringing "diversity," but it's much more violent than liberals want to admit.

Manchester Terrorist Attack Was Not About Islam The plan was always and only to kill as many girls as possible. By Victoria A. Brownworth Published: 2017.05.25 01:40 AM A concert on a Monday night - a school night. But young girls and their parents and other fans were not about to miss the massive concert of American pop star Ariana Grande. Despite the unlikely name of the 23-year-old former Nickelodeon star's world tour - Dangerous Woman - Grande is known for her family-friendly shows and songs. The concert-goers at the Manchester Arena, one of the largest venues in U.K., had had a fantastic time. When Grande ended her concert at 10:30pm GMT on May 22, the applause had been wild. Until the explosion. Then the screaming began. Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old Briton of Libyan descent, had detonated a homemade bomb filled with ball bearings and nails, which act as shrapnel, outside the arena. It was 10:35pm. IDENTIFIED VICTIMS OF THE ATTACK SO FAR - CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP LEFT: GEORGINA CALLANDER , SAFFIE ROUSSOS , OLIVIA CAMPBELL, MARTYN HETT , MICHELLE KISS, SORRELL LECZKOWSKI , ALISON HOWE, LISA LEES, JANE TWEDDLE-TAYLOR , NELL JONES, MARCIN KLIS , ANGELIKA KLIS , KELLY BREWSTER AND JOHN ATKINSON After that, it was blood, mayhem, screaming - endless screaming. Parents who had come to collect their kids waited frantically outside the arena as ambulances began to arrive. Would their child be among the missing, or worse, the injured or dead? A few hours later - hours in which Manchester natives opened their doors to total strangers and the local hotels turned their lobbies into safe spaces for concert-goers unable to get home - all was quiet. There was rubble, there was yellow police tape and there were flowers, notes, candles, small stuffed animals. Grande's ubiquitous pink balloons. The singer herself was physically unharmed but her tweet evoked her devastation: broken. from the bottom of my heart, i am so so sorry. i don't have words. -- Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) May 23, 2017 Of the victims identified thus far, the oldest was 51-year-old Jane Tweddle-Taylor, married mother of three, waiting to pick up a friend's daughter. The youngest was attending her very first concert, eight-year-old Saffie Rose Roussos. There was 15-year-old Olivia Campbell, whose frantic mother, Charlotte, had been giving tearful televised pleas for hours as she hoped against hope that her daughter had just not been able to contact her. There was the "inseparable" teen couple, Chloe Rutherford, 17, and Liam Curry, 19, now inseparable forever. There were several parents, other teens, two young men in their 20s, John Atkinson and Martyn Hett; the latter loved to dress in drag as his favorite soap star. They were people having their best night. Until they weren't. Parents of some of the dead remain in hospital, gravely injured, some not knowing their children are dead. More than a dozen very young children are among the 64 being treated for serious to critical injuries. The aftermath of the bombing was, young witnesses detailed, a bloodbath. Prime Minister Theresa May, two weeks away from an election, gave a fierce speech outside 10 Downing Street of the sort we have all become far too familiar with in recent years. As she spoke, her voice caught, but she soldiered on. It was the second time she'd done this in her very short tenure as Prime Minister. There was a note of weariness to her voice that was not ascribed to the early hour but to the knowledge she would be doing this again. And again. Evie, 14, was pictured with Theresa May as she recovered in hospital. World leaders sent their own regards and prayers for the victims: Angela Merkel, President Trump, former President Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Outraged & angry about this cowardly terror attack on a crowd of young people. Sending sympathy & strength to victims & people of Manchester -- Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 23, 2017 Our hearts go out to those killed and wounded in Manchester. Americans will always stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of the UK. -- Barack Obama (@BarackObama) May 23, 2017 We stand in absolute solidarity with the people of the United Kingdom. pic.twitter.com/X6fUUxxYXE -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 23, 2017 The Union Jack sprang up over Twitter and pundits intoned "We are all Manchester" or "We are all British." We believe there is some protection in the talisman of solidarity. We are still not wholly sure terrorism is something the West must come to terms with. But still - 9/11, 7/7, the Madrid and Paris attacks all notwithstanding - it seems foreign to us. In the 48 hours since the bombing, other members of Abedi's family have been arrested. ISIS has claimed responsibility. Vigils have been held. Soon the funerals - all of which Ariana Grande has offered to pay for - will be held. Ariana grande has offered to pay for all funerals of those who lost their lives. And then we shall move on. As a young schoolboy mate of one of the victims said in a BBC newscast the morning after the bombing, "We have to move on. Get back to normal. Or else they win, don't they?" So very young to be repeating words whose meaning he could barely comprehend. It was the second terrorist attack in the U.K. in as many months. On March 22, Khalid Masood drove a car into pedestrians, killing four, injuring 50. He then stabbed a police officer, PC Keith Palmer, to death. Masood was shot dead at the scene. These are just two of the terrorist attacks that have shaken the world. The names of cities blur. We shut out the names of the murderers. There were literally thousands killed in terrorist incidents in 2016 . S o many, I had forgotten them all. Kelly Brewster - Victim of the bombing We ignore the ones in the Middle East. We have come to believe that when people are blown up waiting for a bus or going to a market or walking down a crowded street, it is part of daily life in that part of the world. The way random gun violence and mass shootings are in America. We aren't any more shocked about that than we are when there's 30 shootings over a weekend in Philadelphia or Chicago or Los Angeles. We don't really consider those events in the Middle East or our own cities "terrorism." That's how inured we are. But when a suicide bomber walks into a concert hall or a railway station - that is terrorism as we have come to know it. When a man rams a truck onto an esplanade and mows down everyone in his path, that is terrorism. We are, as Westerners, more likely to remember the attacks on cities and countries with which we have fealty. In April alone there were attacks in Paris, Sweden, St. Petersburg. But in the past year there were so many other attacks: Paris, Brussels, Nice, Berlin, Hamburg, Normandy, Istanbul. Hundreds of dead. A few thousand injured. Georgina callander - victim of the bombing - pictured with her hero ariana grande Only a week before the bombing in Manchester, a Bronx man, Richard Rojas, drove his car into a crowd in Times Square, killing one woman and injuring 22 others. He told police, "I wanted to kill them all" and said "God told me to do it." He has been charged with murder and a slew of other charges. He also said he was "very, very angry." Media spend a lot of time detailing the events of terrorist attacks like the Manchester bombing. Experts explain about "radicalization" - but where was Rojas radicalized? Where was Adam Lanza, who shot up a classroom full of first graders two weeks before Christmas in the quiet Connecticut suburb of Newtown radicalized? Where was Elliot Rodger , who went on a rampage to kill young women who wouldn't have sex with him, radicalized? The three year anniversary of that massacre was May 23. The laser focus will be on terror cells in Manchester's Libyan community until the next attack somewhere else. Or the next mass shooting in America. We will continue to ignore the other killings because the number of dead is small - one, two, maybe three. Martyn hett, 29, confirmed victim of the terror attack in Manchester Yet the source of the violence is the same. Islam? Mental illness? Drugs? None of the above. The source of the violence is men. I know - we aren't allowed to say it. But it's the reality . Terrorism in all its forms - bombings, shootings, mass vehicular homicide - is the purview of men. We insert the hashtag #NotAllMen in tweets to protect ourselves from the onslaught of (almost always young white) men telling us we are "misandrists" for suggesting that men have cornered the market on mass violence. But what protects us from the violence itself? the aftermath of the terror attack in Manchester The Manchester bombing took careful planning. There was a second explosive detonated by police after the initial carnage. Make no mistake, the victims were not random. The killers - Abedi did not work alone - wanted to kill as many young girls and women as possible. And he, they succeeded - with only a few exceptions, the dead and injured were girls and women. Young girls wearing # ArianaGrande 's characteristic kitty kat ears were the targets tonight of a terrorist with an IED. Unconscionable. pic.twitter.com/8RZapHEjfB -- Victoria Brownworth (@VABVOX) May 23, 2017 Even as I write this, CNN is telling me the latest. Security analysts are discussing the breadth of the terror cell. Talk of ISIS and how to stop terrorism - discourse I have been hearing and reporting on for years, now - continues. Never once have I heard the actual source of the problem discussed. Male violence. Toxic masculinity. Uncontrolled male rage. Yet nearly every day Americans see it in our own president. He can't control himself from his need to deliver angry tweets against his perceived "enemies," who have ranged from his opposition, Hillary Clinton, to former President Obama, to the media, to a former Miss Universe, to a former FBI director, to a Gold Star family. His tweets are often outrageous falsehoods, like when he accused Obama of wiretapping him and declared Obama was a "sick, bad guy." Trump's weapon is Twitter. What if it were an AK47 or a homemade nail bomb or he got more impatient than usual and triggered a nuclear attack? Rojas declared he was very very angry so he got in his car and tried to kill a few dozen people in broad daylight in Times Square. We should - we must - address this factor of male violence and toxic masculinity that demands control over the bodies of women in a myriad of legal, religious, social and physical ways and which demands control over the lives of those who are perceived to be weaker than the perpetrators. #NotAllMen , of course. We have to say that. We have to qualify it. Not. All. Men. A hashtag. A subordinate clause. A politically correct qualifier. But the stark reality is that it's men building the bombs, buying the assault rifles, getting the killing cells together to take out "soft targets" like eight-year-old Saffie Roussos and 15 year-old Olivia Campbell and that love-struck teen couple Chloe and Liam. olivia campbell - confirm victim of the terror attack in manchester We have task force upon task force about homeland security and terrorism, but how many women are on those and if there are any, who among them would be brave enough to raise her hand as ask, "Weren't all these guys radicalized at puberty when the testosterone flooded their systems and their limbic system was not yet developed and their impulse control was stunted?" If anyone were honest, the answer would be yes. But we don't live in a world that addresses toxic masculinity or there wouldn't be so much of it. Toxic masculinity is entitlement like that we witness every day in our president - while our former president is the very epitome of why we must indeed say #NotAllMen , with his calm demeanor and slowness to any show of anger. Toxic masculinity is bolstered by the the idea that strength - and violence - are answers. Trump repeatedly referred to Obama as weak prior to running for president. Throughout the election Trump referred to his opponent, Hillary Clinton, as "weak, low-energy, no stamina." Trump has always used fear as his weapon - telling his supporters that Mexicans were rapists and Muslims were terrorists and black Americans were prone to gun violence. That's toxic masculinity in action. Terrorists believe they have the right to use weapons - bombs, guns, vehicles - to take out "soft" targets. And what could be softer than an arena filled with mostly tween and teen girls and their mothers? Toxic masculinity is built into religious and political zealotry which assert that men must control women and girls and gays or face shame of being themselves "soft." A year ago Omar Mateen went to the Pulse nightclub in Orlando and murdered 49 LGBT people and wounded 53 others . He was rumored to be bisexual. Like many terrorists, he had practiced his violence on the women in his life: he had abused both his wives. The numbers are staggeringly clear. Study after study, backed by law enforcement statistics show us the terrorists and mass shooters are 98% men. When are we going to address this reality? The pandemic of rape, the fact that one in three women in the world - that's more than a billion women - will be a victim of male violence, according to the World Health Organization? The pandemic of domestic violence? The increasing number of terrorist attacks and attacks like Rojas' not deemed terrorist simply because, it seems, the perpetrator is not Muslim. Men's rights advocates are quick to point out that men are more often the victims of violence than women, men are themselves "soft targets" and they are. But the perpetrators are also, again, men. Society pressures men to disconnect from empathy, to "man up," to not be "a pussy" - the worst thing you can call a man is a slang term for female genitalia. That tells you everything about where we situate masculinity and how readily boys are trained to take it toxic. And so we mourn Manchester. The tragic victims whose names will be added to the victims who have already blurred in our collective memories, if not the memories of those for whom their lost will always be a throbbing wound. IMAGE: Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, after Manchester bombing. pic.twitter.com/qVCfb15IYp -- The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) May 24, 2017 The push back on this will be strong, but until and unless we address this most fundamental factor of terrorism and mass male violence, we won't be able to stop it. Until we keep young men from isolating away from empathic influences, until we break down some of the tribalism that men of all races, religions, societies engage it, be it the gang rapes by football players or terrorist attacks on girls at a concert, we are not going to get closer to a safer, less terroristic society. Male violence is promoted and applauded in films, TV, video games. The winner is the one who kills the most, not the one who's the "pussy." Until it becomes safe for men to be soft, the rest of us will be at risk - every day, everywhere, from our own homes to the most benign of venues. That is the lesson of Manchester that we should all learn. Before we have to learn it yet again.

Manchester Terrorist Attack Was Not About Islam The plan was always and only to kill as many girls as possible.

January 23, 2015 5:00 am Barbara Boxer has decided to spare the country further embarrassment and retire from the U.S. Senate in 2016. California Democrats need a replacement. As of this writing they have only one declared candidate: state attorney general Kamala Harris . Harris is liberal, modish, and a favorite of President Obama's. But she's not for me. My man is Tom Steyer . Yes, Steyer took to the Huffington Post yesterday to say , "I believe my work right now should not be in our nation's capital but here at home in California, and in states around the country where we can make a difference." Really, though, Steyer owes it to us--more specifically, he owes it to me--to run. And if you and your friends demand his participation, I think we can get him to change his mind.

Yes, Steyer took to the Huffington Post yesterday to say , "I believe my work right now should not be in our nation's capital but here at home in California, and in states around the country where we can make a difference."

The Nobel peace laureate's legacy largely remains contested but she was recently given sainthood after she died in 1997 at the age of 87. Mauro Lopes says the Pope has repeatedly "condemned state coups sponsored by conservative media" in a "direct reference to... The diocese of El Tigre will comprise of 406,050 people, along with 14 parishes, 13 priests, six seminarians and nine religious bodies. The clergyman is the highest-ranking Catholic official to be convicted on that charge, according to the New York Times. Gunmen opened fire on the Notre Dame de Fatima church in Bangui to launch an assault on the congregants during an early service. Programas y especiales teleSUR

The Nobel peace laureate's legacy largely remains contested but she was recently given sainthood after she died in 1997 at the age of 87. Mauro Lopes says the Pope has repeatedly "condemned state coups sponsored by conservative media" in a "direct reference to

Months after the fight to "take down the Confederate flag" swept the South, in response to the Emanuel A.M.E Church massacre, a new battle is brewing in Jefferson County, Alabama. This week, local NAACP representatives will argue that the mural depicting slavery has no place in the county courthouse. Critics say the swastikas carved into the building should also be removed. Advocates of taking down the Jefferson County Courthouse mural, which shows slaves picking and carrying cotton while a white man on horseback watches, say the painting is racist and offensive. It currently hangs in the entrance of the building, and is supposed to represent the "Old South." The mural was installed in 1934, at a time when African Americans in Alabama were very much under the yoke of Jim Crow. The NAACP will ask the courthouse to take it down, Thursday, and has already secured the support of three of the county's five commissioners. Commissioner Sandra Little Brown took a strong stance against keeping the mural as is. "This is a place where you come in for justice for all. You come in and pay your taxes. Everybody pays them; Black, White, Hispanic, everybody pays your taxes so you don't want to see something that caters to a certain group. Way back in 1934? Picking cotton? That time is over now," she explained to CBS affiliate WIAT. Likewise, Commission president David Carrington is using the fight over the mural to push for the removal of the swastikas etched into the courthouse's stone. "I think we need to be very cautious about the images we project to others," he told WIAT. Assistant Executive Director of the Birmingham Jewish Federation (BJF) Daniel Odrezin agrees. "We're certainly appreciative of the sensitivity of members of the commission. Given the antisemitism that's associated with it today, and obviously given that it's something that we would welcome if people felt it was appropriate to remove. It's certainly not something that we, as the Jewish Federation, are calling for," he said, noting BJF is not officially part of the commissioner's effort. But Executive Secretary Linda Nelson of the Jefferson County Historical Commission, established in 1971, maintains that taking the images away will will erase an important part of the county's past. "We do have to be sensitive to the meanings of things, but to destroy good art and representative art that comes with the building? It would really be too bad, it would be a great loss," she said, speaking to WIAT. She argues the mural should be preserved because it was painted by John Warner Norton, a famous artist in his day. And when the swastikas were added to the courthouse stones, they were not viewed as controversial or hateful. Their imagery was tarnished by the Nazis, way after the fact. "We're going to rebrand a new Jefferson County," Brown told ABC 33/40. "It cannot be a new Jefferson County with a 1934 picture of injustice and racism, blacks picking cotton at the feet of white woman. I don't think the majority of the people in Jefferson County really would want that." A similar battle over a painting of a Native American being lynched , which hangs in the South Carolina State House, was waged in July. Critics of another mural of three Ku Klux Klan members on horseback , painted in 2001, also voiced their concerns about its presence in the Baker County Courthouse in Florida.

The mural was installed in 1934, at a time when African Americans in Alabama were very much under the yoke of Jim Crow.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) along with 35 of her Democratic colleagues in the Senate introduced a bill Thursday that would repeal the Trump Administration's recent broadening of exemptions from the Obamacare contraceptive mandate for employers with religious and moral objections. The "Protect Access to Birth Control Act" is brief, stating that the religious and moral exemptions "shall have no force or effect, and shall be treated as though such rules had never taken effect." "President Trump wants to make birth control about ideology, but let's be clear: for women and their families in the 21 st century, birth control is about being healthy and financially secure--and that's why Democrats are going to keep fighting back against his shameful attacks on women with this bill and any other way we can," Sen. Murray said of the legislation. Her colleague Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) claimed, "this Administration has continued to roll back women's health and women's rights. Women must have access to vital preventive health care, including birth control, and employers should not be allowed to cherry-pick essential benefits. This legislation protects women's access to contraceptives and birth control, no matter who their boss is." Four Democrats plan to introduce similar legislation in the House. Both bills are unlikely to be brought to the floor by House and Senate Republicans. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is currently suing the Trump administration over the religious exemptions arguing that the rules violate the Establishment Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution by "authorizing and promoting religiously motivated and other discrimination against women seeking reproductive health care." The Little Sisters of the Poor, who care for the elderly poor in the U.S., are finally beginning to see some relief along with other nonprofit religious organizations that had been involved in a five-year long lawsuit against the Obama administration over the contraceptive mandate. Beth Baumann Paying for or supporting the use of contraception is contrary to fundamental Catholic moral teaching. The Obama administration offered the groups an accommodation that would delegate the contraception coverage to a third party, but they objected that the process still left them complicit in the coverage. Their case had been remanded to appeals courts with direction from the Supreme Court that the Obama administration and the organizations work out a compromise. Mark Rienzi, senior counsel with the Becket Fund representing the Little Sisters in court, called the exemptions a "victory for common sense." "The previous administration pursued a needless and divisive culture war," he said. "It was always ridiculous to claim you need nuns to give out contraceptives. This new rule shows that you don't."

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) along with 35 of her Democratic colleagues in the Senate introduced a bill Thursday that would repeal the Trump Administration's recent broadening of exemptions from the Obamacare contraceptive mandate for employers with religious and moral objections.

The Good Morning Britain host noted that Sunday is a big day and Ben immediately exclaimed it was very important for sporting reasons seemingly forgetting it is Mother's Day. "Sunday is a massive day, Wales are playing France," Ben noted. But Kate wasn't happy with his remark as she snapped: "No, no, no!" "Italy, sorry," Ben said correcting himself. "And of course, England have a massive day on Saturday because Scotland beat us last week. "So the Six Nations all hinges on this weekend." Stunned that he had dismissed Mothering Sunday, Kate hit back: "No. It's Mother's Day. It's Mothering Sunday." Trying to irritate the 50-year-old further, ITV weatherman Alex Beresford quipped: "No, it's the Dancing On Ice final." "Yes, it's the Dancing On Ice final," Kate admitted. "But what about Mother's Day? That is the big thing this weekend surely?" Ben wasn't convinced, asking: "How can it be Mother's Day?" "What do you mean?" replied Kate, looking baffled. The 43-year-old continued: "Is it Mother's Day? This Sunday? We only had International Women's Day yesterday." Sighing, Kate concluded: "Are you saying that your mum doesn't deserve a double celebration?" Ben laughed as he revealed he would invite his mum over to watch the rugby with him. The ITV breakfast show ran a poll this morning to see if viewers wanted to see Mother's Day banned. 78 per cent of viewers voted "No - Mums appreciate it", while 22 per cent replied: "Yes - it's too commercial." Good Morning Britain airs weekdays on ITV at 6am.

The Good Morning Britain host noted that Sunday is a big day and Ben immediately exclaimed it was very important for sporting reasons seemingly forgetting it is Mother's Day.

Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources Announces New Non-Typical Bull Elk Record Boone and Crockett Score - 372 6/8 Kentucky Non-Typical Bull Elk Record: New state record certified for bull elk with non-typical antlers; taken on public access land. Kentucky Department Fish Wildlife FRANKFORT, KY. - -(AmmoLand.com)- Kentucky has a new state record for a bull elk with non-typical antlers. Harrodsburg resident Terrell Royalty's 7x7 elk scored 372 6/8 in the Boone and Crockett Club scoring system, besting the old record of 367 7/8 taken in Harlan County in 2008. Royalty took his record elk from a wildlife management area in Knott County on Oct. 4, 2009. "This new state record shows the quality elk hunting we have on our public lands," said Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources Commissioner Jon Gassett. "In addition to the great elk hunting on private lands, Kentucky boasts world-class elk hunting on public lands as well." A non-typical rack means the tines are not located in a typical location. Royalty's elk had seven tines each on either side of its rack. The score is the totaled measurements of the main beams, tines, width and mass. The trophy could not be officially scored until after a 60-day drying period. "I've hunted all of my life, I've had buck fever and all, but this bull was by far the biggest adrenaline rush of my life," said Royalty, 52. "Once it hit the ground, I felt like I was being stabbed with a million needles and it lasted two or three hours. I was almost in shock." Royalty said he scouted the area with help from his friend Paul Moore, who participated in the 2008 cow elk hunt. "We started scouting well before the hunt and found this bull," Royalty said. "Paul and I grew up together, and he helped me a bunch." The first week of the 2009 bull elk season started Saturday, Oct. 3. Royalty's hunt proved fruitless for a day and half. Then, about 2 p.m. Sunday, Royalty, who was hunting with his best friend, Brad Smith, and guide Bob Hunter, heard a bugle. "After we heard that bugle, we moved to get out front and downwind," he said. "We tracked and tracked to stay out in front of this bull. About 5 p.m. or so, a cow calf came out and we cow called back and forth. Then, the one cow calf turned into about nine. The cows came out in twos and got older and bigger as they came out." The trophy bull then appeared in the clearing around 6 p.m. and bugled at another bull in the distance. "He turned broadside and everything was perfect," Royalty said. "It took 15 minutes to get the right angle on him." Royalty, who estimated that he was 340 yards away from the bull, aimed his .300 Winchester Short Magnum rifle and shot only once. Tina Brunjes, big game coordinator for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife, was not surprised to learn the record had been broken. "Kentucky continues to produce new state records with regularity," she said. "Each year drawn hunters can reasonably expect a chance to beat the state record." Applications for this year's hunt are now on sale online at fw.ky.gov, the official Web site of Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. It costs $10 to apply, and a hunter may apply only once. The drawing for the elk quota hunt is open to residents and non-residents. The deadline to apply for this year's hunt is April 30.

Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources Announces New Non-Typical Bull Elk Record Boone and Crockett Score - 372 6/8 Kentucky Non-Typical Bull Elk Record: New state record certified for bull elk with non-typical antlers; taken on public access land.

Following one of the worst performances for an American president in this nation's history, Americans awarded Barack Obama a second term. What was the pitch from the far left that got him re-elected following four years of economic upheaval and government socialization of the medical industry? The winning formula was 1) convincing voters that an honest business genius who had turned around the failing Olympics and the State of Massachusetts in short terms and had served his fellow humans all his life without fanfare or recognition was a greedy and uncaring monster to be avoided at all costs; 2) that the government should be the only source of one's hope for prosperity and happiness; and 3) that government supplied birth-control and abortion-on-demand are the only rights worth preserving. There has been much armchair quarterbacking post-election, and we hear of many in the GOP wringing their hands as they contemplate a strategy to again gain the White House and Senate. Proposals such as caving in on tax increases, ala George "Read My Lips" Bush are bandied about. Or winning strategies like "go along to get along" are being trumpeted by the party's old guard. The Federalist Press suggests that the GOP consider adopting a democratic party long-term strategy. Indeed, democrats have exercised control of American government for much of the past 100 years by long-term planning--which became necessary following the beating they took in the Civil War and post-war reconstruction, as republicans freed the slaves and passed and enforced the civil rights amendments. Democrats have had 4 simple strategies for reacquiring power. 1) Class warfare, promulgated by taxing citizens at different rates--taking from some and giving to others. 2) Spending escalation, making the government the provider of goodies. 3) Create dependent underclass by impoverishing minorities and opening borders, making over 1/2 of voters dependent on government handouts. 4) Re-educating population through leftist takeover of media and education systems, to believe that socialism is the fairest system of government. It's that simple. So, can the GOP learn anything from the left? Perhaps, but these tactics are naturally repugnant to those who espouse personal liberty, so it is doubtful. What is in the abortion issue that could help the GOP, if as polls indicate, it is minorities who are voting in extremely high percentages for Democrats? Let's revisit the founding of the birth control and abortion movement, and see what is behind it. Planned Parenthood was founded by Margaret Sanger, and like-minded racists, like Dr. S. Adolphus Knopf and Lothrop Stoddard, a Harvard graduate and the author of The Rising Tide of Color against White Supremacy . Margaret Sanger was an ardent proponent of sterilizing those she considered "unfit," which would be the "salvation of American civilization." Who was unfit? Those of African descent. Margaret Sanger and her followers were the regents of Western Eugenics, the practice of improving the human gene pool by eliminating undesirable DNA. She and her associates admired the Aryan dreams of the Nationalist Socialists (Nazis) in Germany, and like their counterparts, thought that exterminating lower life forms (Jews, Blacks) was a service to God and country. For those who might doubt that the founder of Planned Parenthood held these beliefs, please refer to some of her many articles and speeches on the subject such as "Some Moral Aspects of Eugenics" (June 1920), "The Eugenic Conscience" (February 1921), "The purpose of Eugenics" (December 1924), "Birth Control and Positive Eugenics" (July 1925), "Birth Control: The True Eugenics" (August 1928), and many others. Indeed, as a direct result of the Sanger movement, even today, American black children suffer death by the millions at the hands of abortionists. Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in America, with 78% of their clinics in minority communities. Although blacks make up only 12% of the population, 35% of all the abortions in America are black babies. So when it comes to the political parties' struggle for dominance in America, where should the parties come down on the abortion issue? With Democrats clamoring for dependent minority voters, they should be the ones who immediately outlaw the practice of murdering minority babies. They would have at least 13,000,000 more black voters on the rolls if they had not killed them all. Where does that leave the GOP on the abortion issue? Should they embrace the practice of killing minority babies to purify the voting gene pool? That's right America. This is who we've become. Embrace the left.

Following one of the worst performances for an American president in this nation's history, Americans awarded Barack Obama a second term. What was the pitch from the far left that got him re-elected following four years of economic upheaval and government socialization of the medical industry?

Recently, the Alamo Drafthouse offered a women-only screening of Wonder Woman and red-pilling shit-stains collectively lost their freakin' minds all over the internet. One of the jackalopes even had the, how do you say, machismo to send a letter to their mayor. Get a load of this flaming trash heap: The Original Letter: I hope every man will boycott Austin and do what he can to diminish Austin and to cause damage to the city's image. The theater that pandered to the sexism typical of women will, I hope, regret it's decision. The notion of a woman hero is a fine example of women's eagerness to accept the appearance of achievement without actual achievement. Women learn from an early age to value make-up, that it's OK to pretend that you are greater than you actually are. Women pretend they do not know that only men serve in combat because they are content to have an easier ride. Women gladly accept gold medals at the Olympics for coming in 10th and competing only against the second class of athletes. Name something invented by a woman! Achievements by the second rate gender pale in comparison to virtually everything great in human history was accomplished by men, not women. If Austin does not host a men only counter event, I will never visit Austin and will welcome it's deteriorati on. And I will not forget that Austin is best known for Charles Whitman. Does Austin stand for gender equality or for kissing up to women? Don't bother to respond. I already know the answer. I do not hate women. I hate their rampant hypocrisy and the hypocrisy of the 'women's movement.' Women do not want gender equality; they want more for women. Don't bother to respond because I am sure your cowardice will generate nothing worth reading. - Richard A. Ameduri Maybe your eyes glazed over after a few sentences, but at one point Ameduri told the mayor not to bother responding. Maybe because they knew how rough they were going to get it? Or, maybe because they're a self-obsessed dillweed who hasn't listened to another human being in maybe forever. Regardless, the mayor didn't heed the request: The Mayor's Response: Dear Mr. Ameduri, I am writing to alert you that your email account has been hacked by an unfortunate and unusually hostile individual. Please remedy your account's security right away, lest this person's uninformed and sexist rantings give you a bad name. After all, we men have to look out for each other! Can you imagine if someone thought that you didn't know women could serve in our combat units now without exclusion? What if someone thought you didn't know that women invented medical syringes, life rafts, fire escapes, central and solar heating, a war-time communications system for radio-controlling torpedoes that laid the technological foundations for everything from Wi-Fi to GPS, and beer? And I hesitate to imagine how embarrassed you'd be if someone thought you were upset that a private business was realizing a business opportunity by reserving one screening this weekend for women to see a superhero movie. You and I are serious men of substance with little time for the delicate sensitivities displayed by the pitiful creature who maligned your good name and sterling character by writing that abysmal email. I trust the news that your email account has been hacked does not cause you undue alarm and wish you well in securing your account. And in the future, should your travels take you to Austin, please know that everyone is welcome here, even people like those who wrote that email whose views are an embarrassment to modernity, decency, and common sense. Yours sincerely,

The notion of a woman hero is a fine example of women's eagerness to accept the appearance of achievement without actual achievement.

Despite far-right groups threatening to disrupt the event, thousands of people took part in an anti-fascist rally in Italy's city of Macerata, where six African immigrants were shot and wounded last week. Demonstrators march during an anti-racism rally in Macerata, Italy, February 10, 2018. ( Reuters ) Thousands of anti-fascist demonstrators rallied in the central Italian town of Macerata on Saturday a week after a far-right gunmen shot and wounded six Africans in a racially-motivated attack. Gathered in the town centre on a freezing but sunny afternoon, the protesters turned out following a call by NGOs, anti-fascist organisation, unions and several leftwing political groups. "If there's unemployment, blame the government, not the migrants," they chanted. With tensions high in this normally sleepy town of 43,000 people, shops were shuttered early and schools closed for the day, an AFP correspondent said. "The atmosphere is tense in Italy at the moment and in recent years we have allowed the right to flourish. I have always demonstrated but now we need to do so more than ever," said Mafalda Quartu, a retiree from Florence. As TRT World 's Denee Savoia reports, there are fears anti-immigration sentiment is spreading across the country. The town hit the headlines on February 3 when Luca Traini, 28, allegedly carried out a two-hour shooting attack from his car in which he shot at around a dozen African migrants, wounding five men and a woman. Speaking to investigators, he reportedly said it was in response to the murder of an 18-year-old Italian girl whose dismembered body was found in several suitcases, with police arresting a Nigerian drug dealer in connection with the case. The shooting shocked Italy which is due to hold a general election in just three weeks' time in which far-right parties are expected to make a strong showing. Far-right rally On the campaign trail, immigration has been the dominant issue. On Thursday, several dozen activists from the extreme-right Forza Nuova held an anti-immigration rally in the town, sparking clashes after they made a fascist salute at police. Fearing further unrest, Macerata mayor Romano Carancini had called for all demonstrations to be cancelled but the police on Friday gave the green light for Saturday's rally to go ahead. Giuliano Denti, a 40-year-old gardener had travelled from Pisa with a group of around 100 anti-fascist demonstrators in order to ensure their voices were heard. "We have a constitution which is, above all, anti-fascist and I want it to be protected and that the laws against fascist ideology be applied," he said. Members of the far-right movement "CasaPound" holds torches during the Day of Remembrance of the martyrs of the Foibe Istriane and the exodus of the Giuliano-Dalmata (Julian-Dalmatian) people on February 10, 2018 in Milan. ( AFP ) Gennaba Diop, a 23-year-old woman of Senegalese descent who was born and raised in Macerata, came with a sign reading "my colour is not a crime". "There is a lot of tension and racism here, people look at you strangely all the time. It's not true that everyone is integrated," she said. "The other day, people from Forza Nuova told me 'die'. I told them they would not succeed even if they tried."

Despite far-right groups threatening to disrupt the event, thousands of people took part in an anti-fascist rally in Italy's city of Macerata, where six African immigrants were shot and wounded last week. Demonstrators march during an anti-racism rally in Macerata, Italy, February 10, 2018.

More than 100 headstones were vandalized at the Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia in Feb. 2017. Mark Makela/Getty Images This February, more than 100 gravestones were vandalized at the Chesed Shel Emeth Society Cemetery outside of St. Louis , Missouri and at the Jewish Mount Carmel Cemetery in Philadelphia. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has called anti-Semitism in the U.S. a "very serious concern." An ADL task force confirmed that 800 journalists in the U.S. have been targeted with more than 19,000 anti-Semitic tweets . The organization also reported an upsurge in anti-Semitism on U.S. college campuses . Most disconcerting, however, is the ADL's admission that, although this increase in anti-Semitism is troubling, "it is essential to recognize that, for both positive and negative reasons - we are not alone." In the 10 days following the presidential election in 2016, nearly 900 hate-motivated incidents were reported, and many on college campuses . Many of these incidents targeted Muslims, people of color and immigrants as well as Jews. White supremacist groups like Identity Evropa, American Vanguard and American Renaissance have also been more active on college campuses. I am a Jewish studies scholar. Research shows that this outpouring of anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic sentiment is reminiscent in many ways of the political climate during the years between the first and second world wars in the U.S. - known as the interwar period. America as the 'melting pot' In its early years the United States maintained an "open door policy" that drew millions of immigrants from all religions to enter the country, including Jews. Between 1820 and 1880, over nine million immigrants entered America. By the early 1880s, American nativists - people who believed that the "genetic stock" of Northern Europe was superior to that of Southern and Eastern Europe - began pushing for the exclusion of "foreigners," whom they "viewed with deep suspicion." In fact, according to scholar Barbara Bailin , most of the immigrants, who were from Southern, Central and Eastern Europe, "were considered so different in composition, religion, and culture from earlier immigrants as to trigger a xenophobic reaction that served to generate more restrictive immigration laws." In August 1882, Congress responded to increasing concerns about America's "open door" policy and passed the Immigration Act of 1882 , which included a provision denying entry to "any convict, lunatic, idiot or any person unable to take care of himself without becoming a public charge." However, enforcement was not strict, in part because immigration officers working at the points of entry were expected to implement these restrictions as they saw fit. In fact, it was during the late 19th century that the American "melting pot" was born: nearly 22 million immigrants from all over the world entered the U.S. between 1881 and 1914. They included approximately 1,500,000 million European Jews hoping to escape the longstanding legally enforced anti-Semitism of many parts of the European continent, which limited where Jews could live, what kinds of universities they could attend and what kinds of professions they could hold. Fear of Jews/immigrants Nativists continued to rail against the demographic shifts created by the United States' lax immigration policy, and in particular took issue with the high numbers of Jews and Southern Italians entering the country, groups many nativists believed were racially inferior to Northern and Western Europeans. Nativists also voiced concerns about the effects of cheaper labor on the struggle for higher wages. These fears were eventually reflected in the makeup of Congress , since the electorate voted increasing numbers of nativist congresspeople into office who vowed to change immigration laws with their constituent's anti-immigrant sentiments in mind. Immigrants, Ellis Island. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA Nativist and isolationist sentiment in America only increased, as Europe fell headlong into World War I, "the war to end all wars." On Feb. 4, 1917 Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1917, which reversed America's open door policy and denied entry to the majority of immigrants seeking entry. As a result, between 1918 and 1921, only 20,019 Jews were admitted into the U.S. The 1924 Immigration Act tightened the borders further. It transferred the decision to admit or deny immigrants from the immigration officers at the port of entry to the Foreign Services Office, which issued visas after the completion of a lengthy application with supporting documentation. The quotas established by the act also set strict limits on the number of new immigrants allowed after 1924. The number of Central and Eastern Europeans allowed to enter the U.S. was dramatically reduced: The 1924 quotas provided visas to a mere 2 percent of each nationality already in the U.S by 1890, and excluded immigrants from Asia completely (except for immigrants from Japan and the Phillipines). The stated fundamental purpose of this immigration act was to preserve the ideal of U.S. "homogeneity." Congress did not revise the act until 1952. Why does this history matter? The political climate of the interwar period has many similarities with the anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic environment today. President Trump's platform is comprised in large part of strongly anti-immigrant rhetoric . A Pew Charitable Trust survey shows that as many as 66 percent of registered voters who supported Trump consider immigration a "very big problem," while only 17 percent of Hillary Clinton's supporters said the same. Seventy-nine percent of Trump supporters embrace the proposal to build a wall "along the entire U.S. border with Mexico." Moreover, 59 percent of Trump supporters actively associate "unauthorized immigrants with serious criminal behavior." I argue that much like the claims of interwar period nativists that Southern and Eastern European people were racially inferior, the assertions of President Trump and his supporters about immigrants and the dangers they pose are nothing more than demagoguery. The allegations about the high crime rate among immigrants are not borne out by statistical evidence: Immigrants are far less likely to commit crimes than people born in the U.S. President Trump's claims about the dangers posed by immigrants may not be supported by facts; but they do indicate the U.S.' increased isolationism, nativism and right-wing nationalism. His most recent travel ban blocks immigrants from six predominantly Muslim nations, and includes a 120-day freeze on Syrian refugees specifically. And yet like the Jews of Europe from the interwar period, many of these refugees seek entry into the U.S. because their very lives are at stake. For many scholars like myself, Trump's "America First" approach is a reminder of the interwar period; all over again, we see anti-immigrant sentiment and anti-Semitism, going hand in hand. In the current climate, Muslims are also easy targets for a new generation of nativists, whose fears are used to justify turning away refugees and immigrants. Ingrid Anderson is a Lecturer, Arts & Sciences Writing Program at Boston University . This article was originally published on The Conversation . Read the original article .

More than 100 headstones were vandalized at the Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia in Feb. 2017. Mark Makela/Getty Images This February, more than 100 gravestones were vandalized at the Chesed Shel Emeth Society Cemetery outside of St. Louis , Missouri and at the Jewish Mount Carmel Cemetery in Philadelphia.

Latinos For Tennessee is opposing the "sanctuary city" ordinance being considered by Metro Council that would restrict cooperation with federal immigration officials in Nashville and Davidson County. The ordinance passed a second reading last week and will be considered for a final vote July 6. Tommy Vallejos, chairman of the conservative group, issued the following statement in a news release: Nashville's decision to create a sanctuary city is an affront to the rule of law and puts the well-being of the entire state at risk by blatantly ignoring federal immigration law. True compassion for our community means upholding the rule of law--one of the central pillars of any free, fair and secure society. The Davidson County Sheriff opposes this proposal, and we agree that tying the hands of local law enforcement is not only legally questionable, but it's dangerous. Just last week in Virginia, Darwin Martinez Torres was arrested for brutally killing a 17-year-old girl. Torres is an illegal immigrant who should not have been in this country at all--he had already been held on local charges that made him removable from the United States. Nashville's Metro Council still has time to prevent this ordinance from being enacted by rejecting the measure when it comes up for a vote. Latinos for Tennessee remains committed to supporting our immigrant community in Tennessee, but it will not come at the expense of our country's laws. Latinos For Tennessee is a statewide organization headquartered in Nashville that is committed to promoting faith, family, freedom and fiscal responsibility. For more information about the group, visit latinosfortn.com . Chance of a Thunderstorm Partly cloudy with afternoon showers or thunderstorms. High near 90F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.

Latinos For Tennessee is opposing the "sanctuary city" ordinance being considered by Metro Council that would restrict cooperation with federal immigration officials in Nashville and Davidson County.

Sandford, Australia Jun 20, 2017 -- IT IS BECOMING increasingly obvious we need vaccines sooner rather than later. If no vaccines are forthcoming in the not too distant future we may well see domestic rabbits becoming a rarity in this country. We need everyone to get behind this petition and share it far and wide. We need your help to continue to sign this petition , send it viral, help raise awareness overseas... our domestic rabbits are dying... we have been promised a vaccine for RHDV2 but continue to wait.... We have a vaccine for the newly released K5 strain that was designed for the Czech Strain, RHDV351..... (efficacy on K5 an unknown) and we have no vaccine for Myxo... We have so many people with rabbits dying but NOT testing... for strain Identity.. We need to spread the word if domestic rabbits die suddenly they need to be tested with specialised pathology... and NO your vet can not do this.... Tests are FREE....... it does not matter if its not the virus , that's a good thing but if you don't test, we don't know and the government does not know either just...how urgent it is that we have vaccines.... and people need to be aware that Myxo is also being actively used in Australia and it is also at epidemic proportions.... it may even be a different strain, it kills quicker and is stronger... Australian domestic rabbits are in grave peril and now because K5 so far has not recorded any significant numbers of deaths ... (note re the no one testing much comment ).... people are becoming complacent.... RHDV2 is still active and still killing and has NO vaccine.... Myxo is killing large numbers again too and NO vaccine..... .. And in relation to wild rabbits..... the numbers in some areas are very low... so most likely all died from the horrific virus rampant in Australia or 1080 poison etc... Imagine the agony of one rabbit multiplied many times over... all dying painful protracted deaths.... Should we be happy to just get vaccines for our domestic rabbits..... or should be fighting perhaps against the use of Bio Warfare and 1080 poison use on any animal deemed a pest.... by our kill everything policies in Australia.... World take a look at what is happening in Australia and New Zealand... and let us know what you think about what is happening here.? Do you think this is right? Because I don't... The more involved with the fight for vaccines.... the more concerned I become about the bigger issue..... I note also a move towards Gene Editing in relation to Rabbit control, I think this is way too permanent and may lead to editing rabbits out of existence. This is very different to a controlled fertility program which would make the most sensible approach to long term control of wild rabbits and be the most humane. In the short term however , we must push and push hard to get suitable vaccines to protect our valued domestic rabbits... please help and sign and share.... please donate a few dollars too if possible to help make this go viral... we need world wide help again to save our bunnies.... before its too late for Australian Domestic valued Pets... Thankyou for listening. Keep fighting for people power! Politicians and rich CEOs shouldn't make all the decisions. Today we ask you to help keep Change.org free and independent. Our job as a public benefit company is to help petitions like this one fight back and get heard. If everyone who saw this chipped in monthly we'd secure Change.org's future today. Help us hold the powerful to account. Can you spare a minute to become a member today? I'll power Change with $5 monthly We were unable to post your comment. Please try again.

IT IS BECOMING increasingly obvious we need vaccines sooner rather than later. If no vaccines are forthcoming in the not too distant future we may well see domestic rabbits becoming a rarity in this country.

MEGHAN Markle has been accused of breaking royal protocol during a conversation with officials in Ireland. The Duchess of Sussex, who is currently on her first official overseas trip with husband Prince Harry, was attending a function at the British Ambassador's residence on Tuesday when she allegedly broke a golden rule of royalty: stay out of politics. Meghan and Harry at the Ambassador's Summer Party. Credit: AFP Photo/Pool/Brian Lawless According to Irish senator Catherine Noone, who was one of the key figures in the country's recent push to legalise abortion, Meghan told her that she was "pleased" the referendum had been a success. In a tweet -- which has since been deleted -- Noone wrote: "A pleasure to meet Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex at the British Ambassador's residence this evening. The Duchess and I had a chat about the recent referendum -- she watched with interest and was pleased with the result." But earlier you claimed ... pic.twitter.com/RBKktveaJj -- Fran Johnson (@franjohnson_ie) July 11, 2018 She later posted an edited version of her earlier tweet, writing simply: "A pleasure to meet Prince Harry & the Duchess of Sussex at the British Ambassador's Residence this evening." When other users called her out on it, Noone responded that she deleted it "because it was unintentionally misleading -- the Duchess was not in anyway political." Meghan's comments may have landed her in hot water. Credit: EPA/Brian Lawless /Pool During their whirlwind two-day visit, the royal couple also visited the headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association, the Trinity College in Dublin, the Famine Memorial and the Irish Emigration Museum. Prince Harry and Meghan pose with Ireland's President Michael Higgins and wife Sabina in Dublin. Credit: AFP Photo/Pool/AFP Photo/Maxwells Harry and Meghan's tour of Ireland Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visit Trinity College on the second day of their official two day royal visit to Ireland on July 11, 2018 in Dublin, Ireland. Picture: Gareth Fuller-Pool/Getty Images 1 of 50 Meghan, Duchess of Sussex meet Ireland's President, Michael Higgins and his wife Sabina Coyne at Aras an Uachtarain during day two of their visit to Ireland on July 11, 2018 in Dublin, Ireland. Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visits Croke Park, home of Ireland's largest sporting organisation, the Gaelic Athletic Association, with Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex during their visit to Ireland on July 11, 2018 in Dublin, Ireland. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images 3 of 50 Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex greets well-wishers after her visit with Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex to Trinity College in Dublin on the final day of their two day visit on July 11, 2018. Picture: AFP PHOTO / POOL / Gerry Mooney 4 of 50 Want to see more? ( 46 more photos in collection ) Continue to full gallery

MEGHAN Markle has been accused of breaking royal protocol during a conversation with officials in Ireland.

The ACLU is organizing grassroots volunteers across the country to resist the Trump administration's attacks on our civil liberties. Help flip state legislatures and governors' seats from red to blue. A simple guide to learn what you can do to affect real change in Congress. MoveOn is a service - a way for busy but concerned citizens to assert their collective power in a system dominated by big money and big media. OFA works to ensure the voices of ordinary Americans are heard in Washington, while training the next generation of grassroots organizers that will keep fighting for change. Connecting communities to actionable information and tools to reject the Trump / GOP agenda in every state and protect communities from harm. Helping recruit and support under-35 year old progressives running for down-ballot office to build a Democratic bench. Let's take back the House. Find your closest Swing District and sign up to support a progressive win there in 2018. Register to vote. Check your registration status. Get your absentee ballot. Fast, free, easy, secure, nonpartisan.

The ACLU is organizing grassroots volunteers across the country to resist the Trump administration's attacks on our civil liberties. Help flip state legislatures and governors' seats from red to blue.

Saturday morning President Trump traveled to Jackson, Mississippi to attend the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and to recognize the 200 th anniversary of when Mississippi became the 20 th state on Sunday. Unfortunately, the mere act of extending an invitation to the president brought swift criticism and the temper tantrums began on the left. Senior civil rights activist John Lewis, who also refused to attend Trump's inauguration, was the most vocal about sitting this one out. For a man who was beaten within an inch of his life back in the day for protesting in the streets, he now prefers to create division instead of promoting unity. Following along was the national president of the NAACP, Derrick Johnson, and the mayor of Jackson, Chokwe Lumumba. Johnson, a native of Mississippi, went so far as to voice a statement that shows a complete lack of self-awareness in his actions. According to this from ABC News : "We will never cede the stage to an individual who will fight against us," Johnson said. "We will not allow the history of those who sacrificed to be tarnished for political expediency." That is exactly what Mr. Johnson did, though. Johnson ceded the stage by not showing up and allowing President Trump to be the one in the spotlight. Trump was simply performing a very basic and common task for a president, showing up for the opening of an important museum for American history. The Republican Governor of Mississippi, Phil Bryant, extended the invitation to Trump. Mr. Johnson was the one showing a penchant for political expediency. Let's not pretend that it isn't standard political hackery to label Republicans as racist. Do you know who was in attendance, though? Mrs. Myrlie Evers, the widow of Medgar Evans, a true legend in Mississippi. She was in the audience as Trump delivered his remarks and received a standing ovation as Trump acknowledged her presence. She spoke later at the public ceremony outside the museum. It was noted that she didn't say the president's name and that's ok. She handled the situation with dignity. "Regardless of race, creed or color, we are all Americans. ... If Mississippi can rise to the occasion, then the rest of the country should be able to do the same thing." President Trump delivered a short address and was well received by the audience. I think he hit just the right tone for the occasion: (ABC News) Trump said Medgar Evers "knew it was long past time for his nation to fulfill its founding promise to treat every citizen as an equal child of God." Evers, Trump said, now rests in Arlington National Cemetery "beside men and women of all races, backgrounds and walks of life who've served and sacrificed for our country. Their headstones do not mark the color of their skin but immortalize the courage of their deeds." It's a shame that Trump had to tailor his appearance to include a smaller invitation-only audience because of the commotion. This is to be expected in Trump's America. This is the statement released by Lewis and Rep. Bennie Thompson: After careful consideration and conversations with church leaders, elected officials, civil rights activists, and many citizens of our congressional districts, we have decided not to attend or participate in the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. President Trump's attendance and his hurtful policies are an insult to the people portrayed in this civil rights museum. The struggles represented in this museum exemplify the truth of what really happened in Mississippi. President Trump's disparaging comments about women, the disabled, immigrants, and National Football League players disrespect the efforts of Fannie Lou Hamer, Aaron Henry, Medgar Evers, Robert Clark, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and countless others who have given their all for Mississippi to be a better place. After President Trump departs, we encourage all Mississippians and Americans to visit this historic civil rights museum. Is this the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with whom Lewis marched? It is hard to believe that in the year 2017 this kind of political theatre overrules showing up. If you don't show up, nothing changes, as Lewis well knows. I was born in Biloxi and this is particularly disheartening for me on a personal level. The progress that has been made in my lifetime in the deep South is undeniable. Any occasion to celebrate that must be seized. I think it is Mrs. Evers that is walking the walk today. Karen Townsend is a guest author at Hot Air. You can read her other work at her Pondering Penguin blog. A longtime political blogger and activist, she enjoys writing about life and culture, too.

Senior civil rights activist John Lewis, who also refused to attend Trump's inauguration, was the most vocal about sitting this one out.

After five consecutive years of deficits, the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) Trust Fund will run dry in just two years. [1] If Congress does not act before 2016, benefits will be cut across the board by almost 20 percent. This would mean a $218 reduction in monthly benefits--from $1,146 to $928--for the average beneficiary, [2] lowering the average benefit below the federal poverty level. [3] The Disability Insurance (DI) program provides critical income support for workers who become disabled and cannot work to support themselves and their families. However, the DI program has increasingly become an early retirement and long-term unemployment program. Such abuses undermine its integrity and financial stability. It is essential to preserve the DI program to provide for the millions of truly disabled Americans and their families who rely on it. For individuals who are truly unable to work, a 20 percent cut in benefits would be devastating. Congress should act now to reform the DI program to preserve it for the truly disabled while limiting unnecessary awards and encouraging beneficiaries to return to work. Rapid Expansion of Disability Insurance In 1966, 10 years after the DI program began, a little over 1 percent of the population ages 16-64 received DI benefits. [4] Today, that figure has risen to 5 percent of the working-age population. Much of the increase has occurred over the past decade and a half. Since 1991, the recipiency rate has doubled. With increasing numbers of DI recipients come rising costs, roughly doubling real (inflation-adjusted) spending on Disability Insurance since 2000. [5] This expansion of DI beneficiaries to one in every 20 adults has occurred despite improvements in the health of workers and less physically demanding jobs. [6] If workers are healthier and jobs are less physically demanding, why are more people claiming disability benefits? Part of the rise in disability benefits can be explained by one-time factors that should run their course and not affect future rolls, but about half the expansion is likely the result of programmatic changes that could cause DI rolls to continue to increase. Demographics have contributed to expansion of the DI program. The population of likely disability beneficiaries has expanded both because of the aging baby-boom generation and the increase in Social Security's normal retirement age. Additionally, higher labor force participation by women has increased the number and percentage of workers eligible to receive DI. A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta examined the increase in DI beneficiaries since 1980 and concluded that these three factors account for 43 percent to 56 percent of the increase: increased Social Security retirement age (9 percent), aging of the population (18 percent), and increased participation of women in the labor force (29 percent). [7] The remaining 44 percent to 57 percent of the rise in DI beneficiaries--roughly 3 million beneficiaries--remains unexplained. [8] Among other possible causes, this unexplained increase may stem from broadening of disability definitions and qualifications and an increase in the value of benefits. Beginning in 1984, Congress expanded disability qualification standards to incorporate not just a specific list of impairments, but also more subjective measures of a person's ability to work, such as pain and depression. Today, more than half of all disability awards are given to individuals with musculoskeletal disorders or mental impairments. [9] Furthermore, disability benefits have become increasingly valuable to lower-income workers. Although the benefit formula to determine disability benefit levels has not changed, rapid income growth at the top of the income scale has pushed up the index used to calculate DI benefits. From 1979 to 2012, the real average wage that is used to calculate DI benefits increased 22 percent while usual weekly earnings of workers with less than a high school degree fell 28 percent. [10] Consequently, replacement rates (the percent of income replaced by DI benefits) for low-wage workers have risen over time, making DI benefits more attractive to this group. [11] A Heritage Foundation study showed a direct correlation between level of education and DI recipiency: More than 11 percent of all workers with less than a high school degree receive DI benefits, compared with less than 2 percent of workers with a college or graduate degree. [12] As DI benefits have become more accessible and more valuable, the program has increasingly been used to support early retirement and long-term unemployment. [13] Although the Social Security trustees estimate that the long-run DI recipiency rate will be about equal to its 2013 level, there is reason to believe the DI program will continue to expand, particularly if the economy continues to perform below potential. The Federal Reserve Board projects a higher long-run disability recipiency rate than the Social Security trustees' estimate, and the Social Security trustees have consistently underestimated future recipiency rates. [14] Status of the DI Trust Fund In 2013 the DI program marked its fifth straight year of deficits, with the trust fund declining $32.3 billion (26 percent) from $122.7 billion to $90.4 billion. Each dollar in benefits was met with only 75 cents in payroll tax contributions. According to the Social Security trustees' intermediate projections, the DI program faces a 10-year projected shortfall of $267 billion. In actuarial terms, the 2013 deficit amounted to 0.32 percent of taxable payroll. To keep the DI trust fund solvent over the next 75 years, benefits would need to be cut by almost 20 percent immediately or the DI payroll tax would need to increase 17 percent. As discussed below, the program's history of shortfalls suggests that these estimates may understate the true shortfall. As the DI program continues to pay benefits in excess of contributions, the DI trust fund is projected to be exhausted at the end of 2016. At that point, incoming contributions will be sufficient to cover about 80 percent of benefit payments. Absent legislation to reform the program or reallocate or borrow resources, benefits will be cut across the board when the trust fund runs dry. Reallocation or Borrowing Without Reform Would Be a Mistake In anticipation of the DI trust fund exhaustion, Congress will likely consider reallocating revenues from the Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund to the DI trust fund. Unless accompanied by reform that makes the DI program solvent over the long run, this would be a mistake. A straightforward reallocation would not only prevent necessary reforms, but also shorten Social Security's solvency and increase near-term deficits because all that is left in the Social Security Trust Fund is IOUs. In 1994, the DI trust fund faced insolvency, and Congress reallocated a portion of the payroll tax revenues from the Social Security program to the Disability Insurance program. Despite a 50 percent increase in the DI payroll tax rate since 1994, the DI trust fund once again faces imminent insolvency. [15] The DI program needs structural reforms to address rapidly rising rolls, not another reallocation that will allow abuse of the program to continue to grow. Reallocation sounds like a technical, perhaps inconsequential action, but "raid" would be a more appropriate description. Every dollar of revenue reallocated to the DI trust fund is a dollar of deterioration in the Social Security Trust Fund. As a result, the Social Security Trust Fund would run out of money sooner, and more retirees would be subject to a nearly 25 percent cut in benefits. Absent a reallocation, the trustees project that the Social Security Trust Fund will remain solvent and able to pay full benefits through 2034. Paying for the DI shortfalls would move this date forward one year to 2033. Since the Social Security Trust Fund exists only on paper as $2.7 trillion in IOUs, a reallocation to the DI trust fund would increase near-term budget deficits on a dollar-for-dollar basis. Every dollar borrowed from the Social Security Trust Fund would first need to be borrowed from the public. The 2013 DI shortfall was $32.2 billion, and the 2014 shortfall is projected to be $32.3 billion. Based on current projections, a reallocation of DI benefits of the magnitude necessary to prevent benefit cuts would add an average of $27 billion in annual deficits over the next 10 years, or $267 billion in total. Given the DI program's substantial and fundamental shortfalls, lending money from the Social Security Trust Fund to the DI program would be reckless without first enacting reforms to increase its solvency. No bank would loan money to a bankrupt company without at least a credible plan to emerge from bankruptcy, and the DI program should be no exception. At a minimum, the DI program must enact reforms to keep it solvent for the foreseeable future before Congress considers reallocating or loaning funds to the program. Both the OASI and DI programs are structurally insolvent and in need of fundamental reform. The fact that the disability program will become insolvent sooner than Social Security should not mean that Social Security should bail out DI. A race-to-the-bottom approach such as this would encourage moral hazard, prevent or delay necessary reforms, and increase budget deficits. Disability Costs Magnified by Medicare Costs After two years on the rolls, disability beneficiaries are eligible to receive Medicare benefits regardless of age. [16] This two-year waiting period can discourage some individuals--primarily those who are more capable of work--from turning to the DI program. However, the Affordable Care Act reduces this deterrent effect by making many recently disabled beneficiaries eligible for health insurance subsidies during the two-year waiting period. In 1975, DI beneficiaries accounted for about 8 percent of total Medicare recipients. [17] In 2012, DI beneficiaries accounted for 19 percent of Medicare recipients. [18] Providing Medicare benefits for a growing population of disability beneficiaries is extremely costly, adding about $80 billion in general revenue costs. [19] Disability recipients are unlikely to leave the program. Fewer than 4 percent of beneficiaries leave the rolls for work before retirement. [20] Rising health care costs translate into higher real DI benefits over time. Rising benefit values will encourage more DI applications and will discourage beneficiaries from returning to work. Consequently, total government spending on DI beneficiaries will rise faster than inflation. Immediate Reform Is Necessary The DI trust fund is nearly depleted. Millions of disabled Americans rely on the DI program as their sole means of income, yet abuse of the program threatens its ability to provide for the truly disabled. Every dollar of benefits that goes to an able-bodied worker is a dollar that is not available to those who are physically unable to work. Without reform, all beneficiaries could face a nearly 20 percent cut in benefits beginning in 2016. Such cuts would be devastating to those who have no ability to earn income. Reforms to the judicial process and continuing disability reviews, as well as new flexibilities in the initial determination and benefits period could help to preserve the DI program for those who need it most. Congress should act now to reform the DI program and do so without exacerbating Social Security's shortfalls. --Rachel Greszler is Senior Policy Analyst in Economics and Entitlements in the Center for Data Analysis, of the Institute for Economic Freedom and Opportunity, at The Heritage Foundation.

After five consecutive years of deficits, the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) Trust Fund will run dry in just two years. [1] If Congress does not act before 2016, benefits will be cut across the board by almost 20 percent.

Print There was a time when religion had no place in rock music. But those days are gone, says Mark Joseph, a veteran music and film producer, columnist, author and talk show host. "In the early days, rock and religion were like mortal enemies," Joseph said in an interview with Chicago's "Mancow Morning Show." "It turned into that, and part of it was the religious guys didn't want rock in the tent, and they were going to burn records and do the whole thing until the rock guys returned fire and said, 'Fine, we'll make songs about Satan!' So you had this tense relationship for 20 or 30 years, and it's changing." In his soon-to-be-published book, "Rock Gets Religion: The Battle for the Soul of the Devil's Music," Joseph explains how a bevy of religious and religiously influenced artists have found acceptance and success in the contemporary mainstream music scene. This includes many hip-hop artists, such as Chance the Rapper. People may think hip-hop is anti-God, but plenty of rappers come from a church background, according to Joseph. What's more, iconic 1980s pop stars Prince and Michael Jackson were devout Jehovah's Witnesses. In his book, Joseph shares the story of one man who opened his front door in 1991 and was surprised to see Jackson going door-to-door with the Jehovah's Witnesses. These are only a few examples of the takeover of the mainstream music industry by devout recording artists. "When you and I were teenagers, it was like the rock guys who loved God were shuffled off into Christian rock - 'Hey, go over there and make songs; we don't want to hear from you,'" Joseph said to host Erich "Mancow" Muller. "It wasn't a tolerant atmosphere. Today, it's much more tolerant. You can be in the mainstream; you can be an Alice Cooper, you can be a [Dave] Mustaine, you can be a Chance the Rapper and be in the mainstream music scene." Watch Joseph's interview with the Chicago radio shock jock here: Alice Cooper writes in the foreward: "Rock has always had religion. After all, it started as gospel music. Elvis Presley knew every gospel song ever made. I'm not an alarmist or nihilist, but the world gets more dangerous every day. I think our natural survival instinct makes us question where we stand with God even if some claim atheism."

"Rock has always had religion. After all, it started as gospel music. Elvis Presley knew every gospel song ever made.

About Melissa Harris-Perry Melissa Harris-Perry is Associate Professor of Politics and African-American Studies at Princeton University. Her academic research is inspired by a desire to investigate the challenges facing contemporary black Americans and to better understand the multiple, creative ways that African-Americans respond to these challenges. Professor Harris-Perry is a contributor to MSNBC and regularly provides expert commentary on U.S. elections, racial issues, religious questions and gender concerns for both The Rachel Maddow Show and Countdown with Keith Olbermann. WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's consoling, sermon-like speech at a service for the victims of the Arizona shooting rampage steered clear of politics, yet it may have given him one of the biggest political boosts since he took office two years ago. Obama's speech earned compliments from even some of his severest conservative critics, who used such words as "stunning" and "remarkable" to describe it. The praise from his opponents is bound to fade, but the speech could bolster Obama's standing as a leader as he starts to deal with newly empowered Republicans in Congress and lays out his plans for the year in the State of the Union address at the end of the month. The president spoke with fondness and gentleness of the victims -- 6 dead, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl, and the 14 wounded in the attack on a U.S. congresswoman, who was critically injured with a bullet wound through her brain. Obama gave the address on the fourth day after the attack and in the midst of swirling recriminations. Liberals were blaming the assault on the poisonous political atmosphere, which they blamed on conservatives. Conservatives were hotly denying the charge, countering that the public was naturally in an uproar over Obama's policies and leadership. WATCH 'MORNING JOE' COVERAGE OF THE PRESIDENT'S SPEECH: [MSNBCMSN video="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640'' w="592'' h="346'' launch_id="41055177^10^893950'' id="msnbcf6215''] Visit msnbc.com for breaking news , world news , and news about the economy The president's approval ratings already were on the rise after what he called a "shellacking" in the November congressional elections, and the Arizona tragedy could prove a turning point for Obama at the halfway mark in his term. The current reality is uncannily similar to what confronted former President Bill Clinton after Democrats were ravaged at the polls in 1994. Shortly afterward a bomb destroyed the federal office building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, killing 168 people. Clinton traveled there and delivered a eulogy that won much praise. Clinton's approval ratings jumped several points after that speech from numbers akin to Obama's after the November vote. In Clinton's case, his approval fell again in the months that followed, but he nevertheless managed to win re-election two years later. So far, there have been no poll results after Obama's Tucson speech, but his situation is somewhat better. His numbers were already on the rise after a strong of legislative successes and accommodations with Republicans in the final meeting of Congress late last year. The latest Associated Press-GFK poll put the president's approval at 53 percent. It was 47 percent immediately after the November election. The Tucson shooting stunned Americans and forced politicians to re-examine the hard-charging, partisan tactics expected with Republicans back in control of the House of Representatives and at a lesser numerical disadvantage in the Senate. House Republicans, for example, have postponed voting on a measure to repeal Obama's health care overhaul legislation, most of which has yet to go into effect. Obama's words provoked unaccustomed kind words from the opposition. Charles Krauthammer, a hard-edged Obama critic in his newspaper column and as a Fox News analyst, said Obama's speech "was a remarkable display of oratory and oratorical skill in terms of tone and content." Peggy Noonan, the storied speechwriter for former President Ronald Reagan, called it "large spirited. And it spoke from a good height about how this whole debate about civil discourse didn't get us to that shooting." Glenn Beck, who rails against Obama nightly on Fox News, called the remarks "probably the best speech he's ever given." But reaction from conservatives was not all bouquets. On Michelle Malkin's blog, for example, the comment was harsh: "Speeches and leadership are not the same thing. "Obama delivered one tonight, but failed at the other over the past three days as Pima County Sheriff Dupnik, Democrat Party leaders, and media abettors poisoned the public square with the very vitriol the president now condemns. "Right speech. Too late. Awful, awful venue." Sheriff Dupnik is the top county law enforcement officer in the county that surrounds Tucson. He has been highly critical of right-wing rhetoric and Arizona's lax gun laws that, he said, had turned the city into a latter-day Tombstone, Arizona, the Wild West haven for gunfighters. As to the venue, Malkin and others complained loudly about the wild applause that regularly interrupted Obama. The critics said that was disrespectful to the victims of the tragedy. At the University of Denver, political scientist Seth Masket said it would have been hard for any but the most extreme opponent to be critical of Obama, given "the quality of the speech" and the reason for its delivery. But doubted it would have a lasting effect on the tone of American political dialogue or Obama's standing with the public. "The economy and the wars (in Iraq and Afghanistan) will have a far greater impact," he said, calling the immediate reactions to Obama and the Tucson tragedy "a temporary thing. A crisis rally effect where people tend to turn president" for direction in the short run. Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.

About Melissa Harris-Perry Melissa Harris-Perry is Associate Professor of Politics and African-American Studies at Princeton University. Her academic research is inspired by a desire to investigate the challenges facing contemporary black Americans and to better understand the multiple, creative ways that African-Americans respond to these challenges.

Father Jonathan Morris was just fit to bursting with pride on Facebook and Twitter over his meeting with Mike Pence and Henry Kissinger on Monday. Fox contributors KT McFarland , Monica Crowley , and former contributor Ben Carson have already been selected to serve in the Trump administration. Other Fox personalities are under consideration. Will Morris be the next Trump pick from the Fox pipeline? Official Foxpriest Morris would have you believe that he is just a humble Catholic pastor of a New York City parish. But his Facebook and Twitter photo of his meeting with Mike Pence and war criminal diplomat Henry Kissinger would suggest otherwise. Given the paucity of specifics, we don't really know how or why Morris had this encounter, but it would appear, from the caption on the photo, that Morris was invited to speak to a gathering where Kissinger was present. In cross referencing Mike Pence and Henry Kissinger, Politico reports that Vice President-elect Pence was scheduled to meet with Kissinger on Monday. Pence tweeted a photo of himself with Kissinger with the caption, "Grateful for the opportunity to discuss foreign affairs w/ former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at Trump Tower." There is no reference to Morris speaking to the group. One thing is certain, Morris' cult following social media followers (who seem to love Kissinger) are just ecstatic over this meeting. Some on Facebook are hoping that Morris will be named as Ambassador to the Vatican. Others are rejoicing that "we can now celebrate our religion" (Uh, nobody has been stopping you!). And of course, there was the perfunctory gushing over the awesomeness of Morris. So one does wonder if Fr. Morris will, as a dutiful Fox News conduit of the right wing gospel, be reaping an earthly reward? Note: As of today, there are over 300 comments, most of them positive, on the Facebook post.

Father Jonathan Morris was just fit to bursting with pride on Facebook and Twitter over his meeting with Mike Pence and Henry Kissinger on Monday.

Editor?s note: The following is an oral history of a U.S. soldier who served with the Army?s Special Forces during the allied occupation of Iraq in 2003 and 2004, as told to journalist Nir Rosen. It is a companion piece to Rosen?s essay ? The Occupation of Iraqi Hearts and Minds ,? which describes his experiences as an American reporter who sometimes passed as a Middle Easterner during the occupation. The oral history is composed almost entirely of e-mail correspondences that Rosen received from the soldier, who wished to remain anonymous. About the soldier: He served in Iraq during 2003 and 2004 as part of a Special Forces unit whose job, as he told Rosen, was to ?hunt enemies and destroy their networks? -to go after ?former masterminds and leaders of Saddam?s Baath Party.? His targets soon morphed into members of ?Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia? and insurgents -- ?a broad term that extended to criminals, influential gangs, bomb-making masterminds and generally pissed-off Arabs across the Sunni Triangle laid off by CPA Order #2-which dismissed all Baath Party members.? The soldier left the Army in May 2005 but can be recalled in case of a ?national emergency.? He joked to Rosen that ?the day we invade Iran or North Korea is the day that I become a Canadian citizen.? Rosen met the soldier in Washington, D.C., during the spring of 2006 and struck up a friendship, ?feeling a bond,? in Rosen?s words, ?that all who have served in Iraq in some way must feel.? About the soldier?s wish to remain anonymous, he wrote the following to Rosen: If my friends from the army even knew I was corresponding with a journalist, I?d probably lose a lot of respect. I am bound by legal contract and personal loyalty to protect the operational security (OPSEC) of my former unit. Because of the sensitivity of their work, their insane burden in Iraq (I still have friends in the military), and the oath of my contract, it is illegal for me to discuss many things -- units we work with, equipment, locations, technology, and activity within the country, etc. Furthermore, as I was raised in the community of special operations, I am skeptical almost to the point of paranoia about talking to anyone about Iraq outside of my former unit and family. There is a good reason for this -- namely: Loose lips sink ships. Nir Rosen's account of the soldier's oral history begins below. My friend wanted to begin his recounting of his time in Iraq by discussing ?the character of the American men fighting this war.? He joked that ?it might be a shock to some of the architects of this war that our fighters don?t read magazines like The Weekly Standard or The New Republic or give a rat?s ass about where our occupation in Iraq is headed.? He continued: ?The reason most of them signed up for service (me included) was to get some action, destroy Al Qaeda and come home with a body count to brag about at a local bar. Who gives a fuck about the rest? I think it can be best summed up in a conversation I overheard at my recruitment station. When one kid was asked why he joined the infantry, he didn?t have any doubts: ?I enlisted to kill towelheads.? Related Links Photo essay Nir Rosen presents a series of pictures that illustrate the brutal realities of the U.S. occupation of Iraq "The Occupation of Iraqi Hearts and Minds" Nir Rosen's companion piece to this oral history. A description of what it?s like to live under the boot of a culturally callous -- and sometimes criminal -- occupying force in Iraq. "The very nature of special operations and the infantry is to kill and/or capture dangerous people, destroy shit and prevent attacks. Creating rapport with the local population isn?t really part of the vocabulary -- especially if the local population is as insanely dangerous as Iraq. In the eyes of many fellow soldiers who signed up because of 9/11, and because of the Bush administration?s portrayal of Iraq as part of the ?war on terror,? many of the guys fully believed that they were in a hunt [for] men responsible for the blood bath in lower Manhattan.? My friend added that regardless of where soldiers are, ?be that a foreign country or a local bar in a military town, they usually wear out their welcome anywhere they go -- they?ve perfected the skill.? Nothing adds to the disconnect between U.S. soldiers and the Iraqi populace like absolute miscommunication. We are astronauts and they are Martians, plain and simple. My friend stressed that ?our officers took extra special care to fully explain the Rules of Engagement (ROE) in formal briefings to men in my company, and over the course of 140 missions they practiced professional restraint with their actions. But there is also a golden explicit rule with everything you do in war: Make sure that your ass comes home alive. This necessitates aggressive infantry platoon behavior on the part of the U.S. military that ultimately results in something quite the opposite of our stated goals: ?building democracy? and winning ?hearts and minds.? While we were largely successful in hunting the men we were pursuing, my personal impression was that we probably created two times more insurgents than we caught, not to mention the communities we greatly angered with our raids. Our actions were a direct contribution to, as [allied commander] Gen. George Casey said in September 2005, an occupation that is ?fueling the insurgency.? ? He told me a story about his platoon?s return to the U.S. after its second deployment to Iraq, when its members went to see the premiere of the film ?Team America.? Made by the creators of television?s ?South Park,? ?Team America? was a comical marionette action flick about a jingoistic fire team whose utter recklessness was matched by their righteous yahoo attitude that America must preserve the very fabric of civilization. No film has more accurately depicted our presence in Iraq; it was a looking glass and it instantly became a platoon favorite. There is a classic scene in the movie where Team America?s overbearing red, white and blue helicopter lands on top of a bazaar in the Middle East, crushing an Arab?s cashew stand. The side of the helicopter read: ?We Protect, We Serve, We Care.? That scene hit so close to home, it was scary. Later in the movie, in a high-speed chase against terrorists, a missile gets misfired and destroys the Sphinx (in Egypt). ?The movie theater, packed with guys from my platoon, was howling with laughter. We even sarcastically recited lines from the theme songs ?Freedom Isn?t Free? and ?America, Fuck Yeah? before and after missions on our third tour in the winter of 2005. By then the disconnect between the lofty rhetoric of our leaders and the crap we dealt with on the ground couldn?t have been greater. The mentality of soldiers in Iraq is compounded by a group of factors -- wrecked relationships, senselessly drawn-out deployments, sex/alcohol deprivation, and getting mortared on a nightly basis, to name a few.? He added that ?Iraq is a scary fucking place. Every hard-hitting thing we did there was due in large part to our fear of that place.? My friend explained that over the course of his three deployments to Iraq he discovered what he described as a ?breakthrough method of communicating in foreign languages. It was so cutting-edge that Rosetta Stone [the language-training program] doesn?t even know about it. It goes something like this: The louder you yell at an Arab in English, the more the Arab will understand you. I?ve seen this done by my brothers in arms on a hundred-plus occasions. Hell, even I did it. And let me be the first to exclaim that it works wonders. The language barrier has done irreversible damage to our entire occupation. "On the rare occasions that we?ve had men who speak the language with us, it has yielded key information -- in one case it almost resulted in the capture of a high-value target. I can?t begin to imagine the kind of miscommunication damage we could have avoided had we had interpreters during two of our three deployments. Nothing adds to the disconnect between U.S. soldiers and the Iraqi populace like absolute miscommunication. We are astronauts and they are Martians, plain and simple. The average soldier looks like Buzz Aldrin, loaded with enough high-tech gear to land him on the set of a sci-fi flick. Every night we descend unexpectedly upon Mars from helicopters. Under the cover of darkness we prowl across mud-hut villages on the search for wanted Martians that communicate with each other in weird, harsh sounds. As a matter of fact, the glow on our eyes created from our night observation devices earned us a nickname by Sunni Arabs across Al Anbar; they called us the ?men with green eyes.? ? By that point another platoon had very clearly disrupted prayer service, as testified by hundred of Sunni Arab men standing on the front landing of the mosque giving us what I could only refer to as the ?Arab look of death.? My friend described a ?highly planned mission that utilized many military assets ? over 200 special forces went on a head hunt against a high-value target in the heart of Al Anbar.? The mission occurred at 1 p.m. on a Friday, prayer time in the Muslim world. ?What essentially transpired was the seizure of two central mosques right in the middle of prayer time -- our target was believed to be in one of the mosques. Two other platoons were in charge of taking over three surrounding blocks of families ?sympathetic? to the insurgency. When we rolled up to the central mosque, you could see hundreds of pairs of shoes and sandals lined out by the front door. By the time my platoon had raided a local house, which including the standard demolition of a locked gate door with a linear charge, we launched into the family?s two-story house with three fire teams. Our entrance included accidentally stepping all over the family?s freshly prepared lunch of salad and kabobs -- Arabs typically eat on the floor. After kicking down every door, busting open every cabinet and flipping over every mattress, unearthing every prayer rug and breaking every lock in the house in the search for weapons and bombs, we proceeded to detain a 15-old-kid (?male of active age,? i.e. possible insurgent) and tossed him in our Humvee while his mom cried and pleaded with us that he was innocent (at least that?s what I thought she said -- none of us had an Arabic vocabulary besides ?Shut up? ?Stop or I?ll shoot? and ?Get the fuck out of my face?). "It required a unique form of telepathic genius to understand the people we were liberating if you didn?t understand Arabic, and none of us possessed that skill. After our block was pacified, we linked up down the road at the central mosque. By that point another platoon had very clearly disrupted prayer service, as testified by hundred of Sunni Arab men standing on the front landing of the mosque giving us what I could only refer to as the ?Arab look of death.? Another team herded a line of stumbling blindfolded and handcuffed men like cattle into one of our vehicles. By that time at least 20 of us had our weapons pointed at the Muslim congregation, not taking any chances. A fire team across the road was jumping over a nearby wall and breaking into a backyard shed. Two F-16s flew in figure eights overhead, buzzing the city and reminding any cavalier haji (our affectionate term for Arab citizen) that day to think twice before they act. "We detained some 15 men, including the target?s brother (the main target was apparently a no-show that day). We rolled out staring at a thoroughly humiliated community on their most sacred day. Their home doors blown off their hinges, some of their teenage children stolen by Kafirs, and in the house that I raided, a hard-earned lunch kicked across the dirty floor. We would later return to the same neighborhood three times during that deployment, looking for the same guy. Each time, doors were blown off their recently repaired hinges, house glass was broken, car tires were slashed, the few interior possessions found in the houses were thrown around, damaged and destroyed. But still, we couldn?t find the guy we were looking for. We would go on to conduct a follow-on mission on that specific day, raiding a building reported to house 'eight hard-core Syrian fighters.' We blew down the door with electrical charging tape to find a broken Kawasaki dirt bike. We also went down the road to an elementary school (school was out that day) that was reported to be an arms cache for the insurgency, and our orders were to raid the entire building. After breaking into one room only to find school books, one of our officers ? called back the mission and decided any further damage to the school was folly, given the apparent effort to win ?hearts and minds? across Iraq.? Next Page: "I probably wouldn?t want to tell him the honest truth: ?Sir, after you leave here, I?m sorry, but I have no fucking idea what?s going to happen to you.? " One summer evening my friend?s unit targeted a sheik who was reportedly a mastermind of the resistance. The sheik lived in a mansion behind a tire store, my friend recalled. ?He reportedly had the material and spiritual support of the surrounding area. Thus, the objective of our mission would be not just to capture the sheik, but to capture every male in the entire neighborhood for intelligence about the sheik. I was in the fire team whose objective was to raid the house next door to the sheik?s. Approaching the house, we tried to enter in text-book fashion -- using something called the ?hooligan tool? to break the lock on the front door. "After two unsuccessful tries, we used a steel rammer, which did nothing but break the glass on the door. Then we went with Plan C -- we turned the door handle on the door next to the one we were trying to break. The door was unlocked. Our two teams then flowed in, full of yelling to add to the shock value of our dynamic entry. ?Get the fuck down,? ?Shut the fuck up,? ?Don?t move,? etc. Of the four rooms in the house, two were full of women and children, the other a kitchen, and the fourth, a middle-aged man and a senior citizen. Three of our men rushed the man while the old man on an oxygen tank starting hitting a couple of us with his cane. The old man was quickly dropped to the floor, next to his oxygen tank, while we zip-tied his arms and legs. This wasn?t out of personal preference, but we were trying to control the situation. I walked out the blindfolded middle-aged man, who was weak and fell to his knees, trembling and mortified. His wife and two daughters were crying hysterically. I can only guess that they thought I was going to execute him. I wish I knew enough Arabic to tell him that things would be OK if he was innocent -- but honestly, why should I be confident enough to say that? Tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis have been thrown in detention facilities across the country with incompetent oversight and filtering processes. Even if I did know Arabic, I probably wouldn?t want to tell him the honest truth: ?Sir, after you leave here, I?m sorry, but I have no fucking idea what?s going to happen to you.? "After consolidating the detainees we got the orders to clear the surrounding structures. After running with two fire teams across a typical Iraqi backyard farm, we used a shot gun to blast open the door lock. Unbeknownst to us, we were about to score a major intelligence victory in the war on terror: a den of 40 smelly goats. We immediately took one casualty on that raid -- a goat got hit in the ass with one of the buckshots. If our raid on 20 homes wasn?t yet successful in waking up everyone in the neighborhood, then that pissed-off goat sure did the job. We had to seek cover on the rear side of the building as another team ?leapfrogged? to an adjacent house. In all of our distraction, the goats poured out of their den. When we eventually left the objective, I saw the group of goats wandering down the main highway that we had taken on our way to the sheik?s crib. We just had conducted a raid of liberation. I was reminded of one of Gen. [Anthony] Zinni?s early warnings about Iraq: ?There are congressmen today who want to fund the Iraqi Liberation Act, and let some silk-suited, Rolex-wearing guys in London gin up an expedition. We?ll equip a thousand fighters and arm them with 97 million dollars? worth of AK-47s and insert them into Iraq. And what will we have? A Bay of Goats, most likely.? Just add 130,000 U.S. soldiers and hundreds of billions of dollars to the equation and the statement still stands. "Acting on intelligence and orders beyond our control, we succeeded that night in sending a father of four off to who knows where, losing his livestock livelihood that barely made ends meet, detaining five others guilty of living in that neighborhood and finding no sheik. Before departing, I remember a wild dog staring at me in the eye as he consumed the flesh of a fellow dead dog. Our presence didn?t seem to faze him. On the way back from this glorious mission, we came onto an unexpected surprise. To our great amusement, in the middle of desert nowhere (the closest village was eight miles away), we found two men engaged in passionate homosexual intercourse on top a sand dune. I don?t think they were expecting any extra company. I guess nowhere was safe in Al Anbar from the U.S. occupation.? My friend quipped that ?infantry soldiers have never been known for their raw talent in mathematics.? Therefore the explosives charges made by soldiers sometimes exceed the bare minimum necessary to blow off a door handle. ?In one case,? he told me, ?I watched a charge succeed in blowing a door five feet across a living room. Being as the suspect was about to open the door after hearing the ruckus on his doorstep, he went airborne as well. And the steel door landed on top of him. Like in a scene out of the movie ?Heat,? blood and puss flowed down both of his ears on the trip back to base.? Next Page: ?Without much doubt in my mind, if I were an Iraqi under the U.S. occupation, I?d be an insurgent.? During the summer, my friend?s unit temporarily inhabited one of Uday Hussein?s palaces on the Tigris River. ?It was fully furnished with gold-leaf furniture,? he said, ?working bidets and a nice swimming pool. As the story goes, he had women walk in circles by the pool and he chose which one to rape for the evening. We just used the pool to forget about the fact that we were in Iraq. That summer our tanning sessions by the pool were often interrupted by mortar attacks on our compound. Apparently the chain of command threatened a scorched-earth policy on the surrounding farm communities if they didn?t put a stop to whoever was doing it. We also did our part by directing warning shots at local fishermen floating slowly down the Tigris River and staring at the compound. If they didn?t get the point the first time, we shot closer to their boat. They would get the message and start rowing like Vikings on speed until they were out of our eyesight. It was only in our self-interest to keep all unwanted activity away from our bases. By the summer of 2004, all trust had fully dissipated.? My friend was rare in that he had somehow overcome the necessary brainwashing soldiers undergo and was able to critically assess his role in Iraq. ?In hindsight,? he said, ?I have often asked myself what my reaction would be like if I were on the opposite end of this equation. After years of living under a harsh dictatorship, 150,000 soldiers of Sharia show up and offload into Georgetown from boats on the Potomac River after shelling the Capitol. They have a simple mission, they say: transplanting Islamic enlightenment in the decadent land of Kafir. They take over the D.C. Mall and throw a wall around the Smithsonian buildings; they call it the 'Halal Zone.' The White House becomes the embassy of Iraq. Some asshole like John Walker Lindh (Ahmed Chalabi), who has lived in the Middle East while the U.S. suffered under dictatorship, is Iraq?s favorite child for taking over the peacock throne of the U.S. My house gets raided and my mother patted down by hygiene-deficient Wahhabis, so I go to Georgetown to force the humiliation off my mind. A group of wirey majahedin show up at Haagen Daaz while I?m enjoying a cone of cookies and cream -- a rare moment of bliss in a country going to shit -- and grab the owners while taking their ice cream. I return to my home, after walking through one foot of raw sewage water, to turn on the radio and hear the Arab ?viceroy? declare in a fatwa that all Christian values should be erased from our governing culture. Meanwhile my dad is laid off from his paycheck for the crime of serving in the U.S. Army to provide for his struggling family.? My friend concluded that ?without much doubt in my mind, if I were an Iraqi under the U.S. occupation, I?d be an insurgent.? When you put your life on the line every night, you don?t have the luxury to be skeptical or even critical. I sympathized with what must have been his painful realization that he had inadvertently committed crimes. ?All the way up to my third deployment I was an avid reader of a lot of foolish writing on the war,? he said. ?I believed in the mission because I had to -- after all, what soldier wants to die for an unworthy cause? I wanted to believe in the propaganda and I willfully avoided things that harshly rubbed against my hope that we were sacrificing for a good cause. When you put your life on the line every night, you don?t have the luxury to be skeptical or even critical. In certain ways, I feel embarrassed about my belief that this was once a noble mission, but I have the honesty to admit that I was wrong. I deployed to this war with many great assumptions about our national leadership: I assumed that the WMD intelligence case wasn?t a cherry-picked house of cards, I assumed we had a plan for the aftermath of the invasion, I assumed our leaders had a greater understanding of the character of Iraq outside the mouths of Ahmed Chalabi and Kana Makiya. I assumed, I assumed, I assumed.? ?As a soldier trained exclusively to fight, destroy and capture,? my friend said, ?I was no more different than any of the rest of the men in my platoon who viewed Iraq as a broken country, loaded with assassins and inhospitable people. Hardly any of us spoke Arabic, which added to the dehumanization of the people (or should I say, ?targets?) that we hunted and disrupted on a nightly basis; during my time there we conducted over 140 missions. We were always decent to the men we captured, but a raid by definition can never be a humanitarian act. I could never escape the impression from our heavy-handed insertions into hundreds of family homes that our presence only fueled more and more hatred. Every night we returned to base, the adrenaline rush faded and everything in hindsight looked like a black comedy. You couldn?t escape the fact that our actions only fueled the insurgency. For every insurgent or jihadist we caught, we created two times as many future fighters. And that is the tragedy -- good men inadvertently pissing off an entire population. As our fearless leaders walked into this debacle without a plan, you can rest assured that few at the top ever considered the historical meaning of occupation to Arab civilization. Also, the White House fixation on figureheads like Zarqawi, which bolstered the Al Qaeda/Iraq smokescreen, ensured that our myopic obsession with foreign fighters blinded us to the understanding that 90% of the insurgency was home-grown.?

The following is an oral history of a U.S. soldier who served with the Army?s Special Forces during the allied occupation of Iraq in 2003 and 2004, as told to journalist Nir Rosen.

Whoever wins this week's Dutch elections, immigrants are already the biggest losers. Geert Wilders, who is often called "the Dutch Donald Trump," will not necessarily head the government even if he wins the most seats in parliament. But he has taught the current Prime Minister Mark Rutte to pit Dutch voters against immigrants and their children. The American right's favorite Islamophobe and a columnist for Breitbart news, Wilders is campaigning with the slogan, "The Netherlands Ours Again." He promises to close all mosques and ban the Qur'an. He also calls for "Nexit" -- the Netherlands leaving the European Union. In the wake of Britain's vote to leave the European Union (Brexit) and Trump's election as US president, the world is obsessing over Dutch polls to see if "Trumpism" will score a victory in The Netherlands, one of the world's most democratic countries. Wilders's anti-Islamic, anti-EU and anti-immigration Party for Freedom (PVV) is in a tight race for the lead with Rutte's center-right People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). At a minimum, Wilders will likely add to his seats in parliament after the March 15 polls. About 40% of voters are undecided, giving hope to Dutch progressives that a left-wing coalition is still possible. It is Rutte, in office since 2010, who has the best chance of forming a new government. Veering right, he is now competing with Wilders to articulate the feelings of a so-called "silent majority," saying immigrant youth should fit in or pleur op ("fuck off"). The Dutch elections are the first in 2017's super election year in Europe, with far-right parties in many countries campaigning on an anti-immigrant and anti-EU platform. The next test for populism, only a month away, will be in France, where the far-right leader Marine Le Pen seeks to become president. Germany's Chancellor, Angela Merkel, faces elections in September and could lose to a challenger from the left. Marine Le Pen marching in the annual parade in honor of Joan of Arc. Photo credit: Ernest Morales / Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) The Netherlands is a complex political laboratory in which to put Trump-inspired populism to the test. There are no less than 28 parties on the Dutch ballot; nearly half of them didn't exist in 2014. It only takes 0.67% of the national vote for a party to get a seat in parliament. Even in the best-case scenario of his party winning 30-plus seats in parliament (out of 150), Wilders will almost certainly not become prime minister. That would require a coalition with other parties that object to his platform or a deal with the ruling VVD party -- Rutte says the chances are "zero." But with just days to go until the election, Wilders is claiming victory for his worldview. "We've basically already won the elections before they've started because everyone is moving towards us," he told a Bloomberg reporter last week. Under Wilders's gravitational pull, the country is bracing for a chaotic outcome. The famous Dutch tradition of political compromise appears nowhere in sight. "Act normal or get out!" Here are five ways that Wilders's far-right challenge has changed the election: The prime minister has essentially capitulated in the war of ideas and begun copying Wilders's rhetoric, seeking political capital in immigrant-bashing. In an open letter, published on January 22 on Twitter, and in full-page ads in Dutch newspapers, he warned that immigrants better integrate or else, citing " a growing unease when people abuse our freedoms to mess things up ." Although much of Wilders's campaign platform is unconstitutional, Rutte, meanwhile, is not speaking up for the constitution. Wilders was convicted in December of inciting discrimination at a rally where he called for "fewer Moroccans." Rather than calling him out over his hate speech, Rutte is aping it. Gay Rights: An Anti-Muslim Hand Grenade Thanks to Wilders, LGBT rights are being used as a weapon in the battle over immigration. Pro-gay Islamophobia is a tactic that Trump adapted to an American audience. Wilders is straight, but part of his message is that he will protect gay people from Muslims (some of whom, of course, are gay), even though crime data does not support the claim that immigrants are a special threat. Now, Rutte has joined him in weaponizing gay rights. In the same open letter that expresses alarm over "something wrong in our country," the prime minister targets immigrants who "abuse our freedoms" and "harass gays." Shrinking the Left Polls show that the Labour party (PvdA), part of the governing coalition, is disintegrating. Wilders has been hugely successful with less-educated voters, many of them traditional supporters of the left. Wilders promises there will be "less taxes, less crime, and less multiculturalism." It's not just his anti-Islam and immigration positions, but also his opposition to the government's austerity. He mashes up radical right nationalism with left-wing economics, saying he will reverse recent moves to increase the retirement age and cuts in funds for health care and welfare. The former head of the Labour party, Wouter Bos, admitted last week that Wilders " understands what makes the Dutch angry much better than the Dutch Left ." Falling Out of Love with the EU If Wilders gains power, he says the first thing he will do is hold a Brexit-style referendum. Leaving the European Union, the world's biggest economic trading bloc, would hardly seem to make sense for the Netherlands, a small country that has grown wealthy off trade. Still, a new opinion poll confirms that the Dutch are falling out of love with the EU. It shows a slight majority actually favor Nexit if EU membership could be replaced with "bilateral trade relations." It should not be forgotten that the Dutch voted down the 2005 EU constitution, which later became the Lisbon Treaty. They also rejected, by a wide margin, an EU treaty with Ukraine in a referendum last spring. Playing the Media Even as the Dutch media mocks and criticizes Wilders as "unhinged," it has made him "the most famous bleach blonde since Marilyn Monroe," according to Radio Netherlands. Like Trump, he can say anything that comes into his head, knowing he will only benefit from controversy. This happened in 2009, when he stood up in parliament and called for a kopvoddentaks , a "head rag tax." Though he rarely gives interviews, the media constantly seeks out Wilders because it increases their readership and ratings. Wilders, who can count on the press for endless free publicity, has skipped all the election television and radio debates so far. Wilders mostly communicates with Dutch voters by Twitter . He has ten times as many followers as Prime Minister Rutte. "Some of his supporters take his messages literally, and ... they use Facebook to call for acts of violence," Wilders's brother, Paul, said in a recent interview with Der Spiegel . "Geert doesn't want violence, and yet he accepts the potential consequences. "He is a master of short messages. And in this complex age, that is precisely what many people want." Related front page panorama photo credit: Adapted by WhoWhatWhy from Clownpaign (Karen Eliot / Flickr - CC BY-SA 2.0) . Where else do you see journalism of this quality and value? Our Comment Policy Keep it civilized, keep it relevant, keep it clear, keep it short. Please do not post links or promotional material. We reserve the right to edit and to delete comments where necessary.

Whoever wins this week's Dutch elections, immigrants are already the biggest losers. Geert Wilders, who is often called "the Dutch Donald Trump," will not necessarily head the government even if he wins the most seats in parliament. But he has taught the current Prime Minister Mark Rutte to pit Dutch voters against immigrants and their children.

On Monday, ProPublica reported on new research by a team at KU Leuven and Princeton on canvas fingerprinting . One of the most intrusive users of the technology is a company called AddThis, who by are employing it in "shadowing visitors to thousands of top websites, from WhiteHouse.gov to YouPorn.com." Canvas fingerprinting allows sites to get even more identifying information than we had previously warned about with our Panopticlick fingerprinting experiment . Canvas fingerprinting exploits the fact that different browsers have slightly different algorithms, parameters, and hardware for turning text into pictures on your screen (or more specifically, into an HTML 5 canvas object that the tracker can read 1 ). According to the research by Gunes Acar, et al., AddThis draws a hidden image containing the unusual phrase "Cwm fjordbank glyphs vext quiz" and observed the way the pixels would turn out differently on different systems. This builds on a fingerprinting technique that was first presented by Keaton Mowery and Hovav Shacham in 2012. While YouPorn quickly removed AddThis after the report was published, the White House website still contains AddThis code. Some White House pages obviously include the AddThis button, such as the White House Blog, and a link to the AddThis privacy policy . Other pages, like the White House's own Privacy Policy, load javascript from AddThis, but do not otherwise indicate that AddThis is present. To pick the most ironic example, if you go to the page for the White House policy for third-party cookies , it loads the " addthis_widget.js ." This script, in turn, references " core143.js ," which has a "canvas" function and the tell-tale "Cwm fjordbank glyphs vext quiz" phrase. The White House cookie policy notes that, "as of April 18, 2014, content or functionality from the following third parties may be present on some WhiteHouse.gov pages," listing AddThis. While it does not identify which pages, we have yet to find one without AddThis, whether open or hidden. On the same page that is loading the AddThis scripts, the White House third-party cookie policy makes a promise: "We do not knowingly use third-party tools that place a multi-session cookie prior to the user interacting with the tool." There is no indication that the White House knew about this function before yesterday's report. Nevertheless, the canvas fingerprint goes against the White House policy. It may not be a traditional cookie, but it fills the same function as a multi-session cookie, allowing the tracking of unique computers across the web. While the AddThis privacy policy does not mention the canvas fingerprint by that name, it notes that it sometimes places "web beacons" on pages, which would load prior to the user interacting with the AddThis button. The main distinction is that the canvas fingerprint can't be blocked by cookie management techniques, or erased with your other cookies. This is inconsistent with the White House's promise that "Visitors can control aspects of website measurement and customization technologies used on WhiteHouse.gov." The website's How To instructions are no help, because they are limited to traditional cookies and flash cookies. AddThis' opt out is no more helpful, as it only prevents targeting, not tracking: "The opt-out cookie tells us not to use your information for delivering relevant online advertisements." The White House is far from alone. According to the researchers, over 5,000 sites include the canvas fingerprinting, with the vast majority from AddThis. What You Can Do to Protect Yourself From Canvas Fortunately, some solutions are available. You can block trackers like AddThis using an algorithmic tool such as EFF's Privacy Badger , or a list-based one like Disconnect . Or if you're a fairly knowledgeable user and are willing to do some extra work, you can use a manually controlled script blocker such as No Script to only run JavaScript from domains you trust.

On Monday, ProPublica reported on new research by a team at KU Leuven and Princeton on canvas fingerprinting . One of the most intrusive users of the technology is a company called AddThis, who by are employing it in "shadowing visitors to thousands of top websites, from WhiteHouse.gov to YouPorn.com."

Some twenty-five years ago, before becoming mayor of Athens, and then successively Minister of Health, Defense and Foreign Affairs in his country Greece, Avramopoulos was the first guest of the new Dusan Sidjanski Center for European Studies, which was inaugurated in October by the Global Studies Institute. "When I took up my post in November 2014, the EU was struggling with the financial crisis. I did not imagine that migration and internal affairs would soon be the two most important challenges for the Union," he told the audience. "The migratory wave and terrorism have plunged Europe into an existential crisis. The very foundations of the EU are being questioned, " Avramopoulos said. "As we commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Rome on 25 March, member countries face instability and insecurity." In short, Europe is at a crossroads, he believes. "This is a historic moment. Our values are at stake. Are we going to be overwhelmed by the rise of populism, nationalism and xenophobia? Are we going to reintroduce controls at the internal borders of the EU? Sacrifice the freedom of movement so dear to our citizens? We soon forget that the EU is one of the greatest achievements of history. After two world wars, achieving such a union is not a matter of course. Even today, it is wrong to regard this as an acquired fact." He added that immigration would have to continue. "The 27 [EU states] will need 6 million immigrants in the future," the European Commissioner said. "We will open offices in all countries on the southern shore of the Mediterranean and in West Africa. This is the best way to fight smugglers. Obviously, we are not going to just open the borders and let everybody in. This would be absurd and would only feed xenophobia, nationalism and populism. Having said that, we must protect the persecuted and treat everyone with dignity." But the program of distributing 160 000 migrants in Greece and Italy to the EU has been a fiasco. Only 13 546 people have been relocated, while the program expires in September. "As for the terrorist attacks in the EU, they were committed by European citizens. With one exception, it was never the case of refugees," Avramopoulos said. "The security services are national, they remain a prerogative of each government. It is this fragmentation that makes us vulnerable. The attacks in Paris were committed by people based in Brussels, who crossed many countries without being stopped ... even though they were on lists! It is time to share these sensitive data." But the majority of Islamic State militants directly involved in carrying out the Paris and Brussels terrorist attacks used the Balkan route to enter Europe under the guise of being refugees, the Hungarian intelligence chief revealed. Analysis of phone call intercepts established that seven of the nine attackers involved in the November Paris onslaught, which killed 130 and injured 368 people, entered the EU through Hungary last year, the Hungarian Counter Terrorism Center (TEK) chief, General Zsolt Bodnar told RT. Hungarian intelligence established that one of the Brussels and Paris attacks' masterminds, Salah Abdeslam, made four trips to Hungary in August and October 2015 where he arranged for at least nine terrorists linked to the Paris and Brussels bombings to enter Europe. The men were involved in a number of attacks in Europe last year. Nearly 60 percent of Europeans believe the threat of terrorism increases as more migrants arrive in their countries, a recent PEW survey found.

Some twenty-five years ago, before becoming mayor of Athens, and then successively Minister of Health, Defense and Foreign Affairs in his country Greece, Avramopoulos was the first guest of the new Dusan Sidjanski Center for European Studies, which was inaugurated in October by the Global Studies Institute.

Cleveland police are searching for a suspect accused of murdering a man on Facebook Live on Sunday afternoon, and are warning the public that he remains on the loose and is considered armed and dangerous. In the winter of 1910, a young woman named Bessie Watkins left her small Ohio town for the big city of Cleveland. She told her family that a new job was waiting for her, and she took the train north. They would never see her again. In fact, her descendants would never even hear of her until a century later. It's nice to support the ones you love, you know? Build up their accomplishments, brag on them a little, maybe even, you know, exaggerate just a tad. But hey, Breitbart: That's not a rally for your candidate of choice Donald Trump. That's a parade for some basketball. Like Bruce Willis drilling himself into the core of an evil asteroid, Third Eye Blind performed to a sea of GOPers at a charity concert in Cleveland last night with the apparent intention of pissing everyone off. CLEVELAND -- This dude was standing in Cleveland's Public Square looking for some companionship. He is probably more desirable than nearly every man standing the square which included: a guy yelling about prostitution and pornography, the Westboro Baptist Church , some guys in a drum circle, and journalists. Plus, his... CLEVELAND -- "Art creates conversation," Julian Raven , a painter from upstate New York tells me. Raven, an alternate delegate and true Donald Trump believer, drove the print of the original 8' x 16' painting from his Elmira studio which apparently has a 25-foot Trump banner hanging outside of it. He's standing on a... A bunch of "white nationalists" who recently had a bloody confrontation in Sacramento with anti-fascist groups are going to the RNC. The Traditionalist Worker Party are pledging to head to Cleveland to protect Trump supporters from "leftist thugs." A federal court has ruled that administrators in Cleveland, Mississippi have three weeks to execute a timeline to integrate the small Bolivar County city's middle and high schools. They have, rather improbably, remained segregated by race since Brown v. Board of Education , the 1954 landmark Supreme Court case that... The family of Tamir Rice , a 12-year-old boy who was fatally shot by a white Cleveland, OH police officer in 2014, will receive $6 million from the city of Cleveland in a settlement, the New York Times reports. Under the terms of the settlement, which is still pending approval from a probate court, the city does not... On Tuesday, prosecutors Anita Alvarez and Tim McGinty, who worked the cases of Laquan McDonald and Tamir Rice in Chicago and Cleveland, respectively, were voted out in their primaries. Their losses are a victory for Black Lives Matter, a movement whose cultural reach will continue to be tested--and hopefully proven--at... As the water crisis in Flint, Michigan continues to unfold, revealing a pattern of corruption and callousness for the city's residents, other communities around the nation struggle with the lasting effects of lead and uranium poisoning. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson is sorry about the bill Tamir Rice's family received for the ambulance service and ride to a hospital that didn't save the child's life. This comes after public outcry about the bill, which seemed flatly monstrous considering the reason 12-year-old Rice needed an ambulance: that he was... In December, the grand jury on the case of two police officers who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice on camera declined to indict the officers. That would imply, normally, that they'd voted on the non-indictment, but it appears that they may not have voted at all. Samaria Rice has issued a statement responding to the Cuyahoga County grand jury's failure to indict either of the two police officers involved in the fatal November 2014 shooting of her son, Tamir Rice. Twelve-year-old Rice was shot to death by Tim Loehmann on the playground after Loehmann and fellow officer Frank...

Cleveland police are searching for a suspect accused of murdering a man on Facebook Live on Sunday afternoon, and are warning the public that he remains on the loose and is considered armed and dangerous. In the winter of 1910, a young woman named Bessie Watkins left her small Ohio town for the big city of Cleveland.

On Tuesday, Bill Clinton, still trying to figure out what "is" is, trumpeted from his perch atop the Mt. Olympus of hypocrisy that Donald Trump's comments about St. Hillary indicated Trump was "fact-free." On Monday, Trump had told CNN's Erin Burnett, "When we look at the job that Hillary did as secretary of state, she goes down as perhaps the worst secretary of state in history." Clinton responded on CNN, "Well the thing about branding is, you don't have to be -- you can be fact-free." He substantiated the case for his wife by citing her supposed attempts to impose sanctions on Iran, suggesting that her efforts triggered the negotiations that ended so successfully with the Iran nuclear deal. Clinton claimed, "Even the Republicans admit that the sanctions on Iran were well done." He added, "And that was a major achievement, to get Russia and China to agree to sign off on these sanctions and enforce them. She did that. That's what made the talks possible, so even the people who don't like the Iran deal, like the sanctions." Clinton also asserted that his wife had done yeoman work on the START treaty with Russia, positing, "having these two sides still committed to reducing the number of nuclear warheads and missiles, I think, is a good thing." He also lauded Hillary for increasing the number of beneficiaries from the anti-AIDS program PEPFAR, from 1.7 million people to 5.1 million. Clinton intoned, "These are all facts, so they're not common to the diatribe here." Concluding his attack on Trump, he said, "You know, if he becomes the nominee, he'll have to sort of hone his criticisms a little more finely because the facts will be easy to marshal. But you know, he's good at this, that's what he does. And the people that he is telling it to now basically have only heard that story, so they believe it and it's probably good politics for him." There may be no greater example of the pot calling the kettle black than Bill Clinton dismissing an opponent as "fact-free." Let's start with partial list of Ben Shapiro's litany of Clinton's lies in his 2012 DNC speech: Clinton: "We all know that [Obama] also tried to work with congressional Republicans on health care, debt reduction, and new jobs." Obamacare got no Republican votes; Obama killed a deal with House Speaker John Boehner on debt reduction.As Shapiro noted at the time, "The Republican House has passed dozens of jobs bills. The Democratic Senate hasn't even brought them to a vote. Obama's budgets are so ridiculously non-moderate that they've received zero votes in the House and Senate - twice." There may be no greater example of the pot calling the kettle black than Bill Clinton dismissing an opponent as "fact-free." Clinton: "They (the GOP) want to get rid of those pesky financial regulations designed to prevent another crash and prohibit federal bailouts." But Obama's Dodd-Frank regulations made bailouts into law; the Democrats designed the regulatory regime that created the subprime mortgage crisis. Clinton boasting about his accomplishments: "I had this same thing happen in 1994 and early '95. We could see that the policies were working, that the economy was growing, but most people didn't feel it yet. Thankfully, by 1996, the economy was roaring, everybody felt it, and we were halfway through the longest peacetime expansion in the history of the United States." Nope. The recovery began under George H.W. Bush; from January 1992 to January 1993, the H.W. Bush economy created 1.46 million jobs. Clinton: "President Obama started with a much weaker economy than I did. Listen to me now. No president, no president -- not me, not any of my predecessors -- no one could have fully repaired all the damage that he found in just four years." Uh, wait a minute, Mr. Prostate,Ronald Reagan inherited inflation increasing at an annualized rate of 12.6%; unemployment was 7.5%. By September 1983, the Reagan economy produced over 1.1 million jobs; by November 1984, the unemployment rate was 7.2%, and the inflation rate was 4.1%. Clinton on Obama: "He has offered a reasonable plan of $4 trillion in debt reduction over a decade, with $2.5 trillion coming from -- for every $2.5 trillion in spending cuts, he raises a dollar in new revenues, 2.5 to 1. And he has tight controls on future spending. That's the kind of balanced approach proposed by the Simpson-Bowles commission, a bipartisan commission." Even The Washington Post called this a lie. Of course, Clinton was lying well before the 2012 DNC. Clinton, 1992 : "I want to make it very clear that this middle-class tax cut, in my view, is central to any attempt we're going to make to have a short-term economic strategy." Clinton, 1993 : "From New Hampshire forward, for reasons that absolutely mystified me, the press thought the most important issue in the race was the middle-class tax cut. "I never did meet any voter who thought that." And as recently as lying about brokering a deal on behalf of Clinton Foundation backer Frank Giustra, Clinton denied, but later admitted he had helped engineer the deal, in which Giustra obtained major uranium concessions from Kazakhstan. And, of course, from the horse's mouth: THIS .

On Tuesday, Bill Clinton, still trying to figure out what "is" is, trumpeted from his perch atop the Mt. Olympus of hypocrisy that Donald Trump's comments about St. Hillary indicated Trump was "fact-free."

Not long after he arrived on the national scene in 2010 Republican Senator and forthcoming presidential candidate Marco Rubio was exploited by the liberal media as a way to depict Republicans as anti-immigrant. Anchors like ABC's George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Rose portrayed him as a token Latino in the GOP. MSNBC's Donny Deutsch actually hurled a racial slur against Rubio, calling him a "coconut." When they weren't making attacks, based on his Cuban heritage, anchors and reporters were writing him off as a joke because he of his awkward grabbing of a water-bottle during his response to Barack Obama's 2013... continue reading April 13, 2015 11:30 AM At most companies, when someone who's worked for the company for 46 years retires, they get a nice speech and a nice watch. But at a TV news network, the audience is subjected to the most extreme fawning, complete with the bizarre notion that no one has ever criticized the retiring journalist. Following CBS reporter Bob Schieffer announcing his retirement this summer, Charlie Rose deemed Schieffer a "giant of journalism" who had a "legendary career" at CBS News. While Rose claimed that he "never heard anyone at CBS or anywhere else say a bad word about Bob Schieffer" longtime CBS... continue reading April 9, 2015 2:41 PM Since newly announced presidential candidate Rand Paul first arrived on the national scene, as part of the Tea Party wave of 2010, the Kentucky Republican Senator has been depicted as a racist, sexist and heartless slasher of programs for the poor by the liberal media. The libertarian-leaning Paul was subjected to repeated calls of racism when, on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow show, he questioned the effectiveness of the 1964 Civil Rights bill - even though he stated he supports it. When Paul pointed out the hypocrisy of Bill Clinton-supporting Democrats claiming the GOP had a "war on women" he was called... continue reading April 7, 2015 9:00 AM Ted Cruz's announcement that he is running for president was immediately greeted with hostility from the liberal media. On Monday, MSNBC's Jonathan Alter questioned, "Is this 1964 when the Republican Party decided it would go with its most extreme candidate?" Donny Deutsch, also on MSNBC, called Cruz "unelectable" and added "I think he's the worst. I think he's scary, I think he's dangerous, I think he's slimy and I think he brings no fresh ideas." On the broadcast networks ABC's David Muir gave viewers a distorted history lesson, saying Cruz was "The combative Tea Party favorite who shut down the... continue reading March 23, 2015 3:35 PM While many Americans have by now heard about how former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton chose to bypass her official government e-mail in favor of an account run from a server in her family's Chappaqua home, even avid news consumers may be in the dark about the troubling fundraising and conflicts of interest surrounding the Clinton Foundation. This week's news of yet another shady donation to the Clinton Foundation, this time by a construction company with close ties to the Chinese government that happens to have a long history of worker abuse, has been largely ignored by the Big Three... continue reading March 18, 2015 10:15 AM So, just how slanted were the Big Three broadcast networks in their coverage of the letter sent by 47 Senate Republicans to the Iranian government? A new study by the Media Research Center has found ABC, CBS and NBC gave three times more coverage to critics of the GOP letter than to supporters, and more than eight times as much airtime fretting about the letter than about the substance of the Obama administration's dealings with Iran. MRC analysts studied every morning and evening newscast story on the GOP letter from its announcement on March 9 through the evening of March... continue reading March 17, 2015 10:55 AM Today House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz issued more subpeonas for documents and hardware in the IRS scandal probe. Just last week , the IRS watchdog charged with investigating Lois Lerner's missing emails said he is looking into the possibility of "potential criminal activity." It was also reported that Lerner raked in "$129,300 in bonuses between 2010 and 2013," and there are at least a half-dozen conservative applicants" still waiting for their tax exemptions. But you wouldn't know about any of these developments if you only got your news from the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) networks or Spanish-language networks... continue reading March 4, 2015 2:52 PM Liberal journalists from CBS's Norah O'Donnell to the Washington Post's Dana Milbank have questioned Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker for not rejecting Rudy Giuliani's comments about Barack Obama's patriotism and for his response to a "gotcha" question about the President's faith. But where were they when Walker himself was being called an un-American, tyrannical, racist woman-beater? Walker's welcome to the national stage from the press has been a far different one that candidate Barack Obama experienced. In 2004 , the liberal media couldn't contain the chills up their legs when they first laid eyes on the "cool" "rock star" Senate candidate... continue reading February 25, 2015 9:55 AM Jon Stewart's announcement that he will be leaving The Daily Show , not surprisingly, led to wistful fawning from liberal reporters. NBC's Savannah Guthrie lamented how "it's hard to imagine the late night landscape without Jon Stewart," ABC's Lara Spencer called him a "comedy cultural juggernaut" and CBS's Anthony Mason hailed Stewart "changed the game in that he sort of did what no one thought was possible in that he made politics entertaining" and "became a trusted source in news." Of course this "trusted source in news" overwhelmingly skewered some of the liberal media's favorite conservative targets. Over the years... continue reading February 12, 2015 1:31 PM Debate in the Senate over the Keystone XL Pipeline is expected to heat up this week , but the popular project has yet to pique the interest of the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) network evening news shows. Despite enjoying almost unanimous GOP congressional support, popular public appeal (57 percent favored the plan in a December 18-21 CNN poll) and being backed by liberal labor unions, some Democratic senators and even, at one point, MSNBC commentator Ed Schultz, the networks have mostly ignored the broadly supported pipeline. So how much time have network evening news show spent, in the last... continue reading January 21, 2015 10:00 AM

, MSNBC commentator Ed Schultz, the networks have mostly ignored the broadly supported pipeline. So how much time have network evening news show spent, in the last... continue reading January 21, 2015 10:00 AM

1 I Would Prefer Not To Jun 15, 2017 * 3:31:59pm down 16 up report Donald Trump and respect don't belong in the same sentence. 2 jaunte Jun 15, 2017 * 3:32:26pm down 13 up report Two-thirds of Americans, or 65 percent, think Trump doesn't have much respect for the country's democratic institutions and traditions or has none at all . I hope one of the available responses was "YA THINK???" 3 freetoken Jun 15, 2017 * 3:33:35pm down 2 up report Will any of this force the GOP in Congress to mend their ways? 4 jaunte Jun 15, 2017 * 3:34:36pm down 11 up report Hands across the aisle for the good of America, everybody! The latest from the Trump campaign: "Democrats have absolutely NOTHING to offer our country" pic.twitter.com/xK6vcSpOzQ That's so childish I wonder if Trump wrote it himself. 6 Dave In Austin Jun 15, 2017 * 3:36:03pm down 6 up report I wonder if LardAss has ever been to a National Park or Monument? 7 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 3:36:17pm down 6 up report tr*mp has a great deal of respect for the US constitution. Without that, he'd leave really gross skid marks in all his underwear. 8 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 15, 2017 * 3:36:34pm down 5 up report re: #6 Dave In Austin I wonder if LardAss has ever been to a National Park or Monument? Of course he has! He's been to Trump Tower, he's been to every one of his Trump Golf Courses... 9 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 3:38:05pm down 4 up report re: #5 Skip Intro That's so childish I wonder if Trump wrote it himself. I think so too. And it is self-refuting. Hillary Clinton has the popular vote mandate from 2016, and can reasonably talk about an unrepresented majority etc. 10 Hecuba's daughter Jun 15, 2017 * 3:40:53pm down 9 up report Will any of this force the GOP in Congress to mend their ways? Probably not. As long as the GOP retains control of the House and Senate and most State governments, they will not mend their ways. Why should they? They DO NOT CARE about their oath of office or the well being of this nation. Only if they start losing seats at all levels, will they start being concerned 11 Hecuba's daughter Jun 15, 2017 * 3:44:06pm down 6 up report re: #9 EPR-radar I think so too. And it is self-refuting. Hillary Clinton has the popular vote mandate from 2016, and can reasonably talk about an unrepresented majority etc. They don't care about this: they will say and they do say that Trump ran a brilliant campaign and knew how to target the states needed to win the election -- that if the contest had been based on winning the popular vote, he would have followed a different strategy and would have won. 12 Myron Falwell Jun 15, 2017 * 3:45:36pm down 9 up report Will any of this force the GOP in Congress to mend their ways? Probably not. The GOP Congress is a symptom. As is Trump. The real problem rests with the GOP rank-and-file who all willingly voted for this garbage, and will continue to vote for equally bad garbage if these nuts get thrown out or forced out. That doesn't mean that we don't do anything, but that we understand how bad the situation is. 13 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 3:51:45pm down 8 up report re: #12 Myron Falwell The GOP Congress is a symptom. As is Trump. The real problem rests with the GOP rank-and-file who all willingly voted for this garbage, and will continue to vote for equally bad garbage if these nuts get thrown out or forced out. That doesn't mean that we don't do anything, but that we understand how bad the situation is. The nation cannot endure half-Fox and half-free. It must become all one or all the other. 14 Unshaken Defiance Jun 15, 2017 * 3:52:09pm down 4 up report At what point do we see the GOP start to think primary this guy? 3 years from now if he is still in but tanks the polls? 15 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 3:52:20pm down 5 up report From the previous page: re: #172 Eclectic Cyborg It's called spoofing. They make the calls look like they are coming from semi legit, non 1800 numbers so you'll be more likely to answer them. The advantage of living in a town where our telephone book is one page. My wife as librarian sent out a circular to everyone in town on this subject (since we have many elderly people here) on how to recognise spoofed numbers. Every allocated number in town's last four digits are 01xx (government and business), or 9xxx (residences). Any other number is spoofed. 16 Eclectic Cyborg Jun 15, 2017 * 3:54:06pm down 7 up report re: #1 I Would Prefer Not To Donald Trump and respect don't belong in the same sentence. "I have absolutely zero respect for Donald Trump." 17 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 3:55:56pm down 11 up report That damn near 40% are still like okie dokie makes me want to vomit. 18 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 15, 2017 * 3:56:36pm down 6 up report From the previous page: The advantage of living in a town where our telephone book is one page. My wife as librarian sent out a circular to everyone in town on this subject (since we have many elderly people here) on how to recognise spoofed numbers. Every allocated number in town's last four digits are 01xx (government and business), or 9xxx (residences). Any other number is spoofed. FYI: That is not actually correct. Your own phone number can be spoofed. 19 Dave In Austin Jun 15, 2017 * 3:57:49pm down 7 up report #NewTwitter I keep seeing requests for an edit button Problem- What if you LIKE or RETWEET me & then I completely change the meaning? pic.twitter.com/mQSfPcJPHI 20 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 15, 2017 * 3:58:24pm down 11 up report Congressman @RepChrisCollins calls for ways to allow elected politicians to carry their firearms into the Capitol. https://t.co/Ai3gnSFBwO pic.twitter.com/iOgPVuQKrd I mean, these people are arrogant pricks who refuses to listen ALREADY. And you wanna give them GUNS? 2/ 21 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 15, 2017 * 3:58:49pm down 5 up report re: #19 Dave In Austin We deal with that here at LGF by having an ability to undo our "like" or "quote" (retweet). It's not rocket surgery, people. re: #19 Dave In Austin There are ways around that, like by confining the edit window to a very short timespan immediately after the tweet was made or potentially by undoing all likes/RTs that had happened to that point. I do understand the reasoning behind why it is probably not going to happen though. 23 Dave In Austin Jun 15, 2017 * 4:00:31pm down 3 up report Thread!! And it ends well! 24 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 4:00:53pm down 5 up report Pence has considered hiring an attorney for weeks, but "made his final decision earlier this week." https://t.co/UtaCY5hRq6 Let's remember that Comey is a Republican and I would practically guarantee that he would be just fine with President Pence. 25 Decatur Deb Jun 15, 2017 * 4:01:06pm down 5 up report re: #20 Backwoods_Sleuth Congressman @RepChrisCollins calls for ways to allow elected politicians to carry their firearms into the Capitol. This is starting to sound like a good idea. Also, an open bar in the chambers and meth sales in the cloakrooms. 26 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 15, 2017 * 4:01:43pm down 17 up report No. Instead make them do public meetings NAKED And give citizens jars full of bees 5/5 re: #21 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. We deal with that here at LGF by having an ability to undo our "like" or "quote" (retweet). It's not rocket surgery, people. There is a real argument against it. With Twitter, you like something, it moves on, you don't ever see it again. If edits are allowed, unless the edit is shown again like a new tweet, how do you know the person changed what you liked? Even if it is shown again, I think most people don't read the entirety of their timeline anymore, so it'd be pretty easy to miss. The potential for abuse is there and given that it's Twitter, you can't discount that. But like I said above, I could think of 2-3 ways to mitigate those issues. There may be technical reasons why they don't want to bother, which is fine. Just means when I make a typo I have to decide whether to leave the damn thing up or delete and rewrite the tweet to correct it. 28 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 4:03:24pm down 12 up report " @NBCNews has learned the president of the United States is now under criminal investigation," @LesterHoltNBC reports on @NBCNightlyNews . pic.twitter.com/6rnptEPAZp I hope one of the available responses was "YA THINK???" Or "DUH!!!" 30 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 15, 2017 * 4:04:43pm down 3 up report re: #27 klys (maker of Silmarils) There is a real argument against it. With Twitter, you like something, it moves on, you don't ever see it again. If edits are allowed, unless the edit is shown again like a new tweet, how do you know the person changed what you liked? Even if it is shown again, I think most people don't read the entirety of their timeline anymore, so it'd be pretty easy to miss. The potential for abuse is there and given that it's Twitter, you can't discount that. But like I said above, I could think of 2-3 ways to mitigate those issues. There may be technical reasons why they don't want to bother, which is fine. Just means when I make a typo I have to decide whether to leave the damn thing up or delete and rewrite the tweet to correct it. Yeah, I could see that. But to your point, there are likely ways to solve that issue technically, which would depend on the exact architecture. 31 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 4:08:42pm down 6 up report "A sitting president cannot be indicted, only impeached" per that NBC news piece. GAH! 32 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 4:11:59pm down 1 up report re: #18 Backwoods_Sleuth FYI: That is not actually correct. Your own phone number can be spoofed. That's true. Anyone's number can be spoofed. In theory, you could also spoof our name for the caller ID as well. However, the overwhelming majority of numbers in town are not allocated, thus if one of those numbers comes up it's a spoof by default. 33 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 15, 2017 * 4:12:35pm down 14 up report ICYMI: Qatar signs $12 billion deal to buy U.S. fighter jets, days after Pres. Trump accused country of sponsoring terror https://t.co/tdG1z7j5KS pic.twitter.com/PjLXX2XoQE 34 EmmaAnne Jun 15, 2017 * 4:12:58pm down 5 up report HW, if you are around: Are you still looking for materials on the electoral college? The League of Women Voters did a ton of research on this before taking a position (that the EC is undemocratic and must go). And they usually put everything online. 35 freetoken Jun 15, 2017 * 4:15:23pm down 1 up report Any Counsel/Special Investigator will be a source for Congress, should the latter want to impeach. It is not clear to me the current GOP leaders are willing to do that even if Trump is shown to have committed treason. 36 Decatur Deb Jun 15, 2017 * 4:15:39pm down 4 up report "A sitting president cannot be indicted, only impeached" per that NBC news piece. GAH! After he's impeached and convicted, he's not sitting. 37 freetoken Jun 15, 2017 * 4:16:12pm down 5 up report re: #36 Decatur Deb After he's impeached and convicted, he's not sitting. But he will be pardoned before he's out the door. 38 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 4:16:17pm down 4 up report Any Counsel/Special Investigator will be a source for Congress, should the latter want to impeach. It is not clear to me the current GOP leaders are willing to do that even if Trump is shown to have committed treason. Nothing, that's what. Until those polls for Trump show that they, themselves are in danger. If that doesn't happen, they will do nothing. 39 Stanley Sea Jun 15, 2017 * 4:16:43pm down 11 up report The special counsel is investigating Jared Kushner's business dealings: https://t.co/jBx7d2hBRm But he will be pardoned before he's out the door. Election turnout has consequences. 41 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 4:17:30pm down 8 up report re: #36 Decatur Deb After he's impeached and convicted, he's not sitting. Where in the Constitution does it say the President cannot be convicted of a crime if shown to have committed one? I get the feeling that Trump (speculating here) has not just dealt with the Mob, he is a Mob boss. "Donnie Two Scoops." 42 freetoken Jun 15, 2017 * 4:17:32pm down 1 up report re: #39 Stanley Sea So, what's the odds that Trump issues a pardon for Kushner, before there is even a conviction? 43 freetoken Jun 15, 2017 * 4:17:50pm down 0 up report Can a President offer a pre-pardon? 44 Ace Rothstein Jun 15, 2017 * 4:18:05pm down 3 up report re: #1 I Would Prefer Not To Donald Trump and respect don't belong in the same sentence. And especially not in the White House. 45 freetoken Jun 15, 2017 * 4:18:11pm down 3 up report Can a President pardon himself? 46 freetoken Jun 15, 2017 * 4:18:27pm down 7 up report These may have seemed like silly questions in the past, but now... 47 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 4:18:27pm down 6 up report Reading the comments under that NBC tweet is depressing. Sure, most of the are against this criminal in chief but too many think it's fake news, Holt is a liberal and trump is draining the swamp and Clinton should be prosecuted as should Lynch. The stupidity of this country astounds me. 48 Decatur Deb Jun 15, 2017 * 4:20:23pm down 4 up report Where in the Constitution does it say the President cannot be convicted of a crime if shown to have committed one? I get the feeling that Trump (speculating here) has not just dealt with the Mob, he is a Mob boss. "Donnie Two Scoops." Apparently he can be convicted after successful impeachment for crimes committed earlier. That's why all the talk of Nixon/Trump pardons. 49 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 4:21:08pm down 8 up report As I recall, what got Spiro Agnew was a criminal charge. (checking) Yup, tax evasion. Resignation was part of the plea deal. 50 Decatur Deb Jun 15, 2017 * 4:21:21pm down 4 up report Can a President pardon himself? If he farts and there is no dog present to blame. 51 ObserverArt Jun 15, 2017 * 4:21:58pm down 4 up report These may have seemed like silly questions in the past, but now... It was not that long ago you wouldn't even consider some of these questions you are now asking. Are you seeing things a bit differently this week? Are you hearing the drums way in the background? 52 Timothy Watson Jun 15, 2017 * 4:22:20pm down 2 up report Per Jane's: The Advanced Eagle is the latest variant of the Boeing-made fighter that has also been ordered by Saudi Arabia as the F-15SA. 53 freetoken Jun 15, 2017 * 4:22:30pm down 1 up report So, according to the Constitution, a President cannot offer a pardon for impeachment. But what about crimes not related to the impeachment charge(s)? Seems the Constitution is rather nebulous there. So, Trump could pardon himself for any crime not related to the impeachment charges, if there ever are any. 54 Jay C Jun 15, 2017 * 4:22:56pm down 6 up report re: #1 I Would Prefer Not To Donald Trump and respect don't belong in the same sentence. True this. Americans are conditioned (quite rightfully, IMO) to respect the Presidency: as it is the highest elected office in the land under the Constitution, with powers delegated to it under that Constitution, which is one of the principal foundations of the American Government; and has been for 228 years. Then again, how on earth are we supposed to respect the President, when it's Donald Trump? 55 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 4:23:18pm down 5 up report From Wikipedia, that font of all human ken (citation needed): In 1973, Agnew was investigated by the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland on charges of extortion, tax fraud, bribery, and conspiracy. He was charged with having accepted bribes totaling more than $100,000 while holding office as Baltimore County Executive, Governor of Maryland, and Vice President. On October 10 that same year, Agnew was allowed to plead no contest to a single charge that he had failed to report $29,500 of income received in 1967, with the condition that he resign the office of Vice President. 56 BlueGrl21 Jun 15, 2017 * 4:23:43pm down 18 up report 2016 felt like one of the longest years of my life. 2017 is flying by. Why? Because in 2018 we WILL take back the House. And if Trump is still in office, 2019 will be a beauty of a year. Glorious. 57 Ace Rothstein Jun 15, 2017 * 4:24:33pm down 7 up report So. How's that unifying thing coming along? 58 Charles Johnson Jun 15, 2017 * 4:25:36pm down 11 up report re: #19 Dave In Austin I keep seeing requests for an edit button Problem- What if you LIKE or RETWEET me & then I completely change the meaning? Simple solution. Like I did here at LGF, just set a time limit for how long the editing function is available. People who play games like that will quickly be exposed as dishonest losers and shunned. I don't think this is a real problem at all. 59 Myron Falwell Jun 15, 2017 * 4:26:00pm down 3 up report But he will be pardoned before he's out the door. Depends on if that's politically advantageous for Pence. He might just throw Trump overboard for the heck of it. 60 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 4:27:57pm down 4 up report re: #59 Myron Falwell Depends on if that's politically advantageous for Pence. If enough of the public were to turn against him, Pence would simply let him be figuratively thrown under a bus. Pence knows how politics works. 61 Decatur Deb Jun 15, 2017 * 4:28:43pm down 5 up report re: #58 Charles Johnson Simple solution. Like I did here at LGF, just set a time limit for how long the editing function is available. People who play games like that will quickly be exposed as dishonest losers and shunned. I don't think this is a real problem at all. I think there is a difference between global twitterati and lizards, and it's deeper than pizza preferences. 62 Ace Rothstein Jun 15, 2017 * 4:28:51pm down 7 up report I love these daily WaPo or NYT stories that come out at 5:45 EST. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. 63 covfefe Jun 15, 2017 * 4:29:09pm down 4 up report Well yeah. That's exactly why those that voted for him did just that. 64 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 15, 2017 * 4:29:52pm down 10 up report On moving day Melania Trump made a break for it. She got halfway to Neiman Marcus before they caught her. pic.twitter.com/FMP2vMVk2u 65 Skip Intro Jun 15, 2017 * 4:31:27pm down 5 up report re: #39 Stanley Sea That is a face just begging to be punched, just like PharmBro. 66 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 15, 2017 * 4:32:22pm down 17 up report There's a shooting EVERY day. What's another one? So? So what? After Sandy Hook America said, fuck it. WE DON'T CARE. 2/ 67 Cheechako Jun 15, 2017 * 4:32:39pm down 6 up report "A sitting president cannot be indicted, only impeached" per that NBC news piece. GAH! Take a look at Article 1 Section 3 of the Constitution: The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present. Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law . It looks to me that a person impeached by the Senate may, after the impeachment and removal from office, "... shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law ". I don't think anyone convicted by impeachment is off scott free. 68 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 4:32:50pm down 13 up report Candidates who are perceived as close to Trump are seeing their fortunes decline. https://t.co/m9c6w632FF 69 freetoken Jun 15, 2017 * 4:33:16pm down 7 up report I hear drums alright. The drums of the gun fetishists on Facebook, who are aghast at the idea that the likes of Trump, Paul, and the rest ought to be held accountable for their words, and are now clutching their pearls as "leftists" suggest that the gun-fetishists who block background checks for gun purchases contribute to the killing sprees in our society. The drums of the old religious right trying real hard to get their agenda through before the whole house of cards collapses. The drums of anarchists who delight in the unravelling of society's general peace and comity. Lots of drums playing out there. 70 darthstar Jun 15, 2017 * 4:33:39pm down 13 up report re: #39 Stanley Sea I'd love for slumlord jr. to get busted for his business dealings. 71 Skip Intro Jun 15, 2017 * 4:33:55pm down 6 up report So, according to the Constitution, a President cannot offer a pardon for impeachment. But what about crimes not related to the impeachment charge(s)? Seems the Constitution is rather nebulous there. So, Trump could pardon himself for any crime not related to the impeachment charges, if there ever are any. What's the Constitution have to do with anything? This is trump we're talking about, fully backed by the GOP, Fox crazies, and angry people with guns. 72 majii Jun 15, 2017 * 4:34:28pm down 5 up report "Where in the Constitution does it say the President cannot be convicted of a crime if shown to have committed one?" There's nothing in the Constitution that allows an American president to be convicted for having committed a crime while in office except via the process of impeachment. My understanding is that a sitting American president can be indicted for a crime s/he committed before s/he entered office. Case in point is the Trump University case that Trump tried and failed to get dismissed after he was sworn in. To make the case go away, Trump ended up paying the plaintiffs $25 million. 73 ObserverArt Jun 15, 2017 * 4:34:30pm down 5 up report re: #65 Skip Intro That is a face just begging to be punched, just like PharmBro. If not punchable...suspicious. He always looks like he just did something illegal. 74 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 4:34:42pm down 6 up report Take a look at Article 1 Section 3 of the Constitution: It looks to me that a person impeached by the Senate may, after the impeachment and removal from office, "... shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law ". I don't think anyone convicted by impeachment is off scott free. Only after the republican held Senate votes to impeach. 75 wrenchwench Jun 15, 2017 * 4:36:38pm down 20 up report I just did my first test ride with my new helmet on. Tomorrow (or whenever it arrives) I will put this mirror on it. Maybe then I'll get the expected stares and shrieks. None today (8 block ride). 76 freetoken Jun 15, 2017 * 4:37:35pm down 1 up report The Trump University case was a civil case. Nothing in the Constitution prohibits suing the President. Indeed, people try to sue an Administration all the time. Regarding indictment for a crime - isn't the sticking point not so much the indictment per se, but the inability to try the case? 77 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 4:38:35pm down 2 up report We ran out of coffee and smokes. Gotta go to the general store, be right back you poor devils. 78 ObserverArt Jun 15, 2017 * 4:38:52pm down 10 up report Take a look at Article 1 Section 3 of the Constitution: It looks to me that a person impeached by the Senate may, after the impeachment and removal from office, "... shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law ". I don't think anyone convicted by impeachment is off scott free. One of the biggest sentences that would affect Trump, should it come to that, is a complete trashing of his own name. Where "Trump" becomes a national joke and he is known as one of histories worst humans, a terrible president, con artist, fraud and complete asshole. All signs of his business disappear too. Gone...wiped out. And it rubs off on the family for a generation or two. Yep, that would be a mental life sentence for an egomaniac like Trump. 79 Ace Rothstein Jun 15, 2017 * 4:39:15pm down 3 up report God, he can't even do a Congressional baseball game message right. 80 Cheechako Jun 15, 2017 * 4:39:16pm down 3 up report Only after the republican held Senate votes to impeach. Yes. And it takes a two thirds vote so it will take a combination of Republicans and Democrats to convict. 81 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 4:39:20pm down 11 up report What a fucking douchenozzle. Steve Harvey says he was "simply trash talking about sports" after telling a caller from Flint to drink brown water. https://t.co/yB98sGor9H 82 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 4:39:37pm down 6 up report re: #72 majii There's nothing in the Constitution that allows an American president to be convicted for having committed a crime while in office except via the process of impeachment. My understanding is that a sitting American president can be indicted for a crime s/he committed before s/he entered office. Case in point is the Trump University case that Trump tried and failed to get dismissed after he was sworn in. To make the case go away, Trump ended up paying the plaintiffs $25 million. There is also nothing in the constitution that puts the president above the law except for impeachment. To pick a not entirely hypothetical example, suppose tr*mp really does just shoot someone for the hell of it. IMO he could be arrested and tried just like any other similarly situated perp, whether or not Congress ever does anything. 83 majii Jun 15, 2017 * 4:40:05pm down 4 up report "So, what's the odds that Trump issues a pardon for Kushner, before there is even a conviction?" A president cannot pardon an individual until s/he has been convicted of a crime. Article II of the Constitution contains no language that grants an American president the power to grant a person a pardon before s/he is convicted. IOW, a pardon is granted only after someone has actually been convicted for having committed a crime. Pres. Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, but he only did it after Rich had been convicted. 84 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 4:40:37pm down 5 up report One of the biggest sentences that would affect Trump, should it come to that, is a complete trashing of his own name. Where "Trump" becomes a national joke and he is known as one of histories worst humans, a terrible president, con artist, fraud and complete asshole. All signs of his business disappear too. Gone...wiped out. And it rubs off on the family for a generation or two. Yep, that would be a mental life sentence for an egomaniac like Trump. I hope and pray that this comes to fruition. And that no one anywhere on earth will do business with anything or anyone who is Trump. 85 freetoken Jun 15, 2017 * 4:41:36pm down 1 up report If I understand these things correctly, and I am not sure I do, isn't the problem inherent in our government that the man and the office cannot be separate while the man is in office? That is, in the US Republic, the President is both the chief executive and the head of state. The person as President. In a constitutional monarchy like the UK the head of the nation is the Queen, quite separate from the politician who is the head of the government. The latter is easily replaced, the former not so. As the President, the person, is the head of state, to try him would be the same thing as trying the state, no? Which is why the man has to be removed from the position of being the head of state, so he can be tried as himself, and not the state. That, anyway, is how I justify the absurdity of the now-outdated US Constitution. 86 sagehen Jun 15, 2017 * 4:41:56pm down 6 up report re: #83 majii A president cannot pardon an individual until s/he has been convicted of a crime. Article II of the Constitution contains no language that grants an American president the power to grant a person a pardon before s/he is convicted. IOW, a pardon is granted only after someone has actually been convicted for having committed a crime. Pres. Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, but he only did it after Rich had been convicted. Not true. Nixon's pardon was before he ever stood trial. 87 Myron Falwell Jun 15, 2017 * 4:42:32pm down 4 up report Only after the republican held Senate votes to impeach. And a supermajority at that to convict. I don't think the GOP even has an endgame. It will only get worse and worse until the dam of anger and resentment against him and them finally blows sky high. 88 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 4:42:46pm down 6 up report re: #84 MsJ I hope and pray that this comes to fruition. And that no one anywhere on earth will do business with anything or anyone who is Trump. It won't happen because most/all of the rest of the family are assholes just like donald tr*mp, but everyone else in that family seeking a name change after the tr*mp presidency* crashes and burns would be glorious . 89 ObserverArt Jun 15, 2017 * 4:43:36pm down 3 up report I just did my first test ride with my new helmet on. [Embedded content] Maybe then I'll get the expected stares and shrieks. None today (8 block ride). Nice wrench. What material is that? Sort of looks like a real dense foam with a some kind of a soft finish. And, is that the same Bell that makes auto racing helmets? 90 freetoken Jun 15, 2017 * 4:44:31pm down 1 up report Nixon's pardon was before he ever stood trial. See, that's what I was thinking. The "reprieve" language seems sufficiently vague that it allows a President to ensure that someone who is/may face charges can be prophylactically "reprieved." 91 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 4:45:38pm down 2 up report See, that's what I was thinking. The "reprieve" language seems sufficiently vague that it allows a President to ensure that someone who is/may face charges can be prophylactically "reprieved." If tr*mp tries that for himself, that might finally be too much for Congressional Republicans. 92 wrenchwench Jun 15, 2017 * 4:47:01pm down 5 up report What material is that? Sort of looks like a real dense foam with a some kind of a soft finish. And, is that the same Bell that makes auto racing helmets? The outside is plastic with a matte finish (makes it look soft). The shock-absorbing material inside is styrofoam, as it is for almost all helmets so far. Same Bell helmet company as for motorsports. 93 freetoken Jun 15, 2017 * 4:47:05pm down 5 up report Note too the precedence of the Confederates. There were a few rounds of pardons. But the big one gave pardons so broadly that nowhere could all of them have already been tried, much less convicted, of taking up arms against the US. By given the Confederates pardons, the entire criminal possibility was simply nullified. 94 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 15, 2017 * 4:47:41pm down 5 up report re: #83 majii "So, what's the odds that Trump issues a pardon for Kushner, before there is even a conviction?" A president cannot pardon an individual until s/he has been convicted of a crime. Article II of the Constitution contains no language that grants an American president the power to grant a person a pardon before s/he is convicted. IOW, a pardon is granted only after someone has actually been convicted for having committed a crime. Pres. Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, but he only did it after Rich had been convicted. I may be remembering it wrong, but Ford issued an absolute pardon to Nixon for any and all offenses against the United States... and there was no conviction. 95 Interesting Times Jun 15, 2017 * 4:48:23pm down 25 up report Awk-ward: Crystal Griner risked her life to save @SteveScalise . She was comforted in the hospital by her wife. Scalise is against same sex marriage. re: #91 EPR-radar If tr*mp tries that for himself, that might finally be too much for Congressional Republicans. As we've seen thus far, nothing is "too much." Trump could castrate Ryan with a rusted scalpel and they'd all be -\_(tsu)_/- because his planned elimination of all taxes for the top 1%. 97 majii Jun 15, 2017 * 4:49:47pm down 11 up report 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 98 sagehen Jun 15, 2017 * 4:50:13pm down 3 up report Note too the precedence of the Confederates. There were a few rounds of pardons. But the big one gave pardons so broadly that nowhere could all of them have already been tried, much less convicted, of taking up arms against the US. By given the Confederates pardons, the entire criminal possibility was simply nullified. Was it Ford or Carter who pardoned all the Vietnam draft dodgers? (not listed by name; just "all of them. anyone who could otherwise be charged with this offense".) 99 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 4:50:53pm down 3 up report re: #85 freetoken If I understand these things correctly, and I am not sure I do, isn't the problem inherent in our government that the man and the office cannot be separate while the man is in office? That is, in the US Republic, the President is both the chief executive and the head of state. The person as President. In a constitutional monarchy like the UK the head of the nation is the Queen, quite separate from the politician who is the head of the government. The latter is easily replaced, the former not so. As the President, the person, is the head of state, to try him would be the same thing as trying the state, no? Which is why the man has to be removed from the position of being the head of state, so he can be tried as himself, and not the state. That, anyway, is how I justify the absurdity of the now-outdated US Constitution. This kind of reasoning may be applicable in cases where the alleged crimes were performed by state actors under orders from the president (e.g., alleged war crimes of W Bush). There it is reasonably clear that there is no way to distinguish the personal and political, leaving impeachment first as the only possible remedy. In the case of potus* tr*mp hypothetically shooting someone for no reason, I sure hope he would be arrested and tried precisely as usual for such crimes, without his office being relevant in any way whatsoever. 100 freetoken Jun 15, 2017 * 4:50:55pm down 2 up report Note too the precedence of the Confederates. There were a few rounds of pardons. But the big one gave pardons so broadly that nowhere could all of them have already been tried, much less convicted, of taking up arms against the US. By given the Confederates pardons, the entire criminal possibility was simply nullified. It's difficult to judge from distant hindsight, but I think the North went too easy on the South in an attempt to unify the country. 102 ObserverArt Jun 15, 2017 * 4:53:09pm down 5 up report The outside is plastic with a matte finish (makes it look soft). The shock-absorbing material inside is styrofoam, as it is for almost all helmets so far. Same Bell helmet company as for motorsports. Bell makes good stuff. In their auto racing helmets they actually layer the foam into different densities for differing absorption of a hit and protection. Happy riding! 103 allegro Jun 15, 2017 * 4:53:34pm down 6 up report "Where in the Constitution does it say the President cannot be convicted of a crime if shown to have committed one?" There's nothing in the Constitution that allows an American president to be convicted for having committed a crime while in office except via the process of impeachment. My understanding is that a sitting American president can be indicted for a crime s/he committed before s/he entered office. Case in point is the Trump University case that Trump tried and failed to get dismissed after he was sworn in. To make the case go away, Trump ended up paying the plaintiffs $25 million. So he can be prosecuted and convicted of money laundering, etc. If the president is in jail and the GOP Congress still refuses to impeach... holy moly this gets weird don't it. 104 Cheechako Jun 15, 2017 * 4:53:47pm down 4 up report With all the political maneuvering and investigations going on, it wouldn't surprise me that trump is impeached and subsequently removed on the obstruction of justice charges followed, after he leaves office, by money laundering and other related charges. This would eliminate any possibility of trump pardoning himself or others. I don't think Pence would pardon trump just because what Pence stands for. 105 TedStriker Jun 15, 2017 * 4:53:50pm down 4 up report What material is that? Sort of looks like a real dense foam with a some kind of a soft finish. And, is that the same Bell that makes auto racing helmets? Bell's made bike helmets for a long time. 106 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 4:54:07pm down 7 up report re: #101 wrenchwench It's difficult to judge from distant hindsight, but I think the North went too easy on the South in an attempt to unify the country. It's easy to see that the Confederates won the peace after the civil war. It's much more difficult to see how that could have been prevented. tr*mp's election in 2016 is part of that story, over 150 years after the end of the civil war. 107 freetoken Jun 15, 2017 * 4:55:02pm down 4 up report It's difficult to judge from distant hindsight, but I think the North went too easy on the South in an attempt to unify the country. I have now convinced myself that Johnson and Grant was too quick to set aside what needed to be done: to redivide the South along new legal boundaries, to dissolve the Confederate states, and set up new States with new constitutions and borders (thus de-linking old political connections.) Johnson I think was the weak one. But then again Grant saw much death and destruction, so he was probably predisposed to get over as quickly as possible whatever needed to be done. 108 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 4:56:22pm down 10 up report re: #104 Cheechako With all the political maneuvering and investigations going on, it wouldn't surprise me that trump is impeached and subsequently removed on the obstruction of justice charges followed, after he leaves office, by money laundering and other related charges. This would eliminate any possibility of trump pardoning himself or others. I don't think Pence would pardon trump just because what Pence stands for. My fondest wish in all of this is that following the money ends up scuppering tr*mp's various tax evasion schemes, leaving him with enormous tax liabilities due that wouldn't have happened if he'd lost the election. 109 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 4:57:33pm down 4 up report Ford's pre-emptive pardon of Nixon for any and all crimes against the United States did not pardon him of any state charges (there were none, however, to pardon). A hypothetical pardon of Trump for a similar reason would not protect him from New York going after him for state charges there. Back from the store. In my capacity as vice-mayor I had to take care of a few vices: coffee, cigarettes, snacks, booze, lotto tickets. I'm good now. (:: 110 ObserverArt Jun 15, 2017 * 4:58:05pm down 9 up report LZ Granderson @Locs_n_Laughs Crystal Griner risked her life to save @SteveScalise . She was comforted in the hospital by her wife. Scalise is against same sex marriage. 8:49 AM - 15 Jun 2017 3,772 3,772 Retweets 6,574 6,574 likes I noted yesterday that she was African American. This really adds some nice texture to the story. Lots of lessons in yesterdays scary shooting and the aftermath. 111 majii Jun 15, 2017 * 4:58:09pm down 13 up report re: #59 Myron Falwell "He might just throw Trump overboard for the heck of it." I've followed Pence's political career for years, and there are a few things I've concluded about Pence, the man and the politician. First, Pence is an opportunist and tends to act not based on any hard principles he possesses but on things that further his RW political career. Second, although he presents himself as a being one of the bestest Christians, it appears to me that for him, Christianity is a tool he uses to advance his career, and he is what I call a "selective Christian," which is someone who ignores the parts of Christianity that deal with not bearing false witness and caring about the poor, the elderly, the needy, and the sick. In addition to ignoring these individuals, he seems to totally ignore the fact that Jesus didn't embrace an exclusionary policy when it comes to dealing with others. 112 Interesting Times Jun 15, 2017 * 4:58:32pm down 14 up report Ha: Im calling on all Americans to unite! It is time for the 35% who "approve" of Trump to finally join the 65% who disapprove and 100% resist! 113 sagehen Jun 15, 2017 * 4:59:41pm down 5 up report I have now convinced myself that Johnson and Grant was too quick to set aside what needed to be done: to redivide the South along new legal boundaries, to dissolve the Confederate states, and set up new States with new constitutions and borders (thus de-linking old political connections.) Johnson I think was the weak one. But then again Grant saw much death and destruction, so he was probably predisposed to get over as quickly as possible whatever needed to be done. Johnson more than Grant. Grant was the one who re-invaded the South to take on the KKK, and to enforce the 1875 Civil Rights Act. Had some pretty good success with it, too... that's why the South was so determined to end Reconstruction. (and the Republicans betrayed him and Lincoln when they made the corrupt bargain around the 1876 election -- Florida's electoral votes were up in the air, and party bosses negotiated that they'd let R-Hayes have it if he'd agree to remove federal troops and not enforce that CRA. D-Tilden was happy enough to lose the white house, since they were getting everything they'd wanted to use it for.) 114 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 4:59:46pm down 4 up report re: #91 EPR-radar If tr*mp tries that for himself, that might finally be too much for Congressional Republicans. Is anything EVER too much for the GOP? 115 goddamnedfrank Jun 15, 2017 * 5:00:06pm down 5 up report Nixon's pardon was before he ever stood trial. One key difference there however is that Nixon never worked under Ford, so there was zero possibility that Ford was pardoning Nixon for a crime that Ford himself had ordered or was otherwise implicated in. That, I think, will be the limiting factor on any pardons Trump tries to issue to his underlings, that they were signed with unclean hands and thus an illegal abuse of power. 116 Cheechako Jun 15, 2017 * 5:00:52pm down 8 up report re: #108 EPR-radar My fondest wish in all of this is that following the money ends up scuppering tr*mp's various tax evasion schemes, leaving him with enormous tax liabilities due that wouldn't have happened if he'd lost the election. I want trump, the sons, daughter, and son-in-law to get significant jail time. 117 Skip Intro Jun 15, 2017 * 5:01:00pm down 3 up report Is anything EVER too much for the GOP? Gun control and raising taxes would do it. 118 majii Jun 15, 2017 * 5:01:14pm down 4 up report "heh" I also noticed something new when Trump and Melania exited AF1: They were holding hands. I couldn't help but wonder whether it was because Barron was with them, so heh was the way I responded to the pic. 119 Ace Rothstein Jun 15, 2017 * 5:02:48pm down 4 up report 120 Interesting Times Jun 15, 2017 * 5:05:41pm down 7 up report EXTREME RIGHT: ethnic cleansing EXTREME LEFT: universal healthcare and housing EXTREME CENTER: what if we did that first thing... w/ an app That's an interesting new term to describe what Twitter's become... 121 Brian J. Jun 15, 2017 * 5:05:54pm down 1 up report Note too the precedence of the Confederates. There were a few rounds of pardons. But the big one gave pardons so broadly that nowhere could all of them have already been tried, much less convicted, of taking up arms against the US. By given the Confederates pardons, the entire criminal possibility was simply nullified. The Union's biggest mistake. Lee, Davis, and their underlings should have had a long drop and a sudden stop to discourage future Southerners. Sic semper traditores. 122 Ace Rothstein Jun 15, 2017 * 5:06:23pm down 3 up report What the hell is up with twitter? It looks like 2009. 123 Charles Johnson Jun 15, 2017 * 5:06:40pm down 19 up report Disgusting to see all these right wingers acting sanctimonious about "violent rhetoric" after DECADES of their insanely violent comments. 124 ObserverArt Jun 15, 2017 * 5:08:06pm down 1 up report Bell's made bike helmets for a long time. I thought they did. But if I remember correctly, there are either different versions of the company or very separate divisions. They were a supplier for the company I worked for as far as auto racing helmets that we sold, and I think all I ever saw was all their literature on auto racing stuff. Where we called for product was auto racing manufacturing. They were always semi-hard to get because they never made too many due to ongoing technology and the fact the helmets had to be changed out after a number of years due to rules for life of safety equipment. So you didn't want to be selling a year older more helmet that has a five year use span. Suddenly the buyer loses time to use it. 125 teleskiguy Jun 15, 2017 * 5:08:08pm down 9 up report Warms my heart to know you're riding bicycles again! 126 HappyWarrior Jun 15, 2017 * 5:08:56pm down 4 up report So who are these people who think Trump doesn't respect our institutions but support him anyway? 127 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 5:09:44pm down 5 up report Johnson more than Grant. Grant was the one who re-invaded the South to take on the KKK, and to enforce the 1875 Civil Rights Act. Had some pretty good success with it, too... that's why the South was so determined to end Reconstruction. (and the Republicans betrayed him and Lincoln when they made the corrupt bargain around the 1876 election -- Florida's electoral votes were up in the air, and party bosses negotiated that they'd let R-Hayes have it if he'd agree to remove federal troops and not enforce that CRA. D-Tilden was happy enough to lose the white house, since they were getting everything they'd wanted to use it for.) One really depressing thought in all of this is how long a military occupation of the Confederacy would have had to last if the exit condition for the troops was honest and widespread public support for civil rights and a de-Confederatization of Southern elites. A century of occupation seems like the bare minimum. 128 Interesting Times Jun 15, 2017 * 5:09:58pm down 4 up report So who are these people who think Trump doesn't respect our institutions but support him anyway? Simple: bannon-lites who love the fact those institutions are being destroyed. 129 covfefe Jun 15, 2017 * 5:09:59pm down 3 up report When the trial starts, Donny "No Knows". 130 HappyWarrior Jun 15, 2017 * 5:10:05pm down 6 up report re: #123 Charles Johnson [Embedded content] Indeed, don't tell me that the 2nd amendment exists for tyrants and then act aghast if someone shoots government officials. Not justifying yesterday's shooting at all by any means but right wing rhetoric has definitely rationalized shooting at federal officials if one feels they are being tyrannical. 131 majii Jun 15, 2017 * 5:10:30pm down 7 up report mBR2dEFWvcIxz7E8eZxM6NlLTFpTn1Nykytyuq3OPxNky5uJpj6sB3S90wequEaIBx8ccfixUmX4yHUyFtjeE0SAu0nyGK4zDFqne9pGmICESzu9fUrWNNME9nA3mGxN44xqZYBWWQAtcExIsW6GAj4bDqt33UI0FfINGg/XC7vQwOIz8g2+Z4pMf3FUp9I4fUuitzQDkQCn30dMwSYoupqJPQMt5QyyZ0qeMArqUgNI6BR1Fzx4ioP9oNeqS1kYeT9il1pe2/9cez4dsBqgjym/mbCUNtsY2o1jxv7nDkIlZqI5DsVZaqp6VKCgC5L4M/y2yO7NAeydsGyiE0wWvUI4sy2AT3IsARyDxrfpzO0kCrN/GlAAgFdz78ygCC1fh64BMQ/NrdrFLAEUbyfp19HDm8iq/oFHhlRPPTdgoVHoY0m4YmjdOGQKogQvtD/YmMrvrh7XGfIVSE4K0r+DxZs7YWV3575MB/poXq/0q23aTTVNUVHFOjnLhgmlczS5iH6IFKxYqsm0liKZwQcCyr1cGNv06P8GSGEkkyhQqpOrNL2cmD51eZiDxmnqr2i1NZKbDt0IfEzIUIdioAiP3SQXjDTqjDFN 132 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 5:13:31pm down 5 up report re: #130 HappyWarrior Indeed, don't tell me that the 2nd amendment exists for tyrants and then act aghast if someone shoots government officials. Not justifying yesterday's shooting at all by any means but right wing rhetoric has definitely rationalized shooting at federal officials if one feels they are being tyrannical. What the fuck else should these RWNJs expect? Republicans ensure that the country is hip-deep in guns, so that every nut job with a grievance has a constitutional right to be a heavily armed nut job with a grievance. Then they fuck everything up six ways from Sunday, thereby making a lot more people have grievances. No justification, but do the damn math. 133 HappyWarrior Jun 15, 2017 * 5:15:12pm down 7 up report I see that one of the Capitol Hill officers that sprung into action yesterday was a lesbian. Maybe just maybe you'd think that Republicans would stop hanging out with religious zealots that view LGBT citizens as being unworthy of rights and respect but nah. I am glad they're going to be okay but I really hope that's something they think about. 134 majii Jun 15, 2017 * 5:15:51pm down 3 up report Nixon's pardon was before he ever stood trial. Nixon's situation was what I consider to have been a special case because he was set to be impeached, resigned, and was later pardoned by Ford. If he had resisted resigning, he most likely would have been impeached, and Ford probably would have pardoned him anyway, using the reason "to heal the nation." Nixon had left the presidency before he was pardoned. 135 Unshaken Defiance Jun 15, 2017 * 5:18:31pm down 5 up report I just did my first test ride with my new helmet on. [Embedded content] Maybe then I'll get the expected stares and shrieks. None today (8 block ride). You have come so far since your injuries. Congratulations. 136 Myron Falwell Jun 15, 2017 * 5:18:58pm down 7 up report [Embedded content] Harvey is steadily climbing up the ranks of "biggest embarrassment to come from Cleveland" ranking. Still a long way to go to top Darrell Issa and Chief Wahoo, though. And that was reprehensible. 137 majii Jun 15, 2017 * 5:20:41pm down 3 up report "Johnson I think was the weak one." According to historians, Johnson was a "confederate sympathizer," and he showed it when he mentioned that white men should be in control of the reconstruction of the South. 138 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 5:21:06pm down 3 up report Wrenchwench: Your bicycle gear looks vaguely like you're trying to dress as one of the biker stormtroopoers from Star Wars. 139 HappyWarrior Jun 15, 2017 * 5:21:39pm down 6 up report "Johnson I think was the weak one." According to historians, Johnson was a "confederate sympathizer," and he showed it when he mentioned that white men should be in control of the reconstruction of the South. Johnson, my understanding hated the Southern white elites but felt a lot of sympathy for the poorer whites. 140 Ace Rothstein Jun 15, 2017 * 5:21:55pm down 1 up report re: #133 HappyWarrior I see that one of the Capitol Hill officers that sprung into action yesterday was a lesbian. Maybe just maybe you'd think that Republicans would stop hanging out with religious zealots that view LGBT citizens as being unworthy of rights and respect but nah. I am glad they're going to be okay but I really hope that's something they think about. You're kidding, right? / 141 allegro Jun 15, 2017 * 5:22:05pm down 6 up report re: #132 EPR-radar What the fuck else should these RWNJs expect? Republicans ensure that the country is hip-deep in guns, so that every nut job with a grievance has a constitutional right to be a heavily armed nut job with a grievance. Then they fuck everything up six ways from Sunday, thereby making a lot more people have grievances. No justification, but do the damn math. A phrase that keeps popping into my head today is "hoist on his own petard." I think I have never seen such a direct application of it as yesterday's shooting. 142 Unshaken Defiance Jun 15, 2017 * 5:22:14pm down 5 up report When is it cool to hate to Russian President again? 143 HappyWarrior Jun 15, 2017 * 5:23:27pm down 2 up report 144 HappyWarrior Jun 15, 2017 * 5:24:05pm down 5 up report When is it cool to hate to Russian President again? You know Trump said they were laughing at us under Obama but it's clear to me that Putin is laughing himself silly over us under Trump. 145 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 5:25:21pm down 4 up report re: #144 HappyWarrior You know Trump said they were laughing at us under Obama but it's clear to me that Putin is laughing himself silly over us under Trump. Putin and everyone else in the world. POTUS* Fuckface von Clownstick. What a sick joke. 146 HappyWarrior Jun 15, 2017 * 5:26:02pm down 5 up report re: #145 EPR-radar Putin and everyone else in the world. POTUS* Fuckface von Clownstick. What a sick joke. Even when I was a kid when he would make cameos in movies, I thought he was an obnoxious joke. 147 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 15, 2017 * 5:26:12pm down 7 up report When is it cool to hate to Russian President again? Putin can go fuck himself with a rusty spork and I don't give a damn what shit he has on me. Meddlesome, power-hungry asshole. 148 Unshaken Defiance Jun 15, 2017 * 5:27:02pm down 6 up report You know Trump said they were laughing at us under Obama but it's clear to me that Putin is laughing himself silly over us under Trump. When Obama was in charge Putin laughed. A very nervous laugh, especially as sanctions bit and his revenue declined over American oil and gas production. Now it's straight out glee. 149 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 15, 2017 * 5:27:25pm down 2 up report re: #148 Unshaken Defiance When Obama was in charge Putin laughed. A very nervous laugh, especially as sanctions bit and his revenue declined over American oil and gas production. Now it's straight out glee. I don't know, I tend to think more maniacal evil-overlord laughter. 150 Interesting Times Jun 15, 2017 * 5:28:19pm down 13 up report Thanks to @Lowenaffchen for uncovering this gem in Ben Sasse's atrocious book https://t.co/8TT8MSKJTV pic.twitter.com/WOlbazXlVF So by this logic, were the baseball shooter's actions simply a character-building exercise? o_O 151 teleskiguy Jun 15, 2017 * 5:28:29pm down 6 up report #TBT Eight years ago, the biggest ski jump I have ever seen, on Mt. Crested Butte. That's me in the picture, for scale. pic.twitter.com/moUbun3HDH 152 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 15, 2017 * 5:29:05pm down 2 up report That's got to be every inch of almost 20' tall. That's a limb-breaker if you miss. 153 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 5:29:08pm down 4 up report re: #121 Brian J. The Union's biggest mistake. Lee, Davis, and their underlings should have had a long drop and a sudden stop to discourage future Southerners. Sic semper traditores. The Confederacy won the peace after the civil war because confederate racists cared much more about implementing their racism than unionists cared about ending racism. Hanging a few traitors would have changed nothing, no matter how well-justified that may have been. 154 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 5:29:14pm down 3 up report My browser crashed and took up all the free memory in my computer. It wasn't caused by LGF (I was looking up something in another tab and that Website had some sort of bad script.) Does LGF support some sort of emoji list? 155 majii Jun 15, 2017 * 5:29:25pm down 4 up report "A phrase that keeps popping into my head today is "hoist on his own petard." I think I have never seen such a direct application of it as yesterday's shooting." THIS right here is why although I wish Rep. Scalise a speedy recovery, I cannot find it within myself to forget how many GOPers in Congress have had little/no sympathy for others who have died after some person opened fire on them in public spaces. I just can't feel sorry for the terror they experienced yesterday. I hate it happened, but I also feel they've played an integral role in what happened to them at that baseball field. 156 Unshaken Defiance Jun 15, 2017 * 5:29:55pm down 3 up report re: #149 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. I don't know, I tend to think more maniacal evil-overlord laughter. Love to see the investigation name Putin as the offshore guilty party. See how sanction votes go then 157 HappyWarrior Jun 15, 2017 * 5:30:38pm down 3 up report [Embedded content] So by this logic, were the baseball shooter's actions simply a character-building exercise? o_O What the fuck. 158 majii Jun 15, 2017 * 5:31:24pm down 2 up report re: #142 Unshaken Defiance "When is it cool to hate to Russian President again?" Based on my observations, for some Americans, including Trump, it won't happen any time soon. Trump is still on record as not believing the Russian government interfered in last year's presidential election. 159 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 5:31:44pm down 3 up report re: #156 Unshaken Defiance Love to see the investigation name Putin as the offshore guilty party. See how sanction votes go then We've already had a good sanctions vote in the Senate. It will be interesting to see what the House does with it. 160 Myron Falwell Jun 15, 2017 * 5:32:07pm down 4 up report re: #149 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. I don't know, I tend to think more maniacal evil-overlord laughter. He's the victorious Generic Evil Guy from any secret agent film, only he rewrote the ending to the film to fulfill his wildest dreams. 161 allegro Jun 15, 2017 * 5:32:51pm down 4 up report "A phrase that keeps popping into my head today is "hoist on his own petard." I think I have never seen such a direct application of it as yesterday's shooting." THIS right here is why although I wish Rep. Scalise a speedy recovery, I cannot find it within myself to forget how many GOPers in Congress have had little/no sympathy for others who have died after some person opened fire on them in public spaces. I just can't feel sorry for the terror they experienced yesterday. I hate it happened, but I also feel they've played an integral role in what happened to them at that baseball field. Agree. I was trying to find a smidgen of sympathy yesterday but failed for this very reason. 162 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 5:33:09pm down 4 up report re: #150 Interesting Times Even the never-tr*mp Republicans are all batshit crazy. Being batshit crazy is a requirement for being a Republican these days. 163 Myron Falwell Jun 15, 2017 * 5:33:50pm down 6 up report [Embedded content] So by this logic, were the baseball shooter's actions simply a character-building exercise? o_O Heh. For those who think Sasse is a "sensible Republican," he's only a " Good Republican ." 164 majii Jun 15, 2017 * 5:34:36pm down 5 up report "You know Trump said they were laughing at us under Obama but it's clear to me that Putin is laughing himself silly over us under Trump." According to a post I read at Addicting Info earlier today, Australian PM Turnbull is also having a great time laughing at the Orange One. addictinginfo.com 165 teleskiguy Jun 15, 2017 * 5:34:48pm down 6 up report re: #152 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. That's got to be every inch of almost 20' tall. That's a limb-breaker if you miss. The transition (the end of the jump to the much steeper landing, the flat part to the right of me) was at least a hundred feet. I remember watching Matchstick Productions do their film segment, they had to tow skiers into the jump with snowmobiles going 60 m.p.h. 166 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 5:35:01pm down 5 up report re: #161 allegro Agree. I was trying to find a smidgen of sympathy yesterday but failed for this very reason. My reason for failing to find any sympathy is the certainty that this incident (like all other incidents, past, present and future) will not lead to anything sensible on guns in the US. 167 BlueGrl21 Jun 15, 2017 * 5:35:43pm down 11 up report A phrase that keeps popping into my head today is "hoist on his own petard. Mine is "the law of unintended consequences." Before this, with rare exceptions (Gabby Giffords), the gun problems were far away. They honor our officers with speeches on the House floor and bemoan the "attack on the 2nd Amendment," but it's not REAL to them. It's platitudes and optics. Well, now one of YOU was on the receiving end of a rifle, in YOUR safe place. Shit just got real. 168 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 5:36:38pm down 7 up report re: #165 teleskiguy The transition (the end of the jump to the much steeper landing, the flat part to the right of me) was at least a hundred feet. I remember watching Matchstick Productions do their film segment, they had to tow skiers into the jump with snowmobiles going 60 m.p.h. The name 'Matchstick Productions' gives me the willies in this context -- as in your bones will be in matchstick size fragments if this goes poorly. 169 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 5:38:09pm down 3 up report Mine is "the law of unintended consequences." Before this, with rare exceptions (Gabby Giffords), the gun problems were far away. We honor our officers with speeches on the House floor and bemoan the "attack on the 2nd Amendment," but it's not REAL to them. It's platitudes and optics. Well, now one of YOU was on the receiving end of a rifle, in YOUR safe place. Shit just got real. It's not like anything useful will happen. If enough Republicans get shot at, they will just start confiscating guns from liberals and non-white people. 170 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 15, 2017 * 5:38:22pm down 5 up report re: #165 teleskiguy The transition (the end of the jump to the much steeper landing, the flat part to the right of me) was at least a hundred feet. I remember watching Matchstick Productions do their film segment, they had to tow skiers into the jump with snowmobiles going 60 m.p.h. There are a few daring sports I genuinely don't get. Snowmobiles running open water is one. Ski jumping is another. I have a hard enough just going down the bunny hill without dying. 171 teleskiguy Jun 15, 2017 * 5:38:29pm down 5 up report re: #168 EPR-radar The name 'Matchstick Productions' gives me the willies in this context -- as in your bones will be in matchstick size fragments if this goes poorly. No one got hurt that winter when they built it! They built it out of the halfpipe snow after the ski area closed. It was a closed course for three days during filming. 172 HappyWarrior Jun 15, 2017 * 5:38:43pm down 4 up report I do feel sympathy but at the same time wonder where they were beyond mere thoughts and prayers when other shootings happened. 173 majii Jun 15, 2017 * 5:39:52pm down 5 up report "Shit just got real." EXACTLY. It's sad for me to see that for some of our politicians, sh*t has to get personal before they understand what others are dealing with. 174 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 5:40:29pm down 6 up report re: #150 Interesting Times Ben Sasse (my senator) is only a compassionate guy in comparison to the rest of the GOP caucus. He is still a Republican. 175 teleskiguy Jun 15, 2017 * 5:40:36pm down 5 up report re: #170 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. There are a few daring sports I genuinely don't get. Snowmobiles running open water is one. Ski jumping is another. I have a hard enough just going down the bunny hill without dying. Skiing is fun. Here's me about to do a tricky line at Arapahoe Basin a couple of years ago. 176 HappyWarrior Jun 15, 2017 * 5:41:07pm down 3 up report "Shit just got real." EXACTLY. It's sad for me to see that for some of our politicians, sh*t has to get personal before they understand what others are dealing with. Which quite honestly happens way too much with Republicans. 177 HappyWarrior Jun 15, 2017 * 5:42:30pm down 9 up report One of the Reps was quoted as saying he didn't feel he could go near a baseball field again without thinking about the shooting and I get that feeling, trauma is powerful but where was this for those kids that got shot in Sandy Hook? Why did they do nothing on guns after that? Why did some of them stay silent or even agree with those who mocked Obama when he shed tears for the kids of Sandy Hook? 178 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 5:42:56pm down 4 up report Which quite honestly happens way too much with Republicans. See also Dick Cheney and Rob Portman with their children. 179 Myron Falwell Jun 15, 2017 * 5:42:59pm down 7 up report re: #169 EPR-radar It's not like anything useful will happen. If enough Republicans get shot at, they will just start confiscating guns from liberals and non-white people. The NRA owns the Republican Party. Whatever the NRA wants, the NRA gets. 180 HappyWarrior Jun 15, 2017 * 5:43:18pm down 4 up report re: #178 Anymouse See also Dick Cheney and Rob Portman with their children. Yes. 181 BlueGrl21 Jun 15, 2017 * 5:43:57pm down 7 up report re: #169 EPR-radar It's not like anything useful will happen. If enough Republicans get shot at, they will just start confiscating guns from liberals and non-white people. I don't know what will happen, not concerned at this moment. I'm letting the churning die down, as well as my own Schadenfreude. The good part of me wants to be above it all and focused on sensible gun control. The snarky redhead in me wants to point and say, "Told you so, you morons! Karma's a bitch!" That would be tacky but I won't lie and say the impulse ain't there. 182 HappyWarrior Jun 15, 2017 * 5:43:58pm down 4 up report re: #179 Myron Falwell The NRA owns the Republican Party. Whatever the NRA wants, the NRA gets. They do and they stopped being about gun ownership a long time ago and instead started being about selling as much firearms as possible. What was once a respectable organization is no more. 183 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 5:44:52pm down 5 up report Mine is "the law of unintended consequences." Before this, with rare exceptions (Gabby Giffords), the gun problems were far away. They honor our officers with speeches on the House floor and bemoan the "attack on the 2nd Amendment," but it's not REAL to them. It's platitudes and optics. Well, now one of YOU was on the receiving end of a rifle, in YOUR safe place. Shit just got real. I was concerned about the problem of gun violence for a long time before someone pointed a loaded rifle right at my chest. (It didn't take a good guy with a gun to end it, it took me talking the guy down and getting him to hand over the rifle to me.) 184 HappyWarrior Jun 15, 2017 * 5:45:10pm down 6 up report And then there are people like fucking Hannity who go to the fucking baseball field and demand that Rothenstein and Mueller be fired. Sorry, the tragedy yesterday doesn't change the fact that Trump should be investigated no matter how much Lumpy wants it to be a Reichstag Fire moment. 185 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 5:45:42pm down 5 up report Which quite honestly happens way too much with Republicans. True, but that's giving them too much credit in this case. So far the only GOP proposal I've seen in response to the Scalese shooting is for members of Congress to be able to carry in DC, which is stupid even for an idiotic Republican proposal from a bone-headed GOP official. I'll believe the GOP position on guns everywhere, at all times, and especially in the hands of the violent has changed when I see the GOP supporting appropriate federal legislation, and not before. 186 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 5:46:23pm down 3 up report They do and they stopped being about gun ownership a long time ago and instead started being about selling as much firearms as possible. What was once a respectable organization is no more. I'm still in favour of taking the NRA's own gun safety recommendations and passing them into law, with legal penalties for failure to comply with them. Let's see both the GOP and NRA twist up into knots over that. 187 majii Jun 15, 2017 * 5:46:38pm down 8 up report "Why did some of them stay silent or even agree with those who mocked Obama when he shed tears for the kids of Sandy Hook?" Another question I have for them: Why was their first reaction to PBO to accuse him of politicizing the mass shootings that occurred during his presidency instead of refusing to do anything about them? 188 HappyWarrior Jun 15, 2017 * 5:46:52pm down 5 up report re: #185 EPR-radar True, but that's giving them too much credit in this case. So far the only GOP proposal I've seen in response to the Scalese shooting is for members of Congress to be able to carry in DC, which is stupid even for an idiotic Republican proposal from a bone-headed GOP official. I'll believe the GOP position on guns everywhere, at all times, and especially in the hands of the violent has changed when I see the GOP supporting appropriate federal legislation, and not before. Open carry wouldn't have stopped this and they were in a state with very liberal open carry laws. 189 HappyWarrior Jun 15, 2017 * 5:47:13pm down 4 up report "Why did some of them stay silent or even agree with those who mocked Obama when he shed tears for the kids of Sandy Hook?" Another question I have for them: Why was their first reaction to PBO to accuse him of politicizing the mass shootings that occurred during his presidency instead of refusing to do anything about them? Exactly and with that I'm out for th evening guys. 190 Myron Falwell Jun 15, 2017 * 5:47:18pm down 3 up report They do and they stopped being about gun ownership a long time ago and instead started being about selling as much firearms as possible. What was once a respectable organization is no more. Exactly right. Confiscation of firearms based solely on party affiliation or race means less gun sales revenue. They'll kill such an idea before it ever is considered. 191 allegro Jun 15, 2017 * 5:48:10pm down 3 up report I do feel sympathy but at the same time wonder where they were beyond mere thoughts and prayers when other shootings happened. They were being further complicit in not just enabling but promoting and advancing the gun culture to put military grade weapons in any hands that can grab them. These aren't passive bystanders. 192 BlueGrl21 Jun 15, 2017 * 5:48:14pm down 17 up report re: #183 Anymouse I was concerned about the problem of gun violence for a long time before someone pointed a loaded rifle right at my chest. (It didn't take a good guy with a gun to end it, it took me talking the guy down and getting him to hand over the rifle to me.) Yeah, I had a dad with mental health and violence issues and alcohol love tied to a loaded gun. Stepped in front of him and my mom and brother too many times. It was real for me at 8 years old. So my sympathy is not the best for people who fight to make sure my dad gets his gun. Nope. Just not feeling that right now. 193 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 5:48:46pm down 9 up report Open carry wouldn't have stopped this and they were in a state with very liberal open carry laws. Yup. It was professionally-trained people (the Capitol Police) that stopped the would-be assassin, not a good guy with a gun. 194 Myron Falwell Jun 15, 2017 * 5:50:22pm down 4 up report re: #186 Anymouse I'm still in favour of taking the NRA's own gun safety recommendations and passing them into law, with legal penalties for failure to comply with them. Let's see both the GOP and NRA twist up into knots over that. The NRA has gun safety recommendations? LOLWUT? 195 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 5:50:41pm down 12 up report Yeah, I had a dad with mental health and violence issues and alcohol love tied to a loaded gun. Stepped in front of him and my mom and brother too many times. It was real for me at 8 years old. So my sympathy is not the best for people who fight to make sure my dad gets his gun. Nope. Just not feeling that right now. In my case it was a suicidal roommate. I discovered him with a rifle trying to build up the courage to do the deed. I didn't even know he owned a rifle. He immediately swung it in the direction of my chest. That was the longest fifteen minutes of my life: They lasted about a century. 196 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 5:51:55pm down 3 up report re: #194 Myron Falwell The NRA has gun safety recommendations? LOLWUT? Yup, right under the picture of the guy with a bunch of tacticool gear on a rifle: 197 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 15, 2017 * 5:52:22pm down 4 up report re: #196 Anymouse Yup, right under the picture of the guy with a bunch of tacticool gear on a rifle: Your use of "tacticool" leads me to my all-time-favorite derogatory phrase: Mall ninja. 198 SteveMcGriftFlynnComey... ...corruptemoligate RN Jun 15, 2017 * 5:52:56pm down 2 up report Once upon a time I rode my bicycle off one of those piles of dirt they use to make pitchers' mounds. (They smooth out the fields for football and then build up the mounds in the spring.) I went flying into the air when it occurred to me I hadn't thought about a place to land. Fortunately the bicycle acted as its own crumple zone and took the worst of the impact. 199 Stanley Sea Jun 15, 2017 * 5:53:01pm down 13 up report 200 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 15, 2017 * 5:53:19pm down 8 up report re: #194 Myron Falwell The NRA has gun safety recommendations? LOLWUT? Believe it or not, the NRA actually does preach relatively sane and rational practices for the keeping and handling of firearms. The problem is, they really don't give a fuck if their members actually follow those practices. As long as GUNZ ARE FREE!!!!! 201 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 5:53:21pm down 4 up report re: #195 Anymouse In my case it was a suicidal roommate. I discovered him with a rifle trying to build up the courage to do the deed. I didn't even know he owned a rifle. He immediately swung it in the direction of my chest. That was the longest fifteen minutes of my life: They lasted about a century. What's the problem here? He was just exercising his second amendment rights. You should have also been carrying, so you could blow him away when he became a threat to you. 202 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 5:54:13pm down 10 up report re: #197 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Your use of "tacticool" leads me to my all-time-favorite derogatory phrase: Mall ninja. 101st chairborne is my personal favorite in this category. 203 Unshaken Defiance Jun 15, 2017 * 5:54:14pm down 2 up report re: #159 EPR-radar We've already had a good sanctions vote in the Senate. It will be interesting to see what the House does with it. 204 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 15, 2017 * 5:54:43pm down 3 up report re: #202 EPR-radar 101st chairborne is my personal favorite in this category. Another good one, to be fair, but my predisposition to the martial arts wins out. 205 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 5:57:03pm down 4 up report re: #200 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Believe it or not, the NRA actually does preach relatively sane and rational practices for the keeping and handling of firearms. The problem is, they really don't give a fuck if their members actually follow those practices. As long as GUNZ ARE FREE!!!!! They probably wrote those standards a century ago before they became collectively fucked in the head. Nobody since then has dared to write down that it's a good idea to play with loaded guns as if they were toys and all the other real gun safety principles of today's NRA. I am praying for Steve Scalise. I am praying that he has a "George Wallace" moment and changes his evil ways. 207 BlueGrl21 Jun 15, 2017 * 5:58:04pm down 7 up report re: #202 EPR-radar 101st chairborne is my personal favorite in this category. Mine is "The Fighting Hellmice." STILL cracks me up every time. 208 SteveMcGriftFlynnComey... ...corruptemoligate RN Jun 15, 2017 * 5:58:13pm down 6 up report re: #192 BlueGrl21 I had an uncle who suffered a traumatic brain injury in the line of duty. He managed to keep his service revolver but was unable to take care of himself. My aunt and cousin (who was born after the accident so he never really got to know her and vice versa) eventually had to live in hiding. My uncle still knew where we lived, and he would show up with his gun whenever he would get released from the institution. Somehow he kept cool enough and my father kept cool enough to avoid escalations, but we had a lot of white knuckle days. BTW the responding policemen always seemed to feel that he needed to keep the weapon to protect himself since he lived on the streets. EDIT - this was the early 80s. My uncle died of exposure about 4 years after his injury. The City of Philadelphia honored him years later with a plaque on the site of the accident, but tragedy persisted, and just before the ceremony another officer was murdered about 6 blocks from the site. 209 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 5:58:52pm down 5 up report Mine is "The Fighting Hellmice." STILL cracks me up every time. LOL I never heard that one before. Consider it stolen. 210 Mike Lamb Jun 15, 2017 * 5:59:30pm down 6 up report [Embedded content] I'm becoming more and more convinced that when Trump rants about his "non-dealings" with Russia, he's hiding behind a corporate shield: "I personally have no deals with Russia, but my separate corporate entities do..." 211 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 6:00:33pm down 4 up report Oh man ... My wife just made air fryer salmon and beans with carrots and Vindaloo curry seasoning ... you'll have to excuse me for a few minutes while I go melt my taste buds. 212 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 15, 2017 * 6:00:45pm down 3 up report Oh man ... My wife just made air fryer salmon and beans with carrots and Vindaloo curry seasoning ... you'll have to excuse me for a few minutes while I go melt my taste buds. Air fryer? 213 allegro Jun 15, 2017 * 6:01:26pm down 5 up report re: #210 Mike Lamb I'm becoming more and more convinced that when Trump rants about his "non-dealings" with Russia, he's hiding behind a corporate shield: "I personally have no deals with Russia, but my separate corporate entities do..." He's just lying as he always does. Looks like he's been hip-deep for years and the net is drawing in tighter every day. 214 William Lewis Jun 15, 2017 * 6:01:56pm down 6 up report re: #190 Myron Falwell Exactly right. Confiscation of firearms based solely on party affiliation or race means less gun sales revenue. They'll kill such an idea before it ever is considered. Not when the billionaires who control their money flow say otherwise. Besides they can use the fear of the banned "terrorists" (liberals, muslims, jews, etc) to drive still more sales. They might even do in the NFA so they can sell machine guns to the Meal Team 6. Don't think they will let the few guns we buy get in the way of the fear they use to keep their base under control. The only thing that would change this is if that base starts dying from losing health care and actually blames the people actually responsible - then GOP fear will drive gun control to UK levels or more. Power trumps money. 215 Unshaken Defiance Jun 15, 2017 * 6:02:22pm down 3 up report re: #194 Myron Falwell The NRA has gun safety recommendations? LOLWUT? No organization has more safety and shooting/hunting classes with well qualified instructors than NRA. Tens of thousands of instructors. Technically, NRA is safety training and promotion of the sport, ILA is the lobbying wing. Few bother with the distinction. As long as we have hunting and sport, we want those guys and ladies around. 216 SteveMcGriftFlynnComey... ...corruptemoligate RN Jun 15, 2017 * 6:02:39pm down 2 up report re: #200 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. I learned in history class that the NRA was founded so that citizens would be able to shoot straight if there were another big war. 217 SteveMcGriftFlynnComey... ...corruptemoligate RN Jun 15, 2017 * 6:03:19pm down 7 up report Mine is "The Fighting Hellmice." STILL cracks me up every time. I'm partial to "Meal Team Six" 218 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 15, 2017 * 6:06:39pm down 1 up report re: #216 SteveMcGriftFlynnComey... ...corruptemoligate RN I learned in history class that the NRA was founded so that citizens would be able to shoot straight if there were another big war. I think basic training has that covered, but nevertheless, the NRA does serve a purpose in keeping hunting accidents at a lower rate than they otherwise would be. It's just a guess, but outside the mall ninjas, I'd guess that the largest proportion of NRA members are hunters. 219 Unshaken Defiance Jun 15, 2017 * 6:08:25pm down 3 up report re: #218 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. I think basic training has that covered, but nevertheless, the NRA does serve a purpose in keeping hunting accidents at a lower rate than they otherwise would be. It's just a guess, but outside the mall ninjas, I'd guess that the largest proportion of NRA members are hunters. And few gun owners are ongoing members. Even those that took good classes. Edit and btw civilians don't get basic training. They told me NRA came about after the civil war where marksmanship was abysmal overall. 220 goddamnedfrank Jun 15, 2017 * 6:08:37pm down 13 up report So Alex Jones and InfoWars just fucked Megyn Kelly and NBC by releasing their own tapes of Kelly's heavily advertised Jones interview. Exclusive Sneak Peek @RealAlexJones @megynkelly The Interview! Full Interview to be released tonight on https://t.co/5KtICEUspi #NBCFakeNews pic.twitter.com/haeQxMrm74 We are about to go live spread this link https://t.co/3Iu3IvfgnS "So, what's the odds that Trump issues a pardon for Kushner, before there is even a conviction?" A president cannot pardon an individual until s/he has been convicted of a crime. Article II of the Constitution contains no language that grants an American president the power to grant a person a pardon before s/he is convicted. IOW, a pardon is granted only after someone has actually been convicted for having committed a crime. Pres. Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, but he only did it after Rich had been convicted. This isn't completely true, as Richard Nixon was pardoned by Gerald Ford before any criminal charges were levied against him. 222 makeitstop Jun 15, 2017 * 6:09:13pm down 5 up report But he will be pardoned before he's out the door. In that case, indict. With extreme prejudice. EDIT: Just realized what I typed. Pardon. Duh. 223 meteor Jun 15, 2017 * 6:09:26pm down 5 up report Meow Meow Meow Meow Meow Meow Meow Meow 224 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 6:09:53pm down 7 up report Good. I hope Megan Kelly gets a good chewing out from NBC senior management. 225 teleskiguy Jun 15, 2017 * 6:10:56pm down 6 up report Heh, I guess he figured NBC would edit the shit out of it. 227 SteveMcGriftFlynnComey... ...corruptemoligate RN Jun 15, 2017 * 6:13:56pm down 2 up report re: #221 Don't Blame Me, I Voted for Kodos I don't know how legally binding Ford's pardon would have been. Basically he rendered further prosecution of Nixon pointless, something like "even if you convict him, I'll pardon him anyway" 228 teleskiguy Jun 15, 2017 * 6:16:32pm down 11 up report Ken "Cuck" Starr says Trump shouldn't fire Mueller. https://t.co/5tKN8eOnxC Ladies, Methinks we are getting trolled here a bit, but it did make me laugh. 230 A dark and stormy covfefe Jun 15, 2017 * 6:17:00pm down 8 up report I hope some random station broadcasting a test pattern gets better ratings. 231 Patricia Kayden Jun 15, 2017 * 6:18:53pm down 11 up report Trump has made history by being the Prez who came under criminal investigation the fastest. Sad! 232 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 6:20:49pm down 5 up report An air fryer is a kitchen appliance that cooks by circulating hot air around the food. A mechanical fan circulates the hot air around the food at high speed, cooking the food and producing a crispy layer via the Maillard effect. By circulating air up to 200 Celsius or 392 degrees Fahrenheit this appliance fries foods like potato chips, chicken, fish or pastries using less oil than a traditional deep-fryer. Most air fryers come with adjustable temperature and timer knobs that allow for more precise cooking. Food is cooked in the cooking basket that sits atop a drip tray. Various brands of air fryers claim to save as much as 80% cooking oil in comparison to traditional fryers. While most models of air fryers require that the basket be periodically shaken to ensure even cooking throughout, some models incorporate a food agitator that continuously churns the food during the cooking process. She highly recommends it. She bought two (one for her brother). It doesn't heat up the kitchen in the summer, uses far less oil, cooks way faster than our traditional gas oven (to the chagrin of our gas company), &c. The kind we have is here, if you're interested in throwing Ameros at Amazon with a kickback to Mr. Johnson ... 233 Patricia Kayden Jun 15, 2017 * 6:21:26pm down 5 up report Dang it!! White Jesus has let Megyn down badly. Shame. 234 EPR-radar Jun 15, 2017 * 6:21:52pm down 8 up report re: #226 SteveMcGriftFlynnComey... ...corruptemoligate RN Heh, I guess he figured NBC would edit the shit out of it. More like Jones plans to edit the shit out of the interview. 235 BlueGrl21 Jun 15, 2017 * 6:24:26pm down 5 up report re: #231 Patricia Kayden Trump has made history by being the Prez who came under criminal investigation the fastest. Sad! Well, at least he won SOMETHING. 236 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 6:24:47pm down 4 up report So Booz Allen (of Snowden fans, IIRC) Is under investigation for financial shenanigans - "billing practices. As a government contractor that sells billions of dollars in services to U.S. spy agencies, Booz Allen is closely watched. It was thrust into the spotlight in 2013 when former employee Edward Snowden acknowledged leaking government secrets. The company again came under scrutiny in 2016 when another Booz Allen employee working with the National Security Agency was charged with stealing classified information. 237 Barefoot Grin Jun 15, 2017 * 6:25:45pm down 3 up report Don't do business with oligarchs: ETA: sorry, don't do business with Russian oligarchs who fall out of favor with Putin in England. This is a good read. 238 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 6:25:46pm down 4 up report Cooking time for dinner tonight from start to finish was twenty-five minutes, including prep. I even washed the dishes already. 239 Patricia Kayden Jun 15, 2017 * 6:25:51pm down 6 up report re: #206 The Vicious Babushka I am praying for Steve Scalise. I am praying that he has a "George Wallace" moment and changes his evil ways. Now that would be a miracle. We shall see. 240 Unshaken Defiance Jun 15, 2017 * 6:25:56pm down 13 up report Well, at least he won SOMETHING. Hopefully gonna win some time in Club Fed, aka Bar A Lago. 241 Eclectic Cyborg Jun 15, 2017 * 6:29:31pm down 7 up report 242 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 6:29:39pm down 4 up report re: #240 Unshaken Defiance Hopefully gonna win some time in Club Fed, aka Bar A Lago. That's it, just transfer oversight of Mar-a-Lago to the Bureau of Prisons. 243 Patricia Kayden Jun 15, 2017 * 6:30:47pm down 4 up report re: #66 Backwoods_Sleuth [Embedded content] Trump is already in full attack mode tweeting nonsense attacks on Secretary Clinton and Democrats. Why doesn't he show some respect? 244 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 6:31:12pm down 3 up report re: #239 Patricia Kayden No way that would be a miracle. We shall see. That might even have me reconsider (briefly) my position on religion. (Jeopardy theme plays) Nope. If Scalise has a "come to Wallace" moment, it will be only because he was personally affected. 245 ObserverArt Jun 15, 2017 * 6:32:13pm down 3 up report re: #226 SteveMcGriftFlynnComey... ...corruptemoligate RN Heh, I guess he figured NBC would edit the shit out of it. I hope NBC makes Kelly pull it. Then it makes everyone look bad. 246 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 6:33:39pm down 3 up report re: #243 Patricia Kayden Trump is already in full attack mode tweeting nonsense attacks on Secretary Clinton and Democrats. Why doesn't he show some respect? Trump doesn't know the meaning of the word respect. 247 Patricia Kayden Jun 15, 2017 * 6:35:13pm down 7 up report And then there are people like fucking Hannity who go to the fucking baseball field and demand that Rothenstein and Mueller be fired. Sorry, the tragedy yesterday doesn't change the fact that Trump should be investigated no matter how much Lumpy wants it to be a Reichstag Fire moment. Hannity is an idiot. Mueller appears to be taking this investigation very seriously and I expect that he'll find plenty of dirt on Trump and his yes men. Hence the caterwauling from Hannity and his ilk. These are the same folks who would be investigating a President Hillary Clinton endlessly over non-scandals 248 ObserverArt Jun 15, 2017 * 6:37:23pm down 6 up report re: #247 Patricia Kayden Hannity is an idiot. Mueller appears to be taking this investigation very seriously and I expect that he'll find plenty of dirt on Trump and his yes men. Hence the caterwauling from Hannity and his ilk. These are the same folks who would be investigating a President Hillary Clinton endlessly over non-scandals I don't believe they have stopped investigating Hillary have they? I think that is a Fox staple. 249 teleskiguy Jun 15, 2017 * 6:38:04pm down 6 up report Queens Of The Stone Age dropped a new track from their new album on YouTube today. 250 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 6:40:30pm down 10 up report I don't they have stopped investigating Hillary have they? I think that is a Fox staple. If it's not B. Clinton's fault it's Obama's fault. If it's not Obama's fault it's H. Clinton's fault. Blather. Reince. Bleat. 251 teleskiguy Jun 15, 2017 * 6:43:38pm down 4 up report . @realdonaldtrump can't get over The Apprentice (by @vicbergerIV ) pic.twitter.com/7U2dFNqDXP Good evening. What did I miss? 253 Interesting Times Jun 15, 2017 * 6:51:36pm down 3 up report Yes, I know David Sirota's history is problematic, but he's bang-on right about this: Lets create a hunger games economy, arm everyone, ignore a mental health crisis & then blame an anti-poverty socialist when bad stuff occurs It also reminds me of the point made by someone else here the other day, re what's going to happen if the GOPers pass trumpdon'tcare and all these financially vulnerable but well-armed Americans suffer directly in the form of bankruptcy, illness, and deaths in their families... :/ 254 Stanley Sea Jun 15, 2017 * 6:52:03pm down 11 up report Inbox: Bizarre statement from DAG Rosenstein pic.twitter.com/EVAUJpJWMP Wonder what story -- something sourced to foreign officials -- is coming out soon that this is in response to. https://t.co/K6kYfWUGaq 256 Patricia Kayden Jun 15, 2017 * 6:53:29pm down 5 up report re: #194 Myron Falwell The NRA has gun safety recommendations? LOLWUT? I guess the emphasis for the NRA is on recommendations. They're fine with safety recommendations but appear to balk at any legislation mandating gun safety practices. They have way too much power over the GOP. 257 makeitstop Jun 15, 2017 * 6:56:06pm down 4 up report re: #226 SteveMcGriftFlynnComey... ...corruptemoligate RN Heh, I guess he figured NBC would edit the shit out of it. I heard on the radio the other day that he was unhappy with the editing, didn't think it was fair. 258 Skip Intro Jun 15, 2017 * 6:56:37pm down 4 up report re: #254 Stanley Sea Well, there goes trump's favorite line that "many people say". 259 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 7:01:00pm down 4 up report The penalty of being home all the time: Any time someone in town wants a village trustee I am the go-to guy. In this case it was the village clerk, wanting my opinion on flyers she just developed for our water tower repair which will cause low water pressure problems for three days (the tower will be off-line and the village system will be directly run by the two wells), and the sewer inspection demonstration by a local company. Sure, they look okay to me, and if the public wants to come to a demonstration of doing a colonoscopy on our sewers so they can see how we're spending their tax money, sure, I'm in favour of it as long as the company doesn't mind. (Our sewers haven't been inspected in decades.) 260 Stanley Sea Jun 15, 2017 * 7:03:40pm down 8 up report The weirdest thing about Rosenstein's statement is it confirms that someone is still sticking their paws in the investigation. (Sessions) 261 scottslemmons Jun 15, 2017 * 7:07:34pm down 3 up report re: #247 Patricia Kayden Hannity is an idiot. Mueller appears to be taking this investigation very seriously and I expect that he'll find plenty of dirt on Trump and his yes men. Hence the caterwauling from Hannity and his ilk. These are the same folks who would be investigating a President Hillary Clinton endlessly over non-scandals "Hillary sneezed in public?! THIS IS THE GREATEST CRIME IN AMERICAN HISTORY!" 262 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 7:07:40pm down 3 up report I guess the question to ask the sewer inspection company Saturday is if their system finds a polyp can they cut it out. /s 263 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 7:09:15pm down 6 up report Dr. Jill Stein had diddly to do with this. On the other hand, her campaign screwed up the election. DHS Sec John Kelly just said admin is rescinding Obama policy protecting undocumented immigrant parents of 'Dreamers' from deportation DAPA out. Another big win for Jill Stein. https://t.co/NS3si9i8A1 264 makeitstop Jun 15, 2017 * 7:10:08pm down 8 up report I hope NBC makes Kelly pull it. Then it makes everyone look bad. And follow it up by suing Jones into the middle of next week. They could reasonably argue for loss of ad revenue. And win. 265 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 7:11:00pm down 8 up report #BREAKING : Mike Pence's attorney's law firm has 40 lawyers & consultants representing their Russian clientele #TrumpRussia #TrumpObstructed pic.twitter.com/IHK8yMup50 Is there even one person in Trumpland that doesn't have ties to Russia? https://t.co/4PixQn3nHe 266 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 7:11:47pm down 4 up report On the sewer having to drink that "cleansing" solution beforehand, I don't want to be anywhere near the village sewage lagoons for a couple days. 267 Stanley Sea Jun 15, 2017 * 7:12:24pm down 5 up report re: #263 Anymouse Dr. Jill Stein had diddly to do with this. On the other hand, her campaign screwed up the election. [Embedded content] You are misreading sarcasm., 268 Brian J. Jun 15, 2017 * 7:13:17pm down 1 up report re: #127 EPR-radar One really depressing thought in all of this is how long a military occupation of the Confederacy would have had to last if the exit condition for the troops was honest and widespread public support for civil rights and a de-Confederatization of Southern elites. A century of occupation seems like the bare minimum. I think that could have been sped up in a few ways: Sic Semper Traditores. Every CSA officer and elected official gets a date with the hangman. 40 Acres and a Mule. We make Sherman's promise good. Turtledove's 16th Amendment. From his short story "Must and Shall," and based on a real law passed in Arkansas but then repealed; all descendants of CSA soldiers are disenfranchised. Forever. Exemplary servitude. Plantation owners of 160 acres or more get their property expropriated, without compensation. Hump that plow, Calvin Candie. 269 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 7:13:38pm down 2 up report You are misreading sarcasm., You are correct. I also read DAPA as DAPL. Lemme go clean my glasses. 270 makeitstop Jun 15, 2017 * 7:14:46pm down 6 up report re: #247 Patricia Kayden Hannity is an idiot. Mueller appears to be taking this investigation very seriously and I expect that he'll find plenty of dirt on Trump and his yes men. Hence the caterwauling from Hannity and his ilk. These are the same folks who would be investigating a President Hillary Clinton endlessly over non-scandals If the universe wants to be exceedingly kind to me, it would find a way to implicate Lumpy and Fox News into all of this. Just saying, Universe. 271 teleskiguy Jun 15, 2017 * 7:14:49pm down 5 up report Remember Bat Boy? Well this is him now. Feel old yet? pic.twitter.com/n758bemNmw 272 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 7:14:58pm down 6 up report Oh I see, this Post story on Kushner is sourced to "officials familiar with the matter" of an unnamed country. https://t.co/MqggTUPv0A pic.twitter.com/E3PHiIYABA re: #268 Brian J. all descendants of CSA soldiers are disenfranchised. Forever. I would not favour punishing future generations for what their parents did. 274 teleskiguy Jun 15, 2017 * 7:17:45pm down 4 up report I was quite young, seven or eight years old. Nearest grocery store in those days was 26 miles away, so M&D shopped once a week, on Sunday. One Sunday my dad surprised me by buying an issue of Weekly World News with the cover headline BAT BOY FOUND IN CAVE. I still have the issue somewhere, down in my folks' basement among all other weird treasures. 275 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 7:18:46pm down 1 up report Oh, they're still around. Locusts Swarm Detroit (Goes to Weekly World News ) A swarm of locusts covered Detroit yesterday, raising fears that Chicago could be next. Michigan authorities sent out drones to spray pesticides over the city to prevent damage by the swarm, which numbers about 50,000 locusts, said a spokeswoman for the City of Detroit. (more at the link) 276 Teukka Jun 15, 2017 * 7:20:02pm down 4 up report [Embedded content] Yep. Mossad hasn't dropped its shoe yet for their asset Trump burned. Or it could be DGSE, Macron seems to be someone who plays hardball. Because it's Scott Dworkin, it may not be a bad idea to double-check and validate. 278 Stanley Sea Jun 15, 2017 * 7:27:57pm down 9 up report Inbox: @DHSgov Sec Kelly officially ends Obama's hard-fought DAPA memo on 5-year anniversary of DACA. ... Hard to imagine this wasn't intentional, considering vindictiveness of this administration. https://t.co/8KItNhy6dt 279 Barefoot Grin Jun 15, 2017 * 7:34:13pm down 7 up report It's times like this that I just bury myself in comfort music. Spinning now: Abbey Road, B-side. 280 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 7:36:32pm down 3 up report Oh, they're still around. Locusts Swarm Detroit (Goes to Weekly World News ) (more at the link) Which horseman is that? / 281 teleskiguy Jun 15, 2017 * 7:37:01pm down 2 up report re: #279 Barefoot Grin It's times like this that I just bury myself in comfort music. Spinning now: Abbey Road, B-side. 282 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 7:37:54pm down 2 up report re: #277 Myron Falwell Because it's Scott Dworkin, it may not be a bad idea to double-check and validate. I get that but there was letterhead. He wouldn't burn credibility on something do easily checked. If I'm wrong I'll block him. 283 Brian J. Jun 15, 2017 * 7:38:12pm down 1 up report re: #273 Anymouse I would not favour punishing future generations for what their parents did. That is why the Confederacy won the peace. They had no problem with that at all. 284 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 7:38:19pm down 5 up report WASHINGTON (AP) - US official says Pentagon to send almost 4,000 additional US forces to Afghanistan; announcement as early as next week. That would be pestilence, so #3. (/atheist) 287 Myron Falwell Jun 15, 2017 * 7:42:44pm down 5 up report re: #273 Anymouse I would not favour punishing future generations for what their parents did. We saw what absolutely no punishment got us... Jim Crow, the "Christian" Coalition, a diseased and depraved Republican Party, and Trump. 288 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 7:42:58pm down 1 up report re: #283 Brian J. That is why the Confederacy won the peace. They had no problem with that at all. I have no problem with the idea that every one of the leaders of the Confederacy including its Army and Navy officers being put on trial for rebellion. After WW2, we didn't try the children of Nazi officials. Those who gave silent assent to Germany's crimes were marched through extermination camps and such to show what their complacency wrought. 289 jaunte Jun 15, 2017 * 7:45:20pm down 7 up report The man is mentally unwell and everyone around him knows it pic.twitter.com/XeYan78oYS 290 teleskiguy Jun 15, 2017 * 7:45:38pm down 7 up report Yikes! Robert Mueller called me; wants to talk; Don't know what it's about, but it will be leaked in NY Slimes or Wash Compost tomorrow. folk's, when I make a joke, I establish the premise, then forgo a punchline in favor of a quick pivot to grievance https://t.co/8hJigPPqyM Fucker actually thinks that's funny as hell. 291 jaunte Jun 15, 2017 * 7:47:50pm down 4 up report Was there a joke in there? 292 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 7:48:29pm down 1 up report re: #285 Anymouse Well, considering I got a downvote for repeating the tweet in question (which was true), but I assume I was downvoted for the poster asking people to call out the direct plagiarism of Jim Wright, I removed the comment above. 293 jaunte Jun 15, 2017 * 7:49:28pm down 1 up report Huckabee is the Brick Tamland of comedy writers. 294 teleskiguy Jun 15, 2017 * 7:49:42pm down 6 up report Fucker actually thinks that's funny as hell. What a tryhard. @seanhannity uses VA shooting to hawk insurance that covers you if you need to use your gun to shoot someone: https://t.co/3lQJhesSjL 297 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 7:51:10pm down 6 up report There were also 5 investigations into "the time Hillary Clinton fired a White House travel agent who was embezzling." They lasted 5 years. I get that but there was letterhead. He wouldn't burn credibility on something do easily checked. If I'm wrong I'll block him. Oh absolutely right! I wasn't discrediting the letterhead at all. Others might, tho. :/ 299 makeitstop Jun 15, 2017 * 7:54:03pm down 2 up report Federal prosecutors on Thursday asked a judge to revoke the pretrial release of a man who was arrested in May for checking into the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. with two guns in his car, saying he had violated the terms of his release by, among other things, returning to Washington. Judge Robin Meriweather released the suspect, Bryan Moles, on June 2 under a number of conditions. In court filings Wednesday and Thursday, prosecutors said Moles had violated many of them. Postings from what prosecutors say is Moles' Facebook account show him using drugs in Washington, D.C., and include photos of the front pages of various Washington, D.C. newspapers, all of which feature reports on the shooting Wednesday morning at a Republican congressional baseball team practice in Alexandria, Virginia. " [T]he newspapers were placed in the photographs next to a non-descript black bag with unknown contents ," the filing notes. Emphasis mine. 300 Myron Falwell Jun 15, 2017 * 7:54:11pm down 4 up report Grifting uber Alles! Lumpy is more than likely a policy holder. Remember that he pointed his CCW at Juan Williams' head live in studio. 301 Kragar Jun 15, 2017 * 7:54:25pm down 3 up report Alex Jones releases secretly-taped audio of Megyn Kelly interview https://t.co/f3BmOBMK31 pic.twitter.com/VdYfTE4FaJ Every minute another one NY Daily News: Trump appoints family loyalist to senior federal housing job she has no direct experience for: https://t.co/IILB5yVAk7 pic.twitter.com/feMBCauV65 Huckabee is the Brick Tamland of comedy writers. I DON'T KNOW WHAT WE'RE YELLING ABOUT! LOUD NOISES!!! 304 sagehen Jun 15, 2017 * 7:56:19pm down 6 up report Fucker actually thinks that's funny as hell. I used to like Huckabee. In the 2008 campaign season, he said some very kind things about people he now hates. For example, re Obama and older Obama supporters, "I'm old enough to remember Jim Crow. I grew up under it. If it were me, I'd be a lot angrier and a lot more bitter than they are." And re Clintons: "yeah, her husband cheated. But she stuck with him, they took the steps they needed to to repair their marriage, and they're solid now. And they raised a wonderful daughter, so obviously they're doing something right." 305 Kragar Jun 15, 2017 * 7:56:24pm down 5 up report "No credible path forward" They could grant them a fucking greencard and be done with with it. 306 jaunte Jun 15, 2017 * 7:57:09pm down 2 up report Kentucky Doctors Warn Against a Regional Dish: Squirrels' Brains nytimes.com 307 Varek Raith Jun 15, 2017 * 7:57:45pm down 6 up report Kentucky Doctors Warn Against a Regional Dish: Squirrels' Brains nytimes.com 308 scottslemmons Jun 15, 2017 * 7:58:19pm down 1 up report I used to like Huckabee. In the 2008 campaign season, he said some very kind things about people he now hates. For example, re Obama and older Obama supporters, "I'm old enough to remember Jim Crow. I grew up under it. If it were me, I'd be a lot angrier and a lot more bitter than they are." And re Clintons: "yeah, her husband cheated. But she stuck with him, they took the steps they needed to to repair their marriage, and they're solid now. And they raised a wonderful daughter, so obviously they're doing something right." Raising a family of sociopaths and fledgling serial killers is a hell of a drug. 309 Skip Intro Jun 15, 2017 * 7:59:41pm down 6 up report re: #302 Stanley Sea This one is going to steal millions of dollars before she's through. She's been taught by the best grifters in the country. 310 Charles Johnson Jun 15, 2017 * 8:00:26pm down 21 up report Scott Dworkin is not a trustworthy source. I don't say this lightly. He's part of a tight-knit group of people who are pushing fake news to liberals, just like Cernovich and Chuck C. Johnson are peddling fake news to right wingers. He's preying on false hopes for personal profit, in my opinion. If you trust his "scoops," you'll get burned. 311 A dark and stormy covfefe Jun 15, 2017 * 8:01:21pm down 3 up report 312 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 8:02:21pm down 1 up report Well, "unknown black bag" could mean anything. The photos of the newspapers showing the reporting on the shooting are creepy (and that kind of thing can be an indicator of a criminal planning an event or evidence a criminal perpetrated one), but by itself is not much. On the other hand, the direct violations of parole should be enough to jail the guy. 313 Shiplord Kirel Jun 15, 2017 * 8:03:36pm down 13 up report Kentucky Doctors Warn Against a Regional Dish: Squirrels' Brains nytimes.com Well, there goes my Father's Day barbecue surprise plan. 314 Stanley Sea Jun 15, 2017 * 8:04:03pm down 4 up report re: #313 Shiplord Kirel Well, there goes my Father's Day barbecue surprise plan. Bummer. 315 Myron Falwell Jun 15, 2017 * 8:04:37pm down 3 up report Huckabee's campaign, in retrospect, felt like a "take that" from the so-called "Bible Belt" because the party leadership was pushing Romney hard. 316 makeitstop Jun 15, 2017 * 8:05:03pm down 6 up report Alex Jones releases secretly-taped audio of Megyn Kelly interview With those two snakes, it was always a question of who would bite first and who would get bit. The next two questions - how big is NBC's law suit against Jones going to be, and will they consider this a firing offense against Kelly? It would be cool as fuck if they both lost in some manner. 317 Shiplord Kirel Jun 15, 2017 * 8:08:10pm down 8 up report re: #313 Shiplord Kirel Well, there goes my Father's Day barbecue surprise plan. We still have the monkeys though. Just throw another chimp on the barbie and we'll be set. u0aPSqP04hItt3TH1e0WGLQtXzI5gZWFKnkEn0C+fJDQzPbw0/mKZdwacG5beuJs3+uhAJ4hYHfwhfnOIcazHMzehu/wcg3NztjcXqTQSiqgBUX2jQXmLkW8+GOy2mK2F6z+kFiDe2U= 318 William Lewis Jun 15, 2017 * 8:08:44pm down 3 up report re: #313 Shiplord Kirel Heh. I'll just stick to a nice stew with brown gravy & root veggies for tree rats. 4H76HdpKO9CYLYTtSFHY/KzPd/Wahh1fCt42oNNi4f6Pw2JQ0y4Hy5lEz0LfhaNcFOEHfuVVKKhZ85RA2VecJQon9yCEBoE9R6lqJHJhsFGTT972vE3GEDacBEGMV3NGphhEseDIii41xMobPwOq3UDxhK668JWevn3u0OUwbg53dXcMsUmt3AOtK+bpMz7kCG668slTyiu/dZ1G5SRodezjujRtMbI/Z7iiNVWkspzPIuc7uDHoAuYHdSU1qAbH76SXLbCUbjAusoamkL7VhA== 319 Myron Falwell Jun 15, 2017 * 8:09:05pm down 3 up report re: #310 Charles Johnson And again, it goes back to us individually having the wherewithal to resist confirmation bias. In theory, they can throw a nugget of truth amidst a torrent of garbage, but the nugget of truth might be enough to sustain the con. 320 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 8:09:13pm down 8 up report Flagging important end to NYT report: Mueller probe is looking at *money laundering* by Trump associates. https://t.co/NX5AY4k7vQ pic.twitter.com/8zyjk4Qb0x 321 Skip Intro Jun 15, 2017 * 8:11:40pm down 2 up report 322 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 8:11:57pm down 3 up report re: #313 Shiplord Kirel Well, there goes my Father's Day barbecue surprise plan. When the mad cow outbreak occurred in Europe, those who lived there at the time (including military) were barred from donating blood in the USA (and still are). As such, I cannot donate blood. Mad cow (and apparently now mad squirrel) are the specific reason I oppose otherwise do-gooder ideas to make organ donation mandatory. Since there is no test for vCJD, there is no way of knowing for example if you took one of my organs that you would give the disease to someone else (assuming I came down with it). In an opt-in scheme for organ donation, a lot of perfectly good organs will go unused. In a mandatory scheme, all sorts of diseases (some of which are untestable like vCJD) would be passed along. 323 jaunte Jun 15, 2017 * 8:13:13pm down 8 up report The Washington Post has updated the Kushner story to reflect the officials cited are indeed US officials. https://t.co/CC68XzOg7P When will Rosenstein recuse? 325 teleskiguy Jun 15, 2017 * 8:17:53pm down 2 up report Here's what the dropbox link @S_C_ posted. (My President) Obama inducting Jay into the Songwriters Hall of Fame pic.twitter.com/BVY7nVyDtz 326 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 8:19:46pm down 2 up report Energy Department shuts down international clean energy office https://t.co/UTfMJ4pLVM pic.twitter.com/RbNaYFJaR1 The Interior Department removed climate change a couple days ago from its Tribal Affairs Website about Tribal Climate Programmes. 328 Stanley Sea Jun 15, 2017 * 8:23:55pm down 6 up report In one tweet he wrote, "Why is that Hillary Clintons family and Dems dealings with Russia are not looked at, but my non-dealings are?" Asked for a comment, Mrs. Clinton's former campaign chairman, John Podesta, wrote in an email: "Psychotic transference." Where former Clinton campaign chair John Podesta calls Trump tweets, "Psychotic transference." https://t.co/BdOGqyBEka via @WSJ Hurr hurr, modurn workin' woman and feminist icon!!!11! 1. ICYMI: Important investigation into terrible conditions in Indonesian factory producing Ivanka brand shoes https://t.co/geQlIwN8yK 331 Kragar Jun 15, 2017 * 8:27:38pm down 4 up report Roll into my TL talking about destroying familes because the GOP hates immigrants, and you can fuck off and enjoy your block 332 retired cynic Jun 15, 2017 * 8:28:22pm down 4 up report Charlie Pierce has his own version of Jim Wright's Bang Bang Crazy series. Worth the read. 333 Ace-o-aces Jun 15, 2017 * 8:28:59pm down 3 up report Exclusive Sneak Peek @RealAlexJones @megynkelly The Interview! Full Interview to be released tonight on https://t.co/5KtICEUspi #NBCFakeNews pic.twitter.com/haeQxMrm74 ...get up with fleas. 334 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 8:30:11pm down 2 up report --- deleted --- Veteran of 3 presidential campaigns, served on White House staff (Clinton). Country over Party. Never Putin's bitch. My car is faster than yours. Chaos Agent. 335 KGxvi Jun 15, 2017 * 8:30:17pm down 2 up report I saw a headline earlier that Pence has hired private counsel. That led me to game out some scenarios, the most spectacular being: Pence realizes he stepped in it and seeing that he's potentially facing indictment, resigns. Before a new VP is selected and confirmed, something comes out that finally forces Ryan to break and green light impeachment. Articles of Impeachment are passed, but the TP/Freedumb Caucus/Trumpers in the House move for a change of leadership, so Ryan is out as speaker. Trump is convicted in the Senate with no VP yet sworn in. We see the swearing in of President Orrin Hatch... or even more crazy, Hatch says he doesn't want it (too old, not healthy enough, whatever the reason), so before the impeachment trial starts, the Senate has to elect a new President Pro Tem. Fun question, who would win that vote? 336 Ace-o-aces Jun 15, 2017 * 8:30:26pm down 2 up report re: #321 Skip Intro That's a lot of asshole in one room. 337 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 8:31:08pm down 7 up report Didn't he mock a Gold Star Family during his campaign? #GoldStarFamilies The word "hypocrite" does not begin to define. 338 KGxvi Jun 15, 2017 * 8:32:34pm down 3 up report [Embedded content] Veteran of 3 presidential campaigns, served on White House staff (Clinton). Country over Party. Never Putin's bitch. My car is faster than yours. Chaos Agent. I don't know if/when/how we recover, but I honestly think at this point the best thing for the US and the world at large is for this tape - if it exists - to be made public. The sooner the better. It's like the Black Mirror episode with the Prime Minister and the pig. 339 JordanRules Jun 15, 2017 * 8:32:45pm down 1 up report And the greatest rapper of all time OBAMA . Thank you 44 https://t.co/CueS0BynCj 340 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 8:35:05pm down 2 up report I saw a headline earlier that Pence has hired private counsel. That led me to game out some scenarios, the most spectacular being: Pence realizes he stepped in it and seeing that he's potentially facing indictment, resigns. Before a new VP is selected and confirmed, something comes out that finally forces Ryan to break and green light impeachment. Articles of Impeachment are passed, but the TP/Freedumb Caucus/Trumpers in the House move for a change of leadership, so Ryan is out as speaker. Trump is convicted in the Senate with no VP yet sworn in. We see the swearing in of President Orrin Hatch... or even more crazy, Hatch says he doesn't want it (too old, not healthy enough, whatever the reason), so before the impeachment trial starts, the Senate has to elect a new President Pro Tem. Fun question, who would win that vote? If Orrin Hatch declined, the line of succession dictates next that the Secretary of State becomes President (Rexxon Tillerson). Then Secretary of the Treasury (Steve Mnuchin), then Secretary of Defense (James Mattis) and so on. Hatch could also stay on just long enough to see a new VP made, then resign. Or worse for the House (my extreme gaming scenario), Ryan is forced to resign or ousted as Speaker, and Nancy Pelosi gets put in. 341 Stanley Sea Jun 15, 2017 * 8:35:21pm down 8 up report I honestly read this story 8 times looking for clues if it could be fake because my god every paragraph is amazing https://t.co/XNipBEwtBY 342 sagehen Jun 15, 2017 * 8:35:38pm down 5 up report Wasn't he the guy who did the "scoop" with Louise Mensch about the impeachment thing with the SCOTUS stuff right before the foreign trip? 344 sagehen Jun 15, 2017 * 8:37:43pm down 3 up report 345 JordanRules Jun 15, 2017 * 8:40:04pm down 2 up report re: #343 klys (maker of Silmarils) Yeah that SCOTUS Marshal serves Impeachment Articles on AF1 story. 346 covfefe Jun 15, 2017 * 8:40:36pm down 15 up report See the number of people that VOTED for Hillary? 347 KGxvi Jun 15, 2017 * 8:44:50pm down 3 up report re: #340 Anymouse If Orrin Hatch declined, the line of succession dictates next that the Secretary of State becomes President (Rexxon Tillerson). Then Secretary of the Treasury (Steve Mnuchin), then Secretary of Defense (James Mattis) and so on. Hatch could also stay on just long enough to see a new VP made, then resign. Or worse for the House (my extreme gaming scenario), Ryan is forced to resign or ousted as Speaker, and Nancy Pelosi gets put in. I don't think anyone in Congress would be ok with any member of Trump's cabinet becoming president if this scenario plays out. Which is why I said a change in Pres Pro Tem would be before the impeachment trial. Now, playing off your Pelosi suggestion, maybe the non-Trump Republicans in the House join with the Dems for the Speaker vote and settle on some sort of compromise pick. 348 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 8:46:10pm down 8 up report Obituary: Col. Catherine Betz, age 92, veteran of the Vietnam War. Col. Catherine Betz had a love of the Army that was surpassed only by her love for others. When a badly burned baby boy was left at St. Elizabeth's Orphanage in Saigon, the career military nurse became his godmother, cradling the Vietnamese child for his baptism, according to newspaper accounts. Her commander was godfather. The godparents and troops sent money to the orphanage for the boy's education until the fall of Saigon, Col. Betz told a reporter for the Retrospect in 2011. "She wanted us to bring him to the United States so one of us could adopt him," her sister, Mary Mullen, of Bellmawr, said during an interview Monday. "She really was a hero." Col. "Kitty" Betz, 92, a 1942 graduate of Collingswood High School and a Philadelphia nursing school student, died Monday, May 22, in El Paso, Texas. More at philly.com 349 Kragar Jun 15, 2017 * 8:47:03pm down 19 up report Congressional Democrats won the baseball game, but gave the trophy to GOPers to put in the office of Congressman Steve Scalise. [?][?] This is also what happened in the election. https://t.co/BNYlZnlXWo 350 teleskiguy Jun 15, 2017 * 8:48:21pm down 5 up report 1/3 Fun music fact about me: I saw Type O Negative when I was a teenager with a close friend at the Ogden Theater in Denver. At the ... 2/3 venue next door (The Fillmore Auditorium) Bob Dylan was playing at the same time. Type O Negative's lead singer Peter Steele made ... 3/3 fun of us that night. "You guys are here watching us play when you could be over next door watching Bob Dylan." #RIPPeterSteele 351 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 8:48:24pm down 1 up report re: #343 klys (maker of Silmarils) Wasn't he the guy who did the "scoop" with Louise Mensch about the impeachment thing with the SCOTUS stuff right before the foreign trip? Did he? 352 Shiplord Kirel Jun 15, 2017 * 8:48:41pm down 2 up report re: #340 Anymouse If Orrin Hatch declined, the line of succession dictates next that the Secretary of State becomes President (Rexxon Tillerson). Then Secretary of the Treasury (Steve Mnuchin), then Secretary of Defense (James Mattis) and so on. Hatch could also stay on just long enough to see a new VP made, then resign. Or worse for the House (my extreme gaming scenario), Ryan is forced to resign or ousted as Speaker, and Nancy Pelosi gets put in. I think Hatch would nominate Willard Romney as VP, then resign as soon as he is sworn in. 353 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 8:50:20pm down 4 up report re: #352 Shiplord Kirel I think Hatch would nominate Willard Romney as VP, then resign as soon as he is sworn in. Honestly, as much as I hate Republicans, anyone not involved with this election and Trump word l would be better. 354 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 8:52:07pm down 2 up report Honestly, as much as I hate Republicans, anyone not involved with this election and Trump word l would be better. I could also see Sen. Hatch nominate Evan McMullin. Why yes, yes indeed it was him: For those of you who follow Louise Mensch and Claude Taylor, please value your brain more. This is not how it works. https://t.co/VAZfdq6nAT pic.twitter.com/Fn2iZnyFji 356 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 8:57:20pm down 3 up report Thanks. I deleted that and am going to Block. Thanks. I deleted that and am going to Block. To be fair, it can be hard to keep track of all the crappy sources on Twitter but he's definitely been playing into people's confirmation bias a LOT. 358 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 9:00:09pm down 4 up report re: #357 klys (maker of Silmarils) To be fair, it can be hard to keep track of all the crappy sources on Twitter but he's definitely been playing into people's confirmation bias a LOT. Considering Louise Mensch was a Conservative MP in the UK, I was never inclined to consider her a credible source about anything in US politics without confirmation. 359 bratwurst Jun 15, 2017 * 9:00:30pm down 10 up report Not saying this because I'm feeling sorry for them...but the Pence's don't have much money at all...major debt. https://t.co/kP9AyTczA8 Good thing Trump is so famously generous. https://t.co/q2NK9xHRDT 360 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 9:04:38pm down 3 up report As does every other veterans organisation, the ones I belong to oppose individual unemployability cuts. (That is disabled veteran benefits for those deemed unemployable, including me.) The GOP wants to cut those benefits to balance the budget provide tax cuts for the rich. More big VA news: @SecShulkin backs off Trump budget plan to cut elderly vets' benefits https://t.co/Y66OTO2O1d #IndividualUnemployability The Military Times link in the tweet above is bad. This is the correct link: (That would be the famous GOP support for the troops and vets again, which is why I have never voted for a Republican): Veterans Affairs officials on Wednesday defended plans to strip tens of thousands of dollars in unemployment benefits from elderly veterans as responsible reforms to the department's growing budget, but opponents promised to fight the idea. Included in President Donald Trump's $186.5 billion VA budget for fiscal 2018 -- a nearly 6 percent boost in discretionary spending from this year -- are plans to dramatically cut the department's Individual Unemployability program. Up to 225,000 veterans over the age of 60, at least 7,000 of whom are over 80, could be impacted by the change. Under current rules, the IU program awards payouts at the 100 percent disabled rate to veterans who cannot find work due to service-connected injuries, even if actual rating is less than that. (more at the link) 362 FormerDirtDart Jun 15, 2017 * 9:17:58pm down 4 up report Friday's front page: Her housing experience? ZERO Her new job? N.Y. HOUSING BOSS Meet... THE WEDDING SCAMMER https://t.co/wpcGuiHORj pic.twitter.com/PC4uI2roMz *people perpetuating national stereotypes during floods* is one of my favourite photographic genres. pic.twitter.com/uVAj4CArls Hmmmmm....All the Cheeto scammers have ill fitting suits. 365 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 9:32:28pm down 6 up report I told my wife she gets a twenty-one taste bud salute for dinner tonight. The recipe for Vindaloo salmon is now on one of her Websites: 366 JordanRules Jun 15, 2017 * 9:33:39pm down 7 up report Trump Era Moment: EPA's Scott Pruitt, with 45 CEOs of largest oil and gas companies in the USA for private briefing. Profits, to Trump Hotel pic.twitter.com/aZICDHGjkk 367 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 9:35:21pm down 2 up report Not even trying to hide the graft and corruption I see. (That would be another reason I have never voted for a Republican. I have not had one Republican president since Eisenhower that was not corrupt in some way, and I was way too young to vote for Ike.) 368 Targetpractice Jun 15, 2017 * 9:35:29pm down 4 up report No doubt they're going to discuss renewable energy investment. 369 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 9:38:09pm down 4 up report re: #365 Anymouse Her funniest recipe (actually two) is a recipe for Crow (as in, if you have to eat crow). They both tell how to cook crow: 370 Varek Raith Jun 15, 2017 * 9:42:38pm down 1 up report re: #369 Anymouse So.... Gonna share some of that food with the rest of the board??? 371 Amory Blaine Jun 15, 2017 * 9:45:34pm down 2 up report Trump's disrespect for US institutions, draws his base to him. If this is a feature instead of a bug, then the 65% number would have a percentage of people who also don't respect the institutions. And 35% that thinks he does might have moderates that give him the benefit of a doubt. 372 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 9:51:43pm down 2 up report re: #370 Varek Raith So.... Gonna share some of that food with the rest of the board??? Nope. We occasionally have pot-luck dinners in the village hall or fire hall though. For those my wife will bring something along (and we bring back empty dishes). 373 MsJ Jun 15, 2017 * 9:53:25pm down 2 up report Mueller had assembled a hell of a team. Trump has got to be shiting his pants. 374 allegro Jun 15, 2017 * 9:55:29pm down 2 up report Mueller had assembled a hell of a team. Trump has got to be shooting his pants. OK now I know it's time to go to bed because the image this is evoking in mah brainz eyeball is way funnier than it should be. 375 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 10:01:00pm down 1 up report The Daily Fail with its regular dose of casual racism. 376 Anymouse Jun 15, 2017 * 10:34:13pm down 1 up report Jim Bakker claims Stephen Colbert is provoking violence against President Trump:

1 I Would Prefer Not To Jun 15, 2017 * 3:31:59pm down 16 up report Donald Trump and respect don't belong in the same sentence. 2 jaunte Jun 15, 2017 * 3:32:26pm down 13 up report Two-thirds of Americans, or 65 percent, think Trump doesn't have much respect for the country's democratic institutions and traditions or has none at all .

By Sharon Rondeau on Tuesday, March 6, 2018 Editorials IS THIS WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS? by Viv Forbes, carbon-sense.com (Mar. 6, 2018) -- Greens hate individual freedom and private property. They dream of a centralised unelected global government, financed by taxes on developed nations and controlled by all the tentacles of the UN. No longer is real pollution of our environment the main Green [...] By Sharon Rondeau on Sunday, December 18, 2016 Editorials FROM "IN DEFENSE OF RURAL AMERICA" by Ron Ewart, President, NARLO, (c)2016 (Dec. 18, 2016) -- To millions of Americans, the environmental movement has become a cult-like obsession that has consumed the collective mindset with emotional hogwash, propaganda, outright lies and irrational guilt. Some have labeled this cult "The Green Plague." (The "Plague") The "Plague" [...] By Sharon Rondeau on Sunday, November 23, 2014 Editorials FROM "IN DEFENSE OF RURAL AMERICA" by Ron Ewart, (c)2014, President, NARLO (Nov. 23, 2014) -- "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There has never been a democracy that did not commit suicide." John Adams, 2nd President of the United States "Dominance. Control. These things the unjust seek most [...] By Sharon Rondeau on Wednesday, March 20, 2013 Editorials "TEA PARTY" POLITICIANS FAILING TO CARRY OUT THEIR PROMISES by JB Williams, (c)2013 (Mar. 20, 2013) -- The shocking results of the 2008 election, placing an individual with a totally blank resume void of any history of accomplishment or experience at running anything, in the highest office in our land, sparked the advent of the great [...] By Sharon Rondeau on Monday, June 11, 2012 Editorials WHO QUALIFIES AND WHO DOESN'T? by JB Williams, (c)2012 (Jun. 11, 2012) -- The recent release of my previous column titled Rubio Can Lock the Election for Obama resulted in numerous reader emails that demonstrate a continuing confusion over the indisputable definition and application of the term Natural Born Citizen. This follow up column is [...] By Sharon Rondeau on Tuesday, June 5, 2012 National "MARXISTS, GLOBALISTS, BIG LABOR..." by Sharon Rondeau (Jun. 5, 2012) -- On June 2, 2012, presidential candidate Dr. Laurie Roth issued a press release indicating that she had interviewed Mike Zullo, lead investigator of the Cold Case Posse, and Dr. Jerome Corsi, WorldNetDaily investigative journalist and author, on the air about their recent trip to [...] By Sharon Rondeau on Sunday, May 20, 2012 Editorials TO INCREASING GOVERNMENT POWER by Ron Ewart, (c)2012 (May 20, 2012) -- "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There has never been a democracy that did not commit suicide." -- John Adams, 2nd President of the United States "Dominance. Control. These things the unjust seek most of all. And so it [...] By Sharon Rondeau on Tuesday, May 15, 2012 Editorials "ALL CITIZENS WILL BE EQUALLY DESTITUTE" by JB Williams, (c)2012 (May 15, 2012) -- The more things change, the more they stay the same! Communism and socialism have always been sold as populist theories and advanced by those seeking to serve only themselves. Nothing has changed in that regard, as Obama-Clinton deploy The Cloward-Piven Strategy via [...] By Sharon Rondeau on Sunday, March 25, 2012 Editorials IS THE EROSION OF OUR CONSTITUTION IRREVERSIBLE? by Ron Ewart, (c)2012 (Mar. 25, 2012) -- "Never before, in the history of America, has a movement done more to destroy individual liberties and property rights, as has the environmental movement. In the name of social justice and environmental protection, as crafted by the United Nations at [...] By Sharon Rondeau on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 Editorials MILITARY NOW EMPOWERED TO ARREST U.S. CITIZENS ON U.S. SOIL by JB Williams, (c)2011 (Dec. 6, 2011) -- At first glance, I had some doubts about all the hoopla over the pending Defense Authorization Act and claims that it was essentially a declaration of war on American citizens, under the guise of national security and [...] By Sharon Rondeau on Thursday, August 18, 2011 Blog of the Day WILL THE U.S. GO THE SAME WAY AS EUROPE? by Will, blogging at GiveUsLiberty1776 (Aug. 18, 2011) -- The whole sorry British adventure with the EU and open borders is exactly what our politicians are doing to America. They want it to happen. They planned it, and are slavering for the end of freedom in America. Why [...]

By Sharon Rondeau on Tuesday, March 6, 2018 Editorials IS THIS WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS? by Viv Forbes, carbon-sense.com (Mar. 6, 2018) -- Greens hate individual freedom and private property. They dream of a centralised unelected global government, financed by taxes on developed nations and controlled by all the tentacles of the UN. No longer is real pollution of our environment the main Green [...]

Blue Lives Matter is racist bullshit. Period. It has never been safer to be a police officer. It's not even in the TOP 10 most dangerous jobs. And when a cop DOES get killed, you better believe the killer will be arrested, charged, convicted and will do time. They don't suffer any measure of systemic oppression. They are the ENACTORS of systemic oppression. This is unacceptable on so many levels! First and most importantly altering the flag is disgusting and anyone or any organization etc that does so should be held accountable and reprimanded! Also, It causes a bigger divide between citizens and LEOs! I have spoke with many people on this very subject and they all have agreed so far that this signals "gang like" activity or "us vs them" mentality! I can't even believe we are having to sign a petition for this! This being unacceptable should be common knowledge and common sense! I mean come on, what the hell is America coming to? I'm sickened, saddened, confused and down right disgusted at this behavior and the action of LEOs across this country!

Blue Lives Matter is racist bullshit. Period. It has never been safer to be a police officer.

Dr. Ashraf Ramelah is founder and president of Voice of the Copts a human right organization with offices in USA and Italy - recently spoke at the first congress of SION in New York City on September 11, 2012. Most Recent Articles by Dr. Ashraf Ramelah: Previous Page 1 2 3 4 Next Page Sep 20, 2016 -- Dr. Ashraf Ramelah Egyptian Copts in the diaspora of New York and New Jersey must decide to obey a call by Orthodox Pope Tawadros II of Egypt for a NYC rally at the UN General Assembly in support of President Al-Sisi's speech on September 20. An official statement by the Coptic Church indicated that Bishop Beeman of Nakada and Qus and Bishop Yuanis of Assuit were sent to the US to arrange and promote Coptic crowd support prior to the president's arrival. The statement said that "We, all Egyptians loyal to our home land, must welcome the president and strengthen him in all the work he does for the good of Egypt." Because "the Pope has great interest in the success of this visit," the message urged that Copts do everything possible to ensure the success of this visit, adding, "It is good for Egypt and all Egyptians." The statement concluded by saying that "Egyptian leaders of evangelical churches in America demand the same support of their followers and should rally for the president." Sep 12, 2016 -- Dr. Ashraf Ramelah Mocking Islam or mocking the prophet of Islam spells doom. In Egypt you will be arrested, have home and property confiscated, and be coerced to "force emigrate" from your town. Then count on a five-year prison term. This was exactly the penalty for four Coptic Christian school boys, ages 14 through 17, and their teacher. Modernity grazed the 7th century when a lost cell phone turned up in the hands of a sectarian street thug ready for Sharia justice against its owner. The sim card showed a video of a 36-second skit mocking ISIS terrorists praying to Allah. Away from home on a school trip, the boys used their teacher's phone to record the funny scene they acted out, thinking ISIS was fair game and knowing that Islam was not. Unfortunately for them, the cell phone was lost or stolen and missing for a solid year. Found by Muslims who became offended by the "blasphemy", the Egyptian courts overlooked the violent retaliation by the gang prompted to attack homes and businesses and instead arrested the boys and their teacher. Sep 11, 2016 -- Dr. Ashraf Ramelah I grew up in an Islamic country within the Coptic Christian community of Egypt. On September 11, 2001 I was already a free man living between two nation-state democracies - Italy and the USA. I must admit I never looked back. I never again thought of tyrannical rule and persecution - the words and actions of a cruel, irrational dictator and his minions. I escaped bigotry and hatred. I chose a future for myself and left my family and country behind - radical but necessary. I never spoke of my origins thereafter - the persecution Copts suffer. In a sense, I tacitly endorsed Egypt's official "democratic" image projected to the West. The horror of 9/11 broke my heart and my silence, giving birth to Voice of the Copts (a human rights organization) as a response to Islam's expression here in America. Memories of my childhood flooded back, and I was suddenly compelled to speak out for the Copts of Egypt--explain our plight as a warning to America. Unlike the Coptic community of 20 million in Egypt that has no military, no soldiers, and no political leaders, America could and would strike back. I wasn't worried about that kind of warfare. Aug 25, 2016 -- Dr. Ashraf Ramelah The ancient Greek Olympiad, the origin of today's Olympic Games, was held in honor of Zeus. The games were used as a political tool between rival city-states. It was all about victory and the assertion of dominance. The inception of the Olympiad dates back to nearly nine hundred years before the moon god, Allah, whispered his special message into humanity through the angel Gabriel. So, it is not odd that upon completion of the August 12 judo match of the Rio Olympics between Egyptian competitor, Islam el-Shehaby, and Isaeli champion, Or Sasson, that the devout Salafi publicly observed his god by refusing, according to Quranic commandment, to shake the extended winning hand of Sasson, the Jew. When the match was over, Shehaby ignored Sasson, following the Quranic verse 2:65 (And will ye knew those amongst you who transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath: We said to them: "Be ye apes, despised and rejected"). This was not the case of a sore loser. The devout Muslim was paying homage to Allah. Deference to Allah is why Egyptian Copts are barred (unofficially) from Egypt's Olympic training camps at an age when children are singled out for athletic talent. Christian family ancestry (the name of one's great-great-grandfather) or simply the mandatory Egyptian ID card indicating Christianity will shut any candidate out. Aug 17, 2016 -- Dr. Ashraf Ramelah President Al-Sisi: For the first time since your installation as president, Copts in the United States protested the persecution of Copts in Egypt. The protest in Washington, DC on August 2 against your regime was symbolic; no one really expects a response from the Obama administration. If the past is an indication, the American president is deaf to the cries of suffering Christians. After Egypt's 2013 mass uprising where more than 30 million men and women fighting for freedom stood up against the fascist regime of the Muslim Brotherhood and Mohammad Morsi, you appeared as a "savior"--promising democracy, freedom of religion and law and order. Jul 18, 2016 -- Dr. Ashraf Ramelah In the ongoing jihad against Egypt's Coptic Christians one Bedouin tradition adopted by Islam keeps jihad in business. After every terrorist act, the victim is bullied into an "arbitration" hearing and the criminal courts are circumvented. No serious investigation is ever made nor any evidence gathered because the local government conducts the meeting of "reconciliation" without any need of the facts. Here's how it works: A regional government official from the office of the governor (currently an Al-Sisi appointee) "offers" the victim a chance to apologize to the perpetrators of the crime. A Muslim official and the Muslim mayor enforce "peace" between the non-Muslim victim and the Muslim attacker. In the aftermath of bloodshed, the victim apologizes to the perpetrator(s) and drops all rights to press charges of assault, rape, arson, or murder. In many cases, the victim and family are forced to leave town permanently, abandoning property and home. The victim turns over all possessions to the jihadists who divide the spoils among them. With almost no exception an intricate narrative is scripted to reach the news agencies. It characterizes the victim as guilty--deserving of the assault under the code of Sharia divine law. Since every Christian belongs to a parish, a Muslim official coerces the church into the process so that the priest or bishop is forced to submit to the authority of Sharia law along with the victim. This surrender of conscience is the final humiliation. Jul 11, 2016 -- Dr. Ashraf Ramelah For over four months, the Egyptian government has refused to submit the documents requested by the Italian judicial authorities concerning the assassination of Giulio Regeni, an Italian citizen. Reaction to Regeni's death was reflected in the Italian Parliament with the approval in the Senate on June 28 of an amendment that blocks the sale of spare parts to Egypt for the F16 fighter jets. Jun 16, 2016 -- Dr. Ashraf Ramelah Pope Francis, who is "building bridges to build peace" around the world, has naturally reached out to embrace Sunni Muslims. Last month, for the first time after years of Vatican silence, Pope Francis summoned to his private library in Rome grand imam Ahmed El-Tayeb of Cairo's Al-Ahzar Mosque Institute. Absent a press release before this event, the Pope was quoted as saying, "this meeting is the message" - leading all to dwell on the meaning and purpose of their 25 minutes together. Christians, especially Egyptian Coptic Christians, have observed the Catholic pope give the "sign of peace" to the grand imam who has yet been unwilling to denounce ISIS. Unity existed between the two religious branches previous to former Pope Benedict XVI condemning Islam's inclination to violence. Feb 1, 2016 -- Dr. Ashraf Ramelah Egypt's deep state is a bureaucratic theocracy. This network forms the infrastructure of the official government. It is accountable to the doctrines put forth by the powerful Islamic clerics of Al-Ahzar Institute. The religion of Islam, when merged with the state, can better exert Allah's powerful hold over the individual. Only then can it fulfill its destiny. While controlling Egypt, Islam's elite, in turn, have control over its whole world of believers. Their race for world domination begins in Egypt. Brave Egyptians resisting the system and exposing ideological underpinnings will eventually erode Islam's backward concepts and entwinement with the state. It can rob power from religionists and lead to the release of followers around the world. Believers can then be inspired to replace blind obedience and fear with individual thinking, free will and assimilation into Western societies - a hopeful scenario. Dec 6, 2015 -- Dr. Ashraf Ramelah When the subject is Israel, passions flare. In Egypt last week, a hornet's nest of reactions surrounded Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II's decision to go to Jerusalem upon the death of the Coptic Church's second-in-command, Bishop Abraham, who was head of the Jerusalem and Near East Orthodox Diocese in Jerusalem since 1992. Respectful of the bishop's last will and testament designating Jerusalem as his final resting place, Tawadros II led a delegation of clergy from Cairo to Israel. When the church announced the news of Pope Tawadros II's trip to lead the bishop's funeral, angry reactions flooded the Egyptian media--writers, intellectuals and politicians ran the gamut of speculation and opinion over the "real" reasons for the pope's visit. In order to go to Israel, Tawadros II had to disobey the Coptic Orthodox 1980 Holy Synod Resolution inherited from his predecessor, Pope Shenuda III even though he pointedly upheld the resolution upon his installation three years ago. The edict forbids Orthodox Christians to travel to Israel without exception. Jun 11, 2015 -- Dr. Ashraf Ramelah Just three weeks ago the Egyptian court sentenced Egypt's former Muslim Brotherhood president, Mohammed Morsi, to the death penalty after evidence presented from Egyptian intelligence documents proved him guilty of spying for Qatar, Iran and Turkey. There are more than one hundred names on the list with him who are all convicted of the same crimes: murdering protesters, transferring top secret military documents to foreign countries, and burning the museum library which destroyed rare manuscripts and ancient artifacts. Mar 11, 2015 -- Dr. Ashraf Ramelah The Honorable John Boehner Speaker United States House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515 Dear Speaker Boehner, Please allow me to congratulate you on your tremendous success in having Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu address Congress. The world needs to hear the truth from our friend, Israel. For decades Israel has suffered terrorist aggression from neighboring states. Feb 19, 2015 -- Dr. Ashraf Ramelah Once again, tragedy strikes the Coptic community with the brutal murders of twenty-one Christian Copts in Libya. Living under constant threat of a hate-driven and blood-thirsty Islam, Copts of Egypt have learned to expect anything at any time, and mourners go about the streets. Jan 15, 2015 -- Dr. Ashraf Ramelah Just one month before the Paris massacre of Charlie Hebdo and his staff, the prestigious Sunni Muslim Al-Azhar Institute organized and held a conference at its headquarters in Cairo to address worldwide terrorism. It was entitled, 'Al-Azhar in the face of extremism and terrorism.' After two full days of discourse focused on the ISIS (Islamic State Iraq Syria) terror group, Al-Azhar concluded with a statement aligned with an earlier one made by President Obama. ISIS is not Islamic. The President saw fit to omit this opinion from his subsequent speech at the UN, but Al-Ahzar is sticking to it. Jan 8, 2015 -- Dr. Ashraf Ramelah At the end of last month, the Egyptian courts of Alexandria delivered a verdict to ban annual visits to the historic mausoleum of Moroccan Rabbi Yacoub Abu Hasira in the nearby village of Demto. After thirteen years in the court system, the Administrative Court of Alexandria issued a definitive verdict to abolish the annual celebrations of the Rabbi's birth on the merit of evidence that Jewish visitors "violate public order and morality and use the opportunity to desecrate the land of Egypt." In response to the verdict, Israelis requested to have the tomb of Abu Hasira transferred to East Jerusalem. Egyptian authorities denied their request. Aug 7, 2014 -- Dr. Ashraf Ramelah Today, August 6, 2014, a new political idea is born in Italy - a new political party created not by professional politicians but by people of different backgrounds pledging to one moral, ideological goal: the revival of Italy. Today is the birth of La Rinascita Italiana (The Italian Revival). The party will stand out in seeking to reclaim citizen rights in a program designed to benefit the Italian people. Jul 24, 2014 -- Dr. Ashraf Ramelah An unusual security search at the entrance of the Egyptian presidential palace in Cairo took place two days ago as reported by Egyptian newspapers and the Italian RAI 24 news. John Kerry and his staff were asked to go through a metal detector, and one staff member was asked to show the contents of his pockets before visiting President Al-Sisi. This humiliating reversal of protocol was a sign of mistrust towards the U.S. by an Egypt never shy about expressing hostility for America's support of the Morsi regime. Kerry's visit to Egypt was for the purpose of brokering peace between Israel and Gaza (the Hamas terrorist organization). Jul 22, 2014 -- Dr. Ashraf Ramelah A few weeks ago shocking news arrived from Israel regarding the kidnapping of three young men. As news first circulated around the world, Israelis braced for the worst and prayed prayers for the safe delivery of the Israeli captives. How would this menacing action unfold for the victims and the country? Jul 17, 2014 -- Dr. Ashraf Ramelah Some would say Egypt now leads the world in the war against terror, and Egyptians are relieved to see punishment for Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood backers. Concerned with Egypt's "overall stability" during his June visit to Cairo, John Kerry cautioned President Al-Sisi about the recent death sentences for MB members (theguardian.com, June 22), emphasizing tactical errors in the political environment. State Department officials are concerned by Al-Sisi's "polarizing" tactics and seem to imply that getting on with the business of democracy has nothing to do with cleaning corruption and hunting down jihadists. If Al-Sisi manages to convert an Islamic state to anywhere near the full experience of human rights and equality it would be a first in this part of the world, and it would require beginning with the hardline he has now taken. Jun 23, 2014 -- Dr. Ashraf Ramelah As the live airwaves of Egypt's state TV deliver the Al Ahzar lectures cautioning against apostasy and Atheism to all those carrying state-issued I.D. cards indicating Egypt's official religion, Egypt's newly installed president, Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi, foregoes public prayers and mosque attendance as the first modern leader ever to skip over this tradition within his initial days of office. Previous Page 1 2 3 4 Next Page

Dr. Ashraf Ramelah Egyptian Copts in the diaspora of New York and New Jersey must decide to obey a call by Orthodox Pope Tawadros II of Egypt for a NYC rally at the UN General Assembly in support of President Al-Sisi's speech on September 20.

If you send your children to a school more focused on "Resisting Trump" than providing them with a well rounded education, this is what you get, folks. This very sad story takes place out in Kent School District in Washington state. Various class members were preparing for international school trips which had been in the works for some time, including journeys to Canada and Japan. Then some bad news came in. They wouldn't be going... not for a lack of funding or any security concerns, but because the faculty was concerned that their illegal immigrant students wouldn't be able to get back into the country. And if they can't go, nobody is going . (The Olympian) The Kent School Board has decided to halt all international field trips, worried that stricter border enforcement could prevent Kent students who are in the United States illegally from returning to the country. The decision, announced at what was described as an emotional board meeting Wednesday night, resulted in the immediate cancellation of two Kentlake High School trips scheduled for this school year: an education exchange to Osaka, Japan, and a band trip to Victoria, B.C., that has been a school tradition for 18 years. Chris Loftis, the district's executive director of communications, said the "sometimes confusing messaging" from President Donald Trump's administration regarding border enforcement raised questions about whether all of the students slated to go on those trips would be allowed to return to the U.S., especially if they lacked adequate documentation of legal U.S. residency. This is truly staggering. It's difficult to imagine what a lot of these students and their parents must be feeling right about now. All of the fundraising that went into their efforts to prepare for these trips abroad is effectively wasted. An opportunity to travel which is far above and beyond anything we had available when I was in high school has gone up in smoke. And it's apparently beyond the control of the rest of the families. All so those who are in the country illegally to begin with can remain safe from law enforcement. It's not hard to imagine a situation where some students couldn't afford the contribution for the trip and the rest of the families came up with a way to raise the money. If there was a critically ill student who was unable to make the journey you can even picture the rest of the kids deciding to remain at home in solidarity. But this? The school is funded by taxpayers... presumably those who are in the country legally. And now all of their kids will effectively be punished to protect families who are breaking the law. This is precisely why it's not enough to win elections at the national level. As I've said here in the past, you need to be active in your own state, county and community, right down to getting sane people elected to the local school board. Had that been done in the Kent School District these administrators might be home on unpaid leave (because you still can't fire the worst teachers... thanks, unions) and the kids might be packing for Canada and Japan. Forget making America great again. I'd just settle for "sane" at this point.

If you send your children to a school more focused on "Resisting Trump" than providing them with a well rounded education, this is what you get, folks.

Islamofascists , CNN has your back. Anchor Chris Cuomo fears that reports of the Islamic State 's rape, enslavement and torture of women promote a negative stereotype of Muslims . While discussing a recent New York Times story that detailed the terrorist group's slave trade in women with his guest, Muslim women's rights activist Qanta Ahmed, on Friday, Cuomo made his point. "This feeds the impression that these Muslims are animals, savages, and their faith makes them that way," Cuomo told Ahmed. "And it feeds an impression of what Islam is." Ahmed brushed that off and got back to the truth of the matter. "This is Islamism at work. We've talked a lot about this on this show. Islamism is totalitarianism," she said. "That means absolute domination of the self. These Islamists are dominating to extinction girls and women." We know first-hand that censorship against conservative news is real. Please share stories and encourage your friends to sign up for our daily email blast so they are not getting shut out of seeing conservative news. Carmine Sabia Jr started his own professional wrestling business at age 18 and went on to become a real estate investor. Currently he is a pundit who covers political news and current events. Latest posts by Carmine Sabia ( see all )

Islamofascists , CNN has your back. Anchor Chris Cuomo fears that reports of the Islamic State 's rape, enslavement and torture of women promote a negative stereotype of Muslims .

Question: if there's no such thing as a slut, how can anyone be guilty of "slut-shaming?" Don't dismiss it as one of those timeless philosophical conundrums (ie. "Which came first, the slut or the shamer?"). The answer is an important key to navigating the shoals of perpetual feminist outrage. A key part of modern feminism seems to consist of dressing provocatively and then shrieking at men who are, well, provoked. And woe unto those who would suggest there are appropriate and inappropriate modes of dress or behavior. They are committing the unspeakable crime of "slut-shaming." The truth is, most people wouldn't use such crass language. Feminists, however, are not most people. They're happy to name a type of woman that they then say doesn't exist. The latest example of this is a Youtube video by British videoblogger Hannah Witton , making the rounds on The Huffington Post and Yahoo! . The video began with Witton asking, "What is so bad about looking like a slut, that you'd want to disassociate yourself from that?" She then read answers she received on social media to the question, "What is a slut?" Of course the answers she approves of bash men and "the patriarchy." Then came the point: "There is no such thing as a slut. People's sexual behavior is none of your business and people can sleep with as many or as little people as they like and that does not make them a slut or it doesn't make them a prude, it just makes them who they are and that's their choices and it shouldn't affect you." Witton then went on to claim that dress had no correlation with sexual behavior in this beautifully circular argument: "As much as you like to think it, there is no correlation. And also there is no such thing as a slut. So, however a woman dresses, she's not a slut, because sluts don't exist." Huffington Post writer Nina Bahadur obtained the video from the feminist video blog "Wifey TV." Bahadur praised Witton for "breaking down the phenomena of slut-shaming and judging a woman's sexual activity by her clothing choices." Yahoo! Style writer Kathleen Schaefer promoted the video as answering the question, "How to respond to the question 'Do I look like a slut?'" Schaefer then went on to quote Emily Lindin, founder of the "Unslut Project" which fights to end "sexual bullying and slut shaming." The elevation of slut-shaming to capital crime has been a feminist project for a while now. Olga Khazan wrote about it back in May . Judging on how often the term "slut-shaming" has appeared in recent media, with blogs defending Kim Kardashian's nude photos, the celebrity nude photo leak a few months prior, and even school dress code s becoming an issue, this idea seems to be gaining mainstream appeal. Culture/Society Feminism Huffington Post

The latest example of this is a Youtube video by British videoblogger Hannah Witton , making the rounds on The Huffington Post and Yahoo! . The video began with Witton asking, "What is so bad about looking like a slut, that you'd want to disassociate yourself from that?"

October 24, 2015 ( LifeSite ) - The final Synod document has received generally strong approval (with the exception of certain paragraphs as noted below) and was passed by the Synod fathers. The Synod is finally over. However, as explained below, there are still reasons to be very concerned about the Synod outcome and that confusion will still reign about what the Church really teaches today on the issues discussed. The lengthy document, which is currently available only in Italian , contains many surprisingly encouraging paragraphs reflecting the persistence of the orthodox prelates in the Synod discussions who were intensely prayed for and encouraged by faithful Catholics and supportive media. However, in addition to the paragraphs that barely received the required two-thirds majority vote, there are also legitimate fears about what was not stated in the final document. Once again, the Internet age permitted LifeSite and many others to almost instantly convey to the world the attempts to weaken the Church's moral absolutes. The discussions therefore became accountable to all the faithful in the world and could no longer be ruled by the progressives' usual past hidden manipulations. Those "progressives" were significantly trounced by the faithful bishops who fought attempts to lower the standards of Catholic teaching on marriage, homosexuality and morality in general. Damian Thompson of the Catholic Herald wrote Saturday that, I'm going to stick my neck out and say that conservatives basically 'won' this synod - they fought successfully behind the scenes and in the debates to block changes to pastoral practice that (a) they believe go against the teaching of the very anti-divorce Jesus of Nazareth and (b) would have outraged the increasingly powerful churches of Africa. Gloria TV reports that according to Cardinal Pell, ...the Synod did not focus at all on the three topics Communion for the divorced and remarried, on the idea of conscience or on the acceptance of homosexuality: "Catholic doctrine is stated clearly." Pell admits that the language is "different" and verbose. It is not a document that he would have written: "Some people will say it is terrible, but it is not terrible." "For him," continues Gloria TV, the final version is almost a miracle if compared with the draft: "The Synod itself is much, much better than the worst we have feared." "There is nothing there endorsing Communion for the divorced and remarried. There is nothing there endorsing a penitential process. There is nothing there that is saying homosexual activity is justified."' With that, the cardinal confirmed there was indeed a battle that could have been disastrous for the Church. However, there are still ambiguities and items of serious concern in the document that the progressives insist "leave the doors open" to what they have been seeking. There is no doubt at all in my mind and many others, given past experience, they will exploite these openings to the maximum to change the Catholic Church. Like the infamous and false "Spirit of Vatican II" that was often invoked to justify many very damaging actions not at all intended by the majority of Council fathers, the "Spirit of the Synod" will now be invoked to justify similar manipulations against the true intentions of the majority of Synod fathers. Prominent Vatican blogger Sandro Magister, warns that, as happened with Vatican II, The Synod of the Media has Toppled the Real One . That is, the many heretical or near heretical proposals that were permitted to be stated, and which were accurately made public by the media (along with many inaccurate ones) during the Synod, have already had a major effect. That effect, as Cardinal Napier bemoaned about the media-released, false mid-term report of last year's synod, cannot be undone. Napier stated then that, because of all the media exposure of that terrible document, the Synod fathers are now "working from a position that is virtually irredeemable." That is, no matter whatever good is in the current Synod's final document, the public mind has already been formed by what Pope Benedict would have called " the Synod of the media ," about things that were actually stated in and around the Synod, that the Church has changed its attitude and teaching on crucial moral issues. As a result, here and there all over the planet, those false understandings are forming the basis of decisions by uninformed Catholics and others. Rorate Caeli has translated and listed the six most controversial passages or "time-bombs" that could be exploited to yet cause much grief to the faith and to family life. The Church progressives are hoping that Francis will prevail in the end and impose liberalizations that they, and some or possibly all of which also Francis, were determined to obtain from the Synod. There are other problems being discovered as well, as more English translated paragraphs become available. Cardinal Burke says paragraphs 84-86 -- which deals with baptized Catholics who are civilly divorced and remarried, is "of immediate concern, because of its lack of clarity in a fundamental matter of the faith: the indissolubility of the marriage bond which both reason and faith teach all men." Pope Francis is said to be clearly unhappy with the final result and the pushback that occurred during the Synod to the working document (Instrumentum Laboris), including the historically very significant critical letter from 13 cardinals. His closing speech contained harsh words for those who worked most diligently to defend the authentic, scripturally supported undertandings of Catholic teachings and pastoral application on the issues discussed in the synod. Austen Ivereigh of the Washington Post summed up that the final result of the Synod "appears to open up space for conscience. Both sides can be happy." That should be seen as very concerning. The homosexual activist New Ways Ministry, which actually had one of its members accredited with a press pass by the Vatican, found the outcome of the Synod to be positive in its direction. It stated on its blog , "While the final report of the Vatican's Synod on the Family has not said much in regard to LGBT issues, in fact, a great deal has changed in regard to the discussion on these topics at the highest levels of the Church." They are looking forward to "a totally separate synod in the future on LGBT issues." At a press conference on the day the final report was approved, one of the leading progressives, Cardinal Marx, said: "I am very happy that we made a step ahead"... "There have been doors opened, especially for people in difficult situations," and "I am very, very happy." Also, on the same day, Cardinal Kasper stated , "I'm satisfied; the door has been opened to the possibility of the divorced and remarried being granted Communion." Much caution should therefore be exercised against excessive optimism over the final, greatly improved document. The battle is far from over. As the progressive Vatican English-speaking press spokeman, Fr. Rosica, is quoted in the liberal Jesuit America magazine, "the Synod is a work in progress." (See also Synod Day 2: Doctrine apparently 'open question', call for 'end to exclusionary language' for 'gays' ) They haven't remotely given up.

The lengthy document, which is currently available only in Italian , contains many surprisingly encouraging paragraphs reflecting the persistence of the orthodox prelates in the Synod discussions who were intensely prayed for and encouraged by faithful Catholics and supportive media.

The proliferation of guns in American society is not only profitable for gun manufacturers, it fools the disempowered into fetishizing weapons as a guarantor of political agency. Guns buttress the myth of a rugged individualism that atomizes Americans, disdains organization and obliterates community, compounding powerlessness. Gun ownership in the United States, largely criminalized for poor people of color, is a potent tool of oppression. It does not protect us from tyranny. It is an instrument of tyranny. "Second Amendment cultists truly believe that guns are political power," writes Mark Ames , the author of "Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion: From Reagan's Workplaces to Clinton's Columbine and Beyond." "[They believe that] guns in fact are the only source of political power. That's why, despite loving guns, and despite being so right-wing, they betray such a paranoid fear and hatred of armed agents of the government (minus Border Guards, they all tend to love our Border Guards). If you think guns, rather than concentrated wealth, equals political power, then you'd resent government power far more than you'd resent billionaires' power or corporations' hyper-concentrated wealth/power, because government will always have more and bigger guns. In fact you'd see pro-gun, anti-government billionaires like the Kochs as your natural political allies in your gun-centric notion of political struggle against the concentrated gun power of government." American violence has always been primarily vigilante violence. It is a product of the colonial militias; the U.S. Army, which carried out campaigns of genocide against Native Americans; slave patrols ; hired mercenaries and gunslingers; the Pinkerton and Baldwin-Felts detective agencies; gangs of strikebreakers; the Iron and Coal Police ; company militias; the American Legion veterans of World War I who attacked union agitators ; the White Citizens' Council ; the White League , the Knights of the White Camellia ; and the Ku Klux Klan, which controlled some states. These vigilante groups carried out atrocities, mostly against people of color and radicals, within our borders that later characterized our savage subjugation of the Philippines, interventions in Latin America, the wars in Korea and Vietnam and our current debacles in the Middle East. Gen. Jacob H. Smith summed up American attitudes about wholesale violence in the Philippines when he ordered his troops to turn the island of Samar, defended by Filipino insurgents, into "a howling wilderness." Mass culture and most historians do not acknowledge the patterns of violence that have played out over and over since the founding of the nation. This historical amnesia blinds us to the endemic violence that defines our culture and is encoded in our national myth. As historian Richard Slotkin writes in "Regeneration Through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier 1600-1860," the first of his three magisterial works on violence in American society, our Jacksonian form of democracy was defined by "the western man-on-the-make, the speculator, and the wildcat banker; [in a time] when racist irrationalism and a falsely conceived economics prolonged and intensified slavery in the teeth of American democratic idealism; and when men like Davy Crockett became national heroes by defining national aspirations in terms of so many bears destroyed, so much land preempted, so many trees hacked down, so many Indians and Mexicans dead in the dust." "The first colonists saw in America an opportunity to regenerate their fortunes, their spirits, and the power of their church and nation," he writes, "but the means to that regeneration ultimately became the means of violence, and the myth of regeneration through violence became the structuring metaphor of the American experience." "A people unaware of its myths is likely to continue living by them, though the world around that people may change and demand changes in their psychology, their ethics and their institutions," Slotkin writes. The metaphors we use to describe ourselves to ourselves are rooted in this national myth. We explain our history and our experience and seek our identity in this myth. This myth connects us to the forces that shape and give meaning to our lives. It bridges, as Slotkin writes, "the gap between the world of the mind and the world of affairs, between dream and reality, between impulse or desire and action. It draws on the content of individual and collective memory, structures it, and develops it from imperatives for belief and action." The historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz in her book "Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment" also illustrates how the racist, white settler vision of the world continues to color our perception of reality. She writes: The populist frontier ideology has served the U.S. ruling class well for its entire history and once again found tremendous resonance in the Vietnam War as another Indian war. A key to John F. Kennedy's political success was that he revived the "frontier" as a trope of populist imperialism, speaking of the "settling" of the continent and "taming" a different sort of "wilderness." In Kennedy's acceptance speech in Los Angeles at the 1960 Democratic Convention, he said: "I stand tonight facing west on what was once the last frontier. From the lands that stretch 3,000 miles behind me, the pioneers of old gave up their safety, their comfort and sometimes their lives to build a new world here in the West. ... We stand today on the edge of a new frontier." The metaphor described Kennedy's plan for employing political power to make the world the new frontier of the United States. Central to this vision was the Cold War, what Richard Slotkin calls "a heroic engagement in the 'long twilight struggle' against communism," to which the nation was summoned by Kennedy in his inaugural address. Soon after he took office, that struggle took the form of the counterinsurgency program in Vietnam and his creation of the Green Beret Special Forces. "Seven years after Kennedy's nomination," Slotkin reminds us, "American troops would be describing Vietnam as 'Indian Country' and search-and-destroy missions as a game of 'Cowboys and Indians'; and Kennedy's ambassador to Vietnam would justify a massive military escalation by citing the necessity of moving the 'Indians' away from the 'fort' so that the 'settlers' could plant 'corn.' " The gun culture permits a dispossessed public, sheared of economic and political power, to buy a firearm and revel in feelings of omnipotence. A gun reminds Americans that they are divine agents of purification, anointed by God and Western civilization to remake the world in their own image. Violence in America is not about the defense of liberty or radical change. It is an expression of domination, racism and hate. American vigilantes are the shock troops of capitalism. They butcher the weak on behalf of the strong. "The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer," the English novelist and essayist D.H. Lawrence wrote. "It has never yet melted." There are some 310 million firearms in the United States, including 114 million handguns, 110 million rifles and 86 million shotguns. The number of military-style assault weapons in private hands--including the AR-15 semi-automatic rifles used in the massacres at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.--is estimated at 1.5 million. The United States has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world, an average of 90 firearms per 100 people. "Total gun deaths in the United States average around 37,000 a year, with two-thirds of those deaths being suicides, leaving approximately 12,000 homicides, a thousand of those at the hands of the police," writes Dunbar-Ortiz. "Mass shootings--ones that leave four or more people wounded or dead--now occur in the United States, on average, at the pace of one or more per day . Disturbing as that fact is, mass shootings currently account for only 2 percent of gun killings annually. The number of gun deaths--37,000--is roughly equal to death-by-vehicle incidents in the United States per year." If the ruling elites feared an armed uprising, a draconian form of gun control would instantly be law. But the engine of gun ownership is not the fear of government. It is the fear by white people of the black and brown underclass, an underclass many whites are convinced will threaten them as society breaks down. Guns, largely in the hands of whites, have rarely been deployed against the state. In this, the United States is an exception. It has a heavily armed population and yet maintains political stability. The few armed rebellions--the 1786 and 1787 Shays' Rebellion , the 1921 armed uprising by 10,000 coal miners at Blair Mountain in West Virginia--were swiftly and brutally put down by militias and armed vigilantes hired by capitalists. These uprisings were about specific grievances, not systemic change. Revolution is foreign to our intellectual tradition. As jobs and manufacturing are shipped overseas, communities crumble, despair grips much of the country and chronic poverty plagues American families, the gun seems to be the last tangible relic of a free and mythic America. It offers the illusion of power, protection and freedom. This is why the powerless will not give it up. "In the heartland, these are people who feel they've been the victims of sustained economic violence at the hands of tyrannical governments of both parties," writer and editor Daniel Hayes wrote in The New York Times in 2016. "In 2008, Barack Obama's notorious misstep got one thing right: Rural people will 'cling' to guns. Not because they are sad or misguided, but because it is the last right they feel they still have: a liberty at least, in place of opportunity." "Outsourcing and guns: These are the twin issues animating Trump voters in rural Kentucky," he wrote. "The two are linked and feed off each other; the only difference between them is that white rural voters see outsourcing as a losing battle, whereas protecting and expanding Second Amendment rights is the only policy they've been able to get politicians to move on. For that reason alone, it is totemic." The Second Amendment, as Dunbar-Ortiz makes clear in her book, was never about protecting individual freedom. It was about codifying white vigilante violence into law. "The elephant in the room in these debates has long been what the armed militias of the Second Amendment were to be used for," Dunbar-Ortiz writes. "The kind of militias and gun rights of the Second Amendment had long existed in the colonies and were expected to continue fulfilling two primary roles in the United States: destroying Native communities in the armed march to possess the continent, and brutally subjugating the enslaved African population. ..." Attacks on the gun culture and the gun violence that plagues the nation are seen by many gun owners as an attack on their national identity. The more powerful the weapon, the more powerful the gun owner feels. There are those among the marginalized and enraged who are tempted, especially because of easy access to assault-style weapons, to use their guns in mass killings to cleanse the world. The lone killer, almost always a white male, is celebrated by Hollywood and in our national myth and "frontier psychology." This peculiar American veneration of violence, Slotkin writes, "reaches out of the past to cripple, incapacitate, or strike down the living."

The proliferation of guns in American society is not only profitable for gun manufacturers, it fools the disempowered into fetishizing weapons as a guarantor of political agenc

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Theo Wargo/WireImage.com Other Guy of the Month John C. Reilly, costar of this month's duo comedies The Promotion and Step Brothers. Reilly's first true starring role ( Walk Hard ) is followed by two antibuddy films, first opposite Seann William Scott, as an assistant manager competing for control of a grocery store, and then alongside Will Ferrell, competing for his share of soon-to-be-overquoted jokes. Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com Genre Crosser of the Month Adam Yauch, director of Gunnin' for that #1 Spot. This Beastie Boy turned filmmaker's documentary about top high school prospects playing a 2006 basketball game in a Harlem park features Michael Beasley and Kevin Love. The on-court sequence lasts about as long as their college careers did. See also: Billy Bob Thornton, on the new Boxmasters album. Ron Galella/WireImage.com Suddenly Important Dead Guy Hunter S. Thompson, subject of Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson . Academy Award winner Alex Gibney's documentary is narrated by Johnny Depp and features interviews with Jimmy Carter, Tom Wolfe, and a former landlord who almost wistfully accuses Thompson of dodging rent, destroying his marriage, and giving drugs to his kid. J. Vespa/WireImage.com Surprisingly Agile Writer Michael Ian Black, in his new book, My Custom Van: And 50 Other Mind-Blowing Essays that Will Blow Your Mind All Over Your Face. Yeah, the title's a rocky start, but VH1's resident talking head redeems himself with the essay "What I Would Be Thinking If I Were Billy Joel Driving to a Holiday Party Where I Knew There Was Going to Be a Piano." Image courtesy Men Without Pants Odd but Fruitful Pairing Dan the Automator and Russell Simins, otherwise known as Men Without Pants, on the album Naturally. One produces hip-hop albums for Dr. Octagon and Gorillaz; one drums for the rock band Blues Explosion. Raucous, beat-heavy tracks like "And the Girls Go" result. See also: Will Smith and a beached whale in Hancock.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Theo Wargo/WireImage.com Other Guy of the Month John C. Reilly, costar of this month's duo comedies The Promotion and Step Brothers. Reilly's first true starring role ( Walk Hard ) is followed by two antibuddy films, first opposite Seann William Scott, as an assistant manager competing for control of a grocery store, and then alongside

The controversy of the mandate announced by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius requiring all employers providing insurance to cover the costs of contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs has begun to move to the courts. Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute, notes several groups and multiple state attorneys general have filed or joined lawsuits against the mandate. "This is not an issue about contraceptives. This is an issue of religious freedom, and it is the first of many of our freedoms that will be violated," Turner said. Religious Leaders Reject Mandate Sarah Torre, a research assistant at the Heritage Foundation, notes Catholic groups and religious liberty organizations have jumped into the fight in response to the administration's definition of preventive services under the president's health care law. "This will force almost all employers to provide abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, and sterilization coverage in their employer health plans," Torre said. "But this mandate has nothing to do with access to contraceptives or birth control, really. It has everything to do with the government forcing private citizens' employers to provide services and drugs against their moral beliefs. And it's a serious violation of religious liberty." Torre warns, "This is just one of many mandates that Obamacare has within the law, and there's a lot more to come." Turner agrees, noting Catholics aren't the only ones who see the law as an assault on their freedoms. "2,500 religious leaders joined in signing a letter to the President in solidarity with the Catholic Church against the mandate, because they know that any of our freedoms in other religious denominations as well as many others could be next," said Turner. Government Expansive Role Hadley Heath, a senior policy analyst the Independent Women's Forum (IWF), says the underlying issue is the role of government. "It's a much broader issue than whether or not one small group of people wants to hold onto their religious convictions. They should be free to do that. But the rest of society, even if we don't hold that view, we should make sure that they're guaranteed their freedoms to run their business and live in a way that is consistent with their moral conscience. That's a freedom that applies to everyone, whether they identify as religious or not," Heath said. Heath says this fight is an inevitable result of a government takeover of health care. "When government gets too involved in health care, people are going to clash on decisions that we shouldn't have to make collectively, that should be left to the individual" said Heath. April Gregory ( aprildawngregory@gmail.com ) writes from Indianapolis.

The controversy of the mandate announced by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius requiring all employers providing insurance to cover the costs of contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs has begun to move to the courts. Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute, notes several groups and multiple state attorneys general have filed or joined lawsuits against the mandate. "

Ivanka Trump is set to meet with former Vice President Al Gore on Monday to discuss climate change, an issue over which Trump reportedly has great interest despite her father calling it a hoax. December 5, 2016 7:10 am Donald Trump is expected to nominate retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson to serve as his secretary for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the president-elect's transition team said Monday. December 1, 2016 3:05 pm Anthony Weiner was slapped with $64,956 in fines by New York City's Campaign Finance Board on Thursday for using campaign money from his 2013 mayoral bid to pay for personal bills, among other violations, the New York Daily News reported. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a speech Tuesday that he was not going to be silent during the Donald Trump administration, the Washington Examiner reported Tuesday.

December 5, 2016 7:10 am Donald Trump is expected to nominate retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson to serve as his secretary for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the president-elect's transition team said Monday.

Tonight at or around 9:00 pm EST, the State Department will release another batch of Hillary Clinton's emails, including 150 (redacted) messages that the agency has "upgraded" to classified status. The batch is expected to contain around 7000 messages total. In an effort to pad the landing for this latest release,... It's election season, which means it's time to start making strained comparisons between our opponents and various historical despots. The left enjoyed fantastic success after comparing George W. Bush to Hitler--and why not? Nothing says "leadership" like invoking the spirit of a madman who... Recently, the Indian city of Calcutta witnessed a large demonstration marking the 69th anniversary of an infamous event, noted in the history books as the Great Calcutta Killings , and The Week of Long Knives . The initial riots in Calcutta alone claimed some 10,000 lives. In subsequent weeks and months a million more...

Tonight at or around 9:00 pm EST, the State Department will release another batch of Hillary Clinton's emails, including 150 (redacted) messages that the agency has "upgraded" to classified status.

Mars reached opposition with Earth on July 27 and came strikingly close to Earth on the night of July 30 and July 31. On the night of the approach, the dusty Red Planet came within 35.8 million miles of Earth - the closest the planet has been to our home world in 15 years. At the peak of the approach Mars was extremely visible in the night sky, standing out against the myriad of stars with its characteristic red glow. The Red Planet shined with a magnitude of 2.8 which is near twice as bright as Jupiter - the largest planet in the solar system and the fourth brightest object seen from Earth. Mars will be seen from about 8.43pm BST and will disappear below the horizon around 3.44am BST. You can spot the Red Planet at an altitude of -51 degrees in an east-northeast 65 degree direction. Astronomer Justin Davenport took a photo of the glowing red disk above the Earth on the night of Saturday, August 4. Sharing his photo of Mars on Twitter, Mr Davenport said: "I got this IR plus RGB shot of Mars very early this morning with the ZWO ASI 120mm-s and the photographic filters plus the C8 and 1.5x Barlow lens. Enjoy!"

Mars reached opposition with Earth on July 27 and came strikingly close to Earth on the night of July 30 and July 31. On the night of the approach, the dusty Red Planet came within 35.8 million miles of Earth - the closest the planet has been to our home world in 15 years.

THE ILLEGAL INVASION CONTINUES TO CLAIM LIVES AND ROB AMERICANS OF THE FRUITS OF THEIR LABOR by Sharon Rondeau Zeituni Onyango, who was granted political asylum in May, says that "heaven" pays her bills as she collects $700/month in disability payments and lives in public housing and is provided with government medical care (Sept. 21, 2010) -- The acknowledged step-aunt of Barack Hussein Obama, Zeituni Onyango, says that the United States is obligated to give her citizenship now that a judge has allowed her to remain in the country. A video of her first television interview since the May ruling is here. Onyango reportedly " moved from Kenya to the United States" in 2000. She " fell ill ," reportedly lived in a homeless shelter for two years, and later began receiving disability income, despite the fact that she was ineligible . Her nephew, Barack Obama, is believed by many to be ineligible to have collected millions of dollars in campaign contributions and to serve as President of the United States because he does not meet the definition of " natural born Citizen ." Onyango claimed in a television interview that following her hospitalization, she did not have the funds to return to Kenya. But who paid for her hospital bill? Why did she come to the United States in the first place? Was it to obtain free medical care, or better medical care than she would have received in Kenya, Obama's " home country ?" In May, Onyango was granted asylum due to a chronic illness and fear of "persecution if forced to return to Kenya" as a "member of a minority tribe." The judge ruled that she deserved to stay in the United States because "a government official had leaked Onyango's status to the Associated Press three days before the 2008 presidential election." In her interview with WBZ TV, Onyango stated that "The system took advantage of me." Today, a defense bill containing a provision that would have allowed "some children of illegal immigrants to earn legal status in the U.S." was defeated, as it lacked the 60 votes necessary for passage in the Senate. Various "immigrants' rights" groups supported the "DREAM Act," which would have awarded legal status to "certain undocumented immigrants if they attend college for two years or join the military." An editorial in The New York Times described it as "inspired" and "the best hope for legalizing any significant number of Americans-in-waiting." Gen. Colin Powell had expressed his support for the DREAM Act by stating, "We have to educate our immigrants. The DREAM Act is one way to do that." Powell also stated that he hires illegal immigrants to work on his home when needed. Obama had been " a big supporter " of the DREAM Act but had advocated "a bigger strategy" towards illegal immigration. In regard to the immigration issue, he claims that his regime has accomplished : ...the technical assistance to develop key elements of a bipartisan immigration bill and have taken important steps to make interior enforcement smarter, more effective, and reflective of our values, as well as addressing problems in the detention system to improve accountability and safety. However, the Obama regime has filed a lawsuit against the state of Arizona over its new immigration law, SB1070 as well as a second lawsui t against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio on the grounds that he "s refusing to cooperate with a federal investigation into allegations of discrimination and illegal searches and seizures by the [Justice] department." A border patrol agent lost his life in a vehicular accident in 2008; another was killed last summer near San Diego, CA, and this month an agent was killed last week, also in San Diego County. U.S. border agents have been fired upon and have returned fire across the border into Mexico during drug raids that have yielded thousands of pounds of marijuana. The cost to Americans of illegal immigration is measured in the billions. Medicaid and medical bills for the uninsured are "among the largest costs ." One report states that 12 Americans are killed daily by illegals; another states that many illegal aliens who perpetrate crimes are often arrested multiple times. While cities are told by appellate courts that they cannot enact their own anti-illegal-immigration laws, others designate themselves " sanctuary cities ," in violation of federal law, apparently without legal challenges . Perhaps Obama favors illegal immigration because he is an illegal immigrant himself . Is there any proof that he is even a U.S. citizen ? Obama's Aunt Zeituni says she's entitled to citizenship added on Tuesday, September 21, 2010

THE ILLEGAL INVASION CONTINUES TO CLAIM LIVES AND ROB AMERICANS OF THE FRUITS OF THEIR LABOR by Sharon Rondeau Zeituni Onyango,

Political parties on all sides in the Canadian Parliament have joined together in a historic condemnation of the American president in response to the personal attacks on Candian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and passed a motion supporting Canadian steel and aluminum companies impacted by new U.S. tariffs. Canadian parliament votes unanimously to condemn Trump attacks on Trudeau https://t.co/WT7SZUVNuw pic.twitter.com/mJoU9cRyfm -- The Hill (@thehill) June 12, 2018 The usually polite members of the Canadian House of Commons also passed a motion introduced by the political opposition directly aimed at comments by Trump. The motion rejected "disparaging ad hominem statements by U.S. officials which do a disservice to bilateral relations." The symbolic broadside passed unanimously although Trudeau did not attend the session and only made a statement on the North Korean summit that said "We support the continuing efforts by the president on North Korea, [and] we look forward to looking at the details of the agreement," Trudeau said. Asked about comments by Trump and his advisors attacking Trudeau, who the American president called "very dishonest and weak," Trudeau also took the high ground. "On [Trump's] comments," responded Trudeau, "I'm going to stay focused on defending jobs for Canadians and supporting Canadian interests." Trump threatened not just Trudeau but all Canadians with economic retaliation: "that's going to cost the people of Canada a lot of money." Story: Trump says he's going to punish "the people of Canada" over the Trudeau news conference he disliked: https://t.co/gFAj2OolWB -- Daniel Dale (@ddale8) June 12, 2018 Trump is alluding to additional tariffs, possibly on the import of cars manufactured in Canada and old in the U.S. which would hit American consumers as well, as a way to "punish" Canada and Trudeau. Trudeau made clear that Canada will impose new tariffs on American products coming across the border that are as tough as those Trump is imposing. "It would be with great regret but it would be with absolute certainty and firmness that we move forward with retaliatory measures on July 1st," said Trudeau, "applying equivalent tariffs to the ones that the Americans have unjustly applied to us." Trump mocked Trudeau in his comments before leaving Singapore, declaring the Canadian leader gave "a news conference about how he will not be pushed around by the United States. And I say, push him around? We just shook hands. It was very friendly." Trudeau responded, "I have made it very clear to the president that it is not something we relish doing, but it is something that we absolutely will do, because Canadians: we're polite, we're reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around." The NAFTA North American trade agreement remains unsettled as Trump demands concessions from both Canada and Mexico. BREAKING: White House trade adviser Peter Navarro has apologized for his "inappropriate" comments against Justin Trudeau https://t.co/wy00lNpLgy pic.twitter.com/DpvskJgoPH -- Bloomberg (@business) June 12, 2018 Trump is plotting even more tariffs that appear to have the world on course for a trade war that may well have devastating results all over the globe, ushing in another economic recession. Trump mistakes Trudeau's politeness for acquiescence and then is angry when he can't just steamroll Canada into doing whatever he wants. With both major Canadian political parties and the Parliment unified in backing Trudeau, the chances of Trump's bullying bringing a positive outcome is highly unlikely. Trump may love authoritarians and dictators who can just demand what they want but the U.S. and Canada are democracies with a long history of friendship, partnership, mutual respect and co-security efforts that Trump seems to be diminishing. What the Canadian Parliment has done may be symbolic but the impact on both countries and the world is likely to be very real and quite awful.

Political parties on all sides in the Canadian Parliament have joined together in a historic condemnation of the American president in response to the personal attacks on Candian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and passed a motion supporting Canadian steel and aluminum companies impacted by new U.S. tariffs.

Religious Liberties Practice Group Teleforum Since 1995, a small evangelical church, Bronx Household of Faith, has been in court challenging the policy of the New York City public schools that prohibits religious groups from conducting worship services in the vacant buildings during nonschool hours, while allowing other community groups to meet for any purpose "pertaining to the welfare of the community." The case pits the First Amendment rights of religious groups against New York City's concerns that use of a school building for a worship service would violate the Establishment Clause. During the 2010-11 school year, community groups and individuals used New York City's 1,200 school buildings schools for approximately 120,000 events. No other major school district in the nation has a similar policy banning worship services. Bronx Household of Faith won an injunction in federal district court in 2001, which ruled that the NYC policy violated the Freedom of Speech Clause. In 2011, the Second Circuit overturned the injunction on a 2-1 vote, ruling that NYC's concerns about possible Establishment Clause violations justified the policy. The Supreme Court denied cert on December 5, 2011. Bronx Household returned to court, and asked for a new injunction based on the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause. Judge Loretta Preska issued a new injunction in February 2012. NYC appealed to the Second Circuit, which heard oral arguments on November 19, 2012. This case presents a classic clash between religious groups seeking to use public buildings on the same terms and conditions as other community groups, and New York City's view of the Establishment Clause, which they assert requires it to exclude religious groups in order to show that the schools are neutral towards religion. Debating this case will be Jordan Lorence, Senior Counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, who has represented Bronx Household of Faith in this case since the beginning of the lawsuit, and Professor Alan Brownstein of UC-Davis Law School, a noted scholar on church-state legal issues. Featuring: Prof. Alan E. Brownstein, University of California Davis School of Law Mr. Jordan Lorence, Senior Counsel & Senior Vice President, Office of Strategic Initiatives, Alliance Defence Foundation Since 1995, a small evangelical church, Bronx Household of Faith, has been in court challenging the policy of the New York City public schools that prohibits religious groups from conducting worship services in the vacant buildings during nonschool hours, while allowing other community groups to meet for any purpose "pertaining to the welfare of the community." The case pits the First Amendment rights of religious groups against New York City's concerns that use of a school building for a worship service would violate the Establishment Clause. During the 2010-11 school year, community groups and individuals used New York City's 1,200 school buildings schools for approximately 120,000 events. No other major school district in the nation has a similar policy banning worship services. Bronx Household of Faith won an injunction in federal district court in 2001, which ruled that the NYC policy violated the Freedom of Speech Clause. In 2011, the Second Circuit overturned the injunction on a 2-1 vote, ruling that NYC's concerns about possible Establishment Clause violations justified the policy. The Supreme Court denied cert on December 5, 2011. Bronx Household returned to court, and asked for a new injunction based on the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause. Judge Loretta Preska issued a new injunction in February 2012. NYC appealed to the Second Circuit, which heard oral arguments on November 19, 2012. This case presents a classic clash between religious groups seeking to use public buildings on the same terms and conditions as other community groups, and New York City's view of the Establishment Clause, which they assert requires it to exclude religious groups in order to show that the schools are neutral towards religion. Debating this case will be Jordan Lorence, Senior Counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, who has represented Bronx Household of Faith in this case since the beginning of the lawsuit, and Professor Alan Brownstein of UC-Davis Law School, a noted scholar on church-state legal issues. Featuring: Prof. Alan E. Brownstein, University of California Davis School of Law Mr. Jordan Lorence, Senior Counsel & Senior Vice President, Office of Strategic Initiatives, Alliance Defence Foundation Call begins at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up here. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

Professor Alan Brownstein of UC-Davis Law School, a noted scholar on church-state legal issues. Featuring: Prof. Alan E. Brownstein, University of California Davis School of Law Mr. Jordan Lorence, Senior Counsel & Senior Vice President, Office of Strategic Initiatives,

It seemed like someone had been inhaling something at CNN on Friday morning. They kept touting an upcoming interview: "Barack Obama could win the presidential election by a landslide. Op-ed contributor Charlie Garcia tells us how next." Garcia, a consultant to corporations on how to market to Hispanics, broke out rainbows and unicorns for Obama: "He's doing all the right things. He's basically saying, look, guys, comprehensive immigration reform. I'm all for it. It's those Republicans that just keep getting in the way." Neither Garcia nor his CNN anchor/enabler, Kyra Phillips, could recall that Democrats couldn't get amnesty for illegal... continue reading February 28, 2012 11:30 PM Sarah Palin's top aides held a conference call to denounce the forthcoming HBO movie "Game Change," which like any ultraliberal media production, knocks Palin as a mentally imbalanced moron. Reporters are already underlining the Palin aides haven't seen the movie. But isn't that the point? As Pat Buchanan once said about another subject, "Does one need to lift the manhole cover to know what's below?" Did the Clinton team wait to see the movie before begging ABC to kill "Path to 9/11"? Did the Kennedy team wait to see the miniseries "The Kennedys" before getting it demoted to the Reelz... continue reading February 25, 2012 8:00 PM Bill Press has a new book out called "The Obama Hate Machine." To read the blurbs, you might wonder if Press thinks no one should be allowed to criticize the president. Here's Nancy Pelosi touting the book: "In a poisoned political climate, negative personal attacks on President Obama must have no place in our public discourse." What's next? A mandate forbidding inappropriate free speech? These tolerant liberals are out of control. Press appeared on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" on February 12 to plug his book, and he did say "there's legitimate criticism of any president which I think is very healthy,... continue reading February 21, 2012 10:30 PM The shocking death of pop star Whitney Houston built a massive audience for the Grammy Awards telecast Sunday night on CBS. It attracted 39.9 million viewers, making it the most watched non-sports program of the season. The show began with a heartfelt prayer for Houston to "our Heavenly Father" from the master of ceremonies, CBS actor L. L. Cool J. But sadly (and predictably), near the show's end, religion was mocked in an elaborate Catholic-bashing mess starring the rapper Nicki Minaj. Someone on Twitter said it best: "Stevie Wonder was the luckiest man in the crowd" during the performance. It... continue reading February 18, 2012 9:00 AM Valentine's Day is probably not the day most people would pick to remember the marriage of John and Jacqueline Kennedy. But on February 14, CBS spent more than eight minutes recalling how it was the fiftieth anniversary of CBS's "historic" TV tour of the White House with Jackie, and brought on liberal historian Doug Brinkley to proclaim "fifty years ago on Valentine's Day, she became America's sweetheart, and fifty years later she still is." The problem is that any honest historian couldn't claim that Jackie was JFK's sweetheart. He had lots of 'em. And now CBS has utterly ignored what... continue reading February 15, 2012 9:00 AM Super Bowl XLVI was a good football game, marred once again by the bohemian elite at NBC. NBC could have prevented, but failed to stop, the broadcast of a female rapper "flipping the bird" at 114 million viewers during Madonna's halftime show. It was another "fleeting expletive" of the hand-gesture variety, and somehow, despite elaborate rehearsals, no one at NBC could seem to stop it. The same network skillfully edited God out of a clip of children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance during last year's U.S. Open golf tournament. As usual, and just as CBS did with Janet Jackson, NBC... continue reading February 11, 2012 8:33 AM The Obama administration is waging war on Christianity. Somehow, the networks haven't seen this as newsworthy. On January 20, Obama's Department of Health and Human Services announced its perverse attempt to force Catholic schools, hospitals, and other charitable agencies to finance sterilization, abortifacients and contraceptives in their insurance plans starting in 2013. Speaking for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Timothy Dolan roared like a lion in a press statement: "In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences." He asserted "To force American citizens to choose between violating their... continue reading February 7, 2012 9:53 PM While Democrats mock Mitt Romney for his alleged lack of interest in the 'very poor' and focus their political pitch on income inequality, one can't help noticing the Obamas running around to $35,000-a-head fundraisers with the very rich and very famous in New York City and Hollywood. Michelle Obama kicked off February with an exclusive fundraiser in Beverly Hills at the home of Netflix executive Ted Sarandos and his wife Nicole Avant, who raised Hollywood millions for the Obamas in 2008, and then became their ambassador to the Bahamas. Now Nicole Avant's back managing Obama's Hollywood money march. Many of... continue reading February 4, 2012 9:18 AM The photograph of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer pointing a finger at President Obama on the tarmac at the Phoenix airport brought out the worst in amateur psychoanalysis from our media elite. No one had an audio tape or videotape of what was said, but just the finger-pointing image somehow was definitive evidence of profound disrespect. These same journalists were not only unfazed, but actually downright amused back in 2008, when an Iraqi journalist in Baghdad threw two shoes at President Bush's head. That man, they said, was an 'instant hero.' Over and over, they replayed the footage, each time laughing... continue reading January 31, 2012 9:48 PM Remember when Don Imus saw his cushy CBS Radio and MSNBC career go up in smoke in 2007 when he tried very early one morning to make one of his fake-misanthropic jokes about the Rutgers women's basketball team being 'nappy-headed hoes'? Black activists demanded his firing. Advertisers fled. The corporate suits, appalled and fearful of the terrible publicity, canned him. But if you're a black rapper, terms like this advance your career. The female rapper Nicki Minaj has a very hot new video called 'Stupid Hoe.' She uses that same term to snap at other women - 'We ship platinum,... continue reading January 27, 2012 10:34 AM

. The show began with a heartfelt prayer for Houston to "our Heavenly Father" from the master of ceremonies,

The struggle to liberate Mosul from Islamic State is nearing a conclusion, with with Iraq prime minister Haider al-Abadi announcing that it's a "matter of a few days". His announcement comes even as Iraqi soldiers continue their fight against Islamic State fighters in western Mosul. While Iraqi forces are trying to push into the Bab al-Beed neighbourhood in Mosul's Old City -- the last Islamic State stronghold -- the operation appears perilous because of the presence of so many civilians. Our forces are in the alleys of Old Mosul and we will soon announce the liberation of the city and our victory over Daesh there -- Haider Al-Abadi (@HaiderAlAbadi) June 22, 2017 Islamic State has been offering fierce resistance in the Old City, with barrages of mortar fire and a huge number of booby traps slowing the Iraqi advance. Iraqi forces began storming Mosul on Sunday with the hope that this will be the last in the eight-month campaign to seize the Old City. "This is the final chapter", Lieutenant General Abdul Ghani al-Assadi, commander of the Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) elite units spearheading the assault, about the offensive to take Mosul. Iraqi forces invaded the vicinity of Nuri al-Kabeer Mosque in Mosul on Wednesday. The medieval mosque is where the Islamic State declared their caliphate in 2014. Iraqi News quoted Iraq's Defence Ministry's war media cell as saying that the forces destroyed a weapons reservoir and killed ten militants near the mosque, where Islamic State leader Abu Bakr-al Baghdadi delivered a sermon declaring the establishment of the group's rule in Iraq and Syria. In an attempt to contain Iraqi troops, the Islamic State blew up the mosque on Wednesday. Officials from Iraq and the US-led anti-Islamic State coalition said the destruction of the site was a sign of the group's imminent loss in Mosul. The prime minister termed it as an "official declaration of defeat". However, the Iraqi army insists that the fight for Mosul is far from over. Although the offensive to retake the city began in 2016, Islamic State fighters have managed to hold onto important parts of the city's west side. Iraqi soldiers in Mosul. Reuters Iraqi forces are trying to minimise civilian casualities and therefore, the offensive has been progressing slowly, according to a report in the The New York Times . IS fighters tend to use human shields, booby traps and suicide bombers. "West Mosul is arguably the most complex and dangerous combat urban environment that any force has seen in decades," said colonel Ryan Dillon, the American coalition spokesman for Iraq and Syria. The Islamic State's force has also been reduced to only a couple of hundred, while estimates say about 250,000-550,000 civilians remain. The Iraq Army believes that there are only about 300 Islamic State fighters in Mosul, down from nearly 6,000 when the battle started. The fight for Mosul has displaced more than 850,000 people. While Iraqi forces have had periods of swift gains, combat inside the city has largely been grueling and deadly for both security forces and civilians. About 100,000 residents are believed to still be trapped in the Old City. Islamic State fighters are shooting at families trying to flee on foot or by boat across the Tigris River, as part of a tactic to keep civilians as human shields, the UN said in a statement on Friday. It further said that is targeting children to prevent civilians from fleeing. "This just highlights how indiscriminate and catastrophic this war is," said UNICEF's Iraq representative, Peter Hawkins. "The operation is now about street fighting, while air and artillery strikes will be limited because the area is heavily populated and the buildings are fragile," CTS spokesman Sabah al-Numan told Al-Hadath TV in Dubai. The group is also retreating in Syria, mainly in the face of a US-backed, Kurdish-led coalition. Its capital there, Raqqa, is being besieged. With inputs from agencies

The struggle to liberate Mosul from Islamic State is nearing a conclusion, with with Iraq prime minister Haider al-Abadi announcing that it's a "matter of a few days".

Researchers studied 19,541 participants in the federally funded Women's Health Initiative (WHI) who were randomly selected to join a dietary experiment focused on limiting fat intake to 20 percent of calories. Researchers also looked at data for a control group of 29,294 women in the WHI study who didn't alter their diets. By the time the researchers had been tracking half the women for at least 8.5 years, 1,764 participants had been diagnosed with breast cancer. A decade after their diagnosis, 82 percent of the breast cancer patients on the low-fat diet were still alive, compared with 78 percent in the control group. For women on the low-fat diet who developed breast cancer, this translated into a 22 percent lower risk of death during the study, and these women typically didn't succeed at reducing fat consumption by the amount suggested in the diet experiment. "Decades ago, comparison of country-to-country differences in fat intake found countries with higher fat intake like the U.S. and most of Western Europe had higher breast cancer mortality, but subsequent observational studies have had inconsistent results," said lead study author Dr. Rowan Chlebowski of City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California. The WHI dietary modification trial is the only full-scale randomized trial addressing this issue," Chlebowski said by email. The main goal of the diet experiment was to get women to change their eating habits, not to count calories or lose weight. Women assigned to change their diets had a series of group and individual counseling sessions with certified nutritionists over the first year of the program, followed by group sessions four times a year for the remainder of the experiment. After one year, women in the diet group got about 24 percent of their calories from fat compared with 35 percent fat in other participants' diets. While weight loss wasn't a goal, women in the diet group weighted about 2.2 kilograms (4.9 pounds) less than other participants. While the diet experiment was ongoing, 671 women in the diet group and 1,093 who didn't alter their eating habits developed breast cancer. This difference was too small to rule out the possibility that it was due to chance. But women on the low-fat diet were less likely to develop certain hard-to-treat tumors. One limitation of the study is that researchers relied on women to accurately describe their eating habits in questionnaires, the researchers note in JAMA Oncology . Another drawback is that women in the diet group managed only minimal increases in their consumption of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Because women in the low-fat diet group did lose weight relative to other participants, it's also possible that weight rather than the fat content of the diet might explain the differences in cancer survival odds, said Dr. Graham Colditz, a researcher at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, who wasn't involved in the study. "For lowering breast cancer risk - and cancer risk overall - the most important part of diet is to keep calories in check," Colditz said by email. "Weight gain and obesity is an important risk factor for postmenopausal breast cancer - and 12 other cancers." Not all fat is created equal, either. "There is no evidence that total fat intake affects the risk of breast cancer," Colditz said. "There is growing evidence, however, suggesting that type of fat could be important, with diets rich in polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats possibly lowering risk, and those higher in saturated and animal fats possibly increasing risk."

"For lowering breast cancer risk - and cancer risk overall - the most important part of diet is to keep calories in check,"

Podcast (blue-republican-robin-koerner): Play in new window | Download (0.0KB) | Embed Subscribe iTunes | Android | Email | RSS Original air date: November 7, 2015 BY: Robin Koerner , Host PUBLISHED: November 7, 2015 [/iconbox] The British will vote in a Referendum to remain in, or to leave, the European Union. T oday on The Blue Republican, Robin introduces Rory Broomfield to discuss why this referendum is happening now, the arguments that both sides will be making, and the forces that will be set against those who believe that the assets of a nation should be democratically controlled by the people who live in it - rather than by bureaucrats who couldn't care less about it. We discuss the history of European politics anti-democratic and illegal shenanigans and why the British people have been successfully conned for so long. I feel that if this vote goes the wrong way, my country will have left me - and I will be all the more happy to be able to call myself American. If it goes the right way, then I will be pleased to say, with apologies to Rupert Brooke, that there will be some part of me that may be forever England. About Rory Broomfield Rory Broomfield is Director of both The Freedom Association and its Better Off Out campaign. Rory has worked for a number of prominent Conservative Members of Parliament in the UK including Graham Brady MP, Sir Richard Shepherd MP and the current Home Secretary, the Rt. Hon Theresa May MP. He has also worked for several small businesses prior and during his time in politics and is a former Director and Board Member of the United Nations Association in the UK (UNA-UK). Rory has authored a number of books including "The Future's Bright - The Future's Global" and was runner up with his co-author Iain Murray in the recent Brexit Prize competition, run by the Institute of Economic Affairs. Liberty Talk FM broadcasts 24 hours per day, seven days per week and features continuous live content Monday through Friday and a mix of the best syndicated podcasts and shows during the weekend.Our current line up of hosts includes the best and brightest voices fervently advocating for Liberty, such as: Ernest Hancock, Alex Jones, Todd "Bubba" Horwitz, Edward Woodson, and Robin Koerner.While the primary focus is on news, politics, and government, Liberty Talk FM also regularly features discussions on the economy, privacy enhancing and emerging technology. [Read More]

T oday on The Blue Republican, Robin introduces Rory Broomfield to discuss why this referendum is happening now, the arguments that both sides will be making, and the forces that will be set against those who believe that the assets of a nation should be democratically controlled by the people who live in it

Liberals often criticize law enforcement as a systematically oppressive institution, but don't seem to have any qualms about turning to the police when conservatives speak their minds. In late April, the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) chapter at the University of Texas at San Antonio held a tabling event inspired by Steven Crowder's "Change My Mind" videos. The topic was "Hate Speech is Free Speech," a sensitive subject on a campus where a white supremacist banner was hung last fall and white supremacist flyers were posted this spring. "Leftists on college campuses are incapable of forming a cohesive argument that goes beyond whatever talking point their gender studies professor had to say that morning." In response to the white supremacist activity, along with provocative flyers distributed by the David Horowitz Freedom Center that resulted in the group being banned from campus, the university has enacted a " Campus Climate " initiative that allows students to report incidents of bias to promote a "safe" student environment. The YAF chapter at UTSA responded to this Orwellian measure to suppress free speech by hosting its "Change My Mind" tabling event, generating almost instant controversy. First, a university staff member immediately approached us about our white board, erroneously claiming that it violated the university's exhibit policy, and that we had no right to conduct the event because UTSA is a "limited free speech" campus, though the administrator was unable to show us the policy that we allegedly violated. Then, within the first 10 minutes of our event, an LGBT student group that was tabling nearby called university police in hopes that officers would forcefully terminate our exhibit, though after arriving at the scene, the officers confirmed over radio that YAF was by no means violating UTSA policy. Mere moments later, the associate dean of students nonetheless requested that we change our language, claiming that it made certain students feel "unsafe." The event lasted roughly three hours, during which protesters held signs in front of the table in an attempt to draw attention away from our event. Two hours into the event, activists made another call to the university police, but to their dismay, the officers again concluded that there had been no violation of university policy. Our experience with campus activists is yet another illustration of how institutional leftism perpetuated by higher education is designed to shame, scorn, and silence both conservative viewpoints and our nation's founding principles. Instead of engaging in an open dialogue, protesters would rather trot out tired memes on posters and call us white supremacist apologists from afar. This, of course, is another incident in a long list of pernicious attempts from leftists on campus to silence conservative thought. Indoctrinated students across the country continue to harass conservatives and their organizations, as well as attempt to shut down conservative speakers. It is a sad, disturbing sight to watch as this radical leftist ideology consumes students on college campuses. Leftists on college campuses are incapable of forming a cohesive argument that goes beyond whatever talking point their gender studies professor had to say that morning, and have time and again shown a complete lack of any sort of cognitive dissonance. Before our very eyes, our generation is pushing to actively strip us of our rights. They tell us they don't want to suppress free speech, while in the same sentence claim that "hate speech" should be abolished. They will wrongfully label anything remotely conservative as "alt-right," and will use demoralizing ad hominem attacks to justify their self-appointed moral high ground. Conservative students must continue to fight back against this school-sanctioned execution of our First Amendment rights. Our system of higher education is failing us. It is actively building a generation that idolizes the postmodernist ideology that has resulted in the deaths of millions in the name of diversity, inclusion, and equality. It is nothing more than tyranny with a happy face. Disclaimer: The author of this op-ed is a member of the UTSA YAF chapter, and was involved in organizing the "Change My Mind" event. Follow this author on Twitter: @PeytonDillberg

In late April, the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) chapter at the University of Texas at San Antonio held a tabling event inspired by Steven Crowder's "Change My Mind" video

Hillary called Trump a racist, making claims about his business dealings being racist that need serious fact-checking. She brought up the birther issue. Trump said she treated Barack Obama with terrible disrespect during the debates. He also attacked her attack. You can hear her comments about racism on this video below. WATCH: Hillary says implicit bias is problem for "everyone" not just "police." #TTT16 #Debate pic.twitter.com/b7WZkJqVUc -- MRCTV.org (@mrctv) September 27, 2016 She said something similar in July. Americans don't need to be judged and lectured by a political hack.

Hillary called Trump a racist, making claims about his business dealings being racist that need serious fact-checking. She brought up the birther issue.

Conservative political commentator Pat Buchanan said a U.S. commitment to the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and an increased troop presence on the ground would risk pulling the nation into four simultaneous wars, during an interview Monday on "The Laura Ingraham Show." Buchanan, a former senior adviser to President Reagan, urged President Donald Trump and his administration to exercise the utmost caution in discerning how to move forward on Syria. If Trump continues along the path of major intervention in the Syrian conflict, Buchanan warned of terrible consequences. "Now you tell me how we win that war and who we put into power after we defeated all six of them?" "If you try to overthrow Assad, then you will be -- the Russians will fight, the Iranians will fight, Hezbollah will fight, obviously Assad and his army and their force will fight," Buchanan said. "We'll be fighting all four of them, as well as ISIS and Al-Qaeda and Syria. Now you tell me how we win that war and who we put into power after we defeated all six of them?" Buchanan noted that several neoconservative U.S. senators -- including John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and even Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) -- expressed varying degrees of glee and support for further U.S. intervention in Syria. Over the weekend, Sen. Graham even went so far as to call for thousands more U.S. troops on the ground in Syria. "Well, that's McCain and Graham and Marco Rubio -- the War Party," Buchanan said. "But let me say this, Laura -- my view is they're not going to get the war they want. If Donald Trump, the president, takes us into Syria's civil war -- and he's already made the first strike -- it will consume his presidency." https://www.lifezette.com/files/2017/04/041017-PAT-BUCHANAN.mp3 "So I think that the War Party is going to be frustrated because I cannot believe that Donald Trump on second thought is going to plunge us into Syria, which he told us again and again and again would be an act of folly -- that our enemy is ISIS, that our enemy is Al-Qaeda," Buchanan added. "And we should finish them off." Ingraham agreed, saying, "There's just a number of these people -- like Graham, McCain, Rubio, Cory Gardner (R-Colo.)-- they are not happy unless America is on the verge of sending like 50,000 troops to the Middle East. I mean, they're just itching for war with Russia. I've never seen anything like this." What's more, Buchanan noted that if Trump ultimately decides to increase U.S. intervention in Syria, he risks losing the base that elected him in the first place. "And the populists and nationalists out there who feel that their voice -- they put out a tremendous amount to put Donald Trump in power," Buchanan said. "And frankly, if Donald Trump marches us into Syria, he will begin to lose these folks. Their main issues are trade, immigration, and American-first." But those key issues, Buchanan said, are not the priorities of some of the people Trump has placed around himself in the White House. "Those aren't the views of Mr. [Gary] Cohn of Goldman Sachs," Buchanan said, referring to one of Trump's advisers. "And if that becomes the adopted policy of the Trump White House, it won't be too long before those people will depart." Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, reportedly has been engaging in squabbles with chief strategist Stephen Bannon. Reports even circulated last week speculating that Bannon could be on his way out of the White House. While Kushner adheres to a traditional, establishment worldview, Bannon represents the populist-conservative base that rallied behind Trump and propelled him to the presidency. [lz_related_box id="504526''] "There's no doubt that Donald Trump is of course enormously supportive of his daughter, and I think he's enormously supportive of and protective of his son-in-law. That's a fight you cannot win," Buchanan admitted. "But I will say this -- if they succeed in getting Mr. Bannon and Mr. Bannon has to leave, the shield will be removed from Jared Kushner." And if that shield is removed, Buchanan warned that the populists will bail on Trump and his remaining administration members. And if Trump engages much further with Syria, his base could retreat even further. "I think that Trump -- I mean, they have to have a second look at this and say, 'Do we really want to start down this road?' Because we all know where this ends," Buchanan said. "And it is obvious where it ends, and that is America inside the Syrian civil war sending in more and more troops." "And if Trump sees where they're going, then I believe you cannot be blind to seeing where this ends if we keep this up," Buchanan added. "I think he will pull back."

Conservative political commentator Pat Buchanan said a U.S. commitment to the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and an increased troop presence on the ground would risk pulling the nation into four simultaneous wars, during an interview Monday on "The Laura Ingraham Show."

Th3rd World Studios, the publisher who brought us The Stuff of Legend and Finding Gossamyr , are ready to present an new all-ages comic to the masses. Thanatos Diver , from writer Nick Tapalansky and artist Alex Eckman-Lawn , is about a young woman whose whole life has been spent on an island. But exploring the sunken city surrounding them is about to expand her horizons in the most unusual way. Tapalansky and Eckman-Lawn, creators of Archaia's zombie noir Awakening , are certainly traveling down a different path with their latest endeavor. But as it turns out, it's not too far from their individual tastes. We spoke with the dynamic duo to find out the background of Thanatos Diver , writing female characters, and giving babies comics. The Mary Sue: Tell us a bit about the inception of Thanatos Diver . You've worked on adult-geared horror in the past, why an all-ages comic? Alex Eckman-Lawn: Haha, yeah... this was kind of a gradual thing, actually. Nick Tapalansky: Right. It's been bubbling beneath our aloof and darkness-infused exteriors for pretty much the entire time we've been buds. Eckman-Lawn: We had been slowly moving in that direction since about Midway through Awakening , but I don't think it really hit us until we did that Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard Vol. 2 short. Tapalansky: Which was awesome to work on. I mean, mice riding whales. I got to make up mice riding on whales! And Alex drew them! Eckman-Lawn: We had a ton of fun with that short and it just felt really natural. I think we knew as soon as we finished that we had to chase that feeling. Tapalansky: Exactly. Like Alex said, we'd been thinking in that direction for a while, especially because we geek out about so many of the same things, and the Mouse Guard short was really like someone handed us a reason to dive in and give it a try. Six pages wasn't enough though, so we made our own world where we could tell as many adventure-fantasy-exploration-fun stories as we could possibly imagine! TMS: Was the current climate of the comic book community part of your thought process at all? Eckman-Lawn: You know, I hadn't really given much conscious thought to that. But there's no denying the current explosion of awesome comics with a younger slant to them. I think a lot of artists who are coming into their own right now grew up looking at similar stuff, and now that influence is spilling out in a tidal wave of enthusiastic art and stories! Sorry, I may be getting carried away, but it's a really exciting time for comics, and indie comics in particular. Tapalansky: It totally is! And I think a lot of those books, Lumberjanes is definitely a recent one that comes to mind but also all those awesome Cartoon Network books at Boom, Finding Gossamyr , The Stuff of Legend , Mouse Guard , Amelia Cole , and even adult books like Saga and Pretty Deadly-- books like these are all bringing new people to comic shops. And fandoms and seem to be, at some level, making the community a little more welcoming, diverse, and way more awesome for everyone and not just one set of people. So I think even where the Big 2 have stumbled with that, books from other publishers are enjoying a sort of "Hey, come enjoy the geek-lovefest renaissance--everybody's welcome" vibe that we're really excited to contribute to. Eckman-Lawn: Without soap-boxing too hard, I'm also glad to be working on a book with a female lead character who I'd actually like to hang out with. Women in comics have had it pretty rough for a long time, and while I do think things are finally starting to change for the better, there's still a ways to go. It just feels good to make a comic about a girl who's never going to sexy-pose on the cover. Tapalansky: Yes. This. It's funny, someone asked me the other day what I did "differently" when it came to writing a girl and I was a little surprised. Why wouldn't I write her as genuinely as I'd write any other character, you know? She's a composite of my experiences and the people in my life, men and women alike. She's a person who is also a young woman. I guess even being asked that says something about the climate (and it was a totally innocent question, don't get me wrong, but still), that there has to be some special "process" to writing a strong not-hyper-sexualized woman. I feel like a lot of people way more qualified than me have belabored this point already, but I'm glad we're doing whatever we can to change the temperature in the room, especially with my own kid arriving any day now. Comics should be fun and welcoming for everyone. Period. Full stop. TMS: You've said you took inspiration from things you personally loved growing up (or that you still do)--JRPG, things like Bone , Ghibli works - how do those things weave into your creation? Tapalansky: It's sort of ingrained in the DNA for Thanatos Diver , I think. Eckman-Lawn: And in us as well! Tapalansky: It also turns out that we still get psyched about that stuff, which has meant making this book is the most fun I've ever had in comics. Eckman-Lawn: Yup! without getting too sappy, this book has been kind of a big deal for me so far. I've never had this much fun making comics before, and I really hope i get to keep making Thanatos Diver for a long time to come! Tapalansky: You'll definitely see some nods throughout the book to all those inspirations-and even a bunch of legit easter eggs hidden throughout. The nice thing about it, we hope, is that you don't need to have been a fan of this stuff to get into it. If you are, cool, you're gonna get a few extra chuckles, but we really just hope to give people that same awesome feeling we had when we slammed Chrono Trigger or Zelda into the SNES, cracked open Bone , or watched Dragonball (pre-Z, even though we've got a soft spot for pretty much the entire jam) for the first time, you know? That feeling where anything's possible in this place and you want to spend a ton of time exploring it. Eckman-Lawn: Yeah! We want to pay it forward! TMS: Talk to us about Samantha, without giving too much away, of course. What kind of character is she, what's informed her perspective of the world? Eckman-Lawn: She's headstrong, a little bit selfish, and extremely confident! Tapalansky: Yeah, Samantha's a real trip. She does the opposite of pretty much everything I "plan" for her, which sort of tells you a lot about her I think! She's grown up with a love for adventure and even though she lives on a pretty awesome island and gets to explore the sunken city in the ocean underneath it on the daily, it feels pretty claustrophobic to her. Everyone tells her that there's nothing out past her island but water but she doesn't really believe it. Eckman-Lawn: I feel like I'm dancing through a mine field a bit, since a lot of what makes her who she is hinges on some reveals we're saving for later issues, but her personality has certainly been shaped by being trapped on an island her whole life. She's determined to find more excitement, more to live for, and when she does stumble upon it she doesn't back down, even when things get real. Tapalansky: Exactly! But there are definitely consequences to jumping in feet first, which is something Sam is going to have to learn the hard way. Being brash is exciting, but that thrill she's after brings it's own dangers, and not just to her. Watching her learn and grow as these things happen is definitely one of the coolest parts of writing the book, especially since she really is so unpredictable to me. TMS: You two have worked together before, was the process different at all with an all-ages book? Tapalansky: It WAS a little different, but not because of the subject matter, I don't think. We've gotten to be best buds over the last ten or so years, so the way we work together has grown around that. Plus, we built everything about this world together from the ground up. I think this is the first time we've worked on something from scratch where the job descriptions were totally tossed out the window. Eckman-Lawn: Yeah, Thanatos Diver has been a real collaboration from the very beginning. Brainstorming together has become a regular part of the process, and Nick has given me a bit more freedom as well, which is really nice. In short, we trust each other. I'm not entirely sure anymore where I end and he begins. Tapalansky: Seriously. The workflow for this book blurs everything together pretty seamlessly. I mean, yeah, at the end of the day I'm writing a script and he's illustrating, I guess. But we're both so entrenched in what the other is doing, and in all the world building and character development, that it's legitimately hard for me to point to things that "I've" done and "he's" done. It's our book, you know? And that's pretty much the coolest way to make comics. I mean, Alex has on occasion sent me concept art and just been like, "Let's do a story about that place," and I get to just riff on an image. It's organic and ridiculously fun. Hopefully people who check out the book can tell two best buds put it together. Eckman-Lawn: We're Voltron-ing it. That reference probably exposes what a crusty old man I am. Tapalansky: The crustiest. TMS: We posted your JRPG-like promo images last week . What other sorts of things are you doing to promote the book and help make sure those who may be interested are piqued? Tapalansky: Those were so much fun to come up with! Now we just need some intrepid game developer to see them and make all our dreams come true. Eckman-Lawn: I've got a copy of RPG-Maker for the PS1... what are we waiting for? Tapalansky: I was always so scared to use that. Like I knew if I started I'd fall into an obsessive hole of RPG making despair and never see daylight again. Eckman-Lawn: Yeah, RPG Maker is a time suck, but mostly because it's impossible to use and not very fun. Tapalansky: But yeah, those game screens. We wanted to do a little something special to pay homage to that strand of our DNA, so those were a blast. Hopefully people enjoyed them! We'd love to do more stuff like that in the future. Besides that we're doing a blog tour, we had a Reddit AMA a little while back, and last week we started unveiling some amazing variant covers we have lined up for the first issue! Eckman-Lawn: I am so stupid excited about our variants. We got some seriously great stuff from artists I truly respect. Tapalansky: Yeah, I think we have seven in total now? Every time someone turned one in we both just sort of giggled to ourselves because all of these amazing people were playing in our sandbox. We've got Christine Larsen, Carey Pietsch, Anissa Espinosa, Betsy Peterschmidt, and our old pals S.M. Vidaurri, Jeremy Bastian, and David Petersen on board. And every one of their covers is absolutely insane-o gorgeous. So more info about those is going to be rolling out soon. We're also super into this whole world building thing. Like that map on the back of the first issue that's been floating around online? That's totally just the beginning. Exploration is a huge part of the fun in our book, for us and for Sam, and maps are a big part of her adventure. So giving readers a chance to play along and get into the world in a legitimate way is something we've wanted to make sure happens. Eckman-Lawn: We were joking about making a full SNES style instruction manual as a companion for the book. That is becoming less of a joke for me every day... Tapalansky: It might not happen before the first issue is up, but as something to go with the collection? Oh man. I'd flip if I got one of those in my book, even if it was just printed in the back. TMS: Speaking of which, Nick, you're an expectant father. Are you hoping your little one will grow up loving comics, and what will be the first books you show her? Tapalansky: Yeah, any day now actually! By the time this interview goes out to the world I might have a new little lady hanging out with me and doing baby things, which is crazy exciting and nerve-wracking in all the best ways. I don't want to say it's impossible for her not to love comics, but my wife and I both enjoy most of the same things in the geek-o-sphere. We just played through Final Fantasy VII together (my first time, her millionth; I'm ashamed to say I eschewed it for Wild Arms for reasons that seem vaguely hazy now), and she's been a huge comic and manga fan since long before we got together. We have Adam Hughes and James Jean sketches hanging in our bedroom that she excitedly sought out at conventions, and our idea of a vacation was going to Japan with two of our best pals, where we enjoyed the history, the food, and of course came back loaded down with art books from the Ghibli Museum, game soundtracks, and other assorted ultra-heavy souvenirs. So, yeah, if she doesn't love comics and video games and stuff, it won't be because they weren't around! Once we found out we were having a baby, one of the first things I thought about was what I'd share with her first. It's going to have to go in stages, but I think Bone is up there as one of the first. Even before she can read them on her own, that's something we can read together and I'm, like, stupid excited about stuff like that. Also, some of our friends make amazing books for all ages, like David Petersen's Mouse Guard and Jeremy Bastian's Cursed Pirate Girl (which is maybe a little scary for her early on? But we'll play it by ear) and I can't wait to share those with her, too. The Marvel Adventures books are also tons of fun (ditto on the old DC animated tie-in comics). But if anybody has other suggestions, I totally want to hear them so I can stock up now. Eckman-Lawn: Calvin and Hobbes ! If you want your kid to grow up well adjusted that is. I guess that's not my decision to make. Tapalansky: Holy crap. I can't believe I forgot that. We just spent, like a whole night telling people it was such a huge part of our comic upbringing. I feel like a fraud! Eckman-Lawn: I'm here to call you out, buddy. Tapalansky: Well, definitely Calvin & Hobbes and Bone as soon as she can sit still and stops chewing on books. After that? I have some ideas but you guys tell me. What should I be reading with my impressionable young daughter? What are you guys reading with your kids? I need to know! TMS: Let them know, folks! And thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us! Eckman-Lawn: Thanks for having us, Jill! Tapalansky: Yeah, thanks for sure. It was awesome catching up! Thanatos Diver #1 will be available digitally the day of its release but can also be pre-ordered at your local comic shop or online retailers like TFAW.com . You can also catch some behind-the-scenes action at the Thanatos Tumblr . Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter , Facebook , Tumblr , Pinterest , & Google + ?

Th3rd World Studios, the publisher who brought us The Stuff of Legend and Finding Gossamyr , are ready to present an new all-ages comic to the masses. Thanatos Diver , from writer Nick Tapalansky and artist Alex Eckman-Lawn , is about a young woman whose whole life has been spent on an island.

It may take years before the results of NATO's military operations against Colonel Muammar Qadhafi's Libyan regime can finally be judged, but the issues raised by the crisis are of immediate importance. First , the way in which the operation has been conducted is a reminder of the importance to the United States of its European allies. The assumption which perennially surfaces in the U.S. State Department--that America should primarily be looking in its alliances to a Pacific or other non-European orientation--has yet again proved ill founded. Second , Libya offers a bad model for the future. NATO's effectiveness and even existence depend on the recognition that it will often depend in practice on "coalitions of the willing." The willing, though, need to be led, and it is an even more fundamental principle of the Alliance--one rooted in history and in relative power--that such leadership must come from the United States. Third , the leadership role which, by default, has fallen to Britain and France is also likely to lead to problems because it fosters damaging illusions. In the light of Libya, for example, the U.S. may come to expect too much of Britain, and the British, for the sake of political image-making, may be tempted to indulge that expectation. To achieve some diplomatic success without being overshadowed by America is a British political priority. Yet without the commitment of substantially more defense resources, Britain will be unable to do more than strike a pose, and the West can least afford posing because security threats--notably a rising China, a revanchist Russia, a still incorrigible Iran, and a mad, bad North Korea--are real, and only strong American leadership can meet them. To face these and other challenges will require more, not less, U.S. defense effort. Any illusions, like that of the U.K.'s adopting a leading role in key regions, can only weaken the American national consensus that is required. Britain's problems go beyond the financial and economic difficulties which, rather than foreign affairs, are the main preoccupation of British public opinion. They go to the heart of British foreign policy itself. To explain why this is so, one needs to stand back from events in Libya and look back some way into the past. Section I True and False Lessons from Libya At the time of writing, the outcome of NATO's military operations against Colonel Muammar Qadhafi's Libyan regime is unclear. Indeed, it may take years before the results can finally be judged. But the issues raised by the crisis are several and of immediate importance. First , the way in which the operation has been conducted is a reminder, if one were still needed, of the importance to the United States of its European allies. The assumption which perennially surfaces in the U.S. State Department--that America should primarily be looking in its alliances to a Pacific or other non-European orientation--has yet again proved ill founded. This confirmation of the importance of its European allies to the U.S. means, by extension, that the effectiveness or otherwise of America's foreign and security policy is therefore bound up with how these allies manage their affairs, and particularly with how much they invest in their defense. Allowing pacifism or neutralism, let alone anti-Americanism, to gain a grip in Europe is therefore a risk that the U.S. cannot afford now any more than it could during the Cold War. Second , however, Libya in different respects offers a bad model for the future. NATO's effectiveness and even existence depend on the recognition that it will often depend in practice on "coalitions of the willing." As in the case of Libya with Germany and Turkey, some NATO members will be highly unwilling, but at least they do not materially impede or seek to veto action once decided. The willing, though, need to be led, and it is an even more fundamental principle of the Alliance--one rooted in history and in relative power--that such leadership must come from the United States. In the present operation, the U.S. has taken a back seat and has not even attempted the role of back-seat driver. Its messages have changed, for example, from open skepticism about applying a no-fly zone to emphatic support for one. President Barack Obama has even, in a joint newspaper article with United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, signed up to the aim of regime change. [1] Yet that is not what U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973 actually proposes. The resolution was adopted without opposition but with five abstentions (including, significantly, the two other permanent members, Russia and China) precisely because it did not go as far as Britain and France (and now America) ideally want. Thus, it limits itself to authorizing Chapter VII action to enforce a cease-fire; protection of civilians (though excluding "a foreign occupation force of any form"); a no-fly zone; an arms embargo (which, despite allied frustration, presumably includes the rebels); and an asset freeze. The resulting uncertainties about exactly what current aims are and about U.S. intentions and willingness to give them effect more generally are obviously unhelpful. Third , the leadership role which, by default, has fallen to Britain and France is also likely to lead to problems because it fosters damaging illusions. Of these, there are two subsets. The first is the subset of lingering illusions about France as an ally. France sees itself--particularly since the election of President Sarkozy in May 2007--as having a special sphere of interest in North Africa and is keen to ensure that is recognized both within the European Union (EU) and outside it. Asserting this claim, mainly in Libya against the country's traditional regional rival there, Italy (the colonial power), is thus settled French policy. France is also now pursuing a commercial interest. No one--not even Tony Blair--flattered and feted Colonel Qadhafi with such over-the-top extravagance as did Mr. Sarkozy in Paris in December 2007. For the same reason, once Qadhafi's days looked numbered, no power has bombed the Colonel's headquarters in Tripoli with greater gusto than the French. On top of this, Mr. Sarkozy has a presidential election to fight next year, and he badly needs a foreign policy success to prevent his losing it--or, on present projections, even reaching the second round. Finally, although France is now less troublesome within NATO, and although Mr. Sarkozy (to his domestic political cost) has demonstrated sympathy for American culture, it is a delusion to think that French rivalry with the U.S. has been suspended. At a regional if not global level, such competition is and will remain strong. A rather different but hardly less damaging delusion concerns the role of Britain--the second subset of illusions. Unlike France, Britain is a reliable and trustworthy U.S. ally of long standing. The explanation for this is well known. It is to be found in shared experience, culture, language, political system, and, not least, mutually beneficial intelligence and defense cooperation. The problem is that, in the light of Libya, the U.S. may come to expect too much of Britain and that the British, for the sake of political image-making, may be tempted to indulge that expectation. The conditions for this to occur are obviously present. Many Americans are weary of foreign military engagements after Iraq and Afghanistan. They naturally want to see the U.S. do less and others do more to protect Western interests and maintain global security. The Obama Administration is a strong proponent of multilateral solutions for global problems, so the policy framework and political pressure for the U.S. to ask others to take the lead are both present. At the same time, the rhetoric employed by David Cameron ever since he became Conservative leader has stressed how Britain does not want a "slavish" relationship with the U.S. To achieve some diplomatic success without being overshadowed by America is a British political priority, even if a less frenzied and consuming one than that of France at the present juncture. Yet without the commitment of substantially more defense resources, Britain will be unable to do more than strike a pose, and the West can least afford posing because security threats--notably a rising China, a revanchist Russia, a still incorrigible Iran, and a mad, bad North Korea--are real, and only strong American leadership can meet them. To face these and other challenges will require more, not less, U.S. defense effort, as Heritage Foundation scholars have recently demonstrated. [2] Any illusions, like that of the U.K.'s adopting a leading role in key regions, can only weaken the American national consensus that is required. Britain indeed has more than enough problems of its own. These go beyond the financial and economic difficulties which, rather than foreign affairs, are the main preoccupation of British public opinion. They go to the heart of British foreign policy itself. To explain why this is so, one needs to stand back from events in Libya and look back some way into the past. Section II Past Developments in British Foreign Policy Although it may seem remote from today's rhetoric, it is worth noting that British foreign policy was based principally on national, and then imperial, self-interest for most of the country's history. Lord Palmerston's observation in the mid-19th century is well known: "We have no eternal allies and no permanent enemies. Our interests are eternal, and those interests it is our duty to follow." [3] In truth, Palmerston and his successors did have views which stretched beyond the British equivalent of Realpolitik . Britain steadily promoted constitutionalism, though not revolution, in Europe and sought to uphold law and good government within its own dominions. From the late 19th century, Britain was also a satisfied and thus peaceful power, despite the need to fight an occasional war. Britain's greatest Foreign Secretary, the Third Marquess of Salisbury, summed up the prevailing view: "Whatever happens will be for the worse, and therefore it is in our interest that as little should happen as possible." [4] Unfortunately, the First and Second World Wars did happen; the Bolshevik Revolution and Nazism also happened; and from at least the mid-20th century, ideology has occupied, of necessity rather than by choice, a prominent--if not the prominent--place in the explanation and justification, if not always the day-to-day pursuit, of British foreign relations. The elements of continuity with that older historical view in today's foreign policy are, though, twofold. First , Britain is still, as in Palmerston's day, an independent nation, not part of a federation or confederation, despite the entwining bonds with the European Union. Thus, the country still has precisely definable national interests to be debated in traditional terms--for example, the balance of power. Second , although Britain is no longer a great power, let alone an imperial power, it is still and must remain a global power in the sense that it depends heavily on easy, safe access to resources, markets, investments, and allies far beyond Europe. Thus, in these two important respects, a traditional framework of analysis is clearly justified. But it is also manifestly insufficient. One reason for this is that, equally obviously, Britain no longer holds a position of dominance however that may be measured, whether in economic, military, diplomatic, cultural, or demographic terms. The country is balanced in a shifting and somewhat unstable manner between, on the one hand, its American ally--through the "Special Relationship," which has been a prominent consideration since the 1940s and a decisive one since Suez in 1956--and, on the other hand, the European Union. U.S. pressure on Britain to join in moves toward European integration has, since the 1960s, served frequently to conceal the tension between these two poles of attraction. This is once again the case under the present U.S. Administration, which seems to perceive no threat to America's interests from a would-be United States of Europe into which Britain could ultimately be dragged. The fact remains that, as of now, Britain is facing two ways, one through its crucial defense links with the U.S. and the other through its legal, regulatory, and institutional ties with the EU. At some point, the illogicality and unsustainability of that stance will have to be recognized. For the present, however, Britain hovers uncertainly--an uncertainty increased by the fact that an overwhelmingly Euro-skeptic Conservative Party is joined with a fanatically Euro-enthusiastic Liberal Democrat Party in a governing coalition. A further complicating factor is the degree to which foreign policy is nowadays expected to conform to the model of international liberalism. This reflects, in part, the idealistic approach that has long characterized American foreign policy and has advanced along with American global influence. [5] But this approach has gone a great deal further since the end of the Cold War, with the primacy now given to a political but legalistic view of international human rights. The rapid and accelerating progress of claims of universal jurisdiction, linked to the rise of new schemes for global governance and new powers for international courts, is reshaping foreign policy in ways that even its practitioners struggle to grasp. The precise relationship between these varying factors--which can be summed up as national sovereignty, global interdependence, the U.S.-U.K. Special Relationship, European integration, and "ethics"--in recent years has been the subject of a lively, if not always illuminating, discussion between British foreign policy professionals and commentators. This, then, is the intellectual background to British foreign policy today. The practical background, of course, is provided by the end of the Cold War. The Cold War imposed its own priorities. Britain's national interests were never perhaps as determined by them as were America's, but those interests were always pursued within the overall framework that the Cold War set. Then in the 1980s, under President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a joint strategy to win the confrontation was pursued with commitment and remarkably rapid success. The Cold War had therefore imposed a clarity, even a simplicity, on policymaking. This clarity inevitably broke down afterwards. The contrast was heightened because of the deliberately different styles adopted by George H. W. Bush and John Major, Ronald Reagan's and Margaret Thatcher's respective successors. The U.S.-U.K. relationship as the core of the NATO alliance held, not least in the course of the First Gulf War of 1990-1991, but rhetoric, and to some extent policy, veered for several years between contrasting extremes. Ambitious, idealistic talk of a "New World Order" was succeeded in the early 1990s by an extreme reluctance to intervene--notably the failure to defend the population of Bosnia against genocide. Defense spending was sharply reduced in both the U.S. and the U.K. Partly as a result of sustained pressure from Washington, the U.K. tried to re-engage with a reunited and highly assertive European Union, whose member countries, American policymakers hoped, would shoulder a greater share of Western defense spending and overseas commitments. (Naturally, they did not do so.) Mr. Major's attempts to place Britain "at the heart of Europe" (as he optimistically promised) similarly came to nothing. It was left to his Labour successor, Tony Blair, in 1997 to try to fulfil that, along with other current aspirations. Mr. Blair's tenure of power provides, indeed, the crucial background to today's British foreign policy conundrums and predicaments. His successor, Gordon Brown, had little time to make an impact. Moreover, the bad relations which seem to have characterized his relations with President Obama--who may, admittedly, have been more anti-British than anti-Brown--prevented any distinctive reweaving of the strands of the Special Relationship. Then the global financial crisis, to which Mr. Brown claimed to know the answer, though his financial and regulatory failures were part of the problem, submerged everything else. Consequently, it is, in truth, Tony Blair who set the framework which the new Conservative-led coalition government inherited in 2010. Since David Cameron has proudly described himself as "the heir to Blair," one might, indeed, expect the latter's footprint to be evident. [6] And so it is. Mr. Blair in his early years proved extremely skillful in avoiding any sharp choices between the United States and Europe. This was possible under President Bill Clinton by using the fragile but temporarily serviceable umbrella of the "Third Way"--linking left-of-center governments and parties on both sides of the Atlantic--to portray consensus where none, in truth, existed. Tony Blair was frustrated in his desire to end sterling in favor of the euro, partly by his Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown's reluctance to give up control of the country's monetary policy and mainly by the fact that the change could not be made without a referendum, which would have been lost. But this setback arguably helped Mr. Blair's wider strategy, because it meant that the one point of European policy on which British feeling was strong (hostility to the euro) did not get in the way of other maneuvers intended to please the Europeans. Perhaps the most significant of these was moving Britain closer to the rest of Europe on defense policy, specifically the Anglo-French St. Malo initiative of December 1998. On that occasion, the British and French governments agreed that the EU "must have the capacity for autonomous action, backed by credible military forces, the means to decide to use them, and a readiness to do so, in order to respond to international crises." To that end, the EU would "also need to have recourse to suitable military means...outside the NATO framework." [7] Mr. Blair was subsequently able to persuade President George W. Bush that this and subsequent developments--at the Helsinki EU Summit in December 1999 and at the Nice EU Summit in December 2000--were compatible with and would indeed take place within NATO. This then embedded a serious contradiction in Britain's and NATO's defense stance. The British Prime Minister had also by this point imposed upon British and Western security thinking another concept replete with future difficulties. In the spring of 1999, NATO, principally at Mr. Blair's urging, launched an air campaign against Serbia to prevent further atrocities and ethnic cleansing in mainly ethnic Albanian Kosovo. This could and arguably should have been seen as overdue action against Belgrade, justified and demanded by the series of wars it had launched since 1991 in the territories of the former Yugoslavia. But to sidestep the need for any clear authorization by the U.N. Security Council (which Russia would have vetoed) and because it was suited to the liberal audience to which President Clinton and Mr. Blair felt the need to appeal, the NATO mission was described as taking place as a "humanitarian intervention." Surprisingly, the mission worked because, for reasons still unclear, the Serbian leader, Slobodan Milosevic, suddenly crumbled. [8] The precedent was problematic, but arguably the result had justified it. Mr. Blair, however, was not satisfied with this scrappy but satisfactory outcome and sought, on the basis of his triumph, to formulate a novel, generalized justification. In a speech in Chicago in April 1999, he attempted to spell out what he described as a "new doctrine of international community." According to this analysis, and expressing the point more crudely than he himself did, this amounted to the contention that everything everywhere affects all of us, and so we have a duty--and, ipso facto , a right--to be as willing to mind other people's business as our own. This law he saw applying to economic and technological innovation, but also to security. Specifically, he asserted: "We cannot turn our backs on conflicts and the violation of human rights within other countries if we want still to be secure." [9] Margaret Thatcher, who gave strong support to the Kosovo operation itself, later observed of this assertion: We may believe that it is right to intervene to stop suffering inflicted by rulers on their subjects, or by one ethnic group on another: I am sure that it sometimes was, and is. And we may believe that we should be prepared to intervene in order to preserve our own security or the defence of an ally: I am convinced that we have to show resolution in doing so. But to pretend that the two objectives are always, or even usually, identical is humbug. Unfortunately, the humbug has proved all too palatable. The result is that no clear distinctions or even cool calculations now seem politically avowable when the case for or against military interventions is being considered. This, as Mrs. Thatcher then warned, is a "prescription for strategic muddle, military overstretch and ultimately, in the wake of inevitable failure, for an American retreat from global responsibility." [10] Tony Blair's attempt to make Britain a "bridge" (a popular metaphor at the time) between the United States and Europe failed as a result of the Iraq War, when he (rightly but fatally) chose to support Britain's key ally, despite the opposition of "old Europe." For well-known reasons, this became for him, as for other supporters of the war, an insurmountable political liability. Indeed, it so undermined his public credibility that he had to stand down early as Prime Minister in June 2007 when relentlessly pressured by Mr. Brown, who wanted to succeed him. But other aspects of Tony Blair's legacy in foreign policy persisted. In fact, it can be said without exaggeration that the doctrine of "international community," or humanitarian (military) intervention, alongside a range of multilateral initiatives on poverty, climate change, and universal jurisdiction--encapsulated in the new International Criminal Court, for which Mr. Blair strongly pressed--remolded international relations and recast, in particular, British foreign policy. Section III Conservative Foreign Policy Thinking In Opposition after 2003, having at first supported the Iraq War, the Conservative Party under Michael Howard opportunistically changed its tune when the dreadful aftermath changed public opinion. Had the Conservatives then focused their criticism on the planning for Iraq after victory, their stance might have made more sense; but by clambering on the bandwagon of criticism of America's and Mr. Blair's honesty and motives, they merely caused grave offense in Washington while damaging their credibility at home. It was even made known publicly that Mr. Howard would not be welcome in the White House, an astonishing snub for a Tory leader from a Republican Administration. Relations remained at this level until the 2005 U.K. general election, which the Conservatives lost. Mr. Howard resigned and was succeeded as leader by his former adviser and long-standing protege, David Cameron. This background is crucial to understanding Britain's and Mr. Cameron's foreign policy stance today. From his predecessor, Michael Howard, he inherited a disposition to play down any perceived closeness to America. At the same time, among his younger advisers and friends were enthusiasts for that American brand of foreign policy which is, to some extent misleadingly, described as "neoconservative." [11] The Conservatives were in a dilemma. They wanted to exploit Tony Blair's perceived subservience to President Bush, damagingly summed up for British public consumption by the "Yo Blair!" exchange between the two leaders, which occurred at the St. Petersburg G8 Summit in July 2006 and was endlessly recycled in the British media. At the same time, the Tories were attracted in domestic policy, and thus potentially in foreign policy too, by the rhetoric of high-minded idealism, which seemed young, fresh, and new. Although this had been concealed under Mr. Howard, the one point upon which the Conservative Party's "modernizing" faction, which the former leader had promoted and the new leader represented, was wholeheartedly and enthusiastically agreed was that Tony Blair (not, for example, Margaret Thatcher) was the model for the Conservative Party's rebirth. The template for the new Conservatives was, mutatis mutandis , New Labour. So they wanted to emulate Tony Blair in all things possible, and Mr. Blair gushed idealism. It was his trademark. Mr. Cameron's pronouncements and, to a less identifiable extent, those of his then-Shadow Foreign Secretary and now Foreign Secretary, William Hague, have since followed these conflicting tendencies. Initially, while President Bush was in the White House, the Tory distancing continued. Mr. Hague, for example, in Washington in February 2006 delivered a speech in which he warned of a "critical erosion" of American moral authority. He linked this to the alleged use of torture to extract information from terrorists (information of the sort that apparently led to the detection and elimination of Osama bin Laden, among others). Mr. Hague even suggested: "This has resulted in a loss of goodwill towards America which could be as serious in the long term as the sharpest of military defeats." [12] This message was, of course, formulated with a view to British public opinion. Opinion research showed at the time that 63 percent of those asked thought that Mr. Blair had tied Britain too closely to the U.S. [13] David Cameron then chose the fifth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on America to deliver a still more strongly worded message. The intention was to show that Britain would henceforth distance itself from America, with whom Britain should have a "solid but not slavish relationship" and with whom Britain could not be seen as the "unconditional associate in every endeavour"--though Mr. Cameron also denounced "Anti-Americanism." Mr. Cameron explicitly criticized "neo-conservative" foreign policy and claimed that he, by contrast, was a "liberal conservative." He added: "I believe that in the last five years we have suffered from the absence of two crucial qualities which should always condition foreign policy-making. Humility and patience." In words which contradict, some might say, rather sharply the approach Britain is now taking in Libya and the Arab world, Mr. Cameron warned: The ambition to spread democracy is noble and just. But it cannot be quickly achieved to suit a political timetable. Because it takes time, it cannot easily be imposed from outside. Liberty grows from the ground--it cannot be dropped from the air by an unmanned drone. [14] This message, like that of Michael Howard, which it echoed, was probably not well received in the White House, but nor was it in the forefront of U.S. concerns. So, in order to gain advantage from the perception that the Conservatives were standing up to America, Mr. Cameron's media advisers apparently intimated to the British press that it had created a serious split. [15] In October of the following year, in a speech at a conference on security held in Berlin in the company of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Mr. Cameron elaborated on the direction of his new foreign policy thinking. He repeated his commitment to "liberal conservatism," with which he now explicitly contrasted Mr. Blair's doctrine of interventionism set out in Chicago in 1999. But he added the thought that states must put their "own national security first," suggesting that the rule of law and strong institutions at home took priority and that "a state without a clear and confident national identity creates the space for ethnic conflict and extremism." [16] (Where that left multi-ethnic states like Bosnia, for example, or many Middle Eastern states composed of mixed, conflicting religious and weak national identities, he did not say). Mr. Cameron's main criticism of recent interventions was that they had "failed to strike the right balance between realism and idealism." [17] More of the latter was needed. Concentrating on home affairs first and not allowing ideals to squeeze out caution is a classic conservative message, albeit a somewhat old-fashioned one. In any case, this now seemed the settled ("liberal conservative") Tory position. Suddenly, however, it changed. Mr. Cameron, known to be an admirer of Harold Macmillan, might, in self-exculpation from the charge of inconsistency, point to Macmillan's famous (but perhaps apocryphal) reply to the question of what he feared most in politics: "Events, dear boy, events." But the alteration was startling all the same. David Cameron's new advocacy of muscular interventionism can first be traced to a justified concern with the deteriorating situation in Bosnia. He told an audience in November 2007 in Washington that "there could be a new crisis in the Balkans by Christmas," blamed Russian meddling, and called for a reinforcement of "the military presence in the region now." [18] This call passed without receiving much attention, but his next high-profile intervention made up for that. In August 2008, Russia invaded Georgia, following a dispute about the breakaway region of South Ossetia. The British government's response was critical but muted. Mr. Cameron, however, reacted with outspoken vigor. He even made a flying visit to Tbilisi. He publicly compared Russian action to the crushing of the Prague Spring in 1968. He suggested that Russia be thrown out of the G8. He demanded that Georgia be granted accelerated membership in NATO. [19] These initiatives, though appreciated by the Georgians, necessarily had little impact on events, but they signalled what can now be seen as a sharp about-turn in Conservative foreign policy thinking. Foreign policy did not figure prominently in the 2010 U.K. general election campaign. The Conservatives were uneasy about overstressing the issue of relations with Europe, despite the large public resonance it had, especially with Tory supporters. This was because Mr. Cameron had faced a wave of hostility at the end of 2009, generated by his refusal to adhere to what was deemed by many a firm pledge to offer a referendum, when in power, on the (European) Lisbon Treaty. Otherwise, the Conservative leader had broadly followed the lead given by President Obama since taking office in January 2009. David Cameron had, in fact, strongly backed Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, but the Conservatives benefited politically from Barack Obama's victory. First , they did not have to try to repair relations with President Bush or apologize to a Republican successor. Second , it fit into their determinedly liberal image to welcome the arrival of an African-American President--especially one who would enjoy bad relations with Gordon Brown. Third , it allowed the Conservatives to modulate their approach to Afghanistan according to that of the new Administration, with every hope that it would not come to be the politically fatal quagmire Iraq had proved for Tony Blair. David Cameron's team of advisers admire President Obama's approach to foreign policy--one which might be summarized as emphasizing multilateralism and downplaying American primacy. Like the U.S. President, Mr. Cameron has sought to disarm real or imagined critics by apologies and public expressions of "humility" (as urged in his speech of September 11, 2006). [20] In Opposition, Mr Cameron indeed apologized repeatedly for the alleged misdeeds of the Margaret Thatcher years, including her government's opposition to economic sanctions against South Africa (whose effective application at that time during the Cold War, as President Reagan also recognized, could have led to chaos or Communism). In applying the technique to long-standing historical questions, David Cameron followed more closely still in the footsteps of Tony Blair. Mr. Blair, for example, apologized in 1997 for the 19th century potato famine in Ireland, which the British admittedly did not do enough to relieve but which we also did nothing to cause. He apologized, too, in 2006 for the slave trade, which Britain's navy stamped out--except in those parts of Africa and Asia beyond the reach of the British Empire, where it continued to flourish. Soon after taking office, Mr. Cameron, attempting presumably to demonstrate his humility, told his audience in New York that the United Kingdom was merely a "junior partner" to the U.S. in 1940, a year before America even entered the Second World War, overlooking the Blitz and Dunkirk. This was not well received at home. [21] The tendency to tell foreign audiences what one thinks they want to hear, being natural, is also one reason why national leaders usually stick to prescripted remarks. Mr. Cameron's brand of politics, being heavily media-focused, is particularly prone to this, and he does not, it seems, use scripts--with the inevitable results. So in Turkey, whose increasingly Islamist government has strongly criticized Israel, he described Gaza as being like "a prison camp," [22] ignoring the terrorist threat which provoked the clampdown. In India, which he was said beforehand to be visiting with "humility," he said about Pakistan: "We cannot tolerate the idea that this country is allowed to look both ways and is able...to promote the export of terror." [23] This was and is a fair point, but it was not a point to make to an Indian audience--as the outraged response of the Pakistan authorities demonstrated. [24] To make amends, Mr. Cameron, in a visit to Pakistan this year, was keen to demonstrate "humility" there too, but he then fell into the trap into which he had slipped in New York earlier. Declining (perhaps sensibly) to give any prescriptive response on the vexed question of disputed Kashmir, David Cameron explained: "I don't want to try to insert Britain in some leading role where, as with so many of the world's problems, we are responsible for the issue in the first place." As regards the issue of Kashmir itself, this was historically nonsensical. [25] It was also offensive to all those in Britain who believe that the British Empire's legacy was broadly positive. It created a storm of press criticism. The embarrassing incidents which seemed to plague Mr. Cameron's diplomatic forays made the British government particularly sensitive to the need to react in a media-friendly manner to the crisis in the Arab world. Unfortunately, this is not how matters turned out. Section IV Britain and the Arab Crisis Britain, like the rest of the Western world, was taken by surprise by the eruption and spread of revolt against corrupt authoritarian Arab governments at the start of 2011. Indeed, David Cameron's tour of Gulf states in February was simply conceived as a means of doing business--including arms business--with the rulers. Mr. Cameron's party thus included an embarrassing number of businessmen when Egypt was suddenly added to the schedule so that the British Prime Minister could be the first foreign leader to visit after the fall of President Hosni Mubarak. The visit was predictably but damagingly criticized by those who said that there was a conflict between selling arms to repressive regimes and urging their people to take to the streets to overthrow them. Mr. Cameron, however, referred to the uprisings as "hugely inspiring." [26] In a speech in Kuwait, he went further. He criticized the traditional calculations of British policy in the region: For decades, some have argued that stability required controlling regimes and that reform and openness would put that stability at risk. So, the argument went, countries like Britain faced a choice between our interests and our values. But I say that is a false choice. As recent events have confirmed, denying people their basic rights does not preserve stability--rather the reverse. [27] In its way, this is as clear a statement of the assumptions behind a liberal foreign policy as can be imagined. Whether, as expressed, it is a conservative policy is questionable. It is equally reasonable to question--even if one does not go so far as (in Mr. Cameron's words) to "claim that Arabs or Muslims can't do democracy," a view which he denounced as "a prejudice that borders on racism"--whether such unqualified optimism is sensible. There are legitimate reasons for apprehension about how well the cultural impact of Arab history and the intellectual impact of Islam prepare the people of the region to shift to liberty and democracy. [28] Mr. Cameron's remarks were made in Kuwait. A glance at the history and politics of the Gulf shows why worries of a specific kind are in order. Britain's involvement with the Gulf sheikhdoms is of long standing. To describe it, however, as based on colonialism in the ordinary sense is to mislead. It emerged in response to local requirements. The era of British hegemony began in 1820 and lasted formally until 1971, when the Conservative government of Edward Heath--to Margaret Thatcher's dismay--gave effect to the previous Labour government's strategy of withdrawal "East of Suez." [29] The British during that period had responsibility for the defense of Oman and the "Trucial States" (today's United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar). Britain then helped turn these sheikhdoms into more or less modern states. Britain had originally been asked by the rulers to guarantee security in the face of mutual squabbles, piracy, and threats from Persia, to which were later added threats of Communist subversion. The British finally withdrew despite--not in response to--demands from the states concerned. The rulers' anxieties proved all too prescient, particularly when the Shah of Iran was deposed and when that country in 1979 fell under the control of an extreme, aggressive, anti-Western and regionally ambitious regime. The strategic importance of these states is, or ought to be, obvious. The present disorders in Bahrain, whether "democratic" or externally manipulated or a mixture of both, demonstrate the delicacy of the situation and the prudence which Britain and America would be wise to show. Bahrain is financially and economically important in its own right. It is also home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet headquarters. It has a Sunni ruling family but a Shia majority population, which claims to suffer discrimination and (crucially) a large section of which is loyal to Iran. Iran retains a long-standing claim over the territory and has previously tried to overthrow the Al-Khalifa rulers. Saudi Arabia, of far greater economic and military importance to the West, also feels threatened by any threat to Bahrain. Its own Shia minority is restive and lives in the country's eastern province, home to its vast oil wealth. The violent suppression of protests in Bahrain in February and the entry of Saudi forces to maintain order in March are easy enough to deplore--and, indeed, in an ideal world might be deplorable--but whether the likely alternative is acceptable to the West is quite another matter. [30] Indeed, the easy rhetorical formula, currently followed by Britain, of calling for democratic reforms throughout the region comes up not just against legitimate considerations of strategic and economic interest, but also against the serious threat posed by Iran. Iran successfully saw off its own popular democratic uprising in 2009, when demonstrations against that year's rigged presidential election were ruthlessly suppressed with little criticism from the U.S. and the U.K. and with no assistance offered to the democrats. This success has enabled Iran to take advantage of the current uprisings in the Arab world to advance its power. Meanwhile, Iran remains by far the greatest source of danger. It demonstrates no inclination to slow down its preparations to become a nuclear power, which would also give a huge impetus to proliferation throughout the newly unstable Middle East. Iran has already made significant strategic gains. Egypt, an old enemy, is restoring diplomatic and political relations. Egypt has also ended the military quarantine imposed on Hamas-controlled Gaza. This, in turn, puts more pressure on Iran's sworn enemy (and potential target) Israel. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and the conservative Gulf states are on the defensive in the face of Shia militancy. One should finally mention the new opportunities provided by instability for Islamist extremism, which has not been crushed--though it was dented--by the elimination of Osama bin Laden. While it is possible to argue about the prospects of different brands of Islamists in different alliances gaining a grip in different Arab countries, it is clear, at least, that nothing in the new wave of democratic reform will improve the prospects of bringing order to, and expelling Islamist forces from, Somalia. Meanwhile, the fate of Yemen, home to perhaps the currently most active al-Qaeda-linked terrorist movement, was in the balance even before the moves to oust President Ali Abdullah Saleh. If Yemen descends from ineffective repression into the chaos of a failed state, as Somalia has, that will represent a serious danger which the U.S. cannot afford to ignore. Section V Britain's historic links with Yemen are, in fact, much closer than those with Libya. [31] Arguably, as a prime target of Islamist terrorists, Britain's interests are also more connected with events in Yemen. But it is Libya which now dominates British media coverage of events in the Arab world and seems almost wholly to preoccupy the British government. Libya is an issue first and foremost of British domestic politics, and this fact has governed British government reactions to current events. The 1988 bombing of a Pan American aircraft over Lockerbie in Scotland, which killed 270 people, ensured that this would be so. Then in January 2001, a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands found Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence agent, guilty. But there was never any serious doubt that Colonel Qadhafi was himself behind it. This was not Libya's only act of international terrorism. Nor was it, indeed, the first Libyan outrage on British soil. In 1984, Woman Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher was shot and killed in front of the Libyan People's Bureau by one of Qadhafi's agents inside. The culprit was never brought to justice, but again, Qadhafi is clearly responsible. In the light of these events, it is perhaps surprising that there was so little adverse reaction to the decision in 2004 to bring Qadhafi's Libya in from the cold as a reward for abandonment of its weapons-of-mass-destruction programs. [32] The strategy was approved in Washington, but it was promoted and pursued most enthusiastically by Tony Blair. It was quite unnecessary, its terms were insufficiently rigorous, and it encouraged a corrupt complicity which stained the reputation of British institutions and of the country. It was superfluous because Qadhafi was acting from fear after he saw the consequences of defiance visited upon Saddam Hussein: He needed no rewards or inducements. Its conditions were too lax because the Libyan regime was never forced to free the hundreds of political prisoners, to move even tentatively toward liberty, or to allow proper investigation of its numerous terrorist crimes and assassinations. Finally, the strategy corrupted the countries that engaged in it because it allowed Libya not just an open door for investment and trade, but a door through which it could draw a range of powerful interests and individuals into the grubby business of sustaining Qadhafi, his family, and cronies in power and luxury. The consequences of this in British public life are still unfolding. [33] As the culmination of the rapprochement with Libya came the release, under still murky conditions, of the "terminally ill" Megrahi to return to Libya in August 2009. This did enormous harm to the standing of Britain in America. (The decision itself was made by the Scottish government, but it was clearly welcome to the Westminster government too.) [34] The release of Megrahi was sharply and rightly criticized at the time by David Cameron. Naturally, the whole question of the last government's relationship with Libya remains embarrassing for the Labour Party and has offered useful political ammunition to the Conservatives, now back in power. Libya could not be forgotten. That said, the outbreak of revolt there took the new British government as much by surprise as did revolts elsewhere in the Arab world. During the initial stages, it resulted in several high-profile failures, mainly deemed the fault of the British Foreign Office. The government's efforts to evacuate Britons caught up in the Libyan fighting were criticized as slow, cheese-paring, and incompetent. William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, then announced, on the basis of unconfirmed and (as it turned out) wrong reports, that Colonel Qadhafi had left Libya for Venezuela. Finally, an armed, secret "diplomatic" mission sent to make contact with the rebels was humiliatingly seized, held, and questioned on arrival. Since then, the game has been played with greater application and seriousness, and even to some effect. Mr. Cameron's early championing of a no-fly zone was rewarded with grudging support from the U.S. and then given U.N. Security Council authorization by Resolution 1973. Allied air attacks have prevented Qadhafi's well-armed and well-paid forces from overwhelming their opponents, have destroyed much of his arsenal, and have delivered several nearly successful strikes aimed, it seems, at beheading the regime. These weeks of operations have not (at the time of writing) done more, however, than to impose a stalemate. The rebels are divided, untrained, and not well led, and the terms of UNSCR 1973, alongside other uncertainties, stand in the way of doing much about it. Whether Qadhafi goes, whether Libya breaks up into its two traditional tribal-based units, or whether a single, friendly, broadly based government emerges remains at present in the realm of speculation. It is clear that Libya--with its oil wealth, relatively small population (7 million), lack of Sunni-Shia divide (which paralyzed post-Saddam Iraq), absence (so far, and despite Qadhafi's rhetoric) of serious Islamist presence, and potential reservoir of talent provided by talented foreign exiles--has the capacity to succeed as a country. It might even, on an optimistic scenario, become the model for a free, stable, and prosperous Maghreb. [35] But it might also, if the power struggle continues indefinitely, become one or more failed states, with all the trouble that could bring. Section VI British Foreign Policy and Defense: The Missing Dimension British foreign policy has been tested by Libya, but it will not rise or fall by the Libyan outcome. Despite the shift of media attention, the commitment of British forces to Afghanistan--10,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines as well as hundreds of civilians--is a much more serious affair. Equally serious will be the consequence of what British, American, and other NATO forces leave behind them when combat operations are concluded (on present plans) by the end of 2014. The British Defence secretary, Dr. Liam Fox, has rightly emphasized that "we cannot and will not forget about Afghanistan." [36] But the pressure of that campaign, coming on the heels of Iraq, now competing with Libya, and soon perhaps elsewhere in the Middle East--a crisis involving either Lebanon/Syria or Iran or both is easy to envisage--has demonstrated again the folly of Britain's recent defense cuts. In Libya, NATO was already complaining of a lack of aircraft early in April, [37] but the air campaign has continued, so far with no end in sight. There are also now reports of a shortage of munitions. The Libyan campaign is the sort of conflict that the British Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) considered unlikely: a war fought from the air against conventional forces. Under the SDSR, Britain eliminated its force of Harriers and took the Ark Royal aircraft carrier out of service. This means that Britain's aircraft now have to fly from Italy. More generally, the decision to scale back Britain's defense effort from what was already too low a level while attempting to project British power and influence in new areas is not now intellectually defensible. [38] Public expenditure cuts clearly should be directed at domestic programs and at the wasteful (and sharply increased) overseas aid program, and the Defence Review must be reopened. In Libya, so far, Britain's luck has held. Despite exhaustion, the line also holds in Afghanistan. But the present British approach to foreign policy cannot and should not hold. Making high-flown declarations of principle, downplaying considerations of national interest, and then failing to provide the defense resources required to make sense of either while keeping all too close a focus on day-by-day media reports is a recipe for failure and humiliation. Right aims, as in the elimination of Qadhafi, are muddled with hugely over-ambitious ones, as in the mission to transform the Arab world into a democratic utopia, and then confounded with bad ones like trying to demonstrate political distance from the United States. The Prime Minister has established, on the American model, a National Security Council. [39] It is high time that it did what it was formally set up to do: bring some coherence and more strategic sense to Britain's external relations. And it is time, too, for the U.K. government to give foreign and security policy the attention and resources it deserves. Dr. Robin Harris served during the 1980s as an adviser at the United Kingdom Treasury and Home Office, as Director of the Conservative Party Research Department, and as a member of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Downing Street Policy Unit. He continued to advise Lady Thatcher after she left office and has edited the definitive volume of her Collected Speeches. Dr. Harris is now an author and journalist. His books include Dubrovnik : A History (Saqi Books, 2003); Beyond Friendship: The Future of Anglo-American Relations (The Heritage Foundation, 2006); and Talleyrand: Betrayer and Saviour of France (John Murray, 2007). His history of the British Conservative Party will be published later in 2011.

It may take years before the results of NATO's military operations against Colonel Muammar Qadhafi's Libyan regime can finally be judged, but the issues raised by the crisis are of immediate importance.

As part of their coverage on the deadly shooting at the Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, Thursday's CBS Evening News dedicated a segment to President Obama's attempts to push through gun control measures after national tragedies. With no victories thus far, chief White House correspondent Major Garrett lamented that Obama "appears exhausted by gun violence and the political stalemate" with those prospects after Charleston. In a segment that saw no opposing viewpoint or discussion of the President's proposals on the merits, Garrett started by pointing out that it is now "14 times" in which "President Obama has consoled the nation after a deadly shooting" and "call[ed] for action to reduce the violence." With Wednesday night's act of terror, Garrett stated that the President "painfully admitted" on Thursday afternoon "the limits of his authority." The former Fox News correspondent then walked viewers through three such tragedies with the first being the deadly 2011 shooting in Tuscon, Arizona that wounded then-Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). Looking back on it, Garrett observed that the President's tone on Thursday was a "far cry from Mr. Obama's passionate push for gun control" following that event. Concerning the school shooting in December 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, Garrett noted Obama's description of that day as "the worst day of his presidency" before reminding viewers how: "Just four months later, Congress rejected and effectively ended the President's gun control agenda." Without getting into the specifics of how and why the proposals fell, Garrett cited "[t]hat defeat" as having "led to frustration and resignation, which boiled over again today." Garrett concluded by explaining the steps the President has taken through executive orders before making one, last remark: The President has taken 23 separate executive actions to limit actions to some firearms under certain conditions. Top officials say they've exhausted all executive powers on gun control. Scott, the President appears exhausted by gun violence and the political stalemate. This retrospective of sorts by Garrett on Obama comes roughly seven months after a similar segment of his was aired on November 24's CBS Evening News concerning race relations. In that piece, Garrett stated that what took place in Ferguson "tested once more" Obama as he's "willingly shouldered the burden of a nation fractured along racial lines" in the face of "unrealistic expectations of healing." Turning back to Charleston, NBC Nightly News fill-in anchor Savannah Guthrie only introduced Obama's comments on gun control as part his larger remarks that Guthrie described as him speaking "to express the grief of a nation." Throughout Obama's remarks and including when he referenced guns, still photos were shown on-screen of those grieving near the scene. Following the clip, Guthrie reiterated that "more than a dozen times he's had to speak after a mass shooting since he took office." ABC's World News Tonight also did not go as far as CBS and only included a soundbite from the President's remarks about gun control as part of larger report on what transpired Wednesday night and during the day on Thursday. The relevant portions of the transcript from the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley on June 18 can be found below. CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley June 18, 2015 6:41 p.m. Eastern SCOTT PELLEY: Today, President Obama expressed his sadness over the tragedy and his anger, as well. Here's chief White House correspondent Major Garrett. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I've had to make statements like this too many times. MAJOR GARRETT: 14 times President Obama has consoled the nation after a deadly shooting. In every instance, a call for action to reduce the violence. Today, he painfully admitted the limits of his authority. GARRETT: It's far cry for Mr. Obama's passionate push for gun control after the 2011 Tucson shooting that severely wounded congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and killed six others. OBAMA [in 01/12/11]: We should be willing to challenge old assumptions in order to lessen the prospects of such violence in the future. GARRETT: Then in December 2012, a gunman killed 20 first graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Mr. Obama called it the worst day of his presidency. GARRETT: Just four months later, Congress rejected and effectively ended the President's gun control agenda. OBAMA [04/17/13]: I've heard some say that blocking this stuff would a victory. My question is: A victory for who? GARRETT: That defeat has led to frustration and resignation, which boiled over again today. OBAMA: At some point, we, as a country, will have to reckon with the fact that this type of violence does not happen in other advanced countries. GARRETT: The President has taken 23 separate executive actions to limit actions to some firearms under certain conditions. Top officials say they've exhausted all executive powers on gun control. Scott, the President appears exhausted by gun violence and the political stalemate. CyberAlerts Guns Liberals & Democrats Religion Christianity ABC World News Tonight CBS CBS Evening News NBC NBC Nightly News Video President Barack Obama President Obama Scott Pelley Major Garrett Barack Obama

As part of their coverage on the deadly shooting at the Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, Thursday's CBS Evening News dedicated a segment to President Obama's attempts to push through gun control measures after national tragedies.

Jonzi describes the event as a celebration of not only hip-hop's history but also its future. "I believe that hip-hop is going to be the staple of theater going forward," he says. "If you look at history over the last 150 years, you'll find that everything that was seen as a marginal street dance became a theatrical dance; jazz, tap -- all of the dances of the original black communities in America have become the staple of theater." Jonzi's passion for street dance stems not only from its organic nature -- dancers often learn of the art as kids and perform it recreationally -- but also from its artistry and technique. "We push the boundaries of human physical expression," he says, comparing traditional elements of classical ballet like grande allegro and petit allegro to the hip-hop equivalents of powermove and footwork. Regarding the spoken text of theater, Jonzi says the MC is a key player. "Shakespeare used rhyme, cadence, and rhythm; this is what today's Shakespeares are doing as MCs." Jonzi, a London native, began his career in breaking in 1982, concurrently mastering "instution-based" styles such as jazz and contemporary. "I danced before I was born," Jonzi says. "I remember going to my first dance class, but that's not the same as dance. Dance comes before that." Breakin' Convention founder Jonzi D Paul Hampartsoumian He emphasizes that for street dance, the physicality of the venue is as important to Breakin' Convention as that of its performers. Because of classism, street dance was not "designed for the proscenium arch," Jonzi says, but that is no excuse for venues across the nation such as the Arsht to disengage. "What we're trying to do is put an end to the cultural apartheid that exists in these buildings." While other theatrical artists might shy from social commentary in the current era, the crews at Breakin' Convention tackle the visceral psychology of racism and prejudice head-on. The English crew Protocol will perform a piece titled "I Can't Breathe," about "the plague of police murdering innocent people and getting away with it." An endeavor created in equal parts pain and love, this piece and others like it fuse the escapism of street dance with its politics. To Jonzi's joy, Miami turned out to be "a perfect fit" for him this year. "I connected with the hip-hop community here," he says. "I'd say the general skill level here is quite high -- and the love." Jada Newball, a 17-year-old student at Miami Norland Senior High and a member of the school's Dynasty Step Team, exemplifies this skill and love while stepping with her peers, who were all relatively new to stepping when they started the team with the help of teachers. "It's a blessing for us all," she says of the opportunity to perform at the Arsht and future shows in the community. "We came such a long way; we started from the bottom." If you like this story, consider signing up for our email newsletters. SHOW ME HOW You have successfully signed up for your selected newsletter(s) - please keep an eye on your mailbox, we're movin' in! To supplement the two-day festival, a block party Saturday on the patio of the Arsht Center will offer workshops and demonstrations of dancing, MC'ing, DJ'ing, and graffiti by local artists. Free to the community and friendly for all ages, the event will honor the history of hip-hop in the city while promoting visibility for Miami's vibrant scene. Just one hour of rehearsal proves Jonzi's predictions about the future of street dance in theater are correct. Now it's time to appeal to those who don't yet totally understand it. "If you come to Breakin' Convention," Jonzi says, "whatever you thought about hip-hop will change." Breakin' Convention . 7:30 p.m. Friday, October 20, and Saturday, October 21, at the Adrienne Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 305-949-6722; arshtcenter.org . Tickets cost $25 to $60. Free block party October 21 from noon to 6:30 p.m. on the Arsht Center campus.

Jonzi describes the event as a celebration of not only hip-hop's history but also its future.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Delegates from dozens of countries gathered in New York on Monday and signed the first treaty to regulate the $70 billion global conventional arms trade, but the United States was not among them. On April 2, the 193-nation U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty that aims to keep weapons out of the hands of human rights abusers and criminals. Argentina's foreign minister, Hector Timerman, was the first to put pen to paper when the signing ceremony opened at U.N. headquarters on Monday. There was a large round of applause after he affixed his signature to the document. The United Nations said 62 countries from Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa signed the treaty in the morning. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle was due to sign shortly, making Germany the 63rd nation to join the pact. U.N. High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Angela Kane told reporters that several more states would likely be signing in the coming days, taking the initial tally to roughly 66. The United States, the world's No. 1 arms exporter, will sign the treaty as soon as all the official U.N. translations of the document are completed, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement. "The signing of the Arms Trade Treaty gives hope to the millions affected by armed violence every day," said Anna Macdonald of the humanitarian group Oxfam. "The devastating humanitarian consequences of the ... conflict in Syria underline just how urgently regulation of the arms trade is needed." "Gunrunners and dictators have been sent a clear message that their time of easy access to weapons is up," she added. "For generations the arms trade has been shrouded in secrecy but from now on it will be open to scrutiny." Arms control activists and rights groups say one person dies every minute as a result of armed violence and the treaty is needed to halt the uncontrolled flow of arms and ammunition that they say fuels wars, atrocities and rights abuses. The Arms Trade Treaty aims to set standards for all cross-border transfers of conventional weapons ranging from small firearms to tanks and attack helicopters. It would create binding requirements for states to review cross-border contracts to ensure that weapons will not be used in human rights abuses, terrorism, violations of humanitarian law or organized crime. IRAN, SYRIA, NORTH KOREA OPPOSED TREATY Iran, Syria and North Korea cast the only votes against the treaty in April. The same three states had prevented a treaty-drafting conference at the U.N. headquarters in March from reaching the required consensus to adopt the pact. The treaty will enter into force 90 days after 50 nations have ratified it. Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja said the treaty could come into force in "slightly more than a year" depending on how quickly national ratifications come. The National Rifle Association, a powerful U.S. pro-gun lobbying group that opposed the treaty from the start, criticized the U.S. delegation in April for being among the 154 U.N. member states that voted in favor of the pact. The NRA has vowed to fight to prevent the treaty's ratification by the U.S. Senate when it reaches Washington. The group says the treaty will erode citizens' right to bear arms, an interpretation the U.S. government disputes. The treaty "will not undermine the legitimate international trade in conventional weapons, interfere with national sovereignty, or infringe on the rights of American citizens," Kerry said in his statement. Alistair Burt, under secretary of state at the British Foreign Office, urged countries to move swiftly with the ratification of the treaty. "The world has already waited too long and we should not and will not lose the momentum gained," he said after signing. "Our goal is early entry into force and universal application." Russia, China, India and 20 other countries abstained in the April 2 vote. Many nations that abstained criticized the treaty as discriminatory. U.N. diplomats say the treaty's effectiveness could be limited if major arms exporters and importers refused to sign it. (Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Delegates from dozens of countries gathered in New York on Monday and signed the first treaty to regulate the $70 billion global conventional arms trade, but the United States was not among them.

1. ABC Quicker on Thompson Scandal Than on Hillary's Hsu Scandal When the Wall Street Journal in late August broke the fugitive Norman Hsu illegal fundraising scandal, it took ABC's World News three days to get around to reporting it -- and despite developments as the fugitive has moved through the court system, ABC hasn't mentioned him since. But after the Washington Post on Sunday disclosed the criminal past of an adviser to Fred Thompson's campaign, ABC pounced immediately with a full story Monday night. CBS also got into the action with a brief item. NBC, which waited two days to touch Hsu, got to Thompson with even less delay, citing the matter in a larger Nightly News story Sunday about Thompson's appearance on Meet the Press where Tim Russert asked him about the Post story. On Monday, Thompson adviser Philip Martin gave the media a hook with his resignation from the campaign, but when the Clinton campaign announced on September 11 that it was returning $850,000 in suspect donations and when the Justice Dept. on September 20 filed a criminal complaint, ABC's World News was silent. Anchor Charles Gibson announced Monday night: "In the presidential race, another candidate has been embarrassed by the conduct of a major fund-raiser. This time it's Republican Fred Thompson." 2. Cokie Roberts Admits Hillary Has Had 'Way Too Favorable' Press According to ABC reporter Cokie Roberts, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has "had way too favorable press at this point in the season." Appearing on Friday's Good Morning America to discuss whether Clinton is now playing the "gender card" in the '08 race, Roberts asserted that, as a result of this popular coverage, the media are now "going after her." Roberts also claimed that the former First Lady, who stayed with Bill Clinton through the Monica Lewinsky scandal, "has been a strong woman and people have seen examples of that certainly in her personal life." While it's not clear how hard the press is now "going after" the New York Senator, Cokie Roberts could have been referring to GMA when she mentioned "way too favorable press." After all, this is the show that gave Clinton an almost 30 minute infomercial during a March "town hall" edition of the program. And in January, Claire Shipman reported Barack Obama would have to contend with Hillary's "hot factor." 3. Olbermann: 'Criminal Conspiracy to Cover Ass' of 'Fascist' Bush On Monday's Countdown, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann delivered his latest "Special Comment," inspired by revelations that former Acting Assistant Attorney General Daniel Levin had advised the Bush administration that waterboarding of al-Qaeda terrorists should be considered torture, as the Countdown host charged that "the presidency of George W. Bush has now devolved into a criminal conspiracy to cover the ass of George W. Bush." He further accused Bush of intentionally inducing al-Qaeda prisoners to make false confessions which Bush could speak of publicly for political gain, a crime that "wouldn't just mean impeachment," Olbermann contended, but would "mean George W. Bush is going to prison." He also warned that Bush would like to use his "nightmare presidency" to move America on a course similar to that of 1930s Japanese fascism: "And then to the giddying prospect that maybe you could do what the military fanatics did in Japan in the 1930s and remake a nation into a fascist state so efficient and so self-sustaining that the fascism itself would be nearly invisible." 4. CBS's Smith to Bloomberg: 'Manhattan Will Be Underwater by 2050' Interviewing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Monday's Early Show, co-host Harry Smith insisted: "Manhattan will be underwater by 2050." Though the liberal Mayor has followed in the footsteps of Al Gore and implored the government to take action to address an impending environmental crisis ("We need to do something now"), amusingly, even Bloomberg thought Smith's fear-mongering went too far: "I don't know that Manhattan will be under water, but certainly the environment's going to be a lot worse that we leave our children." Smith also pressed Bloomberg on a possible 2008 presidential run: "You want to announce -- why won't you announce now?" What is it about liberal environmentalists that makes Harry Smith want to recruit them for the presidency. Like he did with Al Gore in May. 5. Harry Smith 'Admired' Kucinich 'Since He Was Mayor of Cleveland' While previewing an upcoming interview with extreme left-wing presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, on Friday's Early Show, CBS co-host Harry Smith revealed: "I've actually admired Dennis Kucinich for a long -- since he was Mayor of Cleveland." In addition to Smith admitting that he admired someone as liberal as Kucinich, who wants to establish a Department of Peace and claims to have seen UFOs, Smith specifically mentioned Kucinich's disastrous tenure as Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio. Even the New York Times could not ignore Kucinich's failures as Mayor, noting in a 2003 candidate profile: "But it all came crashing quickly down when Mr. Kucinich presided over the city's plunge into default in 1978. The collapse attracted international ridicule and, except for a brief sojourn on the City Council in the early 80's, left the obstreperous boy wonder in political exile for 15 years..." 6. Cosby: 'Brother Lite' Thomas 'Doesn't Want to Help Anybody' On Saturday, CNN re-ran an interview with Bill Cosby on Larry King Live, which originally aired on Thursday, October 18, in which the entertainer plugged his new book Come on People: On the Path from Victims to Victors, about problems faced by America's black population. While Cosby talked about such conservative themes as personal responsibility, which in recent years he has been famous for discussing, the entertainer also demonstrated that he has not entirely made the trip over to the conservative side as he derided Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as "brother lite," repeatedly contending that Thomas "doesn't want to help anybody." Cosby also proclaimed that he "loves" far-left Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. 7. Order Now: Week Until Bozell's Book on Media Coverage of Hillary Whitewash: What the Media Won't Tell You About Hillary Clinton, But Conservatives Will, a new book by the MRC's Brent Bozell and Tim Graham, will be released next week by Crown Forum. You can order a copy now from the MRC, via PayPal, for $25.95, including shipping and handling. Or, go online and order it today from Amazon or Barnes & Noble. 8. MRC's 'NewsBusted' Not on Strike! Fresh Comedy Videos This Week NewsBusted Not on Strike! While Leno, Stewart, Letterman, O'Brien, Ferguson, Kimmel and Colbert are all in re-runs because of the strike called Monday by the Writers Guild of America, the MRC's NewsBusted comedy video show -- with jokes about politics, Hollywood and media bias -- is fresh this week. Check out the latest two-and-a-half-minute comedy show now at the top of the MRC's NewsBusters blog: http://newsbusters.org/ When the Wall Street Journal in late August broke the fugitive Norman Hsu illegal fundraising scandal, it took ABC's World News three days to get around to reporting it -- and despite developments as the fugitive has moved through the court system, ABC hasn't mentioned him since. But after the Washington Post on Sunday disclosed the criminal past of an adviser to Fred Thompson's campaign, ABC pounced immediately with a full story Monday night. CBS also got into the action with a brief item. NBC, which waited two days to touch Hsu, got to Thompson with even less delay, citing the matter in a larger Nightly News story Sunday about Thompson's appearance on Meet the Press where Tim Russert asked him about the Post story. (In the EST and CST zones, only NBC had a newscast on Sunday night.) On Monday, Thompson adviser Philip Martin gave the media a hook with his resignation from the campaign, but when the Clinton campaign announced on September 11 that it was returning $850,000 in suspect donations and when the Justice Dept. on September 20 filed a criminal complaint, ABC's World News was silent. Anchor Charles Gibson announced Monday night: "In the presidential race, another candidate has been embarrassed by the conduct of a major fund-raiser. This time it's Republican Fred Thompson." ABC's Brian Ross explained how "the resignation comes just one day after ABC News," apparently a reference to a Sunday posting on "The Blotter" blog, "and the Washington Post reported that not only was Martin a convicted drug trafficker, but that he had left a long trail of unpaid taxes in his business dealings." Ross highlighted how "Thompson has been traveling in style during this campaign on a Cessna Citation Five private jet" owned by Martin. [This item was posted Monday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] Ross did note the fund-raising problems of Clinton and two other Republicans: "Thompson's not the only presidential candidate who's been embarrassed this year by allegations that forced key campaign fund-raisers and advisers to resign. A fund-raiser for Senator Hillary Clinton turned out to be a wanted fugitive. Rudolph Giuliani's South Carolina chairman was indicted for cocaine dealing. And the Florida co-chairman for Senator John McCain is awaiting trial on charges he solicited sex for money in a men's room." For the November 4 Washington Post front page article, "Thompson Adviser Has Criminal Past," go to: www.washingtonpost.com The ABC News blog posting: abcnews.go.com The short item read by Katie Couric on Monday night's CBS Evening News: "And this political note now: An adviser to Republican Fred Thompson quit his presidential campaign today after a report came out detailing a criminal record for drug dealing. Philip Martin was sentenced to probation in the 70s and again in the 80s for selling cocaine and marijuana." How ABC handled Hsu: The Monday, September 4 CyberAlert, "ABC and CBS Catch Up with Fugitive Clinton/Democratic Donor Norman Hsu," recounted: Norman Hsu's appearance in a San Mateo County, California courtroom Friday to answer for a 1991 grand larceny charge, prompted full stories Friday night on the ABC and CBS evening newscasts catching up with the case of the fugitive donor to many Democratic candidates, including Hillary Clinton. On Thursday night, the NBC Nightly News became the first broadcast network program to report on Hsu, in a story from Lisa Myers, and on Friday night anchor Brian Williams offered a brief update about Hsu's court appearance. On Friday's CBS Evening News, Sandra Hughes pointed out how "a large group of Hsu's bundling checks came from this little green house in Daly City, California that Hsu once listed as a home address. The Paw family, which lives here, has given $45,000 to Hillary Clinton since 2005." Hughes also noted how Clinton has returned $23,000 in direct donations from Hsu, but on ABC's World News, Brian Ross reported that "in the last year Hsu has helped to raise more than a million dollars for Senator Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign" and he highlighted how Hsu "was scheduled to be one of the hosts of a major Clinton fund-raiser in California next month." Ross also saw a pattern, as he recalled a fact which has received little broadcast network air time -- that Clinton's "kickoff Senate fund-raiser in 2000 was organized by a convicted felon."... Newspapers have been out in front on this scandal with the cable news networks picking up on a Tuesday Wall Street Journal article on Hsu's "bundling" of questionable donations followed by a Wednesday front page Los Angeles Times story, "Democratic fund-raiser is a fugitive in plain sight," which revealed how he's been a fugitive from San Mateo County, California for 15 years over fraud charges related to an import scheme involving latex gloves. On Thursday, the New York Times ran a story, "Clinton Donor Under a Cloud in Fraud Case." For the entire CyberAlert article: www.mediaresearch.org The September 12 CyberAlert item, "Couric Spends More Time on 'Alex the Parrot' Than Hsu's Money," relayed how ABC ignored the return of Hsu's money: Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, as the New York Times revealed Tuesday, may be concerned about how much evening news program coverage fugitive donor/fund-raiser Norman Hsu attracts, but they had nothing to worry about Tuesday night. ABC didn't utter a word about the campaign's decision to refund the largest amount ever, $850,000 solicited by Hsu, yet anchor Charles Gibson found time to note how the New England Patriots broke an NFL rule by videotaping New York Jets coaches giving signals, while CBS's Katie Couric gave Hsu barely 20 seconds -- about half the time she devoted to the death of "Alex the Parrot" -- and NBC allocated 25 seconds, but only after a three-minute piece framed around how Rudy Giuliani's 9/11 image "stirs angry resentment." For the rest of the CyberAlert: www.mediaresearch.org The CyberAlert article, "ABC Again Refuses to Cover Hsu Case; CBS and NBC Offer Brief Updates," reported: CBS and NBC on Thursday night [September 20] aired brief updates on how the Justice Department filed a criminal complaint against Norman Hsu, the captured fugitive Democratic/Hillary Clinton campaign donor, for bilking $60 million from investors -- but ABC was once again absent on the story. ABC's World News hasn't uttered Hsu's name since its one and only story the Friday night of Labor Day weekend while Thursday's mention was the fifth for NBC and fourth for CBS. (Coverage details below.) On the NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams read this very short item: "Norman Hsu, that Democratic fund-raiser indicted today by federal prosecutors -- accusations of a massive Ponzi scheme. Hsu funneled a lot of money to Senator Clinton's campaign."... So far, including Thursday night September 20, the ABC and CBS evening newscasts have each run one full story on the Hsu scandal while NBC has aired two. CBS and NBC have aired three additional 20-second or so anchor-briefs. In sum, over the past three-plus weeks, that's two full stories on NBC, plus three brief updates; one full story and three brief items on CBS; and just one full story on ABC which hasn't mentioned Hsu on World News since Friday, August 31. For the posting in full: www.mediaresearch.org The MRC's Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed-captioning against the video to provide this transcript of the story on the Monday, November 5 edition of ABC's World News: CHARLES GIBSON: In the presidential race, another candidate has been embarrassed by the conduct of a major fund-raiser. This time it's Republican Fred Thompson. One of Thompson's close friends and key fund-raisers, a man named Philip Martin, resigned from Thompson's campaign today following revelations that he has a criminal record. Our chief investigative correspondent, Brian Ross, has been tracking Martin's involvement in the Thompson campaign for months now. Brian? BRIAN ROSS: Charlie, the resignation comes just one day after ABC News and the Washington Post reported that not only was Martin a convicted drug trafficker, but that he had left a long trail of unpaid taxes in his business dealings. Fred Thompson has been traveling in style during this campaign on a Cessna Citation Five private jet, owned by close adviser and long-time friend Phil Martin, the tall man in the gray jacket. Martin accompanied Thompson on many of his early exploratory trips, and as chairman of a group called First Day Founders, Martin helped to raise an initial $6 million to get Thompson's campaign going. PHIL MARTIN, FORMER THOMPSON FUND-RAISER: Before you know it, there was more and more people just across the country calling from everywhere, every state. So it's just been really exciting. ROSS: What Thompson says he did not know until two days ago was that his long-time friend Martin was twice convicted on drug trafficking charges, including a 1983 count of conspiracy to traffic in cocaine. FRED THOMPSON: Phil, I'm sure, knows that he should have told me about this, but he thought it was over and done with and forgotten about, I'm sure, but, of course, nothing is ever over and done with and forgotten about in this business. ROSS: Nor did Thompson apparently know that businesses founded by his long-time friend Martin had almost a million dollars in back unpaid taxes, according to county records in Tennessee discovered by ABC News. THOMPSON: I know him to be a good man. ROSS: Thompson's not the only presidential candidate who's been embarrassed this year by allegations that forced key campaign fund-raisers and advisers to resign. A fund-raiser for Senator Hillary Clinton turned out to be a wanted fugitive. Rudolph Giuliani's South Carolina chairman was indicted for cocaine dealing. And the Florida co-chairman for Senator John McCain is awaiting trial on charges he solicited sex for money in a men's room. FRED WERTHEIMER, DEMOCRACY 21: When you're desperate for bundlers to raise large amounts of money, the vetting system disappears, and you wind up with people who should not be involved let anywhere near these campaigns. ROSS: Campaign officials said today that in the wake of Phil Martin's resignation, Senator Thompson was no longer using his private jet. In fact, last night, Charlie, he flew commercial. According to ABC reporter Cokie Roberts, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has "had way too favorable press at this point in the season." Appearing on Friday's Good Morning America to discuss whether Clinton is now playing the "gender card" in the '08 race, Roberts asserted that, as a result of this popular coverage, the media are now "going after her." Roberts also claimed that the former First Lady, who stayed with Bill Clinton through the Monica Lewinsky scandal, "has been a strong woman and people have seen examples of that certainly in her personal life." While it's not clear how hard the press is now "going after" the New York Senator, Cokie Roberts could have been referring to GMA when she mentioned "way too favorable press." After all, this is the show that gave Clinton an almost 30 minute infomercial during a March "town hall" edition of the program. See: www.mrc.org And in January, Claire Shipman reported on Good Morning America that Barack Obama would have to contend with Hillary's "hot factor." See: www.mrc.org An August study by the Media Research Center found that Hillary, along with the other Democratic candidates, received more favorable coverage and more air time overall. From January through July 31 2007, Hillary Clinton garnered 61 stories, more than any other 2008 candidate: www.mrc.org [This item, by Scott Whitlock, was posted Friday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] To be fair, Roberts did mention the New York Senator's waffling on the issue of giving drivers licenses to illegals and how it "plays into all of the perceptions of the Clintons, both Clintons, of talking both for and against a lot of issues." Interestingly, while Roberts and co-host Diane Sawyer discussed whether Clinton was playing the gender card at debate, and the subject of drivers licenses, they did it without mentioning Clinton's much-panned complaining that host Tim Russert engaged in a "gotcha" question by even bringing the subject up. A transcript of the segment, which aired at 7:10am on November 2: DIANE SAWYER: Well, now we turn to the race to '08 and what happened yesterday when the Democratic front-runner returned to her roots? This is Hillary Rodham in 1969 when she was giving the graduation speech at Wellesley College. And this was Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, yesterday, uttering the sentence that had everybody talking this morning. SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON: In so many ways this all women's college prepared me to compete in the all boys club of presidential politics. SAWYER: So her rivals have been saying is she playing the gender card? Well, who better to weigh in on all this than ABC's Cokie Roberts, joining us now from Washington. Cokie, good morning to you. 58 percent of Democratic primary voters are women. Is this a strategy we see emerging? COKIE ROBERTS: Certainly it is, Diane, but it's not new. It's not a new strategy. And you and I should point out in full disclosure that you and I both went to Wellesley College. SAWYER: And wore glasses. I did. ROBERTS: The, and, what she said there was just a statement of fact, that women's college did prepare her for the life that she has led and presidential politics has been an all-boys club. But, sure, she's been playing the gender card all along. Women are her big base of support. Lately she's been way up in the polls among all groups. But earlier on, her lead was almost entirely among women. SAWYER: Yes, but something else. Se has on her website now a montage, as we call it in the TV business. And it's called the politics of piling on in which all the candidates, who happen to be men, are using her name. Let's listen a little. [Montage of all the Democratic rivals saying "Senator Clinton" or "Hillary"] SAWYER: Okay. And at the end of this, she says, you know, there's got to be a reason they're doing this. But, Fred Thompson, Republican candidate Fred Thompson, has said, "The Clinton campaign goes so far in relying upon her being a strong, strong woman. And then on a dime, they can switch to say, 'Oh, my goodness, the men are ganging up on her." ROBERTS: Again, they're both true. The fact is that she has been a strong woman and people have seen examples of that certainly in her personal life. But the fact is that the men are ganging up. But they gang up against any front-runner. So the question is, how do voters react to the fact that it's men ganging up on a woman? We were going to hit this point, Diane. She's running way too far ahead in the polls. And so she's, she's a front-runner. And the candidates are beating up on her. The press is going after her. She's had way too favorable press at this point in the season. And so there she is. But the question is how do voters react? Do they say, "Gee, don't like seeing all those guys beating up on that woman?" Or do they say, "She really can't do this?" SAWYER: All right. A quick final question here about a real issue. Governor Spitzer of New York has talked about issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. And there is something that Senator Clinton said in the debate that got all of her challengers really, really jumping on her. This was her analysis of whether she was for or against that. CLINTON: It makes a lot of sense. What is the governor supposed to do? He is dealing with a serious problem. We have failed. And George Bush has failed. Do I think this is the best thing for any governor to? No. But do I understand the sense of real desperation, trying to get a handle on this? Remember, in New York, we want to know who's in New York. We want people to come out of shadows. He's making an honest effort to do it. We should have passed immigration reform. SAWYER: And then there was the reaction. FORMER SENATOR JOHN EDWARDS: Unless I missed something, Senator Clinton said two different things in the course of about two minutes. SENATOR BARACK OBAMA: I can't tell whether she was for it or against. SAWYER: Is that a turning point of some kind, Cokie? ROBERTS: No, but it plays into all of the perceptions of the Clintons, both Clintons, of talking both for and against a lot of issues. She has to be careful with that. That's a real weakness with her campaign. On Monday's Countdown, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann delivered his latest "Special Comment," inspired by revelations that former Acting Assistant Attorney General Daniel Levin had advised the Bush administration that waterboarding of al-Qaeda terrorists should be considered torture, as the Countdown host charged that "the presidency of George W. Bush has now devolved into a criminal conspiracy to cover the ass of George W. Bush." He further accused Bush of intentionally inducing al-Qaeda prisoners to make false confessions which Bush could speak of publicly for political gain, a crime that "wouldn't just mean impeachment," Olbermann contended, but would "mean George W. Bush is going to prison." He also warned that Bush would like to use his "nightmare presidency" to move America on a course similar to that of 1930s Japanese fascism: "And then to the giddying prospect that maybe you could do what the military fanatics did in Japan in the 1930s and remake a nation into a fascist state so efficient and so self-sustaining that the fascism itself would be nearly invisible." [This item, by Brad Wilmouth, was posted late Monday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] Olbermann began his November 5 "Special Comment" segment: "Finally tonight, as promised, a 'Special Comment' on the meaning of the story of former U.S. Acting Assistant Attorney General Daniel Levin. It is a fact startling in its cynical simplicity, and it requires cynical and simple words to be properly expressed. The presidency of George W. Bush has now devolved into a criminal conspiracy to cover the ass of George W. Bush." After recounting Levin's decision to go through the experience of waterboarding and concluding that it fit the definition of torture, Olbermann argued that Levin had made Bush into a "liar" and a "criminal." Olbermann: "Made you into a liar, Mr. Bush. Made you into, if anybody had the guts to pursue it, a criminal, Mr. Bush." The MSNBC host chided Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein for announcing their intention to vote to confirm Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey in light of Mukasey's refusal to declare waterboarding to be torture, and urged Congress to "lock this government down financially until a special prosecutor is appointed." Then came Olbermann's conspiracy theory that, because studies supposedly show that torture is more likely to encourage false confessions than honest confessions from its subjects, Bush knowingly induced detainees to make false confessions of terror plots so the President would have terror plots of "authentic-sounding fiction" that could be recounted publicly for political gain. He further charged that if true, Bush would face not only impeachment, but prison: "If, say, a President simply needed a constant supply of terrorist threats to keep the country scared, if, say, he needed phony plots to play hero during and to boast about interrupting and he used to distract people from the threat he did not interrupt, if, say, he realized that even terrorized people still need good ghost stories before they will let a President pillage the Constitution. Well, heck, Mr. Bush, who better to dream them up for you than an actual terrorist? He'll tell you everything he ever fantasized doing in his most horrific of day dreams. His equivalent of the day you flew onto the deck of the Lincoln to explain you'd won in Iraq. Now, if that's what this is all about, you tortured not because you're stupid and you think that torture produces confession, but that you tortured because you're smart enough to know it produces really authentic-sounding fiction. Well, then, you're going to need all the lawyers you can find because that crime wouldn't just mean impeachment, would it, sir? That crime would mean George W. Bush is going to prison." Olbermann accused Bush's "nightmare presidency" of the "most efficient and cynical exploitation of tragedy for political gain in this country's history," before suggesting that Bush has the ambition to produce a government comparable to that of 1930s fascism in Japan: "And then to the giddying prospect that maybe you could do what the military fanatics did in Japan in the 1930s and remake a nation into a fascist state so efficient and so self-sustaining that the fascism itself would be nearly invisible." See the link above to the NewsBusters posting for a complete transcript of Olbermann's "Special Comment" from the Monday, November 5 Countdown on MSNBC. Interviewing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Monday's Early Show, co-host Harry Smith insisted: "Manhattan will be underwater by 2050." Though the liberal Mayor has followed in the footsteps of Al Gore and implored the government to take action to address an impending environmental crisis ("We need to do something now"), amusingly, even Bloomberg thought Smith's fear-mongering went too far: "I don't know that Manhattan will be under water, but certainly the environment's going to be a lot worse that we leave our children." Smith also pressed Bloomberg on a possible 2008 presidential run: "You want to announce -- why won't you announce now?" What is it about liberal environmentalists that makes Harry Smith want to recruit them for the presidency. Like he did with Al Gore in May. The May 31 CyberAlert, "CBS's Smith Urges Gore to Declare, Presses Gore '08 Button on Him," recounted Smith's enthusiasm for Gore's environmental agenda: www.mrc.org The interview began with Smith asking about Bloomberg's proposal to impose a national carbon tax: "Who gets taxed?" To which Bloomberg responded: "People who generate carbon and put it into the air, that pollute the air that you breathe, and that I breathe, and that's causing worldwide changes over the long term in our environment." In other words, everyone. Far from challenging Bloomberg on how people would react to such a plan, Smith instead followed up with: "Something similar to this has been advocated for a long time, the sort of cap and trade...Why is yours better than theirs?" Smith's assumption that Bloomberg's plan is "better" is an interesting way of challenging such a policy. [This item, by Kyle Drennen, was posted Monday afternoon, on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] Shifting into crisis mode, Smith next wondered: "Why this and why now, and how important do you feel it is to enact something like this as soon as possible?" To ease Smith's fears, Bloomberg proclaimed that the debate was over: "Well, there's no question that we're damaging our environment...and I think everybody understands, the Administration, everybody else, that we are damaging our environment." An incredulous Smith quickly responded: "Do you think the Administration?" Perhaps Bloomberg's best soundbite came at this moment with this great one-liner: "Yeah, I think that the dialogue has gone from 'this is a communist plot,' to maybe we don't have to pay for it now..." That got a roaring laugh from Smith. Apparently anyone who is skeptical of global warming is just some paranoid right-winger who thinks it's a "communist plot." In addition to helping tout Bloomberg's big government solution to climate change, Smith also fawned over the New York Mayor as a potential presidential candidate in 2008. In a teaser at the top of the show, co-host Hannah Storm excitedly proclaimed: "Also coming up this morning, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is with us. He's on the cover of Newsweek out today as 'The Billion-Dollar Wild Card' in the upcoming election. We'll ask him if he plans to be a candidate." Smith hinted at the speculation to the "wildcard" himself: "Now, if I didn't know better, you could almost pull that out as a sound bite, and it could have sounded like something said by a presidential candidate....So, speaking of this notion of running for President and why these other candidates haven't said these very things, how frustrating is it for you that they don't say these things?" At the end of the segment, both Smith and co-host Julie Chen showed their approval of the environmentally friendly Bloomberg. A glowing Smith commented: "Alright, Mayor Bloomberg, thanks so much for being with us...Really appreciate it. I'm breathing easier already. Now here's Julie." Chen followed up with: "Deep inhale." While previewing an upcoming interview with extreme left-wing presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, on Friday's Early Show, CBS co-host Harry Smith revealed: "I've actually admired Dennis Kucinich for a long -- since he was Mayor of Cleveland." In addition to Smith admitting that he admired someone as liberal as Kucinich, who wants to establish a Department of Peace and claims to have seen UFOs, Smith specifically mentioned Kucinich's disastrous tenure as Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio. Even the New York Times could not ignore Kucinich's failures as Mayor, noting in a 2003 candidate profile: "But it all came crashing quickly down when Mr. Kucinich presided over the city's plunge into default in 1978. The collapse attracted international ridicule and, except for a brief sojourn on the City Council in the early 80's, left the obstreperous boy wonder in political exile for 15 years...[he] was elected Mayor in 1977 and governed the city with a tight circle of friends. But Cleveland's finances, already troubled, spiraled out of control. The climactic moment came in December 1978, when the city was unable to meet $14.5 million in bond obligations. Despite pressure from the business community, Mayor Kucinich refused to sell the municipal electric system to cover the debt. Cleveland went bust, as did his career." For the New York Times article: query.nytimes.com [This item, by Kyle Drennen, was posted Friday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] Co-host Hannah Storm, who interviewed Kucinich, moved from relevant questions about Kucinich's policy stances to "a lot of people talking about your wife and the fact that she's over three decades younger, and she's statuesque, and beautiful, and has a pierced tongue. What do you make of the attention on her?" Storm concluded the interview with this question to Elizabeth Kucinich: "I know that your husband doesn't want to focus on your tongue ring, but you do have one, correct?...Can we see it." Kucinich's wife responded: "No, you can't. Sorry." Harry Smith's tease at the top of the November 2 show: "Good morning. I'm Harry Smith, along with Hannah Storm and Julie Chen. We've got quite a show for you this morning. It's been a big political week. Barack Obama has come out. He says I want to directly negotiate with Iran. Republicans are saying that Hillary's chances of getting the nomination are slipping because of her performance in the debate this week. And we're going to be talking with a dark horse candidate. I've actually admired Dennis Kucinich for a long -- since he was mayor of Cleveland, right." Storm wondered: "What do you -- do you admire his wife? Look at her. She's statuesque, she's beautiful, she's 31 years younger. Smith noted: "And she says that when Dennis Kucinich gets elected President, she will continue to wear her tongue ring all the way to the White House." On Saturday, CNN re-ran an interview with Bill Cosby on Larry King Live, which originally aired on Thursday, October 18, in which the entertainer plugged his new book Come on People: On the Path from Victims to Victors, about problems faced by America's black population. While Cosby talked about such conservative themes as personal responsibility, which in recent years he has been famous for discussing, the entertainer also demonstrated that he has not entirely made the trip over to the conservative side as he derided Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as "brother lite," repeatedly contending that Thomas "doesn't want to help anybody." Cosby also proclaimed that he "loves" far-left Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. [This item, by Brad Wilmouth, was posted Saturday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] Notably, Darryn "Dutch" Martin of Project 21 posted an open letter to Cosby demanding that he apologize for his comments regarding Clarence Thomas, comparing those comments to the attacks Cosby himself had faced after expressing some conservative views during a commemoration three years ago of the 50th anniversary of "Brown v. Board of Education." See: www.nationalcenter.org About halfway through the October 18 show, as he interviewed Cosby and co-author Dr. Alvin Poussaint of Harvard, King brought up Justice Thomas as he suggested there was a similarity in the views of Cosby and Thomas, to Cosby's apparent chagrin. King: "Judge Clarence Thomas, the conservative black judge on the United States Supreme Court, Bill, says that he went conservative because he thinks that the black responsibility is to himself. He doesn't need any help. He doesn't want any help. He doesn't need that pick-me-up." Cosby jumped in: "And he doesn't want to help anybody." Cosby was so fixated on this accusation that he repeated the same words four more times in response to several other statements or questions by King: KING: He doesn't need affirmative action. COSBY: And he doesn't want to help anybody. Dr. ALVIN POUSSAINT, Harvard University: But he got affirmative action. KING: He got affirmative action. COSBY: He got plenty of, he got a whole lot of help, and now he doesn't want to help anybody. KING: Do you think he's hypocritical? COSBY: He doesn't want to help anybody. KING: I know it. Do you think he's- COSBY: He doesn't want to help anybody. King then brought up more directly the apparent "partial" similarity in the views of Cosby and Thomas, prompting Cosby to distance himself from the conservative justice while calling him "brother lite." KING: All right. But he says blacks don't need help, they can do it themselves. And that's partially what you're saying, isn't it? COSBY: But, well, that's not, yes, see, partially is where you get into trouble if you're trying to put me in the room with Clarence Thomas, the brother lite. KING, laughing: Brother lite. COSBY: Larry- KING: I'm just asking. COSBY: No, no, no. I understand. I'm trying, and Alvin is trying to reach those people who feel abandoned, who feel for so many years -- generational, whatever -- that they can't do it. After a commercial break, King asked Cosby if he was supporting Barack Obama for President. Cosby conveyed some dissatisfaction over the way the media cover Obama and Hillary Clinton, among other things complaining that Obama and Hillary are treated "like some anomaly," and that the media spend too much time covering these candidates at the expense of others. Cosby brought up his "love" for Kucinich as he challenged King to guess his name while pronouncing the "ch" sound from the Democratic Congressman's name: "There's a guy in Ohio I happen to love. Ch, ch, you can't finish his name?" After King took a moment to guess since "Kucinich" starts with a "k" and not a "ch," Cosby continued, realizing that he had mistakenly pronounced the "ch" instead of the "k": "Well, okay. Kucinich. All right. I love what he says." Whitewash: What the Media Won't Tell You About Hillary Clinton, But Conservatives Will, a new book by the MRC's Brent Bozell and Tim Graham, will be released next week by Crown Forum. You can order a copy now from the MRC, via PayPal, for $25.95, including shipping and handling. Or, go online and order it today from Amazon or Barnes & Noble. The promotional text for the book: Uncovering a Fifteen Year Love Affair How could America's presidential front-runner be a woman who has held only one elective office and had staggering numbers of personal, political, and financial scandals? How did the First Lady to a disgraced, impeached president become a presidential front-runner despite never having held elective office before 2001? And how did this happen given her staggering number of personal, political, and financial scandals -- and her leftist political agenda? Authors L. Brent Bozell and Tim Graham peel back the layers of Hillary Clinton's success to expose the real shocker -- not Travelgate or Whitewater -- but a fifteen year love affair by the liberal media, starting with Time magazine, who first introduced Hillary Clinton to the country as an "amalgam of Betty Crocker, Mother Teresa and Oliver Wendell Holmes." The elite media's continued and unprecedented favoritism is the key to Hillary's mythic political standing. They have downplayed or ignored her every scandal and recast her ultra-liberalism as being in the political center. What's even more stunning is the incredible number of stories that have been under-reported, excused and buried. To expose the truth, the authors interviewed dozens of leading conservatives who want Americans to hear the whole story, including Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Cal Thomas, Newt Gingrich and many others. Whitewash: What the Media Won't Tell You About Hillary Clinton, But Conservatives Will Order your copy today! To order from the MRC for $25.95 (shipping included), with the amount over our cost of the book going to support the MRC: www.mrc.org/books/whitewash.asp To order for $17.13 from Amazon, but you'll have to pay an additional shipping charge: www.amazon.com To order from Barnes & Noble for $20.76 ($18.68 for BN members), plus a shipping charge: search.barnesandnoble.com Shipping is free from Amazon and Barnes & Noble if your order totals $25 or more. The book will be released on Tuesday, November 13 and should ship shortly afterward and be available in major chain bookstores next Tuesday or soon thereafter. NewsBusted Not on Strike! While Leno, Stewart, Letterman, O'Brien, Ferguson, Kimmel and Colbert are all in re-runs because of the strike called Monday by the Writers Guild of America, the MRC's NewsBusted comedy video show -- with jokes about politics, Hollywood and media bias -- is fresh this week. Check out the latest two-and-a-half-minute comedy show now at the top of the MRC's NewsBusters blog: newsbusters.org And enjoy the archive of past shows: www.youtube.com Actually, one late-night comedy show is new this week and not in re-runs: Chelsea Lately on E!. But NewsBusted is a lot better. -- Brent Baker

Appearing on Friday's Good Morning America to discuss whether Clinton is now playing the "gender card" in the '08 race, Roberts asserted that, as a result of this popular coverage, the media are now "going after her."

Substitute teaching has to be education's toughest job. I'm a veteran teacher, and I won't do it; it's just too hard. The role magnifies the profession's biggest challenges--the low pay, the insufficient time to plan, the ordeals of classroom management--into an experience that borders on soul-crushing. At the same time, the job drains teaching of its chief ... Continued Mon. September 19 Robert Morin had his quirks: a regular breakfast of Fritos and a Coke; a refusal to give up on the 1992 Plymouth that he drove to his job as a library cataloger; the 18-year span, from 1979 to 1997, during which he watched more than 22,000 movies -- an average of about three a day. Morin read in chronological order ... Continued Mon. September 19 What defines who we are? Our habits? Our aesthetic tastes? Our memories? If pressed, I would answer that if there is any part of me that sits at my core, that is an essential part of who I am, then surely it must be my moral center, my deep-seated sense of right and wrong. And ... Continued Mon. September 19 In common parlance, the word 'soul' pops up everywhere. We may speak of a vast, soulless corporation or describe an athlete as the 'heart and soul' of his team. Soul music gets us swaying. We want our lover, body and soul. In each case, 'soul' connotes deep feeling and core values. 'Feelings form the basis for ... Continued Fri. September 16 A story at the start of Take Pride, a forthcoming book by University of British Columbia psychologist Jessica Tracy, is a typical one of youthful aimlessness, at least at first. Tracy writes about her post-college life in the late 1990s, when she moved across the country to San Francisco and got a job as a barista in ... Continued Fri. September 16 Recently I've been thinking about the color of the Statue of Liberty. That elusive, flickering, familiar, sea-polished shade of copper-green got into my head last year when I was standing on the roof of an apartment building in the Bronx. Edwin Velasquez, a young man who works for Bronx Pro Group, a developer of affordable ... Continued Fri. September 16 It's been two decades since the mishap-prone but irrepressible London singleton at the center of Helen Fielding's novel Bridget Jones's Diary first galumphed her way into the hearts of readers, making the book a worldwide best-seller. I'll admit that I didn't fall for the cigarette-and-calorie-counting, marriage-fixated Bridget, at least not on the page; I got fed up ... Continued Fri. September 16 Since the dawn of anthropology, sociology and psychology, religion has been an object of fascination. Founding figures such as Sigmund Freud, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber all attempted to dissect it, taxonomise it, and explore its psychological and social functions. And long before the advent of the modern social sciences, philosophers such as Xenophanes, Lucretius, ... Continued Thu. September 15 These are the future business and political leaders of the United States. Or at least, they are the newest intake into Harvard, the wealthiest university in the world and a cradle of the American elite. And if you're wondering whether we should trust them, almost one in five cheated in exams or assignments when they ... Continued Thu. September 15 You don't need an infinite number of monkeys to type out the complete works of William Shakespeare. What you need, according to a team of researchers from Stanford University, is one monkey equipped with a brain implant that allows it to interface with a computer. In a new experiment described in the journal IEEE, researchers were ... Continued

Substitute teaching has to be education's toughest job. I'm a veteran teacher, and I won't do it; it's just too hard. The role magnifies the profession's biggest challenges--the low pay, the insufficient time to plan, the ordeals of classroom management--into an experience that borders on soul-crushing.

We, the Citizens of these United States of America, are asking for the immediate deportation of recently halted illegal immigrants set up by the Obama administration. We have allowed for years citizens from other countries to enter here illegally, taking work from American citizens, and free or cheap education for illegal students. NO taxes do they pay, and free health care is a tax payers burden. Currently there are between 7-20 million illegal immigrants set up throughout our country. and while we were founded by immigrants, laws now state they must apply for citizenship, pledge allegiance to our country, and pay taxes. The Men are also required to sign our service agreement for the military. Regardless of reason, they come, they stay, they never follow the law or apply for citizenship, and now they are being rewarded for it. We , the American people are not against Immigration. In most cases it's good for the economy, and helps people who are not as fortunate. However, some, not all are fugitives from their own countries.They bring illegal drugs and gang activities to these United States. Recently in California, a law was passed to allow in state tuition for children of illegal immigrants that have resided in the state for more than a year, A law that was not needed if they were legal citizens that abide by our laws. Residency would apply automatically. We are not on a witch hunt, we are on a mission to rid our country of people who knowingly ignore our laws, put our citizens in danger, and take American jobs. The White House is giving them free passes to allow them to lie, and be rewarded for it. We no longer hold people accountable for their actions, we reward them for breaking our laws and entering our country illegally. We need enforcing our laws, take back our rights as citizens and speak out and force the government to listen. They are OUR government for OUR people, and yet, they do more to reward immigrants who are not legal citizens than we do our own. We are losing jobs daily, and the economy is getting worse with no hope of being corrected anytime soon. Please, being deporting again all illegal immigrants, and enforce the laws which were setup by our Forefathers. There are ways to make a clear and precise statement that "We , the American people, are against Illegal Immigration, but welcome Immigrants who lawfully follow our laws and apply for citizenship, pay taxes, earn an education, and make a living here. When American citizens are held accountable for their actions daily and thrown in jail when they disobey, so to should illegal immigrants when they ignore American policies.

We, the Citizens of these United States of America, are asking for the immediate deportation of recently halted illegal immigrants set up by the Obama administration.

June 17, 2016 5:00 am The Darwin Awards is a popular website that "commemorates individuals who protect our gene pool by making the ultimate sacrifice of their own lives. Darwin Award winners eliminate themselves in an extraordinarily idiotic manner, thereby improving our species' chances of long-term survival." I'd like to nominate a certain political party for one. It should win hands down. April 22, 2016 5:00 am Over the course of three decades in public life Hillary Clinton has misspoke and misled the public and mismanaged herself and her team to such a degree that voters cannot help noticing. Yes, many of her falsehoods are white lies. But white lies accumulate. They matter. Not only do they harm the truth. They are turning Hillary Clinton into one of the least popular presidential candidates in history. "Sir, with all due respect, that's the argument of a five year old," Anderson Cooper told Donald Trump the other day. That's an insult to kindergarteners. The tykes in Mrs. Cummings' morning class have more self-discipline than the Republican frontrunner. Not to mention better manners.

June 17, 2016 5:00 am The Darwin Awards is a popular website that "commemorates individuals who protect our gene pool by making the ultimate sacrifice of their own lives.

THE BATTLE OF WESTPORT: 150th Anniversary Exhibition& Reenactment October 23-26, 2014 :: 6601 Swope Parkway, Kansas City, MO 64132 If Cliff Asness was going to write the passage below, has there ever been a worse week for him to write it? I mean "it's not over! The enormous pent-up inflation from the Fed's QE programs is out there bubbling under the surface!! Short Treasuries massively now!!!" has not been a winning rhetorical strategy for quite a while, and to double down on it this week does make you look like quite an idiot... Cliff Asness: The Inflation Imputation | RealClearMarkets : "In 2010, I co-signed an open letter warning that the Fed's experiment with an unprecedented level of loose monetary policy... created a risk of serious inflation.... Paul Krugman lived up to his lifelong motto of 'stay classy'... lesser lights of the Keynesian firmament have also jumped in (collectivists, of course, excel at sharing a meme). Responding to Krugman is as productive as smacking a skunk with a tennis racket.... Paul's screeds.... I'll put our collective record up against Krugman's (and the Krug-Tone back-up dancers) any day of the week and twice on days he publishes... chicanery (silly Paul, you are no Rabbit)... never-uncertain-but-usually-wrong like Paul... malpractice... honest Paul Krugman (we will use this term again below but this is something called a "counter-factual")... former economists turned partisan pundits.... Much like when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor, nothing is over yet. The Fed has not undone its extraordinary loose monetary policy and is just now stopping its direct QE purchases... Look: It was perfectly normal--well, not strikingly abnormal--for Cliff Asness to have taken a look at the speed at which the monetary base was increasing in 2009 and thinking that such policies, unless reversed, were likely to lead to a burst of inflation. Wrong, but not strikingly abnormal. It was perfectly normal--well, not strikingly abnormal--for Cliff Asness to have taken a look at the speed at which the national debt was increasing in 2009 and thinking that such policies, unless reversed, were likely to lead to high Treasury real interest rates. Wrong, but not strikingly abnormal. In order to avoid such predictions you had to: have done your homework and brought yourself up to speed uon the analyses predictions that Krugman, Woodford, Eggertssen, Hicks, Keynes, etc. had made about how an economy operates in a liquidity trap, at the zero lower bound; and have considerable confidence that those predictions were correct; or at least have the wisdom to recognize that joining Bill Kristol in an attempt to joggle Ben Bernanke's elbow on an issue that Bernanke had been studying for literally all his adult life was an intellectual strategy that was likely to have a very large negative a. For large increases in the monetary base not to make the likely future one of high inflation, and for large increases in the national debt not to make the likely future one of high Treasury real interest rates--well, something weird had to be going on. But, as Krugman, Woodford, Eggertssen, Hicks, Keynes, etc. had noted, were warning, and were correct in warning back in 2009-2010, something weird was going on. Because of how the economy had gotten itself wedged, the risk that extraordinary monetary easing would lead to an inflationary spiral was extremely low. Because of how the economy had gotten itself wedged, the risk that large government debt issuance would lead to exploding real interest rtes on government debt was extremely low. Only people who really did not understand what was going on would think that 2010 was a time to stress, highlight, obsess over, and freak out about INFLATION! DEBT! when the real risks to freak out about were DEPRESSION!! UNEMPLOYMENT!!! But when something weird is going on, to get things badly wrong is normal--well, not that abnormal. What is not normal--what is really abnormal--is to be a dead-ender. What is not normal is to claim that your analysis back in 2010 that quantitative easing was generating major risks of inflation was dead-on. What is not normal is to adopt the mental pose that your version of classical austerian economics cannot fail--that it can only be failed by an uncooperative and misbehaving world. What is not normal is, after 4 1/2 years, in a week, a month, a six-month period in which market expectations of long-run future inflation continue on a downward trajectory, to refuse to mark your beliefs to market and demand that the market mark its beliefs to you. To still refuse to bring your mind into agreement with reality and demand that reality bring itself into agreement with your mind. To still refuse to say: "my intellectual adversaries back in 2010 had a definite point" and to say only: "IT'S NOT OVER YET!!!!"

THE BATTLE OF WESTPORT: 150th Anniversary Exhibition& Reenactment October 23-26, 2014 :: 6601 Swope Parkway, Kansas City, MO 64132 If Cliff Asness was going to write the passage below, has there ever been a worse week for him to write it?

According to a new report, the United States' healthcare system ranks last among those of other industrialized nations in terms of care and performance. The big difference between the US and the other countries studied is the fact that the US has no form of universal coverage or option, and we still run a profit-driven healthcare system. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins discusses this. Transcript: The United States healthcare system is bad. I mean, that's really the best word you can use to describe it. It's just bad. But, now we don't have to say that is a some kind of opinion that our healthcare system is bad. A new study has actually proven that our healthcare system is not only bad, it is in fact the worst among wealthy nations across the globe. This new study, put out by the Commonwealth Fund actually analyzed five different areas of healthcare in the US, and many other countries. They include care process, which is getting preventive screenings for things, regularly just going to the doctor, can people go through the process of getting treated? Access, who can and cannot get in. Administrative efficiency, equity, and healthcare outcomes, which is ultimately the result of whether or not you live or die from the cancer or other disease ravaging your body, compared to the other countries. And the United States came in dead last. We are the worst among all other industrialized countries in those specific areas. I'm gonna read you a little piece of this report here, as reported by psychology today. And here it is. The US has the highest rate of mortality imitable to healthcare. More people die unnecessarily in the US due to inadequate care, or the pure absence of care then any other country in the study. The issue is not merely problems in the American lifestyle. Americans die more than Europeans because of poor quality of care, and lack of access to care. To put it another way, our for profit healthcare system, here in the United States, with very few regulations and very little government interference is killing people. Now, you take a look at the three countries that actually rank the highest amongst all of them. The United Kingdom was number one. And what do they have? They have a system that is essentially not run by the Government, but they have more government influence over their healthcare system than anybody else. They're number one. Number two was Australia. They have a lot of government oversight, government meddling in it to make sure everything is fair and equitable. Number three was the Netherlands. They actually do have a privatized system, but they're also basically a big Obamacare-type system. So, the federal government helps people to buy their private health insurance. And all of them are in the top three. And all of them, and everyone else actually in the study, is better than the United States. Why, because we have allowed pharmaceutical companies, and insurance companies, and these big hospital conglomerates to put dollars, profits instead of the patients. If you cannot pay your bill, if you do not have health insurance, if you simply can't afford any of the things along that healthcare chain, you don't matter to them. Here in the United States healthcare is no longer about helping people live longer or better lives. It's no longer about treatments. It's about profits. And until that system changes, until we put something in place that gives people a better alternative, this is going to stay the way it is. But, at a time when we have politicians who are saying we need a Medicare for all type system here in the United States, or we need a better option, meanwhile you have republicans out there saying, "No, no, no. What we have is just fine. We should get rid of Obamacare." People are already dying in this country, because they can't afford healthcare. We are literally behind everyone else in the industrialized world. And, if republicans have their way they're gonna put us even further behind everyone else.

According to a new report, the United States' healthcare system ranks last among those of other industrialized nations in terms of care and performance. T

There is a silent victim caught in the operation to rid Daesh from Iraq's second largest city - the displaced population. United Nations highlights the urgent need for more funds, shelter, food and medical help as winter approaches. As Iraqi forces close in on Daesh-held Mosul in Iraq, there are about 600,000 children still trapped in the city, according to ReliefWeb, a service provided by UN OCHA. This girl in Khazir was forced from her village by fighting near Mosul. ( TRT World and Agencies ) The humanitarian response for Iraq remains "seriously unfunded," the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Iraq stated on Twitter early Wednesday. It predicts the siege of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, can result in the displacement of a million people . A day after the operation was launched to rid Mosul from Daesh, a designated terror group, UN organs braced themselves for the " largest man-made displacement crises in recent years ." Since 2014, 3.3 million Iraqis have been displaced from their homes as a result of Daesh taking over parts of Iraq. 10 million people in #Iraq need humanitarian aid, half of them children. We are there, helping people forced to flee ISIS. pic.twitter.com/FdsSE43wTv -- Oxfam America (@OxfamAmerica) October 30, 2016 There are real fears the offensive to retake Mosul could produce a humanitarian catastrophe," William Spindler, the spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said. He cited concerns about the approaching winter and the requisite shelter kits needed. According to the OCHA Iraq October 29 to 31 situation report, the unmet monetary need stands at $461 million for Iraq and $128.3 million for Mosul in specific. This means 45% of the $284 million Mosul Flash Appeal made by the UN in mid-October has not been met. And now OCHA Iraq predicts "funding requirements are expected to increase and winterization will be a priority as temperatures drop over the coming weeks. Overall #humanitarian response in #Iraq remains seriously underfunded. > 40% of requirements are still unmet: https://t.co/KiRwIIoe0X pic.twitter.com/U54RvridYi -- OCHA Iraq (@OCHAIraq) November 1, 2016 As of November 1, almost 18,000 people have been displaced by military operations that began on October 17 to retake Mosul, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Displacement Tracking Matrix system. OCHA Iraq says most of the displaced are moving in a southwards direction towards Al Qayyarah and Fallujah. #DidYouKnow 18K ppl are displaced due to #MosulOps ? Check out our latest #MosulAid figures. More here: https://t.co/KiRwIIFPpx #Iraq pic.twitter.com/O2aPzShsiD -- OCHA Iraq (@OCHAIraq) November 1, 2016 Camps such as Jad'ah in Al Qayyarah, are filling quickly. While space is available for 55,000 people at seven camps, the OCHA report says security and mine clearance remains an issue as does permission for using land for shelters. After the need for shelter, OCHA's situation report reveals food and medicines are "priority" needs. Oil fires and explosions have resulted in deaths and injuries, including respiratory disorders. The humanitarian agency points out families close to the front lines remain inaccessible. New satellite imagery analysis of #Qayyarah oil fires near #Mosul via @UNITAR @UNOSAT : https://t.co/yna23OdQxu #Iraq #MosulAid #MosulOps pic.twitter.com/pOtZJpdpaf -- OCHA Iraq (@OCHAIraq) November 1, 2016 OCHA Iraq states the data from this report might change because of the dynamic situation on ground in Mosul. Source: TRTWorld and agencies

his girl in Khazir was forced from her village by fighting near Mosul. ( TRT World and Agencies ) The humanitarian response for Iraq remains "seriously unfunded," the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

Cuba's communist dictator Fidel Castro was buried over the weekend in a private ceremony without any media coverage. Before the burial, Cubans lined the streets to watch a vintage Russian military jeep, complete with four security officers, drive the dictator's remains through the countryside so mourners could say goodbye: Joe Raedle/Getty Images Fox News reports that 80% of the people who work are employed by the Cuban government and were required to mourn the dictator: Sven Creutzmann/Getty Images Many waved flags and chanted at the jeep, "long live Fidel!" But it was not to be. In what many people consider to be the perfect metaphor for everything wrong with communism, the vehicle carrying the ashes of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro also died on the way to the burial: Las cenizas de #FidelCastro tienen que ser empujadas por los militares. Se rompe el jeep que las trasladaba (AP) pic.twitter.com/7LeRKvKwBi -- 14ymedio (@14ymedio) December 3, 2016 In one fateful moment, the old jeep just stopped working. Clunk. Las cenizas de #FidelCastro tienen que ser empujadas por los militares. Se rompe el jeep que las trasladaba (AP) pic.twitter.com/7LeRKvKwBi -- 14ymedio (@14ymedio) December 3, 2016 A security detail had to get out and push the old car to the dictator's final resting place for a private ceremony. Many people found beauty in the breakdown. Economics professor Bill Easterly thought this was delicious irony: Cuban soldiers push Fidel's broken-down funeral vehicle -- an Econ teacher's dream-come-true for a metaphor HT @franciscome pic.twitter.com/aMaNCbyLND -- William Easterly (@bill_easterly) December 4, 2016 Ken Webster issued an irony alert: Fidel Castro's hearse broke down on Saturday & people needed to push it. Irony, is that you? https://t.co/1pdoRd602m -- Ken Webster Jr (@ProducerKen) December 5, 2016 "HillBuzz" said someone was mocking the dead socialist: So, Castro died on Black Friday -- capitalism's secular feast day. Then, his funeral hearse breaks down. It must be God mocking him. pic.twitter.com/L4bwjnJKc1 -- HillBuzz (@HillBuzz) December 5, 2016 And Twitter funnyman David Burge looked on the bright side: . @terry_jarrett also, those guys who had to push start Castro's hearse will receive free government hernia treatment -- David Burge (@iowahawkblog) December 4, 2016 Dalton believed it could have been worse. In fact, it already is: You hear that Castro's hearse broke down? Don't worry.It wasn't as bad as when he broke down the freedoms of his own people. #Castro #Cuba -- Dalton Glyn Beard (@DaltonGBeard) December 5, 2016 Retired Marine and current Virginia lawmaker State Senator Dick Black thought this was a teachable moment for the world: Fitting end to #Castro 's tyranny as his hearse breaks down in the parade and has to be pushed the rest of the way. https://t.co/3dvCB6Tye3 -- Senator Dick Black (@SenRichardBlack) December 5, 2016 As far as we know, the jeep is still dead.

Before the burial, Cubans lined the streets to watch a vintage Russian military jeep, complete with four security officers, drive the dictator's remains through the countryside so mourners could say goodbye

The Holy Family (Wikimedia Commons) And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they withdrew to their country by another route. When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up!" he said. "Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the Child to kill Him." - The Gospel of Matthew 2:12,13 In the hauntingly surreal and thought-provoking film "The Objective," a multinational Special Forces team (the elite "392") journeys through the desolate, rugged mountains of Afghanistan on a supernatural mission against an other-worldly enemy they can barely begin to comprehend. Consider the broad moral and strategic architecture of a similar mission carried out over 2,000 years ago. I call it, "Mission Joseph - Hard Target." Imagine just for a moment that you are Joseph, the humble carpenter of Nazareth. You are the earthly father of the Son of God, sent to save humanity from its collective sins. The fate of the planet, and of untold billions of men and women stretching many centuries into the future, depends on your ability to follow the directions of holy angels in order to escape the wicked, genocidal ambitions of King Herod . This is the very first Christmas message, a crossing of the Rubicon moment for humanity that will echo into eternity. Your mission is not a tour de force, but rather a finesse job that will tax your skills as a traveler, navigator, dream interpreter, fiance, husband, merchant and spiritual leader. You have been asked to take a unique woman named Mary on a long journey. The baby is not yours. This woman, your fiancee (and now wife), has not been with another man. Somehow you must find the faith to believe in her. You'll rely on the angelic realm and the Holy Spirit instead of artificial intelligence on this special quest. Both shepherds and kings will visit you - the latter are remembered as "The Three Wise Men." A lesser-known ancillary cultural product surrounding the magi is Henry van Dyke's epically moving tale, "The Story of the Other Wise Man." The story can be read here . Van Dyke's work was brought to the Hollywood screen in 1985 in a little-known jewel starring Martin and Charlie Sheen. You can watch it here for free in its entirety. The story (and film) center around "the fourth wise man," a wealthy man of note, power and influence who missed the Virgin Birth, spent his entire life searching for Baby Jesus - while selling all he owned in the process, before finally encountering a 33-year-old Christ being crucified on the cross. Perhaps many of us can identify in a deeper way with the fourth wise man as opposed to the traditional three kings of the Orient. Treasured ancillary cultural products embodied by the 'Charlie Brown Christmas Special' are a staple of the holiday season Mary is unlike any woman who has ever lived before or since. (She is venerated today by more than a billion Christians and a billion Islamic believers worldwide.) She is filled with all purity, humility and good works. There is something wonderful about her, so Joseph vows (to both God and Mary) to never to leave her side. You (walking in the sandals of Joseph) have to register for a census with a pagan Roman Empire busy occupying and oppressing your people. Yet you must "render unto Caesar," as your unborn child will one day tell the world. That foreign empire is represented by Herod, a child-murdering fanatic willing to carry out a holocaust against your child and all others like him. Yes, it is true you will have more children with this woman, but it is the first child who is most important. You can't find a hospital or even a hotel for the delivery of the baby. So, you head for a stable, where little lambs, donkeys and a few camels provide warmth for the baby. You are not homeless. You work very hard as a carpenter. And this stable is the kind of building you might have constructed yourself. Three kings, probably from Mesopotamia/Persia, arrive to pay homage to the little baby. They say they have been following a star of wonder and light. The kings give you gold and other precious commodities. These are the first Christmas gifts in human history. They are valuable because your family is going to need them to survive. Into the shadow of the pyramids That night, you have a dream. In the dream, an angel appears to you and warns that King Herod wants to murder your baby. The angel tells you to flee into the deserts of Egypt. History tells you this may well be clinically insane. Centuries before, the pharaoh had also engaged in a holocaust against the children of your own Jewish religion. But go you must into the sands of Egypt, where you will camp with only uncertainty for comfort - in a place where your people were brutally treated as slaves. Yes, indeed, Jews were once slaves, just as white people like Spartacus were slaves in ancient Rome. Of greater importance is the fact that mankind is a slave to sin. Across the oceans at the time of your mission, cannibals and heart-eaters dominate Africa, Central and South America. The world is in complete spiritual darkness. But all of that is about to change - if you (Joseph) can complete your mission. An angel appears to the three kings and instructs them not to visit Herod on their way back to their own homelands. They deploy to the East, and you to the South. Herod will take the blood of Saint John the Baptist, but he will not touch one of the numbered hairs upon your son's head. In Egypt, you care for your little son. You name him Jesus. He is the Christ. The Jewish rabbi awaited over many centuries. One enlightened Jew who will transform the world forever. (Yemen photo by Anthony C. LoBaido) For now, however, he is just a little baby. You use the gold given to you by the kings to organize a means of survival. You trade frankincense, grown from special plants found on the road between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, in various bartering for items your wife and child need. You continue to work hard, building various items for Egyptians who can plainly see your talent, courage and work ethic. Your child begins to grow strong in the shadows of the pyramids, built (as noted) with the blood of your own people. A new era in human history is dawning. Moses, like your son, grew up in these same deserts. Moses was tested in the wilderness. He tended sheep before tending men. Moses learned to focus his anger against evil. Moses sought to deliver his people. Moses knew idolatry is in our DNA. Moses stared down the black magic in the pharaoh's court with white magic. Moses raised up a banner entitled "Jehovah Nissi!" which gave victory in battle. "God is our banner!" Like Moses, your son will embody all of these physical and spiritual quests and many more. And like Moses, your son will emerge from the wilderness to lead your people and all of mankind on a new quest - with a new direction and a de facto set of laws rooted in goodness, trust, courage, faith and love. Did this story really transpire? Did unsung Joseph complete his special forces mission? History answers with a resounding "yes!" One expert on Joseph's mission is the brilliant archaeologist Jerry Vardaman. While conducting research at Mississippi State University, Dr. Vardaman chronicled the adventures of the holy family to eager audiences around the United States. Writing to this author in a personal letter, Dr. Vardaman cited ancient Roman coins, the conjunction of Jupiter and other planets, (the "star" leading the three wise men) as well as the " Quirinius Census" as evidence that the Bible account of the Holy Family is indeed rooted in truth. Quirinius was governing in Syria at the time of the Virgin Birth. He's even mentioned in the ancient literary work "Res Gestae: The Deeds of Augustus." Another famous historian of antiquity, Josephus, wrote, "Quirinius, a Roman senator who had gone through other magistracies, and had passed through them all until he had become consul, was appointed governor of Syria by Caesar and was given the task of assessing property there and in Judea." Joseph was a man of trust, caring, faith, honor, courage and hard work. He could sleep in a stable with animals and still enjoy the counsel of kings. It is no wonder God and all of His angels chose this great man for the ultimate special forces mission. He evaded assassins and not only lived - but prospered - behind enemy lines. He did all of these things because he was not an "existentialist man." He was not an "economic man." He was simply "hero man." Just as unsung Joseph completed his task, so too shall the reader complete the special adventures God has planned just for you. They are plans that eschew ease, comfort and pleasure, for God is far more interested in your spiritual growth and reaffirming your security in Him than He is in the comforts of the material world. Author Charles Stanley has often noted that, "Your trials will be profitable." Postmodern ancillary cultural products These days, those wielding cultural power are especially fond of attacking the Holy Family. Check out this skit on "Saturday Night Live" about a "very tired Mary." The three wise men are similarly debased by SNL here . The film "Office Christmas Party," starring two actors from SNL, features a Satanic character and enthronement that has to be seen to be believed . A chaotic SNL skit acts as a precursor to the film. Watch it here . That said, our culture is still filled with more positive portrayals. "Flight of Faith" lifts the spirit with an aerial view of the life of Jesus in the Holy Land. This short video speculates on legends surrounding Jesus' time in Egypt as a child. "The Lost Years of Jesus" are investigated here . More words have been written about Jesus Christ than any person in human history - yet precious little is known about His childhood in Egypt. Demi Moore's very pregnant character "Abby Quinn" battles Cartaphilus, Pilate's gatekeeper, in "The Seventh Sign." Her character is asked, "Will you die for Him (Jesus)?" As a basic tenant of Christianity, our God died for us, so we don't have to die for Him. Would you have died for Him to protect the Holy Family fleeing to Egypt from Herod's child-killing assassins, soldiers and mercenaries? Today abortion ("health" for women and their unborn babies through summary execution) and fetal tissue fuel genetics, cloning, (perhaps) future patents on the human genome, as well as transhumanism or H+. There has actually been a push at the University of California at Berkeley to set up an abortion clinic on the campus. CBS details here how this clinic was unanimously approved by the student government. The taxpayers of California will most likely subsidize, if not foot the bill, over this very controversial issue dividing our nation since 1973. Pharaoh and Herod still reign. The ruins of Ani, Armenia - the world's first Christian nation. Medieval mythology claims that Cartaphilus, Pilate's cursed gatekeeper, sought refuge in Armenia. The Roman historian Tacitus wrote that Quirinius was an adviser to Caius in Armenia (Photo: Anthony C. LoBaido) We live in an age of Matthew 24 - famine in Yemen, sandstorms, tsunamis, Fukushima, drought, pestilence and war. These are signs of the times. Illegal narcotics underpin the American and global financial system. Alcohol, AIDS, prescription drugs, gangs, drug cartels, racial hatred, idolatry, divorce, debt and Marxist universities combine to numb the joy of the daily life. Institutionalized dysfunction and the sanctification of abominations sadly lead ordinary people to butter their daily bread with delicious pain. ISIS murders Christians, armed in part with the late Moammar Gadhafi's looted weapons , shipped to ISIS via the Benghazi annex - paid in full by the government of Saudi Arabia. In North Korea, Christians have been executed by steamrollers, this according to Melanie Fitzpatrick's salient journalism. These deranged, quasi-Satanic events are harbingers of Herod's assassins, who also echo through the millennia. Will the catacombs re-emerge for the non-harlot remnant church in the United States? Consider how HBO's "The Leftovers" depicted a pretty teenaged girl (played adroitly by Margaret Qualley) setting the town's Nativity creche on fire (in the fictional upstate Maplewood, New York), showing how those "Left Behind" will have to deal with the weak, the lost and those who have left God out of their hearts. What's so captivating about "The Leftovers" is that it's not centered on Christian eschatology via the Rapture, the Two Witnesses, the False Prophet, the Antichrist or the "End Times," as explained by Hal Lindsey. Rather, it's a look at what society would be like without any Christians. Dogs bite men. Before you know it, drunken mother might well be smashing the Charlie Brown Christmas Nativity of a preschooler while caught up in a vomit-laden rage. A brilliant star. A brilliant child. The magi. Following in the footsteps of the three wise men means engaging in a great journey not unlike "The Other Wise Man." Before we can experience the wisdom, mission, power, grace, miracles, triumph and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we must first share in His abandonment, betrayal for 30 pieces of silver, brutality, slander, abuse, being spit upon, temptations from Satan in the desert, the crown of thorns and status as a prophet without honor in his (or her) own hometown. And before we can stand before God Almighty with a spotless white garment, that garment will have to be washed and set on a spin cycle, placed in a tumble dryer, ironed and pressed. Many readers no doubt feel as though they are chained to an anvil, as God uses the storms of life to hammer out "the world, the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life." In other words, everything that is not of God. This is the integral meaning of picking up your own cross. No matter how this world might try to convince us otherwise, this body is not our soul, and this world is not our home. Going to heaven is "the objective" we all should devote our hearts, minds, energies and souls toward. Faith informs the notion that our collective salvation is rooted in that stable in Bethlehem. May we make it into and out of Egypt (synonymous with bondage to sin), as did Joseph, the carpenter and earthly father of Jesus. The plain truth is that Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus were the ultimate "hard targets." Looking back to 0 A.D. from 2017 A.D., we can resolutely say with confidence that "wise men (and women, and even children) still seek Him."

The Holy Family (Wikimedia Commons) And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they withdrew to their country by another route. When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.

If you are horrified by the news of families being separated at the border: good, you should be. If you are not horrified, you must be misinformed or not paying attention. Understanding and spreading the correct information is one of the first ways you can start to help. The Trump administration is telling people that families are being torn apart due to a law put in place by Democrats and they are simply "following orders." This is fake news. But does it sound familiar? Maybe that's because that was the excuse used during the Nuremburg trials from Holocaust-era Nazis . The separation of families is due to two new policies put in place by the Trump administration. The first policy is that any migrant family attempting to enter the U.S. without border inspection will be criminally prosecuted. Parents are incarcerated and children are taken to tent camps or an abandoned Walmart . Once the parents get out, they have a hard time reuniting with their children and are often deported while their children remain in U.S. custody. The second policy involves placing parents who have gone through legal asylum-seeking procedure at a border-entry location in immigration detention centers, which are mostly indistinguishable from jails, until their asylum cases are adjudicated. Because there are long-standing civil rights case stating that children are not allowed to be kept in this type of detention facility, so children are taken to separate facilities. Needless to say, the Trump administration is detaining parents who have credible asylum claims and have not violated any laws in trying to pursue a better life in the U.S. They are also taking away their children in the process. (Read more at Slate .) So, how do we do more than sit around around retweeting our disgrace and feeling complicit? What can we do to tangibly help? So glad you asked! June 19th protest in Phildelphia while Mike Pence spoke nearby at GOP fundraiser, taken by Robert Naseef Donate: Many organizations that provide legal services and other resources for immigrants are run entirely, or at least primarily, on donations. Here are some of the many credible organizations that could use your donation, if you're able. ActBlue has gathered together several notable organizations together; you can donate to ActBlue and your donation will be divided between the organizations. The Women's Refugee Commission advocates for the rights and protection of women and children fleeing violence and persecution. Donate here and read their list of other ways to help here . Al Otro Lado is a binational organization that works to offer legal services to deportees and migrants in Tijuana, Mexico, including deportee parents whose children remain in the U.S. They also need volunteers . Kids in Need of Defense works to ensure that kids do not appear in immigration court without a representative. They also lobby for policies that advocate for children's legal interests. The ACLU is, as always, fighting the good fight right beside us. The Legal Aid Justice Center is a Virginia-based center providing legal services to unaccompanied minors. Pueblo Sin Fronteras is an organization that provides humanitarian aid and shelter to migrants on their way to the US. RAICES Family Reunification Bond Fund goes towards paying immigrations bonds, which range from $1,500 to $50,000, and would allow families to remain together until their hearings. Fronterizo Fianza Fund is also helping families pay the bond needed for detained immigrants to be released and reunited with their family. American Immigrant Representative Project (AIRP) works to secure legal representatives for immigrants. Freedom for Immigrants has been a leading voice in opposing immigrant detention. The Michigan Immigrant Rights Center represents the immigrant children places in foster care. About 2/3 of their cases are related to family separation. The National Immigrant Justice Center represents parents who have been separated from their families as a result of aggressive enforcement. They also advocate for detained children and adults facing removal. Together Rising is a Virginia-based organization currently providing legal aid to 60 migrant children who were separated from their parents and are being detained in Arizona. Border Angels is a California-based organization supporting San Diego's immigrant population and working on other issues related to the US-Mexico border. Neta is a grassroots organization in Texas assisting asylum seekers on either side of the border. South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (ProBAR) is a project of the American Bar association that is currently supporting over 1,000 children who were separated from their parents and are being held in detention centers across South Texas. June 19th protest in Phildelphia while Mike Pence spoke nearby at GOP fundraiser, taken by Robert Naseef A Feminist Guide to the Resistance Don't give up the fight! Featuring inspiring interviews with resistance leaders; how-tos on community organizing, running for office, and much, more. Plus, get the latest from BUST. If you don't have money to spare but you have available time, below are some places that could really use your help and support. Many of the organizations below also need donations, so if you are interested in their mission but are not able to volunteer, check out how to donate on their websites. Immigration Law Help will take your zip code and show places in your area looking for help. Families Belong Together is planning nationwide protests on June 30th. Find the closest one to you here . Santa Fe Dreamers Project is litigating asylum cases for transgender folk. The Kino Border Initiative provides aid to refugees and migrants on both sides of the border. Check out their list of useful supplies and send what you can here . The American Immigration Lawyers Association will be sending around a volunteer list for immigration lawyers to volunteer to represent parents in their asylum screening, bond hearing, and ongoing representation. RAICES is the largest immigration nonprofit in Texas, offering free and low-cost legal services to children and families. Donate or volunteer . Immigrant Justice Corps is the nation's only fellowship program dedicated to immigrant representation. Some fellows work at the border, and others provide legal aid to families resettling in New York. CARA , a Consortium of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network , the American Immigration Council , the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Eduation and Legal Services , and the American Immigration Lawyers Association is seeking attorneys, law students, and paralegals to help provide legal services at family detention centers. The Florence Project is an Arizona-based protect offering free legal services to men, women, and unaccompanied children in immigration custody. They need legal volunteers and donations. Texas Civil Rights Project is seeking volunteers who speak Spanish, Mam, Q'eqchi' or K'iche' and have paralegal or legal experience. CASA in Maryland, DC, Virginia, and Pennsylvania are litigating and advocating for representation of minors. The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project provides direct legal service, advocates for systemic change, and educates the community. International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) organizes law students and lawyers to create legal and human rights efforts for refugees and immigrants. They also just filed a suit against the cancellation of the Central American Minors program. June 19th protest in Phildelphia while Mike Pence spoke nearby at GOP fundraiser, taken by Robert Naseef Call Your Elected Officials: If you don't have extra time or money but still want to help, CALL YOUR REPS. It will take 30 seconds to let them know that they must support change or be voted out! Dial 202-224-3121, state your zip code, let them know you support SB3036 (Keep Families Together Act) and S2468 (Fair Day in Court for Kids Act of 2018). If you are anxious about what to say, use this guide when calling your representatives. Let them know that you want to end family separation AND to repeal the federal law that makes illegal entry and reentry a crime. Every House seat will be contested this November, as well as enough Senate seats to flip the house back to Democratic control. So, let them know what their constituents stand for. Images: June 19th protest in Phildelphia while Mike Pence spoke nearby at GOP fundraiser, taken by Robert Naseef and used with permission Zoe Naseef is a fiercely sassy photojournalist, feminist, and comedian. She is from Philadelphia but currently living in Brooklyn. To see her photography go to zotography.com , and for unwaveringly brash content follow her @zonaseef on Twitter and Instagram .

ActBlue has gathered together several notable organizations together; you can donate to ActBlue and your donation will be divided between the organizations.

Though you would not know it from those who spent the day chuckling to themselves over the prospect of an American space command, the militarization of this strategically vital region is decades old. Thousands of both civilian and military communications and navigations satellites operate in earth orbit, to say nothing of the occasional human. It's impossible to say how many weapons are already stationed in orbit because many of these platforms are " dual use ," meaning that they could be transformed into kill vehicles at a moment's notice. American military planners have been preoccupied with the preservation of critical U.S. communications infrastructure in space since at least 2007, when China stunned observers by launching a missile that intercepted and destroyed a satellite, creating thousands of pieces of debris hurtling around the earth at speeds faster than any bullet. America's chief strategic competitors--Russia and China--and rogue actors like Iran and North Korea are all committed to developing the capability to target America's command-and-control infrastructure, a lot of which is space-based. Trump's Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats testified in 2017 that both Moscow and Beijing are "considering attacks against satellite systems as part of their future warfare doctrine" and are developing the requisite anti-satellite technology--despite their false public commitments to the "nonweaponization of space and 'no first placement' of weapons in space." Those who oppose the creation of a space branch object on a variety of grounds, some of them merit more attention than others. The contention that a sixth military branch is a redundant waste of taxpayer money, for example, is a more salient than cynical claims that Trump is interested only in a glory project. "I oppose the creation of a new military service and additional organizational layers at a time when we are focused on reducing overhead and integrating joint warfighting functions," Sec. Mattis wrote in October of last year. That's a perfectly sound argument against excessive bureaucratization and profligacy, but it is silent on the necessity of a space command. Both the Pentagon and the National Security Council are behind the creation of a " U.S. Space Command " in lieu of the congressional action required to establish a new branch of the armed forces dedicated to space-based operations. As for bureaucratic sprawl, in 2015, the diffusion of space-related experts and capabilities across the armed services led the Air Force to create a single space advisor to coordinate those capabilities for the Defense Department. But that patch did not resolve the problems and, in 2017, Congress's General Accountability Office recommended investigating the creation of a single branch dedicated to space for the purposes of consolidation. It is true that the existing branches maintain capabilities that extend into space, which would superficially make a Space Force seem redundant. But American air power was once the province of the U.S. Army and Navy, and bureaucratic elements within these two branches opposed the creation of a U.S. Air Force in 1947. The importance of air power in World War II and the likelihood that aircraft would be a critical feature of future warfighting convinced policymakers that a unified command of operations was critical to effective warfighting. Moreover, both Dwight Eisenhower and Harry Truman believed that creating a separate branch for airpower ensured that Congress would be less likely to underfund the vital enterprise. The final argument against the militarization of space is a rehash of themes from the Cold War. Low earth orbit, like the seafloor and the Antarctic, is part of the "global commons," and should not be militarized on principle. This was the Soviet position, and Moscow's fellow travelers in the West regularly echoed it. But the argument is simply not compelling. The Soviets insisted that the militarization of space was provocative and undesirable, but mostly because they lacked the capability to weaponize space. The Soviets regularly argued that any technology it could not match was a first-strike weapon. That's why they argued vigorously against deploying missile interceptors but voiced fewer objections to ground-based laser technology. As for the "global commons," that's just what we call the places where humans do not operate for extended periods of time and where resource extraction is cost prohibitive. The more viable the exploration of these hostile environments becomes, the less "common" we will eventually consider them. Just as navies police sea lanes, the inevitable commercialization of space ensures that its militarization will follow. That isn't something to fear or lament. It's not only unavoidable; it's a civilizational advance. Space Force may not be an idea whose time has come, but deterrence is based on supremacy and supremacy is the product of proactivity. God forbid there comes a day on which we need an integrated response to a state actor with capabilities in space, we will be glad that we didn't wait for the crisis before resolving to do what is necessary. What my symposium entry indicates is that views like hers have been percolating on the Right for decades. I thought you might find it interesting to read: "This is not the country my father fought for," a one-time colleague who grew up as an Army brat was telling me over lunch five years ago. He sang a threnody of national faults, and I could only hang my head in mute agreement--crime, multiculturalism, educational collapse, everything conservatives have worried over and fought against for twenty years or more. He grew more and more excited. From multiculturalism, he began talking about the threat posed by immigrants, and from that threat to the threat posed by native-born blacks. As he was taken over by his passion and imagined me an ally in it, he began dropping words into his monologue that in his calmer moments he never would have used with me, words like "nigger" and "wetback" I had heard used only in rages and then only maybe twice before outside of a movie or TV show. And then, forgetting himself entirely, he allowed as how Jews were blocking the true story of our national decline. It is not only inconvenient to hear words you might have spoken coming out of the mouth of a racist, nativist anti-Semite. It is also a reminder that ideas you hold dear may be used as weapons in a war you never intended to fight--a war in which those weapons may be turned against you just as my one-time colleague turned his assault on multiculturalism into an assault on Jews. This is my warning as we consider the national prospect. Those who believe America is in a period of cultural decline are obviously correct; I am not at all sure how anyone of good will could argue otherwise. And yet, and yet, and yet. It is one thing to worry over and battle against the dumbing-down of our schools; the assault on taste, standards, and truth posed by multiculturalism; the rise of repellent sexual egalitarianism; even the dangers of advanced consumerism are becoming increasingly worrisome. But it is quite another thing to make the leap from that point to the notion that the nation itself is in parlous and irreversible decline. After all, nations are always in parlous moral health; nations are gatherings of people, and people are sinners. When the United States was putatively healthier, back in the 30's and 40's and 50's, 12 percent of its population was living in de-facto or de-jure immiseration and the Wasp majority protected its position in the elite by means of explicit quotas and exclusions. The declinists are both wrong and spiritually noxious. After all, the purpose of declaring the nation in decline is to root out the causes of the decline, extirpate them, and put the nation on the road to health. But, for some of them, the search for causes always leads to blacks, immigrants, and Jews. In William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury , Harvard's own Quentin Compson finds himself suicidal over America's conversion into the "land of the kike home of the wop." Blacks and Jews are ever the inevitable, juicy target--so inevitable that they still find a link in the fevered minds of the paleo-Right, even though all blacks and Jews have in common now is the way the paleo-Right links them. What blacks, Jews, and immigrants always seem to lack in the eyes of declinists is some version of the American character--that which my one-time colleague believed his father to have fought for. The dark underbelly of the American political experiment is the very idea of an American character itself. It is, fundamentally, an un-American idea. It is the nature of America that there is no one American character. Demography is not destiny in America as it is everywhere else; where you come from is not who you are. I can find no quarrel with the brief of particulars offered by the declinists. But their central idea gives heart and strength to people whose threnodies can sound like the song of the siren--and must, like the siren's song, be resisted by all strong men. -Nov. 1, 1995

Though you would not know it from those who spent the day chuckling to themselves over the prospect of an American space command, the militarization of this strategically vital region is decades old.

The religious liberty arm of the World Evangelical Alliance strongly rebuffed a recent report that claims, among other assertions, that the source of Muslim extremism is the "defamation" of Islam. "I would propose that the very heart of the issue is not 'defamation' of Islam or 'baseless' Islamophobia," expressed Elizabeth Kendal of the WEA's Religious Liberty Commission, "but the fact that the dictators of Islam are now as ever consumed and driven by 'apostaphobia!'" "Indeed the new openness brought to the world through globalization and developments in information and communication technologies is causing the power stakeholders and religious dictators of the non-free world to be seriously gripped by apostaphobia - a well-founded fear of loss of adherents, which is manifested primarily as uncompromising repression and denial of fundamental liberties, by violent and subversive means," she added Monday. Kendal, who serves as the principal researcher for the WEA RLC, was writing in response to a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) written by U.N. Special Rapporteur Doudou Diene, who recommended that the international human rights covenants be "reinterpreted and amended" to deal with Islamophobia. According to Diene, the "defamation" of Islam generates dangerous Islamophobia, which leads to the repression of Muslim rights and in turn drives Muslims to extremism. He believes that Islamophobia should be defined as "a baseless hostility and fear vis-avis Islam, and as a result a fear of and aversion towards all Muslims or the majority of them ...." In response, Kendal pointed out that the generalizations in Diene's report are untrue, and argued that any efforts to tie religion to race should be rejected. Diene is the U.N. special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. Kendal noted that right from the beginning, the report took a bias viewpoint by only examining the democratic parties, governmental alliances, and traditionally democratic parties while staying silent on totalitarian regimes and religious dictatorships. The partiality of the report was apparent, Kendal wrote, when Diene cited the Crusaders as an example of early Isamophobia without mentioning jihads, Dhimmitude (laws governing non-Muslims minority), and the fact that the unsuccessful Crusaders to the Holy Land were counter-insurgencies in response to imperialistic Islamic jihads. In his report, Diene also claimed that the perpetuation of the "clash of civilizations and religions" theory was derived from the Cold-War mindset, which caused contemporary Islamophobia rather than, as Kendal pointed out, Islamic imperialism, repression and terrorism. The U.N. special rapporteur's report was submitted to the sixth session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) late last month after Diene was invited to report on "the manifestations of defamation of religions and in particular on the serious implications of Islamophobia on the enjoyment of all rights." "[Diene's] recommendation will no doubt be discussed in the next session of the UNHRC," Kendal reported in Monday's special prayer bulletin for the RLC. Furthermore, "[i]t is likely to elicit a resolution to draft an amendment to the UDHR and the ICCPR," she added. In her closing remarks, Kendal gave an ominous warning, concluding that if the forces of liberty do not have the number to keep Diene's recommendation to amend the covenants from gaining acceptance, then the "Islamization of international human rights will have begun."

The religious liberty arm of the World Evangelical Alliance strongly rebuffed a recent report that claims, among other assertions, that the source of Muslim extremism is the "defamation" of Islam.

UK financial giants HSBC , Barclays, and Aviva all have significant financial stakes in the company behind a controversial tar sands oil pipeline approved by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week, new analysis reveals. Financial data seen by DeSmog UK shows HSBC holds almost $118 million (PS93.7m) worth of shares in Kinder Morgan, which owns the recently approved Trans Mountain pipeline. Barclays' shares are worth around $48 million (PS38m), and Aviva holds $27 million (PS21.4m) worth of stock. Tar sands pipelines are bad news for indigenous communities and the climate, but they can be big business for investors based thousands of miles away from the environmental destruction they bring.

UK financial giants HSBC , Barclays, and Aviva all have significant financial stakes in the company behind a controversial tar sands oil pipeline approved by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week, new analysis reveals

- Advertisement - A timely return to James Baldwin's "The Dungeon Shook," from The Fire Next Time: Your face is like the face of your father, and like him, you are "tough, dark, vulnerable, moody--with a very definite tendency to sound truculent." You would not want anyone "to think you are soft." It is possible you are like the grandfather who never saw you. "You and your father resemble him very much physically." But the grandfather had a "terrible life." Why? He became a "defeated" man; before he died, deep down, he came to believe what white people said about him. He became "holy." 164px-Jamesbaldwin.jpg ( Image by commons.wikimedia.org ) Permission Details DMCA - Advertisement - Sorry, but I must tell you this! And I tell you that you "can only be destroyed" if you believe you are what they tell you, what they tell the world about you. "What the white world calls a n-word ." But do not worry--you and your father do not "exhibit any tendency toward holiness: you really are of another era, part of what happened when the Negro left the land and came into what the late E. Franklin Frazier called 'the cities of destruction.'" I love you! I love you! "[A]nd please don't you ever forget it." Other people do not see what I see when I recall your father. They cannot remember what I remember. They cannot hear his laughter as a child or his howling. They have no memory of him crying. "I know what the world has done to my brother and how narrowly he has survived it." - Advertisement - Why? Because we are not free! We reside within something for which we must struggle to burst! For I know the worse. The crime! I know the crime of which "I accuse my country and countrymen," the crime for "which neither I nor time nor history will ever forgive them." So many lives! "Hundreds of thousands of lives," destroyed and are being destroyed--and worse: many "do not know it and do not want to know it." To live in the innocence bubble is intoxicating favorable. But this is not acceptable. It cannot be "permissible that the authors of devastation should also be innocent. It is the innocence which constitutes the crime." Yes, yes, yes! I hear the "chorus of the innocence" screaming: "'No! This is not true! How bitter you are!'" How hard it is to speak truth to power in the belly of the beast! It is harder still to write as a Black in America write about being Black in America. But now, here it is--for what its worth, a letter to you, my nephew, written "on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation." - Advertisement - Do we hear an articulation of our current situation in the The United States? How long ago did James Baldwin, writer and activist write these words? And yet the bulk of the content of this letter to his nephew is relevant today. When I think about the Black Lives Matter protesters, when I think about the dead bodies, Black youth shot down in our police state, when I think about how long this has been going on, how long ago when we thought the revolution would happen...I think about James Baldwin and the "My Dungeon Shook" from The Fire Next Time. That letter acknowledging a recognition of hate and, yes, love, from one generation to the next so resonates today: They may hate you, but I love you! Your life matters to us-to those who love you! And you must love yourself as you struggle and you love in an understanding that you are not the problem!

- Advertisement - A timely return to James Baldwin's "The Dungeon Shook," from The Fire Next Time: Your face is like the face of your father, and like him, you are "tough, dark, vulnerable, moody--with a very definite tendency to sound truculent."

Illustration by Joe McKendry Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Now that the Bush presidency is over, it's time those of us left behind assess the damage and seize the opportunities. There's plenty of both. But there's no time to waste, so let's get started: the good news, the bad news, and the news that could change everything. Illustration by Joe McKendry Iran: The Coming Distraction Good News: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suffered a worse midterm election than George Bush, with his political allies losing metro elections all over the country and his mullah mentors failing to grab seats in the crucial Assembly of Experts, a college-of-cardinals body that'll pick Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's successor. With the supreme leader on a Francisco Franco-like deathwatch, Ali Akbar Rafsanjani's stunning resurrection (crushed by Ahmadinejad in the '05 presidential election, now he's the Assembly's deputy mullah) suggests our latest Muslim "Hitler" is nothing more than a Persian Newt Gingrich. And over the next two years, we're looking at a potential wholesale swap-out of the senior leadership, and if the result isn't more pragmatism, expect supremely pissed-off college students to do more than just chant "Death to the dictator," like they did recently during an Ahmadinejad speech. Iran is crumbling from within, economically and socially, much like the late-Brezhnevian Soviet Union. In any post-Khamenei scenario, Rafsanjani could easily play Andropov (patron) to the rise of some would-be reformer (like the currently ascending mayor of Tehran) who'd likely try to restructure (perestroika, anyone?) the failed revolutionary system as a going concern in the global economy. Bush's recent full-court press -- UN sanctions, moving a carrier battle group into the Persian Gulf, arresting Iranian operatives in Iraq -- has put the mullahs on the defensive and might end up being very clever. But the president's got to be careful. The minute he gets violent, Beijing and Moscow are outta here, not to mention the American public. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Bad News: Iran is successfully spreading its influence throughout the region, with significant regime-bonding investment strategies unfolding in southern Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. But since that's intimately tied to the price of oil, Iran's strategy is subject to Saudi containment. Tehran's mullahs may put a muzzle on Ahmadinejad now and dump him in two years, but they still want the bomb (and no, that's not an irrational desire after we toppled regimes to their east and west). As far as they're concerned, America's wars to date have left Iran the regional kingpin, and they're right. So Tehran might as well start acting like it while taking the necessary precautions against an inevitable downstream military confrontation with Washington. (Did I mention that the Persians gave us chess?) Iran's shown itself to be a crafty asymmetrical warrior, using proxies Hamas and Hezbollah to demonstrate that it can conflate the region's conflicts at will, so it is not to be underestimated. The mullahs get deterrence all right, as well as preemptive war. If you're unconvinced, talk to Israel as it continues to lick its wounds from last summer. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Wild Card: As Tehran nears the bomb, Israel may well strike first, convinced the second Holocaust is imminent due to Ahmadinejad's skill at turning phrases. A signal of the end times to many believers, it may well be Dick Cheney's plan all along. The problem is, Israel's not up for much more than a token strike (unless it goes preemptively nuclear, at which point all bets are off), so having Israel try and fail conventionally may be a necessary precursor for Bush's -- and the Saudis' -- final solution. But don't expect Iran's pragmatic mullahs to sit on their hands in the meantime. They recognize a losing hand when they see one and may well trade off on Lebanon and Shiite Iraq if Israel's push comes to Bush's shove. At that point, everyone will recognize that Riyadh -- and not Tehran -- really won the Iraq war. Illustration by Joe McKendry Advertisement - Continue Reading Below The Middle East: The Big Bang Theory Good News: It's not as dead as you may think -- or pray. Cynically expressed, the Big Bang strategy was always about speeding the killing necessary to trigger systemic change, so the worse Iraq becomes, the more the process picks up speed. I mean, you can't get to the punch line any faster than by forcing the House of Saud to deal directly with an Al Qaeda hornet's nest right next door in the Sunni Triangle (the Saudis' first choice was a security fence on the border -- go figure!) while simultaneously triggering Riyadh's proxy war with Tehran in Baghdad. Toss in some Israeli nukes and finally the neocons have really got this party started, because those are the three knockdown fights they believe need to unfold before any serious restructuring of the region's power relationships can occur. A lesser variant has Washington prying Damascus away from Tehran, holding down the fort in Baghdad, and getting Riyadh's tacit approval for Israel's preemptive war on Iran in exchange for a supported solution on Palestine, but that almost seems boring in comparison. Bad News: It's not as dead as you may think -- or pray. Bush and the neocons never had a clue about what was naturally coming on the heels of Saddam's fall (i.e., the Shiite revival) any more than they had a plan about Iraq's postwar occupation. Their in-progress Iranification of the Long War against the global jihadist movement makes even less sense than Bush's poorly planned decision to invade Saddam's secularized Iraq. The Salafist jihad spearheaded by Al Qaeda is exclusively Sunni derived, so why add into the mix their hated enemies, the Shiites? Bush is like the barroom brawler who enters the joint and declares, "I'm taking all of you bastards on" -- read: axis of evil -- "right here and now!" His administration has committed the fatal mistake that Clinton deftly avoided in the Balkans: They've let the conflicts accumulate instead of tackling them sequentially. The White House's unfolding Iran strategy is nothing more than an ass-covering exercise on Iraq and Afghanistan -- a third splendid little war to divert attention from the two previous failures. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Wild Card: If there was ever a time for Al Qaeda to cripple Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure, now is it. Delivered with the right fingerprints, Al Qaeda might be able to get just enough unity among the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Israel for a full-blown war with Iran. Nothing would set China on a more aggressive course regarding its long-term access to energy in the region, and therein lies Osama bin Laden's best hope for setting "rising Asia" against an aging West in the Persian Gulf. Illustration by Joe McKendry Globalization: Life During Wartime Good News: The world has never enjoyed a bigger and more dynamic global economy than the one we're riding high on right now, with unprecedented amounts of poverty reduction concentrated in China and India alone. Advanced economies are expanding steadily in the 2 to 3 percent range, while emerging markets dash along in the 7 to 8 percent range, giving us a stunning -- and steady -- global growth rate of roughly 5 percent. Rising Asia will add upwards of a billion new consumers (i.e., people with disposable income) in the coming years, providing the biggest single impulse the global economy has ever experienced. Financial flows in 2005 hit $6 trillion, more than double the total in 2002. If terrorists are running the world, nobody has told the global financial markets. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Bad News: There's plenty to be nervous about, especially if you're a white-collar worker who's always assumed your job can't be outsourced. (Hint: If your graduate degree involved tons of memorizing facts, you're in the crosshairs.) But with financial panics becoming far less frequent and damaging (e.g., a recent scare in Thailand passed without turning contagious), the biggest dangers now are political. Trade protectionism is on the rise (keep an eye on our Democratic Congress), and the World Trade Organization's Doha Development Round is going nowhere because the West refuses to reduce agricultural subsidies. But neither trend surprises, as a rising tide lifts everybody's demands when it comes to trade deals. Wild Card: A supply shock in the maxed-out oil industry, which faces a persistently rising long-term global demand due overwhelmingly to skyrocketing requirements in emerging markets led by China and India. "Peak oil" predictions are overblown, focusing exclusively on easily extracted, known conventional reserves. If prices remain high, then the shift to exploiting unconventional reserves and alternative energy sources will grow exponentially. But timing is everything, so a shock to the system could have the lasting effect of moving us down the hydrocarbon chain faster toward hydrogen, nuclear, and renewables. When that happens, it won't be just Al Gore sticking out his chest in pride -- we'll all be able to breathe more easily. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Illustration by Joe McKendry Al Qaeda: The Global Brand Good News: We have killed or captured a good portion of Al Qaeda's senior brain trust, meaning the generational cohort of leaders who built up the transnational network to the operational peak represented by the 9/11 strikes. As a result, Al Qaeda's network is a lot more diffuse and dispersed, with the surviving leadership's role trimmed back largely to inspirational guidance from above on strategy and tactics. Yes, Al Qaeda now takes credit for virtually every terrorist act across the globe, but the truth is that its operational center of gravity remains southwest Asia -- specifically Iraq's Sunni Triangle and the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. As worldwide revolutionary movements go, this one is relatively contained and successful only in terms of generating local stalemates against intervening external powers, meaning we get to pick the fight and keep it consistently an "away game." As the Middle East "middle-ages" -- demographically speaking -- over the next quarter century, time is definitely on our side, since jihadism, like all revolutionary movements, is a young man's game. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Bad News: Al Qaeda's operational reach may now be effectively limited to the same territory (southwest Asia and extending to adjacent areas) as were the classic Middle Eastern terrorist groups of the 1970s and 1980s, but that just means America's efforts to date have made us safer at the expense of allies in Europe, Asia, and Africa. In short, we've turned back the clock but made no strategic headway, plus we've created a dual cause celebre in Iraq and Afghanistan that will stoke Al Qaeda's recruitment efforts for the long haul. Neither winning nor losing, the Bush administration has merely engineered a back-to-the-future operational stalemate at an unsustainably high cost in blood and treasure, effectively isolating America from the world in the process. Strategically speaking, we've reached a dead end. Wild Card: Al Qaeda's pursuit of a weapon of mass destruction (think biological, not nuclear) is unrelenting, meaning eventually we will face this threat, and ultimately one side in this Long War will need to break out of the strategic stalemate. The key question, then, is, Which side is more energized and which is more exhausted? With the majority of Gulf oil now flowing to Asia and that trend only increasing with time, won't the American public eventually revolt at the notion that it's their oil and our blood? Osama sure hopes that one more strategic bitch-slap does the job. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Illustration by Joe McKendry Iraq: The Quagmire Good News: The Kurdish areas are secure and thriving economically. Then again, they've been in the nation-building business ever since America started that no-fly zone in the early 1990s. The insurgency is still centered primarily in the Sunni Triangle, so many parts of the Shiite-controlled southeast are surviving okay, thanks in part to significant Iranian investment. Though the central government remains weak, it has forged some important compromises, like a deal to share oil revenue. Following our last best effort on the "surge," the inevitable U. S. drawdown -- and "drawback" from combat roles -- will look like Vietnam in reverse: We shift from direct action to advising locals. With any luck, Iraq's not much more of a fake state than Pakistan or Lebanon is, and America's military presence can retreat behind the wire of permanent bases in the Kurdish areas or Kuwait, where we currently keep about twenty-five thousand troops. By increasing our naval presence in the region, America can return somewhat to its historic role as offshore balancer in the region. And by participating in the regional peace conference on Iraq, it seems Bush may have finally discovered diplomacy in the Middle East. About time. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Bad News: Baghdad itself is an unmitigated disaster, and the Sunni Triangle has become a no-go zone for all but the most heavily armed outsiders. The horrific social toll of constant violence and massive unemployment is measured in dog years, meaning Bush's surge strategy is far too little and way too late. There is no "Iraq" any more than there was a "Yugoslavia," so America will have to accept this Humpty Dumpty outcome for what it is: a Balkans done backward. The Iraq Study Group rejected partitioning, saying it would be impossible to divide up major cities. Too bad the locals didn't get the word, because that low-grade "ethnic cleansing" proceeds rather vigorously -- neighborhood by neighborhood -- fueled by rising sectarian violence that outside interested parties (Iran, Saudi Arabia) clearly feed. America cannot stem this tide; only a combined effort by the neighbors can. Wild Card: The right wrong move by embryonic Kurdistan could trigger a military intervention from anxious Turkey, especially after the highly contested oil-rich city of Kirkuk votes to join "free Kurdistan." Also looming is a Saudi-Iranian proxy war within Iraq itself, just as the persecution and targeting of restive Shiite minorities by entrenched Sunni regimes hits an inflection point regionwide -- nudge-nudge, wink-wink from the White House. For now, the Saudis seem content to 1) limit Iran's oil revenue by ramping up their production and 2) curb Iran's influence in Lebanon by funding Hezbollah's opponents. The regional peace conference on Iraq puts everyone at the same table, but if Sy Hersh is correct that Bush has already "redirected" on Iran, that parley might just be for show. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Illustration by Joe McKendry The Long War: The Theater-After-Next Good News: As we squeeze the Persian Gulf-centric radical Salafi jihadist movement, that balloon can expand in two directions over the near term: north into Central Asia or south into Africa. For now, Central Asia is relatively quiet, and local authoritarian regimes -- with the consent and support of all interested outside parties -- aim to keep it that way. Simply put, there are just too many untapped energy reserves in that region for neighboring great powers (e.g., Russia, Turkey, India, China, and even Shiite Iran) to let radical Sunni terror networks establish significant beachheads. Remember, China and Russia set up the Shanghai Cooperation Organization way before 9/11, so calling our recent arrival (now down to just one military base in Kyrgyzstan) the resumption of the "great game" is a bit much. The Chinese and Russians are basically watching our backs on this one, and we should continue to let them do so because... Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Bad News: ...This fight's headed south into sub-Saharan Africa over the long haul. The recent rise and fall of the Islamic courts in Somalia was but a preview of coming attractions. Don't believe? Then check out similar north-versus-south (i.e., Muslim versus Christian) fights simmering across a wide swath of middle Africa (basically where the desert meets the grasslands and forests), because it might not surprise you to find out that the cowboy and the farmer still can't be friends. Al Qaeda, according to our Defense Intelligence Agency, recently brokered an alliance with the Algerian Group for Salafist Preaching and Combat and has famously issued threats regarding any potential Western intervention in Sudan's Darfur region to stem the genocidal war being waged by the invasive Arab janjaweed against indigenous black Africans. Success in the Long War will not be marked by less violence or less resistance but by a shift in the geographic center of gravity out of the Gulf region and into Africa. Egypt, with its looming succession from Mubarak father to son (Hosni to Gamal), will continue to either fulfill or fail in its role as continental bulwark, much the way secular (and poorly appreciated) Turkey holds the line for Europe. But in the end, Africa simply offers too many attractive traction points for the Salafi jihadists not to engage as the Middle East middle-ages. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Wild Card: Bush has already announced and will sign into existence sometime between now and the end of his administration a new regional U. S. combatant command: AFRICOM, or African Command. The placeholder, the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, now sits in a former French Foreign Legion post in Djibouti. It was originally set up as a picket line to trap Al Qaeda operatives as they exited the Gulf for the dark continent. These are the guys who recently helped engineer Ethiopia's intervention in Somalia, and their command represents a serious experiment in combining the "Three D's": diplomacy, development, and defense. AFRICOM will be the future of the fight and the fight of the future. Illustration by Joe McKendry Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Defense Department: The New Coin of the Realm Good News: The Army and Marine Corps continue to calibrate their forces and doctrine to adapt to the long-term challenges of counterinsurgency and a return to the frontier-taming functions last witnessed when our Army of the West really was just our Army in our West. With General George Casey coming back from Iraq to become Army chief of staff and General David Petraeus, chief architect of the U. S. military's new counterinsurgency manual, slotting in behind him in Baghdad, that much needed trend can only accelerate. Two other solid moves by Bush: 1) selecting former CIA chief Robert Gates to replace Donald Rumsfeld as secretary of defense (at this point in the fight, it's better that insider agency types run the Pentagon than the outsider neocons) and 2) sliding Admiral "Fox" Fallon over from Pacific Command to Central Command, bringing along his substantial diplomatic experience and stubbornly strategic vision. (He led a PACOM effort to bolster military-to-military ties with China despite disapproval from Rumsfeld's Pentagon.) With AFRICOM standing up in 2008, we're seeing some serious lessons being learned from Iraq and Afghanistan. Failure is a great teacher. Bad News: The acquisition overhang from Rumsfeld's transformation initiative remains large, meaning we've still got way too many absurdly complex and expensive weapon systems and platforms (e.g., ships, aircraft) in the pipeline. As ongoing, largely ground operations increasingly exhaust the Army and Marine Corps (and their respective reserve components) both in personnel and equipment, many tough funding cuts loom on the horizon. Rumsfeld never confronted those hard choices, preferring in the end to send his generals to the Hill to beg for more money and let defense contractors stuff emergency supplemental bills with their pet programs. Hopefully, intel-savvy Gates will recognize that a substantial resource shift must ensue, in effect curtailing the Pentagon's obsession with smart weapons and boosting its ability to crank out smarter soldiers. But much depends on how Gates and the Bush administration continue to interpret China's rise in military terms. If you keep hearing the word hedge, then expect the Pentagon to keep overstuffing the war-fighting force while starving the nation-building one, and that nasty habit matters plenty if it's your loved ones over in southwest Asia today. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Wild Card: A winner would be Congress somehow stepping up and delivering "Goldwater-Nichols II," or an omnibus restructuring legislation that fixes the broken interagency process (the real cause of our failures in Iraq and Afghanistan) just as the original fixed the dysfunctional interservice rivalries that plagued our military in the post-Vietnam era. Of course, the really bold step would be to create some Cabinet-level department that focuses on transition or failed states. We basically know how to deal with countries in war (Defense) and peace (State). What we lack, though, is a bureaucratic center of gravity that specializes in getting weak states from war to peace. Presidential candidates and a blue-ribbon commission or two are already raising this proposal, so it's out there, waiting for our next massive fuckup to bring it into being. Illustration by Joe McKendry Advertisement - Continue Reading Below War on Terror: The Legal Underpinnings Good News: The International Criminal Court was set up in The Hague in 2002 as a permanent version of the UN-sponsored International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. As an international court of last resort, it's designed to put war criminals on trial for crimes against humanity. With 104 signatory states, the ICC possesses a well-credentialed system for adjudicating and imprisoning such bad actors. What it's missing is a mechanism for bringing them to justice. Oddly enough, the United States possesses a military force with global reach that routinely snatches these guys, only to hide them in secret prisons and put them on secret trial with secret evidence. The U. S. has kept the court at arm's length, fearing its power enough to negotiate bilateral immunity treaties with roughly a hundred states around the world where we anticipate the possibility of future military interventions (since we fear our soldiers and officials will be subject to war-crime accusations). These arrangements will retard the development of global case law. Eventually, Washington will come to its senses. Bad News: The Bush administration's continuing Dirty Harry take on the Geneva Conventions destroys America's international reputation for the rule of law, providing us with a host of highly questionable practices in the name of "global war," such as the suspension of habeas corpus, the holding of ghost detainees who disappear into the paperwork, the ordering of "extraordinary renditions," by which suspects are deposited with allies who have long histories of torture, and the extraction of confessions by methods right out of the Salem witch trials. If our own Supreme Court can't stomach much of this, how can we expect to win any hearts and minds abroad by mimicking the human-rights abuses of the very same authoritarian regimes (e.g., Saudi Arabia, Egypt) targeted by our lawless enemies, the Salafi jihadists? Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Wild Card: Abu Ghraib didn't do it. Gitmo hasn't done it. Short of killing fields being dug up, it's hard to imagine what would dramatically alter the playing field as seen by the Bush-Cheney team. Bush the Decider, after all, basically blew off both the November election and the Iraq Study Group, so it would seem he's not one to be swayed by much when his famous gut tells him otherwise. Our best hope would seem to be for our Supreme Court to step up more aggressively over time -- maybe even before Oslo starts handing out Nobel prizes to the whistle-blowers. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Good News: The Karzai regime muddles along, keeping the bulk of Afghanistan reasonably stable while enabling legitimate economic growth in those pockets not controlled by the druggies. The Musharraf regime does one better in Pakistan, which is growing at a solid clip and finally starting to attract foreign direct investment that underscores its strategic location as connector between the energy-rich southwest-central Asia and the energy-hungry south and east Asia. When you're talking about the parts of both countries that are effectively governed by the center, either situation is arguably described as a slowly modernizing "success story" in the Long War. Hey, when Iraq defines the floor, these two mark -- by comparison -- the ceiling. Bad News: The problem is, of course, that neither capital effectively controls the hinterlands, which overlap precipitously along their shared, mountainous border. There the poppy trade booms, prestate tribalism rules, and the Taliban are back in the business of state-sponsored terror, thanks in no small part to a de facto peace treaty with Musharraf's regime. The Pashtun tribes of northwest Pakistan have been ungovernable for as long as history records. While outsiders can effectively ally with them against perceived common enemies, as America did against the Soviets in Afghanistan, none have effectively conquered them. And yet the Taliban are carving out a ministate within these lands, employing their usual brutal techniques. The result is, once again, a secure sanctuary for Al Qaeda's global leadership (to include Osama bin Laden) and a training ground for motivated jihadists. Wild Card: The next 9/11-like attack on American soil -- especially if WMD are involved -- could well trigger the gravest consequences for the Taliban's state-within-a-state. Americans might just countenance a limited nuclear strike in an eye-for-an-eye moment of unleashed fury and frustration. Unthinkable? We did it to Japan under far cooler circumstances but for similar reasons -- namely, a full-scale invasion seemed prohibitively costly in human life. Is nuking Afghanistan advisable? No, nuking is always a bad idea. But rubble, as they say, makes no trouble, and bombing them back to the Stone Age would be a very short trip. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Illustration by Joe McKendry China: The Slated Near-Peer Good News: China's torrid growth continues, despite all predictions that it must soon end lest it tear the country apart through some combination of the horrific environmental disasters just unfolding, a financial panic caused by a still-rickety banking system, or -- Mao forbid! -- political unrest among the masses of rural peasants left behind in abject poverty. So long as the foreign direct investment flows (China's the number-one target in the world outside the West) and export volume rises, the Chinese Communist Party, which has staked its regime legitimacy almost entirely on raising income levels, continues to pull off the seemingly impossible: creating a world-class domestic market while whittling down the world's largest state sector. How hard is that? Bill Clinton created more than twenty million new jobs in America across his eight years as president. China's leaders need to generate almost the same number of new jobs every year to keep this juggernaut moving forward. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Bad News: China's military buildup is real, although America's slated to outspend it by roughly $10 trillion over the next two decades, so our lead seems pretty safe. What's so scary right now about China's strategic relationship with the United States, or lack thereof, is that our economic interdependence is very real and rapidly expanding while our security ties remain embryonic at best and highly suspicious at worst. Even if we get past North Korea, the Taiwan situation still divides us strategically, and as China increasingly penetrates the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America with its rather unprincipled investment strategies, opportunities for conflict with U. S. security interests will abound. Given the right breakdown of cooperation over Iran (or failure to get any in places like Sudan, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Venezuela -- you name it), wecould be looking at a resumption of cold-war binary thinking by which Washington hawks calculate every international loss (or even slight) as China's zero-sum gain. Factor in a Democratic-led Congress eager to take on the threat of "cheap Chinese labor" and their underappreciated currency, and what should be globalization's strongest bilateral relationship could easily turn into its worst -- even the cause for its demise. Wild Card: You'll get the same answer from Wall Street CEOs and White House staffers: Nobody wants to see a financial meltdown triggered inside China, because nobody -- and I mean nobody -- has any idea how bad that could get for the global economy as a whole. Eventually, something has to give in China's still-white-hot economy, so the question really isn't Can a financial panic happen in China? but rather How will America handle it when it does? Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Illustration by Joe McKendry North Korea: the Persistent Outlier Good News: The Bush administration has been successful in maintaining a fairly coherent unity of effort with Russia, Japan, China, and South Korea, in that we're all still talking and cooperating and worrying about the same things. Admittedly, we've not accomplished much vis-a-vis Kim Jong Il's regime (the recent deal smells of a Clinton-like "freeze," with the truly hard details -- like the actual bombs -- left to the future), but the dialogue itself is laying the groundwork for a post-Kim effort to construct an East Asia NATO-like security architecture that cements China's role as the Germany of Asia and ends fears of emerging security rivalries with offshore Japan. (Asia's never enjoyed a stable peace when both China and Japan were powerful.) While Kim's successfully blackmailed us in the past on nukes, his kleptocratic regime's reliance on self-financing through criminal activities does leave it vulnerable to the sort of stringent financial sanctions recently imposed by the U. S. That tactic begins to work when Chinese banks, more interested in maintaining their international credit ratings, start choosing transparency over illicit dealings with Pyongyang. Talk Tokyo and Beijing into a naval blockade and we may set an endgame in motion. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Bad News: The recent Bush deal is a bad deal that should give no one comfort, as it is unlikely to force Kim into giving up his nukes (not when the blackmailing still works for aid), and then there's the unacknowledged second nuclear program that Pyongyang bought from Pakistan years back. We haven't even begun the negotiations on that one yet. Unlike the years-in-the-making danger of a nuclear Iran, Kim's got the necessary missile technology in hand, and he tested his first crude nuke last October. Remembering East Germany's fate, Kim confronts the high likelihood of not just near-term attempts at regime change but the inevitable liquidation of his entire nation as the wrong half of the last divided-state situation to linger beyond the cold war. Despite Ahmadinejad's fiery threats, Iran's mullahs have plenty to live for, while Kim's got everything to lose, making his long-demonstrated siege mentality and willingness to sacrifice millions of his own people to preserve his rule two crucial indicators of his undeterrability. The problem with the slow squeeze we're pursuing is that eventually it'll trigger some reckless act from Kim, which in turn sets in motion the following scary scenario: South Korean and U. S. forces pouring in from the south and sea, Chinese forces entering from the north to prevent refugee flows, and somewhere in that small chaotic space, the world's fourth-largest military armed with some unknown number of nuclear devices and a Gotterdammerung-inducing ideology of racial superiority. No wonder Beijing's not so psyched to get it on. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Wild Card: Beijing's clearly in the driver's seat on this one, which makes the government's not-so-quiet examination of Ceausescu's rapid fall in Romania in late 1989 (hint: Moscow's KGB gave him a push) all the more telling. China's leaders are definitely exploring an exit strategy on this one, the timing of which couldn't be more crucial for the future of Sino-American relations. Illustration by Joe McKendry The White House: The Bush Imperative Good News: There's about twenty months left in W.'s presidency and his heart's one helluva lot stronger than Cheney's. The Iraq tie-down pretty much means Bush can't start any more wars anywhere else, despite all the tough talk. Much like Jimmy Carter near the end, Bush seems wholly engulfed by the Gulf, but since nobody other than that pesky Hugo Chavez seems intent on pressing our disadvantage, that's probably a good thing. Although this administration has been willfully oblivious to its gargantuan federal deficits up to now (what is it about Republican administrations?), Bush has somewhat cynically found religion on the subject recently, declaring his new goal of eliminating those deficits somewhere around the end of his successor's first term. Talk about passing the buck! Then again, if Bush's surge strategy in Iraq creates even the slightest semblance of job-not-too-horrendously-done and allows for our troops' effective withdrawal from combat duty there by January 2009, I doubt we'd hear any complaints from the new resident at 1600. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Bad News: Condoleezza Rice is proving to be an even weaker secretary of state than Colin Powell, although at least she talks out of only one side of her mouth. Then again, since Rice's diplomacy consists solely of delivering White House talking points the world over, that is a mean trick. All dissing aside, the real problem with American diplomacy under Bush (if you can call it diplomacy) is that Dick Cheney has been in charge of it all along, and now that ,ber-ally Don Rumsfeld is gone at Defense, we won't even see its muscular version (the Bush Doctrine) employed anymore, leaving us with basically no foreign policy whatsoever. The big problem with this state of affairs is that Bush's postpresidency has started earlier in his second term than any leader since Richard Nixon, leaving America's global leadership adrift at a rather fluid moment in history. I'm not just talking the Long War but the other 95 percent of reality that actually makes the world go round. With Tony Blair leaving office in the UK, there's virtually no adult supervision left anywhere, which is sad because, with a global economy humming as nice as this one is, the world could really take advantage of some visionary leadership right now to tackle a host of compelling global challenges like AIDS, global warming, childhood diseases -- you know, the whole Two Bills/Bono agenda! Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Wild Card: Bush has said repeatedly that he's on a personal mission to deny Iran nuclear weapons, and Cheney wants nothing more than to go down in history as the man who restored power to the American presidency. Put those two scary dynamics together and you've got the mother of all October surprises come 2008. Washington is naturally all abuzz with this prospect, causing Bush to deny publicly any plans for war. But as we've learned with this administration, it's Deny, deny, deny, and then strike! If and when Bush pulls that trigger, watch the Democratic Congress start impeachment proceedings. That'll make it two-for-two with Boomer presidents, but that only makes sense for a generation who came of age with Watergate. The Rising East: The Degree of Compliance Good News: The Bush administration has been successful in drawing both Russia and China into multilateral security discussions on Iran and North Korea, and even when both nations routinely water down our proposed responses, they're staying in the conversation, offering their own helpful ideas (like Moscow's proposal to outsource Iran's uranium enrichment) and generally becoming more comfortable coordinating security policies with the West's great powers on issues of shared concern. It may not sound like much, but such routine is what builds up relationships over the long haul. As Washington's relatively successful courtship of rising India has shown, it's the small gestures that matter most, like the United States finally acknowledging New Delhi's standing as a nuclear power. With India and China, we're looking at two big body shops -- as in, million-man-plus armies -- that logically should someday soon be enlisted for long-term cooperative peacekeeping and nation-building efforts in Africa, where both nations currently deploy tens of thousands of nationals in market-making commercial and developmental activities. You want to do stuff on the cheap? Well, you better find cheap labor. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Bad News: Each of the big players suffers from strategic myopia, meaning none are currently capable of punching their weight internationally at America's side. With Russia, it's their obsession with their so-called near abroad (the Caucasus and Central Asia) and Putin's aggressive push to renationalize the commanding heights of Russia's new economy -- namely, the energy sector. The Chinese, despite their ballooning reliance on distant foreign energy sources, still act as though their entire strategic environment boils down to the Taiwan Strait. Ditto for India and Kashmir. South Korea's ready to climb on Oprah's couch over its queer embrace of its long-lost sibling to the north, but don't expect it to climb out of any foxholes anytime soon on our behalf. Toss in glass-jaw Japan and there's not really anybody in the East we can count on in a tight spot. Wild Card: The truly intriguing wild cards are local disasters that provide the U. S. military the pretext for drawing out these rising states' militaries in cooperative humanitarian responses, the way the 2004 Christmas tsunamis helped the Pentagon reestablish military-to-military ties with Indonesia (as well as triggering the internal solution of Indonesia's Aceh secessionist movement). If there's going to be a global-warming tipping-point disaster, it'll probably unfold in the East Asian littoral. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Advertisement - Continue Reading Below The Aging West: The State of Alliance Good News: Recent elections and those looming on the horizon are not producing a crop of anti-American leaders among our traditional allies, which is extraordinarily generous on their part given the unprecedented anti-Americanism that's pervaded the vast majority of the world across the Bush administration. With France and the UK in transition, Germany's Angela Merkel has emerged as Europe's most powerful female leader since Margaret Thatcher, to whom the "iron Frau" is most commonly compared. Most important for America, Merkel is intent on keeping the transatlantic relationship strong and bolstering the role of NATO as its preeminent security structure. With Shinzo Abe taking the reins in economically resurgent Japan and pushing for expanded ties with NATO, we're seeing the old West as a whole assume a more forward-leaning security posture. Given the UN's enduring weakness, NATO's imprimatur is as close as America can get to approval by the international community for most overseas military interventions, with our Balkan missions serving as the best model to date. Bad News: Though NATO is in Afghanistan, the many operational limitations imposed by individual members make its employment consistently suboptimal, and it has done little to bolster U. S. troop efforts to tame the Taliban's growing influence in the south. As for Iraq, the Middle East, much like all of Africa, simply remains a bridge too far for this collection of former colonial powers who aren't much interested in any lengthy return engagements (although the French occasionally pop up in Africa now and then). Other than the Brits (who've already opted out of Bush's surge strategy in Iraq), it is hard to imagine NATO countries taking serious numbers of casualties anywhere outside of Europe (okay, the French and Italian effort in south Lebanon has some merit), not with the EU's growing unease over its "absorption capacity" of new eastern members and popular fears of the invasive species known as Homo Islamicus. In a Long War with a high body requirement, it's unrealistic for America to assume that its traditional military allies, all of whom are demographically moribund, will suffice for the quagmire-like interventions that lie ahead. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Wild Card: The globalization wormhole that connects the United Kingdom to Pakistan features substantial two-way traffic whose upshot is a steady stream of radicalized expats landing in British working-class neighborhoods on a daily basis. The West's "stargate" on this, Britain's world-class internal security service, MI5, cannot possibly uncover every plot, so if that lucky strike hits the right target at the right time, our European friends could suddenly veer into a Children of Men -like extreme-lockdown scenario. All the Rest: Other Complications Good News: Despite all the ominous news, the developing world is not awash in civil strife. Africa, for example, was suffering from sixteen major civil or cross-border conflicts half a decade ago but endures only a half dozen today. Thanks to the commodities boom, infrastructure development there has shifted from being a supply-push aid effort led by the West to a demand-pull construction effort led by the East. In Latin America, the only serious insurgency still operating is the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and the dozen recent elections there produced far more market-friendly leaders than Chavez-like populists. East Asia's relatively quiet, with nasty flare-ups in Sri Lanka and East Timor, and the dominant economic trends there continue to be rapid marketization and long-term integration with China, globalization's premier final assembler of manufactured goods. Best of all, the current oil boom has triggered voluminous "east-east" capital flows, whereby Arab energy producers direct their surplus capital to Asia's infrastructure build-out while Asia's high savings rates are beginning to flow into the Gulf's emerging financial hubs, in addition to its energy sector. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Bad News: The West's stubborn holdout on its agricultural subsidies keeps the WTO's Doha Round from doing what it should to jump-start agricultural markets in developing economies. While China's doing plenty to create infrastructure in many resource-rich states, it's also replicating the profile that European colonial powers once employed: trading low-cost manufactures for even lower-end commodities. Net result? Local producers and small manufacturers tend to be crowded out by China's Wal-Mart-like impact. No wonder rising economic nationalism in Latin America, for example, is increasingly directed at China instead of just the usual culprits in the West. Wild Card: Anything that torpedoes China's economic juggernaut would have a huge impact throughout the developing world, so probably the nastiest wild card to cue up would be the SARS/avian-flu-after-next that both derails Asian economies while overwhelming the meager public-health capacities of developing economies. The Wildest Card: 2008 The ancient Greek poet Archilochus said, "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." Let me submit that we're living through the final months of the hedgehog presidency of one George W. Bush, whose greatest failure has been his lack of strategic imagination. Now, as the 2008 presidential campaign gears up, let me presume to offer this: avoid hedgehogs. Don't listen to candidates who tell you this whole election boils down to one thing and one thing alone. We need a president with more than one answer to every question, one whose tool kit is as diverse as his -- or her -- ideology is flexible. We need a deal maker, a compromiser, a closer. We need someone able to finish what others cannot and start that which others dare not. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below We need a leader who knows many things, because we've had quite enough of those who know only one big thing.

Continue Reading Below Now that the Bush presidency is over, it's time those of us left behind assess the damage and seize the opportunities.

Our forever first lady, Michelle LeVaughn Robinson Obama, aka the literal manifestation of black girl magic, and exhibit A-Z of why you should listen to and trust black women, has launched an initiative to encourage the youth to vote. Look at who your president currently is. Voting is important! There is a $1.3 trillion spending bill being worked on in Congress right now. Democrats wanted to add language to the bill that would protect special counsel Robert Mueller and keep him from being fired by the president. Although a good many of them said that they believe Mueller should be allowed to finish the job he... The most obvious answer when attempting to find the root cause for certain Americans being so obsessed with guns is fear. These people are scared of something --irrelevance, anarchy, immigrants, black people, aliens, Black Panther Build-a-Bears--and this fear drives them to amass arsenals and fight against even the idea... Pundits and politicos were shocked Friday when a spokesperson for the Conservative Political Action Conference publicly admitted that former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele was the party's token black guy. Although the comment was the least racist thing you might hear at CPAC, people were stunned... A few months ago, The Root began a series of stories under the name "I Tried It," chronicling the experiences of writers who were willing to step outside their comfort zones to try things they normally wouldn't consider. Saturday is the one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump's inauguration, and you must admit that he's managed a pretty radical transformation of America. He's turned his White House into the location of a horrible reality show. He's turned Twitter into a weapon of mass destruction. He's made the United States... As the year comes to a close, The Root takes a look back at those who took an L. We aren't talking the kind of loss you feel sympathy for--or the kind of losses you point a finger and laugh at or shake your head in shame and secondhand embarrassment. Let's review everyone--and everything--that caught an extreme loss in... I remember vivid details about the morning when I first decided I didn't want to go to church anymore. I remember that my mother attempted to wake me several times that morning when she was already fully dressed, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, wearing her nurse's uniform that she had to wear every fourth Sunday because... Congress is poised to pass a piece of legislation that will amount to a $1.5 trillion tax hike for Americans who don't have trust funds, silver spoons or monocles . No one knows what is in the final bill because Republicans have added more changes than Kim Kardashian's plastic surgeon, but luckily The Root always has a... When Ohio state Rep. Wes Goodman was caught in his congressional office heroically helping another man release the Krakken, some people felt sorry for the politician. Even though he had a long history of anti-LGBTQ advocacy, including trying to block same-sex marriage in Washington, D.C., there were a few people who... House Democrats taunted their Republican counterparts as GOP representatives passed a bill that would erase the signature legislation of the Obama administration and replace it with a tax break for the wealthiest Americans and simultaneously karate-chop 24 million Americans in their soon-to-be uninsured throats. Senate Democrats successfully filibustered the confirmation of Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, sparking a series of contentious moves that will likely result in ... well ... the confirmation of Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch.

Our forever first lady, Michelle LeVaughn Robinson Obama, aka the literal manifestation of black girl magic, and exhibit A-Z of why you should listen to and trust black women, has launched an initiative to encourage the youth to vote.

The reason Hollywood producers are not beating down Kelly Carlson's door has nothing to do with her acting bona fides. It's because she decided to purchase a gun for self-defense. Fox and Friends resorts to the overplayed ruse that Hollywood is so anti-gun, they will punish anyone who is pro-gun. That might be a valid premise, except for the fact that it is not reality-based. Celebrities like Robert DeNiro, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie are gun owners. Their affinity for guns does not limit their job prospects as actors. Carlson is looking for a scapegoat for her dismal acting career. So Carlson does what any ailing, conservative-leaning star does: they turn to Faux News to cry that they are persecuted by the liberal elite because they love that Second Amendment. I like how Fox 'News' pretends the Reagan Administration, along with Orrin Hatch (R-UT) had nothing to do with re-defining the amendment to increase the profit margin of the NRA, it was our Founding Fathers who wanted guns a-blazing for all Americans. They resurrected the obsolete amendment to increase sales for the gun lobby and Fox 'News' helps them whenever possible. The model/actress recently spoke with TheBlaze Radio about the serious "security breach" at her home that inspired her to purchase a gun and spend the time and money to learn how to properly use a firearm. The frightening stalking episode also became the focus of a new episode of the Outdoor Channel's, "NRA All Access." Carlson talks openly about the incident as well as the fact that her uncle was killed, execution style, during a gas station robbery in Minnesota. Carlson has succumbed to the paranoia stoked by the folks at Breitbart.com . She made an appearance in September, 2014 at the National Press Club via Skype to raise awareness of the danger posed by a potential attack on America's power grid -- and how little authorities do to protect this precious element of our infrastructure. She claims today on Fox that she was being stalked by a very organized group that was disabling her surveillance system and gawd knows what else. | Story continues below | A plus to her seeking protection, Carlson found love, and eventually married her ex-military, bodyguard. I'm guessing his influence has made her very concerned with the same border security and potential infrastructure security breaches that bother so many right-wing conspiracy theorists. She knows that Fox and Friends is the ideal place to garner sympathy for a woman who believes that Hollywood is biased when it comes to gun ownership. She is a very proud firearms enthusiast. Why not exploit her security fears by earning press with the help of the NRA? At least she knows the viewers of the sensationalized infotainment channel will be with her.

The reason Hollywood producers are not beating down Kelly Carlson's door has nothing to do with her acting bona fides. It's because she decided to purchase a gun for self-defense. Fox and Friends resorts to the overplayed ruse that Hollywood is so anti-gun, they will punish anyone who is pro-gun.

There have been 181 school shootings since Columbine, and most guns in these rampages were bought legally. 30,000 people are injured or killed each year in this country by guns. We are not safe in our schools, universities, malls, temples of worship, movie theaters, streets, markets-even in our own homes. More people die by gun violence in the US than died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, by about ten times more! Mass violence is shocking, but the majority of casualties occur daily, and barely make the news anymore. We need tighter gun laws and background checks, and enhanced detection and treatment of mental illness. Let's start with the obvious first: As Lawrence O'Donnell said recently after the murder-suicide of Jovan Belcher, "Babe Ruth wouldn't have hit so many home runs without a bat." The argument that is made that people kill and not the gun is absurd, and we have cowed to that line of argument for far too long. Please take a moment to sign this petition. With enough people, we may begin changing this resigned acceptance of a gun culture that is destroying our nation from within.

There have been 181 school shootings since Columbine, and most guns in these rampages were bought legally. 30,000 people are injured or killed each year in this country by guns.

An interesting series of personal recollections of individuals participation and experiences of the poll tax riot in London's Trafalgar Square in 1990, which marked the beginning of the end... The far-right in Ukraine are acting as the vanguard of a protest movement that is being reported as pro-democracy. The situation on the ground is not as simple as pro-EU and trade versus pro-... Pannekoek hammers at the idea that party and class must be antagonistic, as the history of German and Russian parties had shown by 1936. Rather, the working class must self-actuate and self-... Click here to register now. Logged in users: > Can comment on articles and discussions > Get 'recent posts' refreshed more regularly > Bookmark articles to your own reading list > Use the site private messaging system > Start forum discussions, submit articles, and more...

An interesting series of personal recollections of individuals participation and experiences of the poll tax riot in London's Trafalgar Square in 1990, which marked the beginning of the end...

This interactive outlines key international commitments to Afghanistan through pivotal years of transition. By Katherine Blakeley and Aarthi Gunasekaran The Obama administration recently announced actions that will help reduce seafood fraud and combat pirate fishing around the globe. By Michael Conathan Although immigration policies have become more inclusive since the Immigration and Nationality Act, which explicitly excluded LGBT immigrants from entering the United States, further reforms are needed to create a fairer immigration system. By Sharita Gruberg Countries--including the United States--should meet their financial obligations to the Green Climate Fund in order to help developing countries curtail their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change. King v. Burwell has the potential to undo all of the significant improvements to health care in America by creating a death spiral of higher premiums for fewer, sicker customers. Negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 nations over the Iranian nuclear program have reached a decision point. Higher education opportunities for undocumented students must be expanded, not restricted, at the state level. Congressional leaders are trying to improve how they talk about inequality, stagnant wages, and middle-class economic insecurity, but their budgets still only advance the interests of those at the very top. By Harry Stein and Anna Chu Political scientist and voting rights advocate Curtis Gans passed away last weekend, but his life's work must continue. By Sam Fulwood III Author Jamal Hagler writes about the need to push back on outdated stereotypes. New regulations could improve access to services for homeless LGBT young people. The authors explore the critical needs of the Afghan National Security Forces. Although black men have come a long way on various indicators of success, they continue to lag behind, and it is important to push back on outdated stereotypes. By Jamal Hagler Undocumented students are fighting for access to higher education in Texas and other states, writes the author. A federal judge's decision to delay the DHS immigration directives could cost the nation billions in tax revenues while leaving millions of eligible undocumented immigrants and their American families in limbo. By Silva Mathema

This interactive outlines key international commitments to Afghanistan through pivotal years of transition.

In April, I wrote a letter to White people with a list of key questions to ask themselves before calling the cops on Black and Brown people engaging in normal daily activities. Things like sitting in Starbucks, going on a college tour, falling asleep in your university dorm, renting an Airbnb, having a cookout with family in a public park, to name a few. Over the last month, we've seen more stories of White people calling the cops in our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds. This is a great thing because the public can see what communities of color are experiencing every day. Yet, we know that for every story that goes viral, many more calls like these go unreported and unnoticed, except by the people of color who have to deal with the impact. Please share your own stories along with any you find in your communities or press. You can hit the conversations button and post a link or simply write in your story. Or share your story on social media and tag it with #shouldicallthecops. Remember to give us some detail, especially the time, place and outcome if you know it. We've got to make some changes. While we do the work to end institutional and structural racism in the long-term, there are things we need to do in the day-to-day to make sure our actions and reactions aren't hurting people. This last week we've seen Black men arrested in Starbucks and another young Black man was shot and killed in a Walmart parking lot . We can't overnight stop cops from shooting people, but there's a real and practical solution that can save a life: stop being so quick to involve the police in non-emergency situations. There are literally no consequences when a white person calls the cops and an unarmed Black person gets killed or arrested. So I've written this short list of questions to ask yourself the next time you feel the urge to call 911. Have you just witnessed a car accident and someone is injured? Is someone actively shooting a gun that you can see with your own eyes? Do you smell or see smoke from a burning fire? Yes, of course, call 911. Wake up those fire trucks and ambulances! Keep in mind, response times can be slow in neighborhoods that are predominantly people of color, so folks have created alternative emergency solutions, some of which can be found here . If someone is sitting in Starbucks talking with a friend, there is almost zero chance that your or anyone else's lives are in danger. If you have any doubts, just go ask. If someone isn't waving a weapon [and please try to be absolutely certain that what you see is in fact a weapon, not a cell phone, CDs or a pack of Skittles], there's no reason not to approach someone. If there is any part of you that thinks the situation is not grave, go talk to people. Express your concern calmly and rationally. Ask if they are okay and need help. Ask them if they want or need you to call the police before you do. If you have a dispute with someone, see if you can bring someone nearby in to help mediate. Most disputes don't need police involvement to be resolved. This one is really critical. Taking that extra ten seconds to check your bias can save a life. No one is calling you racist for having unconscious bias from the things you were taught by your friends and family and what you see in the news. But if you don't make that effort to evaluate whether your instincts are based in reality, then you become complicit to a racist criminal justice system that unfairly targets people of color. Going back to the Starbucks example, two white men are sitting at a table conversing without a coffee in hand, what are the chances you would call the police to intervene? I remember being on a date with a guy walking down Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. It was getting dark and there was an elderly Black man with a cane walking towards us. My date got visibly nervous and mumbled something about us getting out of the way and steered to the opposite side of the sidewalk. As we crossed paths, I smiled at the gentleman and said hello. He returned the gesture. After he was out of earshot, I looked at my date and asked, "What's wrong with you? Are you afraid of Black people?" He got defensive saying something about how dangerous it was after dark in downtown Cleveland where he was from. I made a mistake and missed an opportunity. Instead of incredulously asking him if he was afraid of Black people, I should have asked him if that was an old white man coming towards us, would you have been afraid? So next time you're in a situation where you feel like someone or something looks suspicious, imagine the person is White and then ask yourself whether you would respond the same. Calling 911 should always be a last resort. Program numbers of local mental health centers in your phone for situations where a person is behaving erratically in public, yelling at people, waving arms in the air, something along those lines. Exhaust all other avenues before resorting to calling the police, programming numbers of crisis intervention organizations and hotlines into your phone. By all means, if there is gushing blood or flames, dial 911. But don't default to the police if you are just uncomfortable. People are being harassed. People are dying. We can't force every police department around the country to have mandatory and ongoing bias training tomorrow. But we can take the simple but profound step to thinking twice before calling the cops.

We can't force every police department around the country to have mandatory and ongoing bias training tomorrow. But we can take the simple but profound step to thinking twice before calling the cops.

TEHRAN - Iran and Finland are going to sign a comprehensive agricultural cooperation agreement in the near future, IRIB reported on Tuesday. The decision was announced during a meeting between the Finnish ambassador in Tehran Keijo Norvanto and the Iranian deputy agriculture minister Houman Fathi. The two sides agreed to cooperate in various areas, including agricultural machinery, fisheries, seeds, forestry, water management, education and research. Inking a document on cooperation in the fields of animal health and quarantine was also discussed and approved at the meeting. The officials also stressed the need to expand ties between private sectors of the two countries. EF/MG PHOTO: Finnish ambassador in Tehran Keijo Norvanto (2nd L) and Iranian deputy agriculture minister Houman Fathi (2nd R) discussing agricultural cooperation

Inking a document on cooperation in the fields of animal health and quarantine was also discussed and approved at the meeting. The officials also stressed the need to expand ties between private sectors of the two countries. EF/MG PHOTO: F

At a time when security of women seems to be a priority for the government another shocking incident from Mumbai proves that despite several protests by citizens and speeches by politicians, a change in the attitude of people is unlikely. Penny Li, an event management executive who is an Indian national of mixed parentage, says that she was harassed, physically assaulted and called 'Japanese' by a Mumbai police constable who stopped her for not wearing a helmet. Penny Li. Ibnlive "He said you Japanese don't know any rules and regulations. I was very scared that a policeman can hit me where they are supposed to protect us. It was really disappointing that Mumbai police wasn't helping me," she told CNN-IBN . While the constable later apologised, Penny was subjected to irrelevant questions when she wanted to file an FIR. The Juhu Police asked her to forget the matter. The constable reportedly took photographs of her as well, without her permission. CNN-IBN reported that the constable was suspended only after Penny approached the Mumbai Police chief Rakesh Maria. "This was an unfortunate incident. This isn't a rule but an exception. Most of our traffic constables are extremely courteous," Maria told CNN-IBN.

Penny Li, an event management executive who is an Indian national of mixed parentage, says that she was harassed, physically assaulted and called 'Japanese' by a Mumbai police constable who stopped her for not wearing a helmet.

In this week's edition of the Paste TV Power Rankings, we pose a number of pressing questions: Are the Grammys worth watching? Is God a TV critic? How many people will tune in after the Super Bowl to watch a beloved patriarch die in a freak house fire? Plus, The X-Files makes its debut on the list for Darin Morgan's thornily self-referential "The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat," and we stan for Netflix 's multi-cam sitcom, One Day at a Time . This is it! The latest power rankings are upon us. The rules for this list are simple: Any series on TV qualifies, whether it's a comedy, drama, news program, animated series, variety show or sports event. It can be on a network, basic cable, premium channel, Netflix , Amazon, Hulu, YouTube or whatever you can stream on your smart TV, as long as a new episode was made available the previous week--or, in the case of shows released all at once, it has to have been released within the previous six weeks. The voting panel is comprised of Paste editors and TV writers with a pretty broad range of tastes. We're merciless: a bad episode can knock you right off this list, as much good TV is available right now. Honorable Mentions: The Chi , Corporate , Counterpart , Crazy Ex-Girlfriend , The End of the F--ing World , High Maintenance , Jane the Virgin 10. The Grammy Awards Network: CBS Last Week's Ranking: Ineligible iconic (adj.) 1. singing "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" from the Tony Award-winning musical Evita live on stage at the Grammys twice, 37 years apart, the second time just days after publicly burying the hatchet on your decades-old feud with the composer; 2. performing a raw, stingingly honest rendition of your profoundly personal best pop vocal performance nominee while surrounded by the likes of Cyndi Lauper and Andra Day, after a rousing call of "time's up" from Janelle Monae . On the whole, the 60th Annual Grammy Awards were not exceptional ( or much-watched ) television--and that's to say nothing of the prizes themselves, which, as Paste 's Loren DiBlasi writes , were a disappointing emblem of the Recording Academy's "desiccated" system. Still, we tune into awards shows--and to live TV more broadly--in hopes of catching such breathtaking, unexpected interludes, and the likes of Kesha, Patti LuPone, and the ceremony's opening act, Kendrick Lamar, brought their A games. -- Matt Brennan 9. Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams Network: Amazon Prime Video Last Week's Ranking: 7 If you're in the mood for some serious dystopian foxfire, riddled with existential dread and quirkily romantic, you're in for a treat. This anthology of wonderfully filmed episodes can be seen in whatever order pleases you, and the subject, style and genre vary broadly, though the episodes share a sumptuous production sensibility and terrific casting. The what-ifs span numerous worlds and times and alternate realities, but each questions the fundamental human-ness of humans and they do it in some awfully clever and affecting ways. Timothy Spall plays a railway worker who finds himself in an alternate world where that thing you wish hadn't happened actually never did. Geraldine Chaplin plays a 300-year-old woman on a mission to see Earth before she dies. Jack Gore's father (Greg Kinnear) is replaced by an alien, and no, it's not an overactive imagination and angst about his parents' imminent divorce: The dude's an alien. Each episode is richly imaginative, directed with seat-edge-gripping tension, and peopled with strikingly strong performers (Chaplin, Spall, and Benedict Wong, as a cynical tour-spaceship operator, are standouts, but there's not really any significant dead space here). Some are post-apocalyptic, some are not. Some have a decidedly dystopian feel and some are just plain old neurotic. Each clocks in at a little under an hour, and while sci-fi isn't always my go-to genre, I didn't find a single episode of Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams to be anything but compelling. -- Amy Glynn (Photo: Amazon Prime Video) 8. This Is Us Network: NBC Last Week's Ranking: Not ranked As theories fly in advance of the big post-Super Bowl special--in which, it's been promised, we'll finally get the full story about Jack Pearson's (Milo Ventimiglia) untimely death--I've been unable to shake the feeling that what This Is Us manages week in and week out is as impressive as it is emotionally manipulative. I mean, a network melodrama got everyone talking about crock pots, for goodness' sake! (It also managed to turn a montage of a man cleaning his kitchen into an unconscionably tense sequence--I can't say I ever expected to bite my nails watching Milo Ventimiglia sponge down a countertop.) Coupled with the heartstring-pulling sight of "Dad" on the back of Kevin's (Justin Hartley) amends list, plus the always compelling marriage of Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and Beth Pearson (Susan Kelechi Watson), and "That'll Be the Day" has the something that makes This Is Us , for all its flaws, one of TV's most talked-about shows. -- Matt Brennan (Photo: Ron Batzdorff/NBC) 7. The X-Files Network: FOX Last Week's Ranking: Not ranked Like his work on last year's "Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster"--as well as on the heart-melting "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose"--the standard for every neo- X-Files episode to meet is set, then re-set, then re-set again by writer/director Darin Morgan. "The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat" is visually playful, hilarious, dumb, witty, hammy, a tad overshot and ultimately poignant, a sly reference to Paul Verhoeven's Total Recall and a killer Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) one-liner rounding out the assurance that this The X-Files is what it should be in 2018--that sometimes it's OK to dream. -- Dom Sinacola (Photo: Shane Harvey/FOX) 6. Black Lightning Network: The CW Last Week's Ranking: 6 One of the tensions superhero stories are particularly well-suited to exploring is the one that strains between what responsibilities we have to our community, and what we have to ourselves. This question is so thorny, and its resolution so impossible to pin down, that most superhero series take whole seasons to even tiptoe up to addressing it with any substance. Black Lightning , continuing to take every advantage of its hero's maturity and longtime superhero-ing experience, took on this tension in only its second episode. "Lawanda: The Book of Hope" doubles down on every single thing that made the pilot so strong--the complexity of the Pierce family's relationships; the unflinching and brutal reflection of how every part of the American status quo fails black communities; the fact that a random clothier would (naturally!) also be an expert computer programmer and supersuit engineer--and pulls it all together with such care and skill that it doesn't just tick the boxes necessary to get Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams) from retired family man to reignited community defender, but truly sells his whole painful, emotional journey. On top of all that heavy emotional lifting, the episode also manages to introduce Anissa's (Nafessa Williams) girlfriend, give Jessica (China Anne McClain) a new, very sweet boyfriend, and frame Black Lightning's first official reappearance with a funky strut down Main Street set to Billy Paul's "Am I Black Enough For Ya?" This is a show that has not come to play. Get on board yesterday, friends. -- Alexis Gunderson (Photo: Richard Ducree/The CW) 5. Blue Planet II Network: BBC America Last Week's Ranking: 3 Still narrated by the irreplaceable Sir David Attenborough and still wall-to-wall mesmerizing, the seven episodes of Blue Planet II have stunning photography, enhanced by a lush score by Hans Zimmer and a beautiful, shimmering, crackling, scuttling, subtly ringing quality to the sound editing, so you really feel as though you're in the water. You'll see some images familiar to those who enjoyed the original series--the way a whale carcass on the ocean floor feeds an entire community of deep-sea dwellers for months or years; the relationship between turtles (and corals) and the moon. The sense of vastness and mystery and infinite diversity is still very much there and very much amazing. Now, though, there is no question that the time for pure celebration of the interlocking diversity of sea life (which includes us) is over. It's time, not to despair, but to act. -- Amy Glynn (Photo: Paul Williams/BBC America) 4. Waco Network: Paramount Network Last Week's Ranking: Ineligible I'm old enough to remember when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms' (ATF) raid of David Koresh's compound resulted in a 51-day standoff that left 76 people dead. But I was also full of youthful naivete and a strong belief about who was right and who was wrong. What I recall most from that time is thinking, "Why would anyone live in a cult and follow a man who thinks he's God? Why would they give their life for him?" Waco humanizes the story, making not only Koresh (Taylor Kitsch) but also his followers fully developed characters. The six-episode series focuses on the nine months leading up to the 1993 raid and its horrifying aftermath. By the time we meet Koresh, he's already the leader of Branch Davidians, "married" to multiple women and the father of 13 children born by these various wives. He has a gift for recognizing the vulnerable and the wounded--the lost souls. In fact, what Waco does best is make Koresh not a monster. It almost poses the question, "Could he be a compassionate leader even though he was sexually abusing Michelle and perhaps others?" Which prompts another: Can I like the miniseries while also being concerned by its perspective? With the thought-provoking, risky, and engaging Waco , the answer is largely, "Yes." -- Amy Amatangelo (Photo: Paramount Network) 3. The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story Network: FX Last Week's Ranking: 4 On the morning of his 1997 murder, the Italian fashion designer (Edgar Ramirez) strolls through his Miami Beach palace in a flowing, fluorescent robe, the camera retreating skyward as he breakfasts by the pool; the corresponding image of his killer, Andrew Cunanan (the magnetic, frightening Darren Criss), peers in on the con man as he tosses off his matching pink cap and vomits into a toilet, then pauses for a glimpse of the message etched into the bathroom stall: a rough drawing of two dicks, with the caption "Filthy faggots." From here, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story , which premieres tonight on FX, unspools in reverse, tracing the lives of its two main characters back to their childhoods--and among its constants is that unutterable word, that unforgivable commonplace, that useful descriptor, that reclamation. The "crime" in this season of American Crime Story is the assassination of Gianni Versace, certainly, but it's also, doubtless, homophobia itself, socialized and self-inflicted, individual and internecine: At the heart of the anthology's magnificent second act is a potent, political, possibly even dangerous reconsideration of what it means to be called a faggot, and then what it means to become one. -- Matt Brennan 2. The Good Place Network: NBC Last Week's Ranking: 1 In "The Burrito," the Judge (played by everyone's MVP guest star, Maya Rudolph ) is tough on "Ken Burns' Vietnam " and Kyle Chandler in Bloodline , spices up her lunch with "the concept of envy," and submits the gang's request for a spot in The Good Place to a series of sadistic tests--Jason (Manny Jacinto) must play a videogame as the Jacksonville Jaguars' top rival; Tahani (Jameela Jamil) needs to resist the urge to eavesdrop on gossip about her; Chidi (William Jackson Harper) has to choose between two hats. In other words, The Good Place suggests that God is a TV critic. I hereby declare it the best show of all time. -- Matt Brennan (Photo: Colleen Hayes/NBC) 1. One Day at a Time Network: Netflix Last Week's Ranking: Ineligible The best show on TV this week, though, is Netflix 's warm-hearted, full-throated update of One Day at a Time , Season Two of which debuted Friday. With an assist from legendary producer Norman Lear, Mike Royce and Gloria Calderon Kellett's multi-cam sitcom, which follows a Cuban American family in Los Angeles, has only grown more confident in the offseason--its combination of the topical and the timeless, the silly and the sincere, has become the leading engine of the form's revival. Covering everything from LGBTQ rights and immigration to dating and depression, the series is anchored by the two extraordinary women at its center: Rita Moreno and Justina Machado, whose chemistry as mother and daughter find fullest in expression in two wrenching late-season entries. If the inseparable pair aren't nominated for Emmys come summer, there should be a steward's inquiry. -- Matt Brennan (Photo: Netflix )

In this week's edition of the Paste TV Power Rankings, we pose a number of pressing questions: Are the Grammys worth watching? Is God a TV critic? How many people will tune in after the Super Bowl to watch a beloved patriarch die in a freak house fire?

Get out your ale and bodkins and settle down for some Shakespeare, because this episode is pretty much a Star Trek remix of Hamlet and Macbeth. Lit nerds, I'll be sure to call out the plays and passages for ya in this one. As always, watch along here . And one cried, "Murder!" We open on a scene from Macbeth ( Act 2, Scene 2 ), right after King Duncan's death. While the actor waves his bloody hands around, an audience member with an eye-patch seems fixated on the actor playing Macbeth. He seems to really hate this actor. The angry audience guy cryptically growls out, "It's Kodos the Executioner !" and the opening credits roll. Nope. I definitely don't remember learning about Kodos in high school English class. Meanwhile, the Enterprise is taking a detour to Cygnia Minor, where Dr. Thomas Leighton (the guy with the eye patch) has called about a miraculous new food source. But when Kirk lands, he discovers that he's been duped! Dr. Leighton actually wants Kirk to investigate an actor from a Shakespearean play company who MIGHT be an evil mass murderer (and a thinly-veiled fictional Hitler)! Turns out this Kodos guy is a really terrible person -- he's responsible for practicing eugenics and killing half the population in an Earth colony he once governed. The authorities only found a burned body -- it was never positively IDed. Drinking with Danger Kirk's royally pissed off that he's been called away from duty for speculations based on no evidence. But Leighton is fixated on vengeance. If you wrong us, shall we not revenge? Kirk's convinced that Kodos is dead. Then Leighton drops this whammy: "Then it will be a ghost Martha and I receive in our home tonight. I invited the entire company to a cocktail party." Oh snaaaap! This sounds like the perfect setup for some real-life Clue! It was Bones in Sick Bay with a Candlestick. *cough* To make things every more mysterious, only nine people have ever seen Kodos and survived (including Kirk and Leighton). Seduction and Interrogation After consulting Siri on his voice-activated computer, Kirk determines that the actor, Anton Karidian , might actually be Hitler. "Enhance. Enhance!" Kirk gets his James Bond on by visiting the party and seducing the actor's daughter , Lenore . Who oddly enough, played the Lady Macbeth to her father's Macbeth. Weeeeird. They go outside and almost smooch, but then Kirk spots a dead body. Talk about a buzz kill. Not in the mood anymore! Guess who's lying out there amongst the rocks? It's Dr. Leighton. Dun dun duuuuun! The Game is On Kirk is ultra suspicious now that his friend has turned up dead. He secretly cancels the acting company's transportation off the planet, so that they're forced to hitch a ride with the Enterprise. For some reason, Kirk tells Spock about his suspicions. When Lenore shows up in her fancy sparkle duds to ask for a ride, both Spock and Yeoman Rand glare daggers at her. They be hatin' And do you remember Riley , the terrible singer from the fifth episode, " The Naked Time "? Well turns out that he's also one of the nine survivors of Kalos's genocide, one of the few who could positively ID the man. To protect Riley, Kirk has him reassigned from Communications to Engineering, which just looks like an awkward demotion to everyone who doesn't know WTF is going on. Boozin' it Up in Sick Bay It seems like Bones is always drinking. Actually, he points out to Spock that it's been over a week since he's had a drank. Spock vents his frustrations about how odd Kirk's behavior has been regarding the acting company. Bones just shrugs it off and keeps hitting the shots. Dude, Spock, you're ruining my buzz. Meanwhile a ton of uncomfortable hetero wooing is going on between Kirk and Lenore, with classic pickup lines like this: "And this ship -- all this power surging and throbbing, yet under control -- are you like that, Captain?" Hurk. And: "Caeser of the stars with Cleopatra to worship you." Hmmm, she might not take it so well when you accuse her dad of genocide. Hide not thy poison with such sugar'd words....hide it in milk! Riley's busy goofing off in Engineering, and he's super emo about being demoted. Instead of browsing Reddit or playing games on his cellphone, he decides to call Uhura on the intercom and ask her to sing him a song. This is a welcome reversal from "The Naked Time," when he was singing obnoxiously into the intercom! Uhura rockin' it on the Vulcan lyre. She sings a sweet song about how love lasts forever, "somewhere beyond the stars." Do I hear some foreshadowing? Why is someone sneaking around squirting Windex into Riley's milk? Well, at least they didn't do it Hamlet style and pour the poison into Riley's ear. Of course he chugs the drink down. He manages to call for help over the intercom before he collapses. Those control panels are really expensive! The Confrontation Spock snooped through Kirk's browser history and discovers the connection between Leighton, Riley, Kirk, and Kodos the Executioner. Bones and Spock confront the Captain in his quarters. After Riley's poisoning, it seems obvious that the acting company is trying to cover something up! Or as Spock explains: "Even in this corner of the galaxy, Captain, two plus two equals four!" Kirk's miffed that Spock and Bones are digging into his personal history. Bones asks if Kirk's been keeping secrets because he actually wants vengeance, instead of justice. I AM VENGEANCE. I AM THE NIGHT. I AM BATMAN! Hit the deck! Suddenly, a weird humming noise fills the air. It's the sound of a phaser set on overload! Guess what happens if you don't turn it off? A giant explosion! Seems dangerous, especially if you're on a starship! Kirk announces a "double red alert" to evacuate the area, while he and Spock search anxiously. Once the sound becomes louder, Kirk kicks Spock out of the room to protect him. Awwwww! Kirk: SIRI! Help us find the explosives! Hurry! Siri: Sorry, I didn't quite catch that. Turns out the rogue phaser is hiding in a light fixture. Kirk find it and scrambles to toss it down the pressurized vent garbage disposal. Guess it's well contained, because the phaser explodes and the ship is okay. A Murder Most Foul Kirk rushes off to confront the actor, Anton Karidian. The guy speaks in riddles, saying confusing and infuriating shit like, "I am Kodos, if it please you to believe so." Kirk: So wait, are you actually Hitler? We never get a clear answer, and Lenore bursts into the room and shames Kirk for using her to learn about her father. I can't help but worry, is she gonna go all Lady Macbeth on us? Meanwhile, Riley's been recovering quite nicely in sick bay. Bones is dictating notes onto his computer, when Riley overhears that Kodos might be on board. Y'know, the evil ruler who killed Riley's entire family, leaving him as the sole survivor? Great way to be discreet, Bones! Riley breaks outta sick bay, steals a phaser from the armory, and goes huntin' for Anton Karidian. Bones realizes his mistake and Kirk calls security to apprehend Riley. Lol bro why you pointin' that gun at me? (Maybe this is why the Red Shirts keep dying.) Kirk finds Riley, who's about to shoot Anton Karidian, ironically during a performance of Act I Scene V of Hamlet . I'm a ghost haunted by his past mistakes! Remember how Leighton called Kodos a ghost at the beginning of the episode? IT'S ALL ADDING UP! Kirk hides behind the scenes, and watches as Lenore confesses that SHE'S been killing off all the living witnesses to Kodos's genocide, in order to protect his identity. Her father is horrified, because he took the Shakespeare acting gig to clean up his life and keep his child away from the pain and horror he inflicted. Despite all his efforts to shelter her, Lenore still became a serial killer. Kirk jumps out to arrest both of them, but Lenore grabs a phaser. "I WOULD HAVE KILLED A WORLD TO SAVE HIM!" Ohhhh yeah. You're guilty. Kodos / Karidian realizes that he effed up and needs to undo his mistakes. He dives in front of Kirk and takes a bullet for the Captain. Tragic character sacrifice for redemption. Who wrote this, Shakespeare?! Lenore loses her marbles, and collapses over her dead father, spouting off play quotes.Really? You're gonna keep quoting lines when you just dusted your father? All right folks, the show's over. Also Kirk, you should probably keep that phaser away from her. The episode ends with Bones giving a medical report on Lenore, who seems to have suffered from a total break with reality. She thinks that her father is still alive and acting on stage. Yikes. They're pretty vague about where Lenore's heading after this. Bones asks Kirk, "You really cared for her, didn't you?" Kirk remains elusive, avoiding the question and commanding, "Ahead warp factor one." Poor Kirk! *sadface* Exeunt Enterprise from Cygnia Minor Growing up, I had never watched a Star Trek episode all the way through. My family members weren't huge sci-fi fans, and they'd flip the channel whenever Star Trek came on. Now I am embarking on an epic nerd rite of passage, chronicling my reactions to every episode of Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS). Header by Rory Midhani

Get out your ale and bodkins and settle down for some Shakespeare, because this episode is pretty much a Star Trek remix of Hamlet and Macbeth.

Here are the manners, personal goals, pipe cleaners, patience and other things we all need to remember as we send our kids off to school again this year: 1. School years go by in warp speed time. Yes, we all constantly hear the annoying, "It goes by so fast!" line from all the been there, done that moms. Listen up: We are not shitting you . That 5-year-old you just dropped off? He will be 17 and shaving next month. Summer may have felt like it lasted a decade, but the next nine months will be over in 11 seconds. Stop trying to rush the childhood years. As corny as it sounds, one day you might actually miss having kids to snap a picture of on the first day of school. 2. Nobody cares how you look at drop-off. Leave the blow-outs and clean, matching clothes for date night. But hey, if your thing is getting up way before everyone else, and foundation, lipstick and linen skirts with matching cardigans make you feel normal, then rock on with your fashionista self. I am perfectly comfortable driving to school in slippers and pajamas. Now, if we happen to pass each other on the road, and I can see your pink fuzzy robe? Girl , call me. I have hot coffee, donuts and plenty of DVR'd bad reality TV back at my house. 3. Save shoeboxes. And random wigs. And policemen helmets. And glue sticks. As a matter of fact, go ahead and start your stockpile of random arts and crafts supplies ASAP. You know those 72-hour food survival kits they sell? Make a craft-time one, because one night at 10 p.m., little Johnny will tell you about the huge craft project--due tomorrow--that he forgot to tell you about two weeks ago. You will have roughly five hours to produce a George Washington costume, an apple tree diorama made from a shoebox and an exact replica of the American Flag made from coffee filters, pipe cleaners, felt pompoms, and red, white and blue star glitter. Stock up on craft shit, like now . 4. It's not polite to arrive at the school's Christmas show three hours early and reserve the first two rows. Just don't. We all think our little girl is Sutton Foster, but this is not the Tony Awards, so just take whatever seat you find and graciously capture what you can. This also goes for the talent show, geography bee, spelling bee, fall concert, winter concert and spring concert. 5. School is expensive. There are class pictures; candles, cookie dough and wrapping paper fundraisers; book fairs, snacks, tissue boxes, markers... Did I mention candles? Public or private school, it doesn't matter. Do an underpaid teacher a favor. Don't moan about the huge school supply lists. Yes, as a kid, I too don't remember hauling in a wagon of huge bins of crayons and reams of copy paper on the first day, but things have unfortunately changed as far as school funding goes. If you can afford it, by all means overbuy a little. Tuck the extra supplies in a box and give them to the teacher with a note: "For the children who may need it." Trust me. There will be some. 6. Don't sign up for everything. I know you want to be the super-involved good school parent. You long to be the ultimate homeroom mom and are eager to make all those school craft goodies you pinned all summer long. Deep breaths. Don't jump right in too fast, or you will quickly get burned out, and by grade four, you'll be known as the "grumpy mom who doesn't do anything." Do what you can, when you can, and by all means, help out. But don't spend two weeks teaching yourself origami so you can volunteer for one hour helping to make paper Christmas trees. You will just grow increasingly resentful, and school volunteering will feel more like a burden than a fun privilege. 7. Don't be sad they are in school all day. Enjoy it. Be happy you get a break! Maybe you now have the time to go back to work, or college, or start that exercise program you have been putting off for years. Maybe you want to pursue a passion you gave up long ago. Maybe you are, in fact, able to spend most days helping out at the school. Maybe you just want and need to work on yourself this year. Now is the time to do it. Whatever you decide, embrace it, and by all means, enjoy the school years. Because for real, we aren't shitting you. You think the first five years of their lives went by fast? You won't believe how fast the school years go.

Here are the manners, personal goals, pipe cleaners, patience and other things we all need to remember as we send our kids off to school again this year: 1. School years go by in warp speed time.

Alex Jones, a conspiracy theorist radio host who is one of President Donald Trump's media sycophants, appears to be monetizing his content as part of the YouTube Partner Program even though Infowars' content regularly violates the program's policies and guidelines for advertising. Jones' YouTube videos and other content feature extreme anti-LGBTQ and racist commentary, and Infowars promotes conspiracy theories that have encouraged harassment of families that lost children in the Sandy Hook massacre and led to a gunman firing shots in a Washington, D.C., pizzeria. The YouTube Partner Program allows content creators to "monetize content on YouTube in many ways, including advertisements, paid subscriptions, and merchandise," as long as their content is "advertiser-friendly" and meets YouTube's " community guidelines ." Google, which owns YouTube, recently changed its advertising policies after major European corporations and the British government raised concerns over their ads being placed next to extremist content. In response, Google wrote that it was "raising the bar for our ad policies" and that it would "tighten safeguards to ensure that ads show up only against legitimate creators in our YouTube Partner Program": We know advertisers don't want their ads next to content that doesn't align with their values. So starting today, we're taking a tougher stance on hateful, offensive and derogatory content. This includes removing ads more effectively from content that is attacking or harassing people based on their race, religion, gender or similar categories. This change will enable us to take action, where appropriate, on a larger set of ads and sites. We'll also tighten safeguards to ensure that ads show up only against legitimate creators in our YouTube Partner Program--as opposed to those who impersonate other channels or violate our community guidelines. Finally, we won't stop at taking down ads. The YouTube team is taking a hard look at our existing community guidelines to determine what content is allowed on the platform--not just what content can be monetized. Google's promise to better ensure that ads appear only alongside content of "legitimate creators in our YouTube Partner Program" indicates that Jones' channel is a partner. An online post by the Houston Chronicle also explained that a YouTube partner can be identified by "look[ing] for advertisements on the user's pages." Jones' videos, which often violate YouTube's policies for its advertising partners, frequently appear with ads for brands such as Trivago , Playstation , and a corporation that is contracted by the state of Hawaii to promote tourism. These ads appear on a targeted, automated rotating system, so they may alternate or change. On March 19, Jones claimed that his website "Infowars got knocked off of Google ads through AdRoll, their subsidiary company they work with." AdRoll -- which is actually a Google competitor , though it does use some Google technology -- did in fact cut ties with Infowars, citing violations of its policies, which require that a website's content be accurate and verifiable and that it not have "derogatory content" about a political candidate. But it appears that Google, through YouTube, has not taken any similar action. YouTube's Community Guidelines And Advertising Guidance Ban Threats And Harassment YouTube's community guidelines include banning content creators -- and not just their advertising -- for threats, including "harassment, intimidation, invading privacy, revealing other people's personal information, and inciting others to commit violent acts." Infowars is no stranger to harassment and threats. In addition, YouTube's content guidelines , which apply to pages hosting advertisements, say that videos with "inappropriate language, including harassment, profanity and vulgar language" are "inappropriate for advertising." Jones, including on his YouTube page, regularly makes vulgar and harassing comments, and his role in spreading conspiracy theories has helped incite others to commit threatening and violent acts. Jones played a crucial role in pushing the false "Pizzagate" conspiracy, which claimed that a Washington, D.C., pizzeria hid a pedophilia ring run by prominent Democratic politicians. Jones told his audience members in late November that they "have to go investigate" the conspiracy theory for themselves. Days later, a Jones listener fired his gun inside the pizzeria. After that incident, Jones scrubbed Pizzagate-related content from his YouTube page and elsewhere . In February, Jones uploaded a new video breaking down the "PizzaGate pedophile cult," months after the shooting incident; an ad for LinkedIn appeared next to that video on March 23. On March 24, Jones apologized to the pizzeria and its owner for his attacks on them. An advertisement for TBS' late night talk show Conan appeared before the video on March 27. Jones also relentlessly pushed conspiracies about the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, in which 20 children and six adults were murdered during a shooting at an elementary school. Jones has attacked the families of the victims as "actors" who helped pull off a "hoax," and family members have said that they have repeatedly faced harassment and threats and have criticized Jones for his smears. On March 23, an advertisement for FedEx appeared on a video exploring "false narratives vs. the reality" of Sandy Hook, and an ad for PNC showed up on another video alleging that Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Wolfgang Halbig was "stonewalled and threatened" as he investigated the massacre. Jones has made other threatening and violent comments. In a now-deleted YouTube video, Jones told conservative Washington Post columnist George Will to "put a .357 Magnum to your head, and blow what little is left of your brains out all over yourself." Jones also asserted that Will is a "constitutional rapist" who is "literally mounting America, raping it in the ass, and telling us how great he is." Jones also recently challenged actor Alec Baldwin to a "bare knuckle" fight, saying, "I will break your jaw, I will knock your teeth out, I will break your nose, and I will break your neck." During the 2016 Democratic primary, Jones suggested that supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) needed to have their "jaws broken" and their "moron heads" slapped (following criticism, Jones claimed he was speaking only "figuratively" about breaking their jaws). YouTube Already Pulled A High-Profile User From Its Advertising Platform For Content Violating The Guidance On "Controversial Or Sensitive Subjects" YouTube's advertising guidelines also note that content "is considered inappropriate for advertising" when it includes "controversial or sensitive subjects and events, including subjects related to war, political conflicts, natural disasters and tragedies, even if graphic imagery is not shown." Jones has made his name weighing in on controversial subjects and spreading conspiracy theories. He is an ardent 9/11 truther who calls the attacks an " inside job ." He has also spread conspiracy theories about the Oklahoma City bombing , Boston Marathon bombing , a number of mass shootings , and vaccinations . A Google AdChoices advertisement appeared next to a video calling 9/11 a "false flag" Jones has also made numerous disparaging comments about LGBTQ people. After more than 40 people were killed at an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, FL, Jones charged "the LGBT community in general with endangering America and with the blood of these 50-plus innocent men and women." Many of Jones' comments about the attack were uploaded to his YouTube channel. Jones also once claimed that the U.S. government is trying to "encourage homosexuality with chemicals so that people don't have children," adding that being gay is a "destructive lifestyle." A static in-video advertisement and, separately, an advertisement for Wix.com appeared in a March 16 YouTube video on Jones' page during which Infowars guest host Anthony Cumia mocked a 15-year-old transgender girl and compared her decision to transition to children deciding they want "to be a dinosaur." A sponsored Funny or Die video appeared before one of Jones' YouTube videos in which he lamented the introduction of an autistic muppet to Sesame Street and pushed the dangerous, debunked myth that vaccines cause autism by claiming "it burns out their pancreas. It burns out their brain." The video and the video's summary asserted that the character's inclusion was "an effort to normalize the epidemic of childhood mental disorders." Jones also frequently makes controversial comments on race and gender, such as when he went on a racist rant against former President Barack Obama on his YouTube channel, saying he was "elected on affirmative action" and "ain't black, in my opinion." Jones also accused Obama of having "some big old donkey dick hard-on." Jones has made other vulgar comments about politicians and their families, particularly about women. These statements include calling Obama's mother a "sex operative" for the CIA on his radio show and calling Hillary Clinton a "lying whore" on his YouTube channel. He has also said that Chelsea Clinton looks like Mister Ed the Horse and made numerous other sexist comments about women and their looks. Removing Jones' channel from the YouTube Partner Program would hardly be unprecedented. The Independent reported in February that YouTube removed user "PewDiePie from its advertising platform after anti-Semitic videos were posted to his account." PewDiePie has more than 53 million subscribers and has been called "by far YouTube's biggest star." The report noted that the videos could no longer "be monetised because they are in violation of YouTube's 'advertiser-friendly content guidelines', which are stricter than the normal guidelines." The report added that YouTube's community guidelines "include restrictions on hate speech": The videos are no longer allowed to be monetised because they are in violation of YouTube's "advertiser-friendly content guidelines", which are stricter than the normal guidelines and require that people cannot feature "controversial or sensitive subjects and events, including subjects related to war, political conflicts, natural disasters and tragedies, even if graphic imagery is not shown". But they are still available to view on the site, where they were posted in January. Google requires that all videos uploaded to the site comply with its community guidelines, which include restrictions on hate speech. The guidelines specifically note that YouTube will consider the "intent of the uploader", and that videos may stay online if they are "intended to be humorous or satirical", "even if offensive or in poor taste". It would appear to be consistent with YouTube's existing policies to pull advertising from Jones' videos. If YouTube fails to take action, advertisers can request to have their ads removed from videos appearing on Jones' channel; Google has pledged to implement "account-level controls to make it easier for advertisers to exclude specific sites and channels."

Alex Jones, a conspiracy theorist radio host who is one of President Donald Trump's media sycophants, appears to be monetizing his content as part of the YouTube Partner Program even though Infowars' content regularly violates the program's policies and guidelines for advertising.

Police in San Bernardino, California have arrested two carjackers suspected of using Grindr to lure their victims, according to their news release: Over the last two weeks deputies from the Victor Valley Sheriff Station have conducted two separate ca... Read President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama made a stop in San Bernardino, California on their way to a Christmas break in Hawaii to meet with the families of the victims of the terrorist attack there, and after meeting them each privately addresse... Read New information about the gay man killed in the San Bernardino shooting last week reveals that he was responsible for saving 4 people's lives before he was gunned down by terrorists. As we previously reported, Larry Daniel Kaufman, a 42-year-ol... Read Ted Cruz is going full-throttle for the gun lobby in the wake of the San Bernardino massacre, and pushed his 2nd Amendment Coalition at a Johnstown, Iowa gun range on Friday, claiming that America needs citizens to have guns to defend against such th... Read Christian speaker, author, and radio host Alex McFarland appeared on the Dove TV network this week to explain why the San Bernardino massacre happened. According to McFarland it's because God is angry at America for gay marriage and abortion, R... Read Tashfeen Malik pledged allegiance to ISIS before she and her husband Syed Farook carried out the attacks on the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California which killed 14 and injured 21, according to NBC News: Malik posted a statement of su... Read Yesterday we reported that Daniel Kaufman, a 42-year-old who managed a coffee shop at the Inland Regional Center where the shooting took place, training developmentally disabled clients who worked there, was among the 14 killed in the tragic mass sho... Read A 42-year-old gay coffee shop manager was among the 14 people killed in Wednesday's mass shooting in San Bernardino, California. Daniel Kaufman managed a coffee shop at the Inland Regional Center where the shooting took place, training developm... Read

Police in San Bernardino, California have arrested two carjackers suspected of using Grindr to lure their victims, according to their news release: Over the last two weeks deputies from the Victor Valley Sheriff Station have conducted two separate ca...

A total of 55 eggs had been hatched and the chicks were seen living in cardboard boxes and containers. Cammock, 54, was taken to court where she pleaded guilty to five offences contrary to the Animal Welfare Act 2006 relating to a total of nine dogs, a pig, ten chickens and 55 chicks. She was handed a lifetime disqualification from keeping animals and was also sentenced to a 24-month community order, a 30-day rehabilitation requirement as well as being ordered to pay PS250 costs and an PS85 victim surcharge. After news of the sentencing was made public, RSPCA Inspector Burris said: "I want to thank everyone who has been involved in this case - from the police officer who raised the alarm, otherwise the plight of these animals may not have come to light, to those who have rehabilitated and rehomed the surviving animals."

A total of 55 eggs had been hatched and the chicks were seen living in cardboard boxes and containers. Cammock, 54, was taken to court where she pleaded guilty to five offences contrary to the Animal Welfare Act 2006 relating to a total of nine dogs, a pig, ten chickens and 55 chicks.

The announcement was made by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi during a press conference held after a closed-door meeting. About 200 Syrian citizens, including religious leaders, party leaders, political figures, tribal chiefs, and representatives of Syrian opposition groups, as well as representatives from Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, and a number of other countries, attended the meeting, which was held on the theme of "No to Violence, Yes to Democracy." During the press conference, Salehi said that Iran "is seeking a peaceful Syrian-Syrian solution without foreign interference." He also enumerated a number of the agreements made during the meeting. Salehi stated that it was agreed that "a follow-up committee be established. It was also agreed that members of the follow-up committee, with their own agreement, be chosen from among their intellectuals and a number of people who represent various groups." "The follow-up committee is supposed to pursue the issue of national dialogue and promote national dialogue among other groups that were invited but unfortunately did not attend for their own reasons, and we respect their reasons and justifications," he added. In addition, Salehi said that the participants of the meeting emphasized that Syria's independence, national sovereignty, and territorial integrity should be respected. They also stated that support should be provided to the Syrian people and Syria's borders should be controlled, Salehi noted, adding that the Zionist regime's crimes against the Palestinian people were condemned at the meeting. The Iranian foreign minister also announced that a number of relevant meetings will be held on Monday. EP/HG

The announcement was made by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi during a press conference held after a closed-door meeting.

Ronald Reagan had asked James Baker to be his White House chief of staff the morning after the election. But the decision was kept secret for weeks, mainly to deal with Ed Meese's hurt feelings about being passed over for the top job, especially in favor of Baker. Baker, after all, had managed the campaign of George Bush, Reagan's leading rival for the Republican nomination. He joined the Reagan campaign only after Bush was selected as Reagan's running mate. Meese had been Reagan's chief of staff in Sacramento and for most of the 1980 campaign, and assumed that he'd have the same position in the White House. Finally, a new role was created for him: counselor to the president. Because Baker had such limited experience with the Reagans, it was thought that he needed a Californian as deputy chief of staff: Michael Deaver. Thus was born the unusual arrangement known as "the Troika." In theory, the three top aides were near equals, with Meese in charge of policy, Baker strategy, and Deaver scheduling, press, and "the Mommy watch"--as some staffers referred to taking care of the First Lady. But with Deaver constantly tilting to Baker, it didn't stay that way. As Ed Rollins observed to Reagan biographer Lou Cannon, "Every single day Ed Meese was in that White House he lost power or gave up power. Every single day Jim Baker was in that White House he accumulated power." Reagan tapped Meese as director of the transition--Meese had already set up a talent-recruiting effort for the new administration in secret during the campaign, run by E. Pendleton "Pen" James, a corporate headhunter from Los Angeles. But Reagan also gave his blessing to the Transition Advisory Committee, which was chaired by William French Smith and dominated by the old Kitchen Cabinet tycoons, who were determined to play the same role they had in Sacramento--that is, to choose the real Cabinet. Four days before the election, an article headlined REAGAN'S CLOSEST BUSINESS FRIENDS SEEM TO PERSONIFY HIS VALUES appeared on the first page of the New York Times business section, with profiles of Holmes Tuttle, Justin Dart, Ted Cummings, Earle Jorgensen, Jack Wrather, and French Smith, who was described as "a possible Attorney General." Tuttle, the Times reported, "expects to help screen appointees for Mr. Reagan, as he did in California." Dart, still feisty at 73, despite a hip replacement and heart troubles, announced that he would head a presidential advisory group on productivity, "the nation's No. 1 problem." In addition to these six, five other Kitchen Cabinet stalwarts--Henry Salvatori, Jack Hume, Bill Wilson, Alfred Bloomingdale, and Charles Wick--were on the 19-member Transition Advisory Committee, along with a handful of Republican moguls from other parts of the country, including Colorado beer king Joseph Coors, New York investment banker William Simon, and New Jersey construction-company owner Raymond Donovan, who would become secretary of labor. The Transition Advisory Committee held four meetings in Los Angeles in November, in the boardroom of French Smith's law firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Meese and Pen James took part in all four, and Reagan attended the last two. Reagan also held smaller meetings at his house in Pacific Palisades, with French Smith, Meese, Deaver, and Senator Paul Laxalt, a favorite of both Reagans'. Reagan had asked the committee for three choices for each Cabinet position, and for the most part their first choice was also his. The two major exceptions were General Alexander Haig for secretary of state and Donald Regan for secretary of the Treasury. The committee's first choice for State was George Shultz, who was also pushed by Deaver. But Reagan was impressed by Haig, who had two key backers: his former boss, Richard Nixon, and Justin Dart. For Treasury, the committee's nearly unanimous first choice was William Simon, who had held the post in the Nixon and Ford administrations. But according to Roy Cohn's memoirs, Nancy Reagan nixed him, sensing he wanted too much power. The committee's second choice, Citicorp chairman Walter Wriston, was unwilling to make the financial disclosures required for confirmation, so Reagan went with their third choice, Donald Regan, the chairman of Merrill Lynch, whom he hardly knew. And then there was the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which, along with the Departments of Education and Energy, Reagan had suggested closing down during the campaign. As Betsy Bloomingdale recalls, "They asked Alfred to find a black for the Cabinet, and he came up with a lawyer he'd worked with in New York, Sam Pierce. A very nice man, but soft, as it turned out." Samuel R. Pierce Jr. had been head of the legal division of Nixon's Treasury Department. But under his management, corruption at HUD became the major domestic scandal of Reagan's second term. On March 30, 1981, 70 days into the presidency, while Ronald Reagan was giving a speech to 3,500 members of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. union at the Washington Hilton, Nancy Reagan was at another Georgetown lunch, at the Q Street house of Michael Ainslie, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Mrs. Reagan's party included Barbara Bush, Peter McCoy, and Muffie Brandon. The group had already attended a morning reception at the Phillips Collection, and Mrs. Reagan decided to leave the lunch early. "We had just pulled into the White House driveway," McCoy recalls, "and I'd gone up to my office, and she'd gone upstairs to the third floor, when the Secret Service guys told me there was some kind of incident. So I went and talked to her, and she'd already been told by another one of the guys, and we just went down to the car and took off for the hospital. It was pretty scary." Mrs. Reagan had been meeting in the solarium with Ted Graber and Rex Scouten "when the agent came in and said there had been a shooting," Scouten says. "She leaped up and put her coat on and said, 'I'll see you later, I hope.' Obviously she was upset and moving fast, but she was totally in control of what she was doing." One of the six Devastator bullets fired outside the Hilton by John W. Hinckley Jr.--who would later say he wanted to assassinate the president in order to impress actress Jodie Foster--had ricocheted off the presidential limousine and pierced Reagan under his left arm, although that wasn't immediately apparent. Hinckley had also hit White House press secretary James Brady, who is still in a wheelchair today, Washington policeman Thomas K. Delahanty, and Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy. Another Secret Service agent, Jerry Parr, pushed the president into the limousine as the driver took off for the White House. It was only when Reagan began coughing up blood that Parr ordered the driver to head to George Washington University hospital. The bullet had come within three inches of his heart. "If five minutes had been lost, he would have died," Dr. David Gens, one of the surgeons who helped treat Reagan, later said. "Nobody realized how close he'd come to dying," says White House aide Robert Higdon. "Nancy knew it. But none of us knew it. It wasn't until she wrote her book that it came out." Reagan returned to the White House 12 days later, wearing a red cardigan sweater over a bulletproof vest. For three weeks his schedule was limited to two morning meetings, one with the Troika and one with the National Security Council (N.S.C.), whom he would receive in his pajamas and a bathrobe in the family quarters. The only outside visitor he had during this period was Terence Cardinal Cooke, who flew from New York and spent an hour with him on Good Friday. According to Deaver, the president told the cardinal, "I have decided that whatever time I have left is left for Him." "The assassination attempt gave him instant mythic status," Reagan biographer Lou Cannon has said. "After that, nobody could really stand in his way." On April 28, 1981, Reagan was greeted by thunderous applause when he appeared before a joint session of Congress to sell his Economic Recovery Program, which he had first proposed in February to much derision and doubt. It called for cutting $41 billion from former president Carter's projected budget, mainly by reducing or eliminating 83 federal programs--while increasing defense spending by $26 billion--and cutting income taxes by 30 percent over three years. The plan was based on supply-side economics, the theory that tax cuts stimulate the economy and lead to increased revenues in the long term. Democratic leaders mocked it as "Reaganomics," and Jerry Wurf, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said it would "do two things--reward the rich and screw the poor." Congress, nevertheless, passed Reagan's budget bill in June and tax bill in July. Forty Democrats defied House Speaker Tip O'Neill to vote with the Republicans. A jubilant Reagan called this "the greatest political win in half a century." As he left Washington for the first of his annual one-month vacations at the Reagans' Rancho del Cielo, near Santa Barbara, his public-approval rating stood at 59 percent. In her second year as First Lady, Nancy Reagan chose her cause--combating drug use by the nation's youth--and a slogan to go with it: Just say no. Buffy Cafritz gave a ladies' lunch for Mrs. Reagan the day after she returned to Washington from her first tour of drug-rehabilitation centers, in February 1982. The 12 guests included Mary Jane Wick; Oatsie Charles; Deeda Blair, the wife of President Kennedy's ambassador to Denmark; Pat Kluge, the wife of billionaire Metromedia chairman John Kluge; Shirley Lord, then a beauty editor at Vogue; "and Jack Kent Cooke's second or third wife, whichever it was," as Cafritz recalls. "I had warned all the women, 'Please do not smoke. Nancy does not like smoking. So please honor that.' And Nancy was so touched by what she had seen on her trip that she literally started to cry at the table. I'm a nervous hostess, I must admit, and by the time we got to dessert I said, 'I just can't take it anymore.' So I lit up a cigarette, and 10 other women lit up with me. And there was Nancy sitting in a haze." The press dutifully covered the First Lady's initial efforts in the war against drugs, but soon wearied of the repetitiveness of her road show and began to treat "Just say no" like a running joke. In the spring of 1982, however, Nancy Reagan finally found a way to overcome the "unfortunate, one-dimensional image of her as kind of a brittle socialite," to use the words of Sheila Tate, her press secretary from 1981 to 1985. The venue was the Gridiron Dinner, an annual event put on by a club of 60 print journalists for 600 Washington power players. Traditionally the president and First Lady attend the dinner, which is essentially a roast of them. Tate says that she proposed having Mrs. Reagan make a surprise appearance in one of the evening's skits, and that the club suggested that the First Lady sing a song making fun of the press. "I went to Mrs. Reagan with their idea, and she said, 'I can't get away with that. But I'll make fun of myself.'" The white-tie crowd could hardly believe their eyes when Nancy Reagan stepped through a rack of dresses looking like a sitcom bag lady in a ludicrously mismatched outfit and started singing "Second Hand Clothes," a parody of Fanny Brice's "Second Hand Rose." ("Even my new trench coat with fur collar / Ronnie bought for 10 cents on the dollar.") As a finale she smashed to smithereens a plate painted to look like the infamous White House china--to cheers and cries of "Encore! Encore!" But that summer, shortly after the Reagans returned from a tour of European capitals, including an audience with the Pope, the First Lady was hit with two terrible blows: the deaths of her stepfather on August 19 and of Alfred Bloomingdale the very next day. Michael Deaver recalls that Nancy Reagan was with Dr. Loyal Davis when he died in Phoenix, and that she "sat there holding his hand for almost an hour after he was dead. She could not let go." Helene von Damm, in her memoir, suggests that Davis's death strengthened the First Lady's sway over her husband. I could never get over the gap in perceptions between Ronald Reagan and the rest of the world when it came to Nancy. We all thought of her as a demanding and somewhat aloof person. But in his adoring eyes she was the sweetest, gentlest, most wonderful person in the world. . . . Some of us did a good deal of speculating as to why this was so. Our best theory was that Ronald Reagan intended to make this marriage work no matter what. Although he never said so, we sensed that the breakup of his first marriage was one of the great disappointments of his life. It appeared he had made up his mind that this would never happen to him again and as a consequence he gave in to Nancy more than he might have otherwise. He was infinitely patient with her and only on the rarest of occasions would blow up at her--but then it could be in front of a staffer. Only once was I witness to it in the White House. She was relentlessly pursuing the ouster of a person and badgering the President mercilessly. . . R.R. blew his stack and laid down the rule once and for all: he would no longer tolerate her debating any controversial member of the Administration. . . . [But] after her father's death, the President found it difficult to say no to Mrs. R. and she began interfering more and more in daily White House activities and staff problems. Elaine Crispen, the First Lady's personal secretary and later press secretary, casts the dynamic of the Reagan marriage in a softer light. "People said she was like the mother hen, too protective of him," she tells me. "But I remember that if she was going to be home alone, or taking a trip without him, he'd always leave her little love notes. He'd even sort out her vitamins, to make sure she took her vitamin C on the road. I saw them every day after hours up in their private quarters. He never came in without kissing her hello, and he never left for the office in the morning without kissing her good-bye." Helene von Damm, who was personally close to the leading ideologues--Ed Meese, National Security Adviser William Clark, and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger--writes: The official stance of the Administration was that there would be no summit meeting between the leaders of the Soviet Union and our country until the Soviets took concrete steps on human rights and arms control. But behind the scenes, Mrs. R. and George Shultz were plotting to bring one about. . . . In [February] 1983 they arranged to smuggle the Soviet Ambassador into the White House . . . without the knowledge of the National Security Adviser. Anatoly Dobrynin was whisked into the East Wing (where Mrs. Reagan's offices were) and from there taken to the residence for the secret meeting. . . . Bill Clark was livid when the President told him what had happened. Shultz's published version of how this key meeting came about is somewhat different. He says that Nancy Reagan invited him and his wife to dine with just her and the president in the White House two nights before Shultz was scheduled to meet with Dobrynin at the State Department. Shultz says he suggested bringing the Soviet ambassador "to the White House for a private chat." Reagan was for the idea, but wanted to keep it secret from the press, though not from Clark, who, Shultz says, called him the day before the meeting to register his disapproval. The meeting lasted almost two hours. Among other things, Reagan asked for freedom for a group of Pentecostals who had taken refuge in the American Embassy in Moscow, and four months later the Soviets allowed them to emigrate. It was a modest, but symbolically important, beginning. The ongoing power struggle between the pragmatists and the ideologues, in particular between Shultz and Clark over control of Central American and Middle Eastern policy, came to a head in the last week of July, when Time put Clark on the cover with the headline big stick approach. The article portrayed Clark as the dominant figure in the making of foreign policy, and said that "State Department influence continues to wane." In his memoir, George Shultz records what happened next: Later that day, July 29, Nancy Reagan called me. She was furious. She thought Clark ought to be fired. . . . Clark did not have the president's best interests at heart, she said. I told her that I felt Clark was just "in over his head." . . . I felt that Clark's departure was only a matter of time. . . . Ronald Reagan, with his soft heart, would never fire Clark, but at some point, Nancy would prevail upon him to act in his own interest. That same summer, another bete noire of the pragmatists, Secretary of the Interior James Watt, unwittingly paved the way for Shultz's victory over Clark. As Gahl Burt recalls, "The Beach Boys were going to perform on the Fourth of July on the Mall. And Watt said they were nothing but a bunch of pot-smoking hippies and reprobates, so he banned their appearance. It was a fiasco. No one else understood the significance. But Mrs. Reagan understood that the Beach Boys were icons. So listen to this: she called me and she said, 'We're having the Special Olympics on the South Lawn, right?' I said, 'Right.' She said, 'Well, perhaps the Beach Boys could come and perform.' And I thought, Wow. So they came, and there was Eunice Shriver [who founded the Special Olympics for the handicapped] and Nancy Reagan with the Beach Boys. And that was the downfall of James Watt." Once Watt was forced to resign, in October 1983, after several more gaffes, Clark could be moved into a Cabinet position and make an honorable exit from the foreign-policy battlefield. Clark's replacement was Robert "Bud" McFarlane, a former Shultz deputy who was then the N.S.C.'s special envoy to the Middle East. He was chosen over James Baker, who wanted the job and had been actively pushed by Nancy Reagan, Vice President Bush, and Michael Deaver, who was hoping to fill Baker's position as White House chief of staff. In his new position, McFarlane agreed with Shultz, Baker, Deaver, and the First Lady on the need to have the president be seen as "a man of peace" before the 1984 election.

In theory, the three top aides were near equals, with Meese in charge of policy, Baker strategy, and Deaver scheduling, press, and "the Mommy watch"--as some staffers referred to taking care of the First Lady.

Donald Trump's racist, perjuring Attorney General, former senator Jefferson Sessions, was signaled that he will reverse Obama-era AG Eric Holder's memo that told federal prosecutors not to bring charges against petty drug offenders, because these crime carry absurd minimum sentences that resulted in America imprisoning a greater proportion of its population than any country in the history of the world, including the USSR and Apartheid-era South Africa. Read the rest Cory Doctorow / 3:22 am Tue, May 2, 2017 Rep Mo Brooks [R-Alabama] (DC: (202) 225-4801; Decatur: (256) 355-9400; Huntsville: (256) 551-0190; Shoals: (256) 718-5155; Twitter: @repmobrooks ) gave a refreshingly candid interview to CNN this week in which he opined that sick people have themselves to blame for their illness, and shouldn't expect insurance pools paid into by people who've "done the things to keep their bodies healthy" to cover their care. Read the rest

Donald Trump's racist, perjuring Attorney General, former senator Jefferson Sessions, was signaled that he will reverse Obama-era AG Eric Holder's memo that told federal prosecutors not to bring charges against petty drug offenders, because these crime carry absurd minimum sentences that resulted in America imprisoning a greater proportion of its population than any country in the history of the world, including the USSR and Apartheid-era South Africa.

Often people make the argument for government interference concerning activities such as smoking because the word addiction comes into play and because the question of harming other people's health is raised due to second hand smoke. Now, as for addiction, I was not transformed into the fiendish smoker that I am from the chemically addicting properties of cigarettes. Are they addictive? Hell yea! But here's a fact about addiction, every second of every day that I "languish" under the yoke of cigarette addiction is my personal choice. This is where that wacky thing called free will comes in. There is no addiction on this Earth that the spirit of human will has not been able to conquer. People quit smoking -and shooting heroin for that matter- every day. In our culture we have seen with the emergence of Neuroscience a growing question as to whether people are nothing more than electro-chemical wind up dolls, who when biologically predisposed to a behavior will get ensnared in said behavior upon contact. Who am I to argue with science, but I know that fat kids love cake because it tastes good regardless of the genetic composition of the fat kid or the cake. I also know that inside of every little pudgy child on this planet there is a will that with time may be cultivated. The power of this mind can refrain and even change behavior. But whether being fat or being thin is a desirable state is up to each individual mind to decide, and from that conclusion each individual mind will pursue either the happiness to be gained from the achievement of mastering the body or the happiness to be gained from indulging the body. No matter what social censure may come from any one decision, the individual continually makes these choices, and the mind working as the tyrant of the body can either rule with an iron fist or say "fuck it" and give in to that Big Mac Attack. Of course, from watching television the other day I was informed that apparently the streets of our nation are soon to be choked with the corpses of the obese. On the television program I saw a thin man in a nice suite deliver a proclamation of doom. He said that the obesity "epidemic" has finally hit such a horrendous proportion that for the first time in history more people will die of over eating than of hunger. I don't know about you, but personally I was jumping for joy once I heard that. Let me see, would I rather die trying to eat my way out of a vat of Chunky Monkey or sitting in a desert attempting to glean nourishment from sucking on rocks? This is like asking a teenaged boy whether he would rather die of a terminal case of ruptured blue balls or die by the crush of a horde of beautiful nymphomaniacs. Granted, to not die at all would be the better proposition, but until scientists devise some creepy way to transplant our brains into robot bodies it looks like death is the final stop no matter how healthy a lifestyle is chosen. We have no say in this, but what we do have a say in is the way we get to the grave. Whether by ascetic rigor or by hedonist indulgence, the thoughts, actions and philosophies that guide us through our lives are our own, chosen by us, lived by us. To concede to the notion that any sort of legislation concerning personal habits is good has to be based on the idea that the people who conceive the law know what is universally good for all. The last time I checked the human race is still at odds concerning what is good in life. The idea of health may have an enormous amount of appeal to you, but every mind in our world is its own world, where what is desirable and what is undesirable vary. This is why shit eating videos exist. Who wants to watch people eat steaming logs? I don't know, but apparently somebody does or half the damn Internet wouldn't consist of perversion-porn-pop-ups. But you know, however consenting adults pursue their own happiness is their own business. Of course, here is where the Nanny State tends to pop in. "But what if the children see these videos and confuse the toilet for the dinner table?" Of course, the busy bodies of the world would protect their children far more by monitoring the activities of their own children rather than the interests of their neighbors, but as history has taught us "the best defense is a good offence" and it's also the best bullshit slogan to throw around when you want to start an unjustifiable war. Just as the drug user must be locked up because certainly their drug use will lead to crimes, we must see into the future to predict all possibilities of catastrophe. Imagine a world littered with dead and decayed fat people rotting on every corner because the landfills were full from unrecycled plastic bottles, or a smoke hazed wasteland where the few remaining children -who didn't perish from the imitation of sheiza videos- cry out, "momma, the second hand smoke momma...I'm dieing momma...why didn't you stop them?" Oh God, how can we bear to let this happen! Well, that is if it'll happen at all. But what has happened is a belief that our neighbors will always do the wrong thing. We're being taught to fear one another. Finally when the streets are full of faces we no longer trust, to whom will we turn other than to Big Brother? As a smoker I try to respect the wishes of those around me who do not smoke if they find the odor harsh or unpleasant, and I know I am not alone in this. I have heard it debated whether second hand smoke is even harmful. I am going to go out on a limb, forget the debate, and even say that, yes it is. With that being said, the question at hand is still not one of health but one of choice. When the barroom smoking ban in Maryland went into effect the choice was taken from us. Instead of letting the market work itself out -- which it was since several smoke-free bars were already popping up- the State stepped in, in the name of protecting its citizens from each other. Did we really need that protection? No one was being forced to patronize the bars where people smoked. I know lots of people liked the ban because then they could go out to places they liked without spending the evening in a haze of smoke, but before the ban was put into effect they still had the choice as to whether they would patronize bars that had smoking. After the ban the choice of the bar owners to run their establishments as they saw fit was taken from them. This was done in the name of public health even though all persons involved were exposing themselves to cigarette smoke by choice. Some like to point out that many of the people that worked in those environments didn't like the smoke. To this I would say that there are a lot of things about capitalism that I hate, but the one aspect of it that I adore is that you can always quit your job. We are not slaves. Evaluating whether the risk is worth the pay is up to the individual to decide. The individual will reap the benefits and suffer the consequences. I know career hopping is no easy thing, but gaining back rights once they've been taken away is even harder. Right now at the college I am attending, a smoking ban is about to go into effect since it is a State school. The funny thing is that since announcing that the policy was going to go into effect the school has hosted several forums and accepted e-mails concerning the subject. What's funny about this is the fact that they asked the students whether they liked it after they had already told the students that it was going into effect: ah nothing beats fake democracy. Anyway, the thing that makes me cringe about this-besides the fact that I'm going to have to get creative about where I smoke to beat the $75 fine- is not that these young adults are going to have to refrain from smoking while on campus -- unless they get creative as well- but that this was a mandate from the State. Now granted, it is the choice of the students to still attend this college. I've got one semester to go so I've decided to sweat it out rather than go through the hassle of finding another academic nest. Still, this is a state college. This implies it is owned by the people for the people. When the fuck were "the people" asked about this? Surely there is nothing better for a young person striking out on their own for the first time than to be told how to live by the State. How did we get used to this? How did the word health become the justification for telling people what to do? Of course, I can find a lot of blame to throw around but for this one I think I might need to turn inward. As of right now I don't even know who these assholes are that are making these policies. This is on me. I need to become more aware of the local oligarchs and the positions that these many tyrants hold because even on the local level Lady Liberty is getting the shit beat out of her, and if I'm given the option to vote these bastards out but I don't because I don't even know who they are, well then, what can I say? I want the ones I love to have the option to find their happiness wherever it may be, and these days my vote for any liberty minded candidates is the best way to make this happen. We can bitch and moan all we want, but in the end, it's in our hands.

Often people make the argument for government interference concerning activities such as smoking because the word addiction comes into play and because the question of harming other people's health is raised due to second hand smoke

Screenshot: Fox News On Monday night's The Ingraham Angle , a show for racists, Attorney General Jeff Sessions was asked about recent comparisons being made between the Trump administration's policy of family separation and forced deportation and family separation in Nazi Germany. The Boston Globe had previously reported that parents whose children have been taken from them say Border Patrol agents lied about what they were doing: "[Azalea] Aleman-Bendiks, the public defender, said several of her clients have told her their children were taken from them by Border Patrol agents who said they were going to give them a bath. As the hours passed, it dawned on the mothers the kids were not coming back." If this sounds familiar, it is because guards in Nazi concentration camps also did this . Ingraham then sets up the attorney general to refute the comparison. "General Sessions," Ingraham says with a smirk, "What's going on here?" "It's a real exaggeration, of course. In Nazi Germany, they were keeping the Jews from leaving the country," Sessions casually reassures her. This is the best the attorney general of the United States could come up with when asked if he was doing a Nazi thing. This is his answer! Now here's this from the United States Holocaust Museum's website: In January 1933, some 522,000 Jews by religious definition lived in Germany. Over half of these individuals, approximately 304,000 Jews, emigrated during the first six years of the Nazi dictatorship, leaving only approximately 214,000 Jews in Germany proper (1937 borders) on the eve of World War II . In the years between 1933 and 1939, the Nazi regime had brought radical and daunting social, economic, and communal change to the German Jewish community. Six years of Nazi-sponsored legislation had marginalized and disenfranchised Germany's Jewish citizenry and had expelled Jews from the professions and from commercial life. By early 1939, only about 16 percent of Jewish breadwinners had steady employment of any kind. By 1938, the Gestapo started forcibly deporting Polish Jews: Germany expel[led] approximately 18,000 stateless Jews of Polish origin who were previously residing within the borders of the Reich. Among them are the parents of Herschel Grynszpan, who will take revenge in Paris by shooting and fatally wounding German Embassy diplomat, Ernst vom Rath, on November 7. Sessions' understanding of history sure is fuzzy, but I'm glad he made the distinction--they're going early Nazi here.

Fox News On Monday night's The Ingraham Angle , a show for racists, Attorney General Jeff Sessions was asked about recent comparisons being made between the Trump administration's policy of family separation and forced deportation and family separation in Nazi Germany.

1 Cheechako Mar 5, 2018 * 6:24:14pm down 6 up report Very quite in the house. As I said in the last thread, everyone must be watching Rachel. 2 MsJ Mar 5, 2018 * 6:26:25pm down 5 up report Very quite in the house. As I said in the last thread, everyone must be watching Rachel. I'm watching curling. 3 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Mar 5, 2018 * 6:28:38pm down 5 up report And I am watching Deadpool with Mrs. Fish. 4 fern01 Mar 5, 2018 * 6:31:34pm down 5 up report I'm watching Rachel and wonder when the trumpists will turn violently against the justice system because it is all that is left to protect the US and the world against trump and his "friends" 5 scottslemmons Mar 5, 2018 * 6:33:26pm down 4 up report re: #3 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. And I am watching Deadpool with Mrs. Fish. I went in to that not expecting much and got won over during the opening credits. :) 6 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Mar 5, 2018 * 6:34:33pm down 5 up report I went in to that not expecting much and got won over during the opening credits. :) As Mrs. Fish and I are discussing, this movie is what brought Deadpool up into my Top 3 in my list of superheroes. Does it say something about me that 2 of my top 3 are anti-heroes? 7 MsJ Mar 5, 2018 * 6:36:18pm down 2 up report re: #3 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. And I am watching Deadpool with Mrs. Fish. That's a great flick. So very funny. 8 ObserverArt Mar 5, 2018 * 6:36:39pm down 3 up report Jeesuz...go away for a bit and the last thread blows up into a producers and directors of TRUMP - The Movie discussion. I think it must be from all the Hollywood Oscar buzz from last night. Or is it ....DRUGS?!?!?! 9 MsJ Mar 5, 2018 * 6:37:46pm down 3 up report Jeesuz...go away for a bit and the last thread blows up into a producers and directors of TRUMP - The Movie discussion. I think it must be from all the Hollywood Oscar buzz from last night. Or is it ....DRUGS?!?!?! But it's the drugs. 10 Amory Blaine Mar 5, 2018 * 6:44:47pm down 4 up report I'm watching a storm roll in to destroy my commute home tonight. 11 petesh Mar 5, 2018 * 6:47:00pm down 1 up report I don't want to say it's the drugs. But it's the drugs. You must be confusing us with the celebrity du jour. 12 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 6:48:36pm down 5 up report Holy crap! What a day! I start catching up on reading the threads, starting with the Presidential Seal golf tees thinking that if this was President Obama, the Fright Wing would have demanded he be thrown in a dungeon in chains. Then run into this Sam Nunberg stuff, where apparently he melted down like hot wax on multiple networks. I'm going to have to go back and watch the Katy Tur interview ... this has gone way beyond Stupid Watergate. And what the hell does Roger Stone have on Mr. Nunberg that Nunberg would defend Stone over Donald Trump? Stone's been at the rodent copulation business for the Republicans for a long time. For Nunberg to be more scared of Stone than Robert Muller or the President must be pretty flippin' bad. 13 fern01 Mar 5, 2018 * 6:49:58pm down 8 up report From Rachel Nunberg now says he will "probably cooperate with Mueller" What does trump do to people who work/ed for him? Insanity follows - as night follows day. 14 ObserverArt Mar 5, 2018 * 6:51:27pm down 3 up report Nunberg now says he will "probably cooperate with Mueller" What does trump do to people who work/ed for him? Insanity follows - as night follows day. Well, Trump sure drives us crazy. So... 15 MsJ Mar 5, 2018 * 6:51:30pm down 3 up report Nunberg now says he will "probably cooperate with Mueller" What does trump do to people who work/ed for him? Insanity follows - as night follows day. They are pre-addled. All ready for the wind up and then the execution. 16 Joe Bacon Mar 5, 2018 * 6:52:23pm down 6 up report Criswell Bacon predicted that this week was going to be wilder than last week...and it's only...Monday... 17 whitebeach Mar 5, 2018 * 6:53:25pm down 1 up report re: #6 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. As Mrs. Fish and I are discussing, this movie is what brought Deadpool up into my Top 3 in my list of superheroes. Does it say something about me that 2 of my top 3 are anti-heroes? It's very strange to me that my brother and I were discussing the same phenomenon re our kid western TV heroes not three hours ago, and came up with the same 2 out of 3 antihero ratio. We both liked Matt Dillon (James Arness), the conventional hero. But we really liked Maverick (James Garner), the danger-averse Old West gambler and con man, who beat the bad guys the same way he won at poker, by brains and luck, and Paladin (Richard Boone), maybe the original Man in Black, who lived the life of a connoisseur and lover of all things beautiful in San Francisco but when he had a job strapped on a gun and rode all to hell and back, not always doing the bidding of his employers. 18 Belafon Mar 5, 2018 * 6:54:49pm down 4 up report re: #16 Joe Bacon Criswell Bacon predicted that this week was going to be wilder than last week...and it's only...Monday... As the near infinite gravitational pull of the Mueller investigation pulls the Trump admin in, they will spin faster and faster, flinging off even wilder and faster debris. 19 whitebeach Mar 5, 2018 * 6:54:59pm down 3 up report re: #10 Amory Blaine I'm watching a storm roll in to destroy my commute home tonight. This is why God created bars and cabs. 20 Joe Bacon Mar 5, 2018 * 6:55:23pm down 3 up report I always liked Cheyenne the best. I'd get so mad as a kid seeing Cheyenne get beaten up and ripped off that I'd yell at the TV. 21 Joe Bacon Mar 5, 2018 * 6:58:57pm down 2 up report I remember listening to the radio version of Have Gun Will Travel with John Dehner as Paladin and Ben Wright as Hey Boy. The radio version had a final episode that revealed Paladin as a "prodigal son" of a Boston Brahmin family and he decided to make peace with his family. 22 whitebeach Mar 5, 2018 * 6:59:36pm down 0 up report re: #20 Joe Bacon I always liked Cheyenne the best. I'd get so mad as a kid seeing Cheyenne get beaten up and ripped off that I'd yell at the TV. I liked Cheyenne too, but as he was physically huge and, as you say, always getting beat up and ripped off, I concluded early on that he was a decent enough guy but really dumb. 23 Joe Bacon Mar 5, 2018 * 7:01:57pm down 2 up report re: #22 whitebeach I liked Cheyenne too, but as he was physically huge and, as you say, always getting beat up and ripped off, I concluded early on the he was a decent enough guy but really dumb. I met Mr. Walker when he came to the Museum of Broadcasting in Beverly Hills. He was still going strong and so amazed at all the fans who came to see him! 24 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 7:05:32pm down 3 up report Holy crap ... still going through the video. I notice the screen Katy Tur has behind her of people who have already spoken to the Special Council Robert Mueller. In that montage is a picture of Sam Clovis ... I remember writing a letter to my local paper a few months ago when Clovis was nominated by Donald Trump to be Chief Scientist at the USDA, and I came out strongly against him (since he's not a scientist). Even then I thought things were crazy. Sam Nunberg is wild. He doesn't sound high or drunk to me, he sounds terrified . 25 Cheechako Mar 5, 2018 * 7:05:36pm down 2 up report re: #21 Joe Bacon I remember listening to the radio version of Have Gun Will Travel with John Dehner as Paladin and Ben Wright as Hey Boy. The radio version had a final episode that revealed Paladin as a "prodigal son" of a Boston Brahmin family and he decided to make peace with his family. You mean this episode: 26 FormerDirtDart Mar 5, 2018 * 7:10:47pm down 3 up report Skirmishes flare at Michigan State University before Richard Spencer speech. Two dozen people were arrested as a result of protests, police say. https://t.co/TBVmgAEsO5 pic.twitter.com/12eXI8Byxd -- ABC News ( @ABC ) March 6, 2018 27 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 7:11:59pm down 3 up report Nunberg talking about Russia hacking Hillary Clinton's E-mail (I thought they got the DNC and RNC, but Hillary Clinton's was never taken) ... saying Russia, India, and Israel took them? WTF? Complaining it would take him eighty hours to collect his E-mail? I'm not in the Federal government, but if I was told to turn over my government E-mail it would take me about five minutes (it's all sorted on my computer separately from my private E-mail). 28 Joe Bacon Mar 5, 2018 * 7:13:02pm down 9 up report WOW!!!!!!!!!!! YOU FOUND IT!!!!! I haven't heard this since the time I heard it when I was a kid!!!!! 29 Kafitrar Mar 5, 2018 * 7:19:25pm down 2 up report Curling exists outside of the Olympics? / 30 whitebeach Mar 5, 2018 * 7:20:02pm down 3 up report Speaking of anitheroes in old TV westerns, I just remembered Wanted Dead or Alive, which ran for a few years in the late 50s-early 60s. The protagonist was a bounty hunter. He was played by this actor called Steve McQueen. 31 MsJ Mar 5, 2018 * 7:25:20pm down 4 up report Curling exists outside of the Olympics? / Dooood. Curling exists from September through April with televised games starting in October. Every year. Year after year. The rest of the year is spent waiting for the next curling season. About August, I'm itching for it to start. In September I start bitching "Where the hell is curling?!" I'm an addict. 32 teleskiguy Mar 5, 2018 * 7:25:49pm down 18 up report Incredibly hilarious. I burned the Ween album "La Cucaracha" for my mom months ago. On Friday she texted me "Burn me another Ween album." So I did, "The Mollusk." Just got a text from her, "I just bought two tickets to Ween at Red Rocks." I am rolling over laughing my fucking ass off! 33 jaunte Mar 5, 2018 * 7:26:02pm down 16 up report It's become increasingly clear, when the findings of Mueller are publicized, Trump will be accused of conspiracy against the United States of America -- and it'll not only send shock waves across America and the world, but will reverberate as the most criminal act in our history. 34 Skip Intro Mar 5, 2018 * 7:27:58pm down 17 up report Fox will be covering Hillary's emails that night. 35 jaunte Mar 5, 2018 * 7:28:35pm down 2 up report 36 Belafon Mar 5, 2018 * 7:30:02pm down 5 up report re: #34 Skip Intro Fox will be covering Hillary's emails that night. It'll probably be a replay of Bill's impeachment so that Fox viewers get confused who the rest of the country is talking about. 37 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 7:31:37pm down 2 up report It'll probably be a replay of Bill's impeachment so that Fox viewers get confused who the rest of the country is talking about. Or his "illegitimate black son." The GOP seems to think that plays well with the racists (since one of John McCain's primary candidates did that to him in South Carolina on a television advert). 38 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Mar 5, 2018 * 7:33:03pm down 2 up report re: #30 whitebeach Speaking of anitheroes in old TV westerns, I just remembered Wanted Dead or Alive, which ran for a few years in the late 50s-early 60s. The protagonist was a bounty hunter. He was played by this actor called Steve McQueen. On that sorta-topic, I am starting to watch MacGyver. I got turned on to Richard Dean Anderson with his work on the sci-fi series Stargate: SG1, but this is the first time I've seen his earlier work available for streaming. And now I get to watch him in his younger years. Mrs. Fish is having a fangirl-gasm. 39 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 7:33:28pm down 6 up report Top article right now on FOX News's Website: Deflector shields on maximum! 40 Amory Blaine Mar 5, 2018 * 7:34:54pm down 2 up report It's wonderful to witness an elder throw off the shackles of convention and open up. 41 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 7:36:27pm down 0 up report It'll probably be a replay of Bill's impeachment so that Fox viewers get confused who the rest of the country is talking about. Something like that. 42 MsJ Mar 5, 2018 * 7:36:29pm down 5 up report Deflector shields on maximum! If love for Fox to be labeled the enemy of the state that they are 43 FormerDirtDart Mar 5, 2018 * 7:37:30pm down 5 up report This very good boy is ready to party! Cute puppy joins a Chinese New Year celebration, jumping around and playing with firecrackers. https://t.co/7pzsuZ6p4C pic.twitter.com/zbMDZ4gNti ABC News' twitter content editor decides "Hey, let's find some horrible stuff. That people absolutely shouldn't do, and post it like it's all funny and cool" https://t.co/y4ZT39rcUF 44 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 7:37:40pm down 1 up report If love for Fox to be labeled the enemy of the state that they are Is it just me or have they become even worse in the Trump years but then again they talked about terrorist fist bumps in 2008. 45 ObserverArt Mar 5, 2018 * 7:37:56pm down 2 up report re: #26 FormerDirtDart ABC News @ABC Skirmishes flare at Michigan State University before Richard Spencer speech. Two dozen people were arrested as a result of protests, police say. 10:08 PM - Mar 5, 2018 It's going to be a long hot summer. I'm getting hints of 'the 60s race and war protests and riots. 46 Joe Bacon Mar 5, 2018 * 7:38:11pm down 7 up report 47 whitebeach Mar 5, 2018 * 7:38:50pm down 0 up report Dooood. Curling exists from September through April with televised games starting in October. Every year. Year after year. The rest of the year is spent waiting for the next curling season. About August, I'm itching for it to start. In September I start bitching "Where the hell is curling?!" I'm an addict. So you're saying this is sort of like Purgatory? 48 teleskiguy Mar 5, 2018 * 7:39:48pm down 8 up report re: #40 Amory Blaine My mother is my rock. Her and I understand each other better than anybody. 49 MsJ Mar 5, 2018 * 7:40:00pm down 4 up report Is it just me or have they become even worse in the Trump years but then again they talked about terrorist fist bumps in 2008. They're not even hiding that they are the Republican propaganda network, any longer. 50 The Vicious Babushka Mar 5, 2018 * 7:40:54pm down 6 up report Weird. I clicked on the John Oliver video but it says "video not available." Oh never mind, I'm in Canada. 51 MsJ Mar 5, 2018 * 7:41:22pm down 2 up report So you're saying this is sort of like Purgatory? Off season, for sure. 52 Interesting Times Mar 5, 2018 * 7:41:38pm down 7 up report This Nuremberg stuff is no longer just crazy. This is now: LOCO LOCO LOCO CERTIFIABLE OFF-THE-RAILS TELENOVELA GET ME MORE POPCORN UBER BATSHIT INSANE KOO-KOO CRAZY FOR COCOA PUFFS 53 Amory Blaine Mar 5, 2018 * 7:41:47pm down 7 up report re: #50 The Vicious Babushka Weird. I clicked on the John Oliver video but it says "video not available." Oh never mind, I'm in Canada , eh. 54 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 7:42:44pm down 2 up report They're not even hiding that they are the Republican propaganda network, any longer. Right, that's what I mean. I see their headlines in my widget and it's just so pathetic. 55 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 7:43:37pm down 1 up report They're not even hiding that they are the Republican propaganda network, any longer. Did they ever? 56 MsJ Mar 5, 2018 * 7:45:19pm down 2 up report 57 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 7:46:20pm down 1 up report No but it's gotten worse. 58 BlueSpotinAL Mar 5, 2018 * 7:46:54pm down 13 up report The movie based on today's events should be called Judgement at Nunberg. 59 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 7:47:12pm down 1 up report NRA TV has a programme called "Love at First Shot?" WTF? 60 Amory Blaine Mar 5, 2018 * 7:47:38pm down 1 up report Bahh. Time to suit up and try to get home. BBL. 61 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 7:47:42pm down 3 up report It's worse over the last two, there years. Exactly in the Bush years, yeah they were awful. But now we have Mark Stern saying "At least Neo Nazis are American citizens." The xenophobic rhetoric has gone up with the rise of Trumpism. 62 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Mar 5, 2018 * 7:47:55pm down 0 up report re: #60 Amory Blaine Bahh. Time to suit up and try to get home. BBL. Maximum effort! 63 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 7:49:13pm down 1 up report re: #59 Anymouse NRA TV has a programme called "Love at First Shot?" WTF? Is that a gun or are you just happy to see me. But tbh that seems fairly tame compared to Dana's raging against Hollywood. They do have a weird fixation with guns though, that's for sure. 64 jaunte Mar 5, 2018 * 7:50:09pm down 12 up report 65 Kragar Mar 5, 2018 * 7:50:16pm down 9 up report Richard Spencer is talking about how he thinks @CHAPOTRAPHOUSE is funny. Thinks he can recruit Bernie Bros to the alt-right I've heard ideas which were a lot more far fetched than that. "Bernie would have won" for example https://t.co/4uJlUyvxUk 66 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 7:51:59pm down 6 up report Is that a gun or are you just happy to see me. But tbh that seems fairly tame compared to Dana's raging against Hollywood. They do have a weird fixation with guns though, that's for sure. Well, I can understand why the NRA would be interested in guns. That's sort of what they do. But the propaganda of "they're all out to get us and you need to arm up" seems to sound like Radio Rwanda. 67 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 7:52:44pm down 6 up report [Embedded content] Remember when MSNBC in 2013 was trying to distract from Obama's problems by bringing up Romney every time Obama had a bad day? Yeah me neither. Lumpy really wishes HRC were President. 68 Kafitrar Mar 5, 2018 * 7:53:45pm down 1 up report Dooood. Curling exists from September through April with televised games starting in October. Every year. Year after year. The rest of the year is spent waiting for the next curling season. About August, I'm itching for it to start. In September I start bitching "Where the hell is curling?!" I'm an addict. I believe it. :) I just looked up curling and was surprised to find out that there's a curling club not far from work. 69 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 7:53:47pm down 3 up report re: #66 Anymouse Well, I can understand why the NRA would be interested in guns. That's sort of what they do. But the propaganda of "they're all out to get us and you need to arm up" seems to sound like Radio Rwanda. Oh no doubt. They have actual hate for those of us who don't like guns. I don't like guns. I'm not ashamed to say that. I know their destructive power too well. 70 jaunte Mar 5, 2018 * 7:54:40pm down 14 up report Becoming increasingly clear CNN put a likely drunk guest who is also taking antidepressants on the air hoping to get statements from him it could use for a couple of their favorite narratives. To keep Trump/Russia hope alive for a few more news cycles. GFY, CNN. 71 Kragar Mar 5, 2018 * 7:55:32pm down 3 up report I believe it. :) I just looked up curling and was surprised to find out that there's a curling club not far from work. Make sure you know the song first. 72 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 7:56:02pm down 4 up report [Embedded content] It unfortunately isn't too crazy. Not all or even most Sanders supporters but we just have to look at Bernie's own son RTing in approval things speaking alt right language like Dana's screeds. 73 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 7:57:53pm down 3 up report [Embedded content] He brought it on himself but yeah big bad CNN as always. Glad Uday is trolling Twitter for anything that validates his bs. I'm going to enjoy seeing his smug face when Mueller gets to him. 74 jaunte Mar 5, 2018 * 7:58:18pm down 15 up report 2/ If you want to understand white privilege, consider the fact that all of these barely sentient mopes have managed to grift their way through life and become relatively successful without anyone noticing that they routinely get lost in corners and still lack object permanence. 75 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 7:58:22pm down 2 up report Oh no doubt. They have actual hate for those of us who don't like guns. I don't like guns. I'm not ashamed to say that. I know their destructive power too well. They also hate those of us who do own guns but are not NRA members and are liberals. In my own little town (where there are more guns than people), I get along fine with everyone. Pretty much the same for my county (there aren't a lot of people here). But if I was to go elsewhere, say rural Texas or Kansas, I would be "one of those gun-grabbing liberals" (even though I own a gun). 76 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 7:59:38pm down 0 up report re: #75 Anymouse They also hate those of us who do own guns but are not NRA members and are liberals. In my own little town (where there are more guns than people), I get along fine with everyone. Pretty much the same for my county (there aren't a lot of people here). But if I was to go elsewhere, say rural Texas or Kansas, I would be "one of those gun-grabbing liberals" (even though I own a gun). Oh that too for sure. 77 The Major Mar 5, 2018 * 8:00:05pm down 2 up report O2ZxGYXurlJQRqoYptY7/2d2UgVh3u/RrQmw1yeeMHDnLSw7xznJmFMRXNnRe2Jl/M2Y/cDSe0JUqLGl+I3dWVOBLqyBt1x7wsZ+zkdXB5vRsfpG8RxVffWW1VlbD9l9msGUorywWd/uuljhcWZmgTypVVDlNWy6HozUE7ZKka1otgiGPxywzIJP4xKN0rBHYudJ7Lv2gT1rh5zAaWok7Q== 78 Kragar Mar 5, 2018 * 8:00:41pm down 21 up report re: #75 Anymouse I've trained professionally for: M-16 M-60 M-249 M-240 M-203 Mk19 AT-4 9mm pistols shotguns CQB MOUT NBC Incident Response None of that has made me a conservative. pic.twitter.com/oOoaOmSRJj 79 whitebeach Mar 5, 2018 * 8:01:22pm down 5 up report It's funny how even a sorta forgettable TV western can work in minds and open them for some people. I remember an episode of Wanted Dead or Alive when circumstances forced McQueen and this very tough-looking black guy to share camp for a night. McQueen's character didn't much care for this, and eventually the dialogue got a little challenging. Remember that McQueen was this extremely tough white dude, heavily armed and competent with those weapons. At some point, the black man says something like, "Do you want to fight, mister? Is that what you want to do?" And McQueen makes peace! I expect that most lizards can't, although some of them certainly can, understand the effect of this on a raised-racist white teenager like me in the fucking segregated South. 80 The Major Mar 5, 2018 * 8:01:53pm down 6 up report Your brutal use of the truth shows a clear lack of imagination. ////// 81 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 8:01:54pm down 11 up report We are sorry for calling Carter Page the dumbest person in the Trump-Russia investigation, we will never do that again. 82 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 8:03:30pm down 6 up report [Embedded content] That's exactly what I mean. The whole only real manly men use or know how to use guns shit. You know what, I may not know how to use a gun but I can use my fucking head more effectively than any of these guys could dream of using their dick substitutes. 83 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 8:12:03pm down 11 up report Sorry for sounding angry but I'm sick of my masculinity being attacked because I'm not part of the gun cult. I'd much rather use my earnings on music and good times. 84 ObserverArt Mar 5, 2018 * 8:12:21pm down 2 up report Stealth Jeff @drawandstrike Becoming increasingly clear CNN put a likely drunk guest who is also taking antidepressants on the air hoping to get statements from him it could use for a couple of their favorite narratives. To keep Trump/Russia hope alive for a few more news cycles. GFY, CNN. Proof they are the "Party of Personal Responsibility" example #1, 237, 986 85 Eclectic Cyborg Mar 5, 2018 * 8:13:08pm down 6 up report Seems I missed out on most of the discussion regarding casting for the Trump movie, but I think Michael Cera would be an excellent Jared: 86 piratedan Mar 5, 2018 * 8:15:33pm down 6 up report remind me again, how many indictments and convictions there were after 4 years of Benghazi investigations? 87 JordanRules Mar 5, 2018 * 8:15:33pm down 21 up report "We are a country divided. We are a country that has lost a sense of common purpose. We've lost a sense of common narrative," former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice tells @FareedZakaria https://t.co/C5xyfQnCF2 in 2005 ms rice called me into the state dept to tell me i needed to let my activist friends know that W couldn't do anything about the genocide in darfur and, i quote, "you need to tell them to shut up..." true story ... https://t.co/lXl5oPAZu8 88 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 8:15:48pm down 1 up report re: #85 Eclectic Cyborg Seems I missed out on most of the discussion regarding casting for the Trump movie, but I think Michael Cera would be an excellent Jared: [Embedded content] I had the same observation. Both are young looking for their age. Hard for to believe Cera is a year younger than me and msny tell me I look mid 20's. 89 Ace Rothstein Mar 5, 2018 * 8:17:00pm down 1 up report 90 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 8:17:11pm down 0 up report That's exactly what I mean. The whole only real manly men use or know how to use guns shit. You know what, I may not know how to use a gun but I can use my fucking head more effectively than any of these guys could dream of using their dick substitutes. I wonder if a "stand your ground" law would protect you if you used a rifle or shotgun as a club instead of shooting someone? 91 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 8:17:22pm down 2 up report [Embedded content] Agh I never heard about that. I never liked her much but thought she had some decency. I love Cheadle. Hotel Rwanda inspired me. 92 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 8:17:56pm down 6 up report re: #90 Anymouse I wonder if a "stand your ground" law would protect you if you used a rifle or shotgun as a club instead of shooting someone? I'd need to know the skin tones of the parties. 93 Eclectic Cyborg Mar 5, 2018 * 8:19:16pm down 2 up report I am 36 and I get 20s sometimes. Maybe not having kids has something to do with it lol. 94 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 8:20:00pm down 4 up report Reason Magazine likens this issue to the "Satanic Panic" in the USA in the Eighties. reason.com (Goes to the Libertarian Reason Magazine) The Province of Ontario was using a laboratory called Motherisk to do hair-sample testing on children to prove their mothers were alcoholics or drug abusers, and using the results to take children from their homes. Last week, a review of the procedures used by the family courts determined that in scores of cases, the fake laboratory had substantial sway over child custody cases where the province sought to take children from their homes. Many have since been returned. 95 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 8:20:46pm down 9 up report 3HdaLjTneRrik1tzrmrekw7eixP112RiIGfNKorP2pnLgoZggZk3XxqpVGaZyHKo9Af6BojBHD9QNcNn4+vpIKWor98O3x2Zy8UslXbwQDJT8V5B9s9jUe1lRZC9ULBa6ctebqo8sAwpse03ZbDaEPRdYCUrBD+7TmgtfMMLuGpIDkLGE6yjBp+Fgi2sxcJOwAacHc11gl4= 96 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 8:21:24pm down 1 up report re: #93 Eclectic Cyborg I am 36 and I get 20s sometimes. Maybe not having kids has something to do with it lol. Yeah I don't either. I'm surprised by it honestly. I think my eyes show some age to them. 97 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 8:22:31pm down 7 up report So the Utah Bar sent a boob pic to every lawyer on the listserv https://t.co/mNYdkh6hey We didn't get it, damn it.// 99 Ace Rothstein Mar 5, 2018 * 8:23:27pm down 16 up report Remember back in 1983 when the Marine barracks in Beirut were bombed and 300 people were killed? Ya know how many hearings were had? One. 100 ObserverArt Mar 5, 2018 * 8:24:08pm down 5 up report remind me again, how many indictments and convictions there were after 4 years of Benghazi investigations? All I know is Hillary ripped the House Committee with Trey Gowdy pretty good for many hours and stood up to them. In a few hours today Sam Nunberg beclowned himself on a few TV shows and he and the wingnuts are giving him all kinds of excuses. He didn't have to go on TV...even if drunk, he had a responsible choice. 101 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 8:24:28pm down 6 up report re: #99 Ace Rothstein Remember back in 1983 when the Marine barracks in Beirut were bombed and 300 people were killed? Ya know how many hearings were had? One. And how many of the families of those Marines were used to bash Reagan and Schultz at the 1984 DNC? 102 Ace Rothstein Mar 5, 2018 * 8:25:27pm down 4 up report And how many of the families of those Marines were used to bash Reagan and Schultz at the 1984 DNC? And how many indictments were brought down? 104 jaunte Mar 5, 2018 * 8:26:06pm down 3 up report "We've lost a sense of common narrative" She must have skipped a lot of history courses. 105 teleskiguy Mar 5, 2018 * 8:26:52pm down 7 up report re: #93 Eclectic Cyborg I'm 35 and have a chin full of hair. Got carded at a Mexican restaurant the next town over last week. I'm always flattered and I let them know. Gal looked at my I.D. and said "you look so young!" Her and I took a tequila shot at the end of my meal. 106 ipsos Mar 5, 2018 * 8:27:21pm down 7 up report re: #95 Anymouse [Embedded content] 107 jaunte Mar 5, 2018 * 8:28:41pm down 13 up report I just want a presidency that will handle its business and leave me the hell alone. -- Jared Yates Sexton ( @JYSexton ) March 6, 2018 Nope sorry you get this bucket of ferrets on meth that have been sleep deprived for three straight days by playing the theme from House of Cards at 130db https://t.co/UPSqOVL3dQ 108 piratedan Mar 5, 2018 * 8:34:03pm down 10 up report well, it's stuff like this that makes me furious... who compelled Numberg to show up on TV... on multiple shows on the same day? How many times did the hosts of said programs try to save him from himself? If someone from the left had bothered to show up in a similar capacity, would they have been treated the same way? Okay, lets say that Mr. Numberg had mixed meds with alcohol... who's fault is that? If he's a potential witness stating publicly on TV that he's not going to honor the subpoena, again, who's fault is that? in the interim, over on the Faux network they're still doing everything they can to pin all of their transgressions on the Clinton campaign, and guess what, THOSE people aren't drugged, its straight out propaganda totally unhinged from reality. You want to be outraged about proprieties and expectations and courtesy, CLEAN YOUR OWN MOTHERFUCKING HOUSE FIRST! 109 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 8:34:57pm down 2 up report We didn't get it, damn it.// They have a copy of the listserv message if you want to see it. It was an invitation to their Spring Convention, with a photo of Justice holding scales, Delicate Arch at Arches National Park, and a giant boob pic. abovethelaw.com (NSFW) 110 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 8:36:27pm down 1 up report re: #109 Anymouse They have a copy of the listserv message if you want to see it. It was an invitation to their Spring Convention, with a photo of Justice holding scales, Delicate Arch at Arches National Park, and a giant boob pic. abovethelaw.com (NSFW) I'm kidding around. 111 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 8:36:57pm down 2 up report I'm 35 and have a chin full of hair. Got carded at a Mexican restaurant the next town over last week. I'm always flattered and I let them know. Gal looked at my I.D. and said "you look so young!" Her and I took a tequila shot at the end of my meal. My wife points out that is a common pick-up line for women. She sometimes gets carded even though she has grey hair in her fifties (though not locally). 112 Eclectic Cyborg Mar 5, 2018 * 8:37:45pm down 1 up report re: #109 Anymouse Ha ha ha. Someone is going to get reamed for that. 113 FormerDirtDart Mar 5, 2018 * 8:37:59pm down 5 up report T-60 minutes until Falcon 9 launch of Hispasat 30W-6. Launch webcast will go live about 15 minutes before liftoff - https://t.co/gtC39uBC7z 114 jaunte Mar 5, 2018 * 8:39:15pm down 8 up report I'm 35 and have a chin full of hair. Got carded at a Mexican restaurant the next town over last week. I'm always flattered and I let them know. Gal looked at my I.D. and said "you look so young!" Her and I took at tequila shot at the end of my meal. That's me at 64 by the Kroger self check-out machine, waiting for the attendant with the over-21 code. 115 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 8:41:47pm down 5 up report L re: #102 Ace Rothstein Zero. Exactly. I feel bad for the mother the RNC brought out but her grief was exploited by cynical assholes, the same ones who voted to cut enbassy and consulate security funding. 116 goddamnedfrank Mar 5, 2018 * 8:42:14pm down 17 up report well, it's stuff like this that makes me furious... who compelled Numberg to show up on TV... on multiple shows on the same day? How many times did the hosts of said programs try to save him from himself? If someone from the left had bothered to show up in a similar capacity, would they have been treated the same way? When Donna Brazille's book came out she was on every show being lauded for saying the 2016 Dem primary was rigged. Her claim immediately fell apart over that weekend as it became clear she was mixing up two completely different DNC fundraising agreements, conflating the one Clinton had as the official nominee with one she had during the primary race. They've never had her back to challenge her on that ignorant bullshit stunt. 117 Unshaken Defiance Mar 5, 2018 * 8:42:58pm down 3 up report Sorry for sounding angry but I'm sick of my masculinity being attacked because I'm not part of the gun cult. I'd much rather use my earnings on music and good times. Stepping up with a weapon and training and all that is fine. I happen to think you a person that steps up without advantage and prevails. At my back anytime. 118 teleskiguy Mar 5, 2018 * 8:44:41pm down 2 up report They don't serve tequila at Kroger self checkout stations. 119 FormerDirtDart Mar 5, 2018 * 8:44:55pm down 12 up report EPA Chief Pruitt's aide given permission to work for private clients on the side - but their identities will be kept secret. https://t.co/TRzSzTaXRr 120 jaunte Mar 5, 2018 * 8:44:55pm down 7 up report EPA Chief Pruitt's aide given permission to work for private clients on the side - but their identities will be kept secret. https://t.co/TRzSzTaXRr It's BYOB in my neighborhood. 122 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 8:46:23pm down 3 up report re: #117 Unshaken Defiance Stepping up with a weapon and training and all that is fine. I happen to think you a person that steps up without advantage and prevails. At my back anytime. Oh no doubt. And you don't disparage people who don't own. When I talk about the gun cult, I'm talking about the NRA types who can't go without it. You have your photography for example which fwiw I've enjoyed. 123 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 8:47:07pm down 4 up report re: #119 FormerDirtDart [Embedded content] Drain the swamp eh? This is unreal how these guys flaunt their lack of ethics. 124 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 8:48:24pm down 6 up report re: #116 goddamnedfrank When Donna Brazille's book came out she was on every show being lauded for saying the 2016 Dem primary was rigged. Her claim immediately fell apart over that weekend as it became clear she was mixing up two completely different DNC fundraising agreements, conflating the one Clinton had as the official nominee with one she had during the primary race. They haven't had her back to challenge her about her ignorant bullshit stunt. I'm still annoyed Warren went along with that bs. I like her but it made me question her judgment, motivations, & intelligence. 125 Interesting Times Mar 5, 2018 * 8:49:29pm down 11 up report 2018: After considering its widespread and meaningful evidence of use, we've put 'dumpster fire' in the dictionary. Feel free to GIF it as you like. https://t.co/XImxk6c0EY 127 Amory Blaine Mar 5, 2018 * 8:50:02pm down 9 up report Condi Rice should shut the fuck up. 128 Kragar Mar 5, 2018 * 8:51:09pm down 12 up report The Florida Senate has passed a school safety bill that would place new restrictions on rifle sales, allow some teachers to carry guns in schools and create new school mental health programs. https://t.co/sNYdm0GVgZ "Sorry folks, we don't have the money in the budget to properly fund school programs, give teachers raises, or any other educational needs. Oh BTW, we just allocated $67 million for guns in schools and to pay off training programs for the guns." Fuck you assholes https://t.co/1tB6BapgWY 129 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 8:51:11pm down 1 up report I'm not really sure what to think of Seth Abramson. Sometimes it seems as though he reports things that are true, whilst other times it seems like he's making stuff up to peddle Seth Abramson not news. Anyway, he goes on a fifty-one tweet speculative thread about the woman in the Thai jail claiming she has information for the Trump/Russia investigation. He ties a whole lot of people together into that, and claims that the story seems credible because many news outlets have picked it up. (It's not like news outlets have been ever trolled before with a fake story or propaganda.) (THREAD) It's time to talk about Nastya Rybka--the sex worker from Belarus who has plausibly claimed to have intel on Trump's ties to the Kremlin and is seeking asylum to tell her story. No longer a sideshow, this developing story is now in major media. Hope you'll read and share. pic.twitter.com/UKUNhp0sYJ 130 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 8:51:28pm down 3 up report Didn't see you saying this about Benghazi, Condi. 131 Ace Rothstein Mar 5, 2018 * 8:52:11pm down 3 up report I don't trust him. 132 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 8:53:29pm down 3 up report Oh no doubt. And you don't disparage people who don't own. When I talk about the gun cult, I'm talking about the NRA types who can't go without it. You have your photography for example which fwiw I've enjoyed. Shooting stuff and it lives another day, too. 133 Interesting Times Mar 5, 2018 * 8:53:34pm down 12 up report Ha: Based on Sam Nunberg statements on national TV, perhaps it would be better if Special Counsel Mueller drops the subpoena in exchange for Nunberg doing more TV interviews. https://t.co/vh5fTVOKF1 134 Eclectic Cyborg Mar 5, 2018 * 8:53:52pm down 5 up report Drain the swamp eh? This is unreal how these guys flaunt their lack of ethics. I swear they're just seeing how far they can push the envelope now. 135 Amory Blaine Mar 5, 2018 * 8:54:12pm down 5 up report Didn't see you saying this about Benghazi, Condi. She should repent for murdering hundreds of thousands. 136 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 8:54:59pm down 2 up report re: #134 Eclectic Cyborg I swear they're just seeing how far they can push the envelope now. They know the GOP base won't care because FNC will just have something about HRC or Obama. 137 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 8:55:35pm down 3 up report re: #135 Amory Blaine She should repent for murdering hundreds of thousands. And creating a dangerous vacuum in the ME. 138 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 8:56:45pm down 2 up report They know the GOP base won't care because FNC will just have something about HRC or Obama. Right now they are covering Hillary Clinton's "stolen" E-mails. (Really.) 139 Joe Bacon Mar 5, 2018 * 8:57:08pm down 6 up report So hungry for a taste of home--Prantl's Bakery in Pittsburgh's famous Burnt Almond Torte! Prantl's Burnt Almond Torte 140 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 8:58:24pm down 1 up report re: #138 Anymouse Right now they are covering Hillary Clinton's "stolen" E-mails. (Really.) About as predictable as a sunrise. 141 FormerDirtDart Mar 5, 2018 * 8:58:36pm down 4 up report VIDEO: Footage shot by @AP appears to show man who authorities say stole Frances McDormand's Oscar. https://t.co/xL5NgEAc5K 142 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 8:58:39pm down 1 up report re: #139 Joe Bacon So hungry for a taste of home--Prantl's Bakery in Pittsburgh's famous Burnt Almond Torte! [Embedded content] 143 retired cynic Mar 5, 2018 * 8:58:40pm down 0 up report re: #139 Joe Bacon So hungry for a taste of home--Prantl's Bakery in Pittsburgh's famous Burnt Almond Torte! [Embedded content] 145 The Major Mar 5, 2018 * 9:02:25pm down 10 up report re: #119 FormerDirtDart In any other sane rational governemtn, this would not be happening. But under @realDonaldTrump , all bets are off, optics be damned. @POTUS If you don't stop this, the voters will. Some of us have memories like elephants. pic.twitter.com/oDISnPdsxE re: #129 Anymouse Seth Abramson should not be considered reliable. 147 FormerDirtDart Mar 5, 2018 * 9:04:32pm down 4 up report Man sues Dick's, Walmart over new gun policies https://t.co/It6UBqKPl1 pic.twitter.com/9DD3B0asJ7 148 The Major Mar 5, 2018 * 9:04:59pm down 2 up report re: #133 Interesting Times What I want to know is who his supplier is so I can stay the fsck away from whatever bad ganja that dude is peddling.... 149 MsJ Mar 5, 2018 * 9:07:49pm down 2 up report re: #139 Joe Bacon So hungry for a taste of home--Prantl's Bakery in Pittsburgh's famous Burnt Almond Torte! [Embedded content] 150 Joe Bacon Mar 5, 2018 * 9:08:00pm down 8 up report 151 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 9:10:05pm down 9 up report More asshole conservative conspiracy theorists. Pair arrested after harassing pastor in Sutherland Springs https://t.co/VmF1ITK4sD via @mysa Did you happen to see about the avalanche at Mammoth mountain? 153 Joe Bacon Mar 5, 2018 * 9:16:01pm down 1 up report More asshole conservative conspiracy theorists. [Embedded content] Maybe Trump is right that we need to reopen mental hospitals... 154 FormerDirtDart Mar 5, 2018 * 9:22:04pm down 4 up report 155 Hecuba's daughter Mar 5, 2018 * 9:22:53pm down 9 up report Agh I never heard about that. I never liked her much but thought she had some decency. I love Cheadle. Hotel Rwanda inspired me. Remember: Condi supported Tillerson. She is as tied to Russia as anyone in the Trump administration. 156 jaunte Mar 5, 2018 * 9:25:40pm down 12 up report Alternate Banjo spotting: My friend's boyfriend is an AP English teacher in Austin. He brings his dog Banjo to school every day. Less teachers with guns, more teachers with corgis. pic.twitter.com/BZdYUZjK8o 157 GlutenFreeJesus Mar 5, 2018 * 9:27:47pm down 5 up report Gee. Nobody telling Condi to go away forever. She can knit or something.... Anyway. Just put the deposit down to reserve my spot for a Model 3. Finally got to my friend's place and drove his (his wife's). Fun car, and not insanely expensive like the Model S. Should be a 12-18 month wait. lol 158 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 9:28:51pm down 3 up report re: #153 Joe Bacon Maybe Trump is right that we need to reopen mental hospitals... Perhaps the reason SETI can't detect anything is because when an intelligent species reaches the capability to build a worldwide Internet, the wingnuts destroy civilisation. 159 HappyWarrior Mar 5, 2018 * 9:31:14pm down 1 up report re: #155 Hecuba's daughter Remember: Condi supported Tillerson. She is as tied to Russia as anyone in the Trump administration. That's true. Nighttime rocket launches are cool. 162 Eclectic Cyborg Mar 5, 2018 * 9:33:58pm down 1 up report More asshole conservative conspiracy theorists. [Embedded content] God, I hate these fucking people. 163 FormerDirtDart Mar 5, 2018 * 9:34:15pm down 6 up report 164 FormerDirtDart Mar 5, 2018 * 9:38:47pm down 3 up report 1st stage separation 2nd stage engine ignition Payload fairing separation They have to be glad to get this pad queen into the air. They've been trying to launch since December 165 The Ghost of a Flea Mar 5, 2018 * 9:39:13pm down 6 up report re: #151 Anymouse One of the downsides of the internet is that it's created networks between awful people that then feel bolder and more confident in their paranoia and self-importance. The latter being on display when they're so confident they start with the insults and threats. 166 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 9:40:13pm down 3 up report re: #165 The Ghost of a Flea One of the downsides of the internet is that it's created networks between awful people that then feel bolder and more confident in their paranoia and self-importance. The latter being on display when they're so confident they start with the insults and threats. I suggest issuing them all Mimeograph machines and free postage in exchange for their Internet service. 167 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 9:47:14pm down 16 up report From the Nebraska Democratic Party. I have not yet filed to run in this year's election, but will when I next get to town. That'll add another person... . The Nebraska Democratic Party has a strong ticket of over 200 Democrats from all walks of life running for office in 2018. Moms, young people, union members, farmers, veterans, teachers and middle-class Democrats have all put their name on the ballot line to represent our Party's values and to end the current one-party rule across our state. There are over 50 women and 20 members of minority communities that are running for office as Democrats in 2018. 168 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 9:53:06pm down 5 up report From the San Antonio Express News article on the Sutherland Springs, Tex. pastor who was harassed by two right-wing conspiraliars: The Wilson County Sheriff's Office declined to provide charging information on Robert Ussery, 54, who founded conspiracy website Side Thorn, and his partner Jodi Mann, 56, who is referred to as "Conspiracy Granny" online. The booking process was not complete Monday evening and no information would be made available until Tuesday, a supervisor there said. Ussery "continually yelled and screamed and hollered and told me he was gonna hang me from a tree, and pee on me while I'm hanging," said Frank Pomeroy, the pastor. Pomeroy said he was in his car by the church when the pair approached the building, and he intervened when Mann began to write in large, loopy writing on a poster left for well-wishers to sign, "The truth shall set you free." The pair believe the church shooting was staged by accomplices of the government, though Pomeroy, whose 14-year-old daughter was killed there, knows better. 169 Hecuba's daughter Mar 5, 2018 * 9:57:44pm down 10 up report re: #151 Anymouse [Embedded content] These people need to be deprogrammed. Breitbart, Fox News, InfoWars, Gingrich, Limbaugh, etc have insinuated themselves into the minds of millions of Americans who may have started as sane conservatives but were gradually led down the rabbit hole, never to emerge. It is terrifying how they have all bought into various conspiracies -- how they support Trump and dismiss all criticism of him as fake news. There are educated people so brainwashed they believe Trump was a successful real estate developer. Our country will not survive if the Republicans do not shake off their allegiance to Trump and their apparent fidelity to Putin. 170 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 9:59:19pm down 4 up report re: #169 Hecuba's daughter The GOP is not done looting the government yet, and the agitprop makes for a horde of useful idiots. When they have all the money they want, they can leave. Then the rest of us are stuck with the mess and a broke nation to boot. 171 Hecuba's daughter Mar 5, 2018 * 10:00:06pm down 9 up report re: #168 Anymouse From the San Antonio Express News article on the Sutherland Springs, Tex. pastor who was harassed by two right-wing conspiraliars: Absolutely terrifying that there are people so immune to reason that they believe these massacres did not happen. 172 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 10:03:40pm down 3 up report re: #171 Hecuba's daughter Absolutely terrifying that there are people so immune to reason that they believe these massacres did not happen. Right up until the time one of these massacres occurs in their own town. I would be interested in seeing numbers or interviews of people who held such insane beliefs until something like that happened in their own town, then had to put up with others calling them liars or conspirators. That number has to be greater than zero. Some chowderhead for example in Sutherland Springs or Parkland who was absolutely convinced that Sandy Hook or Columbine were faked. 173 The Ghost of a Flea Mar 5, 2018 * 10:03:53pm down 4 up report re: #171 Hecuba's daughter Absolutely terrifying that there are people so immune to reason that they believe these massacres did not happen. Reason doesn't make them feel superior, so they don't do it. 174 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 10:04:56pm down 1 up report Second burn of the second stage of the Falcon Nine was successful. 175 majii Mar 5, 2018 * 10:06:23pm down 13 up report "Didn't see you saying this about Benghazi, Condi." I've never, ever liked Condi Rice because she sold out to GOPers while knowing that if she hadn't been a member of their party, they'd have treated her the way they treated PBO. She's a well-educated woman, but she needs to STFU in a hurry. If she was too timid to speak about the way her party members treated PBO, and the things they've been saying about Michael Steele recently, she's a coward and the GOP's useful black idiot. I'll be totally honest, if Rice were to try to visit some black churches here in Middle GA, she would be permitted to come, but she'd better prep and expect to answer some hard questions. She'll also get lots of side eye. For comparison, think about how Manigault was treated when she showed up at the black journalists' association convention and thought she'd get a warm reception. Girl couldn't hack it and left there in a hurry. In the right situation, side eye can work miracles. 176 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 10:07:31pm down 4 up report And the satellite was successfully deployed. 177 DodgerFan1988 Mar 5, 2018 * 10:12:43pm down 4 up report "Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth." - Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels What do Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, Dinesh D'Souza, and James Damore have in common? A burgeoning conservative media empire that's on track for a billion views in 2018: https://t.co/RaITjMzpMo 178 whitebeach Mar 5, 2018 * 10:15:44pm down 3 up report I just saw a dumb-ass car commercial that asked what car you would want if you knew it was your car for the rest of your life. Apparently you were supposed to choose a specific pickup truck. My instantaneous thought, in contradiction to this, was a Rolls-Royce* with a lifetime service contract. Other lizards' opinions may differ. *Sadly, I think a Ferrari is too young for me. 179 Single-handed sailor Mar 5, 2018 * 10:29:39pm down 2 up report I just saw a dumb-ass car commercial that asked what car you would want if you knew it was your car for the rest of your life. Apparently you were supposed to choose a specific pickup truck. My instantaneous thought, in contradiction to this, was a Rolls-Royce* with a lifetime service contract. Other lizards' opinions may differ. *Sadly, I think a Ferrari is too young for me. Bentley Continental GT, with a lifetime service contract. 180 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 10:32:35pm down 2 up report And the second she loses her usefulness, the GOP will throw Condoleeza Rice under a bus just as fast as they did Michael Steele, Omarosa Manigault, and Caitlin Jenner. 181 austin_blue Mar 5, 2018 * 10:35:48pm down 14 up report re: #99 Ace Rothstein Remember back in 1983 when the Marine barracks in Beirut were bombed and 300 people were killed? Ya know how many hearings were had? One. I had two friends who were kids I grew up with who died in that attack. They are both buried together at Arlington, about 5 headstones apart. My mom and my dad are also in that giant bone orchard. When I was sitting SAC alert, in the early 80's we had six B-52 alert shots and six KC-135s to refuel them out of K. I. Sawyer AFB in Marquette, Michigan. Missions 1 and 2 were penetrators, loaded up with 12 Short Range Attack Missiles (SRAMs) on two rotary launchers in the two bomb bays that were "targets of opportunity" birds, attacking active radars that came up on them, clearing the way for the bombers behind them. The post strike landing bases for those birds were in Isfahan, Iran. (Keep in mind, this was *after* the revolution. We still had agreements with Iran.) Missions 3 and 4 were known as "The Eastern European Heating Authority" flights, with four 1.3 megaton gravity weapons in the front bomb bay and six SRAMs on a single rotary launcher in the aft bomb bay. Mission 5 was an urban/industrial flight into the Moscow area, armed up with the same weapons load as 3 and 4. Post strike landing base was Incirlik, Turkey. Mission six was a Strategic Reserve flight which would land in Cold Lake, Alberta with it's tanker and see if there was anything left to kill, and then go kill it. Same weapons load as 3, 4, and 5. So Iran and Turkey were kind of problematical after a nuclear exchange, and we were issued .38 pistols with 4" barrels as service weapons. So I, like many of my fellow pilots, decided to arm up. I bought a .41 magnum Dan Wesson pistol pack (heavy vent rib with five speed loaders) and an H&K 91 full auto in 7.62 NATO. Safe, single, 3-shot burst, and full auto settings on the selector. Shot it once on full auto and ended up with the barrel up and to the right at about 15 degrees after eight shots. Never fired it again more than burst mode which was controllable. Twenty round clips, which were large enough to tape three together for a 60 round package. Cost me $900 for the gun and $200 for the license. Sold it it in '85. Sold the Dan Wesson around '88. I've got a shotgun and a deer rifle. When R's say that D's are ignorant of guns, I've got to laugh. I've been hunting for 50 years, and I can put a three shot 7.62 group in a half dollar at 300 yards with my rifle. Venison tastes *good*. 182 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 10:45:14pm down 5 up report re: #99 Ace Rothstein Remember back in 1983 when the Marine barracks in Beirut were bombed and 300 people were killed? Ya know how many hearings were had? One. I remember because I was deployed from the Caribbean Sea to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea aboard USS America to assist in the evacuation and retaliation. 183 Dr Lizardo Mar 5, 2018 * 10:50:41pm down 5 up report re: #178 whitebeach I just saw a dumb-ass car commercial that asked what car you would want if you knew it was your car for the rest of your life. Apparently you were supposed to choose a specific pickup truck. My instantaneous thought, in contradiction to this, was a Rolls-Royce* with a lifetime service contract. Other lizards' opinions may differ. *Sadly, I think a Ferrari is too young for me. 1969 Ford Mustang fastback. Candy-apple red. I'm a simple man. 184 austin_blue Mar 5, 2018 * 10:52:46pm down 4 up report re: #182 Anymouse I remember because I was deployed from the Caribbean Sea to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea aboard USS America to assist in the evacuation and retaliation. Two days later, we invaded Grenada. USA! USA! 185 Big Beautiful Door Mar 5, 2018 * 10:57:57pm down 1 up report re: #38 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. On that sorta-topic, I am starting to watch MacGyver. I got turned on to Richard Dean Anderson with his work on the sci-fi series Stargate: SG1, but this is the first time I've seen his earlier work available for streaming. And now I get to watch him in his younger years. Mrs. Fish is having a fangirl-gasm. My wife turned onto him in the eighties as MacGyver and was an avid fan of Stargate as well. 186 FormerDirtDart Mar 5, 2018 * 11:01:50pm down 16 up report Rescuers found this adorable "gentle giant" homeless on the streets. After a journey of almost 1,000 miles, he's now training to become a therapy dog to put smiles on faces at children's hospitals. https://t.co/k0Uvrrmka2 pic.twitter.com/miquRVD9IN ABC News trying to atone for that stupid ass dog tormented by firecrackers video tweet 187 austin_blue Mar 5, 2018 * 11:05:07pm down 1 up report 1969 Ford Mustang fastback. Candy-apple red. I'm a simple man. And there it is, with the 428 Cobra Jet. 188 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 11:06:07pm down 4 up report Meanwhile in Italy, it's beginning to look a lot like fascism... https://t.co/o2KjLUVfdX 189 austin_blue Mar 5, 2018 * 11:09:46pm down 4 up report [Embedded content] This level of dog porn can get annoying as click bait! Aaah, not really. Good doggie! 190 Anymouse Mar 5, 2018 * 11:17:40pm down 8 up report Researchers build AI to identify gang members. When asked about potential misuses, presenter (a computer scientist at Harvard) says "I'm just an engineer." [?][?][?] https://t.co/NbKepiaG4Y pic.twitter.com/qp6f0okJ1g This is an unconscionably horrible answer to a crucial question about algorithm design for social systems. When you design algos with a high impact on lives, you have to take the consequences seriously. https://t.co/FGlHx2xujB 192 austin_blue Mar 5, 2018 * 11:53:34pm down 2 up report Oh, and you should listen to this one: 193 Dr Lizardo Mar 6, 2018 * 12:03:12am down 2 up report 194 Scout Mar 6, 2018 * 12:08:24am down 3 up report 195 austin_blue Mar 6, 2018 * 12:16:03am down 2 up report Sounds like his former boss! Who did he talk to last? These people have no clue how to govern. It's like watching the Keystone Kops running the White House. 196 Amory Blaine Mar 6, 2018 * 12:16:45am down 6 up report Liberals pushing anger and hate as they run for governor. We are getting positive things done for the people of Wisconsin and we have an optimistic vision for the future. 197 Amory Blaine Mar 6, 2018 * 12:22:06am down 4 up report Scott Walker says he wants to "divide and conquer" Wisconsin 198 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 12:22:51am down 3 up report Ah, the good old days of the campaign, when Donald Trump said he would have no time for golf as President. trumpgolfcount.com (number of days he's been golfing that can be confirmed, along with the cost to the US tax payers in tens of millions of dollars) 199 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 12:24:51am down 3 up report re: #195 austin_blue Sounds like his former boss! Who did he talk to last? These people have no clue how to govern. It's like watching the Keystone Kops running the White House. Perhaps he got a call from the Federal Marshal's Service: Nice house here. Would be a shame if you couldn't leave your jail cell to visit it. 200 austin_blue Mar 6, 2018 * 12:35:39am down 1 up report I'm for the rack. Night all, sweet scaly dreams. 201 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 12:44:08am down 9 up report The Republicans in the WVa state senate, who went all "fiscal conservative" on the state's teachers and stated they would vote against the raise the house passed, accidentally passed the house version of the bill, passing the 5% raise. The state senate is now working on a bill to repeal the raise, with Democrats and parents in opposition. No matter where you put conservatives in charge, they cannot govern. In no place, at any time. They can't even screw their own employees correctly. The senate passed an amendment to overturn the bill and sent it over to the house, which rejected the senate amendment. (Long thread on the blow by blow in the WVa senate): So, get this. Delegates of both parties, plus Senate Dems are saying the Senate accidentally passed the bill with the House version language and pay scales pic.twitter.com/H5mciu68Vi 203 Dr Lizardo Mar 6, 2018 * 12:59:22am down 6 up report re: #202 Shiplord Kirel, live from behind wingnut lines Cernovich told Jones that it's "life or death now" for conservatives in the public sphere. "This isn't the usual, 'We're under an attack, thank you for the support, share links.' No, no, no. This is--we're done, we're off the internet, they're banning us," Cernovich said, before rehashing the same talking point about Christian persecution we wrote about last week. He later added, "They want us in gulags, Alex. I don't know what more to say. Death camps are coming." These people are insane. 204 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 1:04:55am down 5 up report re: #203 Dr Lizardo These people are insane. Hey, we couldn't get the death camps and gulags right under Obama; what makes Cernovich think we can get away with it under a GOP administration? 205 wheat-dogg Mar 6, 2018 * 1:11:10am down 6 up report re: #203 Dr Lizardo Losing a Twitter account or YouTube channel is NOT the same thing as being "off the Internet," bozos. There are other platforms there to peddle your CT wares. What you did lose was all those followers and the ad revenue from monetizing the YT channel. That's what you're really sore about. 206 Shiplord Kirel, live from behind wingnut lines Mar 6, 2018 * 1:11:26am down 6 up report re: #202 Shiplord Kirel, live from behind wingnut lines He later added, "They want us in gulags, Alex. I don't know what more to say. Death camps are coming." Since these lying fascists are 100% antivaxx, anyplace where they gather for long is likely to turn into a death camp. 207 Dr Lizardo Mar 6, 2018 * 1:13:01am down 4 up report re: #205 wheat-dogg Losing a Twitter account or YouTube channel is NOT the same thing as being "off the Internet," bozos. There are other platforms there to peddle your CT wares. What you did lose was all those followers and the ad revenue from monetizing the YT channel. That's what you're really sore about. That's a bingo. That is how you say that, right? 208 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 1:14:38am down 14 up report "To every lying member of the media, to every Hollywood phony, to the role model athletes who use their free speech to alter and undermine what our flag represents...Your Time is running out. The clock starts now." - @DLoesch #Oscars90 pic.twitter.com/SDVjeTxyfB If there was any doubt that the NRA is a terrorist organization, their spokesman is now openly threatening Americans. If Dana Loesch was a Muslim who addressed America with "your time is running out," we'd be bombing a Middle Eastern country in retaliation by now. https://t.co/RQR0uYNyWT 209 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 1:18:17am down 2 up report re: #205 wheat-dogg Losing a Twitter account or YouTube channel is NOT the same thing as being "off the Internet," bozos. There are other platforms there to peddle your CT wares. What you did lose was all those followers and the ad revenue from monetizing the YT channel. That's what you're really sore about. They can join the atheist YouTubers whose AdSense revenue was nuked months ago in the "adpocalypse" because atheism is a "controversial topic." Or over at Reddit, where /r/atheism requires you confirm you are eighteen years old because talking about such a controversial subject is so much worse than justifying rape, genocide, and slavery (Bible channels do not require you to confirm you are eighteen). Alex Jones is rich enough he can get his own video server. His right to free speech does not mean another company has to monetise it. 210 Lupin Mar 6, 2018 * 1:19:26am down 13 up report re: #203 Dr Lizardo He later added, "They want us in gulags, Alex. I don't know what more to say. Death camps are coming." To the extent that they are always projecting their "sins" onto others, this means they want YOU in gulags and death camps. Not surprising too; nazis of all kinds have always been exterminationists. Without resorting to Hitler, look at Argentina or Chile. If folks like Jones (our version of Julius Streicher, but less erudite) came into power, most of you here living on US soil would be "disappeared." I once had a Chilean TA who had just escaped being caught in Pinochet's dragnet of various lefties and had been able to free the country, this saving his life, and he was prone to remind us that it had all been perfectly legal and sanctioned by their Supreme Court. While your institutions are more solid than Chile's were then, there is so much more potential for violence; you guys are engaged in an existential fight for survival. 211 fern01 Mar 6, 2018 * 1:26:32am down 1 up report re: #119 FormerDirtDart Insider trading/knowledge does not exist in a Trump administration 212 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 1:33:11am down 1 up report I live a long way from the borders, and don't have a lot of money. (Someone here said they were doing a $250,000 house renovation, which is more money than I've ever had.) Since Mr. Trump was inaugurated, my wife and I have kept our passports in our car's glovebox in case a sudden trip to Canada or Mexico with no planning becomes necessary. 213 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 1:42:14am down 2 up report South Korean envoys and Kim Jong Un see 'satisfactory result' of meeting (goes to UPI) SEOUL, March 5 (UPI) -- South Korean envoys reached an understanding with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during their four hour meeting in Pyongyang on Monday. South Korea's Presidential Spokesman Kim Eui-gyeom said Tuesday that the five-member delegation dispatched by President Moon Jae-in met with the North Korean leader for dinner and talks from 6 p.m. local time. The meeting reportedly ended with a satisfactory "result," which includes details of an inter-Korean summit, the spokesman said. (more at UPI) LOL thread: SAM NUNBERG: Did Trump collude with the Russians? Sure, but Roger Stone isn't-- ARBY'S DRIVE-THRU GUY: Buddy if you don't order soon we're gonna have to tow your car LOL this thread after Mr. Wright posted this: Oh no! Not #LegalWarning ! Anything but that. pic.twitter.com/8dEfCPCqm6 LOL this thread after Mr. Wright posted this: [Embedded content] Truth is a defense. 217 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 2:32:53am down 2 up report re: #216 Shiplord Kirel, live from behind wingnut lines Truth is a defense. And "the NRA is a terrorist organisation" is an opinion anyway. I don't think you can be prosecuted or sued for opinions. The wingnut in question who tried to flag him is apparently going through Twitter as fast as he can flagging anyone who expresses that opinion. I presume if he had a real counter-argument he would make it. Instead, he's afraid of speech. Good. 218 Lupin Mar 6, 2018 * 2:34:34am down 2 up report Not against twitter, it isn't. :-) To the extent that they are always projecting their "sins" onto others, this means they want YOU in gulags and death camps. Not surprising too; nazis of all kinds have always been exterminationists. Without resorting to Hitler, look at Argentina or Chile. If folks like Jones (our version of Julius Streicher, but less erudite) came into power, most of you here living on US soil would be "disappeared." I once had a Chilean TA who had just escaped being caught in Pinochet's dragnet of various lefties and had been able to free the country, this saving his life, and he was prone to remind us that it had all been perfectly legal and sanctioned by their Supreme Court. While your institutions are more solid than Chile's were then, there is so much more potential for violence; you guys are engaged in an existential fight for survival. This well observed tendency makes me wonder if their emphasis on pedophile and false flag operations is more than just lowest common denominator invective. 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 220 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 2:42:38am down 2 up report re: #219 Shiplord Kirel, live from behind wingnut lines Interestingly, way back when Alex Jones was first getting his start on Austin public access, he called into the Atheist Experience show (which also appeared on Austin public access at the time). He was a wingnut in the clip then (this was many years ago). (4:35) 221 Lupin Mar 6, 2018 * 2:45:58am down 4 up report Re the Tariffs War, the EU is as we speak gathering support from Canada, Mexico, Brazil, South Korea, Japan, Australia and Turkey to form a coalition that would "punish" US exports in a "proportionate" and "equivalent" manner. article (in English) Macron affirms we must react swiftly, etc. The European Parliament is up in arms. As the drums of trade war keep sounding louder, the EU Commission is trying to tone down the rhetoric in order to avoid the situation getting out of control with the "unpredictable" US president. But yesterday, the EU Commission reviewed a plan that would include billions in levies on U.S. exports, that in 2003 helped them vanquish GW Bush in a similar spat. 222 goddamnedfrank Mar 6, 2018 * 2:56:10am down 1 up report Re the Tariffs War, the EU is as we speak gathering support from Canada, Mexico, Brazil, South Korea, Japan, Australia and Turkey to form a coalition that would "punish" US exports in a "proportionate" and "equivalent" manner. article (in English) Macron affirms we must react swiftly, etc. The European Parliament is up in arms. As the drums of trade war keep sounding louder, the EU Commission is trying to tone down the rhetoric in order to avoid the situation getting out of control with the "unpredictable" US president. But yesterday, the EU Commission reviewed a plan that would include billions in levies on U.S. exports, that in 2003 helped them vanquish GW Bush in a similar spat. If they're smart they'll target their tariffs on products from States that Trump barely won. That will get his attention in a hurry. 223 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 2:59:35am down 1 up report LOL: EU officials explained that the Commission is in contact with other affected countries, including Canada, Brazil, South Korea, Japan, Australia and Turkey. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker described the announcement made by Trump as "stupid". But "we can also do stupid", he said last Friday. 224 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 3:00:28am down 2 up report If they're smart they'll target their tariffs on products from States that Trump barely won. That will get his attention in a hurry. They've already said they would target Harley-Davidson motorcycles (which is why Scott Walker called on Trump to abandon the idea), Levi's products, and Florida citrus. 225 Lupin Mar 6, 2018 * 3:01:24am down 1 up report If they're smart they'll target their tariffs on products from States that Trump barely won. That will get his attention in a hurry. Harley-Davidson is based in Wisconsin, home state of Paul Ryan, and Bourbon is mainly produced in Tennessee and Kentucky, home of Mitch McConnell, Officials in Brussels insist the list dates back to the last major commercial dispute in 2003 but acknowledged this had been recently adapted. 226 Dr Lizardo Mar 6, 2018 * 3:09:00am down 0 up report re: #220 Anymouse Wasn't Jones really big into Waco stuff, you know, after the Branch Davidian standoff? I could swear that's when I first heard the name 'Alex Jones' - it would've been shortly after the horrific conclusion to that standoff. Maybe I'm getting him confused with another wackaloon. 227 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 3:16:38am down 0 up report re: #226 Dr Lizardo Wasn't Jones really big into Waco stuff, you know, after the Branch Davidian standoff? I could swear that's when I first heard the name 'Alex Jones' - it would've been shortly after the horrific conclusion to that standoff. Maybe I'm getting him confused with another wackaloon. Yes. Alex Jones did a whole "documentary" on Waco. Link behind the privacy bar. (1:46:19, with appropriate scary music) 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 228 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 3:25:29am down 1 up report One for Teleskiguy: Maybe you should ask Governor Hickenlooper to do this /s Utah Governor prays for snow. 229 Dr Lizardo Mar 6, 2018 * 3:30:59am down 0 up report ZEjrD2t0szx9dgLKQlffeIVQjqxUGzU6JNRBJmeYMoe/sKJ3MzWuu0Gm4JMdv6g6Yg4RtbXy6f4K3Eo7P+ALBN4jmoB8GjmGkj3Lg4cCK7/jEi8oYS5Y6zxLqiR8Czss 230 darthstar Mar 6, 2018 * 3:33:04am down 3 up report It's 2018. I'll give you three guesses who the current President is, and you can't choose Obama or Clinton. 231 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 3:34:26am down 1 up report No precipitation in the local weather for the next week here, but a second day of fifty mph winds. My wife went into town yesterday and had real trouble keeping our little car on the road. She kept her speed down to thirty or so to keep control of the car. 232 jeffreyw Mar 6, 2018 * 3:36:50am down 6 up report The birds ate the cat. 235 darthstar Mar 6, 2018 * 3:42:39am down 2 up report Mueller today: About that alleged 'immunity' deal you imagined... 236 darthstar Mar 6, 2018 * 3:43:17am down 2 up report The birds ate the cat. That's what I was thinking. Place is getting popular. 237 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 3:49:31am down 2 up report That's what I was thinking. Place is getting popular. Calling Alfred Hitchcock... . 238 darthstar Mar 6, 2018 * 3:51:44am down 1 up report 239 darthstar Mar 6, 2018 * 3:52:33am down 2 up report Stupid show lawsuit - some 20 year old wants to buy a gun at Dick's. Just ask your dad to get it for you douchebag. 240 Dave In Austin Mar 6, 2018 * 3:55:10am down 2 up report Besides "Obama", the boys want their tail back. pic.twitter.com/3Hywri8dLL -- Dave's Not Believing this Crap ( @DaveoutofAustin ) March 6, 2018 241 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 3:57:06am down 1 up report Shouldn't really be showing you this. Mary Berry's passport photo. pic.twitter.com/7CtxDaAp5R 242 darthstar Mar 6, 2018 * 3:59:05am down 1 up report Great idea...though now he'll choose to remain anonymous because of the negative publicity. And alleged "death threats"....always with these snowflakes. 243 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 4:00:32am down 2 up report And they call liberals "snowflakes." Is there anything that isn't projection? Anything? 244 darthstar Mar 6, 2018 * 4:05:59am down 2 up report . @PressSec : "These men represent the very best of America, and remind us why it's so important to make sure our great veterans get the care they deserve." pic.twitter.com/ZKqN1MOeie Today, she'll have a kid on life support by the podium, and will pull the plug if @Acosta tries to ask a question. https://t.co/aTpkFNHcyg 245 Jay C Mar 6, 2018 * 4:06:36am down 1 up report LOL: EU officials explained that the Commission is in contact with other affected countries, including Canada, Brazil, South Korea, Japan, Australia and Turkey. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker described the announcement made by Trump as "stupid". But "we can also do stupid", he said last Friday. Not a good sign: these are Europeans - they've had centuries to perfect the art of "doing stupid" - hell, they were formulating and executing stupid policies since the US still belonged to the Indians. They are pros at the game... 246 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 4:17:29am down 6 up report That's why we need to elect more Democrats, because the GOP only uses us veterans and active duty as props to drive their voters to the polls. They don't care about us, and never did. Funding the VA does a lot more for me than waving the flag and mouthing platitudes. 247 Patricia Kayden Mar 6, 2018 * 4:18:31am down 0 up report re: #167 Anymouse All the best in your candidacy! Sounds very exciting. re: #220 Anymouse Interestingly, way back when Alex Jones was first getting his start on Austin public access, he called into the Atheist Experience show (which also appeared on Austin public access at the time). He was a wingnut in the clip then (this was many years ago). (4:35) [Embedded content] In conventional political terms, Jones was all over the map then, as now. His show had some appeal to local lefties because of his attacks on the military, law enforcement, corporations, and the Bush family. His brand of anti-science also emphasized new age woo like UFOs and ESP over religious right anti-science like creationism. Libertarianism was not a well understood concept among the mass audience at that time. He was also publicly agnostic then, which certainly did not endear him to conventional wingnuts. It is a subject he avoids these days. 249 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light)) Mar 6, 2018 * 4:37:41am down 2 up report re: #248 Shiplord Kirel, live from behind wingnut lines In conventional political terms, Jones was all over the map then, as now. Like Rush, he is first and foremost a businessman, and he directs his content at a target audience so he can charge more for his advertising time. One can only admire these fellows for attracting such a large and homogeneous audience to make their advertising time that profitable. 250 Dave In Austin Mar 6, 2018 * 4:55:47am down 1 up report @elonmusk Elon, From your test site on the 3rd. Barred owl https://t.co/Lik289k5tN pic.twitter.com/DNmkYCNvl4 -- Dave's Not Believing this Crap ( @DaveoutofAustin ) March 6, 2018 251 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 4:55:54am down 2 up report OMG! Does anyone else see 1000 arrows pointing directly at this clowns relationship with Carter Page? But in his call with the AP, Nunberg said he might be more willing to comply if Mueller's team limits the scope of its request. "I'm happy if the scope changes and if they send me a subpoena that doesn't include Carter Page," he said, insisting the two had never spoken. 252 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 4:59:01am down 3 up report Alabama Senator advances a Ten Commandments state constitution amendment to display that in all public schools to "deter school shootings." Cause ya know, Separation of Church and State really isn't a thing to conservatives, nor is a practical solution like regulating firearms. alreporter.com (Alabama Political Reporter, more at the link) The Alabama Senate on Tuesday approved a bill by Sen. Gerald Dial, R-Lineville, that would authorize a state referendum on whether to allow the display of the Ten Commandments on public property and public schools -- a proposal he says may prevent some mass shootings. The bill passed the Legislature's upper chamber by a vote of 23 to 3 after Dial told lawmakers that displaying the Ten Commandments might dissuade some school shooters from carrying out an attack. "I believe that if you had the Ten Commandments posted in a prominent place in school, it has the possibility to prohibit some student from taking action to kill other students," Dial said. 253 wheat-dogg Mar 6, 2018 * 5:01:07am down 3 up report More magical thinking. 254 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light)) Mar 6, 2018 * 5:04:21am down 4 up report re: #252 Anymouse Alabama Senator advances a Ten Commandments state constitution amendment to display that in all public schools to "deter school shootings." "I believe that if you had the Ten Commandments posted in a prominent place in school, it has the possibility to prohibit some student from taking action to kill other students," Dial said. The Ten commandments: scientifically proven to be three times more effective than both Thoughts and Prayers combined!!! re: #252 Anymouse Alabama Senator advances a Ten Commandments state constitution amendment to display that in all public schools to "deter school shootings." Cause ya know, Separation of Church and State really isn't a thing to conservatives, nor is a practical solution like regulating firearms. alreporter.com (Alabama Political Reporter, more at the link) A hundred years ago, westerners mocked superstitious shamanists who believed that magic would shield them from enemy bullets. The Chinese "Boxers" and various African groups were usually cited. As far as anyone knows, all were proven wrong. Nevertheless, the tradition apparently continues with the superstitious natives of Alabama. 256 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light)) Mar 6, 2018 * 5:27:06am down 3 up report re: #255 Shiplord Kirel, live from behind wingnut lines A hundred years ago, westerners mocked superstitious shamanists who believed that magic would shield them from enemy bullets. The Chinese "Boxers" and various African groups were usually cited. As far as anyone knows, all were proven wrong. Nevertheless, the tradition apparently continues with the superstitious natives of Alabama. because they were heathens and barbarians, not believers in The True Faith 257 Dr Lizardo Mar 6, 2018 * 5:33:09am down 7 up report re: #255 Shiplord Kirel, live from behind wingnut lines A hundred years ago, westerners mocked superstitious shamanists who believed that magic would shield them from enemy bullets. The Chinese "Boxers" and various African groups were usually cited. As far as anyone knows, all were proven wrong. Nevertheless, the tradition apparently continues with the superstitious natives of Alabama. What a bunch of primitive screwheads. 258 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 5:33:23am down 5 up report More magical thinking. a) Pass unconstitutional bill to add amendment to state constitution. b) Challenge to amendment in court. c) State spends tens of millions of dollars defending amendment. d) Amendment struck down as an unconstitutional marking like fire hydrants of public schools with religious indoctrination. e) Cut education budget to pay for court fights. f) Profit. That is why conservatives do things like this. They aren't meant to stand up to court scrutiny. They are meant to drain public school budgets. 259 HappyWarrior Mar 6, 2018 * 5:35:47am down 1 up report re: #258 Anymouse a) Pass unconstitutional bill to add amendment to state constitution. b) Challenge to amendment in court. c) State spends tens of millions of dollars defending amendment. d) Amendment struck down as an unconstitutional marking like fire hydrants of public schools with religious indoctrination. e) Cut education budget to pay for court fights. f) Profit. That is why conservatives do things like this. They aren't meant to stand up to court scrutiny. They are meant to drain public school budgets. Well that and they're stunts for the RR who believe the worst bs about public schools but that does go with your aforementioned point about the budget for schools. 260 Dave In Austin Mar 6, 2018 * 5:40:07am down 8 up report Oh my God! Lowest rated Oscars in HISTORY. Problem is, we don't have Stars anymore - except your President (just kidding, of course)! -- Donald J. Trump ( @realDonaldTrump ) March 6, 2018 261 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 5:41:14am down 3 up report Well that and they're stunts for the RR who believe the worst bs about public schools but that does go with your aforementioned point about the budget for schools. It's also like all these ridiculous court fights over city council invocations, despite Town of Greece v Galloway where they try to prohibit non-Christian religious leaders or atheists from offering invocations. My town has no such invocation and never did. We just get down to the job at hand. 262 HappyWarrior Mar 6, 2018 * 5:43:57am down 1 up report 263 HappyWarrior Mar 6, 2018 * 5:44:45am down 1 up report re: #261 Anymouse It's also like all these ridiculous court fights over city council invocations, despite Town of Greece v Galloway where they try to prohibit non-Christian religious leaders or atheists from offering invocations. My town has no such invocation and never did. We just get down to the job at hand. Right and that's also meant to make non Christians feel unwelcome. 264 bill d. (b.d.) Mar 6, 2018 * 5:56:52am down 1 up report 265 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 5:57:57am down 1 up report Right and that's also meant to make non Christians feel unwelcome. I watched a clip of an Arizona city meeting, where all the Republicans got up and walked out at the start of an invocation by an atheist. At that second if I was sitting on that town board, I would have demanded a quorum count, and upon determining the majority of the city council had left, suspended the meeting. I forget which state it is, but after a Democratic lawmaker (Virginia?) invited an imam to give the opening invocation, the chaplaincy office for the legislature wrote a new rule to prohibit inviting anyone except a leader in your church/mosque/synagogue &c. That has the effect of banning Muslims and atheists (no Muslim members of the legislature, no atheist members, no atheist organisation ordains ministers). 266 Barefoot Grin Mar 6, 2018 * 5:59:11am down 1 up report From Glenn Beck's parallel universe-Hollywood dream to reports about how PragerU is invigorating an emerging conservative intellectual surge (this morning on FnF, elsewhere), there is some dream the "SJWs" are going to be put in their places. Trump's tweet is latching on to that. 267 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 5:59:59am down 1 up report re: #224 Anymouse They've already said they would target Harley-Davidson motorcycles (which is why Scott Walker called on Trump to abandon the idea), Levi's products, and Florida citrus. And Kentucky bourbon (McConnell) 268 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 6:07:23am down 4 up report re: #266 Barefoot Grin From Glenn Beck's parallel universe-Hollywood dream to reports about how PragerU is invigorating an emerging conservative intellectual surge (this morning on FnF, elsewhere), there is some dream the "SJWs" are going to be put in their places. Trump's tweet is latching on to that. PragerU. Dennis Prager, former Orthodox Jew who converted to Christianity, dropped out of college, demands politicians swear in on a Bible or they are "violating their oath of office," and started a diploma mill? Yup, that's conservatism. He missed the trifecta: He hasn't been convicted of anything yet 269 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 6:07:31am down 1 up report re: #252 Anymouse "I believe that if you had the Ten Commandments posted in a prominent place in school , it has the possibility to prohibit some student from taking action to kill other students Fill in the already talked about 1000 solutions of your choice 270 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 6:10:18am down 1 up report "I believe that if you had the Ten Commandments posted in a prominent place in school , it has the possibility to prohibit some student from taking action to kill other students Fill in the already talked about 1000 solutions of your choice How about X Commandments posters made out of Kevlar? You could use it as a shield (but so could the shooter). /s 271 makeitstop Mar 6, 2018 * 6:11:30am down 2 up report I'm surprised that no one mentioned Chuck Connors in 'Branded' in the conversation about anti-heroes in old TV Westerns. "I believe that if you had the Ten Commandments posted in a prominent place in school , it has the possibility to prohibit some student from taking action to kill other students Fill in the already talked about 1000 solutions of your choice Ferengi Rules of Acquisition? Nah, I don't think conservatives would be that honest. 273 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 6:14:25am down 0 up report "I believe that if you had the Ten Commandments posted in a prominent place in school , it has the possibility to prohibit some student from taking action to kill other students Fill in the already talked about 1000 solutions of your choice in case i wasnt clear enough the general nra/gop response to everything is "it wont work" marco said it many times in the last few weeks background checks, age restrictions, registrations, "assault rifle bans", and on and on if the new standard is "has the possibility..." - then we should be willing to try them all, and right quick! 274 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 6:14:41am down 5 up report They will never stop until we're in a new Dark Age. "There aren't sufficient scientific facts to establish the theory of evolution" EPA Administrator Pruitt is heard saying in newly surfaced talk radio tapes from 2005 https://t.co/ldKzHkXXHt 275 Dave In Austin Mar 6, 2018 * 6:15:30am down 2 up report That's N. and S. Korea.... You've played the #instigator at the peril of all parties involved. -- Dave's Not Believing this Crap ( @DaveoutofAustin ) March 6, 2018 276 ObserverArt Mar 6, 2018 * 6:18:42am down 5 up report Are you running a "special" at Jeffrey's Fly-In Diner today? Place is packed. 277 HappyWarrior Mar 6, 2018 * 6:19:37am down 2 up report re: #266 Barefoot Grin From Glenn Beck's parallel universe-Hollywood dream to reports about how PragerU is invigorating an emerging conservative intellectual surge (this morning on FnF, elsewhere), there is some dream the "SJWs" are going to be put in their places. Trump's tweet is latching on to that. Lol, Bovine University carries more weight than Prager U. For people who claim liberals live in echo chambers, conservatives do it tons more themselves. 278 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 6:19:53am down 2 up report I have the weirdest followers. This guy just followed me: Internationally Recognized Hair Transplant Surgeon Hair Transplant Centre 1-8XX-7XX-4XXXX (HAIR). And Barack Obama follows him (yes, the real Barack). 279 HappyWarrior Mar 6, 2018 * 6:21:05am down 0 up report re: #265 Anymouse I watched a clip of an Arizona city meeting, where all the Republicans got up and walked out at the start of an invocation by an atheist. At that second if I was sitting on that town board, I would have demanded a quorum count, and upon determining the majority of the city council had left, suspended the meeting. I forget which state it is, but after a Democratic lawmaker (Virginia?) invited an imam to give the opening invocation, the chaplaincy office for the legislature wrote a new rule to prohibit inviting anyone except a leader in your church/mosque/synagogue &c. That has the effect of banning Muslims and atheists (no Muslim members of the legislature, no atheist members, no atheist organisation ordains ministers). I don't think it was Va. Wouldn't have flown here. Republicans/conservatives can't tooera anything other than conservative Christianity or if they're having a good day, Judaism. 280 ObserverArt Mar 6, 2018 * 6:21:32am down 4 up report re: #240 Dave In Austin [Embedded content] If there is one photo on the internet that pisses me off more than Lunkhead Jr. with the severed elephant's tail I don't know what it would be. And there are a lot of upsetting images. I so hope there is karma payback for that act. 281 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 6:22:00am down 0 up report I have the weirdest followers. This guy just followed me: Internationally Recognized Hair Transplant Surgeon Hair Transplant Centre 1-8XX-7XX-4XXXX (HAIR). And Barack Obama follows him (yes, the real Barack). Is Barack Obama's new job "Hair Transplant Surgeon?" 282 HappyWarrior Mar 6, 2018 * 6:22:39am down 1 up report re: #281 Anymouse Is Barack Obama's new job "Hair Transplant Surgeon?" Soros stopped paying the bills.// 283 Dr Lizardo Mar 6, 2018 * 6:22:44am down 1 up report re: #268 Anymouse PragerU. Dennis Prager, former Orthodox Jew who converted to Christianity, dropped out of college, demands politicians swear in on a Bible or they are "violating their oath of office," and started a diploma mill? Yup, that's conservatism. He missed the trifecta: He hasn't been convicted of anything yet Maybe he'll be convicted for running a diploma mill. 284 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 6:23:46am down 0 up report re: #281 Anymouse Is Barack Obama's new job "Hair Transplant Surgeon?" No. This guy is a hair transplant surgeon in Canada. And, for whatever reason, Obama is following him. 285 HappyWarrior Mar 6, 2018 * 6:24:31am down 1 up report re: #283 Dr Lizardo Maybe he'll be convicted for running a diploma mill. I get ads for his joke in my FB feed because I have a few friends that buy his shit. I'm going to point out to them that Denny is inspiration for Officer Barbrady on South Park. 286 HappyWarrior Mar 6, 2018 * 6:25:42am down 2 up report No. This guy is a hair transplant surgeon in Canada. And, for whatever reason, Obama is following him. For some reason I'm thinking of the ad for Maury's wigs in Goodfellas. 287 Eventual Carrion Mar 6, 2018 * 6:25:46am down 3 up report re: #268 Anymouse PragerU. Dennis Prager, former Orthodox Jew who converted to Christianity, dropped out of college, demands politicians swear in on a Bible or they are "violating their oath of office," and started a diploma mill? Yup, that's conservatism. He missed the trifecta: He hasn't been convicted of anything yet Article 6 paragraph 3 of US Constitution: The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States . The guy is a fucking moron leading around morons. 288 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 6:27:23am down 0 up report I don't think it was Va. Wouldn't have flown here. Republicans/conservatives can't tooera anything other than conservative Christianity or if they're having a good day, Judaism. You're correct. I tracked it down on the atheist forum I run because I remember noting it when it happened. It is Oklahoma (I remember why I left that state: Mary Fallin was elected and we got the heck out). Trevor Brown of Oklahoma Watch obtained a copy of that letter and notes that the rules effectively shut out religious minorities and atheists from delivering those invocations. That's because Strohm's letter makes clear that his colleagues should nominate speakers from "the representative's own place of worship"... Which is very convenient when the Oklahoma State House is overwhelmingly Christian. (more) 289 ObserverArt Mar 6, 2018 * 6:28:10am down 3 up report re: #246 Anymouse That's why we need to elect more Democrats, because the GOP only uses us veterans and active duty as props to drive their voters to the polls. They don't care about us, and never did. Funding the VA does a lot more for me than waving the flag and mouthing platitudes. I wish that sentiment would be made more clear for conservatives to have to deal with that reality. They fall for the BS every time. Is there some kind of a Veterans Group that addresses the politics of that? Is there anyone that can let America know that a majority of veterans get screwed by GOP "all Talk-No Policy" every time and can site all the issues that get all the talk and none of the action? It is needed. Democrats, liberals, progressives need to make this clear and maybe take that talking point away from the GOP and conservatives. 290 The Vicious Babushka Mar 6, 2018 * 6:28:11am down 4 up report re: #255 Shiplord Kirel, live from behind wingnut lines A hundred years ago, westerners mocked superstitious shamanists who believed that magic would shield them from enemy bullets. The Chinese "Boxers" and various African groups were usually cited. As far as anyone knows, all were proven wrong. Nevertheless, the tradition apparently continues with the superstitious natives of Alabama. The Ghost Dancers. 291 lawhawk Mar 6, 2018 * 6:30:52am down 5 up report re: #260 Dave In Austin Trump's been busy tweeting about everything and anything but the fact that Nunberg basically stated that Trump knew or had reason to know of the Russia meeting in June 2016 before the meeting occurred and that Mueller's already got info on Trump. So, what's Trump's disorganized tweets about this morning? The Oscars, DACA, etc. More people are leaving than coming in. You've failed to fill 100s of diplomatic posts and are undermining US natsec daily. We need diplomats to further soft power of US and here you are ceding ground to Russia and China everywhere you look. You're the worst presidency in our nation's history. And that's saying something. You are mired in more scandals and corruption than every other presidency combined. This reactionary know nothing vulgarian is presiding over an admin that is looting and fleecing the Treasury at every opportunity. And they're instituting the most extreme judiciary makeover in generations thanks to McConnell's obstructionism preventing Obama from making nominations to the federal bench, including Garland's stolen seat on the Supreme Court. So much of what's gone wrong with the nation can be traced not to Trump, but McConnell. And that too should be a vivid reminder that the GOP is the real problem here - Trump's just a symptom of the moral rot. 292 Belafon Mar 6, 2018 * 6:31:31am down 10 up report I did my voting in the primary this morning. I don't think I've had that many people to choose in the Democratic primary TOTAL over the previous eight primaries. 293 HappyWarrior Mar 6, 2018 * 6:32:34am down 0 up report re: #288 Anymouse You're correct. I tracked it down on the atheist forum I run because I remember noting it when it happened. It is Oklahoma (I remember why I left that state: Mary Fallin was elected and we got the heck out). Yeah I was going to say because we've had Dem governors except for 09-13 and while I don't like McDonnell, I think he would have put a stop on that. 294 Belafon Mar 6, 2018 * 6:32:40am down 3 up report re: #255 Shiplord Kirel, live from behind wingnut lines I think they need to prove to us that they're willing to stand in front of a firing squad and prove that prayer will keep the bullets from hitting them. 295 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 6:33:44am down 5 up report It's like Nunberg is giving Mueller a roadmap, and all roads lead to... pic.twitter.com/Ihh3k7Ump6 Is he morning drinking or just plain dumb? 297 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 6:34:25am down 3 up report re: #287 Eventual Carrion Article 6 paragraph 3 of US Constitution: The guy is a fucking moron leading around morons. It's amazing how many conservatives hold the same view. When I was elected, I had to get an opinion from the state attorney general because our state laws say you must take an oath under God. (I was prepared to challenge the law in court if he ruled I could not take an affirmation.) 298 Decatur Deb Mar 6, 2018 * 6:35:09am down 2 up report re: #290 The Vicious Babushka The Ghost Dancers. "I wear the morning star." (I really do--it's the retro tape symbol I put on the back of my motorcycle helmets.) 299 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 6:35:19am down 8 up report I find Trump's turnover is record-setting, more than triple that of Obama and double that of Reagan. In looking at why Trump has experienced such high turnover, I argue he has valued loyalty over qualifications and suffered from a White House that has functioned in a chaotic manner. my itals 300 Dr Lizardo Mar 6, 2018 * 6:35:20am down 1 up report re: #294 Belafon I think they need to prove to us that they're willing to stand in front of a firing squad and prove that prayer will keep the bullets from hitting them. Yeah....something like, "Just take a seat right here, buddy. Are you all nice and comfy? Good. Then let's get this demo started, shall we?" 301 Sir John Barron Mar 6, 2018 * 6:36:42am down 2 up report re: #266 Barefoot Grin From Glenn Beck's parallel universe-Hollywood dream to reports about how PragerU is invigorating an emerging conservative intellectual surge (this morning on FnF, elsewhere), there is some dream the "SJWs" are going to be put in their places. Trump's tweet is latching on to that. Good grief that dude runs his own "college"? 302 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 6:37:05am down 1 up report I wish that sentiment would be made more clear for conservatives to have to deal with that reality. They fall for the BS every time. Is there some kind of a Veterans Group that addresses the politics of that? Is there anyone that can let America know that a majority of veterans get screwed by GOP "all Talk-No Policy" every time and can site all the issues that get all the talk and none of the action? It is needed. Democrats, liberals, progressives need to make this clear and maybe take that talking point away from the GOP and conservatives. VoteVets addresses it. The large organisations (the VFW, American Legion, DAV, &c) all do the flag-waving religious stuff. 303 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 6:37:12am down 2 up report Is he morning drinking or just plain dumb? That's from last night. He apparently had a call with the AP and said that he'd cooperate with Mueller if the latter removed the Carter Page requirement...which Nunburg said he had zero contact with. If you had zero contact with this person, why exclude something that doesn't supposedly exist. Like I said...all roads lead to Page. 304 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 6:38:12am down 0 up report re: #301 Sir John Barron Good grief that dude runs his own "college"? Yup. Watch YouTube videos, get a diploma (for $). Short break ... Back in a while. 305 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Mar 6, 2018 * 6:38:45am down 0 up report Morning Lizardim. What fresh hell awaits me upon my return from the snowpocalypse? 306 HappyWarrior Mar 6, 2018 * 6:38:57am down 0 up report re: #301 Sir John Barron Good grief that dude runs his own "college"? Yeah you go there after you get an associates from the one D'Souza ran.// 307 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 6:41:13am down 1 up report I think they need to prove to us that they're willing to stand in front of a firing squad and prove that prayer will keep the bullets from hitting them. i'd give them the benefit of the doubt let them put up the 10 commandments - with a caption right under - "posted to deter shootings" and in exchange, here's a list of other things we're gonna do at the same time that also have about the same possibility of deterring shootings the new standard is "possibility" they set it themselves 308 lawhawk Mar 6, 2018 * 6:41:16am down 14 up report Trump brought in cronies with zero policy experience. He values loyalty to him over all else, including competency to do the job he's intended for them to do. So, between picking extremists who are intent on destroying the very departments they're running and incompetents who are allowing agencies to falter and fail because they just don't know what they're doing, he's got the government in a tailspin. And his admin is a shitshow of rivalries who are intent on showing how loyal they are to Trump by throwing everyone else under the bus by claiming they aren't sufficiently loyal to him. It's a cancerous and toxic environment, and Trump thinks that all this is normal, because this is how he runs his businesses (into the ground and has seem them become so highly leveraged that he's compromised by all the money he owes to foreign countries and banks). 309 Dr Lizardo Mar 6, 2018 * 6:41:25am down 0 up report re: #301 Sir John Barron Good grief that dude runs his own "college"? Yeah, a diploma mill, basically. 310 ObserverArt Mar 6, 2018 * 6:44:18am down 2 up report re: #274 Anymouse They will never stop until we're in a new Dark Age. [Embedded content] Modern Republican Party - You can turn back the clock! If you are a knuckle dragger, we are your party. Take your country back, back, back, back to the beginning when everything was simple, men were manly and women never asked and there was no controls on your life. We were all FREE and we can be again. 311 HappyWarrior Mar 6, 2018 * 6:45:21am down 0 up report re: #309 Dr Lizardo Yeah, a diploma mill, basically. If I were a hiring manager and I saw that on a resume, I'd put that behind a Liberty University degree because as bad as LU is, at least it seems to offer some education rather than being a cash scheme for Officer Barbrady's inspiration. 312 makeitstop Mar 6, 2018 * 6:45:45am down 9 up report Weatherman is calling for 6 to 12 inches of snow here tomorrow. While I was in Florida, my wife texted to me that Lowe's was running a clearance on snow blowers. She had the day off yesterday, so we went and got one. This guarantees that we'll be getting mostly rain tomorrow, because that is simply how things work. re: #301 Sir John Barron Good grief that dude runs his own "college"? It's even dodgier than Trump University. 314 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 6:47:57am down 7 up report Trump brought in cronies with zero policy experience. He values loyalty to him over all else, including competency to do the job he's intended for them to do..../blockquote> here's a new one: Norm Eisen: "This is insane. In the Obama White House, I even made people quit uncompensated non-profit outside positions because of conflicts risks. This is FOR profit work that could conflict with official duties. Prediction: by end of Trump admin, prisons will be full of his associates." 315 darthstar Mar 6, 2018 * 6:49:02am down 3 up report Great idea...though now he'll choose to remain anonymous because of the negative publicity. And alleged "death threats"....always with these snowflakes. It's Joe Biden. And if you don't get that I was mocking the insecurity of gun humpers I can't help you. 316 lawhawk Mar 6, 2018 * 6:50:05am down 6 up report Winter storm warnings are up for NYC metro. We're probably in the 8-12 inch band of snow, but I'm thinking we might see more than that. 317 lawhawk Mar 6, 2018 * 6:51:43am down 12 up report Thoughts and prayers. Seriously, this treasonous toad is lucky he's just being forced to sell his house. 318 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 6:52:58am down 1 up report i'd give them the benefit of the doubt let them put up the 10 commandments - with a caption right under - "posted to deter shootings" and in exchange, here's a list of other things we're gonna do at the same time that also have about the same possibility of deterring shootings the new standard is "possibility" they set it themselves Can we make sure that Thoughts & Prayers (tm) are included? 319 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Mar 6, 2018 * 6:53:11am down 0 up report re: #316 lawhawk Winter storm warnings are up for NYC metro. We're probably in the 8-12 inch band of snow, but I'm thinking we might see more than that. We wound up getting 6" yesterday, with a little bit still left to come in during the day today (maybe an inch or so). The thing is, with the 20-30 mph winds, it piled up in places; my driveway was basically one large snowdrift that was over 2' deep in places. Oh, and my snowblower broke down; I think I burned out the drive clutch. I'll have to open her up this week and figure it out. 320 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 6:54:57am down 2 up report Trump brought in cronies with zero policy experience. He values loyalty to him over all else, including competency to do the job he's intended for them to do. So, between picking extremists who are intent on destroying the very departments they're running and incompetents who are allowing agencies to falter and fail because they just don't know what they're doing, he's got the government in a tailspin. And his admin is a shitshow of rivalries who are intent on showing how loyal they are to Trump by throwing everyone else under the bus by claiming they aren't sufficiently loyal to him. It's a cancerous and toxic environment, and Trump thinks that all this is normal, because this is how he runs his businesses (into the ground and has seem them become so highly leveraged that he's compromised by all the money he owes to foreign countries and banks). Eugene Robinson had a good article in the WaPo this morning. Trump and his family have refused to divest themselves of their businesses or even draw more than a flimsy veil between their official actions and the impact those actions have on their personal finances. Does the administration's policy toward Panama really have nothing to do with a bitter dispute over the Trump-branded hotel in Panama City? Does the administration's tough new attitude toward Qatar really have nothing to do with that nation's refusal to invest in Jared Kushner's debt-laden real estate company? It's not the potential answers to those questions that are so corrosive; it's the questions themselves. As in many countries whose governance we scoff at, Americans must now wonder whether policy is being tailored for our leaders' personal gain. When the rule of law and financial probity can no longer be assumed, the vacuum is filled with conspiracy theories. The president himself is a conspiratorialist par excellence; he was, after all, the chief purveyor of the birther nonsense. Since neither his words nor those of his press office can be believed, it is natural -- but incredibly damaging -- to assume that the real story is being hidden from us, for reasons that must be nefarious. 321 makeitstop Mar 6, 2018 * 6:55:37am down 2 up report Winter storm warnings are up for NYC metro. We're probably in the 8-12 inch band of snow, but I'm thinking we might see more than that. I'm honestly not looking forward to this. Hopefully this will be winter's last gasp and we can all move on to better seasons. I'm looking out at the garden, and my wife's lilies and orchids were fooled and have begun to sprout. They're peeking out from under the leaf-and-mulch cover. Gonna be another late bloom this year after the snow decimates them again. 322 lawhawk Mar 6, 2018 * 6:56:01am down 2 up report re: #319 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. That sucks about the snowblower. I killed my snowblower earlier this winter - it was an electric model and the impeller got so completely warped out of shape that it stopped spinning altogether. Picked up a replacement for cheap - Snow Joe has a outlet center not too far away, so it made sense to get one there. Even if it lasts a couple of seasons, it's worth it and beats trying to shovel everything out by hand. 323 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 6:56:38am down 2 up report Weatherman is calling for 6 to 12 inches of snow here tomorrow. While I was in Florida, my wife texted to me that Lowe's was running a clearance on snow blowers. She had the day off yesterday, so we went and got one. This guarantees that we'll be getting mostly rain tomorrow, because that is simply how things work. Congratulations for saving your region from a snowpocalypse! 324 makeitstop Mar 6, 2018 * 6:57:15am down 2 up report Congratulations for saving your region from a snowpocalypse! We do what we can. ;) 325 HappyWarrior Mar 6, 2018 * 6:57:46am down 2 up report Poor baby. Karmas a bitch. 326 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 6:59:02am down 3 up report Eugene Robinson had a good article in the WaPo this morning. It's not the potential answers to those questions that are so corrosive; it's the questions themselves. not enough people see this - that the questions are being asked means it's already gone too far 327 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 6:59:31am down 5 up report It's like someone comparing me to the "dog" in my profile picture. Ignorance personified. And man, do they have opinions! Too bad they don't have a modicum of intelligence to support those opinions. (My profile pic is an Egyptian relic I took a picture of at the U of Penn exhibit.) 328 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 7:01:06am down 3 up report On a positive note, he won't be homeless. He will be in prison for life. On a negative note, we will be paying for his room and board for life. 329 ObserverArt Mar 6, 2018 * 7:02:57am down 5 up report That's from last night. He apparently had a call with the AP and said that he'd cooperate with Mueller if the latter removed the Carter Page requirement...which Nunburg said he had zero contact with. If you had zero contact with this person, why exclude something that doesn't supposedly exist. Like I said...all roads lead to Page. I don't think Page would be singularly in charge of anything. What I do think is Roger Stone seems to have a group that did all the dirty work and the coordinating with the Russians. Let's just call them Stoners, because they are wacky like they are stoned. Part of the plan may be to act all outlandish and goofy so no one takes any one of them seriously. They may also be so goofy as to be dumb enough to take the fall so no higher up gets touched. True Believers that are expendable. I think Stone and Manafort are tied together as they have been for a long long time. Manafort the brains and money handler, Stone the guy that gets the goofs together to pull the capers. Even Michael Cohen the lawyer might be part of the group...another useful idiot ready to cover for The Big Don. And Nunberg may not have talked to Page or even know him directly. But he sure as hell knows who he is and staying away from Page in the investigations may allow him to do what he wants and that is protect Stone knowing that is the connection for him to the Trump campaign. I think Mueller knows the whole game now and this is why he is applying pressure to Nunberg. He knows he isn't that bright and so damn glib that he will give it up by trying to cover it up. 330 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 7:03:17am down 2 up report (My profile pic is an Egyptian relic I took a picture of at the U of Penn exhibit.) you mean you're not an actual dog that owns a twitter account? i am now depressed 331 Sir John Barron Mar 6, 2018 * 7:03:31am down 0 up report Winter storm warnings are up for NYC metro. We're probably in the 8-12 inch band of snow, but I'm thinking we might see more than that. What the what? 332 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light)) Mar 6, 2018 * 7:04:17am down 1 up report Trump brought in cronies with zero policy experience. He values loyalty to him over all else, including competency to do the job he's intended for them to do. A lot of qualified people he might have accepted for the jobs did not want to sully their reputations by association with the Trump administration. That is also a reason that he has to settle for loyalist hacks or leave vital positions unfilled. 333 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 7:05:00am down 2 up report On a positive note, he won't be homeless. He will be in prison for life. On a negative note, we will be paying for his room and board for life. part of the price of freedom is paying to prosecute and lock up those who would threaten it 334 Lupin Mar 6, 2018 * 7:05:33am down 6 up report re: #255 Shiplord Kirel, live from behind wingnut lines A hundred years ago, westerners mocked superstitious shamanists who believed that magic would shield them from enemy bullets. The Chinese "Boxers" and various African groups were usually cited. As far as anyone knows, all were proven wrong. Nevertheless, the tradition apparently continues with the superstitious natives of Alabama. The recent poll figures are interesting. My first thought was, given the Trump chaos, perhaps the worst in US history, why are not the Dems a gazillion points ahead? I think there are two factors: 1) there are a significant number of "Never Ds" out there, and frankly there always will be, and 2) I think there is an incorrect assumption being made that some Americans want or even understand what's good for them/their country. It seems idiotic to suggest that people do not want the best outcome, but there are a lot of stupid/ignorant people out there. I am reconciled to the belief that a lot of people voting for Trump didn't do it foolishly but because they wanted out of everything that is the world of today; H*ll, they probably don't even know what these "things" are or the consequences of rejecting them, but they sure voted to reject them. In fact, I suspect many are looking at the Dems right now, and thinking, "what's the point of voting Trump out if that's what we get in his place?" I don't blame the Dems. The fact is, the whole sorry mess is solidly down to the Republicans, but I feel quite sure that many Americans are not ready (yet?) to swap chaos for a return to sanity. 335 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 7:07:49am down 3 up report I don't think Page would be singularly in charge of anything. What I do think is Roger Stone seems to have a group that did all the dirty work and the coordinating with the Russians. Let's just call them Stoners, because they are wacky like they are stoned. Part of the plan may be to act all outlandish and goofy so no one takes any one of them seriously. They may also be so goofy as to be dumb enough to take the fall so no higher up gets touched. True Believers that are expendable. I think Stone and Manafort are tied together as they have been for a long long time. Manafort the brains and money handler, Stone the guy that gets the goofs together to pull that capers. Even Michael Cohen the lawyer might be part of the group...another useful idiot ready to cover for The Big Don. And Nunberg may not have talked to Page or even know him directly. But he sure as hell knows who he is and staying away from Page in the investigations may allow him to do what he wants and that is protect Stone knowing that is the connection for him to the Trump campaign. I think Mueller knows the whole game now and this is why he applying pressure to Nunberg. He knows he isn't that bright and so damn glib that he will give it up by trying to cover it up. While they may not have had emails to/from Page, I can guarantee that they discussed him and how they could play Fuck With Everyone (because, that's Stone's specialty). There has to be something extremely damaging in there for this to be the response. And the funniest part is that Mueller almost certainly has this information already, making his entire exercise pointless. 336 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Mar 6, 2018 * 7:07:56am down 1 up report re: #322 lawhawk That sucks about the snowblower. I killed my snowblower earlier this winter - it was an electric model and the impeller got so completely warped out of shape that it stopped spinning altogether. Picked up a replacement for cheap - Snow Joe has a outlet center not too far away, so it made sense to get one there. Even if it lasts a couple of seasons, it's worth it and beats trying to shovel everything out by hand. This snowblower is more than 20 years old; it was my dad's, he brought it north when he got a blade for his big truck. I've been running it and taking care of it ever since. I'm not sure if I am going to fix it or replace it. It runs brilliantly, but it is old enough that it might be a wiser investment to get a newer model. 337 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 7:08:43am down 3 up report And Nunberg may not have talked to Page or even know him directly. But he sure as hell knows who he is and staying away from Page in the investigations may allow him to do what he wants and that is protect Stone knowing that is the connection for him to the Trump campaign. also doesnt mean nunberg wasnt cc'd on stuff originated by or sent to paige or that he had written/emailed conversations about him 338 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 7:09:02am down 2 up report you mean you're not an actual dog that owns a twitter account? i am now depressed Sorry. Not a dog. His point, however, was that I was an ugly liberal dog, just like my profile pic. Idiots, every last one. 339 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 7:09:39am down 5 up report part of the price of freedom is paying to prosecute and lock up those who would threaten it I am more than willing to have all my taxes go to housing these pricks for life. More than willing! 340 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 7:10:04am down 1 up report re: #332 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light)) A lot of qualified people he might have accepted for the jobs did not want to sully their reputations by association with the Trump administration. That is also a reason that he has to settle for loyalist hacks or leave vital positions unfilled. he certainly doesnt inspire people to greatness and excellence 341 lawhawk Mar 6, 2018 * 7:11:20am down 12 up report Kobach should be more than fined. He should be disbarred for violating his oath and abusing his position by lying to the courts. https://t.co/06bRzd6DKM you mean you're not an actual dog that owns a twitter account? i am now depressed 343 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 7:11:34am down 10 up report The new Fake News narrative is that there is CHAOS in the White House. Wrong! People will always come & go, and I want strong dialogue before making a final decision. I still have some people that I want to change (always seeking perfection). There is no Chaos, only great Energy! -- Donald J. Trump ( @realDonaldTrump ) March 6, 2018 The real problem isn't chaos, it's massive corruption that is often pre-planned and effective. Chaos helps mask it though. Now I'll watch pundits fight the chaos strawman instead of analyzing the corruption. https://t.co/GOJNyqh4TO 344 HappyWarrior Mar 6, 2018 * 7:14:07am down 6 up report Daily reminder that Romney made this guy his immigration adviser. 345 lawhawk Mar 6, 2018 * 7:16:06am down 6 up report Daily reminder that Trump made Kobach his voter suppression guy. 346 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 7:16:26am down 5 up report Dems winning the Senate in Alabama is them being a gazillion points ahead. 347 HappyWarrior Mar 6, 2018 * 7:16:49am down 2 up report Daily reminder that Trump made Kobach his voter suppression guy. Yep he's tied to the GOP leadership. Kobach is scum, dangerous scum. 348 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 7:17:33am down 2 up report How is this not perjury? Is that not a jailable offense? 349 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 7:18:09am down 0 up report 350 HappyWarrior Mar 6, 2018 * 7:18:45am down 5 up report 351 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 7:19:11am down 2 up report and im not sure i believe her anyway why wouldnt a dog say that? 352 ObserverArt Mar 6, 2018 * 7:19:11am down 6 up report Daily reminder that Romney made this guy his immigration adviser. Daily reminder that Trump made Kobach his voter suppression guy. Daily reminders that Romney is no different than any of the GOP flotsam. 353 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 7:21:56am down 1 up report re: #343 Anymouse Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior The real problem isn't chaos, it's massive corruption that is often pre-planned and effective. Chaos helps mask it though. Now I'll watch pundits fight the chaos strawman instead of analyzing the corruption the real problem isn't re: #299 dangerman 354 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 7:22:40am down 4 up report Daily reminders that Romney is no different than any of the GOP flotsam. Daily reminder that there is no sane GOPer. They hide it in various ways but they are all extremists who are intent on the destruction of America. FullFuckingStop. 355 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 7:23:15am down 0 up report a metaphorical toad not the cute and fuzzy ones 356 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light)) Mar 6, 2018 * 7:25:10am down 4 up report re: #343 Anymouse The real problem isn't chaos, it's massive corruption that is often pre-planned and effective. Chaos helps mask it though. Now I'll watch pundits fight the chaos strawman instead of analyzing the corruption. Having your son-in-law and adviser lose his security clearance is a sign of corruption, chaos and ineptitude. 357 lawhawk Mar 6, 2018 * 7:26:53am down 5 up report His criminal actions aren't perjury, but obstruction of justice by openly flouting the rules of the court, failing to follow the court's rulings, contempt, etc. It wouldn't surprise me if he also committed perjury too. 358 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 7:27:14am down 0 up report Next stop for #MoscowMisha : Living in a van down by the river! #ETTD @TheRickWilson https://t.co/r9Ucl1tPRs -- John Schindler (@20committee) March 6, 2018 359 Belafon Mar 6, 2018 * 7:28:45am down 7 up report re: #343 Anymouse Corruption is a problem, but it doesn't exclude the problems caused by chaos and ineptitude. What's happening in Puerto Rico is as much about the latter as the former. 360 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 7:29:30am down 5 up report Ron Wyden doubles down on his probe of the NRA's political spending: "I remain concerned about the inability to get clear answers to several questions about the possibility that Russian actors funneled foreign funds into NRA electioneering activity." https://t.co/3kJoyl0oKx 361 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light)) Mar 6, 2018 * 7:30:00am down 2 up report re: #359 Belafon Corruption is a problem, but it doesn't exclude the problems caused by chaos and ineptitude. What's happening in Puerto Rico is as much about the latter as the former. a lot of corruption arises as an attempt to cover the extent of chaos and ineptitude 362 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 7:31:19am down 2 up report re: #356 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light)) Having your son-in-law and adviser lose his not be able to pass a security clearance is a sign of corruption, chaos and ineptitude. 363 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 7:32:07am down 3 up report Someone inconsequential was probably going to resign today or tomorrow and cause of the dumb guys tweet John Kelly probably is begging them to just wait until next week. 364 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 7:32:08am down 1 up report Corruption is a problem, but it doesn't exclude the problems caused by chaos and ineptitude. What's happening in Puerto Rico is as much about the latter as the former. plus a healthy does of willing disregard 365 jeffreyw Mar 6, 2018 * 7:32:55am down 4 up report Are you running a "special" at Jeffrey's Fly-In Diner today? Place is packed. Today the blue plate includes a side of sunflower seeds. 366 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 7:34:22am down 1 up report we're a horse town lots of riders use our road almost daily three cops on horseback just walked past - just patrolling that doesnt happen very often 367 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 7:34:36am down 3 up report Excuse me whilst I vomit. Utah lawmakers may name National Parks Highway after Trump https://t.co/0YzwBHjPHt pic.twitter.com/bNBtq1DwrX Excuse me whilst I vomit. Utah lawmakers may name National Parks Highway after Trump here's yer sign: 369 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 7:37:45am down 3 up report Lots of great detail on Russia -- both hard power and hybrid tactics -- in the testimony from DNI Coats and DIA Director Ashley in the Senate this morning. Will highlight some later, but here are written versions: https://t.co/jXPddVvSHa https://t.co/GVaVsWFr4l 370 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 7:39:13am down 20 up report California Gov. Jerry Brown took office in 2011 with a $27 billion deficit. He won voter support for huge tax hikes on the rich in 2012, and voters reauthorized them in 2016. Brown leaves office w/a $6.1 billion surplus. Take a note: Taxing the rich works. https://t.co/urzKR1QWic 371 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 7:39:35am down 3 up report Daily reminder that there is no sane GOPer. They hide it in various ways but they are all extremists who are intent on the destruction of America. FullFuckingStop. I would change that from GOP to conservative. While the GOP hasn't always been this way (thanks, Goldwater), conservatism has always been anti-democracy in our country. Fighting for the Crown in the Revolution, the Whiskey Rebellion, Manifest Destiny, Trail of Tears, Civil War, Business Plot, Jim Crow, Watergate, Iran-Contra, &c. There is no generation in the USA where conservatives have not tried to overthrow the will of the people as expressed through the vote or Congress. 372 Belafon Mar 6, 2018 * 7:42:39am down 1 up report Here's where my jaw actually drops. Sorry, I was thinking someone else. 373 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 7:46:38am down 1 up report Excuse me whilst I vomit. There is a reason you don't name things after living persons ... as in if the living person then screws up, you're left regretting the decision. As I recall, there was a town which renamed itself "Nixonville" during President Nixon's tenure. Of course, if Utah would like to name a prison after Donald Trump... . 374 Backwoods_Sleuth Mar 6, 2018 * 7:47:00am down 5 up report still a moron Federal Judge in Maryland has just ruled that "President Trump has the right to end DACA." President Obama had 8 years to fix this problem, and didn't. I am waiting for the Dems, they are running for the hills! -- Donald J. Trump ( @realDonaldTrump ) March 6, 2018 375 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 7:47:45am down 11 up report As a follow up to re: #367 MsJ Utah lawmaker threatens to rename road 'Stormy Daniels Rampway' to protest Trump's national park move https://t.co/wjrI1LmCKQ 376 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 7:49:50am down 5 up report BWAHAHAHA! At least Ms. Daniels was honest about her job (and I'll bet she paid her taxes too). 377 Backwoods_Sleuth Mar 6, 2018 * 7:49:53am down 12 up report 1/ While the US media's exploitation of Sam Nunberg's mental state is exceedingly distasteful, it is balanced by the strong public interest in understanding Mueller's probe, PROVIDED THAT the media was not acting as a proxy for the DoJ/FBI. 378 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 7:49:55am down 3 up report trump's dumb "There is no Chaos, only great Energy!" kept feeling like something else and i couldn't put my finger on it until now. "There is no Dana, only Zuul" pic.twitter.com/XdAF0gC8To 380 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 7:51:34am down 1 up report re: #377 Backwoods_Sleuth I literally had Pepsi dribble out of my mouth when I read that response. Thank god I had swallowed most of it. 381 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light)) Mar 6, 2018 * 7:52:04am down 5 up report re: #370 JordanRules California Gov. Jerry Brown took office in 2011 with a $27 billion deficit. He won voter support for huge tax hikes on the rich in 2012, and voters reauthorized them in 2016. Brown leaves office w/a $6.1 billion surplus. Take a note: Taxing the rich works. I remember back under Clinton when he had a budget surplus and Rush Limbaugh came on to tell us that it is immoral for the government to take more money from us in taxes than it needs to operate and therefore surpluses are bad. 382 ObserverArt Mar 6, 2018 * 7:52:29am down 2 up report Excuse me whilst I vomit. [Embedded content] Eeek. Trump looks even worse in that image than usual. I'm wondering if he is up for a heart attack. He's puffing up like he is building up fluids. 383 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 7:52:29am down 4 up report No narcissist, you're the narcissist. Lowest rated Oscars in HISTORY. Problem is, we don't have Stars anymore - except your President (just kidding, of course)! -- Donald J. Trump ( @realDonaldTrump ) March 6, 2018 384 Sionainn, the Nasty Devilbitch Mar 6, 2018 * 7:52:38am down 3 up report I am more than willing to have all my taxes go to housing these pricks for life. More than willing! LOL. I was going to suggest that you wouldn't have any problem with that. I don't, either. Lock them all up and throw away the key. I'll pay for that. 385 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light)) Mar 6, 2018 * 7:55:11am down 1 up report re: #371 Anymouse I would change that from GOP to conservative. While the GOP hasn't always been this way (thanks, Goldwater), conservatism has always been anti-democracy in our country. Fighting for the Crown in the Revolution, the Whiskey Rebellion, Manifest Destiny, Trail of Tears, Civil War, Business Plot, Jim Crow, Watergate, Iran-Contra, &c. There is no generation in the USA where conservatives have not tried to overthrow the will of the people as expressed through the vote or Congress. There is "opposed to change" conservatism and there is the sort of conservatism that stresses the importance of individual initiative and personal freedoms. And then there are Religious Fundamentalists, who come out in favor of "family values" but have a rather narrow view of what those values are. And there is the conservatism of the 1% who own 90% of everything and see no reason for that trend to change... 386 Backwoods_Sleuth Mar 6, 2018 * 7:55:31am down 11 up report Keep watching this story: former Russian agent, Sergei Skripal & his daughter Yulia, injured in 'major incident' in SW England Sunday, remain in critical condition, say Wiltshire Police. Counter-terrorism unit of London's Metropolitan Police now leading investigation. 387 Backwoods_Sleuth Mar 6, 2018 * 7:56:18am down 12 up report We wouldn't laugh at a man appearing to have a heart attack, so why is it ok to ridicule someone that appears to be mentally disturbed? Because I think he's acting. https://t.co/g6yywJtu2f I saw this and my jaw dropped. In my business, if you see an R2 like that, you're confident of the correlation Eleven of the top 15 states for firearm ownership are also in the top 15 states for gun deaths. https://t.co/1ZUqP0tIr4 389 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 7:58:16am down 5 up report re: #385 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light)) There is "opposed to change" conservatism and there is the sort of conservatism that stresses the importance of individual initiative and personal freedoms. And then there are Religious Fundamentalists, who come out in favor of "family values" but have a rather narrow view of what those values are. And there is the conservatism of the 1% who own 90% of everything and see no reason for that trend to change... Those are pretty much all the same thing. The fundamentalists in the GOP are a new kink introduced by Paul Weyrich, and Goldwater was complaining of it on the Senate floor back in 1981. But "individual initiative and personal freedom" was a strong characteristic of conservatism as pushed during Manifest Destiny (genocide) and the Gilded Age (a few people owned most everything). Wait. I thought Soros was a Nazi? Communists and Nazis are mortal enemies. When did Soros change sides? FOR THE LOVE OF SWEET LITTLE AR-15 TOTING JESUS, MAN, WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? pic.twitter.com/j0lucJhuHY 391 Decatur Deb Mar 6, 2018 * 7:59:43am down 6 up report Because I think he's acting. Redd Foxx got a lot of laughs out of that kind of heart attack. 392 Dr Lizardo Mar 6, 2018 * 8:01:13am down 2 up report re: #391 Decatur Deb Redd Foxx got a lot of laughs out of that kind of heart attack. Indeed. 393 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 8:02:22am down 10 up report We officially have a March in all 50 states!! Thank you all for marching with us! See you March 24th #NeverAgain #MarchForOurLives Let's do this! WE EVEN HAVE ONE IN MUMBAI !!!! https://t.co/33xQ68gkDl I sense another wacko Dana video coming... 395 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Mar 6, 2018 * 8:04:17am down 4 up report re: #393 JordanRules We had a combined church service on Sunday at the local high school. It was encouraging to see signs made by the students advertising a walkout next week. Good to know that even in our isolated little bubble, the message is starting to get through. 396 electrotek Mar 6, 2018 * 8:04:55am down 0 up report Has anyone seen the controversy with Amber Heard involving her tweets recently? What's everyone's take on that? 397 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 8:05:29am down 0 up report re: #376 Anymouse BWAHAHAHA! At least Ms. Daniels was honest about her job ( and I'll bet she paid her taxes too ). im waiting for proof of this i want to know how the 130k got into the llc, how it was recorded, what its tax returns say i want to know if it issued her a 1099 or a k-1, or something else (or nothing else) and because i assume she had a lawyer of her own, i want to know how the money was treated on her own tax return regardless of what the llc did or didnt do or should have done 398 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 8:06:43am down 4 up report To build on what Lawhawk said re: #341 here , this is a good explanation of what's going on. This Kansas case could change how every American registers to vote A "mass denial of a fundamental constitutional right." https://t.co/fjTKiUv2V8 pic.twitter.com/UCiakpcJEl 399 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 8:07:04am down 1 up report Has anyone seen the controversy with Amber Heard involving her tweets recently? What's everyone's take on that? No idea what this is about. 400 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 8:07:12am down 4 up report re: #377 Backwoods_Sleuth 1/ While the US media's exploitation of Sam Nunberg's mental state is exceedingly distasteful, it is balanced by the strong public interest in understanding Mueller's probe, PROVIDED THAT the media was not acting as a proxy for the DoJ/FBI. yeah, "the media" got together and made him call all those different outlets and forced him to sit for those interviews in person and by phone 401 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 8:07:40am down 2 up report im waiting for proof of this i want to know how the 130k got into the llc, how it was recorded, what its tax returns say i want to know if it issued her a 1099 or a k-1, or something else (or nothing else) and because i assume she had a lawyer of her own, i want to know how the money was treated on her own tax return regardless of what the llc did or didnt do or should have done I wasn't referring to that $130,000 payment (which went public because she said she wasn't paid all of it). I was referring to her previous artistic endeavours. 402 electrotek Mar 6, 2018 * 8:08:48am down 1 up report No idea what this is about. Sorry, not Amber Heard. Amber Tamblyn, my apologies 403 electrotek Mar 6, 2018 * 8:09:56am down 3 up report If anyone in Brooklyn near the intersection of Washington Ave and Atlantic Ave just saw a Hasidic man in a grey van try to hit a woman and her baby in a stroller as she crossed a crosswalk, honking and touching the stroller with the car's bumper, please DM me. That woman was me. -- Amber Tamblyn ( @ambertamblyn ) March 4, 2018 Thank you everyone for your kind words of support today. We are fine. But this is not the first time a man from the Hasidic community in NYC has attempted to harm me or other women I know. Any woman riding a bike through South Williamsburg can attest. I hope this guy is caught. -- Amber Tamblyn ( @ambertamblyn ) March 5, 2018 Lol I'm married to a Jew. Go ahead and twist my words all you want. Your misogyny and sexism reeks from here. (Except for you, Benjamin. You are awesome.) -- Amber Tamblyn ( @ambertamblyn ) March 5, 2018 I'll say this once. To anyone suggesting I'm anti-Semitic for identifying a man as Hasidic who hit my daughter's stroller in a crosswalk with a car then rolled his window down, wagged his finger and told me "Watch where you're going": I will not be bullied or intimidated by you. 404 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 8:11:04am down 1 up report NFL agents say Texans aren't interested in players who protested the anthem, per @HoustonChron https://t.co/EEtdkbJAm6 pic.twitter.com/roHuhBkP5R Same team owner that made the "inmates running the prison" comment a few months ago and backpedaled quicker than '94 Deion. Sounds about right. https://t.co/hOhNENWRey our cat, squeak, is gozer: 406 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 8:15:06am down 2 up report re: #381 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light)) I remember back under Clinton when he had a budget surplus and Rush Limbaugh came on to tell us that it is immoral for the government to take more money from us in taxes than it needs to operate and therefore surpluses are bad. never plan for the future or the unanticipated bridges don't fall, hurricanes hardly ever happen 407 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 8:15:15am down 1 up report One last thing... Dorrian's. If you're in a certain circle of people, you might understand this is a an interesting tell. cc: @maggieNYT @WestRupert @evansiegfried pic.twitter.com/JzCpD7cooM 408 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 8:15:44am down 1 up report re: #383 Anymouse No narcissist, you're the narcissist. Lowest rated Oscars in HISTORY. Problem is, we don't have Stars anymore - except your President (just kidding, of course)! its pure envy 409 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Mar 6, 2018 * 8:15:53am down 5 up report That conveys nothing to a pleb like me. 410 Backwoods_Sleuth Mar 6, 2018 * 8:18:31am down 3 up report re: #409 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. That conveys nothing to a pleb like me. James "Red Dog" Dorrian, a native of Ulster, Ireland, opened this restaurant in 1960, when he was in his '20s. The area was mainly German back then, and Dorrian's Red Hand was one of a wave of "new old-fashioned" bars that opened in the area, taverns intended to look like older New York saloons. Thus, the wooden floors, tin ceilings, red-and-white checkered tablecloths. Nostalgia is nothing new in New York; it just used to mimic different eras. At some point, the Dorrian clan bought the building the eatery occupies, thus ensuring its survival. Had they not, who knows if the business would have withstood the events and aftermath of Aug. 26, 1986. That was the night when Dorrian's teenage "regular" Robert Chambers, aka "The Preppy Killer," left the bar with another teenager, Jennifer Levin. Chambers was later arrested when Levin turned murdered in Central Park, and subsequently convicted of manslaughter. The "red hand" of the name--which refers to a particularly gruesome myth attached to the late kings of Ulster--proved an unfortunate moniker at that moment. It was subsequently played down. History weirdly repeated itself in 2009, when student Imette St. Guillen disappeared from The Falls, a SoHo bar that was owned by Michael Dorrian and managed by Daniel Dorrian, sons of Dorrian's current owner, Jack. St. Guillen wound up dead. The more you dig into Dorrian history, the more confused you get. Family members seem to be everywhere, and own restaurants and bars all over New York. One married Giuliani's former chief of staff. An ancestor was reportedly a Prohibition bootlegger. One day, they'll provide fodder for a good book. more at the link 411 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 8:21:17am down 3 up report re: #407 Anymouse From the comments: Yesterday we learned that Steele discovered that Russia was bragging about picking our Sec. of State. Nunberg's story buried that more important story. Was that his purpose? 412 Backwoods_Sleuth Mar 6, 2018 * 8:21:26am down 6 up report NEW VIDEO: Watch as emergency crews had a close call as a tree falls onto a power line. The #Northeast is looking at another Nor'easter which could have results similar to this. For more information, tune into @WeatherNation either on-air or online. pic.twitter.com/OgkmDml9dd re: #409 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. That conveys nothing to a pleb like me. Mr. Wilson is referring to this article in The Atlantic . If the article is true, it sure makes Nunberg's display on the media yesterday look like an act. The lede: "By the way, you know I'm the number one trending person on Twitter?" It was just after 8:00 p.m. on Monday night, and the suddenly-famous Sam Nunberg had phoned me from Dorrian's Red Hand Restaurant, a yuppie hangout on Manhattan's Upper East Side, where he was reveling in his triumph. After announcing earlier that day his intention to defy a grand-jury subpoena he says he received in the Russia investigation ("Arrest me," he'd dared prosecutors), the former Trump aide had spent the day conducting a manic media blitz--popping up on multiple cable-news programs, granting interviews to dozens of journalists, and hijacking the news cycle with a car-crash procession of blustery soundbites. Legal experts were warning that his failure to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation could put him in serious legal jeopardy--but at this moment, it seemed, Nunberg was in a celebratory mood. 414 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 8:23:37am down 3 up report Uhm... Click it for the replies. Tom Cruise as Green Lantern Hal Jordan May Actually Happen - https://t.co/VPcLmrEkS3 pic.twitter.com/y0cyccx8uB 416 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 8:25:01am down 0 up report re: #401 Anymouse I wasn't referring to that $130,000 payment (which went public because she said she wasn't paid all of it). I was referring to her previous artistic endeavours. (oops) ;-) 417 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 8:28:28am down 0 up report [Embedded content] i noticed how it went from "tried to hit" in the first tweet to "hit my daughter's stroller" in the last 418 Backwoods_Sleuth Mar 6, 2018 * 8:29:11am down 8 up report Four years ago today. pic.twitter.com/OcuIKoREX4 An estimated 132,000 Americans have died from guns since McConnell -- who's taken millions from @nra -- held up that gun. He's done absolutely nothing about it. https://t.co/sgjwpm29Eq 419 Backwoods_Sleuth Mar 6, 2018 * 8:30:23am down 14 up report Total inaction on DACA by Dems. Where are you? A deal can be made! -- Donald J. Trump ( @realDonaldTrump ) March 6, 2018 Democrats sent President Trump six bipartisan DACA deals - we even offered to fund his wasteful border wall. He made the choice to say no to each one. The President's real goal is using DACA to advance his anti-immigrant agenda rather than fixing the crisis he started. https://t.co/C8vHofhcL7 -- Senator Dick Durbin ( @SenatorDurbin ) March 6, 2018 420 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 8:31:13am down 3 up report The calamity is already in office, Mr. Paul. That's why the markets are dropping. They drop on instability, and they drop on long-term conservatism. We have both. 421 HappyWarrior Mar 6, 2018 * 8:31:39am down 1 up report 422 HappyWarrior Mar 6, 2018 * 8:32:08am down 2 up report The calamity is already in office, Mr. Paul. That's why the markets are dropping. They drop on instability, and they drop on long-term conservatism. We have both. Ron Paul is a kook. 423 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 8:32:32am down 4 up report i noticed how it went from "tried to hit" in the first tweet to "hit my daughter's stroller" in the last She mentions it in the first tweet: If anyone in Brooklyn near the intersection of Washington Ave and Atlantic Ave just saw a Hasidic man in a grey van try to hit a woman and her baby in a stroller as she crossed a crosswalk, honking and touching the stroller with the car's bumper, please DM me. That woman was me. 424 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 8:34:18am down 3 up report re: #419 Backwoods_Sleuth Total inaction on DACA by Dems. Where are you? A deal can be made! you are in total control 425 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 8:34:59am down 10 up report Then Sen. Coats in June, 2016: "Whether it was gross negligence or blatant disregard, it is undeniable that Secretary Clinton broke federal law and mishandled classified information, putting American lives at risk and endangering our national security." The man is garbage. 426 KGxvi Mar 6, 2018 * 8:35:18am down 2 up report Ron Paul is a kook. I thought at first it said Rand Paul (not that the nut falls far from the tree). But it's just more railing against the federal reserve, as far as I can tell. Granted, a trade war will probably have a very large negative impact on the economy (and by extension/inclusion, the stock market - Ford and GM are saying the steel/aluminum tariffs could cost them a billion each), but I'm sure that's not what Paul is talking about. 427 bill d. (b.d.) Mar 6, 2018 * 8:38:19am down 1 up report [Embedded content] Tom Cruise is 55 years old, Hal Jordan isn't. 428 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 8:38:55am down 0 up report She mentions it in the first tweet: [Embedded content] the first: "try to hit" and "touching" the second: "hit my daughter's stroller in a crosswalk with a car" without any context stories and recollections morph when it helps 429 HappyWarrior Mar 6, 2018 * 8:39:01am down 4 up report re: #426 KGxvi I thought at first it said Rand Paul (not that the nut falls far from the tree). But it's just more railing against the federal reserve, as far as I can tell. Granted, a trade war will probably have a very large negative impact on the economy (and by extension/inclusion, the stock market - Ford and GM are saying the steel/aluminum tariffs could cost them a billion each), but I'm sure that's not what Paul is talking about. Right. If Sanders can't gova sentence without talking about banks, Ron Paul can't without the Fed. 430 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 8:39:33am down 2 up report I thought at first it said Rand Paul (not that the nut falls far from the tree). But it's just more railing against the federal reserve, as far as I can tell. Granted, a trade war will probably have a very large negative impact on the economy (and by extension/inclusion, the stock market - Ford and GM are saying the steel/aluminum tariffs could cost them a billion each), but I'm sure that's not what Paul is talking about. My wife is a Libertarian and she thinks he's a kook, if that means anything. Mr. Paul's answer to everything seems to be: a) Abolish the Fed b) Return to the gold standard. 431 Backwoods_Sleuth Mar 6, 2018 * 8:42:18am down 2 up report "The North Korean side clearly stated its willingness to denuclearize," the South Korean president's office said https://t.co/ohtyXBoDQ2 -- New York Times World ( @nytimesworld ) March 6, 2018 432 ObserverArt Mar 6, 2018 * 8:42:45am down 1 up report the first: "try to hit" and "touching" the second: "hit my daughter's stroller in a crosswalk with a car" without any context stories and recollections morph when it helps Also went from van to car from one tweet to the other. Sounds like she is, uh, storytelling. I get the impression from comments she has done this before. 433 KGxvi Mar 6, 2018 * 8:42:54am down 2 up report re: #430 Anymouse My wife is a Libertarian and she thinks he's a kook, if that means anything. Mr. Paul's answer to everything seems to be: a) Abolish the Fed b) Return to the gold standard. I've still got a pretty strong libertarian streak, though I never joined the party, and other than a protest primary vote in 2008, I never once thought of supporting Paul. Tying our currency to a commodity would be an absolute disaster - you think Russian interference is bad now, just wait until they decide to flood the market with gold. 434 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 8:43:34am down 5 up report the first: "try to hit" and "touching" the second: "hit my daughter's stroller in a crosswalk with a car" without any context stories and recollections morph when it helps I haven't pushed a baby stroller in a long time, but if someone drove a car into it and "bumped" it, I would use the verb "hit." In a crosswalk, in a city where pedestrians have the right-of-way in crosswalks, there is no excuse for a car to do anything to a pedestrian. Hassidic Jews dress in a particular manner. It would be entirely logical to describe him that way (I doubt someone dressed that way would be described as a Mennonite, and I would be no more bigoted to describe a person as a Mennonite if that person was dressed like one). That said, if the fellow did in fact bump her baby stroller and she was not in the wrong, she should be filling in a police report. (I don't know how difficult that is to do in New York though.) It's not like Twitter has ever been used to call someone out before. 435 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 8:44:03am down 0 up report Also went from van to car from one tweet to the other. Sounds like she is, uh, storytelling. I get the impression from comments she has done this before. Could also be. I'll have to go through the list of tweets. 436 Dr Lizardo Mar 6, 2018 * 8:45:38am down 2 up report re: #431 Backwoods_Sleuth That's good to see. Hopefully, they can work things out - a tall order, to put it mildly, but better to have them talking then fighting. So.....who's Trump gonna pick on next? Where's he gonna try to gin up a war? 437 Belafon Mar 6, 2018 * 8:46:07am down 3 up report Also went from van to car from one tweet to the other. Sounds like she is, uh, storytelling. I get the impression from comments she has done this before. She might be lying, but vans and pickup trucks turn into cars in a lot of conversations, the term car being the more general term. 438 electrotek Mar 6, 2018 * 8:46:40am down 0 up report Horrific racist attack in Spain over the weekend: Un ataque racista en un bar de Madrid por poco me deja sin ojoEl racismo nunca nos vencera amor amor y amor pic.twitter.com/EbJfEUXCQa -- Marius Makon ( @EltonPrince ) March 4, 2018 The kicker? The attacker was a woman that was from El Salvador , not Spain. 439 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 8:48:35am down 8 up report I mean really. His answer on this is problematic on sooo many levels. A real wtf. DNI Coats tells Congress that Kushner's continuing access to secret information is not "a threat to our national security...(b)ecause he now has, under General Kelly's direction, had a temporary access to some types of information but not to highly classified information." -- Jake Tapper ( @jaketapper ) March 6, 2018 Isn't the obvious implication of this quote that for the last 13 months he was a threat to national security? https://t.co/YvLsQCIZgE 440 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 8:49:15am down 3 up report Also went from van to car from one tweet to the other. Sounds like she is, uh, storytelling. I get the impression from comments she has done this before. I've described pretty much any vehicle which isn't a semi or a motor home as a car, depending on context. (I am not familiar with "New York idiom" on this topic however. I even owned a van once and called it a car (an E-250) 441 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 8:49:38am down 0 up report That was my thought as well. 442 KGxvi Mar 6, 2018 * 8:49:42am down 3 up report re: #436 Dr Lizardo That's good to see. Hopefully, they can work things out - a tall order, to put it mildly, but better to have them talking then fighting. So.....who's Trump gonna pick on next? Where's he gonna try to gin up a war? The Koreas are going to end up negotiating without us if Trump insists on denuclearization as a pre-condition for talks. Given the Trump Administration's inability to do anything right, that might be for the best. But between the peninsula, the TPP, NAFTA, the threat of worldwide tariffs, and threatening to abandon the Iran deal... it may be a long time before we are trusted in a world leadership role. 443 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 8:49:55am down 1 up report re: #436 Dr Lizardo That's good to see. Hopefully, they can work things out - a tall order, to put it mildly, but better to have them talking then fighting. So.....who's Trump gonna pick on next? Where's he gonna try to gin up a war? wait till he finishes taking credit for this one 444 Decatur Deb Mar 6, 2018 * 8:50:17am down 4 up report re: #440 Anymouse I've described pretty much any vehicle which isn't a semi or a motor home as a car, depending on context. (I am not familiar with "New York idiom" on this topic however. I even owned a van once and called it a car (an E-250) The baby probably gave him the finger. There's your New York idiom. 445 darthstar Mar 6, 2018 * 8:50:20am down 4 up report Can we just skip to the video of him snorting meth out of Jerry Falwell Jr's butt-crack? 446 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 8:52:18am down 2 up report I mean really. His answer on this is problematic on sooo many levels. A real wtf. [Embedded content] the real story here is that he doesnt merit a clearance 447 HappyWarrior Mar 6, 2018 * 8:52:32am down 1 up report Horrific racist attack in Spain over the weekend: The kicker? The attacker was a woman that was from El Salvador, not Spain. I'm guessing she might be surprised about that "nothing will happen to her" in Spain unless it changed a whole lot since I lived there. If that was Dixie though, she'd probably be right. 449 KGxvi Mar 6, 2018 * 8:52:58am down 7 up report Isn't the obvious implication of this quote that for the last 13 months he was a threat to national security? Well, considering there are reports that multiple countries - including several allies - saw Jared as a) a moron, b) a mark, and c) compromised because his family's business(es) is/are highly leveraged... yeah, it's pretty fucking obvious the guy is a threat to our national security. But so is his boss/father-in-law, so... 450 ObserverArt Mar 6, 2018 * 8:53:39am down 1 up report re: #440 Anymouse I've described pretty much any vehicle which isn't a semi or a motor home as a car, depending on context. (I am not familiar with "New York idiom" on this topic however. I even owned a van once and called it a car (an E-250) I've got no dog in this hunt. I was just pointing out that she used the word car in the second tweet and van in the original. It just seemed odd usage of the words. If you describe any vehicle as a "car" then don't you do that consistently? 451 KGxvi Mar 6, 2018 * 8:53:50am down 4 up report Stripper registry? Wut. I'm sure there's already one of those on the internet, you probably just need to know where to look 452 Belafon Mar 6, 2018 * 8:54:33am down 3 up report I've got no dog in this hunt. I was just pointing out that she used the word car in the second tweet and van in the original. It just seemed odd usage of the words. If you describe any vehicle as a "car" then don't you do that consistently? Nope. You'll start by saying van, and then it will be car, and then you might use van again. 453 Decatur Deb Mar 6, 2018 * 8:54:37am down 5 up report I'm sure there's already one of those on the internet, you probably just need to know where to look Will it be available under FOIA? Asking for a friend. 454 HappyWarrior Mar 6, 2018 * 8:55:00am down 0 up report I'm sure there's already one of those on the internet, you probably just need to know where to look Yeah true. 455 HappyWarrior Mar 6, 2018 * 8:55:22am down 4 up report re: #453 Decatur Deb Will it be available under FOIA? Asking for a friend. Planning a bachelor party are we? 456 Sionainn, the Nasty Devilbitch Mar 6, 2018 * 8:55:37am down 6 up report I've got no dog in this hunt. I was just pointing out that she used the word car in the second tweet and van in the original. It just seemed odd usage of the words. If you describe any vehicle as a "car" then don't you do that consistently? I had a van. I sometimes called it a van, sometimes a car, sometimes a vehicle. I got chastised for calling my friend's Ford F350 a "car" just last month. LOL. 457 Decatur Deb Mar 6, 2018 * 8:56:18am down 3 up report Planning a bachelor party are we? Just want to know which windowless concrete-block roadhouses to avoid. 458 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 8:57:25am down 3 up report re: #434 Anymouse I have never pushed a baby carriage (but for babysitting way, way long ago) but if I had a child and some schmuck did that, it would be fisticuffs and that bastard would not know what hit him. Mothers do not take that shit. Police would have been called and a lawsuit initiated (this is America, after all). While I am sure something happened, this reeks of BS. 459 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 8:57:49am down 2 up report That was a story the media should have been feeding on over a year ago. Now I'd at least like our intelligence officials to be smarter and more forth coming about the national security implications here. This is a horrible answer to an important question. 460 Backwoods_Sleuth Mar 6, 2018 * 8:59:16am down 3 up report A reminder of what kind of guy Sam Nunberg is https://t.co/SnrgOU31XO on the floor of the chicago exchange you need a way to stand out in the pit hence the weird attire It's true. Around the commodities exchange in Chicago, you always see guys walking around in weird looking jackets. This isn't even the strangest one I've ever seen. 462 Sionainn, the Nasty Devilbitch Mar 6, 2018 * 9:00:54am down 10 up report re: #458 MsJ I have never pushed a baby carriage (but for babysitting way, way long ago) but if I had a child and some schmuck did that, it would be fisticuffs and that bastard would not know what hit him. Mothers do not take that shit. Police would have been called and a lawsuit initiated (this is America, after all). While I am sure something happened, this reeks of BS. You and I are a lot alike, and we are not the norm. True story. My girls were small, probably 4 and 6. I was with my aunt in a parking lot walking back to her van with the folding chairs we had just purchased. A woman in a huge red truck sped by, almost striking my children. I happened to have a folding chair in my hand and as the truck when by, I whacked the shit out of the truck and put a big dent in it. The woman stopped and looked like she was going to get out. I told her to bring it, that she almost ran my children over. I must have looked crazy because she changed her mind and took off. My aunt was horrified. I simply went back to putting the chairs in the back of her car. 463 KGxvi Mar 6, 2018 * 9:02:26am down 2 up report re: #457 Decatur Deb Just want to know which windowless concrete-block roadhouses to avoid. All of them, Katie. 464 ObserverArt Mar 6, 2018 * 9:05:05am down 1 up report Nope. You'll start by saying van, and then it will be car, and then you might use van again. Not me! But I am a car nut. I use car, sports car, SUV, Van, Truck, Semi, etc. Consistently. Plus, I was just riffing off of dangerman picking out differences. I didn't mean to start a language debate or an investigation. But I wonder if there was an actual baby in the stroller...or a doll. Heh. Chew on that! Apparently it is a big deal. Do a google search and see all the articles. And the search reminded me. Amber Tamblyn is the actress that said James Wood tried to pick her up when she was 16. I will close out my "concerns" about all of this by saying...Amber seems to like to stay in the news. 465 Backwoods_Sleuth Mar 6, 2018 * 9:07:04am down 10 up report IS ANY BODY HAVING AS GREAT A DAY AS JER BARON HE HAS GOATS RUNNING AROUND HIS STREET I AM SERIOUS pic.twitter.com/SFtoE12FXd 466 Decatur Deb Mar 6, 2018 * 9:07:25am down 3 up report No shit. This one is on my way to Rucker. Some spurned suitor aired it out a couple years ago. Alabama's Strip Clubs of Death 467 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 9:07:28am down 2 up report That was a story the media should have been feeding on over a year ago. Now I'd at least like our intelligence officials to be smarter and more forth coming about the national security implications here. This is a horrible answer to an important question. if i understand it, the president can "grant" clearance to anybody he should be (or should have been way back when) the freakin brutal boss he says he is and said i want him in this position and im giving him clearance instead they're bumbling this 10 different ways because no one wants to just come out and say "this relation of yours cant pass a clearance" 468 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 9:11:04am down 8 up report Um no thanks. If #JeffFlake2020 randomly shows up in a cornfield in rural Iowa next, there will be absolutely zero question about what his intentions are. https://t.co/Gw955mJSRf via @phoenixnewtimes 469 Dr Lizardo Mar 6, 2018 * 9:11:04am down 3 up report re: #456 Sionainn, the Nasty Devilbitch A friend of mine had a van (a '75 Chevy). All decked out in glorious, tacky extravagance. She called it her "fuck truck". LOL. 470 Ace-o-aces Mar 6, 2018 * 9:11:43am down 3 up report Anti-Semitism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, racism and white supremacy are and always will be indefensible. Please read our statement: pic.twitter.com/bRFqAGf81t 471 Sionainn, the Nasty Devilbitch Mar 6, 2018 * 9:11:54am down 1 up report re: #469 Dr Lizardo A friend of mine had a van (a '75 Chevy). All decked out in glorious, tacky extravagance. She called it her "fuck truck". LOL. Love it! 472 Anymouse Mar 6, 2018 * 9:12:21am down 10 up report #BREAKING : Special Counsel finds Kellyanne Conway violated federal law against using office for partisan politics https://t.co/lpNd4v6G5q pic.twitter.com/CogUk0NUHR Evil Counselor did something evil? Shocked I am. Shocked. https://t.co/f4QeuWsw8E 473 KGxvi Mar 6, 2018 * 9:14:54am down 2 up report if i understand it, the president can "grant" clearance to anybody he should be (or should have been way back when) the freakin brutal boss he says he is and said i want him in this position and im giving him clearance instead they're bumbling this 10 different ways because no one wants to just come out and say "this relation of yours cant pass a clearance" If I recall correctly, Ben Rhodes was one of Obama's top advisors and during his entire tenure was on a presidential waiver. I can only find wingnut blogs about the issue, so it's not entirely clear why he couldn't pass the background check (wingnuts would rather bitch about Rhodes' role in the Iran deal). But yes, ultimately clearances in the White House are a matter of presidential discretion - which is fine when to generally trust the president's discretion (even if you don't agree with him politically); it's more troubling when it's, well, Trump. 474 Dr Lizardo Mar 6, 2018 * 9:15:54am down 3 up report re: #472 Anymouse Uh oh......looks like Smeagol's sister is in trouble. 475 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 9:17:57am down 1 up report This starts tonight. Shoot your shot lizards! Want to be a contestant on @Jeopardy ? Here's how. https://t.co/31LPhGVUMS 476 KGxvi Mar 6, 2018 * 9:18:35am down 10 up report As a general rule, if a sitting president faces a primary challenge in his re-election campaign, he's going to lose the general election. LBJ withdrew in '68, Ford lost in '76, Carter lost in '80, Bush lost in '92. So Trump getting any kind of establishment style challenger is probably good for us in the long run. 477 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Mar 6, 2018 * 9:18:45am down 4 up report [Embedded content] The article says that the OSC referred the charges to Trump's office for appropriate disciplinary action. Um? That doesn't seem like it would work very well. 478 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 9:19:16am down 10 up report re: #465 Backwoods_Sleuth Someone lost their goats, who are now playing in the street in front of my house. They are having a blast so no one seems to mind. cc: neighbors goats, my house 479 Big Beautiful Door Mar 6, 2018 * 9:20:20am down 4 up report re: #474 Dr Lizardo Uh oh......looks like Smeagol's sister is in trouble. She's not. Its up to Trump to discipline her, and he won't, unless Kelly wants to. 480 retired cynic Mar 6, 2018 * 9:21:09am down 4 up report Terry Gross is having Jane Mayer from The New Yorker on Fresh Air today, talking about the Steele Dossier. Should be a good hour! 481 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 9:21:35am down 2 up report Good point! I was reflexively thinking as an Arizonian who doesn't want him leading anything else. 482 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 9:22:09am down 6 up report [Embedded content] flake isnt running for reelection because he doesnt think he can win a statewide race do i have to explain the rest? 483 gwangung Mar 6, 2018 * 9:23:22am down 6 up report re: #434 Anymouse I haven't pushed a baby stroller in a long time, but if someone drove a car into it and "bumped" it, I would use the verb "hit." In a crosswalk, in a city where pedestrians have the right-of-way in crosswalks, there is no excuse for a car to do anything to a pedestrian. Hassidic Jews dress in a particular manner. It would be entirely logical to describe him that way (I doubt someone dressed that way would be described as a Mennonite, and I would be no more bigoted to describe a person as a Mennonite if that person was dressed like one). That said, if the fellow did in fact bump her baby stroller and she was not in the wrong, she should be filling in a police report. (I don't know how difficult that is to do in New York though.) It's not like Twitter has ever been used to call someone out before. Ugh. Not up for this right now. Some asshole ran down an acquaintance and her friend, killing their children and severely injuring them. Asshole had previously been cited for driving through redlights and speeding through school zones. 484 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light)) Mar 6, 2018 * 9:23:39am down 4 up report 485 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 9:25:07am down 2 up report #BREAKING : Special Counsel finds Kellyanne Conway violated federal law against using office for partisan politics referring its findings to President Trump "for appropriate disciplinary action. so consequences? anything? 486 ObserverArt Mar 6, 2018 * 9:26:12am down 2 up report [Embedded content] Jeff Flake has zero self-awareness. He already torpedoed any further political career. I don't think he has told himself yet. 487 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 9:27:36am down 2 up report If I recall correctly, Ben Rhodes was one of Obama's top advisors and during his entire tenure was on a presidential waiver. I can only find wingnut blogs about the issue, so it's not entirely clear why he couldn't pass the background check (wingnuts would rather bitch about Rhodes' role in the Iran deal). But yes, ultimately clearances in the White House are a matter of presidential discretion - which is fine when to generally trust the president's discretion (even if you don't agree with him politically); it's more troubling when it's, well, Trump. in a perverse way i'd be happier if hed just be the goddamn president and say "im doing this" instead they are all, including him, passive aggressively passing the hot potato(e) round and round 488 CongoJack Mar 6, 2018 * 9:27:51am down 2 up report Take away her meth and the supply of children she sucks the souls out of to survive comes to mind. 489 FormerDirtDart Mar 6, 2018 * 9:29:29am down 4 up report 1. What's the deal with all the text being underlined? 2. Lost In Space 490 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 9:30:16am down 2 up report Critics invariably point out that Flake was facing abysmal approval ratings when he decided not to run for re-election, and that polling showed him losing to far-right candidate Kelli Ward. If he can't hold onto his seat in his home state of Arizona, the thinking goes, what makes him think that he could be elected president? This misses the point: Flake would be running to make a statement, not because he necessarily thought he could win. One endorsement that he's already received is that of Mesa mayor John Giles, who in November was caught on a hot mic telling Flake to run for president. "And I am not throwing smoke at you, but you are the guy," Giles said. "Just for fun, think about how much fun it would be, just to be the foil, you know, and point out what an idiot this guy [Trump] is." The New Times does really good local reporting. 491 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 9:30:57am down 4 up report that is grand there is so much wonderfully, quirky, and useful stuff out there 492 ObserverArt Mar 6, 2018 * 9:31:26am down 4 up report As a general rule, if a sitting president faces a primary challenge in his re-election campaign, he's going to lose the general election. LBJ withdrew in '68, Ford lost in '76, Carter lost in '80, Bush lost in '92. So Trump getting any kind of establishment style challenger is probably good for us in the long run. Don't forget Ohio Johnny Kasich. I'm pretty confident he is going to run. There will be others too, not just Jeff "Flake" Flake. 493 KGxvi Mar 6, 2018 * 9:32:50am down 8 up report flake isnt running for reelection because he doesnt think he can win a statewide race do i have to explain the rest? He retires from the Senate, spends some time in the political wilderness, allows Trump to become more unstable, and then runs as the No True Scotsman conservative that Never Trumpers (and what I assume will be a thing by 2020 in the GOP: No More Trumpers) can rally around. It's 8 months of "Republicans in Disarray" stories and even though Flake has no chance, because like Ryan he doesn't realize that his constituency doesn't really exist anymore (at least not inside the GOP), it weakens Trump who can't just spend 2020 being president (which is the true incumbent's advantage). Ultimately, this leads to Trump being soundly defeated, hopefully by someone like Kamala Harris so that he'll have the indignity (in whatever is left of his addled mind) of being beaten by a woman and a minority at the same time. 494 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 9:33:28am down 3 up report back later off to get the parts for tonight's dinner: baked cavatelli 495 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 9:34:34am down 3 up report Thought it might be curry goat. 496 KGxvi Mar 6, 2018 * 9:35:56am down 5 up report Don't forget Ohio Johnny Kasich. I'm pretty confident he is going to run. There will be others too, not just Jeff "Flake" Flake. Multiple challengers would make it much more like the Democratic primary in 1968. All the other examples there was one legitimate challenger (Reagan in '76, Kennedy in '80, Buchanan in '92). But I doubt Trump would have the grace to step aside.* *This all assumes he isn't removed from office via impeachment when Senator Mitt Romney casts the 67th vote to convict next year. 497 Dr Lizardo Mar 6, 2018 * 9:36:33am down 5 up report Ultimately, this leads to Trump being soundly defeated, hopefully by someone like Kamala Harris so that he'll have the indignity (in whatever is left of his addled mind) of being beaten by a woman and a minority at the same time. Not only would Trump lose what precious little is left of his sanity, his deranged supporters would be left in a fit of shrieking apoplexy. 498 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Mar 6, 2018 * 9:37:08am down 3 up report re: #484 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light)) This is why lizards are awesome. 499 Hecuba's daughter Mar 6, 2018 * 9:38:29am down 2 up report Jeff Flake has zero self-awareness. He already torpedoed any further political career. I don't think he has told himself yet. Although I agree with you-- After losing the gubernatorial race in 1962, Nixon claimed that the press won't have him to kick around any longer. So we can't assume anything about Flake's future political career. 500 KGxvi Mar 6, 2018 * 9:38:57am down 3 up report in a perverse way i'd be happier if hed just be the goddamn president and say "im doing this" instead they are all, including him, passive aggressively passing the hot potato(e) round and round It really is amazing. The reason it wasn't a story with Obama and Rhodes was because Obama just issued the waiver and everyone went on with life. 501 lawhawk Mar 6, 2018 * 9:39:11am down 12 up report It certainly seems like everyone in Trumpworld has issues with the Hatch Act. Perry did it. Is anyone getting prosecuted for Hatch Act violations? Can't seem to recall the last one White House aide Conway violated Hatch Act: Office of Special Counsel https://t.co/LxZbL35hwL It is a huge blind spot. 502 Big Beautiful Door Mar 6, 2018 * 9:40:43am down 1 up report re: #489 FormerDirtDart 1. What's the deal with all the text being underlined? 2. Lost In Space 503 KGxvi Mar 6, 2018 * 9:41:08am down 1 up report re: #497 Dr Lizardo Not only would Trump lose what precious little is left of his sanity, his deranged supporters would be left in a fit of shrieking apoplexy. I know, it's second best case scenario. Best case of course is impeachment and removal. 504 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 9:42:00am down 23 up report She got to meet her! This little girl was completely awestruck by Michelle Obama's portrait and believes that the former first lady is "a queen" https://t.co/FLA3IZyLkE pic.twitter.com/5dUHYTmP6Q Parker, I'm so glad I had the chance to meet you today (and for the dance party)! Keep on dreaming big for yourself...and maybe one day I'll proudly look up at a portrait of you! pic.twitter.com/faUVTsYWun 505 Big Beautiful Door Mar 6, 2018 * 9:42:44am down 6 up report He retires from the Senate, spends some time in the political wilderness, allows Trump to become more unstable, and then runs as the No True Scotsman conservative that Never Trumpers (and what I assume will be a thing by 2020 in the GOP: No More Trumpers) can rally around. It's 8 months of "Republicans in Disarray" stories and even though Flake has no chance, because like Ryan he doesn't realize that his constituency doesn't really exist anymore (at least not inside the GOP), it weakens Trump who can't just spend 2020 being president (which is the true incumbent's advantage). Ultimately, this leads to Trump being soundly defeated, hopefully by someone like Kamala Harris so that he'll have the indignity (in whatever is left of his addled mind) of being beaten by a woman and a minority at the same time. I bet Trump refuses to attend the Inauguration of his replacement. 506 KGxvi Mar 6, 2018 * 9:43:48am down 8 up report re: #505 Big Beautiful Door I bet Trump refuses to attend the Inauguration of his replacement. It'll be hard to attend Pence's inauguration while he's in a federal holding cell. 507 Hecuba's daughter Mar 6, 2018 * 9:44:43am down 5 up report re: #505 Big Beautiful Door I bet Trump refuses to attend the Inauguration of his replacement. Especially if it's Nancy Pelosi! 508 Big Beautiful Door Mar 6, 2018 * 9:44:50am down 4 up report [Embedded content] Made my day. Thank you. 510 ObserverArt Mar 6, 2018 * 9:46:03am down 0 up report re: #499 Hecuba's daughter Although I agree with you-- After losing the gubernatorial race in 1962, Nixon claimed that the press won't have him to kick around any longer. So we can't assume anything about Flake's future political career. This is true. But we didn't have YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, all the political radio, three major all news all the time networks, etc. In other words people will not be allowed to forget and Falke will not be allowed to live the past year down. One other thing against Flake will be the fact he said bad things about the beloved Trump and Fox and right wing radio will hammer on that all day and night. But for us political junkies, it will be something to watch. 511 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 9:46:05am down 16 up report Lowest rated Oscars in HISTORY. Problem is, we don't have Stars anymore - except your President (just kidding, of course)! -- Donald J. Trump ( @realDonaldTrump ) March 6, 2018 Thanks, lowest rated President in HISTORY. https://t.co/E01UgDaZ3T 512 Sir John Barron Mar 6, 2018 * 9:46:38am down 0 up report OK, stepped out for lunch, anything new in the news, Kellyanne? 513 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 9:48:28am down 2 up report This starts tonight. Shoot your shot lizards! [Embedded content] They would likely give me a category on Shakespeare and I would be dead in the water. 514 Sir John Barron Mar 6, 2018 * 9:48:36am down 1 up report Consequences are for other people. 515 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 9:48:48am down 11 up report First responders were hospitalized. This looks more and more like another Litvinenko hit. https://t.co/bBU7ebv4r0 518 Interesting Times Mar 6, 2018 * 9:49:54am down 8 up report Maybe this explains why the Parkland kids succeeded (where others failed) when it comes to kicking the NRA's ass... If anyone is still looking for meaningful ways to define generations, Millennials are the first to grow up when most U.S. kids didn't have actionable levels of lead in their blood. pic.twitter.com/e02JJAIEl4 520 wrenchwench Mar 6, 2018 * 9:52:50am down 6 up report They would likely give me a category on Shakespeare and I would be dead in the water. New Mexico has a town called Shakespeare. Dead. No water. 521 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 9:53:47am down 8 up report New Mexico has a town called Shakespeare. Dead. No water. I am now prepared for ONE question on Shakespeare. As long as it's about NM. 522 HappyWarrior Mar 6, 2018 * 9:53:47am down 6 up report She got to meet her! [Embedded content] It was a wonderful photo. I'm going to try to teach my niece about woman role models. 523 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light)) Mar 6, 2018 * 9:55:24am down 8 up report re: #518 Interesting Times If anyone is still looking for meaningful ways to define generations, Millennials are the first to grow up when most U.S. kids didn't have actionable levels of lead in their blood. I grew up playing in piles of tailings from chemical plants, breathing air from steel mills and refineries and sitting two feet from a 1963 model color television. It is a wonder that I not only survived but managed to successfully reproduce. 524 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Mar 6, 2018 * 9:56:25am down 3 up report I am now prepared for ONE question on Shakespeare. As long as it's about NM. Shakespeare invented the "your mom" joke. 525 Sir John Barron Mar 6, 2018 * 9:56:36am down 2 up report Lowest rated Oscars in HISTORY. Problem is, we don't have Stars anymore - except your President (just kidding, of course)! -- Donald J. Trump Such presidential classy very leadership 526 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 9:57:29am down 3 up report So we are doing low carb and hubby dislikes spaghetti squash. I find it has no flavor and picks up whatever you do with it. I am making spaghetti sauce with Italian sausage and ground beef. Fairly spicy tomato sauce. Do you think making pesto spaghetti squash is too much to then put the spicy tomato sauce on top? Or should I just season the squash with some butter and Italian seasonings? 527 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Mar 6, 2018 * 9:57:45am down 6 up report Didn't I say something last night to the effect of, "I bet he got polonium poisoning"? 528 Weaselone Mar 6, 2018 * 9:58:50am down 9 up report These attacks should count as state sponsorship of terrorism, particularly given they not only impact the presumably Russian citizen targets, but also first responders and others at the scene. 529 Dr Lizardo Mar 6, 2018 * 9:58:56am down 3 up report [Embedded content] I saw that elsewhere - apparently, several others were sickened as well. Makes me wonder what the hell was used. Some kind of aerosol or something? That's insanely risky.....unless the point was to send a message. If indeed this was a hit (or attempted hit) by Russian covert operatives, there really needs to be hell to pay. 530 Sionainn, the Nasty Devilbitch Mar 6, 2018 * 10:00:11am down 3 up report re: #526 MsJ So we are doing low carb and hubby dislikes spaghetti squash. I find it has no flavor and picks up whatever you do with it. I am making spaghetti sauce with Italian sausage and ground beef. Fairly spicy tomato sauce. Do you think making pesto spaghetti squash is too much to then put the spicy tomato sauce on top? Or should I just season the squash with some butter and Italian seasonings? Better idea...get the whole wheat spaghetti. Lots of fiber, complex carb so it's much better regarding carbs than regular spaghetti. Win-win. 531 CongoJack Mar 6, 2018 * 10:00:59am down 4 up report I agree with your husband on the spaghetti squash - my wife tried that a couple times and it was just .. ugh... I didn't like it no matter what was put on it. But cauliflower rice is great. And my wife once breaded chicken with cauliflower (with sriracha) and baked it. It was absolutely amazing. But the gas was horrible. But I'd do it over again it was that good. 532 HappyWarrior Mar 6, 2018 * 10:01:23am down 5 up report re: #524 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Shakespeare invented the "your mom" joke. Fun fact, Steve Bannon produced a movie version of Titus Androncius. I remember seeing it long before I knew him or Breitbart. Very surreal. Had Anthony Hopkins tho. 533 ObserverArt Mar 6, 2018 * 10:03:17am down 5 up report She got to meet her! [Embedded content] That is so fun and nice. And Parker is a little doll. Memories of a lifetime. 534 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 10:04:11am down 3 up report I'd go with butter and Italian seasoning because I think it's mean to cover wonderful pesto. LOL I'm weird about mixing certain things and usually sauce options is one of them. Except of course for when trying to choose between red and green chili sauce for your burrito. In that case, Christmas is the best answer. I suppose pesto and red sauce could be an Italian Christmas. 535 Big Beautiful Door Mar 6, 2018 * 10:04:54am down 10 up report FiveThirtyEight says Mississippi is a possible get for Democrats with Cochran retiring, in part because special elections are non-partisan. Why not; I never would've thought a Democrat could win in Alabama! 536 ObserverArt Mar 6, 2018 * 10:07:26am down 1 up report re: #518 Interesting Times Maybe this explains why the Parkland kids succeeded (where others failed) when it comes to kicking the NRA's ass... [Embedded content] Don't let EPA Head Bozo Scott Pruitt see that report and the summation it had anything to do with the Florida students. 537 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 10:08:27am down 2 up report re: #530 Sionainn, the Nasty Devilbitch Better idea...get the whole wheat spaghetti. Lots of fiber, complex carb so it's much better regarding carbs than regular spaghetti. Win-win. Two ounces of that pasta is more carbs than allowed for our entire day. That doesn't count the carbs in the sauce and the carbs in the squash. That's dead in the water. We do have riced cauliflower all the time. I use it like rice in jambalaya, chili, etc. We love it. 538 Big Beautiful Door Mar 6, 2018 * 10:12:58am down 2 up report re: #537 MsJ Two ounces of that pasta is more carbs than allowed for our entire day. That doesn't count the carbs in the sauce and the carbs in the squash. That's dead in the water. We do have riced cauliflower all the time. I use it like rice in jambalaya, chili, etc. We love it. B1QcoOH3gqviEOEXdJGNbPbKoyTlMBhS4wWXX70SfCJK7k1yvFJSG7m4h2Ib5RnpY9dg1fMAPEhbG0p6Zhg/3ZrVda2GHBWcZGRiWB1ItNPxqIu4VmuUBy8lyv+0KiLePJxGf1x+8euOPgs4Fv3oSRk1fOeC9rD+ 539 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 10:13:48am down 2 up report off to get the parts for tonight's dinner: baked cavatelli horror of horrors, no cavatelli to be found had to go with cavatappi can you make baked cavatelli with cavatappi or does it become a whole different thing? what a dangerous experiment 540 DodgerFan1988 Mar 6, 2018 * 10:14:20am down 17 up report And I ask Wayne LaPierre why he is threatening violence against my fiance saying "her time is running out?" Wayne, you know that language increases violent threats against her. So why, Wayne? Wayne LaPierre makes petty death threats to Mika Brzezinski because that's what the NRA are, a bunch of insecured thugs. 541 Backwoods_Sleuth Mar 6, 2018 * 10:15:04am down 7 up report horror of horrors, no cavatelli to be found had to go with cavatappi can you make baked cavatelli with cavatappi or does it become a whole different thing? what a dangerous experiment and you are the perfect man to tackle the question. 542 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 10:17:05am down 1 up report re: #505 Big Beautiful Door I bet Trump refuses to attend the Inauguration of his replacement. he'll claim bone spurs or some other nonsense 543 Big Beautiful Door Mar 6, 2018 * 10:19:24am down 9 up report [Embedded content] Wayne LaPierre makes petty death threats to Mika Brzezinski because that's what the NRA are, a bunch of unsecured thugs. The gun industry suffered tremendously when Trump was elected because the NRA could no longer goose gun sales with the scary black man in the White House. They are accordingly having to up their hysterical rhetoric to try to induce enough fear in their cultists to get them to buy even more weapons of war to add to their arsenals. 544 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 10:22:16am down 3 up report So we are doing low carb and hubby dislikes spaghetti squash. I find it has no flavor and picks up whatever you do with it. I am making spaghetti sauce with Italian sausage and ground beef. Fairly spicy tomato sauce. Do you think making pesto spaghetti squash is too much to then put the spicy tomato sauce on top? Or should I just season the squash with some butter and Italian seasonings? just my opinion, the tomato will drown out the pesto so either not both 545 Eventual Carrion Mar 6, 2018 * 10:23:18am down 8 up report We are registering all strippers, but not all guns. Sounds reasonable. 546 Swampwitch Mar 6, 2018 * 10:23:31am down 14 up report About 10 years ago I did the online test and got called for a cattle call test in Chicago. Drove to Des Moines and took a Greyhound to Chicago. There were about 100 people packed into a conference room at the Intercontinental Hotel. First the moderator had each person stand and tell an interesting story about themselves. That took a couple of hours because a lot of the people there rambled on about how great they were. The best one was a 20 year old kid stood up, stated "I like pie." and sat right back down. Then we took a 50 question test that was pre-recorded by Trebek via a big screen TV at the front of the room. There were 9 people who answered every question correctly, and six of those got to stay and everyone else was dismissed. Yep, I was one of the 6. Then for the next couple of hours we played mock games with little bicycle bells for buzzers. At the end of that 4 people got to stay behind and the other 2 were dismissed. We 4 then signed some papers that basically said if called we had to pay our own way to LA for the show and that even though we had come this far there was no guarantee we'd be called at all. As far as I know, the only one of us that actually got called to go and tape in LA was the handsome 20-something fellow whose interesting story about himself was that his mother once met the Mahatma. 547 Skip Intro Mar 6, 2018 * 10:25:43am down 2 up report Fox. Of course. 548 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 10:26:33am down 3 up report I agree with your husband on the spaghetti squash - my wife tried that a couple times and it was just .. ugh... I didn't like it no matter what was put on it. But cauliflower rice is great. And my wife once breaded chicken with cauliflower (with sriracha) and baked it. It was absolutely amazing. [Embedded content] looking for alternatives, i made cauliflower crust pizza a few times basically cauliflower, egg, and goat cheese it was...interesting (and kosher) 549 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 10:27:33am down 1 up report re: #538 Big Beautiful Door bxyrMtvecLV3mjSsnfoPGqrNrDSL+rSPcHfhZMlhQebKxpZnm8BJV3gl135CflGvWjwojpYPJBW0tsRaM16UgOeRIurbk+OPYr9g1ydfgVkJIavkbASwVdaXyrPSizj1XpGKf6a+uOV5wLm0DqpEZMNuu6N2VVuRG/XhF8yg9ccitxz5j1FqtplSu5MJt/+fPsDe7sVxPNHVBnPBBqwBbBRjAP1fCJjPjLAb3//P+X1LGe/sQ/dHylMCx1fcKmzp2l/xMUl+nSiUL4J8qg0lNOBHa21jpF2vb4w5HZu5Nsp1/Jhw+U9pLrVGUIIqDl50Lg0NrY0gx9eI6+leNfKFz9lkc6kjd98VVEepeY1ELZPlHjbbS1yILwcUmH2O/+M/kijmKJK8Wa3ai3T7/dV+CxjWKEWe6fk4LWQzaD5xP/15FaTZVw6dJSq/NxWWTCGFNVHrEoo+TMmqytNtGXbrZUEkpcN92jL0n/hWeqECUtpZDCVYyj5uMvVuxcZhVsTlNwjCUWgZBkqUh3MjrpKW7nnt6uKY50iZ0Ubs1lr/ciK7x866U1+WE9kz2zCGtz7X51MZqcB0G9qeN/uCbwSSWG9O++43+4/iwm/bUn7HIAAeS8Cwk9qFDueKVkTJaVqsFTawqn7sfuQXSNdYtIrO2J7vfrw1dBsioIlyoJ7RpVUPWOA1ZSkXxYGWkgCtnAIhijzoqWJ7qyV3zeuIvQFoMwfW6FSaZelaBn1yEl47mAuKdb28pqZKi7Uu0j1POCFNHj/63n6wi1PA7qHMehMUmk6Ka78SIEpq8XocuOqm5scajDJ3SPxbRU2edOH/74OG5/j5ncoQAojuMPsAzFSqY4Gergu3+7WBvndSHkKilfx8KHvRQssqrX7BfwD1HsFe1iBN4B4vRyFFkaqBgxdQtrh+XNe55cO79CR7VAyRJstak9z49LPpdTHoowUt4fAlqaXTgMeS8N0NClPD2GWVQA== 550 KGxvi Mar 6, 2018 * 10:27:41am down 4 up report re: #545 Eventual Carrion We are registering all strippers, but not all guns. Sounds reasonable. This is not what we meant when we said "boobs not guns" 551 KGxvi Mar 6, 2018 * 10:28:33am down 3 up report Is there some reason why the text is showing up underlined? Did someone miss a closed tag? 552 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 10:29:09am down 2 up report just my opinion, the tomato will drown out the pesto so either not both I prefer pesto and he prefers tomato. I think we may go a la cart on this one with the sauce optional as it were. :-D 553 wrenchwench Mar 6, 2018 * 10:30:34am down 4 up report mock games with little bicycle bells for buzzers I got this. Or, I woulda had that. Congrats on going where you did. 554 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 10:31:03am down 2 up report My paleo adjacent uncle did a meatza once. The "crust" was Italian sausage pressed onto the full sheet pan. Baked that off then continued like a regular pizza. He said it was good. 555 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 10:31:33am down 2 up report I prefer pesto and he prefers tomato. I think we may go a la cart on this one with the sauce optional as it were. :-D ah, detente 556 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 10:33:23am down 12 up report My first time voting and I am voting democratic. I believe republicans in power have failed us. There is no mistaking it. #ElectionDay #Texas pic.twitter.com/Crz13xNCYD Lots of this happening today... tick tock tick tock ... https://t.co/gmaqalSX4g 557 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 10:34:03am down 3 up report That is freaking awesome!! I am so sorry you weren't called back. My brother in law did the same thing and was never called back (good looking guy, super, super smart and personality out the wazoo). He was unimpressed with the whole process. 558 Swampwitch Mar 6, 2018 * 10:34:12am down 9 up report Thanks. Kind of heartbreaking and I swore I'd never do it again. Until, of course, I went through the same thing trying out for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Top 3 in the auditions, never got the call. 559 wrenchwench Mar 6, 2018 * 10:35:01am down 7 up report Is there some reason why the text is showing up underlined? Did someone miss a closed tag? LGF will have to close for a start-from-scratch overhaul. See you in a few weeks. /panic sets in... 560 wrenchwench Mar 6, 2018 * 10:35:43am down 3 up report My paleo adjacent uncle did a meatza once. The "crust" was Italian sausage pressed onto the full sheet pan. Baked that off then continued like a regular pizza. He said it was good. upding for paleo adjacent 561 Big Beautiful Door Mar 6, 2018 * 10:36:30am down 3 up report KtQkfW/akGAYRmUsBMlwhL0yErG1/flQnT2qCtovuhBToBybgjlBCoh2kPXBnxdYBcqTrrI8XnyPEBcyAqojqqCfGaDwb4w7HRMtlXppkV4r1ulfoww2fVKOC8PnENtfDj+JRkuDdSstNQc8XBhYZ2GBVjPhlnqe3LSMJoW+323wj1Nxb109Wv7EKhq7PjLtAQcl+raNyYJu3V5p5F3pHn2QZ9nRTjP6VoONNo1P2cROW9EXlu8SkSUIE9J+gKZO0yhurR2z1FZOl2G1R/9qpDveROHpiLKkC2sx/S+CFPHTtdI16CMshg3KXTwNGeNfnWrg+zFo3Bhrw1KVqlmdKx4+fvliKHzVQC23re+ak7dHZL2/PycbkQ== 562 Swampwitch Mar 6, 2018 * 10:36:38am down 6 up report I think the problem is these shows want a certain amount of smarm. You can be brilliant, but if you don't act like you'll scream "NO WHAMMIES" at a certain point you don't have a chance. 563 Shiplord Kirel, live from behind wingnut lines Mar 6, 2018 * 10:40:36am down 3 up report Drunken lunatic displayed for blood sport on US television, to great acclaim of peasants now prevented from viewing gladiatorial combat and dog fighting. DPRK humanely protects lunatics from sadists. pic.twitter.com/6gyOXJFR4d 564 bill d. (b.d.) Mar 6, 2018 * 10:41:10am down 4 up report re: #545 Eventual Carrion We are registering all strippers, but not all guns. Sounds reasonable. You can pry my stripper from my cold, dead hands!! 565 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 10:41:20am down 3 up report I think the problem is these shows want a certain amount of smarm. You can be brilliant, but if you don't act like you'll scream "NO WHAMMIES" at a certain point you don't have a chance. I never would have expected to see someone like Austin on Jeopardy. He had such a Fuck This And Fuck You attitude. I know a lot of people didn't like him, but I loved him. I remember a guy, whose name escapes me now, and he was on the spectrum, for sure. He was like a machine. I think they are trying to now show that you don't have to be this perfect person to be smart and smart encompasses a lot of different people. 566 KGxvi Mar 6, 2018 * 10:41:47am down 5 up report Nashville's mayor had to resign after pleading guilty to felony theft, apparently she was also having an affair with her bodyguard, and that part of the investigation gave us this : "(Probable cause exists to) show that on May 15, 2017 and on October 18, 2017, he used this phone to photograph a nude or partially nude female," the documents say. "It will also show that Rob Forrest's timecards report that he was working while these photographs were taken." The TBI "believes probable cause exists to show that Rob Forrest was indeed not working at the time (two photos) were taken but was rather participating in the affair with Megan Barry at these times," the document adds. TBI investigators say they looked at Forrest's phone and his emails after Barry admitted publicly to the affair. Two of his emails each contained one photo that showed a partially nude or fully naked woman, court documents say. The documents do not say the woman is the mayor. The photos were taken while Forrest and Mayor Megan Barry were in Washington on business trips. On January 31, Barry apologized at a news conference for having the affair with Forrest, who had resigned. I don't know the details of the affair, but obviously it was not smart. But what amazes me more than anything is that the guy took these pictures on a government issued phone. Why would anyone take nudes on an employer (government or not) issued phone? That's just asking to get in trouble. 567 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 10:42:09am down 1 up report I think the problem is these shows want a certain amount of smarm. You can be brilliant, but if you don't act like you'll scream "NO WHAMMIES" at a certain point you don't have a chance. exactly - they're not looking for winners they're looking for "TeeVee" 568 Aucun pays pour les vieux ennemis Mar 6, 2018 * 10:42:30am down 0 up report 1. What's the deal with all the text being underlined? 2. Lost In Space [Embedded content] Post 438 seems to have an unclosed underline tag. 569 Shiplord Kirel, live from behind wingnut lines Mar 6, 2018 * 10:42:38am down 0 up report Drunken lunatic displayed for blood sport on US television, to great acclaim of peasants now prevented from viewing gladiatorial combat and dog fighting. DPRK humanely protects lunatics from sadists. pic.twitter.com/6gyOXJFR4d 571 Big Beautiful Door Mar 6, 2018 * 10:44:21am down 4 up report Nashville's mayor had to resign after pleading guilty to felony theft, apparently she was also having an affair with her bodyguard, and that part of the investigation gave us this : I don't know the details of the affair, but obviously it was not smart. But what amazes me more than anything is that the guy took these pictures on a government issued phone. Why would anyone take nudes on an employer (government or not) issued phone? That's just asking to get in trouble. Just guessing, but I'd say stupidity is the reason. 572 KGxvi Mar 6, 2018 * 10:48:33am down 1 up report re: #571 Big Beautiful Door Just guessing, but I'd say stupidity is the reason. I was just reading up on it. Apparently they traveled a lot together on the government dime for "work" and at least nine trips were just the two of them. He plead guilty to felony theft as well, three years supervised probation and his returning $45k to the city. 573 MsJ Mar 6, 2018 * 10:55:02am down 9 up report Ugh. What I love here is the guy essentially whining "boo-hoo, just cause I punched a black man & called him n***** means I have 2 be punished? But Im WHITE!" Cornell student facing deportation after sucker-punching black man in 'come fight us, n*gger' attack https://t.co/CleMzd7K1k 574 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 10:56:14am down 9 up report RIGHT NOW IN BALTIMORE: Students march toward City Hall asking for gun control. pic.twitter.com/kfB5oDPyP5 BREAKING: Baltimore @MayorPugh50 says the city is organizing 60 free buses to send students to DC for the march against gun violence later this month. Says "let's show Washington DC that Baltimore matters." Wants 3,000 city students there. Will be providing lunches and t-shirts. pic.twitter.com/g4QIoS9baA -- Kevin Rector ( @RectorSun ) March 6, 2018 A lot more students just arrived at this student protest against gun violence in Baltimore. They're from public city high schools. One chant: "No justice, no peace! No AR-15s!" pic.twitter.com/ObArcAh5gz 575 plansbandc Mar 6, 2018 * 10:57:33am down 0 up report Underlining hell. When will it end??? 576 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 10:58:34am down 1 up report 577 Jay C Mar 6, 2018 * 10:59:21am down 4 up report re: #431 Backwoods_Sleuth "The North Korean side clearly stated its willingness to denuclearize," the South Korean president's office said https://t.co/ohtyXBoDQ2 -- New York Times World ( @nytimesworld ) March 6, 2018 Not that I'm THAT much of a foreign-policy maven, but never-minding what Donald Trump says*, this looks like a BFD for Korean policy (short-term, anyway): and even though The Yam is taking credit for - well, something - ISTM like the two Koreas are doing shit with each other in spite of Trump's hot-air posturing and belligerence, not because of it. Though I'm sure that that analysis is probably unlikely to get much media coverage. *A generally wise move, if tragically unavoidable most of the time. 578 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Mar 6, 2018 * 11:00:03am down 0 up report Underlining hell. When will it end??? Somebody broke a tag. 579 Jay C Mar 6, 2018 * 11:01:40am down 1 up report Underlining hell. When will it end??? Not seeing it here. Charles (or somebody) must have Fixt. 580 Interesting Times Mar 6, 2018 * 11:01:57am down 3 up report re: #578 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Somebody broke a tag. What's weird is that I'm not seeing it at all. Can't think of what's different, other than I haven't refreshed the entire page since I first loaded it this morning...? 581 Sionainn, the Nasty Devilbitch Mar 6, 2018 * 11:02:07am down 1 up report Underlining hell. When will it end??? I've no idea what you guys are talking about. I see nothing underlined. 582 Sionainn, the Nasty Devilbitch Mar 6, 2018 * 11:02:55am down 1 up report re: #580 Interesting Times What's weird is that I'm not seeing it at all. Can't think of what's different, other than I haven't refreshed the entire page since I first loaded it this morning...? That's what I'm thinking. I'm afraid to logout now. LOL. 583 Belafon Mar 6, 2018 * 11:03:08am down 4 up report re: #580 Interesting Times What's weird is that I'm not seeing it at all. Can't think of what's different, other than I haven't refreshed the entire page since I first loaded it this morning...? If you don't refresh, tag breaking doesn't affect your. The new comments button doesn't refresh the whole page. 584 Dr Lizardo Mar 6, 2018 * 11:04:01am down 1 up report re: #581 Sionainn, the Nasty Devilbitch I've no idea what you guys are talking about. I see nothing underlined. Same here.....I'm not seeing anything underlined. 585 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Mar 6, 2018 * 11:04:55am down 2 up report If I load the whole page in a new tab, I see it. Paging electrotek: Your #438 broke a tag. Cleanup on aisle four. 586 Aucun pays pour les vieux ennemis Mar 6, 2018 * 11:07:59am down 1 up report re: #580 Interesting Times What's weird is that I'm not seeing it at all. Can't think of what's different, other than I haven't refreshed the entire page since I first loaded it this morning...? That's the difference. Loading the problem comment as a new comment fixes the tag. It's only an issue for people who refreshed since the problem comment was loaded. 587 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Mar 6, 2018 * 11:08:49am down 1 up report re: #586 Aucun pays pour les vieux ennemis That's the difference. Loading the problem comment as a new comment fixes the tag. It's only an issue for people who refreshed since the problem comment was loaded. And now it appears to have been fix'd. I loaded the page in a new tab (again) and there is no more underlining. For those who are seeing it, refresh, and all shall be forgotten. 588 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 11:08:52am down 6 up report True. He's not performing the duties of a president; he's occupying that office, and using it to pursue personal gain plus various hobbyhorses. And there's every reason to believe that bribery/blackmail are driving a lot of policy 589 Frenchy Mar 6, 2018 * 11:10:31am down 6 up report re: #546 Swampwitch I was invited to an in-person I guess around 2012 or so. They didn't do it like that. There wasn't this process of successive elimination like you describe. Everybody did the written test, then everybody got to play a short mock round with buzzers, 3 at a time. At the start of each mock round, each player was asked a question or two about him/herself. I may be wrong but I didn't really get the impression that personality was the most important factor in whether you were going to get on the show. (I mean have you seen some of these people?) We were told that your performance on the written test was the most important factor. Anyway, they said that everyone would be kept on file for up to a year, and could potentially be called at any point during that year. I never got called though. 590 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 11:13:15am down 11 up report Follow @srl and @JessicaHuseman for live updates for what I'm going to go ahead and call the Voting Rights TRIAL OF THE CENTURY. -- kat calvin ( @KatCalvinLA ) March 6, 2018 First, Kris Kobach and his attorneys are getting reprimanded over and over by Judge Robinson. At one point she reminded them they had to follow "evidence 101." She also wouldn't let them admit a document they sent to the ACLU lawyers at 1045 last night 591 electrotek Mar 6, 2018 * 11:13:25am down 3 up report re: #585 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. If I load the whole page in a new tab, I see it. Paging electrotek: Your #438 broke a tag. Cleanup on aisle four. Ah crap, I can't close the tag! My editing time expired! UGH! 592 electrotek Mar 6, 2018 * 11:14:22am down 0 up report I reported my own post in hopes of having it deleted for the amateur mistake of mine. 593 jaunte Mar 6, 2018 * 11:14:22am down 4 up report re: #260 Dave In Austin Lowest rated Oscars in HISTORY. Problem is, we don't have Stars anymore - except your President (just kidding, of course)! President Nora Desmond. 594 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Mar 6, 2018 * 11:14:39am down 1 up report Ah crap, I can't close the tag! My editing time expired! UGH! No worries. It looks like our benevolent host or another moderator was able to get to it. 595 Nyet Mar 6, 2018 * 11:15:24am down 0 up report LOL, this non-apology apology of a statement is getting savaged in the comments. Anti-Semitism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, racism and white supremacy are and always will be indefensible. Please read our statement: pic.twitter.com/bRFqAGf81t 596 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 11:16:11am down 7 up report There's an unnamed island in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts that a local man once campaigned to name Busta Rhymes Island. It is currently searchable by that name on Google Maps pic.twitter.com/OGYEo4gqu0 598 jaunte Mar 6, 2018 * 11:17:59am down 0 up report "I didn't get fatter, the cameras just got smaller." 601 dangerman Mar 6, 2018 * 11:21:13am down 4 up report Ah crap, I can't close the tag! My editing time expired! UGH! are we doomed to float through all eternity with no hope of redemption? possibly not busta rhymes island and the goat map upthread have made my day i should shut my computer off now 603 JordanRules Mar 6, 2018 * 11:23:42am down 6 up report 604 Swampwitch Mar 6, 2018 * 11:27:06am down 5 up report re: #589 Frenchy Sounds like they changed the audition format a bit after I did it. Or maybe it was a regional way, or it depended on how many were in the cattle call. Anyway, that sounds like a much more pleasant experience all around. I would have much rathered played mock games with everyone. There were a lot of really sweet people who were there just because they loved Jeopardy. I only made it as far as I did because I'm one of those people who retains unimportant info. The others who made it to the end were highly educated. I lasted one year at UNLV before I had to go back home to take care of younger siblings for my father and stepmom #1. It's just as well I wasn't called. I get crippling stage fright. It takes seven shots of ouzo to get me up on karaoke night. 605 jaunte Mar 6, 2018 * 11:28:03am down 7 up report Trump lawyer Michael Cohen received closed-door witness information from the House Intelligence Committee, The Daily Beast reports. https://t.co/DoM2VhMPMN Well this would seem to be a red flag for the collapse of the rule of law in this country. https://t.co/lT6cXmIAuS 607 DodgerFan1988 Mar 6, 2018 * 11:35:23am down 7 up report Trump Administration now going after immigrants serving in the Armed Forces. More Bad News For Immigrant Military Recruits Who Were Promised US Citizenship https://t.co/CDSeGVSzHF pic.twitter.com/YNYjZDEf7z 608 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Mar 6, 2018 * 11:37:01am down 3 up report re: #606 Big Beautiful Door He's going to get spanked, he's going to throw a right-wing tantrum, President* Trump will fire off some angry tweets, and then the whole frothing wingnut machine will start cycling the talking points and conspiracy theories. The more things change, the more they remain the same. 609 gwangung Mar 6, 2018 * 11:46:00am down 1 up report re: #577 Jay C [Embedded content] Not that I'm THAT much of a foreign-policy maven, but never-minding what Donald Trump says*, this looks like a BFD for Korean policy (short-term, anyway): and even though The Yam is taking credit for - well, something - ISTM like the two Koreas are doing shit with each other in spite of Trump's hot-air posturing and belligerence, not because of it. Though I'm sure that that analysis is probably unlikely to get much media coverage. *A generally wise move, if tragically unavoidable most of the time. This is from a friend (Korean and reasonably familiar with Korean affairs (or, at least, more so than I): Just to be clear, the DPRK has consistently called, for generations, robust guarantees from the U.S. for its security--in other words, the signing of a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War, and thus, remove the need for nuclear weapons, not to mention US-ROK military "exercises" and other plans and rehearsals for regime change. They haven't wavered from that position, while successive U.S. administrations have confusingly wavered between a range of hostile ("axis of evil") and less-hostile ("strategic patience") and even positive engagement (the last year of Clinton's presidency with Albright's visit to Pyongyang) policies. So in a sense, this is nothing new. They've frozen their nuclear weapons program before, and even destroyed, with US officials present to verify, nuclear weapons installations. And when promises haven't been kept--such as the oil shipments and light water reactors that the U.S. was supposed to deliver as written in the 1994 Agreed Framework--the DPRK quickly revived its nuclear programs. We've heard this song. But hopefully, this time, the song will be more on key and last a little longer.

1 Cheechako Mar 5, 2018 * 6:24:14pm down 6 up report Very quite in the house. As I said in the last thread, everyone must be watching Rachel. 2 MsJ Mar 5, 2018 * 6:26:25pm down 5 up report Very quite in the house. As I said in the last thread, everyone must be watching Rachel. I'm watching curling.

pettrograaeddyee httgt pebrvaari viplvy, pittuvhlee sitt rusiyaanu siduviim smiipv niriikssny krmin, aapsu yaamee avsthaav elmbentek imht unnduven psuvuu, vlaeddimiir lenin haa liyon ttrottski yn rusiyaanu maaksvaadyee shreesstthm crit dek, ismtu kleey. bolshevik pkssyee naayk lenin, 1900 pttn rusiyaaven pittuvhlv sittiyee svittsrlntyee suuric nuvry. 1905 viplvyee prmukh crity vuu ttrottski, ee smbndyen sirgtkott psuv pittuvhl krn lduv, psuv prnsyen d spaanynyyen d nerpaa haeriimen anturuv, ee vn vitt niv yoork ngryee bronks hi vaasy kleey. ehidii ohu niv yoorkhi vaasy kl rusiyaanu sNkrmnikyngee novi mir puvtpttt liviiy. vishaal sNkhyaavk tvt deeshpaaln pittuvhlun d smnng lenin haa ttrottski yn dedenaa, rusiyaanu siduviim smiipv niriikssny krmin sitti atr, aapsu yaamee avsthaav elmbentek imht unnduven psuvuuh. maartu 7, pettrograaedd (paerni pebrvaari 22) puttilov krmkruvn lokvutt kiriim dduumaav yli vivRt krn avsthaavee puttilov kmhlee 30,000k pmn vuukmkruvoo klmnaakrny visin lokvutt krn ldii. kmkruvn viroodhtaa pelpaali daekviimtt daeruu utsaahy polisiy visin vlkvn ldii. kmhlee dorgulu vsaa daemiim nnngryee aattiy aevilviiy. vaeddvrjny paevti kaalyee puttilov kmkruvn knnnddaaymk dduumaavee menssevik sbhikyn dedenek hmuvii tibuni. ee nikolaayi ceeyiddse haa aeleksaenddr kernskiy. kernski smnng paevti raesviimeedii ohu kmkruvntt anturu anngvaa tibunee, vaeddvrjny prdhaan deeshpaaln vypaaryk avuluvnu aeti bvtt haa "ym baeraaerum deyk siduviy haeki" bvttty. maartu 8 (paerni pebrvaari 23) pettrograaeddy: rusiyaanu agnuvr paan kaerli vlin aellii yyi smaajvaady pilibnd ddebsgee "noniviy haeki aetulaantyee ginisiluv" gaen psuv ttrottski mgee jiivity (My Life) hi mesee liyyi. " ap hmuvuu oonaaem avsthaavk ohu maa vaelndgen sipgtteey." ddebs "avyaaj viplvvaadiyeki." hilkuyitt esee novee. ttrottski ohu gaen sndhn krnnee, "pilistiinuvngeet pilistiinuveki...saarthk dt vedun sndhaa smaajvaadii naaykyeki." maartu 9 (paerni pebrvaari 24) pettrograaeddy: mh vaeddvrjny aermbeyi maartu 10 (paerni pebrvaari 25) niv yoork: ddolr miliyn 41k britaany rtrn togy jeepii moorgn vet laebee. britaany aandduv kaenddaavee sitt jee.pii. moorgn cees sh smaagm vet ddolr miliyn 41k rtrn kutttti yvyi. ey ek dink tul naevgt krn ld vishaaltm rn togy viy. ddolr miliyn 25k vttinaa rtrn niv yoork aesee kaaryaalyee taenpt krn ld atr sess filddelfiyaa mintt vet yaeviiy. aemrikaavee yud ny sndhaa aepyk les spyn ld rn togy, mitr paakssikyn aemrikaavee shyoogy mt rndaapaevaetmee trm penvyi. eseem siy ayoojn suraekiim sndhaa mitr paarshvyee jygrhny vossinttnytt vdd vddaat avshy keree. pvtin sNcit avshytaavngee anupaatytt anuv ddolr miliyn 41, ddolr miliyn 200k vn britaanyytt dii aeti yud ny sndhaa hilvvee. saaem alut ny vaarikykm, lNddn ngryee sitt look muuly mdhysthaany vool viidiy vet maaru kryi. mee vn vitt kmhl 421 vaedd vrjny kl kmkruvn sNkhyaav 305,000 dkvaa vaeddivii aet. ngr mdhyyee mhjn pelpaali dusim gnnk paevaetvee. sttnpaatth atr "aandduv perlaa dmnu!, yuddhy epaa!, paan, saamy haa nidhs!, smuuhaandduv digukl dineevaa!" viy. pelpaali buddhimtungee haa shilpiingee pulul kotts d aakrshny kr gtteey. uss paasaelvl sisun d vrjnyntt ekviy. kmkruvoo, pihiyaa, praathmik avi haa looh kaebli vlin snnddh vemin polisiy smg prcndd gaettum sndhaa suudaanm vuuh. polisiy sennng vet veddi taebiimen smhr pelpaalikruvoo miygiyh. viplvvaadii kaelmbiim hmudaav vet d lnngaaviimee plmu slkunu pennum krmin, pelpaalikruvntt viruddhv meheyvaa sitti smhr kosaek seblu ovun vet shoodrtvy pl klh. maartu 11 ( paerni pebrvaari 26) pettrograaeddy: rusiyaanu aandduv prcndd mrdnyk diyt kryi kmkruvntt iridaa dinyee vaedd vrjny kl nohaeki nmut ovuhu digttm pelpaali pvtvti. aandduv viplvvaadii vyaapaary mt prcndd mrdnyk diyt kryi. polisiy nitrm vhlvl sitt hoo ihlin paevti jneel vlin sennng visuruvaa haeriim sndhaa digttm veddi taebiiy. edin ek prcndd siduviimkdii milittri aarkssk bhttyin, maaligaa ctursryeedii pelpaalikruvn 40k mraa daemiiy. tvt 40ktt tuvaal sidu kleey. kesee nmut aandduvtt mhjn vyaapaary paalny krgt nohaeki viy. seblu hmudaa athaer pelpaalikruvntt ekviim pilibnd vdd vddaat vaartaa pl viy. edin svs saar, dduumaavee kttyutu din niymyk nomaetiv athittuviimtt niyoog kleey. jrmaanu haa osttroo-hngeeriyaanu aanddu smnng raajytaantrik smbndhtaa bind daemiim sndhaa ciin paarlimeentuvee seneett sbhaav 158tt 37k les d niyoojit mntrii mnddly 331ktt 87k les d chndy deyi. em piyvr, plmuvn look yuddhyeedii edirivaadii adhiraajyvaadii blvtun atr agmaeti ttuvaan cii-juugee jaatikvaadii aandduv gen giy upaamaaru daemiimee utsaahyehi kottsk viy. indiyaanu kaary saadhk bl aeni vltt blhtkaaryen bndvaa gen sitti yttt vijit seblungen ghn 50,000k pmn hmudaavk shitv ngrytt aetuluvemin, lutinn jenraal shriimt freddrik sttaenli mvuddi, "obgee ngr haa bhuumiy vet apgee hmudaavn paeminennee, jygraahkyin hoo sturn les nov vimuktidaaykyin les" yyi pvsyi. kaernsaa, aemrikaanu avshytaavntt ptthaeniv ymin 1917 jnvaariyeedii blgaenvuu vyvsthaavee muulik piyvryn ittukiriimtt porondu vee. (ejiddoo jnvrgy haa goviin atr siimit vshyen iddm yli bedaahaeriimttt, tel vaeni muulik khnij smpt jnstu kiriim genhaer daekvuu) 27 vn leekhny haa (shrmyee haa smaaj shnvl aarkssaav gaen sndhn) 123 leekhny, visheessyenm ddoheni pettrooliym haa gugnheyim unukiriimee haa pvitr kiriimee smaagm vaeni smaagmvl dhnpti aemrikaanu deepol ayitiytt trjnyk viy. maar tu 12 (paerni pebrvaari 27) pettrograaeddy: sooviytt sbhaa pihittuvyi, snnddh naenngittiim paetir yyi abel gaans yn prns adhykssvryaa ( J'Accuse , Napoleon ) maattr ddolroosaa drshny kryi. tm svaami purussyaagee turulehi aadry soyaagt noslkaa hrin ld bhaaryaavk vn maann blriyaek (emii lin) pilibnd kthaav mnoovidyaatmk udveegkr citrpttytt pdnm viy. ey pertt gen giyee, gaansgee shkruveku vuu ciyaareskiyuroo sinmaettogrfi hi liyons henri burel visini. aemrikaavee dii penvuu ttoocr of syilns (nihnnddtvyee vdhy) men behevin saarthkvuu ehi ngn drshn haa up siraesi kpaahaer hoo sNshoodhny kr tibuni. prns citrptt vicaark jiin maettriy maattr ddoloroosaa gaen mesee liviiy. "aalooky haa sevnaeli yodaagaeniimen naattymy drshn uddiipny kiriim gaen vaetthiimk aetiv aalookyee maadhy mgin vishmyn, pudumyn daekviim, alNkrnyee vishvaasniiy pripuurntvy, suvisheess vistr genhaer dkvmin prns citrptty asaamaany gunykin yukt viy. saebvinm vsree saar thkm prns citrptty ey viy."

pettrograaeddyee httgt pebrvaari viplvy, pittuvhlee sitt rusiyaanu siduviim smiipv niriikssny krmin, aapsu yaamee avsthaav elmbentek imht unnduven psuvuu, vlaeddimiir lenin haa liyon ttrottski yn rusiyaanu maaksvaadyee shreesstthm crit dek, ismtu kleey. bolshevik pkssyee naayk lenin, 1900 pttn rusiyaaven pittuvhlv sittiyee svittsrlntyee suuric nuvry.

I grew up in the south, where "separation of church and state" was understood as something akin to confessional allegiance to the emperor Nero. My southern, conservative, Christian community battled local school administrators over prayer at football games, 10 Commandments at the courthouse, and tried our best to get as many evangelicals elected to office in Washington as possible. We thought "separation of church and state" was the principality that stood in opposition to our efforts to preserve our influence in the culture. We had little to no understanding that the separation of the power of the state over the church would be at the top of our collective wish list just a few decades later. Now, in the wake of Supreme Court rulings like Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby, evangelical Christians are digging deeper on the idea of religious liberty, and the concept of "separation of church and state." To be sure, evangelicals haven't changed much on one issue; we still want to preserve the right to bring our faith with us into the public square. But now--perhaps more than ever, or at least since 1776--American Christians want to gain absolute clarity about the limits of power of the state over the church. Evangelicals are also learning that coercive power and influence are two different things; especially when you are in the religious minority. One place American evangelicals are unlikely to look for perspective on religious liberty for all is Nazi Germany. But there in Pomerania--teaching at an underground seminary--Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote an essay on American Protestantism and church-state relations. Bonhoeffer viewed the American experiment as an outsider, first as a student in New York City, and later in search of political asylum. He only returned home to Germany in 1939--his second trip to the United States--because, as he said in a letter to his friend Reinhold Niebuhr: "I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of the Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people."[1] Two concepts, according to Bonhoeffer's assessment, frame how outsiders perceive the church in a foreign context. First, a foreign observer "has the tendency to attribute the strangeness of another church to the peculiarities of its geographical, national, and social location, that is, to understand it in terms of its historical political, and sociological context."[2] There is a mix of both fixed, cross-culturally transcendent realities of the Church (God's revelation, the real presence of the Body of Christ, etc.) and dynamic attributes that distinguish one context from another. An outside observer that fixates only on the universals or only on the particulars fails to understand the foreign church. Second, Bonhoeffer writes that "[t]he observer of a foreign church is all too easily content with the current picture of the church's situation."[3]Churches--like cultures--are supported by the momentum of history and set on a trajectory that requires inevitable change. They are fluid. Reducing another culture's identity to a two-dimensional, static caricature is a real danger to the outside observer. Churches and cultures change over time. Bonhoeffer was impressed, in many ways, by what he observed in America. He understood the separation of church and state the way Thomas Jefferson intended in his letter to the Danbury Baptists. Bonhoeffer's observation was that the state's power over the church was limited. The state's power, in the American form of democracy, is limited by civilians that make up both church membership rolls, as well as voter registration lists. They have dual citizenship in Luther's two kingdoms. The basis of this separation, Bonhoeffer explains, is why democracy and Christian principles have aligned better in America than in any other national government in the world. Bonhoeffer writes of the contrast between the European governments and the American form of democracy: The fundamental difference between [the American] church-state relation and that of the churches of the Reformation is obvious. The American separation of church and state is not based on the doctrine of two offices or the two kingdoms that were ordered by God to remain until the end of the world, each serving a fundamentally [sic.] difference way.[4] According to Bonhoeffer's Ethics, an aberrant form of the Reformation's two kingdoms doctrine became justification for all sorts of atrocities by the German government at the time. A sort of "pseudo-Lutheran" natural theology emerged that was used to establish a radically optimistic view of the orders of creation. Bonhoeffer scholar Larry Rasmussen, in a footnote to the critical edition of Bonhoeffer's letters and papers, writes: As in Creation and Fall , given as lectures in the winter semester of 1932-1933, he is countering a natural theology and its misuse, which was to bolster the Nazi platform of 'blood and soil.' 'Orders of creation' was being used by conservative Lutheran theologians and the German Christians in a natural theology that yielded autonomous orders, such as state and family, apart form the revelation of God in Jesus Christ.[5] In fact, it was none other than cosignatory of the Barmen Declaration, Karl Barth that led Bonhoeffer away from this view of creation toward a more moderate two kingdoms perspective. Bonhoeffer never fully abandoned the two kingdoms framework, but he did provide a critically nuanced alternative to the distorted Lutheran concept of the divine orders in his day. Bonhoeffer concludes: This should make us think about why on the European continent it has never been possible to base a democracy on Christian principles, about why on our continent democracy and Christianity are always seen in somewhat opposition to each other, while in America democracy can be glorified as the epitome of a Christian form of government. In answering this question, one must recall that the European continent ruled out this possibility when it persecuted and expelled the spiritualists.[6] One might assume, based on such a positive, self-deprecating appraisal of American church-state relations, that Bonhoeffer was naively optimistic about the future of the church in the United States in contrast to Germany's. On the contrary, Bonhoeffer wrote, "Our knowledge of the American church situation can teach us the following lesson: a church that is independent of the state is no more protected from secularization than a state church. Whether the church is connected to the world or independent of it, the threat of infringement in the church remains the same."[7] The purity of the church is not threatened only at the institutional level, but at the organic level as well. Sin's influence on the church can attack from any number of angles. It's clear that Bonhoeffer is not weary of the state only, but in the tendency of healthy churches to become sick over time. Bonhoeffer's critique--now in hindsight--resonates today, nearly prophetic it it's anticipation of America's flirtation with secularism. Many of America's mainline churches--who at one time were the context for great revival in our nation's history--gave way to secularized graveyards. Take a look at Bonhoeffer's report to Berlin on his impression of churches in New York in 1931: Anyone who has seen the weekly program of one of the large New York churches, with their daily, indeed almost hourly events, teas, lectures, concerts, charity events, opportunities for sports, games, bowling, dancing for every age group, anyone who has heard how they try to persuade a new resident to join the church, insisting that you'll get into society quite differently by doing so, anyone who has become acquainted with the embarrassing nervousness with which the pastor lobbies for membership-that person can well assess the character of such a church. All these things, of course, take place with varying degrees of tactfulness, taste, and seriousness; some churches are basically 'charitable' churches; others have primarily a social identity. One cannot avoid the impression, however, that in both cases they have forgotten what the real point is.[8] For Bonhoeffer, it is the lack of distinction between the two kingdoms that has led to secularization of the church in America. " The European-continental secularization of the church stems from the--misinterpreted--Reformation distinction of the two kingdoms; the American secularization stems from precisely the lack of distinction of the kingdoms and the offices of state and church..."[9] Bonhoeffer wrote. Discerning the role of the church in contrast to the role of the state in America can be a bit like Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First?" To put it lightly, the Germans were a bit clearer in regards to who was in charge in 1939. Unfortunately, Germany's was an illegitimate government who abandoned its role to protect its citizens. LifeWay Research's analysis of the "Rise of the Nones" is confirmation of the increasing exposure of nominal Christianity within American churches--what is so often described as "church decline." While many run panicked to polling stations, hands wringing over the perception of an emerging Christian religious minority in a country who has historically maintained religious homogeny since its founding, Bonhoeffer speaks to us today with the voice of a strikingly similar Christian minority in Nazi Germany. Germany, like America, had a national religious identity. The Lutheran State Church was a large part of what it meant to be German volk . But in spaces where the spiritual content of religious forms and institutions in Germany became void, a prophetic minority from within--the Confessing Church movement--rose up. "Is America a Christian nation?" might seem like an increasingly irrelevant question if our churches are not filled with Christian people; that was the problem German churches faced in Bonhoeffer's day. A better, more urgent question is, "Will America be a nation of faithful Christians?" or, "Will our churches be Christian churches?" The "Rise of the Nones" exposes our own sort of secular state churches scattered about in America--mainly mainline Protestant churches that died years ago. As I've grown up, I am more comfortable with the phrase "separation of church and state" than when I was a youngster in Nashville, TN. It's not that I want to compartmentalize my faith and civic duty; the opposite is the case. But I want to heed Bonhoeffer's cautionary tale. We cannot so marry the two kingdoms that the church begins to look like the state/world. "Let's keep Christianity Christian, y'all." [1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Clifford J. Green ed. Theological Education Underground: 1937-1940. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2011. 210. [2] Ibid. 438. [4] Ibid. 452. [5] Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Clifford J. Green ed. Berlin: 1932-1933. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2009. 362. [6] Theological Education Underground: 1937-1940, 452. [7] Ibid. 453. [8] Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Barcelona, Berlin, New York: 1928 - 1931. Clifford J. Green ed. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2008. 313-314. [9] Ibid. An investigation by the U.S. Army recommends that a Southern Baptist chaplain be charged with "dereliction of duty" for failing to accommodate a homosexual couple in a marriage retreat. Earlier this year a lesbian soldier filed a complaint against Major... Continue... Southern Baptists support the right of student organizations to maintain core religious beliefs as necessary for group membership and leadership. In 2013, the Southern Baptist Convention adopted a resolution that states, "We call on college administrators to respect the rights of students to... Continue... WASHINGTON, D.C., July 16, 2018--The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in favor of the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops on July 13, in the case Whole Woman's Health v. Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops. The court's... Continue...

I grew up in the south, where "separation of church and state" was understood as something akin to confessional allegiance to the emperor Nero. My southern, conservative, Christian community battled local school administrators over prayer at football games, 10 Commandments at the courthouse, and tried our best to get as many evangelicals elected to office in Washington as possible.

The United Church of Christ vote in favor of divestment and boycott has prompted an incredibly fair report from the NYT, saying the BDS movement is growing and is supported by a "growing number" of American Jews. Netanyahu's latest cartoon aimed at stopping the Iran deal equates ISIS with the "Islamic State of Iran" and says the west is allowing it to build nukes aimed at the U.S. Its actual name is the Islamic Republic. On a visit to East Jerusalem, the rule of occupation and apartheid is concrete and tangible. Services are denied to Palestinians that Jewish settlers living among them get. When you build walls, you make a labyrinth of the world, a graffiti warns Today, in a vote of 508 in favor and 124 against, the plenary of the 30th United Church of Christ General Synod passed a resolution calling for boycotts and divestment from companies that profit from Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands. "As disciples of Jesus, we hear and seek to heed his call to be peacemakers, responding to violence with nonviolence and extending love to all," said Rev. John Deckenback, Conference Minister of the Central Atlantic Conference of the UCC, which submitted the resolution to the synod. "It is in that spirit of love for both Israelis and Palestinians, and a desire to support Palestinians in their nonviolent struggle for freedom, that the United Church of Christ has passed this resolution." Early Monday three Israeli naval ships seized a vessel bound for Gaza carrying activists and humanitarian aid while still in international waters, said activists. The Freedom Flotilla III, headed by the Swedish ship the Marianne of Gothenburg, was attempting to break the eight-year siege on the Gaza Strip. The boat and its 18 passengers were being towed to Ashdod, where it was expected that the activists would be deported. Frightened by the progress of the boycott movement, BDS, four hardline Israel supporters have called for changes in Israeli policy, freezing outlying settlement activity to improve Israel's image. They are Yair Lapid, Ari Shavit, Abe Foxman, and Michael Oren On Monday, Ramallah-based visual artist Khaled Jarrar painted a portion of Israel's separation wall as a rainbow flag following the US Supreme Court decision in support of marriage equality. Jarrar said in a statement: "I went and painted the colors of the rainbow (on the wall) as these colors were circulated all over the world. These colors are ultimately an expression of freedom." Mondoweiss co-editor Adam Horowitz shares his personal story of becoming engaged in the Palestine solidarity movement as part of our "Be The Mondoweiss Megaphone" campaign. Please help us raise $50,000 to bring Mondoweiss to more thinking people, opinion leaders, policy-makers, and policy un-makers too! The recently released United Nations report on the 2014 war in Gaza meticulously documents last summer's horror. The reports of Israeli executions of Palestinians, Israel's aerial assaults on Palestinians in their homes in Gaza and other aspects of the assault have attracted the most attention, but the UN report also highlights what it calls "widespread human rights violations" by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. The document is a reminder that the uptick in tensions and violence last summer was not limited to Gaza. In fact, the human rights abuses the report looks at still occur near-daily in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Every Monday, Palestinians in Nuseirat refugee camp rummage through piles of secondhand Israeli junk in the cheapest market in the Gaza Strip. Dan Cohen finds several t-shirts that include military insignia for the army that slaughtered so many in Gaza. Ma'an reports: Israeli forces shot and injured a 14-year-old Mohammad Abdul Ilah with live ammunition on Saturday when they opened fire on a march in the West Bank village of Kafr Qaddum near Qalqiliya. Michael Oren's attack on American Jews has backfired. His book is getting trashed by reviewers, all of whom cite his sneering view of US Jews as self-hating because they don't love Israel enough. His former college roommate David Rothkopf says his views are "profoundly offensive" and "twist reality." The new UN report on the Gaza war of last summer accepts Israel's rationale for the destruction of 70 mosques in Gaza, a display of rank anti-Muslim bigotry, Norman Finkelstein says, in a report that strains to be "fair" to both sides and thereby balances grossly different death tolls The psychotherapist Avigail Abarbanel was born in Israel but says that trauma lies at the heart of Israeli institutions and makes the country impossible to reason with. In conversation with Hazel Kahan "You know which cow produces more milk per cow than any other cow? You think it's a Dutch cow or French cow? No, it's a Jewish cow. It's a computerized cow. Every moo is computerized" -- Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu outdoes the cherry tomato and drip irrigation "Your map of Israel is enclosed," the New Israel Fund writes in a fundraising letter to American Jews. This gut-Zionist appeal by a progressive group shows the limits of action by liberal Zionist groups to address the roots of the conflict. The repudiation of the Confederate flag by Republican politicians and the Supreme Court's decision in favor of marriage equality shows that change takes place in "thunderbolts," as President Obama said today. Those thunderbolts will come sooner than anyone thinks for Palestinians. Jewish identity continues to be threatened with a paranoid fear of annihilation. Victimhood and guilt is acted out of a perception that Palestinians wish to destroy Jews. The poet and author Lillian Rosengarten, writing at Mondoweiss In op-eds timed to Episcopal and United Church of Christ conventions, church leaders say BDS is not anti-Semitic and is required as a moral response to new Israeli government's expansionist policies Israel's Deputy Interior Minister Yaron Mazuz called on Palestinian lawmakers to return Israeli identity cards. "We are doing you people a favor by even allowing you to be seated here - terrorists won't be allowed to sit here." Foreign direct investment in Israel dropped by 50% in 2014 according to a 2015 World Investment Report issued yesterday by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. One of the authors of the report, Dr. Ronny Manos from the Open University of Israel, speculates the declining investment is fallout from the Israeli military onslaught on Gaza last summer and "international boycotts" against Israel for "alleged violations of international law." Jonathan Rosen, novelist and editorial director of a leading line of Jewish books, describes Edward Said's Orientalism, an iconic book for Arab-Americans, as a "monster" in academic and public life. Zionism is making American Jewish organizations very conservative indeed. Promoting a letter from 5 former Obama advisers questioning the Iran deal, the NYT leaves the fact that it originated at the thinktank WINEP till the 26th paragraph and never says that the Israel lobby AIPAC started WINEP.

The United Church of Christ vote in favor of divestment and boycott has prompted an incredibly fair report from the NYT, saying the BDS movement is growing and is supported by a "growing number" of American Jews.

The Black Lives Matter movement is all about justice for black citizens nationwide who have been affected by police brutality in the US. It's completely, totally 100 percent about the plight of black people, but some people (who are not black -- important note) have a real gift for making things all about them. This Imgur post from two months ago shows a memo from an anonymous group of first-year law students to their law professor. In it, they voice their grievances over the fact their teacher wore a "Black Lives Matter" T-shirt to class. You know, like a shitty group of people. The law professor wasn't having any of it. Here's the memo from the students, in which they define what the Black Lives Matter movement is "really about." They think being pro-Black Lives Matter automatically means being anti-white: And here's the six-page, mic drop of a response from the professor: Apply ice to burned area. If you love seeing ignorant, biased people being shut down by intelligence and logic as much as I do, actor Rob Delaney agrees: My favorite part of the professor's memo? "Premise: You know more about legal education than I do." "Critique: You don't."

The Black Lives Matter movement is all about justice for black citizens nationwide who have been affected by police brutality in the US. It's completely, totally 100 percent about the plight of black people, but some people (who are not black -- important note) have a real gift for making things all about them.

Macau: The death toll from Severe Typhoon Hato rose to at least 16 Thursday after the storm left a trail of destruction across southern China, blacking out Macau's mega-casinos and battering Hong Kong's skyscrapers. Eight died in the gambling hub of Macau, where images showed cars underwater and people swimming along streets. The enclave's famed mega-casinos were running on backup generators. Macau's leader made a public apology after his government came under fire for its delayed storm warning, while the head of the weather bureau resigned. File images of Typhoon Hato aftermath in southern China. Reuters A man was killed by a wall that was blown down, another fell from a fourth-floor terrace and one was hit by a truck. The Macau government said two bodies were found in a flooded car park early Thursday, and that two more died when they were trapped in the basement of their shop. Details of the remaining death were not immediately available. Footage published Thursday on the website of Apple Daily showed water gushing into an underground car park, with people wading through neck-deep water littered with debris as one man shouted in panic. It was not clear if it was the same car park where the bodies had been found. "I have never seen Macau like this since I came here in the 70s," a taxi driver aged in his 50s who gave his name as Lao told AFP . "It's like they were trying to gamble with their luck," Lao said adding that authorities had reacted too slowly and did too little to alert residents of the coming storm. Blacked-out slot machines were seen at the largely empty Wynn Macau casino where there was no air conditioning and a musty atmosphere. However, a few dozen gamblers ignored the heat and tried their luck at four baccarat tables. A staff member at the enclave's sprawling Venetian resort said its casino and shops were open, but there was no air conditioning. A source had said on Wednesday that the complex was running on back-up power. But at the Grand Lisboa Hotel in central Macau, an employee told AFP it was still without electricity and water and that its casino and restaurants were closed. The city's gambling industry generated over 220 billion patacas ($27.29 billion) in revenue in 2016, over half of its annual GDP, as it hosted more than 30 million visitors. Tremendous damage Macau's leader Fernando Chui and other government ministers bowed their heads during a minute's silence at an evening press conference. "These two days, we have faced an extremely difficult test together. Hato is the strongest typhoon in 53 years and has brought tremendous damage to Macau," Chui told reporters. "In facing this disaster, we admit we have not done enough, there is space for improvement. Here I represent the Macau government in expressing our apologies to the residents," he said, adding that the city's meteorological bureau chief had resigned. Debris was scattered on roads and a shipping container was washed up on its side in front of a temple after Wednesday's storm. Streets were lined with trash and shattered glass and residents holding plastic buckets queued for water from fire hydrants. "We've been going without water and electricity for more than 24 hours. It's so hot," May Lee, in her 40s, who was in line for water, told AFP , adding that there was not even water for flushing the toilet. In Hong Kong, Hato, whose name is Japanese for "pigeon", sparked the most severe Typhoon 10 warning, only the third time a storm of this power has pounded the financial hub in the past 20 years. The city could have suffered losses of HK$8 billion ($1.02 billion), Chinese University of Hong Kong economics professor Terence Chong told AFP , referring to the value of its daily GDP. More than 120 were injured as the city was lashed with hurricane winds and pounding rain. In the neighbouring southern Chinese province of Guangdong, at least eight people have died, state broadcaster CCTV reported, while around 27,000 were evacuated to temporary shelters, the official Xinhua news agency said. Nearly two million households were briefly without power. CCTV said four of the mainland deaths had occurred in Zhuhai, three in Zhongshan and one in Jiangmen. Hato was downgraded to a tropical depression Thursday afternoon as it travelled further into China. Hong Kong and the surrounding region is regularly battered by typhoons between July and October.

Macau: The death toll from Severe Typhoon Hato rose to at least 16 Thursday after the storm left a trail of destruction across southern China, blacking out Macau's mega-casinos and battering Hong Kong's skyscrapers.

RIVER EDGE, N.J. -- Veteran LD38 Republican Chairman Jim Arakelian is hanging it up in one of the few remaining competitive legislative districts left on New Jersey's map. "I would like to personally thank each of you for the two Read More Published in Bergen County , News Tagged arakelian , Bergen , chairman , LD38 , new jersey WESTWOOD, N.J. -- The Young Republican Revolution is still afoot in Bergen County. Progress was tangibly on display last night when Alyssa Dawson and her running mate, Councilman Ray Arroyo, kicked off their bid for Westwood Council at a cafe Read More HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Former Hackensack Mayor Jack Zisa is one step closer to cementing his claim on the Bergen County Republican Organization (BCRO). Bergen GOP Committee members will meet the week after the upcoming June Primary to select a replacement for Read More

RIVER EDGE, N.J. -- Veteran LD38 Republican Chairman Jim Arakelian is hanging it up in one of the few remaining competitive legislative districts left on New Jersey's map. "I would like to personally thank each of you for the two Read More Published in Bergen County , News Tagged arakelian , Bergen , chairman , LD38 , new jersey WESTWOOD, N.J

The Japanese internment camps that the U.S. established during World War II are the subject of two stunning exhibitions at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. The Skirball shows depict life in the Manzanar camp and the internment experience in photos by Ansel Adams and drawings by Mine Okubo, via works depicting an embarrassingly disturbing period in U.S. history with honesty and emotion. Well known for his black-and-white photographs of western landscapes, Adams made a risky career move in visiting and photographing life at the Manzanar War Relocation Center, as it was officially called. Built in California, Manzanar was 220 miles northeast of Los Angeles and a little south of Yosemite, where Adams took many of his most famous shots. In fact, the traveling exhibit of Adams' photos, enhanced with loans from the Japanese American National Museum and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), opens with two classic Adams landscape shots showing the beautiful area - not far from the dusty desolation of the camp. During the war, more than 110,000 Japanese people and Japanese Americans (two-thirds of whom were citizens) were detained in 10 camps in more isolated areas of the U.S., largely in the West. Over 10,000 people were detained at Manzanar between 1942 and 1945. Invited by his friend Ralph Merritt, who ran Manzanar, Adams made a series of trips to shoot community activities there from October 1943 to July 1944. The resulting photos were published in a controversial book, Born Free and Equal, and shown in a Museum of Modern Art show in 1944. The photos were criticized by some for being too idealized and other as too sympathetic to his subjects. Adams' did not take his usu al photos. In fact, the collection at the Skirball has a lot of close-up head shots. The exhibit includes permission slips on loan from UCLA that Adams had his subjects sign, an irony given that they had lost most of their other rights. Adams also depicted the paradox of camp existence in a still life. It shows a photo of a soldier fighting for his country (the U.S.) along with letters he mailed "home" to Manzanar. While Adams takes top billing, the Skirball exhibit also contains artifacts like tags put on the people and their luggage. There is a section covering the Pearl Harbor bombing, the resultant fear and paranoia as latent racism became blatant racism. One item shown is a LIFE magazine article on "How to Tell Japs from the Chinese." Additionally, there are photos by two other photographers: Dorothea Lange and Toyo Miyatake. Lange, whose dust bowl images are well known, was hired by the government to document the forced internment. Her photos show the despair and bewilderment the people experienced, an honesty and critical view that forced the government to impound the photos for years. Cameras were forbidden for the internees. However, Miyatake snuck in a lens and fil; he then got a carpenter to build him a box camera in the camp. He secretly took pictures initially. But, Merritt eventually let him do so openly and get better equipment to shoot and develop his images. He even shot photos for the camp school yearbooks. The drawings of the camp experience by Mine Okubo, an artist from Riverside, Calif., are featured in a separate exhibit. Okubo's emotional works about her internment experience were published in a book, Citizen 13660. The name alone is telling that the country labeled them as citizens, but imprisoned and reduced their identity to numbers reminiscent of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables. An adult who earned a Master's degree and studied art in Europe prior to war starting there, Okubo wound up being interned in the Topaz, Utah, camp along with one brother. The family members were actually split among four camps in four states. Another brother served in the armed forces during the family's internment period. To document the injustices of and life in the camps, Okubo created approximately 200 pen-and-ink drawings capturing her experience. In contrast, the exhibit also includes pieces from her later "happy period" years later. The dual exhibits on Manzanar and Internment Life with works by Ansel Adams and Mine Okubo open on Oct. 8, 2015, at the Skirball. They will be there through Feb. 21, 2016. Written and directed by Dyanne Weiss Sources: Preview of exhibits Oct. 7, 2015 Skirball: Manzanar: The Wartime Photographs of Ansel Adams Skirball: Citizen 13660: The Art of Mine Okubo Rafu Shimpo: Mine Okubo's Artwork, Ansel Adams' Photographs At Skirball Photos by Ansel Adams, Entrance to Manzanar and Pictures on Top of Phonograph, Yanemitsu home, 1943. Private collection; courtesy of Photographic Traveling Exhibitions. Drawing by Mine Okubo, 1942. Drawing. Courtesy of the Japanese American National Museum, gift of Mine Okubo Estate. Manzanar and Internment Life in Ansel Adams, Mine Okubo Works at Skirball added by Dyanne Weiss on October 7, 2015 View all posts by Dyanne Weiss -

The Japanese internment camps that the U.S. established during World War II are the subject of two stunning exhibitions at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

There's no definitive way to say just how many of the National Rifle Association's five million members voted for Donald Trump this past November. However, it has been reported that the NRA contributed more than $50.3 million to seven different Republican candidates in the 2016 election, with $30.2 million allocated specifically to the Trump campaign. The latter figure is more than twice what the NRA contributed to Republican candidate Mitt Romney in 2012. With that in mind, it's safe to say that the majority of voters who were concerned about their Second Amendment rights opted for Trump over Hillary Clinton . However, if any of those voters are thinking about exercising those aforementioned rights on inauguration day in DC, they might want to think twice. Unbeknownst to many, the nation's capital has some of the toughest gun laws in the country, meaning that (according to the Code of the District of Columbia ), "all non-residents are prohibited from carrying or transporting guns within the city." Here's a possible scenario: Virginia is very lenient when it comes to gun ownership, and individuals aren't required to register a firearm after purchase. So, imagine on inauguration day that a Virginia resident (we'll call him Steve) decides to attend the inauguration and bring his gun with him. In Virginia, Steve may be allowed to carry his gun pretty much anywhere, but as soon as he crosses into DC, he's entering a world of trouble. Jason Kalafat , a partner with the DC law firm Price Benowitz , describes a situation he's seen many times before: "Say this person is looking for a place to park, and ends up pulling into one of the many, many parking decks in the city. If that structure is next to a federal building, then the security personnel at the gate are going to ask if he's carrying a firearm. Most gun owners are used to being able to carry, so they'll answer yes. When that happens, they will immediately be arrested and taken into custody." There is no bail in DC, which means that Steve now has to appear before a judge. That generally takes one business day. If he's being charged with a felony (more on that later), then a mandatory three-day hold is required. If Steve has no criminal history, he's still looking at a court date for certain and probation at best. For misdemeanor gun violations, sentencing guidelines call for a maximum of one year in prison and a $1000 fine. For felonies, it's 5 years in prison (possibly more depend on the circumstances) and thousands of dollars in fines. Kalafat, a criminal defense attorney who has handled numerous firearms offenses in the District, dismissed the idea that a prosecutor might show leniency on visitors who either didn't know the law or simply forgot that they had a gun in the car: "Ignorance of the law is not a defense. If you park in Washington and you have a gun in your possession, you no longer have federal protection. You instead fall under DC's law, and a defense of 'I forgot' isn't going to override the probable cause the prosecution will have." The District of Columbia has taken that same hard stance on the issue for the past 40 years. Prior to 2008, gun ownership in DC was regulated by the Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975, which prohibited residents from owning handguns, with the exception of active or retired police officers and those residents who were grandfathered in. However, in 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in District of Columbia v Heller (now known as the Heller Decision) that the Second Amendment of the Constitution applies to federal enclaves, and therefore protects an individual's right to own a handgun within the District. In effect, the ruling determined the laws in DC to be in violation of the second amendment. In response, the Council of the District of Columbia developed new restrictions aimed at limiting the possession and registration of firearms. One such provision required potential gun owners to demonstrate to the Chief of Police a "good reason to fear injury to his or her person or property, or has any other proper reason for carrying a pistol." Since these were somewhat subjective qualifications, it was difficult (if not impossible) to receive a permit. This is more or less the situation today. Since 2008, aspects of the code have been amended or challenged in various courts, and certain provisions (such as the "good reason" justification) have been removed entirely. Nevertheless, it remains the case that, for residents of DC, it is theoretically possible to register a firearm, but nearly impossible in practice. For non-residents, you can remove the "nearly." That reality, coupled with the fact that DC does not recognize any permits or licenses issued by other states, should make gun advocates think long and hard before bring their guns to Washington. That's doubly true for any gun-advocates with a criminal record. Let's go back to Steve again. Let's say he got arrested for reckless endangerment in Maryland (maybe he and a friend were over-celebrating a Redskins win). The maximum sentence for that offense, which is considered a misdemeanor, is up to 5 years behind bars. Fortunately for Steve, he was given probation. Unfortunately for Steve, if he's then arrested and charged for possession of a firearm in DC, he's automatically facing time in federal prison. In Washington, if you're arrested for having a gun and you've been convicted in any court of a crime with a maximum sentence that exceeds one year, then you are considered to be a "felon in possession." That charge carries a federal prison sentence with a mandatory minimum sentence of one year and a maximum of 10. That probably isn't the scenario Steve would have anticipated when he circled the block looking for parking. There is precedent for guns at Trump events. Most notably, during the 2015 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, multiple open carriers (people who carry firearms in public as a form of protest) could be seen. In the area outside the Quicken Loans Arena, where the convention was held, multiple members of the West Ohio Minutemen militia carried semiautomatic rifles and "patrolled" the area. More recently, at a gun-rights rally in Virginia, prospective Republican candidates for governor gave impassioned speeches to a crowd in which, according to the Washington Post, "at least one man had a rifle slung across his back, and at least one woman had a handgun in a hip holster." These types of displays are legal in Ohio and Virginia, where essentially anyone without a felony record is permitted to carry guns in the open. In Washington, on the other hand, that is decidedly not the case. If supporters of the President-Elect show up in Washington with rifles on their backs, guns on their hips, or even shotguns locked in the trunks of their cars, then attorneys like Kalafat will have a busy weekend ahead of them.

In Virginia, Steve may be allowed to carry his gun pretty much anywhere, but as soon as he crosses into DC, he's entering a world of trouble.

Real Weddings: David Mesarch & David Sommer Photography: Justine Ungaro Wedding Date: August 15, 2015 Dating Since: February 14, 2001 Location of Ceremony & Reception: Couple's Backyard in Eden Prairie Florist: Floral Logic Wedding Coordinator: Magical Memories, Marsha Chernoff Golob Food Trucks: Home Street Home, Little G's Pizzeria, A Cupcake Social, Geno's Gelato Music: Midwest Sound Hair: Men: Hair and Shave by Heimie's Haberdashery Women: Hair and Makeup by Wow Bar Decor: Event Lab DJ: Midwest Sound

Real Weddings: David Mesarch & David Sommer Photography: Justine Ungaro Wedding Date: August 15, 2015 Dating Since: February 14, 2001 Location of Ceremony & Reception: Couple's Backyard in Eden Prairie Florist: Floral Logic Wedding Coordinator:

Cicero was a renowned Roman orator, statesman and writer. He was an enemy of one man rule and a self-described constitutionalist. During the turbulent twilight of the Republic he attempted tirelessly to establish a lasting peace in order to preserve his beloved republican government. Following the death of his daughter Tullia and his exile from political life, Cicero wrote voraciously to distract himself from despair. His reputation as an eloquent enemy of tyranny has been applauded by many influential people throughout history. Admirers of Cicero in history are in no short supply. He was praised throughout the Western world for over a millennium by all sorts of people. To stress his continued relevance in the world I will have to limit myself to the praise bestowed upon him by three of the early American presidents. The Founding Father John Adams wrote that, "as all the ages of the world have not produced a greater statesman and philosopher united in the same character, his authority should have great weight". Fellow Founding Father Thomas Jefferson dubbed Cicero "the father of eloquence and philosophy". Finally, John Quincy Adams dramatically stated that " to live without having a Cicero and a Tacitus at hand seems to me as if it was a privation of one of my limbs." Cicero's influence on the world has been immense, but in recent years he has sadly been pushed aside to an extent. Cicero is rarely read today, except by students of Classics and Latin. However, to understand the history of political thought, Cicero is an invaluable resource. Even if Cicero did not command historical clout, it would still be worthwhile to read his works. He naturally commands gorgeous prose, employing it to put forth a grounded approach to ethics. In my opinion, Cicero's greatest achievement is his attitude towards natural law which can be seen as the foundation of later European natural law theories on the concept of inalienable rights. What is Natural Law? It is worth asking at this point, what exactly is natural law and why does it matter? Natural law is a term that generally creates a lot of confusion, as the term on its own is quite vague. Many people at first believe that natural law means 'survival of the fittest' or similar Darwin-esque phrases. Simply put, natural law can best be described as a system of ethics that derives moral standards and rules from the observable world and human nature. A key part of natural law is the idea that laws should be universally applicable and eternally relevant to human affairs. Cicero's View of the Universe Cicero's view of the universe was deeply informed by the Stoic philosophers. He did not believe literally in Roman religious myths, but justified taking part in Roman religion on the grounds of utility and respect for tradition. Cicero instead was influenced by the Stoic philosophers, who believed that there was a rational and divine order that governed the universe. In his famous book from De Re Publica , later entitled The Dream of Scipio , Cicero described how all human souls are bestowed upon humans by the divine reason of the universe. The mark of divine intelligence upon all things is law; Cicero stated that " law is not a product of human thought, nor is it any enactment of peoples, but something eternal which rules the whole universe by its wisdom in command and prohibition". These divine or natural laws were eternal, immutable and universally applicable. Cicero emphatically wrote, "nor is it one law at Rome and another at Athens, one law today and another thereafter; but the same law, everlasting and unchangeable, will bind all nations and all times". This divine law can be seen implanted on all things, bestowing upon them a divinely ordained purpose and function. Cicero's View of Humanity According to Cicero, by understanding something's structure, purpose, and function, one could understand how things ought to behave. Cicero believed that humans are uniquely favored by the divine order of the universe. This divine nature is reflected in the endowment of humans with the intermingled faculties of reason and speech. Unlike other creatures, humanity is distinctly rational. Cicero believed that reason is humanity's most important faculty, as it enables us to perform three key functions. Firstly, it allows us to have memory, so that we can learn from mistakes and use the past as a resource to aid us in current predicaments. Secondly, reason enables us to moderate our behavior. Thirdly, and most importantly according to Cicero, we have an urge to search for the truth. Cicero stated that, " above all, the search after truth and its eager pursuit are peculiar to man". As an orator, Cicero understood how essential communication was, not only in politics, but in all aspects of life. Cicero referred to speech as "the queen of arts". Speech is an essential aspect of communal living, as it enables us to learn from others and persuade people to cooperate. Cicero described speech as " this which has united us in the bonds of justice, law, and civil order, this that has separated us from savagery and barbarism". Speech was to Cicero a sign of humanity's inherently communal and cooperative nature and one of our greatest tools in creating a prosperous life for ourselves. Divine Sharing of Faculties According to Cicero, the endowment of humanity with divine reason unites all people within a single world commonwealth. Each human has two personas, one which is universal to all and another which is specific to each individual. Cicero described the first persona, writing that "one is common, arising from the fact that we all have a share in reason". This persona represents our common humanity which entitles every person to dignity and respect; "thus however one defines man, the same definition applies to us all. This is sufficient proof that there is no essential difference within mankind". The second persona with which everyone is endowed is entirely unique. Each person has different strengths, weaknesses, and tastes. Cicero suggested that this is not a reason for strife; instead he suggests that we should all do what suits us best so long as we do not harm others. He advised that "each person should hold onto what is his as far as it is not vicious but peculiar to him, so that seemliness that we are seeking might more easily be attained". The belief that every human contains a dash of divinity in the form of their divinely ordained faculties makes Cicero's philosophy robustly individualist at its core. Humanity's Communal Nature Political theorists such as Thomas Hobbes believed that political communities were born of people's mutual fears and anxieties. According to Hobbes, the first humans united to ensure safety from what he dubbed "the war of all against all". Out of fear and a desire for self-preservation, they agreed as part of a social contract not to inflict harm upon one other. In Cicero's day, the skeptic Carneades held views similar to those of Hobbes. Akin to Hobbes, he concluded that justice was conventional and expedient rather than natural and eternal. Cicero disagreed sharply with this worldview. He believed that all humanity had an affinity towards mutual affection and cooperation. Cicero asserted that, due to humanity's natural instinct for love and friendship, justice was the reason people united, not fear and selfish benefit; "men are born for the sake of other men, so that they may be able to assist one another". Due to humanity's capacity for speech, Cicero intuited that humans must be by nature a communal animal that seeks the affection and love of not only his kin but all people. To Cicero, this natural instinct was at the core of human affairs. The primacy of justice is consistently promoted throughout Cicero's writings, but is especially prevalent in his book De Officiis , in which he wrote that "justice is the crowning glory of all virtues" . Cicero was so dedicated to the idea of justice as a guiding force in all human conduct that he even argued that gangs of thieves, when divvying up their spoils, operate within a rudimentary system of justice; "its importance is so great, that even those who live by wickedness and crime can get on without some small element of justice ... if the one called the pirate captain should not divide plunder impartially, he would be either deserted or murdered by his comrades." Cicero's Conclusions Cicero came to two key conclusions about natural law. Firstly, he argued that humanity's faculties demonstrate that we are designed to cooperate together. Political and communal life is natural and, as it secures justice, necessary for the flourishing of people. Secondly, he outlined four basic principles of natural justice that societies ought to follow: not to attack others physically without reason; to respect both private and common property; to stick to our promises; and to be kind and generous towards others within our means. Cicero intuited his political philosophy by examining the natural world and human nature. His attempt at understanding an eternal guiding justice has influenced countless prominent thinkers, especially in 18 th century England and the early American republic, where he was revered for his forensic mind and moral character. While Cicero's conclusions on natural law are not infallible, his work influenced an entire tradition of rights-based political philosophy. Paul Meany is a student at Trinity College Dublin studying Ancient and Medieval History and Culture. This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article . [Image Credit: Max Pixel ]

Cicero was a renowned Roman orator, statesman and writer.

A mother and her infant -- every birth is a victory for conservation. Paul Thomson took this photo while he was in Rwanda for AWF. from Earth First! Journal Today's news headlines contain the two different sides of conservation. First up is the World Wildlife Fund, which tapped Sony Corp veteran Ryuji Tsutsui. Tsutsui comes to WWF after supervising recycling efforts by the techno-industry giant in Brazil. But, he says, Sony "was losing its luster in global competition," so he decided to move on into the conservation sector. WWF has lost some luster recently, as well, for sponsoring corporate landgrabs for agrifuels like palm oil while trying to label Goldcorp's notorious mine in Honduras sustainable. The old question returns: Has big industry "captured" conservation? To his credit, however, Tsutsui has taken a huge pay cut stepping into his new marketing role at WWF--we'll see how it goes. While Sony is famous for its "Gorilla Glass" technology that provides a tough screen, WWF deserves some credit for last year's major win in Virunga National Park in Congo. After attempting for years to drill in the park where about 25 percent of all mountain gorillas dwell, an oil company based in the UK called SOCO finally relented , declaring its intention to keep away from UNESCO World Heritage Sites entirely. In an impressive close-up, Al Jazeera has more from Uganda and Congo where "extreme conservationists" rescue mountain gorillas from harm through anti-poaching patrols and gorilla doctors. It would seem that there's a wrong and right way to "do conservation," and it all depends on what kind of green you are. Conservation groups have also recently been criticized by the head of Survival International for turning a blind eye, and even participating in, the displacement of Indigenous peoples. It is a pattern that fattens the wallets of the rich while jeopardizing the work of real ecologists. At the same time, victories both small and large remain essential to take note of.

A mother and her infant -- every birth is a victory for conservation. Paul Thomson took this photo while he was in Rwanda for AWF. from Earth First! Journal Today's news headlines contain the two different sides of conservation.

(NYTIMES) -- WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is working to forge a sweeping international climate change agreement to compel nations to cut their planet-warming fossil fuel emissions, but without ratification from Congress. In preparation for this agreement, to be signed at a United Nations summit meeting in 2015 in Paris, the negotiators are meeting with diplomats from other countries to broker a deal to commit some of the world's largest economies to enact laws to reduce their carbon pollution. But under the Constitution, a president may enter into a legally binding treaty only if it is approved by a two-thirds majority of the Senate. Loading ... To sidestep that requirement, President Obama's climate negotiators are devising what they call a "politically binding" deal that would "name and shame" countries into cutting their emissions. The deal is likely to face strong objections from Republicans on Capitol Hill and from poor countries around the world, but negotiators say it may be the only realistic path.

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is working to forge a sweeping international climate change agreement to compel nations to cut their planet-warming fossil fuel emissions, but without ratification from Congress.

Published : Fri, Oct 24 th 2014 @ 12:06 pm EDT In an op-ed for The Daily Caller , former Secretary of State Ken Blackwell rails against "Obama's pro-amnesty agenda". Blackwell calls Pres. Obama's unwillingness to institute a travel ban on Ebola-stricken countries "an extension of his larger, pro-amnesty, open border position." "While promising voters in 2008 that he would secure the border, it is clear that not only is the border not a priority but Pres. Obama is promising to use an executive order to grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants in this country. In addition, not only are deportations down 15 percent this calendar year, the Obama administration is already secretly preparing to print permits for approximately 11 million illegal immigrants." Blackwell then turned to how Pres. Obama's immigration policies have affected communities around the country. "Local communities along the Southern border are especially hard by having to fund the types of law enforcement that the Federal government has failed to do," he wrote. "And states everywhere face the extraordinary burden of illegal immigrants, which are bussed around the country without warning." On the recent news of thousands of illegal aliens with felony convictions being released from detainment , Blackwell called it "shameful". Blackwell commented on how border security can keep the U.S. safe from terrorism. "Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) believes 10 ISIS terrorists have already been picked up at the border." Blackwell's solution to Obama's pro-amnesty agenda: vote. "Americans need to send a message to Mr. Obama on November 4: Stop the madness!" Read the full article at The Daily Caller border control Barack Obama Illegal Immigration Legal Immigration

"Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) believes 10 ISIS terrorists have already been picked up at the border."

Truth is, I don't understand all the hating on the Vanity Fair Stiglitz piece, "A Banking System is Supposed to Serve Society, Not the Other Way Around" . Perhaps I am giving Joe too charitable a reading. But I really do not see a serious analytical problem. Not that I buy the argument--I don't think that our macro problems today have deep important structural roots in the decline of manufacturing due to its rapid productivity growth, and I don't think that a massive governmental borrow-and-spend program is the only way out (but Stiglitz may be right in his claim that it would be the best way out). However, even though I do not fully buy it I do think I understand the argument. And I do not think it is incoherent. As I understand the Greenwald-Stiglitz hypothesis--about the Great Depression as applied to agriculture and about today as applied to manufacturing--it goes like this: Rapid technological progress in a very large economic sector (agriculture then, manufacturing now) leads to oversupply and steep declines in the sector's prices. Poorer producers have less income. They come under pressure to cut back their spending. Others--consumers--are now richer because they are paying less for their food (or their manufactures), but their propensity to spend is lower than that of the stressed farmers or ex-manufacturing workers. Moreover, the oversupply of agricultural commodities (or manufactured goods) means that only an idiot would invest at their normal pace in those sectors. To the shortfall in consumption spending is added a shortfall in investment spending as well. Thus we have systematic pressures pushing spending down below economy-wide income. These aren't going to go away until the declining sector (agriculture then, manufacturing now) is no longer large enough to be macroeconomically significant. Macroeconomic balance requires that the economy generate offsetting pressures pushing spending up. What might they be? For a while, those receiving the income that farmers (or ex-manufacturing workers) have lost and those who use to invest in the declining sectors can lend it to the farmers (or ex-manufacturing workers) so that they can keep up with the Joneses. But lending more and more to poorer and poorer debtors is, like lawn darts, only all fun-and-games until somebody loses an eye. An alternative possibility is to switch investment away from the farm value-chain complex (or the manufacturing value-chain complex) to something else. But what? Nobody really knows. The future is uncertain. Other investments are clearly riskier then funneling money into the old channels of boosting the capital of the farm value-chain complex (or the manufacturing value-chain complex) had been. Given the extra risks, this pressure can only manifest itself if the cost of capital falls. But here we hit the zero lower bound on interest rates. And we are off to the secular liquidity-trap races. This won't work either. Now at this point I disagree with Greenwald-Stiglitz. I see three plausible ways to fix the unemployment-generating aggregate demand shortfall: (a) This could be fixed by expectations of inflation that push you sustainable real cost of capital down below zero far enough that savings no longer exceeds planned investment at full employment. (But normal monetary ease it does not produce expectations of secular inflation won't do anything useful.) (b) This could be fixed by government loan- or bank-guarantee programs that transfer the risk of new and untried investments away from entrepreneurs and investors onto taxpayers, so that even without expected inflation planned investment at full employment no longer falls short of saving when the cost of capital is at the zero nominal lower bound. so that you don't need a cost of capital less then be expected rate of deflation. It can be fixed by the government running up debt and buying stuff. (c) This could be fixed by having the government borrow and spend on a large scale. Stiglitz, however, doesn't see either the "expected inflation" or the "loan- and bank-guarantee" roads as possible. Stiglitz's conclusions: Two conclusions.... The first is that the economy will not bounce back on its own, at least not in a time frame that matters to ordinary people. Yes, all those foreclosed homes will eventually find someone to live in them, or be torn down. Prices will at some point stabilize and even start to rise. Americans will also adjust to a lower standard of living--not just living within their means but living beneath their means as they struggle to pay off a mountain of debt. But the damage will be enormous. America's conception of itself as a land of opportunity is already badly eroded. Unemployed young people are alienated. It will be harder and harder to get some large proportion of them onto a productive track. They will be scarred for life by what is happening today. Drive through the industrial river valleys of the Midwest or the small towns of the Plains or the factory hubs of the South, and you will see a picture of irreversible decay. Monetary policy is not going to help us out of this mess.... [A]nyone who believes that monetary policy is going to resuscitate the economy will be sorely disappointed. That idea is a distraction, and a dangerous one. What we need to do instead is embark on a massive investment program--as we did, virtually by accident, 80 years ago--that will increase our productivity for years to come, and will also increase employment now. This public investment, and the resultant restoration in G.D.P., increases the returns to private investment. Public investments could be directed at improving the quality of life and real productivity--unlike the private-sector investments in financial innovations, which turned out to be more akin to financial weapons of mass destruction. I think that if I asked him Stiglitz would say that (a)--zero interest rates and expected inflation--would help if you could get there, but that you cannot get there through monetary policy. Only if people expect full employment will there be enough inflation to sustain a full employment equilibrium. And since they don't expect full employment there isn't enough expected inflation no matter how easy monetary policy is. I think he would say that (b) might work in the sense of restoring full employment in the short run, but it would be an unfair upward redistribution of wealth from taxpayers to financiers, and moreover would not help resolve the underlying structural problems that created the shortfall between savings and planned investment at full employment in the first place. Stiglitz does say that (c) is best: The private sector by itself won't, and can't, undertake structural transformation of the magnitude needed--even if the Fed were to keep interest rates at zero for years to come. The only way it will happen is through a government stimulus designed not to preserve the old economy but to focus instead on creating a new one... out of manufacturing and into services that people want--into productive activities that increase living standards, not those that increase risk and inequality.... Education.... [B]asic research. Government investment in earlier decades--for instance, to develop the Internet and biotechnology--helped fuel economic growth.... Meanwhile, the states could certainly use federal help in closing budget shortfalls.... [C]leaner and more efficient energy production.... [O]ur decaying infrastructure, from roads and railroads to levees and power plants, is a prime target for profitable investment. And once we have both restored full employment and accelerated the structural transformation needed then we can return to normality. But in order to get there: we must fix the financial system. As noted, the implosion of the financial sector may not have been the underlying cause of our current crisis--but it has made it worse, and it's an obstacle to long-term recovery.... What's needed is to get banks out of the dangerous business of speculating and back into the boring business of lending. But we have not fixed the financial system. Rather, we have poured money into the banks.... We have, in a phrase, confused ends with means. A banking system is supposed to serve society, not the other way around... I'm not sure that I buy Stiglitz's argument that massive government borrow-and-spend is the only, or even the best, way out of our current mess. And I agree that Stiglitz's piece could have used a couple more paragraphs about life at the zero nominal interest rate lower bound explaining why Stiglitz thinks the belief "that monetary policy is going to resuscitate the economy will be sorely disappointed. That idea is a distraction, and a dangerous one". Perhaps I have seen so much really bad macroeconomics over the past four years that I now suffer from the soft bigotry of low expectations. But this does not seem to me to be, as Nick Rowe calls it : really bad macroeconomics. God it's depressing. If you want to talk about a deficiency of aggregate demand, and why Say's Law sometimes fails, you really do need to talk about monetary exchange economies and an excess demand for money at the aggregate level. You can't just do partial equilibrium analysis and cobble it all together. So then why does Nick have such an adverse reaction to Stiglitz? I think it is because Stiglitz is at bottom a Wicksellian and Rowe is a Fisherian. A Wicksellian is a believer that the key equation in macro is the flow-of-funds equation S = I + (G-T), savings S equals planned investment I plus government borrowing (G-T), and that the money market exists to feed the flow-of-funds an interest rate that has a (limited) influence on planned investment I. A Fisherian is a believer that the key equation in macro is the money market's quantity theory equation PY = MV(i), and that the flow-of-funds exists to feed the quantity theory an interest rate that has a (limited) influence on velocity V. Thus they have a hard time communicating. From the Fisherian viewpoint, the Wicksellians are talking nonsense because they spend their time on things that have a minor impact on velocity while ignoring the obvious shortage of money. From the Wicksellian viewpoint, the Fisherians are talking nonsense by ignoring the obvious fact that movements in money induce offsetting effects in velocity unless they somehow alter the savings-investment balance. And it is we Hicksians, of course, synthesize both positions into a single unified and coherent whole... "Seeing no help, I said if one must sit by me at any feast of theirs, it should be Attila the Hun, so should I be spared their rudeness and intrusion. Some accounted it a good answer, and laughed, but he that had sneered at me scowled and said they had none at their feasts but those they might have good of, and I must name another, since Attila was a monstrous beast that none could have any good of, being curst and altogether abominable. "At this, I, being part drunk myself, said he lied, for good might be had of the worst that ever were, in certain cases. At this he swore that if I could not prove it by logic, I should pay double forfeit and swim in the Cam for my impudence, so let me say how one could have good of Attila or any like him. His fellows grinned and gleeked about me, and some cried, 'At him, old Papist!' but others 'Confound the Jesuit, he mocks us, to the river with him!' and bade me make good mine argument. "First, I told them, they should name any two from whom they might hope to have the greatest good (other than Our Lord, for it was not fit to name Him in such a question). They that had named Aristotle and St Francis as their chosen guests again cried out their names, and with those I was content, saying that against them I would justify Attila and another like him, as Chingis Khan or Hulagu (of whom I doubt these scholars had heard, though they cried aye to him). "I would do it, I said, on an hypothesis, as thus: 'Here is any one of you, in a lonely place, as a little cabin in the wilderness, with no neighbours or friends by, and ye are sick and feeble, and with you your wife and two fair daughters.' Hereon they cried that being young they had no daughters, and would other men's daughters do, to give them solace in that lonely place, whereof they doubted not they would soon be enfeebled if not sick! I let them bray it out, and when they were quiet, continued: 'As ye lie there helpless, there approach three great thieves and murderers that ye know to be crueller than any devils, who will surely torment and slay you and ravish your wife and fair daughters, and take and burn all besides. There is no help for you at all, being at their mercy if they come in, but as ye lie in terror for what is to come, a knock falls on the nether door of your poor cabin, as it may be some wayfarer seeking lodging or refreshment. Aye, and it may be he will lend you aid against your enemies approaching! You bid your wife open in haste. Now tell me, scholars, what men do you hope to see there when she opens? The learned, gentle Aristotle and St Francis the meek, or Attila the great Hun armed cap-a-pie with Chingis at his elbow? From which pair, in your sore need, shall you hope to have the greater good, the saintly philosophers or the lusty men of war?' "They cried out with scorn that between the enemies before and Attila at their back, it was all one, they should have nothing but evil at the hands of either. 'Not so,' says I, and bade them look in the chronicles, 'for there you shall read that the Scythian and the Mungul both, though in their conquests they were monsters of cruelty that put whole nations to the sword, yet in their private and domestic ways were zealous for good order and discipline of law, being such as would not suffer weak or poor folk to be despoiled or hurt by thieves and ravishers. Aye, of that Chingis was it said that while he carpeted all Asia with bones, yet might a virgin with a bag of gold walk the length of his dominions without harm, so perfect was his governance. So, again I say, who shall better serve you in time of peril, the philosophers who wish you well but cannot front the murderers save with words, or the bloody ravagers of empires who are yet ready to turn their weapons against common spoilers?' "At this they fell to babbling and dispute, and one fell down drunk crying 'Paradox! Paradox!' while another said that for all he knew Aristotle might be a right swashing boy when it came to a fray. I asked would he wager on him with sword and buckler against my two savages, let roaring Francis give what aid he might, and he said, no, not at any odds. And while a few of them held that such as Attila and Chingis would do no good service to any, the more held that I had made my case, and should not be fined or insulted, but pressed more drink upon me that I durst not refuse for fear of their rough merriment, and called me a jolly old Pope, and how I came home I know not, for they found me sodden among the cabbages in the almshouse garden, and I was two weeks abed thereafter with the sciatica. "And lying there, and not able to read more than a little for the infirmity of mine eyes that are worn with looking on the world's wickedness four score years, I fell to meditating on the good that evil men may do, by design or more commonly by chance.... I remembered sundry instances that I had seen, and in especial the man Waitabout, that I knew only for a little season, yet it changed my life's course, and indeed had been like to lose my poor life for me, yet was I spared, 'by God's grace', a phrase I speak now but by habit and long use, for if He hath any grace (or indeed any being at all save in men's minds only) I have long been removed from it. Which is a blasphemy, as they say, yet I have known worse. "No, I am no priest, nor ever was except to the outer eye, for what priest ever doubted, and with long doubting, gave over his belief at last? As to the Waitabout, he was no Attila yet had done ill enough in his time, and if he did good it was upon compulsion and for a brief hour only, and still I know not whether it was good or no. But certain it is he was no common man, though common seeming, a robber and slayer and broken wanderer that had in him, I think, the making of a sage if not a saint. He read me a lesson, aye, and so too did my Lady Dacre, though what it was I can hardly tell even now. "Yet I would tell of them both that have been out of my mind these many years, saving that visit my lady paid me five years agone, fair and smiling still and brought me a gift of candles of fine Italian wax, though not scented, 'for we shall burn no incense between us, nor make graven images neither,' as she said, which was an old jest between us. 'A remembrance of Candlemass,' says she, 'aye, of the Candlemass road,' and told me they had made a ballad of it, and of what befell betwixt the fires at Triermain, which I marvelled to hear her speak of so lightly. But of Waitabout she spake not at all..." --George MacDonald Fraser, The Candlemass Road

. A Wicksellian is a believer that the key equation in macro is the flow-of-funds equation S = I + (G-T), savings S equals planned investment I plus government borrowing (G-T), and that the money market exists to feed the flow-of-funds an interest rate that has a (limited) influence on planned investment I.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Bowing to pressure, President Barack Obama on Thursday announced changes to his health care law to give insurance companies the option to keep offering consumers plans that would otherwise be canceled. The administrative changes are good for just one year, though senior administration officials said they could be extended if problems with the law persist. Obama announced the changes at the White House. "This fix won't solve every problem for every person, but it's going to help a lot of people," the president said. He acknowledged that "we fumbled the rollout of this health care law" and pledged to "just keep on chipping away at this until the job is done." Obama has been under enormous pressure from congressional Democrats to give ground on the cancellation issue under the health care overhaul, a program likely to be at the center of next year's midterm elections for control of the House and Senate. It's unclear what the impact of Thursday's changes will be for the millions of people who have already had their plans canceled. While officials said insurance companies will now be able to offer those people the option to renew their old plans, companies are not required to take that step. Insurance companies will be required to inform consumers who want to keep canceled plans about the protections that are not included under those plans. Customers will also be notified that new options are available offering more coverage and in some cases, tax credits to cover higher premiums. Under Obama's plan, insurance companies would not be allowed to sell coverage deemed subpar under the law to new customers, marking a difference with legislation that House Republicans intend to put to a vote on Friday. Only last week, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a Senate panel she doubted that retroactively permitting insurers to sell canceled policies "can work very well since companies are now in the market with an array of new plans. Many have actually added consumer protections in the last three-and-a-half years." Republicans were unimpressed with the changes. House Speaker John Boehner, speaking in advance of the president's announcement, insisted it was time to "scrap this law once and for all." "You can't fix this government-run health care plan called Obamacare ," he said. "It's just not fixable." Obama, for his part, made clear he would continue to fight ongoing attempts to sink the whole program, saying, "I will not accept proposals that are just a brazen attempt to undermine or repeal" the entire law. "We're going to solve the problems that are there, we're going to get it right, and the Affordable Care Act is going to work for the American people," he pledged. While the White House deals with the cancellation issue, the administration is also promising improvements in a federal website so balky that enrollments totaled fewer than 27,000 in October in 36 states combined. The administration had said in advance the enrollment numbers would fall far short of initial expectations. After weeks of highly publicized technical woes, they did. Adding in enrollment of more than 79,000 in the 14 states with their own websites, the nationwide number of 106,000 October sign-ups was barely one-fifth of what officials had projected -- and a small fraction of the millions who have received private coverage cancellations as a result of the federal law. The administration said an additional 1 million people have been found eligible to buy coverage in the markets, with about one-third qualifying for tax credits to reduce their premiums. Another 396,000 have been found eligible for Medicaid, which covers low-income people. Administration officials and senior congressional Democrats expressed confidence in the program's future. "We expect enrollment will grow substantially throughout the next five months," said Sebelius, who is in charge of the program. "Even with the issues we've had, the marketplace is working and people are enrolling," she added. Despite the expressions, the White House worked to reassure anxious Democrats who are worried about the controversial program, which they voted into existence three years ago over Republican opposition as strong now as it was then. Senate Democrats arranged a closed-door meeting for midday Thursday in the Capitol with White House officials, who held a similar session Wednesday with the House rank and file. Ahead of that meeting, Obama planned to speak from the White House about new efforts to help Americans receiving insurance cancellation notices. So far, five Senate Democrats are on record in support of legislation by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., to make sure everyone can keep their present coverage if they want to. The bill would require insurance companies to continue offering existing policies, even if they fall short of minimum coverage requirements in the law. The measure has little apparent chance at passage, given that it imposes a new mandate on the insurance industry that Republicans will be reluctant to accept. At the same time, a vote would at least permit Democrats to say they have voted to repair some of the problems associated with the Affordable Care Act, as many appear eager to do. In a statement, Landrieu said Sens. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mark Pryor of Arkansas were now supporting the legislation, as is Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California. All but Feinstein are on the ballot next year. Across the Capitol, majority Republicans in the House set a vote for Friday on legislation to permit insurance companies to continue selling existing policies that have been ordered scrapped because they fall short of coverage standards in the law. While House passage of the measure is assured, each Democrat will be forced to cast a vote on the future of a program that Republicans have vowed to place at the center of next year's campaign. Democratic Rep. Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania, who voted for the initial Obama health care bill, said Thursday that members of his caucus want an opportunity to go on the record in support of allowing people to keep the insurance they had. Doyle told MSNBC in an interview that at a White House meeting Wednesday, House Democrats told Obama about "the frustration level that many of us have" with the health care roll-out. Doyle said Democrats warned Obama that "if you don't give us something by Friday" to fix the insurance cancellation problem, then many Democrats are likely to vote for the pending House bill sponsored by Republican Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, which would accomplish that goal. The promise of keeping coverage was Obama's oft-stated pledge when the legislation was under consideration, a calling card since shredded by the millions of cancellations mailed out by insurers. Obama apologized last week for the broken promise, but aides said at the time the White House was only considering administration changes, rather than new legislation. Associated Press writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Julie Pace contributed to this report. Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Bowing to pressure, President Barack Obama on Thursday announced changes to his health care law to give insurance companies the option to keep offering consumers plans that would otherwise be canceled.

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Kellogg's announced Tuesday that it has pulled its advertising from the conservative news site Breitbart.com. The news outlet, which was previously run by President-elect Donald Trump's senior adviser, Steve Bannon, just slipped through the food manufacturing company's content-filtering technology, Kellogg's spokesperson Kris Charles said in a statement: We regularly work with our media buying partners to ensure our ads do not appear on sites that aren't aligned with our values as a company This involves reviewing websites where ads could potentially be placed using filtering technology to assess site content. As you can imagine, there is a very large volume of websites, so occasionally something is inadvertently missed. In this case, we learned from consumers that ads were placed on Breitbart.com and decided to discontinue advertising there. Kellogg is primarily known for its cereals. Other companies such as pharmaceutical maker Novo Nordisk, online glasses retailer Warby Parker and the San Diego Zoo have also pulled their ads from Breitbart, Fox News reported .

Kellogg's announced Tuesday that it has pulled its advertising from the conservative news site Breitbart.com.

ABC News reports that suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moor has formally defended the gay marriage memo that put his judicial career in peril, saying he was merely trying to answer questions from probate judges that his fellow justices would not address. NBC News reports that the Food and Drug Administration, under pressure from Democrats in Congress, started official reconsideration on Tuesday of its policy limiting blood donations from gay and bisexual men. GayStarNews reports that Sarah McBride will make history this week at the Democratic National Convention when the national press secretary of the Human Rights Campaign's Foundation will be the first out transgender speaker at a convention of a major US political party.

ABC News reports that suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moor has formally defended the gay marriage memo that put his judicial career in peril, saying he was merely trying to answer questions from probate judges that his fellow justices would not address. NBC News reports that the Food and Drug Administration, under pressure from Democrats in Congress,

Roger Moore shows off his Seiko in a promotional still from the Moonraker era The family of Sir Roger Moore announced on social media earlier today that the actor died this morning in Switzerland. He was 89. A reliably genteel screen presence, Moore will inevitably be remembered as the third actor to play James Bond on the big screen, taking over from Sean Connery with Live And Let Die. Moore made seven features in the series between 1973 and 1985, the most for any movie Bond. Unlike Connery, Moore was already a recognizable face when he started in the 007 franchise. A jobbing actor since the late 40s, he spent some time as a knitwear model before trying his luck in America as a contract player for MGM. His resume from the 50s and early 60s is pretty varied; he went where the work was, appearing in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, playing the recurring role of Bret Maverick's English cousin Beau on a season of James Garner's con-man show, and starring in the unmemorable Italian sword-and-sandal picture Romulus And The Sabines. Moore starred in a couple of negligible TV series before landing The Saint in 1961; as Simon Templar, smooth criminal and modern-day Robin Hood, Moore became a fixture on British television, and the adventurous nature of the show set up his transition to the 007 franchise nicely. For 12 years, Moore would be the face of Ian Fleming's indestructible superspy - though he had the bad luck to jump in just as the series entered a particularly inconsistent run, its producers and screenwriters chasing blockbuster trends and looking profoundly uncool by doing so. But even when Bond was forced to fight sharks and travel into space, Moore made it feel fun instead of desperate. When the producers shifted back to basics in For Your Eyes Only, arguably the best film of Moore's run, he was up for that too - even if, at age 54, he was already starting to age out of the role. He made two more films, Octopussy and A View To A Kill, and then he was out. He wasn't idle between Bond films, either. Moore always went where the work was, and once he donned the mantle of 007 the projects got larger. His poise and bearing - a combination of his time at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and his post-war military service - made him a natural fit for military characters, and he turned up in The Wild Geese, Escape To Athena (as the duplicitous German commandant of a POW camp) and The Sea Wolves. Moore also took the time to tweak his most famous role in projects like The Cannonball Run - where he played an especially entitled version of himself, complete with a tricked-out spy car - and ffolkes, which cast him as an eccentric counter-terrorism expert. Once his run as James Bond ended, though, Moore took it easy. He didn't exactly retire, but the roles became smaller and sillier - an appearance in Jean-Claude Van Damme's The Quest, a cameo in Spice World, a voice role as a cat named Lazenby in Cats & Dogs: The Revenge Of Kitty Galore. Mostly, he toured the world as a UNICEF ambassador, worked on his autobiography (My Word Is My Bond, published in 2008) and generally enjoyed being Roger Moore. He was really good at it. And he'll be missed.

Roger Moore shows off his Seiko in a promotional still from the Moonraker era The family of Sir Roger Moore announced on social media earlier today that the actor died this morning in Switzerland. He was 89

BEYONCE and Jay Z have endorsed Hillary Clinton during a campaign concert performance just days before the presidential election. The power couple took part in the Get-Out-the-Vote campaign gig in Cleveland with other stars in support of the Democratic presidential candidate ahead of the election day on November 8. Getty Images Getty Images 8 Jay Z on Trump: "He cannot be our president. Once you divide us, you weaken us, we are stronger together" 8 Clinton embraces Beyonce after her performance Beyonce took to the stage shortly after her her rapper husband performed some of his past hits for the jam-packed crowd. Addressing the crowd, the Grammy-winner said: "Less than 100 years ago, women did not have the right to vote. Look how far we've come from having no voice to being on the brink of making history again by electing the first woman president." "We have to vote. The world looks to us as a progressive country that leads change. Eight years ago, I was so inspired that my nephew, a young black child, could grow up knowing his dreams could be realised by witnessing a black president in office. 8 Clinton came out after a duet by Jay Z and Beyonce and quoted the iconic rapper "And now, we have the opportunity to create more change. I want my daughter to grow up seeing a woman lead our country and know that her possibilities are limitless. She added: "We have to think about the future of our daughters, of our sons, and vote for someone who cares for them as much as we do. And that is why, I'm with her." Clinton appeared on stage with the pair and called Beyonce "a woman who is an inspiration to so many others" and thanked Jay Z "for addressing in his music some of our biggest challenges in the country: poverty, racism, the urgent need for criminal justice reform." "When I see them here, this passion and energy and intensity, I don't even know where to begin because this is what America is, my friends," she added. The presidential candidate even quoted Jay Z's lyrics to My President. "Remember Jay memorably said something we should all recall - Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther could walk," she said. "Martin Luther walked so Barack Obama could run and Barack Obama ran so all the children can fly." Related Stories WHOEVER WINS, America loses US voters forced to choose between lesser of two evils as toxic contest comes to end THE GREAT DIVIDER Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton on immigration - what the US election 2016 candidates have to say GUN FIGHT Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton on gun control - what the US election 2016 candidates have to say VLAD'S REVENGE Putin wants Trump to destroy Hillary Clinton 'because she once ordered Barack Obama to snub him TRIUMPHANT TRUMP Donald Trump becomes President of the United States after bitter fight for the White House Although Donald Trump 's name wasn't mentioned Jay Z had a lot to say about him. "He cannot be our president," the hip hop star said. "Once you divide us, you weaken us, we are stronger together. And without further ado, I would like to introduce to you the next president of the United State, Miss Hillary Clinton." The campaign concert is just one of many that have been held to endorse Clinton. Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony held a one for the democratic candidate last week in Florida. Last month, Miley Cyrus attended a rally for Clinton in Virginia and even went door-to-door at the George Mason University halls to encourage students to vote. 8 Clinton enlisted celebs in a bid to drum up excitement behind her campaign weeks before election day AP:Associated Press 8 Donald Trump took a snipe at rival Clinton: ""I didn't have to bring J-Lo or Jay Z ... I'm here all by myself. Just me. No guitar, no piano, no nothing." Katy Perry and music legend Stevie Wonder are expected to take to the stage this weekend. Meanwhile, Trump was busy rallying voters in Hersey, Pennsylvania, but had time to make a dig at his rival about filling a stadium with celeb guests. The Republican presidential candidate said: ""I hear we set a new record for this building, and by the way, I didn't have to bring J-Lo or Jay Z," he said. "I am here all by myself. Just me. No guitar. No piano. No nothing." With the race for the White House in its final week, the candidates have been trading increasingly vicious blows to become Barack Obama's successor . Trump and Clinton have been knocking lumps out of each other for months as one of the most talked about elections in recent history fast approaches. Last Friday, Clinton made a desperate plea urging Americans to vote. She said: "I know that a lot of people say they want change but let me tell you: change is inevitable. There will be change. The question is: what kind of change?" We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368

BEYONCE and Jay Z have endorsed Hillary Clinton during a campaign concert performance just days before the presidential election. The power couple took part in the Get-Out-the-Vote campaign gig in Cleveland with other stars in support of the Democratic presidential candidate ahead of the election day on November 8. Getty Images Getty Images 8 Jay Z on Trump: "He cannot be our president.

"What would you want if you could have any wish?" asked the photojournalist of the haggard, bloodied Marine before him. The Marine gaped at his interviewer. The photographer snapped his picture, which became the iconic Korean War image. Finally, the soldier revealed his wish: "Give me tomorrow," he said at last. In this week's WhoWhatWhy podcast, Jeff Schechtman talks with military historian Patrick O'Donnell, who wrote a book about the war almost a decade ago, entitled " Give Me Tomorrow ," a deeply personal look at those who served amid the extreme brutality of the Korean War. That war, fought almost 70 years ago, still echoes today. O'Donnell tells Schechtman about the war, particularly of the horrors suffered by George Company -- a group of men untrained for what they would face in the bloody Chosin Reservoir campaign. O'Donnell explains how the battle went right up to the Chinese border, and how aggressive and brutal the Chinese were in fighting alongside North Korea. He further explains how the North Korean army was in tatters, and that the Americans underestimated the possibility of a Chinese intervention. Eventually, the Chinese massed over 150,000 men near the Chosin Reservoir. O'Donnell touches on the other epic battles of the war, and why those who came home have always been reluctant to talk about their experiences, which felt so small in the shadow of the Greatest Generation. He explains how unprepared the US was to fight this war. How budget cuts and demilitarization after WWII left the soldiers with inferior equipment that cost many lives. O'Donnell makes it clear that the soldiers of George Company, and particularly their performance at Chosin Reservoir, define the very essence of what we honor on Memorial Day. Full Text Transcript: As a service to our readers, we provide transcripts with our podcasts. We try to ensure that these transcripts do not include errors. However, due to time constraints, we are not always able to proofread them as closely as we would like. Should you spot any errors, we'd be grateful if you would notify us . Jeff Schechtman: Thanks for joining us here at Radio WhoWhatWhy . I'm Jeff Schechtman. This Memorial Day, as we always do, we mark the sacrifice and bravery of our nation's soldiers. But this year, especially given the events that have been and are still taking place in Korea and the reminders of the Korean War, it's worth taking a look at the often-forgotten brutality of that war and acknowledging those who sacrificed so much. An untold story of that war is the story of George Company. Established to answer the call in 1950, they would find themselves at the tip of the proverbial spear in one of the most horrendous battles of that war. To help remind us of these little known and seldom remembered heroes of the war itself, a war that is now part of American foreign policy in the 21st century, I'm joined by longtime military historian, Patrick O'Donnell. Years ago, O'Donnell wrote a book entitled Give Me Tomorrow about George Company and their efforts, and it is my pleasure to welcome Patrick O'Donnell here to Radio WhoWhatWhy . Patrick, thanks so much for joining us. Patrick O'Donnell: Jeff, it's always a pleasure. Jeff Schechtman: It is always so interesting to think about the Korean War and how little has been written about it, relatively since, and really how we have forgotten so much of it. Patrick O'Donnell: That is certainly the case with the men that I talked to. I've done 3,000 interviews with World War II veterans and veterans from World War I, all the way through Afghanistan and Iraq, and I'd never encountered more reticence than the veterans I've interviewed with the Korean War. These men really never talked about it to anyone, including their families. And it was even more so than the World War II veterans that I talked to. And that sort of just ties into, I think, this forgotten war, as you say. Jeff Schechtman: Why do you think there is such reluctance to talk about it on the part of those who fought in it? Patrick O'Donnell: I think there's a lot of factors. One, it's not like World War II where these men came home to parades and everything else. This is America's first limited war. It's a lot like some of the conflicts we're fighting now in Afghanistan and Iraq. These men came home and nobody cared, basically. They had to fight the demons of the war and, for many of these guys, the way that they fought those demons was to bury them and they basically forgot the war and moved on. Some of the most epic battles in history were fought here, in South Korea and North Korea, in 1950 through 1953 and I focused in on sort of the grunt view of this Marine company and their boots on the ground kind of foxhole view of the war. And it's largely in their own words. I spent the last five years interviewing over 50 members of the company, the survivors, about what they went through. Jeff Schechtman: How much of the reluctance do you think of the soldiers to talk about this war and talk about their experience is that it was at the time in the shadow of the heroics of World War II? Patrick O'Donnell: I certainly think that that's a factor. And what's interesting is that some of the men, some of the most heroic characters, many of the NCOs, the non-commissioned officers that led these men, were World War II veterans. Some of them very decorated veterans. They basically put this company together overnight. It came from all parts of the country but largely men that were just reservist, that had no combat training whatsoever. They never even went to boot camp, hardly even knew how to fire an M1 Garand or throw a grenade. And these NCOs had to put this company together and make them battle worthy. Jeff Schechtman: Explain why there was a need to create George Company. Patrick O'Donnell: The summer of 1950 is sort of unique. It's a lot like we have today. It was five years after the war. America went from an 11-million men under arms and a massive defense budget to... it was a little bit over a million men in the armed forces. The Marine Corps had shrunk from a million men and multiple divisions to just one tiny division. And there was a need for bodies, immediately. They were being warm bodies, people that had any kind of combat training were being called up from all over the country because America was demilitarizing. They had chopped their defense budget 93%, all this budget cutting talk of today was very much, very similar to the summer of 1950. They took a meat cleaver to the Pentagon's budget and slashed away. We were unprepared, we were completely unprepared for the Korean War and we had to basically move quickly. The Marine Corps, thank God, was prepared. They had taken a lot of their amtracks that they'd used in the Pacific War and other equipment and put it in mothballs in Barstow, in Death Valley. So that they were ready to go at a moment's notice and they assembled the 1st Marine Division practically overnight and George Company was a component of that great division. They brought men from all over the country and assembled them in the summer in August 1950. Jeff Schechtman: Talk a little about the brutality of the war in Korea because that's one of the things that also gets lost. This was, in many ways, as brutal, if not more so in some respects, than the war in the Pacific in the second World War. Patrick O'Donnell: I think the best comparison is the Russian Front in World War II. The war in the east is very similar to what we faced in the Chosin Reservoir. Temperature plummeted to nearly 40 below zero. There was hardly any food at times and the men faced overwhelming hordes, 20-1, 30-1 odds, in many cases, of Chinese soldiers that stormed their positions. This is sort of the ultimate survivor's tale. Men, for two weeks straight, they lived in foxholes and all they had was a sleeping bag. Can you imagine living in Antarctica with nothing more than a sleeping bag? There was no tents, nothing. And that's how they fought and tried to survive in not only the onslaught of enemy troops and artillery and mortars, but also this unbearable cold that just sapped these men. The guys told me they were fighting like mummies, they were so cold. Jeff Schechtman: It seems amazing, really, that any of them were able to survive. Patrick O'Donnell: That's sort of the test of American combat soldiers and in this case, Marines. It's about mental toughness and these guys are just extremely mentally tough. I think that's sort of the overarching story here, it's just sort of average guys that were faced with an unbelievable challenge. And not only did they break through a Chinese division, but then they held the little mountain top effectively in the Korean War and allowed the 1st Marine Division to build an airfield and bring in supplies and reinforcements. They were sort of at the right place at the right time in history. And they sort of wrote the ... George Company fought all the way through 1953 and they had five separate epic stands throughout the war, including the last day of the war on the last battle where an entire Chinese regimen hit them at a place called Boulder City. And the men made an epic stand there and stopped the Chinese from basically making another route into Seoul. Jeff Schechtman: The ones that you did get to talk about this, tell us a little bit about how they remembered it. Patrick O'Donnell: I think the most poignant memory that a person that sort of symbolizes many of the men's stories is a very good friend of mine. He's a machine gunner. His name is Tom Powers. Every night, Tom Powers fights Chinese. He was in hand to hand combat with a Chinese soldier that jumped on his back and tried to strangle him. And he fights that person, that Chinese soldier, pretty much every night and they basically try to strangle each other. It's kind of those phantasmal killers that these dreams and nightmares that some of these men remember. But there's also the happy times, of course, of how the fellowship of men that are under battle, they forged some incredible friendships that have lasted and endured over 60 years. Jeff Schechtman: Talk a little bit about some of the characters, some of the men that were part of this company. Patrick O'Donnell: There's several that really stand out. One is Mert Good Eagle, who was a Native American that ... Basically right off, his father did Wild Bill pony shows. He was an Indian extra in the shows and Mert was trying to get his Warrior's Feather. I met him in 2006 at one of the reunions and, he talked about how on East Hill, he was going down to get extra ammunition for the machine guns that were working all night. The barrels on the guns literally were glowing like a neon light because so many rounds went through them. Thousands of Chinese soldiers hit George Company's position of just 200 men and overran portions of it, of the line. And Good Eagle was in one of those positions that was overrun and he found himself confronted by two Chinese soldiers and he talked about how he took the ammo box that was in his hand and slammed it against one of the faces of the Chinese soldiers. And in the other, he grabbed his knife, or his bayonet I should say, and stabbed the other man and ran up the hill as fast as he could. He looked down, and in sort of an iconical moment, he wet his pants because he was just so frightened by what he'd just encountered. Jeff Schechtman: How important was the Chosin Reservoir campaign to the overall war? Patrick O'Donnell: What happened is in the winter of 1950, Douglas MacArthur was charging headlong north into North Korea. The North Korean army was in tatters, it was destroyed, effectively. MacArthur basically underestimated the possibility of a Chinese intervention. The Chinese had massed over 150,000 men near the Chosin Reservoir. They had surrounded the 1st Marine Division, as well as Army units. Had they been able to successfully destroy the 1st Marine Division and those Army units, they would have potentially won the war. So, this battle was one of the seminal battles of the entire war. And George Company was in position to make a decisive effort in that battle because they were the last reserve unit at the time and they had to be rushed into a place called East Hill, which overlooked the main supply base that the Marine Corps had at Hagaru-ri. They broke through a Chinese division to get to the hill and then they were put on the hill for three days. Had the Chinese taken the hill, they would have probably taken Hagaru-ri. And had they done that, the 1st Marine Division would have ceased to exist. Jeff Schechtman: What did we learn from a military perspective, from this battle? Patrick O'Donnell: I think a lot of things. One, you need to be prepared in terms of equipment and everything. Sadly, these men were very poorly equipped. They were given the same equipment that our troops had received during the Battle of the Bulge, which caused massive amounts of frostbite. The VA doesn't ... If anybody fought in the Chosin Reservoir, they're called the veterans of the frozen Chosin, is sort of the nickname. The VA automatically assumes that they have frostbite and it's largely because of the shoddy equipment that they received. The other thing is, it's all about intelligence. Intelligence, when it's ignored, can be absolutely deadly. It almost cost us the war in Korea. Underestimating the strengths and the disposition of China's forces that were a raid against the Eighth Army and the 1st Marine Division. Jeff Schechtman: It also says so much about resiliency and courage in these conditions. Patrick O'Donnell: That's the thing that I'm drawn to in all my work is the resilience, the fact that men that are under such an extreme stress, these are just the regular Americans, just done some truly amazing and heroic things. Just looking back to places like Korea, it's very, very inspiring. For me, it's been a personal journey of sorts. I've just gotten to know so many of these men and they've been good friends of mine as I've interviewed them and they are truly extraordinary Americans. Jeff Schechtman: The title of your book about this, Give Me Tomorrow , has a very special significance with respect to one of the stories you tell about one of the soldiers that was so courageous, that gave so much in this battle. Patrick O'Donnell: The title is completely intertwined. On December 9 th , David Douglas Duncan, is a very, very famous photographer, who is one of the great photojournalists in history, was accompanying George Company, as well as the 1st Marine Division on their way out of the Chosin Reservoir. They were breaking out, effectively, pushing towards the sea. He was there as the Marines of George Company were making their way back towards the port, fighting their way back. He asked one of the Marines in George Company, "If I could grant you any wish, what would it be?" And this marine had been fighting for nine days straight, hadn't been well fed, had survived the elements, just kind of paused and he looked at him and he said, "Give me tomorrow." And at that point, the photojournalist snapped one of the most iconic photos of war, including the Korean War. That night... This wasn't a trite thing that he said at all. That night, their position was overrun by an entire battalion of Chinese troops. That's about 500 men. The 3rd Platoon, which this gentleman was part of, their position was overrun and he almost died that night. He almost never received the tomorrow that he asked for. Jeff Schechtman: Patrick O'Donnell, the book is Give Me Tomorrow: The Korean War's Greatest Untold Story - The Epic Stand of the Marines of George Company . Patrick, it's always a pleasure. I thank you so much for being with us. Patrick O'Donnell: Thank you so much for having me, Jeff. It's always a pleasure, as well. Jeff Schechtman: Thank you. Jeff Schechtman: And thank you for listening and for joining us here on Radio WhoWhatWhy . I hope you join us next week for another Radio WhoWhatWhy Podcast. I'm Jeff Schechtman. If you liked this Podcast, please feel free to share and help others find it by rating and reviewing it on iTunes. You can also support this Podcast and all the work we do by going to whowhatwhy.org /donate. Related front page panorama photo credit: Adapted by WhoWhatWhy from Marines at Chosin (USMC / Wikimedia) . Where else do you see journalism of this quality and value? Our Comment Policy Keep it civilized, keep it relevant, keep it clear, keep it short. Please do not post links or promotional material. We reserve the right to edit and to delete comments where necessary.

In this week's WhoWhatWhy podcast, Jeff Schechtman talks with military historian Patrick O'Donnell, who wrote a book about the war almost a decade ago, entitled " Give Me Tomorrow ," a deeply personal look at those who served amid the extreme brutality of the Korean War

If he hadn't been charged, Wallace would have graduated from a master's program for health administration next year. As part of their sentencing, Alvarez and Caballero must register as sex offenders. Mark Frauenfelder / 1:56 pm Mon, Jul 6, 2015 Here's some fun: "Place hand in dog's cage and hold it there for as long as you dare. Dog pants, dribbles warm saliva and other disgusting things." It's a coin-operated amusement built by Tim Hunkin, and you can see a customer trying it out in this video. Tim Hunkin is a brilliant cartoonist, inventor, and TV show host. He wrote some great articles for me at Make magazine and I'm always happy to learn about anything he creates. In this video, we get to see Test Your Nerve and some of the other one-of-a-kind coin-operated machines Tim has built for his new-ish mechanical amusement arcade in London . Some of the machine's at Tim's arcade: MONEY LAUNDERING: Pick up cash from the gutter and deposit it in the city without the regulators spotting MICROBREAK: Sit in the chair and travel on holiday, moved by the magic carpet. ALIEN PROBE: Investigate the captive alien BUT try not to annoy it. DIVORCE: Race to separate, then see the results. PET OR MEAT: Spin the arrow and see where it lands. Then view what happens to the lamb in detail. AUTOFRISK: Stand in position and let the rubber gloves give you a thorough frisk. MY-NUKE: Use the remote manipulator arm to open the fuel box and load the fuel pellets into the reactor. INSTANT WEIGHTLOSS: Watch weightfree nutrients prepared especially for you and then watch yourself lose weight in the mirror. EXPRESSIVE PHOTOBOOTH: Sit inside and the booth activates mechanisms to provoke a wide range of expressions while taking the photos. Read the rest From the Daily Grail:

If he hadn't been charged, Wallace would have graduated from a master's program for health administration next year. As part of their sentencing, Alvarez and Caballero must register as sex offenders. Mark Frauenfelder / 1:56 pm

Annie , the Broadway Musical - The Broadway musical is by far the best version of the character of Annie. There is a reason why theaters across the country are still staging it, even as young audiences are less and less familiar with the original comic strip or radio dramas. The show is full of classic crowd-pleaser songs like "It's the Hard Knock Life," "Tomorrow," and "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile." If that wasn't enough, there is a scrappy adorable mutt and big Christmas finale. It is practically impossible to hate Annie . What gives Annie longevity, though, is the show's title character. Annie is the every-girl. She is savvy but kind-hearted, sweet but able to take care of herself. She has no home or parents, and yet she remains optimistic about her future. Jokes about Herbert Hoover set the musical firmly in the Great Depression, but the message of Annie is timeless. Annie Warbucks - Annie Warbucks was the second attempt at a stage musical sequel to Annie . The first attempt, Annie 2: Miss Hannigan's Revenge , is coming up on the list. Unlike the first attempt, the show was mildly successful and is still staged fairly often by regional theaters. It never reached the prominence of the original stage musical, but Annie Warbucks is fairly innocuous. The storyline is the craziest part of Annie Warbucks . In the show, Daddy Warbucks is ordered by Child Welfare Commissioner Harriet Doyle to get married in 60 days or Annie will be sent back to the orphanage. Grace Farrell, Warbucks' personal assistant, is the obvious choice, but a new character, Sheila Kelly, also vies for his affection. Sheila isn't all that she seems, though, and she has less than honorable reasons for marrying Warbucks. Her mother is Harriet Doyle, the commissioner who is making Warbucks get married in the first place, and they hope to cash in on Warbucks' fortune after the wedding. The scheme is preposterous, but it is less preposterous than other villainous scheming in the Little Orphan Annie canon. Annie , the 1982 Film - Structurally and story-wise, the 1982 and 1999 Annie film adaptations are very similar, but the 1982 film manages to edge out as the less crazy of the two films. Next to the original musical, this film is the most widely known and recognized. Carol Burnett as Miss Hannigan is inspired casting, and her villainous co-stars are none other than Tim Curry as Rooster Hannigan and Bernadette Peters as Lily St. Regis. The more nutty elements of the 1982 Annie involve Punjab and his magic powers. Punjab was a character carried over from the comic book and did not appear in the Broadway musical or 1999 film adaptation. In the 1982 film, Punjab serves as Daddy Warbucks' bodyguard and saves Annie at a critical moment in the climax of the film. Looking back, it is hard to ignore the mystical foreigner character tropes that Punjab embodies. Considering that Hollywood still has such a problem with diversity in its heroes, however, it is visually striking to see Punjab, an Indian man with a turban, as a hero on-screen. This doesn't excuse the stereotyping by any means, but it does bear mentioning. Annie , the 1999 TV Movie Musical - The Wonderful World of Disney's 1999 TV movie adaptation of Annie does not have Punjab, and in many ways, it is more faithful to the original Broadway musical than the 1982 movie. The songs "N.Y.C." and "Something Was Missing" were both restored, and while it is difficult to match the cast from the 1982 film, the 1999 cast includes Victor Garber, Audra McDonald, Kathy Bates, Alan Cumming, and Kristin Chenoweth. All of them are Tony nominees, and nearly all of them are Tony winners. Audra McDonald actually holds the record for the most number of Tony Awards won by a performer, period. Having her in the cast automatically elevates the entire movie. With all that glowing praise, what could possibly be so crazy to put it ahead of Punjab's magic tricks? In the 1982 film, Rooster and Lily pose as Annie's parents so they can collect the reward and run off filthy rich with Miss Hannigan. In the 1999 film, Miss Hannigan doesn't trust Lily with the scheme, so she disguises herself poorly and poses as Annie's mother with Rooster as Annie's father. This plan makes no sense. Annie lived in the orphanage with Miss Hannigan lording over her for her entire life. A bad wig and a change of costume should not fool anyone, especially Annie. It is such a strange scripting decision and would have been an easy fix by just having Lily pose as Annie's mother. For that random leap in logic, the 1999 Annie edges out the 1982 Annie in the ranking. Last fun fact about this adaptation, Modern Family star Sarah Hyland makes an appearance as Annie's orphan friend Molly. Little Orphan Annie Radio Program - Back when the Little Orphan Annie comic was at the height of its popularity, there was a radio program adaptation of the comic. The show was cute and serviceable but not anything particularly new or different from other radio programs at the time. From the episodes that are still available, the most outrageous part are the accents. Wow, some of these accents are something else.

Annie , the Broadway Musical - The Broadway musical is by far the best version of the character of Annie.

Sure, not every movie is for everyone. But even if a film gets panned by critics, you can usually trust the opinions of friends and the general public who are all rallying behind a new movie. It's not often that everyone is wrong about a movie, right? Well... maybe not. If you look at any list of "Movies You Should See Before You Die" or "Everyone's Favorite Movies," you're bound to find some incredible options: Psycho, The Godfather, Beauty and the Beast, The Shawshank Redemption, Die Hard . You get the picture (pun intended). But sometimes you show up at a theater to see a film that everyone is raving about, and twenty minutes into it you begin to look around the room, confused, searching for someone else who is equally as un-entertained as you are. You long to make eye contact with another person with whom you can shrug, and perhaps make a gagging motion with. "I don't get it. This was supposed to be good," you say to yourself. And then you either completely give up and walk out of the theater, or play mind tricks with yourself to keep from falling asleep before it ends. The following are movies that are completely overrated. They might be ok, but they were HUGE when they came out. For the life of me, I can't figure out why. 7. Inception I'm going to get a lot of flak for this one because for some, Christopher Nolan can do no wrong. But COME ON, PEOPLE! There were so many loopholes you could knit a sweater. At first glance, Inception might seem like a really cool movie about dreams, but if you really look at it, it makes NO sense. 6. Crash This was a very neatly packaged movie about racism. It touched on the surface but failed to delve into anything meaningful. The only thing good about this movie was Michael Pena's reaction when he thought his daughter was shot. For this one moment, I applaud Pena. The rest is just shallow.

Sure, not every movie is for everyone. But even if a film gets panned by critics, you can usually trust the opinions of friends and the general public who are all rallying behind a new movie

For the past several decades, within the dreary halls of every unionized public school in this country, a great fiction about our nation's history has been spoon-fed to the minds of the young and impressionable. They are programmed through a rigorous Prussian style system of repetition and regurgitation, that what built this great country was not the ingenuity and ambition of great masters of industry and entrepreneurship, but rather a combination of some short lived and irrelevant union called "The Knights of Labor" and various federal government pork projects. The great American rag to riches histories of self-made men and business titans such as Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and Cornelius Vanderbilt, are belittled as nothing more than grand thieving robber barons who had to be put down and squashed by heroic Washington bureaucrats. This juvenile folklore passing as historical fact would be almost laughable if not for how widespread the acceptance of this myth has become. The state school system fails in most regards, but it has quite the penchant for propagandizing and does a marvelous job at it. As a result of this misinformation, our nation has a collective ignorance of our own proud history and it has led us astray not only politically, but more importantly culturally. Culture is everything. Our founders crafted a beautiful and eloquent system of governance that guaranteed our freedoms and paved the way for us to be a prosperous and stable Republic for most of our history, but even they knew that it was never enough. At the end of the day, it is the gritty, hardworking, and individualistic spirit, one which is embodied in the American worker and entrepreneur, that is what truly kept this nation together. A healthy questioning of authority, an ambitious zeal to better oneself, a fear of God, and a love of family are the quintessential facets of traditional American culture. It is from those values and our embrace of capitalism that we have been able to achieve a level of prosperity and innovation that was never seen before in history. To the average upper middle-class liberal arts student, this may sound like typical "right-wing" patriotic hyperbole. They may not believe it, but it is true. We shouldn't blame them for their ignorance. They have grown up in a society with more prosperity and leisure than any generation before. The everyday fears and angst that hung over their grandparents and great-grandparents no longer exist in this rapidly changing world. With every passing generation, those worries of want and struggle have been replaced with a sort of emptiness, a lack of direction, and a lack of purpose. To put it in anecdotal terms: this young generation of Americans are the spoiled heirs to a great multi-generational fortune, a fortune that they do not respect, nor know what to do with. They fill the void with binge drinking, social media narcissism, and all expense paid trips to Europe, where the grass is apparently always greener. We shouldn't blame them for this vapidness. They have been indulged by both parent and teacher alike into a false and misleading narrative of the world, one in which success and happiness are a linear upward hierarchy from grade school through college, into a cushy corporate job that no longer exists in a stagnant and ever more socialized economy. A general laziness combined with very real factors such as minimum wage and mass illegal immigration have taken away from them their first, and maybe only, jobs. Thus they will never experience a chewing out by their boss and they will never learn the value of an honest day's work. Critical character-building life experiences. We may scoff at their cries of victimhood and trigger warnings every time someone tells them they're wrong, but they truly are the victims of decades of cultural and economic stagnation. Cortney O'Brien In order to stave off this regression, we must attack the root of the problem. Contrary to what many caramel macchiato drinking pseudo-intellectuals may say, the real root of the problem is not "materialistic and exploitative capitalism," but rather our cultural values. A return to our historical roots is what is needed. We must unapologetically preach that the greatest successes and joy come not from short-term and hedonistic living in the now, but rather tirelessly working for the benefit of not only yourself but your posterity. That is the sort of thinking that paved the way from their great-grandparents' sweatshops and farms into their parent's law firms and medical practices in just a few short generations. If we fail to achieve this, we are effectively handing over our nation to a generation that currently believes that diversity should not include ideas, that speech should not be free, that entrepreneurship is exploitative, that ''family values" are sexist, and that what they want must be given to them, not earned. That is the recipe for a disaster that our founders feared most. Hence the great quote from founding father Benjamin Franklin, "A Republic, if you can keep it... so do not give out participation trophies so willy nilly." That may not be accurate, but I wouldn't know since I did go to a public school after all.

For the past several decades, within the dreary halls of every unionized public school in this country, a great fiction about our nation's history has been spoon-fed to the minds of the young and impressionable.

Scientists say the Harris County Flood Control District, which manages thousands of miles of floodwater-evacuating bayous and helps enforce development rules, should focus more on preserving green space and managing growth. The City of Houston, too. And they say everyone should plan for more torrential rainfall because of the changing climate. (A host of cities in the U.S. and around the world are doing so.) Especially this guy: The claim that "these magic sponges out in the prairie would have absorbed all that water is absurd," Talbott said. He also said the flood control district has no plans to study climate change or its impacts on Harris County, the third-most-populous county in the United States. "They have an agenda ... their agenda to protect the environment overrides common sense," he said. Who's to say the Chinese didn't seed the Gulf? Quartz China's new new "weather modification program." The longtime head of the flood control district flat-out disagrees with scientific evidence that shows development is making flooding worse. ... Of the astonishing frequency of huge floods the city has been getting, he said, "I don't think it's the new normal." Sweet finny Dagon. I wondered if the response to this disaster wouldn't be "oh, it's a 500-year flood, so we don't have to worry about it every happening again" (while it ends up happening again in 10 or 20 years). Looks like I have my answer. I was going to link that. I'm in Houston - Mom and I are both in areas with zero standing water right now. I know 4 people that have been flooded out of their homes, though. One of them had only recently moved back into his house after a year of repair work following the Memorial Day flood. I told Mom that it's time for David to sell that fucking house - move, dammit. Several reasons Houston wasn't evacuated. First, evacuating 7 million people is only barely possible. It has to be staged, and there has to be someplace to put us. It's like a 4 day process, even with contraflow highways. Second, the memories of the Rita evacuation are still strong here in Houston. More people died in the evacuation than did in the storm. 24 hour traffic jams - just awful. I think Rita is why we have contra-flow signs and preparations on the highways now. BethanyAnne 2017-08-28 20:20:44 UTC #39 A co-worker's daughter had her home flooded in those same floods but it was the surrounding Austin area. Her daughter went through a lot of issues getting the house renovated, knowing that the place could flood again. Now any time it rains she panics and it just doesn't seem worth it. Sell the damn house.

And they say everyone should plan for more torrential rainfall because of the changing climate. (A host of cities in the U.S. and around the world are doing so.)

Plane crash in Mumbai today LATEST updates: The chartered flight which crashed in Mumbai's Ghatkopar on Thursday was carrying four people, all of whom died when the plane fell crushing another pedestrian. The aircraft is a Beechcraft King Air C90 model. The twin-turboprop aircraft was previously registered to the Uttar Pradesh government but was sold in 2014 to a Mumbai-based company, UY aviation. Union Minister for Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu expressed deep shock over the crash the aircraft in Mumbai. "The minister has directed the concerned officials to rush to the accident spot in Ghatkopar area of Mumbai and provide all possible help and assistance. DGCA has been asked to conduct an investigation into the plane crash," a civil aviation ministry spokesperson said. Reports and officials haven't identified the passenger yet. Reports have said that the black box of the aircraft has been recovered. Firstpost wasn't able to verify the information independently but here are the names of those who died: co-pilot Pradeep Rajput; technician Surabhi; pilot Maria Kuber and technician Manish Pandey. Names of two injured, as reported by ABP News, are: Luvkush Kumar and Naresh Kumar Nishad. The ABP News released names of four, among five, of those who died in the Mumbai plane crash in Ghatkopar. The report also said that the black box has been recovered. Firstpost wasn't able to verify the information independently. The names of those who died: co-pilot Pradeep Rajput; technician Surabhi; pilot Maria Kuber and technician Manish Pandey. The report did not give the name of the pedestrian who was killed. Names of two injured, as reported by ABP News, are: Luvkush Kumar and Naresh Kumar Nishad. According to the reports, among those onboard, two were women and three were men. According to eye-witnesses, they thought it was a bomb blast. "We heard two explosions. We thought it was a blast," eye-witnesses told TV channels. DGCA team is on its way to Mumbai to probe the crash in Mumbai which killed five people, including one pedestrian. Four others were technicians onboard the chartered aircraft which crashed in Mumbai's Ghatkopar at around 1 pm on Thursday. Quoting the Mumbai fire brigade, ANI reported that teams of the brigade have been rushed to the spot. Contrary to earlier reports, principal secretary Avinash Awasthi said the chartered plane which has crashed does not belong to Uttar Pradesh government. Reports also said that the DGCA team is also on their way to investigate into the crash. Reports said that the plane crashed while landing on Wednesday. It's still unknown whether the aircraft crashed while attempting an emergency landing. #BREAKING -- A chartered plane crashes in an open area in Mumbai's Ghatkopar. Fire brigade team rushed to the spot. More details awaited | @radhika1705 with more details pic.twitter.com/blYPCaOmBf -- News18 (@CNNnews18) June 28, 2018 The incident occurred at 1.15 pm near an under-construction building in Sarvodaya Nagar, CNN-News18 reported. NDRF teams are likely to be pressed to the spot. Quoting Mumbai Police, it reported that five people are feared dead. It further said that the plane was leased by Pan Parag group. Media reports had initially said that the aircraft belonged to the Uttar Pradesh government. However, Uttar Pradesh principal secretary Avnish Awasthi denied it, saying that the state govt had sold it to Mumbai's UY Aviation. "The deal was done after the plane had met with an accident in Allahabad," he was quoted as saying by ANI .

Plane crash in Mumbai today LATEST updates: The chartered flight which crashed in Mumbai's Ghatkopar on Thursday was carrying four people, all of whom died when the plane fell crushing another pedestrian.

Life Is Strange Episode 5 is the conclusion of a series that's often proven divisive in its handling of very real, very serious issues. To many, the overall series felt a bit ham-fisted, with dialogue that had many awkward moments, the number of which is second only to the amount of heart wrenching exchanges between its main character, Max, and her best friend, Chloe. For a game that focuses on changing the past and reflecting on its meaning, Life Is Strange has a, well, strange way of wrapping up its story. Without getting into spoilers (yet), suffice it to say that the ending(s) will ultimately prove to be one of the more talked about moments in this game's history. It's something you could probably see coming a mile away, but that doesn't change the fact that when the time comes, it's still pretty gosh darn emotionally charged. Before diving into spoiler territory, if you haven't played Life Is Strange , I want to actually go ahead and recommend you do. Yes, the writing can be awkward and, at times, a bit stilted, but these things aside, the story is gripping, and the art (all hand-painted textures) is gorgeous--though the animations can be wonky. The game has a knack for getting you invested into the story, and fast. It's entertaining, and honestly, I always love to see more games placing an emphasis on story. While the ending does evoke reminders of Mass Effect 3 , it doesn't detract too much from the rest of the game. As someone I know once said about another venture, "It's like the book was great, but the ending was weird." Spoilers follow. You've been warned, shaka brah . One of Life Is Strange 's strengths is its soundtrack. It feels like a carefully curated selection of music that's just so placed to evoke the right emotion at just the right time. There's a song on the Life Is Strange soundtrack titled "Obstacles," by Syd Matters. It's a lilting, meandering tune that reflects on, well, reflection and wraps the series up nicely. It also touches on this idea that there's "sunshine for everyone"--that everyone deserves to be happy. Let's say sunshine for everyone But as far as I can remember We've been migratory animals Living under changing weather That push to make people happy is, ostensibly, what Max tries to do throughout the series. In the first episode, she finds out she has this miraculous power that we all wished for as teenagers, this ability to rewind time and change the events of the past. Max being Max, she immediately uses it to save the life of her old best friend, Chloe. From that point on, the game spirals from fixing one thing to fixing another to fixing everything , only to find out that in the end, all throughout this final episode, things are more messed up than you could possibly imagine, and in ways more than one. Someday we will foresee obstacles Through the blizzard, through the blizzard At this point in the game, the view shifts from looking at the past to looking at the future. Episode 5 revolves around Max doing a lot of time jumping to change the events of the future. She's looking to the past once again, through a veritable blizzard of photos and memories, in order to change the future. Today we will sell our uniform Live together In Episode 5, Jefferson has plenty of creepy monologues describing "girls and innocence" and "purity." But during one of his shudder-tastic statements, he says that Max had changed in the past week, that she went from "nerd to hero." In one way, it could be seen that Max shed her uniform, gave up on an old identity in order to become more bold in hopes of doing the right thing. After escaping from Jefferson's dark room, Max spends a huge chunk of her time saving practically everybody in town, placing herself into danger to make sure they're safe. She becomes "Super Max," saving as many people as she can, trying to get them to live . We played hide and seek in waterfalls We were younger Midway through the game, Max slips into a kind of ... nightmare hellscape. That's the best way I can describe it, and honestly, that whole sequence deserves its own post. It's a clever, otherworldly way of showing-- not telling --Max's priorities. She walks through familiar backdrops made surreal by the addition of infinite hallways, doors that open to other doors, and characters that guilt Max into thinking she's only fucked things up beyond repair. There's a (pretty tedious) sneaking section of the game where Max has to sneak around in the dark, foreboding torn up landscape of her psyche, hiding from all the male characters in the game who are seeking her out with flashlights. Past that, Max literally walks down memory lane, recapping the events of the past four episodes, but with one particular central thread in mind: Chloe. I want to say that up until this point, I had lied to a lot of the townspeople to save their feelings. I didn't tell David that Chloe was dead, and I sure as shit didn't tell Joyce that. But when it came to talking with Chloe, I told the truth the whole way, without even really realizing what I was doing. In my playthrough, Max confided in her that she knows she fucked up, that the tornado is coming because of everything she's done for Chloe. So when Max finds herself back at the lighthouse, with the tornado moving ever closer to destroying Arcadia Bay, Chloe comes to the realization that they could save the town if Max goes back in time to let Nathan kill Chloe in the bathroom. Suddenly, you have a choice to make: save Chloe or save Arcadia Bay. Either you save all these people whose lives you've been working to improve over the course of the entire series, or your save Chloe, the one person who's kept Max going this entire time. It's here where I have to be honest with myself and acknowledge the fact that this is kind of a controversial design choice. Having all those choices and all that work over the entire series come down to one choice, one decision brings back some awful memories of the Mass Effect 3 ending. No matter what you do, much of the choices you've made and work you've done gets tossed out the window. And it's here where I might lose a lot of people: I can see that this design choice actually works. Think about it. Whichever you choose says more about you and your experience with the game as a player. If you resonated with Arcadia Bay as a whole, then there's your choice, but if you resonated with Chloe and her relationship with Max, then there's your choice. Call me a monster, but I didn't connect with the rest of Arcadia Bay. I saved Chloe. The ending plays out, with the instrumental ending of "Obstacles" rising to a crescendo in the background. Chloe and Max are driving through the wreckage that was Arcadia Bay, and past the diner where many people were hiding out. As they both drive off into the distance, the song wraps up, and fades to black. In the end, after having seen both endings, I truly want to believe I made the right choice. I want to believe that this is where Max was supposed to end up. Throughout its five episodes, Life Is Strange continually reminds you of the fact that your choices will have consequences. Choosing this ending, I don't know for sure that I made the right choice, because it essentially renders everything else I did null and void. It's kind of a lopsided decision, and that's what's leaving such a sour taste in my mouth. But I guess that's the point, isn't it? Having to make a decision, albeit a completely fantastical, unrealistic one, is extraordinarily difficult. There are no happy endings, and there are no easy decisions. Was that the message they were trying to get across? It's questions like these that will be Life Is Strange 's testament. It'll be remembered for the inevitable discussions and debates over what the "true ending" might be. And you know what? I think that's just fine. --Please make note of The Mary Sue's general comment policy .-- Do you follow The Mary Sue on Twitter , Facebook , Tumblr , Pinterest , & Google + ?

Life Is Strange Episode 5 is the conclusion of a series that's often proven divisive in its handling of very real, very serious issues. To many, the overall series felt a bit ham-fisted, with dialogue that had many awkward moments, the number of which is second only to the amount of heart wrenching exchanges between its main character, Max, and her best friend, Chloe.

Reviving Canada's conversation on anti-Blackness Valerie Bah | We've only just broken the surface when it comes to addressing institutionalized racism in Canada. rabble news January 16 Protester fails in court challenge to Kinder Morgan legal attack Gene McGuckin | The latest in Battle of Burnaby Mountain: the B.C. Supreme Court rules that stifling Alan Dutton's right to protest was not the primary purpose of a multi-million-dollar civil suit. rabble news January 16 Conservatives back Gaza military siege, as BDS movement grows Stefan Christoff | The Harper government continues to give full support for Israel's apartheid policies against the Palestinian people. But here is a clear way to show support for Palestine: BDS. briefly January 15 Jobs lost as Xtra folds print edition, goes online only Ella Bedard | The 31st anniversary of Xtra will be the last time it publishes on paper. The iconic gay and lesbian publisher is going digital-only, with jobs lost in the process. rabble news January 15 17,600 workers lose as Target Canada closes its operations Ella Bedard | Less than two years in Canada, Target is leaving "an incredible legacy of scorched earth," having delivered two historic blows to Canadian retail workers. rabble news January 15 Worker deaths deserve criminal investigations, says OFL president Sid Ryan Ella Bedard | Two directors from New Mex Canada Inc. in Brampton will spend 25 days in jail for a worker's death, but are not charged under the Criminal Code. Why? politics January 15 Limiting the expat vote: Another (un)Fair Elections Act tactic? Raksha Vasudevan | The Harper government is trying to appeal a ruling that would allow Canadian expats living abroad for more than five years to retain their voting rights. So much for democracy! rabble news January 14 International report recommends action on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Francella Fiallos | The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights released a report about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canada. Their recommendation? The government should take action. rabble news January 14 Feds ban news website on public employees' computers Francella Fiallos | Blacklock's Reporter discovered that it was banned on public employees' computers because the site posed a threat. However, a 2013 policy says public servants are allowed to access news websites. opinion January 14 Employment insurance and Harper's flexibility fanaticism Katie Mazer | Federal governments have recited the tired story of unemployed people and seasonal workers as lazy. But isn't reducing access to EI and creating a disposable workforce actually lazy governance? rabble news January 13 Five more global food trends for 2015 Wayne Roberts | Look out here's what's coming in global food megatrends including a new one: urbiculture. rabble news January 13 Yes, Mr. Harper, #MMIW is a sociological phenomenon Shelagh Day, Sharon McIvor, Gwen Brodsky | The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issues a breakthrough report on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. rabble news January 13 Linamar deal a good start, but Canada needs a comprehensive auto strategy Ella Bedard | Unifor says it's happy to see investment in the auto industry, but hopes that future plans will be less ad hoc. rabble news January 12 Five global food trends for 2015 Wayne Roberts | Food trends in 2015 are bigger than the battle between kale and cauliflower. We're talking labour, information and industry. rabble news January 12 Harper exploiting Paris shootings to deepen surveillance state and justify war Stefan Christoff | Harper stated that the government is "looking at additional powers to make sure security agencies have the range of tools available." But what will these powers actually do? rabble interview January 12 Meet Irene Lanzinger, new President of the BC Federation of Labour Ella Bedard | The first woman and first teacher to lead the BC Federation of Labour talks about politics, teaching and next steps for the labour movement. briefly January 9 New Year, new lock out in New Westminster Ella Bedard | After one week on the picket line, members of CUPE 7000 say that rail safety is their major concerns. briefly January 9 Troubling times ahead for Canada's economy in 2015, says Stats Can Francella Fiallos | Jason Kenney's tweets don't show it, but the real numbers show 4,000 jobs were lost this month in Canada. Bank of Canada President Stephen Poloz says expect a faltering economy in 2015. politics January 9 How to 'take back the country' from Stephen Harper John Cartwright | It's a federal election year and after ten years under Harper government rule, Canada has become a shell of itself. It's time to bid Harper adieu. analysis January 9 One year after Bedford: Where are we now? Marcus A. Sibley | It's been just over a year since the Bedford decision. We look back on what led to the decision, what has happened since and if sex workers have seen any benefit from the new law. briefly January 8 UFCW approves of changes to Ontario's Beer Store ownership structure Ella Bedard | After months of scandal and public outcry, Ontario's privately owned Beer Store monopoly has announced changes to its ownership structure. analysis January 8 Today's media language a little too much like 1984's Newspeak Nick Fillmore | Canada's corporate-controlled mainstream media exercise so much control over today's media that journalism is similar to the language used to control the public in Orwell's 1984. analysis January 7 The Brazil Food Guide: Look at food differently in 2015 Wayne Roberts | The Brazil food guide puts social equity and the social value of food on the menu with a new classification system. opinion December 24 Death of a Princess revisited Andree Levesque | There's a reason The Interview affair has an air of deja vu. In 1980, the British film Death of a Princess, by Antony Thomas and Gladys Ganley, provoked similar responses on the part of Saudi Arabia. year in review December 24 rabble's end of the year roundup: 2014 edition rabble staff | What had rabble's attention this year? Here's a look at the best of the best from all our sections and more! year in review December 24 Year in Canadian labour: Ten important stories in 2014 Ella Bedard | What were the big stories this year when it came to Canada's labour movement? Well, let's take a look. year in review December 24 The best of rabble news in 2014 rabble staff | It has been a busy year for activists. We hope that the analysis, opinions, struggles and victories you read about here will inspire you for the progressive work to come in 2015. politics December 23 Hold the rations: The Canadian government vs. First Nations Crystal Lameman | The First Nations Transparency Act is not about disclosing First Nations salaries and expenses. It is about putting First Nations at severe economic disadvantage. opinion December 23 UP! Empowering communities from the bottom up Alex Bailey | The resistance to fracking in New Brunswick shows that the people know they have a strong collective voice. Labour movement activists need to look for opportunities for community engagement.

The resistance to fracking in New Brunswick shows that the people know they have a strong collective voice. Labour movement activists need to look for opportunities for community engagement.

Japan's GDP contracted by 1.6 percent in Q2 on a yearly basis, which wasn't as dismal as the expected contraction of 1.9 percent. Looking somewhat deeper into Japan's shrinking GDP growth number, we see overall exports fell by 16.5 percent on a yearly basis, of which exports to China fell during H1 of 2015 by more than 30 percent (in dollar terms). Please keep in mind China is Japan's biggest trading partner and China's imports from Japan are second to South Korea. Also, Japan is the third biggest economy in the world after the U.S. and China. Interestingly, last week, Koichi Hamada, a key adviser Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said: "The magnitude of China's shock is much larger than that from Greece, but we need not worry because always the effect of Chinese devaluation can be offset by monetary easing in Japan." Whatever officials say, we all know China is slowing down and will do whatever is necessary to avoid a hard landing. In this context, we shouldn't be surprised the see the 7-handle against the dollar before year-end, which would represent a +10 percent devaluation of the Chinese currency. I really can't imagine the Japanese wouldn't weaken the yen to offset/compensate that. Nevertheless, we probably won't see huge moves in the yuan in one direction or another until after September when President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit the U.S. at the invitation of President Obama. That said, there is no doubt the world is at risk of a real global currency war that is brewing and, if it starts (hopefully not!), will start in the Far East. No wonder with Japan tanking we see oil prices, as well as WTI crude oil and Brent crude oil at more than six year lows, which is all deflationary! Notwithstanding all that, there is still at this moment a lot of optimism about the eurozone and certainly now over the weekend Eurogroup has agreed to provide Greece its third bailout in the amount of 86 billion euros (about $95 billion) over 3 years while officially stating: "We are confident that decisive and as swift as possible implementation of the reform measures as spelled out in the MoU will allow the Greek economy to return to a sustainable growth path based on sound public finances, enhanced competitiveness, high employment and financial stability." Maybe some further interesting details, which markets don't seem having understood yet are: "... Following the results of the Asset Quality Review and Stress Tests before the end of the year, the bail in instrument will apply for senior debt bondholders whereas bail in of depositors is excluded ... Greece will target a medium-term primary surplus of 3.5% of GDP with a fiscal path of primary balances of -0.25% in 2015, 0.5% in 2016, 1.75% in 2017 and 3.5% in 2018... and last but not least ... The Eurogroup considers the continued program involvement of the IMF as indispensable..." Of course, wonders do happen... That said, any long-term investor has the choice being optimistic or not. From my side, I'd prefer remaining with both feet on the ground and I will have to see it, which I hope for, before I'll believe it. In the meantime, on Friday we got disappointing GDP growth numbers for the eurozone during Q2 that came in overall at 0.3 percent, which was below the expected 0.4 percent, and (this is important!) with almost all of the larger economies, with the exception of Spain, performing worse than expected. No doubt, the eurozone with its continuous economic growth problems is not out of the woods yet and so far, the ECB's massive QE program, low oil prices and a weaker euro haven't caused the cyclical upswing everybody is still waiting for. Long-term investors could do well keeping in mind when we look at data provided by Eurostat, BEA and others, GDP of the eurozone is still more than 1 percent below its peak of 2008 and has grown, since 2000, at about half of the performance of the U.S. and the United Kingdom. (c) 2018 Newsmax Finance. All rights reserved. Click Here to comment on this article

Japan's GDP contracted by 1.6 percent in Q2 on a yearly basis, which wasn't as dismal as the expected contraction of 1.9 percent. Looking somewhat deeper into Japan's shrinking GDP growth number, we see overall exports fell by 16.5 percent on a yearly basis, of which exports to China fell during H1 of 2015 by more than 30 percent (in dollar terms).

Bill O'Reilly's Fox News career now swims with the fishes. The conventional wisdom is that after the NY Times exposed a history of sexual harassment settlements, and two new accusers came forward, advertisers "fled" the show, forcing the hand of News Corp and the Murdochs. That conventional wisdom is only partially correct --... On today's Fox News Sunday , Rush Limbaugh said that "embeds" by former President Obama and Hillary Clinton in the "deep state"--the permanent bureaucracy--are "absolutely" behind the leaks about ties between the Russians and the Trump campaign. Rush added that "the left, which is run by Obama and Hillary and the hierarchy of the Democrat... In the wake of the horrifying and incomprehensible shootings in Dallas that left four police officers and one rapid transit officer dead and another seven people wounded, Heather MacDonald appeared on Rush's radio show. She shared statistics and asserted that the entire Black Lives Matter movement is "based on a lie." As longtime readers know, Media Matters was the driving force behind the attempt to force Rush Limbaugh off the airwaves through secondary boycotts of advertisers. Unlike more noble boycotts in American history, the Limbaugh boycott movement did not urge consumers to boycott Limbaugh's show, it sought to undercut Limbaugh's platform by scaring advertisers away from the... First , yesterday the 200,000th comment was posted at Legal Insurrection:

Bill O'Reilly's Fox News career now swims with the fishes. The conventional wisdom is that after the NY Times exposed a history of sexual harassment settlements, and two new accusers came forward, advertisers "fled" the show, forcing the hand of News Corp and the Murdochs.

*Jonathan Glennie* takes on both the aid optimists and the pessimists. I knew this would happen. The intellectual initiative on African development seized by a free-market ideologue, now listed by Time Magazine as one of the world's 100 most influential people. It is clear what side of the fence Dambisa Moyo is sitting on. The foreword to her book Dead Aid is written by leading conservative historian Niall Ferguson, and her write-up in Time was written by none other than (ex-President of the World Bank) Paul Wolfowitz. In her eight years with Goldman Sachs, I doubt she was a subscriber to the New Internationalist . Some people think the danger of Dead Aid is that it will lead to reductions in aid. That isn't the danger. As I argue in my book, we need to set out a plan to reduce aid in the medium term, rather than continue the traditional clamour for aid increases in the face of growing evidence of the harm it can do. No, the danger of Dead Aid is that just when the opportunity exists to fundamentally challenge the extreme form of capitalism that has held sway over Africa, and most of the world, for the last three decades, we lose the intellectual initiative by clinging to an outdated position on aid. Despite the many flaws in her book, Moyo's success is a good thing. We need to debate aid. I wrote my book because I was frustrated by the lack of intellectual rigour behind calls for huge aid increases to Africa. While most of my colleagues in the 'aid industry' have responded positively, some argued that it was 'risky' to question the unalloyed benefits more and more aid will offer to the African continent. Now they have been hit with Dambisa Moyo, who is selling more books than Jeffrey Sachs could dream of and whose polemic - however far removed from the facts - is gaining ground in influential circles. The risk for those of us who realize the flaws in the neoliberal, market fundamentalist approach is that we stop being trusted by the public as we persist in the same tired defence of aid based not on the facts but on habit, self-interest (if you work in a charity, you are somewhat linked to aid increases) and a kind of 'something must be done' mentality. Different types of assistance *Official Development Assistance* - the majority of aid takes this form. Intended to help long-term growth and to reduce poverty, it often supports national budgets for healthcare, education and large infrastructure projects. Richer countries have pledged to donate the equivalent of 0.7 per cent of their GDP but few meet this target. *Emergency Humanitarian Aid* - this is a short-term response to help a country afflicted by disasters such as flooding, famine, war, earthquakes. The fastest-growing kind of assistance, it accounts for 10 per cent of all aid. Moyo and her supporters are not saying that this type of aid should be stopped. *How aid is given* - most aid is either bilateral or multilateral. A much smaller proportion comes from NGOs - charities or solidarity organizations - though these may also funnel some official development assistance money. NGOs are not the target of Moyo's critique, though it has implications for them too. Tempting trap The main technical criticism of Moyo's book must be that it is very prone to exaggeration. Hers is not a serious analytical study but an anti-aid polemic of the kind common in the conservative media in the US, where the only facts used are ones that bolster a case, and exaggeration is considered par for the course - after all, the other side is doing it. Exaggeration is a very tempting trap for an author to fall into. A thoughtful assessment is rarely as blistering a read as a no-holds-barred romp through the evils of one thing or another. And publishers (and publicists) want to sell juicy rants. My book on aid to Africa has a plaster on the front in the shape of the African continent. As you can see if you look at my blog (www.thetroublewithaid.org), there were other, more positive, options for both title and cover. But my publisher insisted, and I agreed in the end, that if I wanted the book to sell I would have to bow to some of the pressures of a competitive market. In the book itself, however, I was obsessive in my attempt to present a balanced approach to the subject of aid to Africa, because that is what I think both western and African publics deserve. In contrast to aid optimists (like Sachs) and aid pessimists (like Moyo), I emphasize that the impacts of aid are complex, some good, some bad. Only when we assess these impacts dispassionately and systematically can we have any real expectation of making a positive and sustained impact on human rights, development and poverty reduction in Africa. I call this approach aid realism. Aid realism means not getting swept away by the ethical clamour to 'do something' when a proper analysis shows that what is being done is ineffective or harmful. And it means not bowing to an ideological anti-aid position in the face of the rights and urgent needs of millions of people. Currently I manage a Christian Aid programme in Colombia. I have worked in the NGO sector for over 10 years but have never been as inspired as now, as I see the way donated money is being spent to bolster the movement for change in this country. Without the presence of our and similar international agencies, the organizations, communities and individuals that make up that movement would be far weaker, battered on all sides by the violence of the state and illegal armed groups, and many might simply have ceased to exist. Dependence and independence Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda receive around 50 per cent of their budgets from foreign aid. South Africa and Botswana manage without this kind of assistance. Source : Richard Dowden, BBC News, 26 June 2005. We are not giving charity, we are helping build a movement for human rights and justice. Justice for the four million women and men displaced from their homes by armed groups seeking wealth and power. Justice for the victims of violence and persecution. Justice for the 50 per cent living in poverty in an upper-middle income country. Moyo doesn't get that at all. She seems to think that everything will be solved if we open a few banks and liberalize some more. But Latin America has shown that change comes when the movement for justice is strong. And when aid strengthens that movement, it is doing a vital job. Our programme in Colombia is part funded by the Irish and British governments and publics, and part by the EU. So, yes, aid can do good. We need more of that kind of aid. The big problem is with very large amounts of government-to-government aid. Moyo's critique of aid dependency is one of the areas where she and I are in agreement. The harm done by very high levels of government-to-government aid to the development of effective and accountable governance in Africa is one of the great silences in the aid debate. While politicians - from Tony Blair with his 2005 Africa Commission to Barack Obama in Ghana earlier this year - demonstrate an increased awareness of the importance of state institutions in development, they do not appear to understand the harm aid itself does to governments that rely on it too heavily. Moyo does - and the issue has seldom had so much coverage. Where the money goes $500 billion - aid from richer countries to Africa since 1960. $400 billion - left Africa as capital flight between 1970 and 2004 (add a further $200 billion for imputed interest earnings). $148 billion - leaves Africa every year due to corruption, according to African Union estimates. Source : Jonathan Glennie, The Trouble with Aid , Zed Books, 2008. Radical humility The way to respond to Moyo, then, is not to reel off more misleading 'millions of lives saved per billions of dollars spent' scenarios. The western public has stopped believing them, while the African public knows they are unhelpful exaggerations. The aid community needs to publicly recognize the flaws in aid and the harm it can sometimes do. And then it needs to defend the good things about aid. After which, it needs to move on to more important issues. The irony of this debate is that aid is not really the issue at all. Both aid optimists and aid pessimists exaggerate the importance of aid. No country has ever developed because of aid, and while relatively small amounts of private giving do lead to the kind of programme I am proud to run here in Colombia, they are not going to change the world. Countries develop when they get their policies right. We should be campaigning on tax havens, on climate change, on human rights, on trade justice, and on policy freedom. Although Moyo hardly mentions the issue, it is aid conditionality, more than aid itself that has caused so much damage to Africa. Under intense pressure from donors, the entire economic direction of the continent has changed since the early 1980s. For such a large and diverse group of countries, you would expect a range of responses to the various problems of poverty and development. Instead the response has fitted the Washington-designed blueprint of privatization and liberalization. That is no coincidence, and while lock-in trade deals have played their part, aid has probably been the main instrument used by rich countries to get what they want. Efforts have been made since the late 1970s to rein in aid conditionalities, but they are still just as harmful as ever. I am not concerned about Moyo critiquing aid; she is right to. What concerns me is the certainty with which she states what African countries need to do to develop. Certainty is also a key part of marketing a book. You generate a scandal and then dive right in. But it is galling to see in this case, precisely because she utters with such certainty prescriptions that have been shown so utterly to have failed. At a recent debate in London, hosted by the International Rescue Committee, Moyo repeatedly asserted that 'we know what works'. We don't know, and that kind of attitude, so common among the donor community for the last few decades, is exactly what we have to move away from. Now is the time to demonstrate radical humility; not to compromise on principles, but to adopt an attitude of creativity and respect. Now is the time to trust people and their governments and parliaments, for all their many problems, more than blueprints flown in on a laptop. So I make the following appeal. The pull of neoliberalism has been broken. Its failings scar Africa and shame the West. Development is more complicated than neoliberals (and neo-cons) would have us believe. It is time for a new era of intellectual openness. In contrast to 30 years of clamping down on choice, let the decades ahead be the decades of choice, of experimentation again, and of sovereignty. Click here to read Vanessa Baird's summing up on the state of aid. Jonathan Glennie has worked as a policy analyst in several international development charities. He played a key role in Make Poverty History in 2005. His book, The Trouble with Aid , is published by Zed Books. This article is from the September 2009 issue of New Internationalist . You can access the entire archive of over 500 issues with a digital subscription. Subscribe today >>

*Jonathan Glennie* takes on both the aid optimists and the pessimists. I knew this would happen. The intellectual initiative on African development seized by a free-market ideologue, now listed by Time Magazine as one of the world's 100 most influential people.

You are not signed in as a Premium user; we rely on Premium users to support our news reporting. Sign in or Sign up today! There is a rape epidemic in Europe -- and it's linked directly to the influx of Muslim migrants. But European politicians and American mainstream media are refusing to acknowledge the obvious for reasons of political correctness . It was recently reported that 100 percent of rapes in Oslo, Norway were perpetrated by non-European migrants , with nine out of 10 of the targets being European women. Denmark's rates are also alarming , with a majority of sexual assaults committed by Middle-Eastern migrants. And Sweden is the rape capital of Europe , with 77 percent of rapes in the country committed by the two-percent Muslim population. The rape epidemic in Scandinavia has gotten so bad that some blonde women are dying their hair black and only going out in groups in order to avoid being targeted by Muslim men. The New York Times reported in January that courses are being offered to help Muslim migrants integrate into Western society. A course manual sets out a simple rule that all asylum seekers need to learn and follow: "To force someone into sex is not permitted in Norway, even when you are married to that person." In Denmark, lawmakers are pushing to have such sex education included in mandatory language classes for refugees. The German region of Bavaria, the main entry point to Germany for asylum seekers, is already experimenting with such classes at a shelter for teenage migrants in the town of Passau. Such notions may be a revelation to many of these men, who often come from brutally misogynistic countries like Pakistan, Somalia and Afghanistan -- where Sharia law permits the stoning of women who've been victims of rape, where husbands are permitted to beat their wives (with the sanction of the Koran) if they disobey their husbands, and where women are in general strictly monitored and their movements restricted. When people come from these societies -- deeply ingrained with the concept of women as their property over whom they exercise absolute rights -- and migrate en masse to Western nations, it's unrealistic to assume they will acquire a respect for women overnight. The facts prove otherwise: Many of these men fail to integrate, bringing their prejudices and violent, misogynistic tendencies to bear on unsuspecting European women, whom they hold in even lower regard than they do Middle-Eastern women. The hundreds of sexual assault cases in Cologne on New Year's Eve marked something of a turning point for Germany. Whereas German citizens may have viewed migrants with a more sympathetic eye beforehand, much of that sympathy has vanished after the New Year's Eve attacks -- where more than 800 women throughout Germany (with reports later surfacing of similar happenings in Sweden, Finland, Austria and Switzerland) were sexually assaulted by Muslim migrants, who surrounded the women, isolating them, and then groped, grabbed and in some cases raped them. The situation was similar to what Egyptian women experienced in Tahrir Square in 2013, when a number of them reported being encircled by men, drawn away from their girlfriends and then violently assaulted -- what the women called the "circle of Hell." Sexual assaults and in some cases forced prostitution are taking place in German refugee camps , where women and children are seen as "fair game," with little protection in the overcrowded tents. The situation has gotten bad enough that separate camps are being set aside only for women and children in order to protect them. And some of these sexual crimes are now spilling over into the neighboring towns. Germans have had enough. They've held multiple rallies demanding that Chancellor Angela Merkel reverse her open-door policy on migrants, with participants bearing signs that read "Rapefugees not welcome." Poland is also experiencing migrant fatigue, with a recent cover of a Polish magazine featuring a controversial image of a European woman wrapped in the EU flag being grabbed by dark-skinned hands, and the title "The Islamic Rape of Europe." The overwhelming number of reports reveal that the rape epidemic in Europe is real, and it's directly tied to the migrant crisis in Europe -- a crisis that is now approaching the United States with the recent influx of Syrian refugees. If American leaders -- including the U.S. bishops -- don't confront the hard truths about Islamic culture and ingrained beliefs of many of these Middle-Eastern migrants, American women and children may soon start experiencing the same horrors as those increasingly faced by European women. Watch the full episode: " The Download--The Migrant Crisis ."

They've held multiple rallies demanding that Chancellor Angela Merkel reverse her open-door policy on migrants, with participants bearing signs that read "Rapefugees not welcome." Poland is also experiencing migrant fatigue, with a recent cover of a Polish magazine featuring a controversial image of a European woman wrapped in the EU flag being grabbed by dark-skinned hands, and the title "The Islamic Rape of Europe."

When Alejandra Castillo stepped into the role of CEO for the YWCA last month , she made it her mission to be about action. "We have to understand in order to make changes in our community we have to be focused on policy, program, and budgets. All of this impacts the way our communities receive the type of support that they need and the way they impact on the individual level," says Castillo in an exclusive interview with theGrio . Castillo is leading the charge in not only spreading the word about aid for those suffering from domestic violence, but also pushing for help from legislators on Capitol Hill. "We are not just talking about [these issues], we have been advocates on the Hill proposing legislation, advocating the reauthorization of specific legislation that supports elimination of violence against women, but we also want to make sure that the appropriation dollars are there to support these programs," said Castillo. The former White House advisor is working hard to bring awareness of domestic violence, an often unspoken of or overlooked issue that affects one in three women , front and center. "One of the first things we must do when we are addressing domestic violence is to pull it out of the shadows to be able to talk about it," says Castillo. "To give women the understanding they are supported, there are resources out there, they are not alone so they are not silent." "The shame of speaking about a partner or someone you know can lead to these situations where you find these casualties, and it is so heart wrenching, because it is not just the death of a woman; it is also the death of a sister, of a mother, of a daughter, of a community leader, of a friend." Castillo's passion to help others doesn't stop with domestic violence awareness. She is also dedicated in fighting against racism. As the first Latina CEO of the YWCA, Castillo says it's one of the organization's greatest missions. "The YWCA has two specific missions: elimination of racism, and empowerment of women. I can't think of two missions that are most paramount; particularly where we will found ourselves as a nation," she says. The responsibility to reduce the number of women and children suffering from domestic violence doesn't fall on the victims and organizations dedicated to assisting them solely. It is imperative that society step in as well. "The way to support your local YWCA is volunteering- that will be the first step," says Castillo. "The second step is being engaged with the operations of the YWCA. The third step is donating, but more importantly it is letting people know that we exist. We are here to serve the community." Support and talking to family and friends about what to do if someone they know may be suffering from domestic violence can also help in the fight to end this type of abuse. "Our 215 associations will be very engaged in our Week Without Violence," says Castillo. "You will see a lot of events happening, gatherings, support groups. Most importantly, have these conversations a home. This should be a conversation that we are not ashamed of having among our family and friends." To find out you can donate, volunteer, or receive help from the YWCA click here .

When Alejandra Castillo stepped into the role of CEO for the YWCA last month , she made it her mission to be about action.

One of Chibok girls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants found in northeastern Nigeria after she was kidnapped more than two years ago. A "#BringBackOurGirls" campaigner in Abuja, Nigeria calls for the release of the Chibok schoolgirls. ( TRT World and Agencies ) Nigerian Army confirmed on Wednesday that a girl who was kidnapped by Boko Haram from her school in northeastern town of Chibok has been rescued. The girl was among the 219 abducted school girls by Boko Haram in April 2014. "This is to confirm that one of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls... was among rescued persons by our troops," army spokesman Colonel Sani Usman said in a statement. Usman gave the girl's name as Falmata Mbalala and said she was found in Baale, near the town of Damboa, which is 90 kilometres (56 miles) southwest of the Borno state capital, Maiduguri. Activists and community leaders said she was found on Tuesday night and brought to meet her mother in the town of Mbalala, near Chibok, before being taken to a military base in Damboa. Manaseh Allan, a Chibok youth leader also said, "The girl was found by local vigilantes in Kilakesa village on the edge of Sambisa Forest near Damboa." "She was brought first to Chibok by the vigilantes who took her to the vice-principal of her school, who immediately identified her as Aisha Ali, which is her name in the school register." "She was presented to community leaders as Amina Ali but her name as it appears in the school register is Aisha Ali'' because "It is common for children in Chibok to be called with one name in school and another at home'' Allan said. Boko Haram released a video of the kidnapped schoolgirls in 2014, where they appeared reasonably fit and well in a wooded location, followed by a rant from the group's leader Abubakar Shekau. ( TRT World and Agencies ) The story of two years of abduction On April 14, 2014 Boko Haram militants kidnapped 276 girls from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok in northeastern Borno state. The girls were forced from their dormitories into trucks and driven into forest. Around 57 of them managed to flee. An international media campaign was launched, backed by personalities including US First Lady Michelle Obama and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai. Soon after, the incident gained the attention of the international community and #BringBackOurGirls hashtag stormed social media. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau claimed responsibility for the mass abduction in a video released by the group on May 5. On May 17, 2015 Lake Chad Countries, Benin,Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria announced "declaration of war" against Boko Haram and vowed to fight against the militant group. Protesters call on the Nigerian government to rescue the girls taken by Boko Haram from a school in Chibok. ( TRT World and Agencies ) Throughout 2015 Nigerian military announced the rescue of hundreds of people, most of them women and children also kidnapped by Boko Haram. But the missing schoolgirls remained abducted. Since the militant group changed its tactics, young girls and children have been exploited as suicide bombers in attacks on crowded places such as mosques and markets. On April 13, 2016 US television channel CNN broadcasted a "proof of life" video sent by Boko Haram in which 15 of the abducted girls were seen alive. And on May 18, Nigerian Army confirmed the first of the schoolgirls was found. Source: TRTWorld and agencies

One of Chibok girls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants found in northeastern Nigeria after she was kidnapped more than two years ago. A "#BringBackOurGirls" campaigner in Abuja, Nigeria calls for the release of the Chibok schoolgirls.

I n Mississippi, there's only one abortion clinic remaining -- and because of a law passed earlier this year that is designed to protect women's health, it may soon close. In April, Mississippi passed a law that requires doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges to a nearby hospital. However, at the one remaining abortion facility -- Jackson Women's Health Organization -- there are three doctors, and only one has admitting privileges. "We believe wholeheartedly that this is a health issue for women," says Mississippi Republican House member Sam Mims, who sponsored the bill. "Having an abortion is a very serious procedure, and we hope and pray that nothing goes wrong during the procedure. But if it does, the physicians ought to be able to follow that patient into a local hospital." "The purpose is to make certain that people don't just fly in once a week and perform abortions -- or anything else of a surgical nature -- and then fly out, leaving young women to their own devices," says Barbara Whitehead, president of Mississippi Right to Life. "If there's a nurse there, that's fine, but a nurse is not a doctor," Whitehead adds. "If there is a problem, after that doctor who has flown in for one day has flown back out, then somebody has got to say, 'Yes, you need to get to get to the emergency room.'" The Jackson Women's Health Organization did not return N ational Review 's call, but according to a piece in July in the New York Times , two of the three clinic doctors who perform abortions in Mississippi live outside the state. #ad#The clinic is fighting the new law. The state health department granted the clinic six months to come into compliance with the state law. "This is a health-care facility, and our state statute gives such a facility no less than six months to become compliant," Mims explains. "You do want a health-care facility to become compliant with new regulations and new laws that are passed, so you give them no less than six months." On January 11, that six-month period will be over. And there is virtually no chance the clinic will be in compliance with the new law: According to the Center for Reproductive Right's Michelle Movahed, who is a lead attorney on the case, area hospitals have denied admitting privileges to the doctors who perform abortions. "Each of the seven [local hospitals] refused to extend privileges," Movahed says. "One hospital said it was a closed medical staff, so you could not apply for privileges unless you were already on the faculty. Another hospital said you could get an application only if -- among other things -- you got a letter from another doctor already on the medical staff of the hospital . . . and none of the doctors would provide that letter." "The other five hospitals allowed the doctors to apply," she says. "But apparently, in the denial letters, they said they stopped reviewing the applications. They didn't even consider the merits, because of hospital policies concerning abortion and because of their concern about the effect on relationships in the community of granting privileges to the doctors." Despite these setbacks, the clinic is determined to stay open. They will continue to provide abortions and see no problem with the fact that only one of their three doctors has admitting privileges to nearby hospitals. Mississippi isn't the only state with a law that requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges; according to Americans United for Life, eleven other states currently have such laws. But Mississippi's law is unique in that it could be the final straw for the state's last abortion clinic. "Mississippi is one of a few states that has an admitting-privileges law, but in Mississippi, both the circumstances surrounding the law's passage and the actual impact of the law make clear that its purpose and effect are to end abortion in the state," Movahed says. Movahed may be right about the law's intent: Around the time the law was passed, some politicians said they hoped it would lead to the closing of Mississippi's last clinic. "Today you see the first step in a movement to do what we campaigned on . . . to try to end abortion in Mississippi," said the state's governor, Phil Bryant. "This is a strong bill that will effectively end abortion in Mississippi," said Mississippi lieutenant governor Tate Reeves in a statement. But Mims denies that the bill's purpose was to close the Jackson Women's Health organization. Roe v. Wade , "the mandate that abortions be legal in all states," is still the law of the land, he observes. Nowhere in the three pages of legislation is there any discussion of "when a person can get an abortion, where a person can, why she can, or what exceptions exist," he says. "None of that is in the legislation. The only issue that is addressed in the legislation is the requirement that physicians have privileges in a local hospital." Movahed is working to get the law deemed unconstitutional. "We've claimed that the law violates the United States Constitution because it has the unconditional effect of preventing women from accessing abortion care in the state. So that's claim one. Claim two is that the law . . . [has] the impermissible purpose of ending abortion in the state." Whitehead isn't surprised that the law is facing legal challenges. But she takes a long view: For one thing, pro-lifers weren't even able to get the bill passed in previous attempts. And for another, Whitehead sees plenty of progress during the many years she has spent working for the pro-life cause. "We had a number of abortion facilities in the state," Whitehead says of Mississippi at the time she became involved in the pro-life movement, almost 30 years ago. "And there were no laws. As we used to say, 'It's safer to take your dog to the vet than for a woman to go to an abortion facility, because there are higher standards of cleanliness at the vet's office.' There were no standards. And we fought and we fought and we fought, and we finally got some laws through." -- Katrina Trinko is an NRO reporter. Katrina Trinko -- Katrina Trinko is a political reporter for National Review. Trinko is also a member of USA TODAY'S Board of Contributors, and her work has been published in various media outlets ... @KatrinaTrinko

"We believe wholeheartedly that this is a health issue for women," says Mississippi Republican House member Sam Mims, who sponsored the bill.

Lee V. Gaines CBD products for sale at Bucktown shop CBD Kratom Walk into the CBD Kratom shop on the corner of Damen and Dickens in Bucktown and you'll find pill bottles, containers of balm and lotions, and small glass jars full of oil neatly arranged in tall glass display cases. They're all advertised as CBD extracts, one of the primary chemical ingredients in marijuana. An el stop away, near the corner of Milwaukee and California, the head shop Vape Daze is full of multicolored phallic glass bongs, pipes, vaporizers, and small containers of CBD oil that retail for between $30 to $75, depending on the potency of the extract. CBD, otherwise known as cannabidiol, is one of several dozen active compounds in marijuana, and the primary nonpsychoactive ingredient--meaning it doesn't get you high. And these two shops are among at least half a dozen retail stores in Chicago that carry products purporting to contain the stuff. At first it might seem like a no-brainer for vape shops to carry CBD. But its presence alongside e-cigarettes and giant glass bongs is actually surprising: CBD extracts produced by state-licensed medical marijuana cultivators are heavily regulated by state agencies, sold only in state-licensed dispensaries, and restricted to Illinoisans with medical marijuana cards. Meanwhile, CBD extracts available for purchase by the general public appear to be produced with no regulatory oversight at all. So what gives? City Council expected to renew "sanctuary city" status next week, ask for protections for veterans and "Dreamers" A resolution to renew Chicago's "sanctuary city" status was approved by the City Council Human Relations Committee Wednesday, and it's expected to be voted on by the full council March 29. It's the second time that the city's status as a place where local law enforcement declines to provide information to immigration officials under most circumstances has been renewed by the City Council since President Donald Trump took office. But this resolution also requests that military veterans and immigrants who came to the U.S. as children not be deported. Around 183,000 Chicago residents are undocumented immigrants, according to estimates. [ DNAinfo Chicago ] Former museum executives propose bringing American Sports Museum to Chicago Two former Chicago executives want to bring an American Sports Museum to Chicago. The men behind the effort are Marc Lapides, formerly chief marketing officer at the Adler Planetarium, and Roger Germann, a former executive vice president at the Shedd Aquarium, according to the Tribune . They're hoping to build a 100,000-square-foot museum that's close to downtown and easily accessible by public transportation. A $50 million fund-raising campaign for the project is under way. "Sports is something that really connects us all," Lapides told the Tribune . "This is a museum that will welcome everybody." [ Tribune ] The Chicago Police Department is searching for a group of men who allegedly sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl and streamed it on Facebook Live, according to USA Today . One suspect is in custody, and police believe the attackers are minors who knew the victim, alderman Michael Scott Jr. told the Sun-Times . Law enforcement found the girl Tuesday, after she had been missing for a couple of days. The attack was drawn to the police's attention when the girl's mother approached Chicago police superintendent Eddie Johnson with screen shots of the assault Monday. "The superintendent was visibly upset when he saw the pictures of the girl and was dismayed when he learned that people were watching the incident live and no one called police," spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. [ USA Today ] [ Sun-Times ] Comptroller Susana Mendoza and Governor Bruce Rauner continue their battle over finances Federal authorities in Chicago prosecuted more gun offenders in 2016 than they had in almost 20 years, but they still didn't prosecute as many cases as federal prosecutors in other cities, according to an analysis by the Sun-Times . Between September 2015 and September 2016, they opened 105 gun cases as compared to 73 cases during the prior year; federal prosecutors in Saint Louis reportedly opened nearly three times as many cases that same year. [ Sun-Times ]

Lee V. Gaines CBD products for sale at Bucktown shop CBD Kratom Walk into the CBD Kratom shop on the corner of Damen and Dickens in Bucktown and you'll find pill bottles, containers of balm and lotions, and small glass jars full of oil neatly arranged in tall glass display cases.

April 8, 2018 Silence is the greatest asset of "A Quiet Place," the new horror film directed by John Krasinski. You may know him as Jim from "The Office," but there's nothing funny happening here. The premi... April 1, 2018 Within the first five minutes of "Antigone X," the audience was enamored by the majestic movements of a ritual dance being performed by actors to honor the gods in the play. This scene set up the res... One of the most timeless moments in any high schooler's life is prom night. Between the clothing, finding a date and figuring out transportation, the one part everyone worries about is how the night ... It's hard to find a teahouse that serves equally creative and tasty tea, especially when it's common to find variations of the drink at nearly every corner in Long Beach. For any tea or boba enthusiasts... Cal Rep's latest performance forces us to look at history through different eyes. "Proud to Present" follows the emotionally-charged journey of six actors coming together to present a historically accur... Some people complain that all smartphones feel the same, even after new releases and upgrades. But what should matter most is if the phone has a new processor and the latest software. Samsung delivers o... When Donald Glover debuted his new series, "Atlanta" of which he created, starred, wrote and executively produced, in 2016, it blew everyone away. Despite a quick renewal by network FX, it was a...

Cal Rep's latest performance forces us to look at history through different eyes. "Proud to Present" follows the emotionally-charged journey of six actors coming together to present a historically accur...

Former Apprentice Contestant Says She Was Assaulted in Hotel Room A former contestant on The Apprentice , Summer Zervos, said in a news conference broadcast on MSNBC that Donald Trump had dangled the prospect of a job with his organization, then sexually assaulted her. Trump first invited Zervos to meet in his office in New York, she said. "When I arrived, he kissed me on the lips," she remembered, describing what several other women say they've experienced. Then Trump kissed her on the lips again when leaving, which prompted Zervos to call her family. They convinced themselves "this was undoubtedly some form of greeting and I should not take it as anything more than that." Trump invited Zervos to dinner when visiting California, where she lived, but she found herself instead in a hotel room. She arrived and Trump's clothes were on the bed. She imitated Trump calling playfully "Hellooo" from somewhere unseen. She waited in another room until Trump appeared, wearing the suit that had been on the bed. Trump asked her to sit next to him, she did, and he began kissing her and touching her breasts. She repeatedly told him not to, and he repeatedly tried, with Zervos even pushing against his chest, she told reporters. Throughout the ordeal, Zervos said she still thought she might get a job and that the advances had been "a test."

Former Apprentice Contestant Says She Was Assaulted in Hotel Room A former contestant on The Apprentice , Summer Zervos, said in a news conference broadcast on MSNBC that Donald Trump had dangled the prospect of a job with his organization, then sexually assaulted her.

This amazing Gibson is for sale, a mere $11,999USD. Beautiful, but my guitar addiction syndrome has been cured. Via Reverb : Freakishly clean 1908 Style U harp guitar in near mint all original condition, serial number 8618 batch number 1004 with original hand tooled rear loading leather case. By far the cleanest century old Gibson instruments we've seen. Purchased originally by the school teaching matriarch of a homesteading family from the Southwestern United States to entertain her students. The size was too much to deal with and the instrument sat unmolested at home in her closet, on her dresser until the death of her only son from old age. The caregiver attending to the dying needs of the now elder son claimed she was gifted the guitar before his death and that the conversation went something like this. Dying son says "what about my Moms' guitar? Caregiver says, what guitar? Dying man points to the closet and she sees the case on top of the dresser, that's for you, you take it." She sold it to me a few days' later, perfect provenance, perfect guitar and perfect deal. It's slightly difficult to covey how clean and original this instrument is, there will probably not be another of these, this nice ever. Spectacular varnished finish displays perfectly normal varnish shrinkage, patterned in a way only varnish does when not French polished out. A better example cannot be found for sale anywhere. All instruments are examined, cleaned and set up before selling. No modifications or repairs, no cracks or breaks. Read the rest Via Bloomberg : Under the move, the national intelligence director, Dan Coats, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, are again "regular attendees" of the NSC's principals committee. Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart News, was elevated to the National Security Council's principals committee at the beginning of Trump's presidency. The move drew criticism from some members of Congress and Washington's foreign policy establishment. A White House official said that Bannon was placed on the committee in part to monitor Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and never attended a meeting. He's no longer needed with McMaster in charge of the council, the official said. Trump fired Flynn on Feb. 13 for not disclosing to the president or to Vice President Mike Pence the extent of his conversations with Russia's ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, before Trump's inauguration. Read the rest

This amazing Gibson is for sale, a mere $11,999USD. Beautiful, but my guitar addiction syndrome has been cured. Via Reverb : Freakishly clean 1908 Style U harp guitar in near mint all original condition, serial number 8618 batch number 1004 with original hand tooled rear loading leather case.

"White straight men are the Devil in the religion of social justice. All evil flows from them." -- Margaret MacLennan By now, you've undoubtedly heard about the four thugs who kidnapped a disabled man, tortured him and made him drink toilet water while they screamed "F*** white people" and "F*** Donald Trump!" That would be horrible under any circumstances, but evil people have always existed. What makes this situation so unique is that these four animals didn't just inflict this torture on another human being, they live broadcasted it on Facebook. Think about the significance of that. These animals WANTED their friends to see what they were doing and assumed they'd react positively to it. They thought that because this kid was white and they talked about Donald Trump a little bit, people they knew would be okay with what they did. This attitude does not come out of nowhere; it comes out of a Faustian bargain that liberals have made on race. If you are a white liberal, you call people whom you don't like racist. This protects you from the charge because if you're calling someone else a racist, how can you actually be a racist? Then you imply that, "If you join us in calling everyone who opposes our plans racist, you will also be protected from being called racist." From there, liberals turn up the heat. They encourage groups like Black Lives Matter and obsess over people who get shot while doing stupid and dangerous things around the police even though more whites than blacks are shot by the cops. They claim that common sense measures like having ID at the polls are the equivalent of "voter suppression." They promote and encourage "bigoteers" like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Melissa Harris-Perry, Deray Mckesson, Shaun King and Michael Eric-Dyson among many others. Their entire careers are predicated on coming up with new and exciting ways to accuse people Democrats don't like of being racist. Then there's "white privilege" which is really a generalized and dumb way of attacking people for being the wrong color. Some of this stuff has been going on for a long time, but it has gotten worse and the rhetoric has become ridiculous. Essentially liberals, including white liberals, have embraced the same mentality that drives Nazis and white supremacists. In other words, David Duke sounds like opposite-world Ta-Nehisi Coates. Their attitudes and thinking are exactly the same, but one of them hates whites and the other hates blacks. Liberals have never been known for their intuitive grasp of human nature, but the idea that liberals can incessantly push the idea that race is everything and non-liberal white people are the wrong race without a movement rising up on the other side saying exactly the opposite is insane. Liberals are horrified that there are Nazis and KKK members that have started sticking their heads up on twitter, but liberals encourage those kind of race-based sentiments as long as they're aimed at white people. Look at the sort of rhetoric that has become commonplace on the Left. These sort of attacks on white men are now the rule on the Left, not the exception. What makes it worse is the generalized nature of the comments. It's not just prominent Republicans who are the problem; it's straight, white men in general. Need more evidence? How about the sort of quotes liberals toss out about white men on a regular basis? "Look, people are only voting for Donald Trump, most of his supporters are only voting for him because he's a white guy." - Sally Kohn " You don't have to have a white person around to have white supremacy play out." -- Cherrell Brown "Yes! I hate everything about this country. Like, I hate fat white Americans. All the people who are crunched into the middle of America, the real fat and meat of America, are these racist conservative white people who live on their farms." -- Azealia Banks "The insistence (that Santa Claus) not black and can't be black strikes me as an attempt to perpetuate white supremacy and to posit that whiteness is somehow normal and central while blackness is other or different." -- Toure "I live to harass white folks." -- Derrick Bell , Harvard "There's white racist DNA running through the synapses of his or her brain tissue. They will kill their own kind, defend the enemies of their kind or anyone who is perceived to be the enemy of the milky white way of life." -- Jeremiah Wright "One of the things about Herman Cain is, I think that he makes that white Republican base of the party feel okay, feel like they are not racist because they can like this guy. I think he('s) giving that base a free pass. And I think they like him because they think he's a black man who knows his place. I know that's harsh, but that's how it sure seems to me." -- Karen Finney Beth Baumann "All of you are white. Go to hell! Go to hell! Go to hell! Go to hell!" -- Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price Let's call this what it is: dehumanizing hatred aimed at white people because of the color of their skin. Even the unceasing cries of "racism" are another way to harass white people who disagree with liberals. Liberals don't care about falsely calling people racist. It doesn't even matter to them if they're wrongly accusing someone because to them, white people who don't agree with them have lost the right to even be treated with basic human decency. That's the backdrop that this horrible crime occurred against. Black Americans are being falsely told that white Americans hate them. White Americans are constantly smeared for the color of their skin in the liberal-controlled press and mocked when they quite correctly protest that they're being treated unfairly. "Oh, white people are generally doing better economically than black people; so it's okay to throw race-based hate at Caucasians who don't vote Democrat." That's the thinking, but it's morally bankrupt thinking. Moreover, despite the fact that any blighted ghetto you run across in America is practically guaranteed to be run by Democrats, every ailment of black Americans is hung around the necks of white Americans who are apparently guilty of holding back those poor people via racism and imaginary white privilege. We live in a society where hypersensitive liberals parse every comment looking for something, anything they can call racist while they simultaneously hurl grotesque racial insults at white people because of the color of their skin. So, if those four scumbags thought it was okay to broadcast their torture of a disabled man to the world because he was white and they namechecked Trump, it was because they bought into the poisonous way liberals approach race.

So, if those four scumbags thought it was okay to broadcast their torture of a disabled man to the world because he was white and they namechecked Trump, it was because they bought into the poisonous way liberals approach race.

The day you thought would never happen has finally come. Donald Trump has admitted that he was wrong. By now, you're probably all desperate to learn which of the over 2,000 false statements made by the president since he took office he is willing to admit was erroneous. Was it his first big whopper about the size of his inaugural crowd? His lies about replacing Obamacare with something better? His claim that the Republican tax bill wouldn't benefit him personally? With so many lies to choose from, one's odds of guessing correctly are infinitesimally slim, so let's just tell you. According to an article on The Hill , the one thing that President Trump is willing to admit that he wrongly claimed is his statement a few weeks ago that unemployment amongst the nation's African-American population was at its lowest point ever. "I have to tell you, the fake news about two weeks ago got me on that one. Because, two months ago, it was the lowest level ever recorded," Trump said during a speech yesterday. "Then, about four weeks ago, it went slightly not as good. And I made a speech; I said, 'African-American unemployment has reached the lowest levels ever recorded.' And it really wasn't. It was good, but it wasn't. And they got me. They said it wasn't so," he confessed. Funny how he still refers to the media who actually got the facts of the matter correct as "fake news" while admitting that they were not actually fake. Our president contains multitudes, maintaining diametrically opposed positions simultaneously. No wonder his supporters worship him as a god. One has to wonder why out of all the many false claims the president has made and not retracted, he chose this particular one to admit to. Well, as you probably guessed, it's because in the latest unemployment report African-American unemployment is back at historic lows. Last week, the unemployment rate for the normally lagging black population in this country "went back down to the lowest levels ever recorded," according to Trump. "So we have it, right? It makes us feel good. That's an important one," he said. Nevermind that no sane economist is crediting Trump for that employment trend which began during the Obama administration. The president will claim credit for it anyway. One admission down, thousands more to go. Don't hold your breath waiting for them.

The day you thought would never happen has finally come. Donald Trump has admitted that he was wrong.

O n January 20, 2017 , Rabbi Marvin Hier solemnly stepped to the podium outside the Capitol building in Washington and addressed an audience of millions. Behind him was Barack Obama. To his right, a stoic Donald Trump, who, in a few short minutes, would take the oath and become the forty-fifth president of the United States. Hier, wearing a blue kippah and dark coat, began to pray. "Bless all of our allies around the world who share our beliefs," he intoned. "May the days come soon when justice will dwell in the wilderness and righteousness will abide in the fertile fields." In 1977, Hier helped found the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international organization--named after one of the world's most famous Nazi hunters--that combats hate speech and raises awareness of the Holocaust. As Hier spoke about blessings and righteousness, somewhere in the crowd, Richard Spencer was listening. Spencer, one of Trump's most outspoken fans, is best known for coining the term "alt-right" to describe his brand of conservatism, which aims for a United States ruled by white people to the point of advocating for "peaceful ethnic cleansing." Weeks earlier, at a party held by Spencer's National Policy Institute, Spencer had been recorded yelling "Heil Trump! Heil our people! Heil victory!" The rise of extreme movements rarely spells good things for the tribes of Israel. Trump might never build his border wall or bring back coal-mining jobs or even avoid impeachment, but his presidency has already led to at least one miracle: he's gotten white nationalists (some of whom have adopted the words, symbols, and ideas of the Third Reich) and an increasingly conservative faction of Jews to agree--at least when it comes to the greatness of Donald J. Trump. The president has been praised both by self-styled "America's rabbi" Shmuley Boteach and by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke; Trump's closest advisors are Jared Kushner, the Orthodox Jewish real-estate magnate who doubles as his son-in-law, and Stephen Bannon, the former Breitbart executive chairman who once described his news website as "the voice of the alt-right." (Bannon's ex-wife claimed that he ruled out a school for their children because too many of its students were Jewish.) As other right-wing nationalist movements gain momentum in the United Kingdom, France, Poland, and Hungary, these kinds of unlikely partnerships will keep cropping up. But as history has repeatedly shown, when politics become more populist, some people find themselves on the outside looking in. The Muslim community is currently facing the harshest scrutiny and violence. But studying Judaic history tends to breed paranoia: the rise of extreme movements rarely spells good things for the tribes of Israel. The question isn't whether this big tent that houses Jews and the alt-right will collapse--it's how bad the damage will be for Jews, and our democratic institutions, when it inevitably does. "I t stunned me . I'd say 60 percent of Montreal Jews are pro-Trump. I say, 'Are you listening to him?' Israel! All they know is Israel." As CNN broadcasts Trump's inauguration, Beryl Wajsman offers running commentary from the smoky confines of the cigar room in Chez Alexandre, a regal restaurant in downtown Montreal. With his grey stubble, black jacket, black shirt, and black boots, Wajsman has the appearance of a punk-rock rabbi (although the non-kosher chicken wings in front of him put to rest any notion of Orthodox piety). Wajsman prefers to be referred to as an "activist," though he does not fit the leftist mould the word usually suggests. In his role as editor-in-chief of the Montreal weekly newspaper the Suburban , he's railed against student protesters and other progressive causes. But in conversation, he will hail the Jewish tradition of supporting civil-rights movements. From his bully pulpit, Wajsman has rallied his readers around his favourite issues--his top two are anglophone rights and the importance of a strong, defended Israel. To Wajsman, support for the continued existence of a Jewish state is a defining aspect of one's moral character. "The litmus test of every generation always is one thing," he declares. "During the Depression, it was how we treated the poor. Then came civil rights, then came the Vietnam War. Israel is today's litmus test." On the Canadian side of the border, more and more Jews have found the left failing that test. Stephen Harper's unwavering support for Israel attracted many Jews to the Conservative Party--an Ipsos exit poll during the 2011 election noted that the Tories received 52 percent of the votes cast by Jews (no data is available for the 2015 election). In the US, though, the shift right has not been as prevalent: a post-election Pew poll showed that roughly 70 percent of Jews voted for Hillary Clinton. But many Canadians--and conservative American Jews--monitoring the race saw something they found troubling: in the final days of the Obama presidency, the US declined to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israel and freed up $221 million in aid money for the Palestinians. For many, this was a confirmation that just as Canadian Liberals had abandoned Israel, so, too, had the American Democrats. From the perspective of these conservative, ardently Zionist Jews, Trump is set to become the best friend Israel has ever had in the Oval Office. They see a man with a Jewish daughter and son-in-law who will guide him toward pro-Israel policies, such as giving that government a pass on building and maintaining settlements in the West Bank. But another group of Americans look at Trump and see something completely different. Some who identify as alt-right see Trump as a defender of a white homeland, a leader who, through stringent immigration regulations and mass deportations, will bring a return to America's more homogeneous heyday. This group is paranoid about the spread of sharia law and the dilution of ethno-European culture. Some Jews seem to have found common ground with the alt-right on this issue. There is one problem, though: not all the Trump boosters think that Jews actually count as "white." The collision of interests has Jews who lean left feeling nervous. David Lisbona, a long-time activist for Canada's federal Liberal party, says there has been a political split in his community. He compares the situation playing out in the US to the 1994 action flick Speed . "If you support Trump, you're on a bus, and you don't know where it's going to end up," he says. "It's like Keanu Reeves--you're just going 100 miles per hour." It should be noted that at the end of the movie, the bus blows up. T o be a right-wing supporter of Zionism is to feel continuously outraged. If you're on social media with like-minded people, your timeline is full of news stories about students promoting boycotts of Israel, and attacks at the UN or in the Arab world. Family members and friends post videos from Breitbart and other right-wing sites about Muslim clerics calling for the death of the Jews and the end of the West, or of campuses where Jewish students have been accosted for being Zionists. They see pro- LGBTQ groups rallying against Israel with Palestinians and scratch their heads in utter confusion. "Doesn't anybody see the truth of what's going on?" they ask. "Has the world gone crazy?" With the rise of far-right populists across the West, there's now another group saying the same thing. Leaders such as Marine Le Pen of France and Geert Wilders of the Netherlands are calling out radical Islam by name. Because of this, some Jews view them sympathetically (never mind that Le Pen's father--a previous leader of her National Front political party--is a notorious Holocaust denier). "You see Jews want to support Le Pen in a sense because they're fighting back against this concept [of radical Islam]," says Jordan Turner, a self-described small-c conservative in Montreal. "Jews are being harassed constantly in France and leaving France in droves to Israel, away from France, away from persecution there." For this subset of conservative Jews and far-right politicians, what is at stake is the future of Western culture: though the Jewish perspective is less reflexively obsessed with race, both groups express their concerns in terms of security. Some alt-righters will acknowledge that few Muslims will ever participate in violent attacks, but argue they pose a threat to--as Canada's Kellie Leitch might put it--a country's "values." Of course, these are notions rejected by most Jews, here and abroad. As Wajsman points out, Jewish families and synagogue communities across Canada--who remember the trauma of being turned away from these shores during the Holocaust--have sponsored Syrian refugees. Still, for those Jews who are cheering on the immigration policies of Trump (and Leitch, and Le Pen, and Wilders), multicultural values are taking a back seat to what they see as pragmatism. For those squeamish about being on the same side as alt-right nationalists who, historically, have had little love for Semites, there are few options: leave the fold in protest, grudgingly accept the "big tent," or simply downplay the threat that the alt-right poses. But ignoring the white nationalists in the room is getting more difficult. Online, many alt-right leaders and their followers have no qualms about sharing their true feelings about Jews. Richard Spencer has become a household name because of his racist and anti-Semitic stances. Lesser-known icons include Tim Treadstone, who, under the Twitter name Baked Alaska, has often posted about the "Jewish Question"--or JQ--to his 150,000 followers, referencing Jewish control of the media and allusions to gas chambers. While much of the alt-right's hate is still focused on Muslims, liberals, and the "cuckservatives" who oppose Trump, some have also taken to tweeting anti-Semitic memes to Jewish journalists and debating the JQ--a question that, depending on who is asking, can be as benign as "What role should Jews play in American society?" or as horrific as "How can we best eradicate them?" Anti-Semitic words and threats that first surfaced on the internet are now appearing on our streets. Since Trump's inauguration, more than fifty Jewish community centres and schools in the US have received bomb threats (a number of these have since been traced to an Israeli teenager). In Canada, threats have been made against a Jewish school in Vancouver and a community centre in Toronto. Jewish residents in Toronto have also reported swastikas and anti-Jewish notes posted on their homes. And, of course, it must be noted that violence is not just affecting Jews. Muslims around the world are facing both bigotry and violent attacks--the alleged shooter at a Quebec City mosque that left six people dead in February is an avowed Trump and Le Pen supporter. While some Jewish thinkers such as David Frum have warned of the dangers of ultra-nationalist extremism, Wajsman says that, for most Jews--including those who lean right--they simply don't register. "They're dismissing [the alt-right]," says Wajsman. "They've got it in their heads and they're saying '[Trump's] controlling them. He doesn't need them--he'll use them for votes and tell them to fuck off.'" It's now been more than four months since the election, and that hasn't happened. Instead, the president has engaged in a war of words with the Anne Frank Center over omitting Jews from a statement regarding International Holocaust Remembrance Day; told an Orthodox Jewish reporter asking about anti-Semitism to "sit down"; and, while standing next to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, dodged questions about anti-Jewish attacks by boasting about his electoral-college victory. The president did finally use his joint address to Congress to denounce hatred and the desecration of Jewish cemeteries in St. Louis and Philadelphia. Still, he offered no concrete plan to fight this problem. Trump has also failed to speak publicly about the Quebec City mosque attack, or to combat the violence and hate that Muslims face in the US. He has, however, instructed a federal anti-terrorism force to focus exclusively on attacks by Muslims. W hat does this all mean for the Jews? Can a Bannon and a Kushner find common ground? Will the Spencers and the Hiers of the world break bread? Wajsman refers me to Leslie Epstein's novel King of the Jews , which follows a judenrat , or Jew who served as a go-between for his community and the Nazis during the Holocaust. In other words, these types of alliances are not without precedent. The comparison isn't perfect--the Holocaust would have been just as bloody without the co-operation of administrative councils of Jews--but there's truth at its core. For now, there might be common cause between the two groups. But whenever extremism arises, there's little doubt that pogroms and persecution will follow. I ask Wajsman if he thinks that kind of disaster is inevitable. His tone becomes that of the exasperated Hebrew-school teacher (paranoia might be a Jewish trait; making predictions, not so much). "I don't know yet! I don't know!" he says. "Of course I see parallels. Anything is possible in this world." The world has always been dangerous for the Jews, and politics does make for strange bedfellows. But we must be careful who we're shluffing with. You don't want to wake up and find out your ally is out to schtupp you next.

O n January 20, 2017 , Rabbi Marvin Hier solemnly stepped to the podium outside the Capitol building in Washington and addressed an audience of millions. Behind him was Barack Obama.

"In the past years, good parliamentary relations have been established between the two countries (of Iran and Germany), and we hope that in the coming age, we witness further strengthening and further development of parliamentary dialogue and consultations," said the Chairman of Iran's Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Alaeddin Boroujerdi. The Iranian lawmaker made the remarks on Tuesday while meeting with German Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Iran Michael Klor-Berchtold in Tehran. Referring to the importance of strengthening the economic and commercial relations between Iran and Germany, the Iranian senior legislator voiced regret that the volume of foreign trade between Iran and Germany is not proportional to the capacities of the two countries. "The German companies' procrastination to enter the Iranian market is harmful for them, because companies from other countries will win their places in this market," warned the Iranian senior MP from Boroujerd Constituency. "We are aware of the need for parliamentary talks, so the German embassy in Iran will try to strengthen such interactions," said the German envoy to Tehran, for his part.

"In the past years, good parliamentary relations have been established between the two countries (of Iran and Germany), and we hope that in the coming age, we witness further strengthening and further development of parliamentary dialogue and consultations," said the Chairman of Iran's Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Alaeddin Boroujerdi.

Tuesday Afternoon (56,912 posts) 5 Amphibious Houses Built to Survive the Coming Floods In case you havent heard by now, continued climate change means well soon be living in a very wet world. A few months ago, the Federal Emergency Management Agency released a report that said rising sea levels and increasingly severe weather will lead to a 45 percent increase in the areas of the U.S. at risk for floods by 2100. More recently, a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), found that that sea level could rise by more than three feet by the end of the century if carbon emissions keep growing at a runaway pace, bringing average global flood losses to $60 to $63 billion per year by 2050. Since more Hurricane Sandys are almost definitely in our future, many designers are exploring amphibious design concepts for a world thats partially underwater. The way weve built homes and office buildings for the past 100 years isnt going to cut it. We need structures that can respond to quickly changing weather in a way that will save loves and reduce property damages. In case you thought the words amphibious and house were mutually exclusive, weve rounded up five of the most promising of these flood-proof designs for your consideration: House On The Water As the name implies, this is a house designed to spend its life in the water. This self-sufficient 2 family home features a cantilevered design that includes an integrated floating dock (which rises and falls with tide levels), desalination water treatment system and technologies that harvest both tidal and solar energy. According to Forbes, and unlike others mentioned in the list so far, this house actually exists! Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/5-amphibious-houses-built-to-survive-the-coming-floods.html#ixzz2dGgkxJaz 5 Amphibious Houses Built to Survive the Coming Floods (Original post) Tuesday Afternoon Aug 2013 OP

Tuesday Afternoon (56,912 posts) 5 Amphibious Houses Built to Survive the Coming Floods In case you havent heard by now, continued climate change means well soon be living in a very wet world.

Democratic Party congresswomen have called on both Democrats and Republicans to wear black this year to Trump's upcoming State of the Union Address in solidarity with the "MeToo" movement. People participate in a "MeToo" protest march for survivors of sexual assault and their supporters in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US on November 12, 2017. ( Reuters Archive ) Several Democratic US congresswomen will wear black to President Donald Trump's upcoming State of the Union Address in solidarity with the "MeToo" movement opposing sexual harassment, a female lawmaker said Wednesday. Democrat Jackie Speier tweeted that she and other Democratic women in the House of Representatives were calling on lawmakers from both parties "to wear black to this year's #SOTU in solidarity w/ survivors of sexual harassment/violence in Hollywood, politics, the military, academia, etc." My colleagues and I in the @HouseDemWomen are calling on our fellow MoCs - women & men, Democrats & Republicans - to wear black to this year's #SOTU in solidarity w/survivors of sexual harassment/violence in Hollywood, politics, the military, academia, etc. #TIMESUP #MeToo -- Jackie Speier (@RepSpeier) January 10, 2018 Trump is scheduled to deliver his first State of the Union Speech on January 30 before a joint session of Congress, an opportunity for him to explain his priorities for the coming year. But with Hollywood declaring war on the film industry's culture of sexual harassment and abuse after the downfall of mogul Harvey Weinstein, and stars of media and politics also rocked by similar scandal, the reckoning appeared set for a moment of further exposure on Capitol Hill. Last Sunday, many A-list actresses dressed in black at the Golden Globes award ceremony as a sartorial protest against sexual harassment. US lawmakers have been grappling with the issue. Several members have been forced to resign recently, including senator Al Franken and longtime congressman John Conyers, after being accused of misconduct. A record 89 women are now serving in the 435-member House of Representatives. Sixty-six of them are Democrats. Last month, nearly 60 female Democratic lawmakers demanded that Congress investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump. Some 20 women have publicly accused Trump of misconduct. The White House has maintained that the women are lying. Last year Speier acknowledged that she was a victim of sexual assault on Capitol Hill when she was a young congressional aide. Speier's call to wear black at Trump's State of the Union earned support from top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi. Thanks to the brave women of the #MeToo movement, we are at a watershed moment in the fight against sexual harassment. Know that we are with you every step of the way. #TimesUp https://t.co/FTT20fJxQX -- Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) January 10, 2018 "Thanks to the brave women of the #MeToo movement, we are at a watershed moment in the fight against sexual harassment," Pelosi tweeted. "Know that we are with you every step of the way. #TimesUp."

People participate in a "MeToo" protest march for survivors of sexual assault and their supporters in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US on November 12, 2017

The turmoil in Ferguson, MO continues as another night of confrontation between residents and police brings tear gas, arrests, and Fox News' demeaning characterizations of aggrieved protesters. Not surprisingly, the disparaging tone is set by Bill O'Reilly who enjoys nothing more than lecturing African-Americans on the moral decline of their culture. O'Reilly, who is on vacation, called into his own show to tell guest host Eric Bolling that he questions the sincerity of the protesters. O'Reilly: "No justice, no peace? These people don't want justice. What if the facts come out and say it was a justifiable shooting by the police officer? This guy was coming at them. What if they say that? You think these people are gonna accept that? They're not gonna accept it." And there you have it. The definitive analysis by a recognized expert on the psychology of the angry black man. Clearly "those people" don't want justice. And they won't accept the results of a fair investigation because thugs like them are unable to employ reason and conduct themselves in a civilized fashion. And who would know better than O'Reilly who personally visited a restaurant in Harlem where he was surprised to learn that African-American patrons weren't constantly screaming, "M-Fer, I want more iced tea." Elsewhere on Fox News, there was a story published on their website about the emergence of a video that Fox regarded as significant. Their headline said "YouTube Video Purportedly Captures Witness Backing Police Version In Ferguson Shooting." Fox posted a link to the video along with a summary of the parts they considered important. For instance, the article reports that the video shows "a possible witness saying [Michael Brown] the unarmed 18-year-old charged at the officer who fired the shots." That's a pretty damning allegation, except for the fact that it occurs nowhere in the video. In the actual part of the video (Warning: very graphic content) that they quoted a background voice is heard saying... (about 6:45) "I mean, the police was in the truck [sic] and he was, like, over the truck," the man says. "So then he ran, police got out and ran after him. The next thing I know, he comes back towards them. The police had his guns drawn on him." There is nothing in there about "charging" the police. That characterization was invented by Fox News. In fact, the video account is consistent with other witnesses who said that Brown ran at first, then stopped and turned toward the officer to surrender. Of course, that version wouldn't align with Fox's more theatrical rendition of a raging animal on the attack. From the outset Fox News has sought to portray Brown as a dangerous, possibly drug-addled, criminal. Likewise, they have cast the protesters in the most negative light. In a remote segment from Ferguson, Fox News reporter Steve Harrigan was particularly insulting, which did not go over well with a bystander. Harrigan: "This is right now a media event, pure and simple. This is people running towards tear gas, running away from it. The dignified protestors went home at dusk. This is just child's play right now." Bystander: "Say that shit. I don't give a damn you're on TV, say that shit," the unidentified man cursed at Harrigan. "We see this shit every day. This is just child's play? Who is the child playing with toys? That's them." One has to wonder how Harrigan distinguished the "dignified" protesters from the children. Perhaps he had Bill O'Reilly on his cell phone giving him advice as the night wore on. Because a common thread runs through all of Fox's programming. Those people are immature, violent, and unreasonable. Just look at how upset they get just because another unarmed black kid was shot by a white police officer. What do they want, justice? Well, no, according to O'Reilly. Share this:

The turmoil in Ferguson, MO continues as another night of confrontation between residents and police brings tear gas, arrests, and Fox News' demeaning characterizations of aggrieved protesters. Not surprisingly, the disparaging tone is set by Bill O'Reilly who enjoys nothing more than lecturing African-Americans on the moral decline of their culture.

The conflict in the middle east goes back decades. Is it religion, or land, or colonialism that started all this? And why is no end in sight? DANA DA SILVA rounds up ten videos that will help you (and Mmusi Maimane) understand just what is going on in Palestine. 1. Where exactly is Palestine? You won't find Palestine by looking for it on a map, since it only holds the status of "observer state" at the United Nations. To explain why, you need to go back to 1917. At the time, Britain captured an Arab-majority region called Palestine from the Ottoman Empire. They wrote the Balfour declaration, which encouraged European Jews to join the Jewish minority that already lived there. In 1947, after the end of World War 2 and a mass exodus of Jews to Palestine, the UN proposed a plan for both a Jewish state and for an Arab-Palestinian state to be formed, but this never happened. War broke out between the Arabs and Jews. By 1948, the British had left and the state of Israel was created. As a result of the war more than 700, 000 Palestinians became refugees and were forcibly moved to the West Bank, Gaza and beyond. 2. Is Palestine also the birthplace of Christianity? Yes, it is, and today Palestine still has Christians. Just last year, Pope Francis declared two Palestinian nuns as saints. The numbers of Palestinian Christians have dwindled though, for example in 1947 Bethlehem's Christian population was 85% and in 2015 it was less than 20%. The reason for this is Israel's occupation, which has created daily hardships for all Palestinians. In Bethlehem, the city where Jesus was born, Israel has imposed 32 checkpoints, roadblocks, dirt mounds and gates that limit movement. On top of that, Palestinian Christians and Muslims have been denied access to worship at their holy sites. 3. What about the wall? In 1967, Israel occupied the West bank. Today, the wall is the most imposing part of the occupation and is actually illegal according to the International Court of Justice . The Israeli government says that the "separation barrier" is to keep out Palestinian attackers. But thousands of Palestinians still have to cross every day looking for work. Since it started going up in the early 2000s it has destroyed neighbourhoods, strangled the economy and illegally grabbed more land. Palestinians call it the Apartheid Wall. 4. What are Israeli settlements? Israeli settlements are residential areas built by Israel on occupied Palestinian land for Jewish communities, but are illegal under international law The vast stretches of suburbs are a violation of the Geneva Convention according to the UN. The Fourth Geneva convention forbids states from transferring their citizens to occupied land, which Israel has been doing since it occupied the West Bank in 1967. By building these illegal settlements, Israel is trying to make sure that it keeps possession of that land even under a future peace deal. Israeli settlers are bound by Israeli civil law while Palestinians who stay there live under Israeli military rule, meaning that they are subject to checkpoints, curfews, and detention, among other limitations. 5. How is Life in Gaza, if it's this bad in the West Bank? Gaza has a population of more than 1.7 million. This tiny piece of land is one of the most densely populated in the world and one of the worst places to live. It's been called the world's largest open-air prison. Gaza has been home to a majority refugee population since 1948, when Israel declared its statehood and forced thousands of Palestinians out of their homes. ALSO READ: Gaza's senior citizens describe their most treasured memories For decades, Israel has controlled Gaza by air, land and sea, regulating what goes in and what goes out. Israel's blockade of Gaza, which makes life unbearable, has been condemned by the UN as a violation of international law. 6. What exactly is BDS? The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement works to get individuals and institutions to withdraw their money and support from Israel. The goal is to pressure Israel to end the illegal occupation, settlement building and attacks on Palestinians. This also means boycotting companies that are linked to the occupation of Palestinian land, such as McDonald's, Victoria Secret and Soda Stream (Scarlett Johansson even left Oxfam to endorse the bubbly water). 7. Why does Israel keep doing what it wants? One of the theories is that Israel has friends in high places. They have a special relationship with the United States, so much so that Israel gets more than half of all US foreign aid - a total of over $121 billion. Unlike US aid to other countries, money to Israel is mainly given to its military: for the security of Israel, preventing a "nuclear" Iran and ending the Israeli-Palestine conflict. With the help of the USA, Israel has one of the most advanced militaries and is one of the top ten arms dealers in the world. 8. What is Israel trying to achieve in Gaza? This narrative is one that has changed quite a few times. In 2014, it was about the three Israeli teens that were kidnapped and killed in 2014. Israel's president Netanyahu immediately blamed Hamas, but it was later confirmed by Israeli officials that they were carried out by a lone cell not operating under Hamas's leadership. After the kidnappings, Israel heavily cracked down on the West Bank with raids and arrests. Hamas responded by firing rockets into Israel. Israel says that 2, 825 rockets were fired from Gaza. After the kidnappings and the rocket attacks, Israel now says the operation is about the tunnels. Israel launched a ground invasion into Gaza in 2014 to destroy what it says is a network of tunnels used by Hamas. Palestinians say they have used the tunnels to smuggle in supplies that have been banned from entering the Gaza strip. Israel has known about them for years, but now it says it won't end its offensive until all the tunnels are destroyed. 9. Who is Hamas? Hamas is a political movement and Palestinian armed wing which was first founded in 1987 during the first uprising (intifada) against Israel's occupation of Palestinian land. It gained support by establishing food banks and other social services. They say they are fighting to regain Palestinian land, but it also advocates for a long-term ceasefire with Israel. When Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006, Israel intensified its siege because it considers Hamas to be a terrorist organisation. 10.Has Hamas has been doing just as much damage as Israeli forces? The warfare carried out between Hamas and Israel is asymmetrical, since Israel has an advanced military and Hamas mainly uses homemade rockets. Since 2009, Israeli forces have killed over 600 Palestinians in Gaza and in the West Bank while the number of Israelis killed by Palestinians during that time was just over 40. Unlike Israel, Gaza has no sirens to warn of incoming strikes, no bomb shelters and no "iron dome" missile defence system. This is part of a special series called Apartheid 2.0, which The Daily Vox is running this month in partnership with Al Jazeera's Palestine Remix.

The conflict in the middle east goes back decades. Is it religion, or land, or colonialism that started all this? And why is no end in sight? DANA DA SILVA rounds up ten videos that will help you (and Mmusi Maimane) understand just what is going on in Palestine.

Here's yet another example of how the government fails to keep even the legislative promises its already made on gun violence protection. From the Hill: The Florida state office responsible for conducting . . . So it looks like another government screw up led to a mass shooting - the Texas shooter should not have been able to buy guns, but the Air Force *forgot* to add . . . In her latest effort to annoy the heck out of every rational living person on Earth, the waste of oxygen known as Lena Dunham made a completely absurd comparison on her sewer . . . The jury in the Dylann Roof trial only took 3 hours to decided to give him the death penalty. From CNN: The 10 women and two men recommended the death penalty for . . . In an analysis of stats from the Refugee Processing Center, which assists in the processing of refugees for resettlement in the United States, it appears that a tiny minority are non-Muslims, despite . . . One of the weird feel-good bandwagon policies that many news media outlets have pursued is to stop saying the name of the despicably evil Oregon shooter, ostensibly to not encourage other insane . . . Jorge Ramos unveiled himself as an illegal alien activist rather than a journalist when he accosted el Trumpo with his tirade instead of asking a question, but he is now so shameless . . . Well this ain't no good. It looks like the refuse that murdered two reporters on live television this morning was inspired by the Dylann Roof massacre in a black church. From ABC . . . OAN's Tomi Lahren has come out with another great monologue on Obama and his refusal to call what happened in Chattanooga anything Islamic. Lahren points out that she is white and has . . . Wow. I don't know who this idiot Kwame Jackson is apart from being on "the Apprentice," but if he's hitting Trump for insulting rhetoric, then he's a huge hypocrite for saying Trump . . . The FBI admitted today that they screwed up on the background check for Dylann Roof that allowed him to buy a gun he used to shoot churchgoers in that horrendous massacre in . . . Democrats held a press conference yesterday pushing for more gun control after the Charleston shooting and Pelosi made sure to mention the murder of Kate Steinle, calling it another example of 'gun . . . It just doesn't get more despicable than this. They say that Univision is hard left. Apparently they don't have a soul either: FREE BEACON - Just days before Univision announced it would . . . I know, we all saw it coming. But it's still amazing to behold the incredible generalization of blame from one racist piece of crap terrorist like Dylann Roof to all of society. . . . I'm usually not with the social media mob, but in this case I might bend my personal rules a little bit. From the NY Daily News: A firefighter lost his volunteer position . . . A website appearing to be from the racist maggot killer Dylann Roof has surfaced, and wow, it has terrible web design. I mean atrocious. Watch the report from CNN: From the Daily . . . To watch the mainstream news you'd think that the evil racist church shooter Dylann Roof was a right-wing extremist, but his friend allowed a tidbit of information on CNN that goes completely . . . While the pundits spin and the families grieve, there's one heart-rending thing that almost made the maggot Dylann Roof turn around and leave that church without causing all that evil: Two law . . . There was a remarkable event that happened when the family of those slain by Dylann Roof confronted him as he appeared in court today. Watch below: Many saw it as the highest . . . Despite admitting he almost didn't execute the parishioners of AME church in Charleston, Roof was apparently very unrepentant according to sources in law enforcement: WASHINGTON POST - The gunman charged with killing . . .

Here's yet another example of how the government fails to keep even the legislative promises its already made on gun violence protection.

Editor February 21, 2017 Despite the lack of media attention on Syria in recent weeks, air strikes are still being conducted and still producing devastating results. A new video shows a crying Syrian girl being pulled from rubble on Sunday after air strikes destroyed her neighborhood in Damascus. The footage, released by the Syria Civil Defence, shows rescuers digging through debris from her home in the Tishreen neighborhood to pull the girl, named Ava, out. -- SCD Rif-Dimashq (@SCDrifdimashq) February 19, 2017 As the rescuers frantically sift through the rubble, they can be heard saying, ""God is Great" repeatedly in Arabic as they pull her out, The Sun reported. Ava, covered in dust and crying, was then carried to safety. The extent of her injuries is unclear, The Sun reported. Her mother had apparently asked volunteers to find her, telling them her daughter's name. "Find her for me! Her name is Aya!", a mother whose home was hit with SSM in Tishreen neighborhood - Damascus. SCD were able to rescue Aya. https://t.co/OjyxCuQmYn -- The White Helmets (@SyriaCivilDef) February 20, 2017 The Syrian government forces escalated the bombing around the city of Damascus through Monday, just days before talks of renewed peace we were to talk place in Geneva, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Smoke and fire billowed across Daraa following a car bomb "The toll in regime air strikes on (northern rebel district of Damascus) Barzeh has increased to seven people, including a woman and child," the British-based watch group said. A woman holds injured children at a hospital following airstrikes in inhabited by civilians in Barzeh, near Damascus Since the last rounds of peace talks in April 2016, the rebels have lost their stronghold in Aleppo. More than 310,000 people have been killed in Syria's conflict since 2011. (H/T: The Sun )

February 21, 2017 Despite the lack of media attention on Syria in recent weeks, air strikes are still being conducted and still producing devastating results. A new video shows a crying Syrian girl being pulled from rubble on Sunday after air strikes destroyed her neighborhood in Damascus.

ASSUMING Theresa May wins the election comfortably in June, what then? What's her vision to reshape Britain? We agree entirely with her full-fat Brexit plan : out of the single market and customs union, free from EU courts, free to strike our own trade deals, fully controlling our borders and laws. PA:Press Association 4 What's Theresa May's vision to reshape Britain if she wins the General Election on June 8? She must also be serious about walking away if no decent deal can be struck. But there are other urgent changes Mrs May should put in the Tory manifesto. First, proper help -- not just lip service -- for the "just about managings". Tax cuts, for example, could be paid for by ending state-funded perks for richer OAPs. We are not talking about ordinary pensioners for whom life is a daily struggle. We mean those on ample private incomes living in homes they long ago paid off, who still get a bus pass, winter fuel allowance and "triple-lock" rises on their state handout. We MUST force through a major house-building programme even if Tories in the shires squeal Britain can no longer afford all that while working families are barely scraping together the rent. Then we MUST force through a major house-building programme even if Tories in the shires squeal. It is a vital factor in making homes affordable again. Mrs May must bin David Cameron's scandalous foreign aid target of 0.7 per cent of GDP and only fund deserving projects case-by-case. Getty Images 4 We're on board with her Brexit plan, but she must be serious about walking away if she doesn't get a good deal We can still save many lives spending a fraction of the current budget. Higher education must refocus on job training. Too many sixth-formers drift into meaningless three-year degrees, emerging with huge debts but no employable skills. It's a disaster for them and the economy. And Mrs May must finally reinvent the House of Lords . For a start, the number of peers should be slashed. But in 2017 we cannot surely continue to have ancient, unelected party time-servers ruling over voters' lives. These are a few of the changes we want. We look forward to the PM's plan. MOST READ IN NEWS SEX DUNGEON Four people caught having 'orgy' next to Cardiff Castle as kids played nearby drug nightmare Mum paralysed after weekend hippy crack binges while son, 3, was with dad SHELL SHOCK Angry biker told 'remove helmet' at Shell garage - as woman in burka fills up FEELING LUCKY? Winning Lotto numbers for Saturday August 11 2018 PS13.8million jackpot 'WHO'S MAEVIS?' Woman realises she has called her neighbour the wrong name for 14 YEARS HOT CAR TRAGEDY Baby dies after granddad left her in car for 8 hours in 30C heat in Majorca 4 SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has said she would consider a 'progressive alliance' with other parties to keep the Tories out of power THE Tories already had a mountain of ammo to fire at Labour 's hapless Jeremy Corbyn . Nicola Sturgeon then gifted them a flame-thrower. Two years ago voters were repulsed by the toxic prospect of an Ed Miliband minority Government propped up by the SNP . PA:Press Association 4 Jeremy Corbyn rejected Sturgeon's offer, saying the SNP was 'not progressive' So we'd have a Scottish party, bent on destroying the UK, in bed with a hard-left Labour whose "friends" include IRA murderers and anti-Semitic, homophobic Islamist terrorists. How very progressive. But he would, of course, if he came anywhere near power.

ASSUMING Theresa May wins the election comfortably in June, what then? What's her vision to reshape Britain? We agree entirely with her full-fat Brexit plan : out of the single market and customs union, free from EU courts, free to strike our own trade deals, fully controlling our borders and laws.

Assata Shakur Democracy Now On Thursday, former Black Panther Assata Shakur became the first woman named to the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list. Today, Angela Davis and Shakur's longtime attorney, Lennox Hinds, weigh in on Democracy Now to denounce the decision, with Davis saying that it "incorporates or reflects the very logic of terrorism" and is "designed to frighten people who are involved in struggles today. Hinds, who has represented Shakur since 1973, calls the move a "political act pushed by the state of New Jersey, by some members of Congress from Miami, and with the intent of putting pressure on the Cuban government and to inflame public opinion." Watch here:

Today, Angela Davis and Shakur's longtime attorney, Lennox Hinds, weigh in on Democracy Now to denounce the decision, with Davis saying that it "incorporates or reflects the very logic of terrorism" and is "designed to frighten people who are involved in struggles today.

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks as Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., left, and Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump gestures during the Fox Business Network Republican presidential debate at the North Charleston Coliseum, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, in North Charleston, S.C. AP Photo/Chuck Burton NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. -- The rivalry between the Republican Party's two leading candidates for president intensified in Thursday's debate, which featured the most rollicking action to date. Yet rising tensions between billionaire businessman Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz left little space for any of the other candidates to make an impression. With less than three weeks until Iowa's leadoff caucuses, the renewed focus on the two candidates leading most preference polls suggests the overall shape of the 2016 contest may be solidifying -- much to the dismay of Republican officials who fear neither Trump nor Cruz is electable in a general election. Trump and Cruz starred in Thursday's primetime event. And Trump, in particular, may have had his finest debate performance. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had strong moments, but didn't have the breakout needed to begin coalescing mainstream Republicans behind their candidacies. Just one debate remains before Iowa's Feb. 1 caucuses. But the likelihood of a major shakeup in the race becomes less and less as days pass. Here are some other key takeaways from the Thursday night debate. NEW YORK, NEW YORK Cruz and Trump went toe-to-toe several times, including Trump's questioning of whether Cruz, born in Canada to a U.S. citizen, is eligible to serve as president. Yet no exchange encapsulated the night better than their clash over "New York values." "Everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal ... focused around money and the media," Cruz charged. And in a nod to Trump's home in midtown Manhattan, Cruz said: "I can frame it another way: Not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan. I'm just saying." Just as Cruz was ready to dismiss concerns about his Canadian birth, Trump was ready to defend New York. The real-estate mogul said he found that kind of talk "insulting." And he seemed to show his softer side while reflecting on how New Yorkers came together after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "Everybody in the world watched, and everyone in the world loved New York and loved New Yorkers," he said. "That was a very insulting statement that Ted made." It was hard to imagine a stronger response from Trump, who puts a lot less time into debate preparations than his opponents. He seemed to handily win that exchange with Cruz, a former college debate champion. BUSH STANDS ALONE Pressed on whether he regretted his call to bar Muslims from entering the U.S., Trump had a one-word answer: "No." And when asked whether they supported Trump's proposal, the candidates sharing the stage with him largely demurred, talking instead about immigration and security. All except Jeb Bush. The former Florida governor has made taking on Trump the cornerstone of his struggling campaign, and he slammed the proposal as one that would make it impossible for the U.S. to build the necessary bridges with Arab nations to defeat the Islamic State. "All Muslims? Seriously? What kind of signal does that send to the rest of the world?" Bush said. "What we need to do is destroy ISIS. The other Arab countries have a role to play in this. Sending that signal makes it impossible for us to be serious about taking out ISIS and restoring democracy in Syria." Reminded that he once called Trump and his proposal unhinged, Bush replied: "Yeah, they are unhinged."

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., left, and Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump gestures during the Fox Business Network Republican presidential debate at the North Charleston Coliseum, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, in North Charleston, S.C. AP Photo/Chuck Burton NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. --

Good news, Crowderheads. The fat boy in red with the reindeer may be about bless us with an early yuletide gift. The serial-killing, unwashed hippie and all-around d-bag, Charlie Manson, may be about to get dealt some justice. In the fiery pits of Hades. But, wait just a moment before you burst into song with "Ding Dong the Pocket-Sized Psychopath is Dead." Perpetual dummybutt Tariq Nasheed is here to remind us of a "little-known fact" about Mr. Helter Skelter: So notorious psychopath and white supremacist (the media seems to always leave that little fact out) Charles Manson is on his deathbed #ashe #Ogun https://t.co/riIJBo5kJP -- Tariq Nasheed (@tariqnasheed) November 16, 2017 Charlie's a Hitler fanboy? Um, the giant swastika carved into Charlie's forehead makes his stance on race relations pretty obvious. If that doesn't tip you off, the half-century of LSD-induced race war prophecies involving the Beatles and holes in the ground should have. Maybe the media never felt the need to highlight Manson's white supremacy because it was written right between his beady eyes. Also, "mass-murdering cult leader" takes precedence over being mean to ethnic people. I wonder which bombshell Captain Obvious will drop on us next. Dallas is in Texas? The Pope is a Catholic? Forks + toasters = bad? The only thing surprising in this tweet is for once a leftist called someone a white supremacist and got it right. Usually they throw the term around willy-nilly to mean "anyone or anything I don't like." This is one of those rare instances where they're not wrong. They'd have to get one right sooner or later. Charlie is a white supremacist. On top of being a hippie, stoner, murderer. Basically everything bad in the world. Soon, he'll be but a distant memory and the world will be a better place. At least until leftists like Tariq Nasheed fill that void with their dumbassery . NOT SUBSCRIBED TO THE PODCAST? FIX THAT ! IT'S COMPLETELY FREE ON BOTH ITUNES HERE AND SOUNDCLOUD HERE .

The serial-killing, unwashed hippie and all-around d-bag, Charlie Manson, may be about to get dealt some justice.

Source Pravda.Ru 06 Mar 2007 at 05:04 Iraqi baby born with paralyzed right arm and hand to have surgery in Houston When he was born in Iraq, little Karm's right arm and hand were paralyzed. But he had two things in his favor: Both his parents were pediatricians and both refused to give up hope. Iraqi baby born with paralyzed right arm and hand to have surgery in Houston Now partly thanks to their global search to find treatment, the 8-month-old baby was scheduled to be treated Tuesday by a Houston surgeon who specializes in helping children with brachial-plexus injuries like Karm's. "Karm is our miracle," said the baby's mother, Zina. "I can only say the word 'thanks' for so many good persons who helped my son and my family." Karm's parents, whose last names have been withheld due to security concerns, knew that surgery to repair the damage should be performed within a year. Dr. Rahul Nath, who is performing the costly surgery for free through his Texas Nerve and Paralysis Institute, has been consulting with the family since shortly after Karm's birth. Karm's father, Mustafa, first sent out e-mails to 15 brachial-plexus experts asking for help. Nath was the only one who responded. However, politics nearly kept Karm from coming to Houston. The Iraqi Ministry of Health can ban physicians from traveling outside the country an effort to halt the exodus of doctors from the war-ravaged nation. It took months for Zina to get clearance to travel to the United States. Mustafa was not allowed to come with his family. After their plight was publicized, the family received help from the National Iraqi Assistance Center in Baghdad , a humanitarian relief program run jointly by Iraqis and the U.S. Army Civil Affairs division. A Houston immigration attorney, Nicole Morrison, also offered to house the family while they are in Houston. The majority of brachial-plexus injuries, also known as Erb's Palsy, are caused by trauma during delivery. Nerves are pulled out of the spinal cord and the affected limb is left immobile, often becoming gnarled and twisted, reports AP. About two of every 1,000 children born in the U.S. have brachial plexus birth injuries, more than the number affected by Down's Syndrome or Muscular Dystrophy. The numbers are higher in developing countries.

Mar 2007 at 05:04 Iraqi baby born with paralyzed right arm and hand to have surgery in Houston When he was born in Iraq, little Karm's right arm and hand were paralyzed.

L ater this year, to commemorate a century of metered taxis in the city, many cabs will be covered in flower-printed decals. The project, called Garden in Transit, is the brainchild of Christo admirers Ed and Bernie Massey, whose nonprofit has covered a blimp and a 170-foot tower with the artwork of children. The decals will be painted by some 30,000 kids, in schools and hospitals throughout the city. Never has the public been allowed to change the landscape of a city on this grand a scale, declares Ed Massey. The flower cabs are going to be everywhere, says Taxi and Limousine commissioner Matthew Daus. Shortly before the holiday break, a painting session, which included workshops in which children named social issues they would like to transform, was held for fifth-graders at Staten Island's P.S. 52. (Photo: Roberto Machado) Brianne Panebianco Social Issue: The environment. I think it is important to stop global warming. Too many animals in Antarctica are dying. Career Goal: Saving Antarctica and its animals! I will also buy cars that do not use gas. (Photo: Roberto Machado) Kevin Qosja Social Issue: War and violence. The black represents that there's a dark road ahead, and the red stands for all of the gore. Career Goal: Soldier or policeman to stop people's evil ways. Or a negotiator, to stop fighting before it begins. (Photo: Roberto Machado) Jason Milman Social Issue: Sanitation. I would change this problem because outside my house there is garbage everywhere. It's not even from us, but my parents get the tickets and have to pay for it. Career Goal: SWAT-team member. (Photo: Roberto Machado) Kerrin Schnell Social Issue: Animal rights. Career Goal: I want to go to Africa to feed all the little kids. I am going to bring back a baby monkey.

. The project, called Garden in Transit, is the brainchild of Christo admirers Ed and Bernie Massey, whose nonprofit has covered a blimp and a 170-foot tower with the artwork of children. The decals will be painted by some 30,000 kids, in schools and hospitals throughout the city. Never has the public been allowed to change the landscape of a city on this grand a scale, declares Ed Massey. The flower cabs are going to be everywhere, says Taxi and Limousine commissioner Matthew Daus. Shortly before the holiday break, a painting session, which included workshops in which children named social issues they would like to transform, was held for fifth-graders at Staten Island's P.S. 52.

Blactivist, a Facebook page with 59,000 more likes than the official Black Lives Matter page, is a Russian account designed to "amplify racial tensions" in the United States. Seeing as there are only about 40,000 black Russians , chances are extremely slim that the people running the site are black, either. They have a Twitter account, too, of course. The Russians have made it their business to keep America fighting each other, and the right-wing blaming Liberals for the real tensions Russia exploits while ignoring they exist. According to CNN: A social media campaign calling itself "Blacktivist" and linked to the Russian government used both Facebook and Twitter in an apparent attempt to amplify racial tensions during the U.S. presidential election, two sources with knowledge of the matter told CNN. The Twitter account has been handed over to Congress; the Facebook account is expected to be handed over in the coming days. Weaponizing the existing tensions, Blacktivist (360,000 likes) posed as an American activist. They gave free publicity and pushed events put on by other groups, such as the Black Panthers and a Freddy Gray memorial, again amplifying and escalating tensions. If these tensions did not exist, they would have been useless to the Russians who are playing both sides against each other, as they did during our election and appear to be continuing to do. In hindsight, there were many grammatical errors and wrong characters, such as backward apostrophes (it`s, not it's) and things native speakers just wouldn't say in posts. The discovery of those errors wouldn't have hurt Russia's cause, either: many are sure to see this as a reason that BLM and the very real racial tensions this account capitalized on for their ends don't exist. That helps their cause, widening the gulf and exacerbating tensions. Their description of the Freddie Gray march: "We are fed up with police violence, racism, intolerance and injustice that passed down from generation to generation. We are fed up with government ignorance and the system failing black people." That same Freddie Gray event was covered by RT, a Russian government-funded television station that has a 2017 advertising budget of $323 million . The Russian government has no interest in ending systemic racism. They want us to keep fighting. It keeps us distracted. Earlier this month, Facebook told Congress about Blacktivist and 470 Russian-linked accounts identified by the social media network. According to CNN's sources, there were about 200 pages that matched up to corresponding Twitter handles, based on public and private information that linked them. Facebook and Twitter have been sharing information according to sources who say that they were able to identify 179 matching accounts that were traced back to Russia. Russia has been consistently playing both sides and chose to back the Republicans last year. Their goal is destabilizing America, muting her influence on the world stage, and elevating Russian interests: and those two things must be taken into account together. Watch Anderson Cooper discuss this here: Featured image via screen capture

Their goal is destabilizing America, muting her influence on the world stage, and elevating Russian interests: and those two things must be taken into account together.

By Evan Lips | June 9, 2017, 18:42 EDT Printed from: http://newbostonpost.com/2017/06/09/sanctuary-state-bill-draws-raucous-crowd-on-beacon-hill/ State Rep. Juana Matias (D-Lawrence) and state Sen. Jamie Eldridge (D-Acton), seated, testify in favor of legislation they submitted that would make Massachusetts a 'sanctuary state' for illegal aliens. (Evan Lips -- New Boston Post) BOSTON -- The piston-hot topic of illegal immigration assumed center stage at the Massachusetts State House on Friday, as lawmakers heard an earful of testimony inside a jam-packed committee room about a proposal to enact so-called sanctuary city policies statewide. The proposal, dubbed the Safe Communities Act and introduced by state Senator Jamie Eldridge (D-Acton), in his words, "would ensure that police are used to fight crime and not assist in federal immigration enforcement." "What we're trying to oppose is having ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] getting engaged and holding people unfairly for deportation reasons that many of us feel are unreasonable, and that's the separation we're trying to create," Eldridge told members of the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security. In short, Eldridge's bill, and identical legislation in the House filed by state Representative Juana Matias (D-Lawrence), would bar state and local law enforcement from assisting in ICE detainer requests. Friday's hearing drew a massive audience, as attendees clamored for spaces to sit on the floor and crowded aisles and entryways in order to follow the proceedings. Committee Chairman Harold P. Naughton Jr. (D-Clinton) at one point threatened to remove several of the bill's supporters who had taken to hissing while Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, known for his law-and-order stances on immigration , delivered his testimony. Earlier on Friday morning, several of the bill's opponents disrupted a press conference featuring Eldridge, Matias, and Carol Rose, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. Carlos Hernandez, a legal immigrant who left the Dominican Republic for Massachusetts in 1969 and who is now running as a Republican to unseat Democratic U.S. Representative Seth Moulton , confronted Eldridge and others, asking, "how in the world is this law going to protect legal citizens and your voters, and legal permanent residents?" "I'm an immigrant, and immigrants do not like the idea that they've invested lots of money to get to this country legally, and you basically want to protect the illegals," Hernandez added. Matias responded in part by saying that "the state has no obligation to enforce immigration policies in any way, shape or form." Then Dianna Ploss, a Gloucester Republican who made a name for herself last year when after years of voting Democrat elected to register Republican in order to back and volunteer for Donald Trump, countered that those whom Matias and others wanted to protect "committed a crime when they come in the country illegally." "You are using doublespeak," Ploss added. "You are not protecting us, Mr. Eldridge, the taxpaying citizens of Massachusetts, and you should be ashamed of yourself." Dianna Ploss (Evan Lips -- New Boston Post) The hours of testimony that followed, while not as contentious and lacking the outbursts that defined the press conference, was just about as passionate. State Representative Denise Provost (D-Somerville) at one point compared current immigration laws and subsequent deportations to the Fugitive Slave Act, the law born out of the Compromise of 1850 which held that escaped slaves were to be returned to their owners upon capture, even if they ventured into free states. "I don't think it's a violation of federal law for our state to impose its own consequences," she added. Provost also compared ICE's use of information sources such as the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles and various law enforcement databases to the "slave trackers" who worked on behalf of slave owners during the pre-Civil War era. Meanwhile, Hodgson, the Bristol County sheriff, criticized the proposal for "putting the public at risk to satisfy a political agenda." "Let's look at this bill for what it is -- a politically motivated piece of legislation that will block partnerships with law enforcement agencies and make it easier for criminal illegal immigrants to return to our neighborhoods instead of their home countries," he said. "And yes, I use the term 'sanctuary state' freely in this testimony, because that would be the result if this bill passes." Hodgson was later questioned by state Senator Sonia Chang Diaz, a Jamaica Plain Democrat, who appeared intent on forcing the Republican sheriff to make a distinction between civil and criminal violations. Backers of the bill have argued that those who overstay a visa or cross the border illegally are committing civil, and not criminal, infractions. Chang Diaz bluntly asked Hodgson if he had ever committed a civil infraction. "I'm sure I've gone over the speed limit in my lifetime, and your point?" Hodgson countered. "You're here making the point that we should not cherry-pick which laws we take seriously and which laws we enforce, so I'm just asking the question," Chang-Diaz answered. "Well if I'm caught speeding, there are consequences for it, I'm not suggesting that I should face less consequences than anyone else," Hodgson said. "I'm saying I don't think this law is suggesting that either," Chang-Diaz said. State Representative Peter Durant (R-Spencer), a member of the committee, at one point asked Eldridge and Matias about the extent of cooperation between ICE and local law enforcement as stipulated under the proposal. Specifically, Durant proposed a scenario in which ICE requested to question an illegal alien in custody regarding a kidnapping or any other unsolved crime, in which their information could be useful. "Maybe we would not do that here, from what I understand in this bill," Durant added. Eldridge explained that the legislation features a "category of crimes where police could continue to detain someone at ICE's request," but Durant pointed out that the category neglects to address requests for questioning as opposed to pending criminal charges. Durant also asked Eldridge and Matias whether the United States should "be allowed to determine who comes into the country." The duo appeared unable to directly answer Durant's question and instead highlighted the confusing state of federal immigration laws. Eldridge, asked at one point to name a Massachusetts city or town that actively complies with ICE detainer requests, answered that Marlborough -- a city inside his district -- does not boast sanctuary city policies. This is not the first time a wing of Beacon Hill has pushed to pass legislation that would add scenarios in which communications between local law enforcement and federal immigration officials would be barred. This latest measure, introduced as President Donald Trump's administration has vowed to act on campaign promises to crack down on illegal immigration, comes on the heels of the Massachusetts House's party-line vote last month to prohibit Massachusetts inmates from working on jobs out-of-state. The legislation came in response to Hodgson's proposal to send Bristol County prisoners south to assist in the construction of Trump's proposed border wall. On Friday, Governor Charlie Baker publicly spoke out against the proposed Safe Communities Act. "I oppose this bill that would prohibit law enforcement from enforcing bipartisan policies that have been in place for 10 years and prevented violent and dangerous convicted criminals from being released back onto our streets," Baker said in a prepared statement. "This legislation would also prevent the Massachusetts State Police from upholding our policy to detain individuals for federal authorities that have been convicted of heinous crimes, like murder and rape, and weakens current public safety measures that are designed to keep us safer. "Our administration does not support making the commonwealth a sanctuary state and urges the Legislature to hold this bill in committee and reconsider ways to ensure Massachusetts remains a welcoming place while maintaining public safety." Seating was limited at Friday's hearing (Evan Lips -- New Boston Post)

State Rep. Juana Matias (D-Lawrence) and state Sen. Jamie Eldridge (D-Acton), seated, testify in favor of legislation they submitted that would make Massachusetts a 'sanctuary state' for illegal aliens.

233 Shares This week, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis had meetings with several top leaders at the Pentagon, including NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Spanish Minister of Defense Maria Delores de Cospedal, India's National Security Advisor Ajit Kumar Doval, Finnish Minister of Defense Jussi Niinisto and Greece's Minister of Defense Panos Kammenos. Mattis also attended a meeting of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS led by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at the State Department. Below are a few of the best pictures from the Secretary Mattis' week. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met with Mattis Tuesday. Above, Stoltenberg arrives at the Pentagon, and is accompanied by SECDEF Mattis as he enters the building. Mattis looks on with glee as the NATO Secretary General signs the guestbook before their bi-lateral meeting. Mattis and Stoltenberg speak during their bi-lateral meeting. Following the meeting, Secretary Mattis presents NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg with a photo of the two of them that was taken earlier in the day. Mattis also met with Finland's Minister of Defense Jussi Niinisto later the same day. Mattis escorts the Finnish Minister of Defense into the building for an enhanced honor cordon. SECDEF Mattis looks to be speaking about serious matters at the enhanced honor cordon. The next day, Secretary Mattis attended the Global Coalition on the Defeat of ISIS at the State Department. Mattis claps for the speaker. The Secretary appears to be having a good time while laughing with the others at the table. Mattis speaking during a meeting for the Global Coalition alongside Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. On Thursday, Mattis held a meeting with Spain's Minister of Defense, Maria Dolores de Cospedal. Mattis happily greets her as she arrives at the Pentagon. Mattis looks on as the Spanish Minister of Defense signs the guestbook before their meeting. During their meeting, "Secretary Mattis recognized Spain's important contributions to global security, specifically in combating terrorism in North Africa, the Sahel, and in the defeat-ISIS fight," according to a statement by the Department of Defense. Once again, Mattis presents his foreign counterpart with a framed picture of the two of them from earlier in the day. The Spanish Minister of Defense appears thrilled with the gift. On Friday, Mattis held a meeting with Panos Kammenos, the Greece's Minister of Defense. The two enter the building, wearing almost-matching purple ties. The men engage in a strong and friendly handshake. Also on Friday, Mattis met with India's National Security Advisor, Ajit Kumar Doval. Mattis escorts Doval into the Pentagon upon arrival. The leaders partake in a meeting with tea. It is hard to tell who is happier when Mattis once again presents a framed picture of the two leaders from earlier in the day. Doval is thrilled as Mattis presents him with his gift.

This week, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis had meetings with several top leaders at the Pentagon, including NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Spanish Minister of Defense Maria Delores de Cospedal, India's National Security Advisor Ajit Kumar Doval, Finnish Minister of Defense Jussi Niinisto and Greece's Minister of Defense Panos Kammenos.

Generations of immigrants have headed to the U.S. in pursuit of the American Dream or at least a better life than the one available in their homeland. But, the lingering recession impact on employment has created a change in the flow coming from the south. Mexico is the birth country for the largest number of foreign-born people in the U.S. But, the flow across the Mexico border has shifted and now more Mexican nationals are leaving the U.S. than coming to live here. The Washington-based Pew Research Center determined that the return migration of Mexican nationals and their families has been higher than migration heading to the U.S. in the past decade. The largest changes came from 2009 to 2014 when approximately 1 million Mexicans (including American-born family members) left the U.S. while about 870,000 came here. The Pew Center report released Thursday notes that the result has been a drop of over 1 million unauthorized Mexican immigrants from 6.9 million in 2007 to about 5.6 million in 2014. The findings are based on U.S. Census Bureau surveys that measure immigrant inflow from Mexico along with data from the National Survey on Demographic Dynamics (ENADID) conducted by Mexico's chief statistical agency (INEGI) to measure migration back. While the U.S. economy is rebounding, the job market for low-skilled laborers has not recuperated. So many would-be immigrants know that the grass may not be greener on this side of the border. Through in stricter enforcement of immigration and employment laws, weariness of living under the radar, and other factors also make life harder in the U.S. for illegal newcomers than the environment former immigrants found. The Pew Center found that 47 percent of Mexican nationals surveyed believe that life in their native country is just as good or even better than what they would find across the border. "I would not say that Mexico has more of a pull," said Pew research associate Ana Gonzalez-Barrera, who was the study's author. "But the United States isn't as attractive" now. According to data from the Mexican government, a majority of the people who left the U.S. for Mexico between 2009 and 2014 chose to leave on their own accord. The reason cited by 61 percent of the Mexican nationals who returned was a desire to be reunited with their families back home. Only 6 percent said they left to change jobs or find employment and 14 percent said they were deported. The percentage of Mexican nationals citing employment, though, may not reflect an accurate picture - if people had jobs they liked in the U.S., the lure of family back home would probably not be so appealing. In Mexico, the job market is better than it was a generation ago, helped by the North American Free Trade Agreement. Additionally, the birth rate dropped which also has helped the employment picture. While the tide has turned and more Mexican nationals have been leaving the U.S. than those coming here, a majority of adults in Mexico believe those who moved the the U.S. lead better lives than those who remained in their birth country. However, a growing number (33 percent in 2014) believe that life is no better in the U.S. than in Mexico; the number who believed that in 2007 was only 23 percent. Written and edited By Dyanne Weiss Sources: Pew Research Center: More Mexicans Leaving Than Coming to the U.S. Los Angeles Times: Why fewer Mexicans are leaving their homeland for the U.S. Washington Post: Family, border dangers keep Mexicans from returning to US NPR: Mexican Immigration Declining; More Are Returning Than Arriving Photo of San Jose May Day 01 march for immigrant rights by z2amiller - Creative Commons license More Mexican Nationals Leaving U.S. Than Coming Here added by Dyanne Weiss on November 19, 2015 View all posts by Dyanne Weiss -

Generations of immigrants have headed to the U.S. in pursuit of the American Dream or at least a better life than the one available in their homeland. But, the lingering recession impact on employment has created a change in the flow coming from the south.

Norman Brannon is a pop critic, musician, and author based in New York City. He presents a weekly music update here on Towleroad and writes regularly at Nervous Acid . Follow Norman on Twitter at @nervousacid . Depeche Mode Remixes 2: 81-11 (Reprise) It's not every day that a major artist releases a 37-track, three-disc set of remixes comprising the last thirty years of their career -- which is likely because I don't think it's ever happened before. In that sense, Remixes 2: 81-11 is breaking some sort of ground that even the 36-track Remixes: 81-04 couldn't touch: This is a collection that not only bolsters the band's unwavering relevance as songwriters and synthpop pioneers, but makes a distinct connection to their enduring influence on modern club music. Admittedly, 37 tracks is a lot for even the most stalwart of fans to digest, so I went ahead and pulled five of the highlights -- and lowlights! -- for this very special Depeche Mode Remix Redux: BEST CHOICE OF OPENER: "Dream On" (Bushwacka! Tough Guy Mix) Produced by one-half of Layo & Bushwacka!, the first song on this collection is, for all intents and purposes, the kind of thing you'd hear at 10:30 P.M. in the club -- a stark, tech-house beat that most DJs would call "tracky" under a vocal that only serves to set the hypnotic pace. It is not, by far, the most commercial track on this collection, and because of that, it's also a genius choice: Clubgoers will appreciate the deep house warm-up, while dudes who really loved Mike Koglin's weird trance version of "Enjoy The Silence" in 1998 will feel rightfully duped. BEST REMIX TO BEAT THE ORIGINAL: "Peace" (SixToes Remix) 2009's "Peace," from Sounds of the Universe , fell somewhat flat in its original incarnation as a downtempo, low-slung bass-driven single; there was something to the lyric and the vocal that the music failed to express. The answer, as SixToes saw it, was a human element. Strings, tabla, and even banjo transform the original into something not even Martin Gore could conceive: a neo-Americana Depeche Mode. BEST REMIX FOR BEING IN A K-HOLE: "When the Body Speaks" (Karlsson & Winnberg Remix) If you lived in New York at a certain time, and you know something about the mid-'90s Save The Robots afterhours parties, and you've seen what that place looked like at six in the morning, and you actually feel nostalgic for it, then boy, have I got a remix for you. The ultra-distorted electro style of Justice and Digitalism seems like a good idea in context, but when you try to remix a song whose major asset is its melody by featuring a dysmorphic synth that borders on atonal, it's just not going to be good. And that's being generous. THE VINCE CLARKE VS. ALAN WILDER SHOWDOWN: "Behind the Wheel" (Vince Clarke Remix) Two ex-members of Depeche Mode -- both respected and accomplished in their own right -- provided remixes for this collection, and thirty years down the road, that's a pretty fantastic feat. But if you have to compare them (and you don't, but I decided to!), there's something about Clarke's track that slightly edges out Wilder's take on "In Chains." It could be that Wilder seemed intent on making a proper Depeche Mode song -- or that his trusted playbook provided a missed opportunity to recreate what we think we know about the band. But ultimately, it was something less hypothetical than that: Clarke's revision suggests that only one ex-member of Depeche Mode has been keeping up with underground techno since Songs of Faith and Devotion . THE DISPATCH: In the face of immediate cries of plagiarism following the premiere of their new single "Every Teardrop is a Waterfall," Coldplay clarify: The song was simply "inspired" by the 1990 single "Ritmo de la Noche" by Mystic , which was in turn based on another song called "I Go to Rio," which was written by Peter Allen and Adrienne Anderson and later sung by everyone from Peggy Lee to the Muppets, among others. Says a Coldplay spokesperson , "Allen and Anderson are credited as writers" in the album's liner notes. The 2012 Coachella festival is going double or nothing: Organizers have announced that the event will take place over two weekends -- with each weekend being ostensibly, but not likely identical. Bjork's new album, Biophilia , is shaping up to be an experiment in technology and mobile apps: The record will be released as an "app album" for the iPad, featuring ten mini-apps to go with each song. A preview of the first song, "Crystalline," hit the web this week . Legendary hip-hop DJ Mister Cee -- who, if you recall, was arrested in March after allegedly engaging in a sexual act in public with a young man -- pled guilty to loitering for the purpose of engaging in a prostitution offense . Cee has yet to explicitly comment on the incident, or for that matter, on the implications about his sexuality, but took to Twitter instead : "SO WHAT!" he wrote. "Some people have such depressing lives they get joy from other's mistakes." Blondie are prepping the release of Panic of Girls -- their first new album in seven years -- with a physical release slated for July. UK fans, however, got an early taste of the album through Amazon's digital download store this week, and the preview is promising : Retromodern and yet actually modern, the album also features young Brooklyn songwriter Zach Condon -- who adds trumpet to "Wipe Off My Sweat" and whose band, Beirut, originally wrote and recorded "A Sunday Smile." If you're looking for some new DJ mixes to stream, BUTT magazine is hoping to fill the void with a new exclusive series of mixtapes available from their specially designed BUTT audio-player. The first mix is up now , featuring Berlin DJs Discodromo and Boris -- the latter of whom is a Paradise Garage vet and former heyday resident at Berlin's legendary Panorama Bar. Adele has canceled the remaining nine dates on her North American tour after coming down with laryngitis. "There is absolutely nothing I can do but take the doctor's advice and rest some more," she said. This week's bizarre confession: Take That's Robbie Williams undergoes weekly testosterone treatment . "Went to see a Hollywood doctor, had my blood tests," he explained. "He said, 'You've got the testosterone of a 100-year-old man.' And then everything made sense. It was kind of an epiphany." COMING OUT: Nomi Ruiz came to light as the breakout star of the debut self-titled Hercules & Love Affair album; her contributions to "You Belong" and "Hercules Theme" set a tone that producer Andy Butler had trouble recreating on album number-two. This week, Ruiz returns with her own group, Jessica 6, and a debut album that belies their new-band status. Equal parts disco, proto-house, and coquettish R&B, See The Light plays with a lot of the ideas that Ruiz explored with Hercules, but shoots less for homage and more for total embodiment. While "Prisoner Of Love" will get much of the press for its Chicago-styled piano house and Antony Hegarty guest spot, tracks like "Champagne Bubbles/Remember When" invoke an anachronistic Mary J. Blige nestled into a late night Quiet Storm slot on 1980s R&B radio. This is, in case you're wondering, a pretty awesome thing. He reinvented himself on Broadway with work on the Tony Award-winning Spring Awakening , meaning that Duncan Sheik has outlived most of the singer-songwriters that came up alongside him in the mid-'90s. (Ubiquitous hits like "Barely Breathing" tend to add to one's shelf-life considerably, if not subsidize the lesser-selling albums destined to follow.) Off Broadway, Sheik's more recent albums have mellowed even further with age, and Covers '80s takes this slow-motion weathering to its next logical step: A collection of twelve totally inoffensive, and even occasionally endearing interpretations of hits by Depeche Mode, The Smiths, Talk Talk, and, umm, The Thompson Twins won't set the world on fire, but they will remind you how old you are in a gentle, toe-tapping kind of way. Having lost lead singer Tyondai Braxton to the dreaded solo project just last summer, Battles wasted no time in regrouping as a three-piece and putting together Gloss Drop -- which, when all is said and done, barely registers any sort of recognizable absence from being one man down. The largely instrumental album draws firmly on cultural rhythmic traditions ("Dominican Fade"), post-rock detritus ("Futura"), and traditionally electronic dance music-gone-analog ("Sweetie & Shag"), but tracks like "Ice Cream" -- featuring Kompakt techno stalwart Matias Aguayo on vocals -- remind us that Battles still know how to put together a memorable, if not challenging hook. Braxton may have been the voice, but he didn't own the vision. Also out today: Peter Murphy -- Ninth (Nettwerk), Cults -- Cults (Columbia), Sondre Lerche -- Sondre Lerche (Redeye), Trentemoller -- Late Night Tales (LNT), Candi Staton -- Evidence: The Complete Fame Records Masters (Kent), Sophie Ellis-Bextor -- Make A Scene (EBGB's), The Ladybug Transistor -- Clutching Stems (Merge) Clock Opera -- "Belongings" If I wanted to make some sort of official pick-hit of the week, "Belongings" would earn the title, hands down. Clock Opera's latest single draws most obviously from Steve Reich, Peter Gabriel, and Elbow, and yet somehow manages to come out a gorgeously reticent pop song that makes every other record that came out this week feel a little less adventurous -- and nowhere as emotionally resonant. It's stunning. Take That -- "Love Love" The latest single from the revamped electropop Take That sounds more like Gary Numan fronting The Killers than it does the band responsible for "Greatest Day," but the group's recent musical reinvention is one of many reasons why they're so damn relevant. "Love Love" is the lead single for X-Men: First Class . The Grates -- "Turn Me On" After two well-received albums, Australian indie-pop duo The Grates decided they needed to live a little -- so they moved to Brooklyn and pledged to stay until a third album was in the can. That record, Secret Rituals , is likely the one they needed to make: "Turn Me On" makes good on the title of their 2008 album Teeth Lost, Hearts Won ; it's wrought with fear, not paralyzed by it. Ford & Lopatin -- "World Of Regret" The debut album by Ford & Lopatin is called Channel Pressure , and it comes out today along with this video for "World of Regret," a hyper-animated clip that's probably more acid trip than acid house. Fans of carnival posters with dolphins on them -- or airbrushed wolf sweatshirts, for that matter -- will revel in its ironic artistic merit.

Norman Brannon is a pop critic, musician, and author based in New York City. He presents a weekly music update here on Towleroad and writes regularly at Nervous Acid .

In the wake of the U.S. housing crisis that began in 2007 and still reverberates across the country today, as many as 12 million families may lose their homes to foreclosure. Our national homeownership rate could well drop from a high of over 69 percent in 2004 to below 64 percent by the time we are done, which would be the lowest rate since 1968. All this is happening while nearly 100 million Americans live in households spending more than 30 percent--and many more than 50 percent--of their incomes on shelter. This is hardly a path to encourage what for many is part and parcel of the American Dream. Nor need it be. Evidence abounds that lower-income homeowners benefit from well-designed affordable homeownership programs, many of which are weathering the foreclosure crisis reasonably well. For example, a 2009 examination of the foreclosure experiences of five city-based affordable homeownership programs in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco found that out of nearly 9,000 low-income families who turned to these programs to purchase their homes, the overall default rate was below 1 percent. All of these lending programs boasted default rates below the average for their cities. Similarly, a recent report on New York City's affordable homeownership program showed only 13 foreclosures out of more than 20,000 homes sold to low-income buyers since 2004. Research confirms these are not isolated successes. The University of North Carolina Center for Community Capital compared the performance of home loans in a large, national portfolio of 36 lenders' prime-rate mortgages offered to lower-income and minority borrowers, to that of subprime home loans in a mortgage industry database that covers about two-thirds of the market. Their analysis of borrowers with similar profiles (such as comparable lending risk factors, the size of down payments, and local property market conditions) shows that the borrowers who obtained subprime loans were three to five times as likely to default as their counterparts who had received the prime, affordable mortgages. Of particular note: The study found that adjustable rate mortgages, prepayment penalties, and broker origination were features associated with increased risk of default, with the layering of these features generally magnifying default risk (see Figure 1). These risky features are more commonly found among the subprime and toxic mortgages that precipitated the housing crisis, and avoided in homeownership programs that work. Unfortunately, many business leaders and policymakers may be leaping to a flawed conclusion based on the massive numbers of foreclosures. Some seem to believe that we should give up on efforts to help working families become homeowners. Not only is that view a misreading of what went wrong, it is also blind to many things that have gone right in the homeownership area--even amid the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression. In short, the salient lessons from the research and programs we have reviewed are these: The irresponsible surge in subprime lending from 2001 to 2007 cannot be blamed on lower-income borrowers or on federal, state, and local affordable homeownership programs that worked to help increase homeownership among historically underserved borrowers during the prior decade. The subsequent foreclosure epidemic also cannot lead us to the specious notion that lower- and moderate-income families should have never been owners to begin with. Examples abound of consumer-oriented homeownership programs that, by contrast with predatory loans, work well for low- and moderate-income homebuyers. This is not to say that there were not borrowers who consciously took out loans that were high risk for their particular income or assets, or that there was no fraud or misrepresentation by borrowers. But the evidence is overwhelming that subprime risky lending was driven by mortgage brokers and investment banks eager to originate high-priced loans, package them up as Triple A-rated mortgage-backed securities for sale to institutional investors worldwide, and take away lucrative fees in the process. High-risk mortgage features were much more common among the subprime mortgages they peddled--predatory mortgages that were frequently targeted at lower-income and minority borrowers. Federal Reserve Board Governor Ned Gramlich said it best when he asked: Why are the most risky loan products sold to the least sophisticated borrowers? The question answers itself. The least sophisticated borrowers are probably duped into taking these products. But that does not explain how lenders, policymakers, regulators, and investors lost sight of the difference between making mortgages possible and making as many mortgages as possible. Sensible policymaking requires a clear understanding of the real facts of a situation. This paper will provide a short, direct summary of the studies, data, and other available evidence regarding home mortgage products and programs designed to build homeownership among first-time homebuyers in our minority and lower-income communities and then evaluate what works. As will be demonstrated in the pages that follow, many affordable housing programs, including Community Reinvestment Act lending by regulated financial institutions worked as intended . These successes can help point the right way forward out of the U.S. housing crisis. David M. Abromowitz is a Senior Fellow and Janneke Ratcliffe is a Fellow at American Progress

In the wake of the U.S. housing crisis that began in 2007 and still reverberates across the country today, as many as 12 million families may lose their homes to foreclosure.

By Brad Wilmouth | May 10, 2009 9:42 PM EDT On Friday's Special Report with Bret Baier, FNC correspondent Molly Henneberg highlighted the controversial decision by Notre Dame to invite the pro-choice President Obama to speak and be awarded an honorary degree. Henneberg filled in viewers on recent remarks by Archbishop Raymond Burke of the Vatican Supreme Court as the Catholic Church official voiced disapproval of Obama's planned appearance. Henneberg: "He does not think Notre Dame, a Catholic university, should have invited President Obama to give the commencement address on May 17. And he does not think the university should present the pro-choice President with an honorary degree." By Brad Wilmouth | May 9, 2009 6:35 PM EDT On Friday's Hannity show on FNC, correspondent Ainsley Earhardt filed an in depth report on the plight of farmers in California who are starving for water, exacerbated by a federal court which ordered that one of their sources of water be shut down due to fears that irrigation would harm an endangered species of fish, the delta smelt. Earhardt began: "California's Central Valley is considered by many to be the richest and most productive farmland in the nation. But this land is being threatened by the small, harmless-looking minnow called the delta smelt. Recently, it has landed on the endangered species list, causing a federal court to shut down vital pumps to farmers to help preserve it." A shot was soon shown of Earhardt walking on dry ground that used to be a canal full of water until environmentalists convinced a federal court to shut off the water supply: "This was a canal full of gushing water irrigating the farmland here in the San Joaquin Valley. But as you can see, it is all dried up. The pumps were turned off after environmentalists won a federal court case." By Brad Wilmouth | May 6, 2009 8:18 AM EDT On Thursday's Countdown show, Michael Musto of the Village Voice made an appearance to help MSNBC host Keith Olbermann lambast Miss California, Carrie Prejean, because of her expression of opposition to same-sex marriage. After Olbermann set up the segment by revealing that Prejean had received breast implants paid for by the Miss California organization, Musto made a number of crude sexual jokes, and even cracked that she was like a "Klaus Barbie Doll," presumably a reference to Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie , who was a Gestapo officer responsible for thousands of deaths during World War II. Referring to the Miss California organization, Musto cracked: "They also paid for Carrie to cut off her penis, and sand her Adam`s Apple and get a head to toe waxing. I know for a fact that Carrie Prejean was Harry Prejean, a homophobic man, who liked marriage so much, he did it three times. Now he`s a babe who needs a brain implant. Maybe they could inject some fat from her butt. Oh, they have? By Brad Wilmouth | May 4, 2009 12:18 AM EDT On ABC's World News Saturday, and the same day's CBS Evening News, correspondents suggested that conservative positions on social issues were responsible for the Republican party's recent electoral misfortunes, as the two programs filed stories about an appearance in Arlington by Jeb Bush, Eric Cantor and Mitt Romney as part of an effort to rebuild the party's appeal. ABC cited a recent ABC News / Washington Post poll showing only 21 percent of Americans identify themselves as Republicans, while CBS cited a Pew Research poll finding the number had dropped from 30 percent in 2004 to 23 percent currently. After a soundbite of Jeb Bush explaining that Republicans needed to spend more time "listening," "learning," and "upgrading our message," ABC's Rachel Martin contended that "That means moving hot-button social issues like abortion and gay marriage to the side, and shifting the focus to health care, education and the economy." And, ignoring the fact that a substantial number of moderate House Democrats have taken conservative positions on issues like guns and abortion to win in their own conservative leaning districts, CBS's Kimberly Dozier more directly charged that conservative positions on such issues by Republicans had hurt the party: "The trio notably avoided controversial touch stones like gun rights or abortion, which are blamed for driving away moderates and independents." Notably, 65 House Democrats recently sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder stating their opposition to a new assault weapons ban. By Brad Wilmouth | April 30, 2009 4:56 AM EDT On Wednesday's Countdown show, which aired at 9:00 p.m. after President Obama's news conference, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann viciously slammed Republican Congresswoman Virginia Foxx for claiming that murder victim Matthew Shepard - whom the current hate crimes bill is named after - was targeted out of a desire to commit robbery rather than because of anti-gay sentiment by his attacker, contradicting the conventional wisdom that the grisly murder was a hate crime. The MSNBC host was so outraged at the North Carolina congresswoman that he named her as the night's "Worst Person in the World" and showed particular venom toward her, even suggesting she should resign. Olbermann: "She is at best callous, insensitive, criminally misinformed. At worst she is a bald-faced liar. And if there is a spark of a human being in there somewhere, she should either immediately retract and apologize for her stupid and hurtful words or she should resign her seat in the House." On the 11:00 p.m. special edition of Hardball, Chris Matthews and guests Joan Walsh of Salon and MSNBC political analyst Michelle Bernard also lambasted Foxx for her claim, with Walsh contending that she was either "lying" or "ignorant," and Matthews calling Foxx's words "rough stuff." Walsh: "She's a hoax, Chris. She disgraced herself today. That was inaccurate. And what I really don't know is whether she's lying - she knows the facts and she's lying - or whether she's so ignorant and arrogant that she didn't need to delve into the facts." But, on the November 26, 2004, 20/20, ABC host Elizabeth Vargas ran a report in which a number of figures tied to the case, including the prosecutor, were interviewed, and made a credible case that Shepard was targeted by Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson not because of anti-gay sentiment, but because McKinney was high on methamphetamines, giving him unusual violent tendencies as well as a desire for cash to buy more drugs. Vargas not only found that a meth high can lead to the kind of extreme violence perpetrated against Shepard, but that McKinney had gone on to similarly attack another man, causing a skull fracture, very soon after his attack on Shepard. Additionally, McKinney's girlfriend and another friend of McKinney's even claimed that McKinney himself has bisexual tendencies, although McKinney himself denied it. Vargas appeared on the November 19, 2004, The O'Reilly Factor on FNC and summarized her findings: By Brad Wilmouth | April 26, 2009 5:30 PM EDT On Friday's Countdown show, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann and Newsweek's Jonathan Alter seemed to take turns reining in each other's conspiracy theories as the two discussed the latest on former Vice President Cheney's request for the release of classified information regarding the results of waterboarding al-Qaeda detainees. Alter charged that former Vice President Cheney is attacking President Obama's national security policies so that his own popularity will be "resurrected" if there is another 9/11-style attack, as the Newsweek editor called Cheney's behavior "sick": Alter: It`s the former Vice President who is becoming a forlorn and, I think, soon to be even further disgraced figure. But this is his bid for resurrection. Because what he is betting on - and this is the sick thing to me, Keith - is that if there's another attack that he will then be back as a huge and important figure who predicted that this would happen if we stopped torturing. And this is his bid for historical resurrection. Olbermann assumed Alter was charging that Cheney desires another 9/11 attack for his own benefit, and actually seemed to halfway defend Cheney, prompting Alter to clarify that he did not actually think the former Vice President was hoping for another attack, but he also contended that it was "not a very patriotic thing to do" for Cheney to call President Obama "weak": By Brad Wilmouth | April 25, 2009 4:30 PM EDT On Saturday's Fox News Watch, conservative panelist Jim Pinkerton pointed out that, contrary to the impression given by the mainstream media, President Barack Obama's approval rating, as measured by Gallup, is relatively low compared to his recent predecessors for the 100-day mark, and is even below where President George W. Bush was after his first 100 days. Pinkerton observed: "Judith Klnghoffer, writing for the History News Network, made the point that Obama actually ranks seventh of the last nine presidents in Gallup poll opinion ratings. So seventh out of nine isn't so good." Judith Klinghoffer's article, "Obama's Polls Trail Those of W.; Gallup Covers it Up," notes that Bush's approval rating taken by Gallup stood at 62 percent after his first 100 days, while Obama's currently stands at 56 percent. A few minutes later, moderator John Scott returned to the subject: By Brad Wilmouth | April 24, 2009 3:07 AM EDT On Wednesday's The O'Reilly Factor, comedian and FNC contributor Dennis Miller quipped that any President who chose to let Los Angeles get attacked by terrorists instead of using information obtained from waterboarding should be "impeached because you're crazy at that point." He also optimistically theorized that "I don't think Barack Obama is anywhere near crazy." Miller: "But if you're telling me, if you're the President and they say, 'Listen, they wanted to blow up L.A., we got some information out of this guy and we saved L.A.,' and you look and say, 'Well, I'm not going to use it. We're going to let L.A. go,' then you've got to be impeached because you're crazy at that point. And I don't think Barack Obama is anywhere near crazy." As the conversation turned to President Obama's friendly reaction toward Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez and other left-wing, anti-America world leaders, Miller quipped that Obama "doesn't have to spoon this mook." Concerned with the image that such public cordiality would send to those who fight against tyranny, he continued: "Imagine how it breaks the spirit of a freedom fighter to look up and see Barack Obama in a pas de deux with this pig. It's unbelievable to me." Miller: By Brad Wilmouth | April 23, 2009 2:11 PM EDT On Wednesday's Countdown show, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann mocked Ronald Reagan as "dead," and called him a "lousy President." After reading a quote from Warren County, Ohio, commissioner Mike Kilburn proclaiming his intention not to use any of the federal stimulus money, citing Reagan's famous line that "government is the problem," Olbermann shot back: "Uh, Commissioner Kilburn, Reagan's dead and he was a lousy President." The MSNBC host also slammed moderate Democratic Senator Ben Nelson as the day's "Worst Person in the World" because the Nebraska Democrat dared to lump Olbermann and fellow MSNBC liberal Rachel Maddow in with conservatives like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, as Nelson charged that both conservative and liberal hosts spread misinformation to their viewers. Olbermann, who has a history of repeating incorrect or distorted information on his show, and who also once depicted an image of Rush Limbaugh as a target of gunfire, charged that Limbaugh "supports racism and encourages violence," and that FNC's Glenn Beck "makes up stuff," as the MSNBC host indignantly answered Nelson: "Thanks for the opportunity to tell you you don't know what the hell you're talking about. I am fed up with this equating of what we do here to circus performers like Limbaugh and the Fox crowd. We don't make up stuff like Beck does, we don't stalk people like O'Reilly does, we don't support racism and encourage violence like Limbaugh does , we don't recite talking points like Hannity does." By Brad Wilmouth | April 21, 2009 10:14 PM EDT On Tuesday's Andrea Mitchell Reports on MSNBC, Mitchell hosted two liberal guests in a discussion about President Obama's national service program and the prospects for more gun control laws being passed by Congress in the near future. Speaking to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Mitchell repeated a grossly inaccurate statistic that 90 percent of guns used by Mexican drug cartels are manufactured in the U.S. Mitchell: "Mr. Mayor, first to you, why not go after the assault weapon ban, as President Calderone in Mexico is calling for? Ninety percent of the weapons used in the drug cartel crimes south of the border are said to have originated in the United States." But, as previously documented by Mike Sargent, FNC's William LaJeunesse reported on April 2 that 83 percent of guns recovered from Mexican drug cartels are not from the United States. Most of these weapons are never submitted to the U.S. for tracing because they are clearly not American in origin. After Bloomberg advocated passage of an assault weapon ban, but later indicated that almost all those killed using guns each day are killed using "illegal handguns," Mitchell did not take the opportunity to challenge the Mayor on just how much impact an assault weapon ban could have if such guns are are so rarely the weapon of choice by criminals. She then moved on to set up New York's Democratic Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy to promote the passage of more gun laws. Mitchell: "And, Mr. Mayor, you mentioned Virginia Tech, Columbine anniversary was yesterday. Only weeks ago, we had the killings of police officers in Pittsburgh and in Oakland. Congresswoman McCarthy, is there any chance that something will be done in Congress? And also the gun show loophole which is sitting out there?" By Brad Wilmouth | April 20, 2009 5:47 PM EDT On Friday's Hannity show on FNC, host Sean Hannity challenged former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw to speak out in response to Janeane Garofalo's recent tirade on MSNBC host Keith Olbermann's Countdown show on Thursday, a screed which seemed to have Olbermann's approval as he appeared to agree with her accusations of racism against Tax Day Tea Party participants. By Brad Wilmouth | April 20, 2009 1:44 PM EDT On Friday's Hannity show on FNC, host Sean Hannity played an audio clip of liberal CNN contributor Paul Begala as he was interviewed on the April 15 Imus in the Morning, in which Begala engaged in name-calling against Tax Day Tea Party participants: "Why are they out there whining with this Tea Party thing? Just a bunch of wimpy, whiny, weasels who don't love their country and don't want to support - there are guys at Walter Reed who gave their legs for my country, and they're whining because they have to write a check?" He went on to single out FNC's Hannity and Neil Cavuto before Imus stepped in to defend them. Begala: "Mr. Cavuto, Mr. Hannity, all the rest of those guys, they have representation, they just lost an election - that's not tyranny, that's democracy." After Imus defended Cavuto and Hannity, and called Hannity a patriot, Begala shot back: "Then tell him to pay his taxes and support our country and stop whining about it." After playing the clip, Hannity held a discussion with FNC's Kimberly Guilfoyle and conservative columnist S.E. Cupp. Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Friday, April 17, Hannity show on FNC: By Brad Wilmouth | April 20, 2009 12:11 AM EDT ABC's World News programs on Friday and Sunday highlighted "frank comments by Republicans" who indicated either an admission to having reservations over, or who called on a reversal of, the Republican party's conservative stance on social issues. On Friday, Charles Gibson informed viewers that Sarah Palin confessed before a pro-life group to having briefly wondered about having an abortion after she discovered her son Trig would be born with Down's Syndrome. Gibson also highlighted comments by Steve Schmidt, the former campaign manager for John McCain, as he addressed a gathering of the Log Cabin Republicans and "urged the Republican party to support same-sex marriage." On World News Sunday, correspondent Rachel Martin filed a full story on pro-gay comments by both Schmidt and John McCain's daughter Meghan. Anchor Dan Harris introduced the report: "There are some new and rather surprising voices wading into the debate over same-sex marriage. Last night, John McCain's daughter, Meghan, jumped into the fray, and she is not the only Republican suggesting that the party might want to reconsider its stance on this very divisive issue." Martin began her report with a a clip of Meghan McCain boasting that she has many gay friends, and the ABC correspondent then continued: "The daughter of the GOP's most famous maverick headlined a Republican gay rights event, and, while she didn't go so far as to come out for gay marriage, her dad's former campaign manager did. ... even taking on the powerful religious right." By Brad Wilmouth | April 15, 2009 12:49 AM EDT On Tuesday's Countdown show, at the beginning of a segment about the Obama family's pet dog, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann and MSNBC political analyst Craig Crawford, joked about FNC host Bill O'Reilly being a dog. Picking up on Olbermann's earlier suggestion that he gets tired of hearing about presidential dogs, Crawford opened the discussion by ribbing the Countdown host about the possibility of the show getting its own pet dog. After Olbermann disagreed, Crawford came back with a lame joke: "Well, you've already got O'Reilly's show. Olbermann responded: "That would be a female dog." The over-the-top name-calling against the FNC host came just minutes after Olbermann used his "Worst Person" segment to slam Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity as he lectured the conservative talk radio hosts that one does not have to "spend every waking hour trying to annihilate" a political figure because of policy disagreements. But Olbermann is well known for devoting a large portion of his program daily for the last several years to slamming President Bush - not only calling Bush a "fascist," but also suggesting last December that Bush administration members, presumably including President Bush himself, deserve to be "in hell" for some of their actions in the Iraq war. Olbermann: " I don't know what, if any religion you belong to, but I suspect you'll agree that people who ignored that many foretellings of preventable death should have a long time to think about it in hell!" By Brad Wilmouth | April 13, 2009 12:55 PM EDT On Friday's World News with Charles Gibson on ABC, substitute anchor Diane Sawyer previewed the same night's special on guns in America, "If I Only Had a Gun," and, on World News, ran a report focusing on how challenging it is to react to a gunman when taken by surprise, even if one is armed. ABC News enlisted the services of police officers to train college students in firearm use and then had the students react to one of the officers as he pretended to be a crazed gunman and burst into a small lecture room. Sawyer informed viewers: "Our training is already more than almost half the states in the country require to carry a concealed weapon." The report documented that all of the trained students performed poorly in trying to defend themselves. Sawyer narrated a clip of one such botched attempt at self-defense: "Joey struggles to get his gun out, but it's stuck in his shirt. He can't even get it out to aim it. Had this event been real, police say Joey would have been killed in the first five seconds." Each of the students taking part appeared to be wearing a T-shirt which the concealed handgun was tucked underneath. But the report only focused on this one narrow scenario in which the law-abiding citizen is taken by surprise by a skilled gunman, while the report ignores other scenarios and crime situations when the record shows that armed citizens do sometimes succeed when forced to confront criminals. In the May 31, 1999, National Review article, "Why New Gun Laws Won't Work," University of Chicago Professor John Lott, author of More Guns, Less Crime, wrote about two then-recent school shooting sprees that were cut short when an armed citizen in each case used his own weapon to capture the gunman. Lott: By Brad Wilmouth | April 10, 2009 2:34 PM EDT During the 7:00 p.m. hour of Saturday's CNN Newsroom, anchor Don Lemon pushed the view that Barack Obama should try to emulate European gun laws as a way of reducing gun violence in America as he discussed the subject with four guests. During an interview with former FBI agent Gregg McCrary, who expressed support for an assault weapons ban, Lemon suggested Obama learn from the Europeans: "The one person who can probably weigh on this and may have the most influence is the President. Since he's over there in Europe now, and they're, you know, they're not perfect, but it seems that their gun laws seem to be at least working in a way that ours are not." While Lemon tried to sound nonpartisan at times - once declaring, "We're just trying to find a solution here. No one is on one side or the other. We just want a solution" - and seemed to try to quell accusations of partisanship and liberal and conservative labels, at one point he seemed to single out conservatives to chide for criticizing liberals for advocating more gun control: Every time we do something on gun control, it always boils down - when it comes to the e-mail, at least - that I get, we get as a response, it's a conservative issue or it's a liberal issue. "Liberals want to ban guns and take away my rights," conservatives say, "this is my right." But no one has the right to terrorize and kill people. And you heard the FBI agent say, people are being killed. Not conservatives or liberals. By Brad Wilmouth | April 8, 2009 6:31 PM EDT Keith Olbermann, whose Countdown show once depicted an image of Rush Limbaugh as a target of gunfire, on Tuesday accused FNC host Glenn Beck of inspiring the recent murder of three police officers in Pittsburgh by Richard Poplawski, and of "personally encouraging Americans to shoot other Americans." (Video of the June 27, 2006, Countdown show with Limbaugh as a target of gunfire can be found here .) Blaming Beck for inciting fear of a gun ban, Olbermann linked the FNC host to the shooting in several plugs. In one example, he referred to Beck as "Harold Hill": "Harold Hill keeps telling the bumpkins that Obama is going to take their guns away. One of them shoots and kills three policemen because he`s convinced Obama is going to take his guns away. Harold Hill does not see the connection." After several plugs in which he suggested the gunman was reacting to Beck's show, Olbermann pulled back only slightly from the accusation as he concluded his "Worst Person in the World" segment: You, Glenn Beck, you personally are encouraging Americans to shoot other Americans. Maybe, especially if you're right about your religion, maybe not this psychotic in Pittsburgh. Maybe he is not your fault. I hope not. But what about the next one, Glenn? You want to cry about something on television. Cry about the next one. Beg him to ignore you. Beg the kids the next one orphans to forgive you. By Brad Wilmouth | April 7, 2009 11:15 PM EDT On Monday's Countdown show, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann seemed to rationalize the actions of the Chile-based Marxist terror group MIR , as he compared one of the group's followers who helped kidnap a Spanish businessman, and who is currently attempting to have Bush administration members indicted in a Spanish court on war crimes charges, to George Washington. In response to FNC's Bill O'Reilly, who last week pointed out that Gonzalo Boye, the attorney in Spain who is trying to have Bush administration members prosecuted, himself spent eight years in a Spanish prison for assisting the MIR, Olbermann suggested that the attorney's involvement with the Chilean terrorist group was justified because the group's aim was to topple former dictator Augusto Pinochet. But Olbermann did not mention that the crime Boye was convicted of being involved in was the 1988 kidnapping of Spanish businessman Emiliano Revilla , who was abducted outside his Madrid home and held eight months for ransom in a collaborated effort between the Chile-based MIR and the Spain-based ETA , another left-wing terror group which has perpetrated bombings and killed many in Spain. Olbermann responded to O'Reilly's complaint that it was a "big omission" for a New York Times article not to mention Boye's history by rationalizing Boye's terrorist history. Olbermann: "Well, no, not as big an omission as forgetting to mention that the man whom Mr. Boye`s collaboration with terrorists targeted was the sadistic Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. This is like Bill-O calling George Washington a terrorist." By Brad Wilmouth | April 7, 2009 11:03 PM EDT On the Monday, March 30, The O'Reilly Factor, FNC host Bill O'Reilly slammed the New York Times for not reporting that an attorney in Spain, Gonzalo Boye, who is trying to have Bush administration members charged with war crimes in a Spanish court, himself has served eight years in prison for "collaborating with terrorists," referring to the Chile-based MIR , and the Spain-based ETA , both left-wing terrorist groups. During his "Talking Points Memo," O'Reilly related: "The action is being driven by a man named Gonzalo Boye, a radical left lawyer in Madrid. On Sunday, the New York Times reported Boye's beef, but did not report this: Boye served almost eight years in a Spanish prison for collaborating with terrorists. He was sentenced in 1996. Now, that seemed to be a mighty big omission by the New York Times, does it not?" But on the same night's Countdown show, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann informed his viewers of the possible indictment in Spain without mentioning Boye and his terrorist connections. Introducing a discussion with George Washington University Professor Jonathan Turley, Olbermann announced: "The first steps towards opening a criminal investigation against the Bush administration about torture is now under way, only it`s not by the U.S. government but by Spain. The New York Times reporting a Spanish court now building a case against six high-level Bush officials." By Brad Wilmouth | April 5, 2009 10:49 PM EDT On Sunday's CBS Evening News, without providing a pro-gun rights view for balance, correspondent Randall Pinkston filed a report which featured the views of two public figures who support an assault weapons ban, including a clip of Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, a New York Democrat and leading supporter of gun control in Congress, as she complained about her efforts being thwarted by the NRA. RANDALL PINKSTON: She ran for Congress, intent on curbing access to guns, but hasn't had much success. REP. CAROLYN MCCARTHY (D-NY) CLIP #1: People say, "Yes, we should have better laws. Yes, we shouldn't have assault weapons." But then it goes away. MCCARTHY CLIP #2: All they hear from is the NRA.

On Saturday's Fox News Watch, conservative panelist Jim Pinkerton pointed out that, contrary to the impression given by the mainstream media, President Barack Obama's approval rating, as measured by Gallup, is relatively low compared to his recent predecessors for the 100-day mark, and is even below where President George W. Bush was after his first 100 days.

The sun is out but the air is still hot, which means summer hasn't ended yet, and before it does, we encourage one more romp in the sand. We've picked 15 great Airbnb beach houses around the country--all you have to do is finish planning. Whether you're going on a major summer vacation or just need a weekend break, these standout beach houses will make your trip memorable. Flip through the gallery above and get inspired to plan your very own beach vacation. Sarra Sedghi is a freelancer based in Athens, Ga.

The sun is out but the air is still hot, which means summer hasn't ended yet, and before it does, we encourage one more romp in the sand. We've picked 15 great Airbnb beach houses around the country--all you have to do is finish planning.

The last time Trump was in Brussels it was for the inauguration of the new Nato headquarters, when his visit was marked by the rough handling of the Macedonian prime minister, as well as his rebuke to fellow Nato members over their defence spending. Some 70 organisations took part in organising the march, representing human rights, feminist and peace movements. "We are opposed to the policies Trump is currently implementing, particularly his sexist, racist and anti-social policies," one participant told the Flemish broadcaster VRT. Major themes represented by the marchers included peace, climate change and migration. "This is not about the man himself," one of the organisers said. "It's about the policies he stands for. "A world where guns are welcome, but refugees and migrants are not. A world where children are being locked up. We are calling for a different kind of society." Relating to the last point, the march featured a row of children, all dressed in white and carrying a soft toy, representing the children of asylum-seekers who have been separated from their parents at the US border and are still being held in detention centres. The Nato summit takes place on 11 and 12 July, and is expected to be a major security operation, as well as a serious cause of traffic disruption in the city.

Relating to the last point, the march featured a row of children, all dressed in white and carrying a soft toy, representing the children of asylum-seekers who have been separated from their parents at the US border and are still being held in detention centres.

A New Yorker of American-Colombian descent, Michael Mejia is a gay artist best known for his hyper-realistic body paintings. Mejia -- whose clients have ranged from New York City school children to celebrities like Claudia Schiffer, Jason Derulo, and Timbaland -- appeared on the third season of Skin Wars , the body painting reality competition hosted by Rebecca Romijn on Game Show Network. On the show, he shared his amazing photo-realism, debuted his flamboyant drag persona (Unleashya), and -- much to the consternation of the judges -- demonstrated his burgeoning penchant for out-of-the-box artistic exploration (for example, by creating elaborate, unexpected props). In this interview, the 26-year-old artist comes out about his HIV status and talks about the rampant stigma, his artistic collaborations, amazingly supportive mother, and the rite of passage that had him literally dangling from hooks piercing his skin. Mejia, above right, brings it as a mentor on Skin Wars: Fresh Paint, with mentee Rachel Mandala (photo by Lisa Rose). Why is the ephemeral nature of body painting so compelling to you? Body painting is almost a Buddhist exercise for me. I've learned through Vipassana silent meditation the three marks of existence: impermanence, suffering, and non-self. I've cultivated the practice of contemplation of impermanence to gain insight into the true nature of reality, which is arising and passing away. All physical and mental events come into being and dissolve. The only constant in life is change, everything comes and goes, like the waves in the ocean, the oxygen we breathe, the blood that travels through our body, life and death. When I body paint, I have an understanding that it too shall pass. I paint with freedom and liberation because I know I can't attach myself to my art. Of course there are times when I create a piece that really speaks to me and I really love, I crave for its eternal existence, and feel pain when it's washed off. But I accept the nature of destruction and learn to move on to the next experience. If only we could all learn to let go of hatred, materialist things, unnecessary attachments, the past, regret -- all things that constrain us from developing into a better society. You did a mural of the legendary Argentinian revolutionary Che Guevara for a school in Oaxaca, Mexico. How did that come about? While I was on my way to film Skin Wars in [Los Angeles], I ran into an incredible artist and good friend Luis Raul, who was traveling the world, making a difference through art. After the show finished filming, I joined him in Mexico. In Juchitan, a small town in Oaxaca, our friend Gotha -- known as the artist of the town -- was commissioned to paint a Che Guevara mural. The stars aligned and I ended up free-handing the face of a hero who desired to create the consciousness of a "new man" driven by moral rather than material incentives, and a world where social equality prevailed. Mejia painted model Marina Kim into an out-of-this-world octopus (photo by Lisa Rose). Mejia creating the face of Che Guevara on a giant mural at an Oaxaca, Mexico, elementary school (photo by Luis Raul). Tell me about having your back pierced with fish hooks. I have done two human suspensions. A suspension is the act of suspending a human body from hooks that have been put through body piercing. The first time was out of curiosity: to have what many claimed to be a euphoric experience. It was definitely a ritual. My closest friends and family were there, and like the Native American Sun Dances, it was my passage into manhood. I was 20 at the time and it was an experience of full emotion, vulnerability, honesty, and trust. The second time... I was exploring pain and suffering and this too was a form of meditation. You spent six years as a teenager in Colombia. Did that period of time living there impact your aesthetic? More than my aesthetic, living in Bogota influenced my entire life, through experiences like sexual cruising with men in public spaces -- since the age of 14 -- and feeling tremendous guilt because of the Catholic tradition. I have made some works of art about this, but they're put away in a folder in a dark closet. It's about time for them to be seen. I want to inspire people to be liberated from fear, to be free of worry about who will say what. We are all here for such a short amount of time, we shouldn't be held back, we should be honest, transparent, and true to ourselves. You were in the top four on Skin Wars. Was it frustrating to get that close and then miss out on the finale? I had a fantastic time exploring different mediums and techniques, and was definitely side tracked from body painting into a more liberated and well-rounded artistic adventure, where I was making crazy props, like the octopus flotation device for the underwater challenge. So I understand the judges' frustration with me for not following the rules. I know Ru Paul judged Skin Wars and hosts Skin Wars: Fresh Paint. But what sparked your own flamboyant drag persona, Unleashya? The girls from RuPaul's Drag Race were competing on episode four, "Miss Skin Wars." I have so much admiration for these queens! They are incredible performers, dancers, singers, artists, fashion designers, make-up artists, entrepreneurs, comedians -- truly well rounded creative minds. I thought it was a perfect time [for] Unleashya. She's a trashy caliente chola . Recently Manila Luzon from Drag Race did [Unleashya's] makeup...and she looked so hot and gorgeous that she needs a new name, one people can actually pronounce and remember! Mejia adorned his mom in full body paint to honor an uncle dying of stomach cancer (photo by Nina Mendez Marti) You seroconverted recently. Was it difficult to accept having HIV? It has certainly been difficult. My initial reaction was fear. I thought I would be ill for the rest of my life and die from it. Fortunately, we are in an era of incredible scientific advancement where HIV is now a manageable condition that people can live with, continue to be healthy, and live a normal life span without complications. The difficult part about being HIV-positive hasn't been accepting the diagnosis, but coping with the absurd amount of stigma that comes along with it. Everyone is full of fear when they think of HIV and it's because of ignorance. This fear is holding people back from getting tested regularly and keeping HIV-positive people from sharing their status. We need to end HIV stigma because stigma is the real illness we should be alarmed by. You're close with your mom. But you didn't end up telling her first, did you? Oh my God, I have the coolest mom in the universe...she truly is my greatest friend. I tell my mother everything. She is incredibly open minded. I body painted her once in honor of her little brother who was dying from stomach cancer, she owned the art on her skin. She owned her naked body, and she served love and joy to all of New York City during NYC Body Painting Day. Mom was the last person I told out of my closest family and friends. She literally collapsed on my legs and cried. But I knew it was because of this same fear coming from misinformation. My sister and I began to break down the facts about what it means to have HIV today and she immediately stood up and started listening. Mom is a very smart woman. She is constantly keeping herself informed. Knowledge is power. I feel empowered and I believe we can end the way people perceive this virus. Today...she said, in a happy tone, "Michael, HIV is simply a virus that can be treated, that's all!" Putting final touches on a model for the show. Coming out about being poz is tough. What made you decide to be open? There are several reasons why I'm coming out. One is because people aren't informed enough about HIV and are still stuck in the trauma that has carried over from previous years. I'm hoping that people will read this, gain perspective and lose the stigma and fear against HIV. Another reason is because I know there are many people out there that have been recently diagnosed and may feel alone -- thinking they are the only ones. But the truth is you are not [alone], there are more than 36 million people living with HIV in the world! And it's OK, we're all in this together and we need to support each other in any way we can. I want people to understand that having HIV is not a death sentence anymore, it's a lifestyle that requires a strict treatment regimen and healthy living. As an artist, has becoming HIV-positive impacted your work in any way? HIV is now in my blood, so I am full of positivity -- contagious positivity, that is -- so of course I have ideas running from my blood through my head all the time about how I want to portray this experience. Onicks models patiently as Mejia creates an eloborate snake design (photo by Brett Saari). What does "living in truth" mean to you? Living in truth is making every step we take a conscious one, living with acceptance, and putting denial aside. It's important to accept the brutal truth of this world and ourselves. If we dig deep within the actions we make and accept who we really are with flaws and all, we can then change ourselves, and reflect that out into the world, and inspire change in others. I feel my vision and dream of helping others has finally come to the surface. I hope my story resonates and makes an impact in the way people choose to live. I want to invite people to start changing now. Are you single or married? I married Kyera Dalessandro, a contestant of Skin Wars season three, at the World Body Painting Festival in Austria. There was an incredible art installation, "Wedding Chapel," by artist Birgit Mortl, where she invited all people to celebrate love with magical creatures, beautiful costumes, body paint, and a view of Worthersee Lake. A faun was in charge of the ceremony; it was an unforgettable moment. There's a video of it on my Instagram. Kyera and I are good friends, soul mates, but not sexual partners. I am surrounded by love, but always seeking more. Perhaps one day, someone will fly with me on my journey. What's next for you? I am constantly traveling around the world working on different projects with many creative people. I hope to collaborate with as many artists as possible to make magic and bring light where ever I go. Stay updated @michaelmejiaart on Instagram/Facebook/Snapchat/Twitter.

A New Yorker of American-Colombian descent, Michael Mejia is a gay artist best known for his hyper-realistic body paintings.

Mexico is bracing itself for a wave of migrants on an unprecedented level after Hurricane Irma left millions of American refugees seeking asylum in neighbouring countries. Over the weekend Hurricane Irma battered parts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina leaving 6.5 million without power, food or shelter. US officials have declared this a humanitarian crisis with one spokesperson telling us "boats have been wrecked, golf courses totalled and we're finding fish in swimming pools. It's going to be months before we'll be able to get them all out". Mexican officials have stepped up border patrols as swarms of migrants begin their journey across Texas. With the numbers of displaced migrants getting higher each day, Mexican officials are anticipating an 'autumn of chaos'. There are already reports of restless refugees looting gun stores and sports shops as lawlessness breaks out across the Southern states. Ricardo Gonzales Jose Miguel, campaigner for the Make Mexico great Again movement told us "The American government is cunning. They're sending the bad ones over; the old ones with golf clothes and the fake ones with bronze bodies. Those people are not welcome over here." He continued "How do we know these guys aren't radicalised? For all we know we could be letting in Baptists, Evangelicals and Moomins who want to rule Mexico with Moomin law. I've seen with my own eyes these swarms all carrying bibles and wearing hippopotamus suits". The UN has warned that only a small portion of illegals crossing the border are 'genuine refugees' seeking asylum with up to 60% believed to be American citizens in search of better food. Words Tom Moore Since you're here ... It may worry you that most of our press is owned by a handful of offshore billionaires. News is increasingly biased, corrupt, or agenda driven. More worrying is the staggering decline in independent, investigative journalism. It costs a lot to produce, so many publications facing an uncertain future can no longer afford to fund it. With nobody to hold the rich and powerful to account, or report on the issues that don't fit with their 'narrative', your help is needed. You can help support free, independent journalism for as little as 50p. Every penny we collect from donations supports vital investigative and independent journalism.

Ricardo Gonzales Jose Miguel, campaigner for the Make Mexico great Again movement told us "The American government is cunning.

Published 1:30 PM, September 19, 2015 Updated 1:30 PM, September 19, 2015 POPE FRANCIS IN CUBA. A vintage cars rushes by a billboard with the portrait of Pope Francis in Havana, Cuba, September 18, 2015, on the eve of the upcoming visit of the Pope to the island. Pope Francis will visit Cuba from September 19 to 22, 2015. Photo by Alejandro Ernesto/EPA VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis heads to Cuba on Saturday, September 19, on the first leg of a trip that will also take him to the United States for his most high-profile overseas visit to date. Landmark speeches to the US Congress and the UN General Assembly await next week on the 78-year-old Argentine's first trip to a global superpower whose policies he has never hesitated to criticize. But first the leader of the world's 1.3 billion Roman Catholics will become the third pope to have touched down in communist Cuba in less than two decades. This visit will have added significance as it comes in the aftermath of a historic Cuba-US rapprochement which has allowed diplomatic relations to be restored thanks to secret contacts that Francis, the first pope from Latin America, helped facilitate. Cuban leader Raul Castro will be at Havana airport to greet him and Francis is expected to also meet Raul's predecessor and brother Fidel during his 3-night stop on the Caribbean island. Although he rejects as absurd the notion that he is some kind of Marxist, the pope does share with the Castro brothers a radical critique of global capitalism, though this does not prevent him from working to coax their one-party regime into greater respect for civil rights and religious freedom. In a message broadcast on the island ahead of his trip he praised the island's spirit in the face of adversity. "It does me a lot of good and helps me to think of your faith in the Lord, of the spirit with which you confront the difficulties of each day," he said. "I want to be among you as a missionary of compassion." (READ: Pope Francis prepares for most political trip yet ) Prisoner release Francis begins his visit with a speech at the airport on arrival, after which he has no public engagements ahead of what is a densely-packed schedule for the rest of his stay. As well as Havana, he is due to visit Holguin and Santiago, birthplace of Castro's revolution, following in the footsteps of his immediate predecessors Benedict XVI and John Paul II, who visited in 2012 and 1998, respectively. That such a small state has been smothered with papal attention reflects the importance the Vatican attaches to the fate of the island's Catholics, who have won greater freedoms as part of a diplomatic process in which the Holy See has championed the case for an easing of the US embargo on trade and investment ties with the island. In the run-up to Francis' arrival, the government announced the release of more than 3,500 prisoners, significantly more than were liberated before previous papal visits. While he is sure of a warm welcome in Cuba, the outcome of the US leg of Francis' 10th overseas trip looks more uncertain. For many observers, the dominant themes of Francis's papacy - concern for the poor, his strong stance in favor of action on global warming and his critique of consumerism - can be read as an indictment of much of the American way of life. That was underlined on Friday, September 18, when a Republican lawmaker declared he would be boycotting the pontiff's historic address to Congress in protest over his "leftist" views. "If the pope stuck to standard Christian theology, I would be the first in line," Paul Gosar, who is Catholic, wrote in a post on a conservative website. "But when the pope chooses to act and talk like a leftist politician, then he can expect to be treated like one." Such views are not the only potential source of friction. Special guest While Francis appears to be hugely popular with US Catholics, the scandal over the American Church hierarchy's role in covering up widespread sexual abuse of children by priests is still fresh in many memories, inside and outside of the Church. Francis is sure, however, to be treated as a special guest by many Americans, from the prisoners he will meet in Philadelphia to President Barack Obama, who will greet him personally on his arrival on Tuesday, September 22, at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington. According to Vatican sources, the most important speeches of his trip will see the pope return to familiar themes: the tyranny of global finance and the evils of the throwaway culture, as well as more consensual questions such as human trafficking, unemployment, war, and the persecution of religious and ethnic minorities. A specific appeal could be for human trafficking for prostitution to be declared a crime against humanity. While in New York, the pontiff will preside over a multi-faith service at Ground Zero against terrorism and in memory of the victims of the September 2001 attacks on the United States. Some 1.5 million people are expected for the final mass of the trip, in Philadelphia at the end of an international festival of Catholic families. - Jean-louis De La Vaissiere and Angus Mackinnon, AFP/Rappler.com

September 19, 2015 POPE FRANCIS IN CUBA.

As the Syrian conflict enters its eighth year, various commentators, and indeed governments and leaders, are trying to write it off as nearly over. Some are focused narrowly on the territorial defeat of the so-called Islamic State (IS); others have made the simplistic judgement that Bashar al-Assad's regime is closing in on victory . Both sides are wrong. The world's attention has turned away from the hundreds of thousands dead and the millions bombed, displaced and starved under siege. Meanwhile, there is no longer one Syria, just a fragmented country locked in a seemingly intractable state of violence. With IS greatly diminished, control of Syria is effectively divided between three sides: the Damascus government and its backers, opposition/rebel factions, and Kurdish forces. Here's my review of where they stand, and what might happen to them in 2018. The government The Assad regime seemed doomed to defeat in summer 2015, but thanks to the intervention of Russia, Iran, Hezbollah and other foreign militias, it now exercises at least nominal control over most of Syria's cities and much of the remaining population. Russian air power headed off a rebel takeover of Damascus, secured the westward route from the capital to the Mediterranean, and helped recapture all of Syria's largest city, Aleppo. Pro-Assad forces have now regained territory in southern and central Syria, most of the Damsacus suburbs, and the opposition stronghold of Homs. Russian, Iranian, Hezbollah and regime-backed troops and militias cleared IS from the ancient city of Palymyra , pushed them away from Aleppo, and then pressed on right up to the Iraqi border. Yet Assad still does not control large swaths of the country. There are rebel strongholds from the Jordanian border to the holdout East Ghouta area near Damascus to almost all of Idlib province in the north-west, while Kurdish-held territory in the north and east includes most of Syria's oil and gas fields. In the areas that it does control, even Aleppo, the regime's grip is not entirely secure. Assad's depleted armed forces rely heavily on Iran and Russia. With much of Syria badly damaged and 75% of its GDP gone , Assad needs billions in reconstruction assistance. And while far from isolated in the Arab world and shielded by Russia at the UN Security Council , the regime still hasn't restored secure diplomatic relations with most of the world. The opposition The prospect of the opposition displacing the Assad regime, or even securing representation in a national government, is long gone. Russia and Iran quashed that ambition, aided by the US's relegation to the sidelines and by opposition backers, including Turkey, who preferred to cooperate with Moscow. The opposition's goal is to keep hold of the areas it still governs, including Idlib province and northern Aleppo province. Rebel groups in East Ghouta are still resisting the Assad regime's bombardment and siege. Elsewhere, the Southern Front rebel group has been abandoned by the US-led operations centre, but still holds parts of Dara'a province, including a share of Dara'a city, where the uprising began in March 2011. Beyond the threat of pro-Assad offensives and sieges, the opposition is also tackling the rise of hardline Islamist bloc Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). HTS was created in January 2017 and includes the faction Jabhat al-Nusra, involved in the Syria conflict since 2012 and formerly linked to al-Qaeda. Throughout 2017, HTS seized the military initiative from other factions, notably Ahrar al-Sham, in Idlib province. It is now trying to run civil affairs through a Syria Salvation Government , challenging local councils under the opposition's Syrian Interim Government. The Kurds The conflict has given Syria's Kurdish groups, notably the Kurdistan Democratic Unionist Party (PYD), the opportunity to pursue power, particularly in their Kobani and Cezire cantons in northeast Syria along the Turkish and Iraqi borders. Having survived IS's onslaught in 2014-2015, marked by the defence of Kobani city, the Kurds have since defeated the group. In autumn 2015, the US switched its support from rebels to a newly created Kurdish group, the Syrian Democratic Front (SDF). The SDF's reach - which includes former IS capital, Raqqa - now extends from eastern Aleppo province - where it faces both pro-Assad and rebel frontlines - across Raqqa and Hasakah provinces to the eastern Deir ez-Zor province, where it is adjacent to advancing pro-Assad units supported by Russia. The PYD ascendancy is far from secure. For now, the US is continuing to supply arms and special forces, but it is wary of Turkey's hostility to the SDF and Russia's backing of the Assad regime against a "federal" Syria. The regime, unsettled by the Kurdish hold on valuable assets such as oil and gas fields, has promised a showdown if there is no SDF withdrawal. And now Ankara has delivered on its promise of a campaign against the Afrin canton in the northwest and on other Kurdish-held areas such as the city of Manbij. What next? The Russian-led political process has yielded the declaration of so-called "de-escalation zones" covering opposition territory from the north-west to the south. But Pro-Assad forces (and in some cases, Russian warplanes) have repeatedly subjected the zones to attacks and sieges. In December 2017, one assault finally overwhelmed an opposition pocket near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights . The months-long effort to starve and bombard East Ghouta into submission continues, and the campaign for the big prize of Idlib province is underway. Russia is still calculating the extent of its support for Bashar al-Assad's personal rule. Moscow's intervention comes at a high cost: it saps a fragile Russian economy, Putin's political capital, and claims Russian lives. That's why Vladimir Putin declared a token "withdrawal" at the end of 2017 - just before Russia confirmed the permanence of its naval base at Tartus in western Syria. Moscow would prefer to share the burden of the billions needed for reconstruction, but the international community is unlikely to sign a cheque to prop up a blood-soaked regime. Assad, meanwhile, holds a trump card: there is no alternative. His government is demanding that all opposition territory must be surrendered or recaptured before any meaningful political negotiations can commence. But neither the opposition nor the Kurds are giving up, and there are other forces at work. Turkey is still backing rebel forces in parts of the northwest; Israel is wary of Iran and Hezbollah on the border of the Golan Heights. And even if the Kurds give up their hold on oil and gas fields and even as they face Turkey's military intervention, their pursuit of autonomous rule in at least a share of Syrian Kurdistan will continue. The agenda for 2018 looks like more of the same. Bombing and shelling, including of civilians. Sieges, starvation, and deaths from treatable medical conditions. A Russian-backed disinformation campaign to smear medics and rescuers as puppets of both al-Qaeda and the US. Political gatherings which yield little more than platitudes. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Scott Lucas , Professor of International Politics, University of Birmingham This article was originally published on The Conversation . Read the original article .

As the Syrian conflict enters its eighth year, various commentators, and indeed governments and leaders, are trying to write it off as nearly over. Some are focused narrowly on the territorial defeat of the so-called Islamic State (IS); others have made the simplistic judgement that Bashar al-Assad's regime is closing in on victory .

Solely based on the scant amount of time it dedicates to the issue, the media's coverage of climate change could already be characterized as a major disappointment. When you start looking more closely at whom major news networks and print publications turn to as expert sources, the picture is even more disheartening. This is according to Media Matters , which delved into its previous reports on media coverage of the U.N. climate reports , and on broadcast news' general coverage of climate change , to find that when the media does decide to talk about these issues, the conversation is overwhelmingly dominated by men. The gender gap looks something like this: This is despite the fact that some of the leading figures talking about climate change today are female: They include the U.N. climate chief, Christiana Figueres, along with the current and former heads of the EPA, Gina McCarthy and Lisa Jackson. Of course, as Media Matters acknowledges, this representation problem goes beyond the media: There's a significant female brain drain in the climate sciences. In many cases, the biases are subtle, but it doesn't help that Rush Limbaugh has dismissed two prominent female climate scientists as " babes ," or that women targeted for their climate-based research are often the recipients of gender-specific abuse. Allison Chin, the former president of the Sierra Club, pointed out one of the most unfortunate implications of this disparity: It's women who are going to disproportionately suffer many of the effects of climate change. Chin told Media Matters: The gender imbalance among those quoted on the climate crisis is striking, particularly since women around the world are more vulnerable to the dangers of climate disruption and among the most active in the movement for solutions. Globally, existing inequalities give women less access and less control over resources and make them more susceptible to the worst effects of extreme weather. The last thing the media should do is amplify that divide by only covering one set of perspectives.

Solely based on the scant amount of time it dedicates to the issue, the media's coverage of climate change could already be characterized as a major disappointment.

Labour has suspended Ian McKenzie , chair of its Lewisham East branch, over tweets he sent in 2015 and 2016. Responding to comments by Thornberry (who was shadow defence secretary at the time of his tweet about her) opposing David Cameron's decision to bomb the terrorist group Islamic State, McKenzie mocked the idea of negotiating with them. "Maybe she'd agree sex slavery to one man only, provided he didn't sell her on or insist on gang rape," he tweeted, in December 2015, as part of a thread asking how one would bargain with IS. He returned to the subject in January 2016: "Emily Thornberry is too old for ISIS. They won't make a sex slave of her. They'll behead her and dump her in a mass grave." What's wrong with these tweets? First, they are misogynistic. They undermine a woman's political argument not with a counter-argument but with imagery of sexual violence being inflicted on her by bloodthirsty men - and then having a pop at her age, to boot. Second, they are disloyal. Thornberry is a Labour shadow cabinet member - a far higher level of seniority than McKenzie, who chairs a constituency branch. Party activists can disagree with their leaders - and very often do - but they can't get away with making rape jokes about them (and nor should they about anyone else, for that matter). On the flipside, as a local party leader, McKenzie has a position of power himself. What example is he setting with these tweets? He's suggesting that this kind of language has a place in modern British politics, and is also suggesting to other activists that rape jokes about women are OK. Well, they're not. Something that the multiple centre-left commentators ( The Times ' Phillip Collins and Telegraph 's Dan Hodges , for example) and fellow Labour politicians (like Baroness Ann Taylor and Ilford South MP Mike Gapes ) defending McKenzie know full well, if only tribalism weren't blinding them in this instance. And no, "but what about John McDonnell's comment about lynching Esther McVey?" doesn't count as an argument. Not unless what you're trying to reveal about yourself is that you only condemn violent misogynistic imagery when it suits your politics. In that case, it's very convincing. > What 24-karat gold chicken wings tell us about the return of food as status symbol

Thornberry is a Labour shadow cabinet member - a far higher level of seniority than McKenzie, who chairs a constituency branch.

Movers and Pacers I woke up from my customary Sunday afternoon nap with one wish: "Baby, please say it's raining." My friend Maurice Garland told me about Movers and Pacers when I first moved to Atlanta, in 2014, and let me know that really ought to "come out and run with them one week." Just come out, no pressure. Since that mention, I followed the running crew's Instagram page but I never participated in their events. I was intrigued, but not that intrigued. The premise behind the group seemed simple enough: 20 to 30 mostly-black, young, Atlanta-based, health-conscious socialites get together every Sunday and run anywhere from two to eight miles. But in the years since I was told about Movers and Pacers, I'd find out that they were much more than just that. They were everywhere . The runners would take up a whole table at Maurice's Hip-Hop trivia night. I'd hear members chatting at movie screenings in the city, plotting their next run. And I'd see them sharing pictures on social media, too. They were like a social club. A secret society that wasn't so secret. An inclusive clan that moved to the beat of its own drum. And I wanted to get to know them, but not like this. I dreaded my Uproxx editor's response when I pitched writing about M&P. Not because I was scared he'd say no, but because I knew what he was going to ask me to do: "You know, it'd be great if you got out and ran with them at some point... for the story. Really get some sensory detail." Which is why I was in my bed on a Sunday afternoon begging my wife to conjure up a weather forecast that gave me an excuse not to run. "Sorry," my wife said, trying to break it to me softly. "Clear skies all day." Dammit. I trudged over to the closet to get my shoes. Movers and Pacers is Senor Kaos' brainchild. Kaos made a name for himself in Atlanta as an MC before transitioning into marketing -- helping artists and brands expand their fan bases in the city and beyond. He was good at his job, but the lifestyle took a toll on him. "I spent my 20s in clubs and restaurants eating wrong food and drinking alcohol," Kaos says. "I wasn't living a healthy lifestyle." His words put a personal face on some significant facts: For a multitude of reasons, black people aren't as healthy as the rest of the nation . We're more likely to have cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, obesity and hypertension and active exercise is an important way to combat these issues. Kaos knew he needed to change his routine so he wouldn't succumb to the habits of late night drinks and wings over client meetings. There was one problem: he wasn't making enough to splurge on $20 gym memberships. He turned to running, but couldn't find a group that made a novice feel welcome. "A lot of the places I went to had people who were running for years and the vibe didn't feel right for me." Instead of getting active, he languished, ignoring his health, until lingering pain over the 2008 passing of the well-loved MC Christopher "Jax" Thurston motivated him to turn his life around. Movers and Pacers The Movers and Pacers crew at the Dr. King National Historic Site Besides being an Atlanta legend, Jax had been a mentor to Kaos. He'd started his own label and even toured with Phife Dawg. Then, on November 4th, 2008, while performing a rap song at Atlanta's infamous music spot, Lenny's Bar, Jax had uttered "hold up, hold up," into the microphone before collapsing on stage. He was pronounced dead as soon as he got to Grady Hospital. The death certificate read "Natural causes related to hypertension." He was 32 years old. As the fifth anniversary of Thurston's death approached, Kaos decided to finally take his health seriously. But he needed friends to help keep him motivated. So he formed a group. He called up music industry friends -- many of whom had known Jax -- and convinced them to run together in November 2013 to commemorate the MCs life and influence on the city's culture. The group met up on the Sunday after Thanksgiving 2013, at Grady High School in Atlanta, GA, and ran for a few miles. They snapped a picture at the end of their run to signify their success and post the pic on social media. Movers and Pacers was officially born. I was the fat kid in middle school. Well, I'm not sure if anyone else saw me as the fat kid... but I certainly felt like it. I was around 5'8" and knocking on 200 pounds in 8th grade. Now I was a relatively athletic fat kid -- I could play basketball for hours and handle a tennis match without much worry. But that didn't matter. I was still fat. And in middle school that was a defining characteristic. Anyone who's ever been fat has a handful of memories of being fat that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. I remember my 8th grade gym class doing fitness tests where we'd all attempt excercises one-by-one while the rest of the class watched. It was a recipe for humiliation. One of the exercises was pull-ups. I watched as all the guys in the class executed their pull-ups. Some did half a dozen. Others made it up to 10, and with each successful rep I sunk deeper into the crowd, tightening my body as if the gym teacher might somehow miss me. He didn't. I can still remember the rest of the class laughing while I gripped the overhead bar, my arms fully extended and my toes tickling the ground for what felt like seven years. In my darkest, most embarrassing moments, I'm still hanging on to that bar, unable to lift myself even an inch off the ground. The next day was laps around the track and I'll never forget setting foot on the gravelly dirt to begin my lap. There were two pretty girls, classmates of mine, standing right in front of me. They turned around, saw me, and laughed. Not because I was moving slowly. But just because I was there. Because I was fat and trying. I walked off the track after two steps and didn't finish my lap. Just sat on the grass and waited for class to end. I thought about those two moments while getting ready to run with Movers and Pacers. I'm not as big as I was when I was a kid, and I go to the gym almost every day, but I don't run . Ever. I ran when I was 19 for, like, two weeks and quit. I just don't like it. I can run playing a sport, but running a long distance for fun is torture. So I knew it'd be a struggle to run any amount of mileage. And I couldn't stop thinking about middle school, being watched and laughed at. Point being: Exercising in front of people still gives me anxiety. And now I would be doing the thing I was worst at in front of strangers. A lot of them. Movers and Pacers The runners that Kaos gathered for the initial Movers and Pacers jog in 2013 had one thing in common. They were all connected to the Atlanta social scene, mostly through the music industry. So when they started running and posting the outings on social media, their followers started to notice and wanted to get involved. "It was a small group of people but it was all influencers," said Shay Lawson, one of the original runners who has become the de facto organizer of Movers and Pacers since Kaos moved to Oregon in 2015. "We all have followers. The same way the word would spread about a party, it would spread about the running group. There weren't a bunch of urban runnings crews so it took off organically." Now M&P has its own Instagram and Facebook pages with thousands of followers and a group that meets every Wednesday for sprints in Atlanta's Fourth Ward. The biggest crowd, however, comes out for the Flagship run -- a long-distance jog through downtown Atlanta. The run starts and ends in the middle of the popular Atlantic Station shopping center. Serious runners meet at 1pm -- an hour earlier than the main group -- and jog for twice as long as everyone else. In the past, M&P would have different routes for beginners and newcomers but now everyone who meets at 2 runs the same length, as a way to push the newcomers. That's where I came in. As I laced up, I hyped myself up to leave the house, trying to embrace the idea of being a runner. "You know, this might be the way to get me to do a 5K, finally," I told my wife while double-knotting my shoes to make sure I didn't destroy an ankle. I'd been telling her for a few years I wanted to run a 5K for various charity events but I'd never taken a single step to make it happen. Sure, it was on my bucket list, but actually doing it seemed as attainable as grabbing a handful of fog. "Hey, you never know," my wife said before I walked out the door. "You just never know." I met the M&P crew on a seasonably warm Sunday, right after saying a quick prayer for my knees and well-being. I immediately noticed the familial environment they champion. Everyone was all smiles and encouragement. I made it known I was a beginner and they assured me I could make the run. In fact, I met several people who were also from Mississippi including one person I went to high school with and another I went to summer camp with. Already. Family. Then there was Shay -- a natural leader who gathered everyone in a circle to let us know that 1) she wasn't going to tell us how far we were going to run that day and 2) we could finish the run. "We're going to go down 17th, hang a left on Peachtree, keep going and turn around when you see the Chik-Fil-A" The group started to murmur. This is the part where I should say that I've only been in Atlanta for a few years and there are a million "Peachtree" streets and I had no clue how far I'd actually be going. Probably for the best. I just went along with it. And off we were. I immediately fell to the back mostly because running for the first time meant adjusting pretty much everything from the drawstrings of my shorts to my headphones to my tiny backpack, to make sure I could be comfortable and not have too many moving parts. I stayed with the pack for the first half mile or so then things started to fall apart. The run was mostly uphill and my legs started burning. Then Shay ran up to the corner of 17th and Peachtree so she could high five everyone as we passed, encouraging us to keep pushing. It was nice, but I still couldn't keep up. By about 20 minutes into the run, I was alternating between very slow jogs and straight-up walking. Not only that, but I was on one of the busiest streets in downtown Atlanta. I started to think about middle school and how all of those cars were my new audience, watching me struggle through the city like I was trying to do pull-ups one more time. I knew I had to block them out and... where the hell was that damn Chik-Fil-A? Nothing makes a journey feel longer than the persistent mystery of its ending. I felt like the Chik-Fil-A would never come. Just as I started wondering about Uber prices, the heart of the Movers and Pacers was revealed. My friend Maurice had attended this week's run and was leading the pack, so I met him heading back to Atlantic Station as I was still trying to finish the first leg. He dapped me as we crossed paths and offered a loud "You got this, brotha." Then, one-by-one, as I got closer to Chik-Fil-A -- which had finally emerged like a mirage in the desert -- people heading back the other direction high-fived me and encouraged me with a chorus of "almost there" and "you're doing it!" Every. Single. Person. When we first chatted, Shay told me about runners who felt so connected to M&P that they would come out and run in times of intense tragedy. She had stories of one guy running with the group after his mother died in a car accident and another woman running a day after her father passed. It sounded crazy at the time, but as I neared the Chik-Fil-A I got it. The encouragement and genuine love -- even for a stranger -- in the middle of a grueling personal challenge is a feeling that's irreplaceable. They were pushing me to the finish, lifting me up high enough for my chin could touch that pull-up bar. The author, with the Movers and Pacers crew. I (eventually) made it to Chik-Fil-A and immediately turned around to get back to Atlantic Station. The return trip wasn't so bad -- I knew where the endpoint was. Plus it was downhill. I'd alternate between jogging and walking until my legs stopped responding. The bottoms of my feet felt like sandpaper. My calf muscles were bulging and my right big toe felt like it was going to pop off into the middle of Atlanta traffic. As I finally approached Atlantic Station, about 40 minutes after the run started, my pace had downgraded to a hobble. Just as I resigned myself to the idea of walking the rest of the way, I heard my name, just a faint whisper over the music in my headphones. Then I heard it again. It was Shay and Maurice down the street. Come on! You can do it! Almost there! So I ran. It was only about half a block to the finish, but I ran it. I didn't immediately notice that the rest of the runners were behind Shay and Maurice, hands extended in a line for me to high five them as I finished. They all clapped. They all cheered. They all celebrated. I bent over, hands on my knees to catch my breath. Maurice walked over to me. "Hey, man, you ran a 5K and didn't even know it" "What?" I asked. "That was three and some miles. One point eight there and one point eight back...it's a 5K." I let a smile creep onto my face in between my deep panting. Word? 5K? After each run, M&P gathers for a pic, takes time for announcements to see what events and endeavors the rest of the group can support and, finally, a huddle with a chant. These days, it ends in a "Wakanda Forever." By the time we finished that routine, I got it. I understood how a running group can be more than a running group. It's health. It's self-care. Family. This is what Movers and Pacers has done for an entire community. This is how a group of black people have gotten together to better themselves and the people around them. And they built the organization on a foundation of togetherness, love, and support. I lay in my bed that night, my thighs and feet still throbbing. But hovering out beyond the pain was pride and little lingering disbelief: 5K? Me? I may not have run the whole thing, but I definitely completed it. I couldn't sleep I was so happy. I just lay in bed smiling and staring at the ceiling until I heard the first droplets of a rain shower pattering on my roof. ]]> https://uproxx.com/life/movers-and-pacers-atlanta-running/feed/ 0 runners-grid-uproxx.jpg 'Black Panther' Turns Hollywood's White Gaze On Its Head https://uproxx.com/movies/black-panther-hollywood-white-gaze-trope-analysis/ https://uproxx.com/movies/black-panther-hollywood-white-gaze-trope-analysis/#comments Wed, 21 Feb 2018 16:35:15 +0000 http://uproxx.com/?p=401105682

Yesterday hundreds of thousands marched in Mexico city and tens of thousands more in dozens of other cities across Mexico to protest at the kidnapping of 43 student-teachers from Ayotzinapa. T

When I was a young person living in Washington, D.C., in 1995, a well-known local hairstylist was driving home one night and her car hit a tree. Paramedics rushed to the scene and cut off her clothes in an attempt to provide lifesaving medical care. When they saw that Tyra Hunter was transgender, the medic swore at Ms. Hunter and stopped all medical treatment. Stopped all medical treatment. Tyra Hunter died later that night, and today, the discrimination and abuse that caused Tyra Hunter's entirely preventable death are still firmly in place. I could not help but think of Tyra when I read the following comments that are part of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and National Center for Transgender Equality's just-released report, "Injustice at Every Turn." "The fear of being the victim of a hate crime has also meant that I haven't lived completely freely; I know that if people on the street knew that I was born female, I'd be at risk of violence or harassment." "People are suffering in my school. There are so many trans kids that just can't come out because they are afraid." "I have been harassed and physically assaulted on the street. One time, I didn't go to the hospital until I went home, changed [out of feminine] clothes, and then went to the emergency room in male mode. I had a broken collarbone as a result of that attack." These are the words of transgender and gender-nonconforming Americans, and sadly, their experiences are not uncommon. The hunger to be visible, to share experiences of harm and resiliency is notable, as this became the largest ever study of its kind. A total of 6,500 transgender and gender-nonconforming people from all 50 states and several territories shared with us their experiences of discrimination. The data we collected was shocking. I know firsthand, from my friends and my work at the Task Force, that discrimination remains a tragic fact of life for far too many in our community. I know that if we do not act in stereotypical "male" or "female" ways, many take this nonconformity as an open invitation to harass or act violently toward us. Even with all I have seen over the years, the picture coming out of our study is deeply disturbing. Transgender individuals live in poverty at nearly four times the national rate. They are twice as likely to be unemployed. Over 25% reported that they had lost a job due to their transgender identity. They are twice as likely to be homeless, four times more likely to be HIV-positive, and perhaps most appallingly, 41% have attempted suicide, more than 26 times the rate (1.6%) of the general population. These are not problems that any of us who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, or civil rights-minded, progressive, or feminist can afford to ignore. People of color consistently experienced the greatest degree of discrimination, especially African-Americans. They had four times the unemployment rate of the nation, and had over 40 times the general population rate of HIV infection. This must stop. Let us all make this the moment that the civil rights, progressive, feminist, and LGBT rights movements wake up and change the way we do our work. No longer can the needs of transgender and gender-variant people in our society, in our organizations, and in our communities be pushed to the side. It is literally killing people and we must work together to stop it. While great strides have been made for equality in the last several decades, most recently with the powerful repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, the last letter in "LGBT" has simply not seen the same progress. Indeed, the successful repeal of DADT will still not allow out transgender people to serve in the military. Sadly, even some members of the lesbian, gay and bisexual community turn our backs on transgender people. And yet our struggle is one that is shared. Each of us has a gender identity and gender expression. and those of us who diverge from the norm are subject to the same discrimination. Feminine gay men and masculine or androgynous lesbians are far more likely to be discriminated against than gay men and lesbians whose behavior and appearance conforms more to societal norms about how men and women "should" act. Simply by being gay, lesbian, or bisexual, we are breaking society's rules about what it means to be a man or woman. Transgender people face this same prejudice, yet taken to the life-threatening extreme. This is about all of us. For those who do not think so, I hope this information will be a wake-up call and an opportunity to examine their feelings and yes, biases, that prevent our community from uniting in the ways we must to achieve equal treatment for all of us. This report is a clarion call to all of us, and its findings cannot be ignored. We must stand against all forms of discrimination and end injustice for all LGBT people, wherever it exists. Together, we can eliminate this prejudice and work toward a society where we are all truly free to be who we are. There is a role for each of us in reckoning with the pervasive inhumanity we've documented in this report. Transgender people are discriminated against because they don't act or look in a way that fits with conventional ideas about gender. All men, women and children - regardless of how they identify - are hurt by these rigid gender codes. They suppress authentic expression throughout our society and negatively impact relationships across gender, as family, friends, coworkers and spouses "police" acceptable gender expression. If there was a ray of light in our study findings, it is in the resilience of transgender people and their families. Contrary to popular mythology, transgender people often maintain ties with their families of origin and their spouses, partners and children. We found that family acceptance had a protective affect against suicide, HIV, homelessness and other negative consequences of discrimination for study participants. This finding affirms what we know as advocates working on the front lines: families are enormously burdened by the hostile environments their transgender children, spouses and parents are living in, but they press on. They often strain to find a way out of no way. Over 1,000 people came to Tyra Hunter's funeral in DC. Her high school shop teacher, her parents, her clients, and her big, extended family. But no medic was ever disciplined or fired because of what happened that night. This report is written to draw a line in the sand against this pervasive inhumanity in our midst. We all need to use this opportunity to change the way we work and live to create a world that affirms the humanity of and empowers transgender people to fully participate in our society. We must all work strenuously and continuously for justice.

When I was a young person living in Washington, D.C., in 1995, a well-known local hairstylist was driving home one night and her car hit a tree. Paramedics rushed to the scene and cut off her clothes in an attempt to provide lifesaving medical care. When they saw that Tyra Hunter was transgender, the medic swore at Ms. Hunter and stopped all medical treatment. Stopped all medical treatment.

Andrew Scheer is a man against many things. In addition to being anti-letting people with uteruses choose if they give birth, and anti-two people with the same genitals getting married, Andrew Scheer is also anti-doing his research before announcing major policies. One of Scheer's most lauded campaign promises -- by vocal social conservatives and right-wing commentators at least -- is to cut funding from universities that don't support freedom of speech. Freedom of speech, in this case, being a stand-in for Speech That Andrew Doesn't Like. But in the fervour of whipping up his base, Andrew missed the fact that the federal government (the one that he hopes to lead) doesn't fund university operations. Universities and colleges, like health care, are provincial jurisdiction. Unlike healthcare, there is no federal transfer fund for post-secondary education. No dramatic provincial negotiations. No federal framework. The federal government transfers money to provinces via the Canada Social Transfer, which is split amongst "social assistance and social services, and early childhood development and early learning and child care," in addition to post-secondary education. Scheer is at least two steps away from deciding how much funding each institution gets. Post-leadership-convention Andrew, likely having been taken aside by someone who understands how this all works, has tightened his message. He now claims that if elected PM he would refuse research grants to academics on campuses who don't protect his version of freedom of speech. But even there, Scheer's promise is sheer fantasy. Imagine this: an anti-abortion group invites a speaker to campus who compares abortion to the Holocaust or the lynching of Black people. They mount giant posters that juxtapose supposed dead fetuses with piles of dead Jewish people and dead Black people hanging from trees. (This actually happens.) Students protest and the event is cancelled, or they attend the event and shout down the speaker. Scheer wants to protect individual rights to make racist and outrageous comparisons, free of criticism or interference. Under Scheer's plan, his government would have to call the staff at each granting agency and tell them to direct professors to do the following: rather than deciding which research is worthy of an Engineering and Science Research Council (NSERC) grant, for example, everyone who is from a particular university be removed. The process of anonymous peer review would no longer be possible. Canada's research system would be fundamentally changed for the worse. Scheer would also have to convince scientists, serious humans whose lives are rooted in fact, that retribution and spite are now more important to decide grants than scientific inquiry, novelty, and importance. Even then, Scheer's interference in research wouldn't actually stop students from their activism. Most events that happen on campus (and the protests that can follow) are organized by autonomous groups funded by students, and are democratic -- which means that each year, students vote for who they want in office, and by extension what they want them to do, what groups they want them to fund or otherwise support, etc. They are kept accountable via general meetings, and usually, can be impeached. Professors are protected by academic freedom: in this case, a protection that ensures government cannot punish them in the exact way Scheer wants to. Free speech means that citizens get to say whatever the hell they want short of hate speech, without being incarcerated or having their printing press seized by the government. In response, people are allowed to be mad, they can scream and yell. Institutions and groups are not obligated to fund your group, or pay your speaker fees. They don't have to invite you to their institution or event. Blocking large posters of dead "fetuses" with bigger banners, or not allowing that imagery on campus -- that's free speech at work. Shouting down a prof who refuses to acknowledge transgender people who don't identify as a man or a woman, or drowning him out with air horns, is also free speech. A prime minister who threatens to pull the research funding of an institution that doesn't deal with contentious issues just the way he'd like would be a profound attack on free speech. No amount of free speech doublespeak changes that fact. Image: Facebook/CBC News: The National Like this article? Please chip in to keep stories like these coming.

Andrew Scheer is a man against many things. In addition to being anti-letting people with uteruses choose if they give birth, and anti-two people with the same genitals getting married, Andrew Scheer is also anti-doing his research before announcing major policies.

About The Walrus The Walrus was founded in 2003. As a registered charity, we publish independent, fact-based journalism in The Walrus and at thewalrus.ca ; we produce national, ideas-focused events, including our flagship series The Walrus Talks; and we train emerging professionals in publishing and non-profit management. The Walrus is invested in the idea that a healthy society relies on informed citizens. The Walrus publishes content nearly every day on thewalrus.ca and ten times a year in print. Our editorial priorities include politics and world affairs, health and science, society, the environment, law and justice, Indigenous issues, business and economics, the arts (including music, dance, film and television, literature, and fiction and poetry), and Canada's place in the world. Based in Toronto, The Walrus currently has a full-time editorial staff of fifteen, and we work with writers and artists across Canada and the world. Our masthead can be found here . 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The Walrus believes that reflecting societal differences in reporting leads to better, more nuanced stories and a better-informed community. The Walrus is committed to employment equity and diversity. About The Walrus The Walrus was founded in 2003. As a registered charity, we publish independent, fact-based journalism in The Walrus and at thewalrus.ca ; we produce national, ideas-focused events, including our flagship series The Walrus Talks; and we train emerging professionals in publishing and non-profit management. The Walrus is invested in the idea that a healthy society relies on informed citizens. The Walrus publishes content nearly every day on thewalrus.ca and ten times a year in print. Our editorial priorities include politics and world affairs, health and science, society, the environment, law and justice, Indigenous issues, business and economics, the arts (including music, dance, film and television, literature, and fiction and poetry), and Canada's place in the world. Based in Toronto, The Walrus currently has a full-time editorial staff of fifteen, and we work with writers and artists across Canada and the world. Our masthead can be found here . Ownership, Funding, and Grants The Walrus is operated by the charitable, non-profit Walrus Foundation, which is overseen by a board of directors, with the support of a national advisory committee and an educational review committee. The foundation's revenue comes from multiple sources, including advertising sales, sponsorships, circulation, donations, government grants, and events. More than 1,500 donors and sponsors supported The Walrus in 2017. Ethics Policy The Walrus is committed to reporting that is fair, accurate, complete, transparent, and independent. Fact-Checking Standards Stories that appear in The Walrus and thewalrus.ca are fact-checked. Our fact-checkers verify everything from broad claims made by authors to small details, such as dates and the spelling of names. 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Race, class, generation, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and geography all affect point of view. The Walrus believes that reflecting societal differences in reporting leads to better, more nuanced stories and a better-informed community. The Walrus is committed to employment equity and diversity.

The Walrus was founded in 2003. As a registered charity, we publish independent, fact-based journalism in The Walrus and at thewalrus.ca ; we produce national, ideas-focused events, including our flagship series The Walrus Talks; and we train emerging professionals in publishing and non-profit management.

T here is an old saying in real estate--location, location, location. No sooner had the 2004 presidential election been decided than maps began appearing all over the Internet, recasting the North American landscape into two distinct political and cultural regions, with Canada and the Northeast, upper Midwest, and West coast states all coloured in blue, and the rest of the continental United States coloured in red. Although the intent was sardonic, what if the jest did indeed have political legs and there was a very real possibility of redrawing the political map of the continent? In fact, it is already happening, behind the scenes, in myriad subtle ways, and the long-term implications for the future of North America are profound and far-reaching. Welcome to the incipient rise of the first regional transnational space--a grouping of Canadian provinces and American states whose commercial and political interests and shared vision make them increasingly more compatible with each other than the blue states are with their own neighbours in the American heartland. What is beginning to emerge is a North American Union, combining Canada and the so-called blue states of the US that, in time, may become more semi-autonomous and detached from the rest of America, at least de facto, if not formally. Of course, trade liberalization advocates (on both sides of the border) have long maintained that Canada, the US, and Mexico ought to expand and deepen the North American Free Trade Agreement ( nafta ), further integrating their respective economies while maintaining their national sovereignties. However, many Canadians deeply oppose strengthening nafta , arguing that Canada is already being absorbed into the larger US economy and is losing its political sovereignty in the process. These Canadians also worry that " nafta +" will mean having to go along with the dominant American ideology, with its emphasis on an older American Dream, the central tenets of which are at odds with Canada's deeply held cultural and social values. They fear that the new "continentalism" is merely coded language for erasing the forty-ninth parallel, having a customs union, a common currency, and a fully integrated economy protected by continental security agreements, including President Bush's missile defence initiative. In short, they fear that it is a front for a twenty-first-century high-tech American colonialism designed to grab hold of Canada's rich resources and remake its citizenry in the American image. Critics of nafta , and of international trade-liberalization treaties in general, argue that such mega-initiatives often overlook particulars, and cite the ongoing softwood lumber and "mad cow" disputes as examples of the clumsy and often unjust consequences of such agreements. Opponents of the "one container fits all" approach to continentalism also worry that Canada is becoming so dependent on exports to the US (currently 86 percent of Canadian exports flow south) that the country may eventually be forced to accept whatever commercial and political terms the US chooses to impose. This is why Canada's nafta critics insist on trade, investment, and fiscal policies that encourage the growth of a robust internal market and overseas trade, on reforms to safeguard Canadian industries from US protectionism, and on measures to redress the current trade imbalance between Canada and the US. There is, however, another option. According to former Canadian Minister of External Affairs Lloyd Axworthy, the 1990s saw the emergence of a spider's web of regional cross-border networks. In the US, owing to both its tradition of states' rights and a Supreme Court looking askance at "commandeering" (i.e., the use of state legislatures for the implementation of federal initiatives), states are mostly free to determine economic agreements. And during the 1990s, significant steps were taken by border states to increase ties with Canadian provinces--a development that found a receptive audience in the north. In 1999, then-Ontario Premier Mike Harris, in a speech to American governors, said, "We really see you as very strong allies, more so than many parts of Canada, something far more significant than perhaps my national government understands." Indeed, regional associations from coast to coast (e.g., the Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers; Ontario and Quebec and the Council of Great Lakes Governors; the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region) have all signed mutually beneficial memoranda of understanding covering issues such as trade, border security, and the environment, all with an eye to harmonization. The aftermath of 9/11 placed a temporary chill on this activity. With Canada being wrongfully accused of having porous borders and being a safe haven for terrorists, and with Washington asserting its authority over all aspects of domestic life, state administrations felt hamstrung and more deferential to the central government. At the same time, power in Canada was devolving from the centre to the provinces, a trend, based on statements by provincial premiers following Canada's new health care accord, that appears now to be accelerating. In a November speech to his provincial Liberal party, Quebec Premier Jean Charest stated flatly, "If Alberta can get rich selling oil, why not Quebec with its hydroelectricity?" While Canadian nationalists may bristle at such an assertion of provincial rights--to say nothing of Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams' insistence on maintaining full equalization payments on top of 100 percent of the revenues from offshore oil--Charest's statement clearly resonates through the halls of US state administrations, especially in those states hungry for energy security. The irony of the current situation, however, is that as Prime Minister Martin awaits the next salvo from this or that provincial premier, in his second term President Bush is consolidating power in Washington. US citizens can look forward to a national sales tax, an ultra-conservative judiciary and, in Alberto Gonzales and Condoleezza Rice, an approach to justice and national security that places Washington's interests at the top of the heap. Despite the diplomatic niceties uttered by Bush during his Canadian visit last December, he is unmistakably a man on a mission, and foreign countries, as well as blue-state governors, are expected to fall in line. W ithin hours of President Bush's re-election, Canadian immigration offices were flooded with inquiries from Americans seeking information on Canadian citizenship requirements. On November 3, 2004, Immigration Canada's website registered 116,000 hits from the US, up from a daily average of roughly 20,000. While traffic on the Web site returned to normal by mid- to late November, a series of December 2004 seminars in Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles conducted by Vancouver immigration lawyers Rudolf Kischer and Joshua Sohn on how to move to Canada, attracted hundreds. Reports from these meetings suggest that the election produced a new kind of refugee in search of "cultural asylum," people hoping to escape the clutches of a heartland way of life that makes them feel like aliens in their own land. Indeed, the US election results provided a stark picture of two Americas: one whose views about human nature, morality, and political beliefs are locked into an older frontier past; another whose perspective is more cosmopolitan and tied to a global consciousness. The latter group is concentrated almost exclusively in the clusters of Northeastern, Great Lakes, and Pacific states that border on, or are near, Canada. For the most part, the anti-Bush voters share a greater cultural camaraderie with their Canadian neighbours than with heartland America. Canada's Supreme Court ruling allowing for gay-marriage legislation came shortly after the US election, and one of the subgroups attending the seminars were gay Americans whose partners happened to be foreigners. As it currently stands--and with voters in eleven states favouring a constitutional ban on same-sex unions, there is no reason to anticipate any change--such foreigners cannot claim "family ties" in order to gain permanent U.S. residency status. Intriguingly, only two blue states (Michigan and Oregon) passed the anti-gay-marriage initiative. Polls also suggest general blue-state support for the other hot-button social issue, the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes, an area in which Canada is again taking a progressive position. George Bush was re-elected in part because he promised a safer America. But blue-state skeptics see US unilateralism and aggressive military adventures, including pre-emptive strikes, as creating a situation that will only provoke further attacks on Americans. American liberals prefer multilateral initiatives and international covenants--the Kyoto Protocol, the International Criminal Court, and the United Nations rules on what is considered acceptable military intervention--i.e., positions such as those adopted by the Canadian government. Recall that just after the presidential election, political pundits were quick to jump on values issues ranging from human-embryo research to gay marriage as the reason why President Bush won. What's clear, however, is that, on a deeper level Bush supporters saw the president as the keeper of the American Dream, which has long been regarded as the social glue that has united the country. The American Dream, with its emphasis on individual opportunity, the pursuit of self-interest and personal success in an unfettered marketplace, faith in God and love of country, and belief in a strong military presence in the world, is what brought droves of Americans to the polls to re-elect the president. But many of the voters who cast their ballots for Senator John Kerry have lost the faith. First, there are the millions of Americans who, despite hard work and sacrifice, have failed to advance in a society that increasingly favours the interests of its wealthiest families. The US currently ranks a dismal twenty-fourth among industrial nations in income inequality. (Only Mexico and Russia rank lower.) Then there are the many other Americans who are upwardly mobile but find that US society's overemphasis on individual self-interest and material success is far too limited to fulfill their deeper needs and aspirations. Although they have not abandoned the American penchant for individualism, many supporters of Senator Kerry realize that even the most self-reliant American is vulnerable to foes such as a sars epidemic, a computer virus, a terrorist attack, a stock-market scandal, or global warming. These Americans seek a broader global vision more compatible with an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world. While much of the American heartland is blind to events north of the border, a growing number of disenfranchised Americans in the blue states are looking north and cocking their ears to the fact that "liberal" is not a dirty word in Canada. Not since the Vietnam War, when, between 1970 and 1975, roughly 120,000 Americans fled north, has there been such sustained interest in the Canadian option. Currently, fewer than 6,000 US citizens take up residency in Canada each year, but with America on a permanent war footing, the spectre of a draft being raised, and President Bush set to nominate more conservative Supreme Court judges, many are predicting a spike in US emigration north. One result from such an influx into Canada will be the growth of associational ties between our two countries. an opposite dream While for the majority of Americans Canada still remains an unacknowledged alternative, the US is witnessing the emergence of a model across the Atlantic that is proving the "American way" is not the only way. In Europe, twenty-five nations, representing 455 million people, have joined together to create a "United States of Europe." The European Union's gdp now rivals that of the US, making it the world's other great superpower. The EU is already the world's leading exporter and largest internal trading market, and the euro is now stronger than the dollar. Moreover, much of Europe enjoys a longer lifespan and greater literacy rate, and has less poverty and crime, less blight and sprawl, longer vacations, and shorter commutes to work than Americans experience. In terms of what makes a people great and what constitutes a better way of life, Europe is now surpassing America. Equally important is the European Dream. While the American version emphasizes unrestrained economic growth, personal wealth, and the pursuit of individual self-interest, the European Dream focuses more on sustainable development, quality of life, and the nurturing of community. We Americans live (and die) by the work ethic and the dictates of efficiency. Europeans place more attention on balancing work and leisure. America has always seen itself as a great melting pot. Europeans prefer to preserve their rich multicultural diversity. Americans place a premium on property rights and civil rights. Europeans favour social rights and universal human rights. Americans put their faith in God and country. Europeans put their faith in social welfare and civil society. Americans believe in maintaining an unrivalled military presence in the world. Europeans, by contrast, emphasize co-operation and consensus over go-it-alone approaches to foreign policy. The European Dream is the first attempt at creating a global consciousness for a shrinking world. All of this does not suggest that Europe has suddenly become a utopia. Its problems are complex and its weaknesses are glaringly transparent. And, of course, Europeans' high-mindedness is often riddled with hypocrisy. The point, however, is not whether Europeans are living up to the dream they have for themselves. We have never fully lived up to the American Dream. Rather, what's crucial is that Europe is articulating a bold new vision for the future of humanity that differs in many of its most fundamental aspects from America's. During my recent travels in Canada, I was struck by how Canadian values resemble those of the new Europe. Indeed, the European Dream could just as easily be called the Canadian Dream. The more global dream that many Canadians and Americans in the blue states share with Europeans is likely going to propel Canada and the blue states closer together in the decades to come, transforming the region into a new transnational configuration--a North American Union--with ever closer ties to the European Union. The process is already well advanced, although woefully unacknowledged in both public-policy circles and the media. regional autonomy: follow the money The commercial ties between the blue states and Canada, already strong, are increasing with each passing day. Six of the ten states leading in exports to Canada are blue states, while eight out of the ten states leading in imports of Canadian goods and services are blue states. These statistics become even more significant when we consider that Canada is the US's major trading partner and accounts for one-fifth of all US exports and imports. In 2003, the US sold $203 billion (Cdn.) worth of goods and services to Canada and received $326 billion worth of goods and services from Canada. The blue states make up much of the US commercial relationship with Canada. Some of the commercial relationships between Canada and the blue states have become nearly seamless. For example, although threatened by the rise of the Canadian dollar and a resentful US-based lobby, Vancouver and Toronto are still known as "Hollywood North," with a large percentage of the US industry reliant on Canadian shooting, editing, and processing talent. The centre of the North American automobile industry now runs from Detroit to Oshawa, Ontario. Most of the electricity exported by Canada is used in the northeastern US, the upper midwest, and the Pacific coast states. And although Americans are certainly worried about the prospects of oil supplies being cut off from the Persian Gulf, few realize that Canada is America's third-largest supplier of crude oil. In 2003, Canada shipped $53.5 billion in energy exports and more petroleum products than Saudi Arabia to the US. Canada is also America's main supplier of natural gas, most of it going to blue-state economies. The close commercial relationship between blue states and Canada has been accompanied by ever closer political ties. In fact, the political integration of northeastern, upper midwest, and Pacific coast states with Canada has, in many ways, begun to eclipse the blue states' traditional political links with some of America's heartland red states. The Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers ( neg/ecp ), founded in 1973 and made up of six blue states and five Canadian provinces, has been steadily moving toward a regional transnational approach. The governors and premiers meet annually to "discuss issues of common interest and concern and enact policy resolutions that call on actions by the state and provincial governments, as well as by the two national governments." Between these summits, the neg/ecp convenes meetings of state and provincial officials to implement policies, organize workshops, and prepare studies and reports on issues of regional impact. The conference's many accomplishments include "the expansion of economic ties among the states and provinces; the fostering of energy exchanges; the forceful advocacy of environmental issues and sustainable development; and the coordination of numerous policies and programs in such areas as transportation, forest management, tourism, small-scale agriculture, and fisheries." Current neg/ecp initiatives include tightening cross-border security and creating an information technology corridor that would improve broadband connectivity, link regional and educational networks, and bolster the IT skills of the region's workforce in order to establish a world-class IT commercial zone. In 1998, New England governors and Canadian premiers passed a resolution creating the International Northeast Biotechnology Corridor ( inbc ), a non-profit corporation with the goal of turning the region into the largest biotechnology centre in the world. Judging by the level of activity (e.g., international trade missions advancing its biotechnology interests, collaboration between university researchers and student exchanges between Canadian and US institutions, the growth of the industry, and an impressive array of conferences scheduled for 2005), the inbc is clearly realizing its mandate. Embedded in its "vision statement" is "the creation of a regional identity," something that the neg/ecp will also promote as they work towards establishing the IT commercial zone and the entire region as a knowledge-based economy. Recently, another cross-border political group, the Council of Great Lakes Governors, representing eight states, plus Ontario and Quebec, has proposed rules to regulate water use in the Great Lakes which, critics argue, could open the door to massive diversion schemes. While the group insists that its proposal will protect and improve this "precious natural resource" for the region's 45 million people, others believe that, in toto, it represents a "water for sale" agreement. Meetings are scheduled over the next few months in what might be a test case of cross-border governance. A similar transnational political region to the neg/ecp exists in the Pacific Northwest and includes five US states and two Canadian provinces. Established in 1991, the Pacific North-West Economic Region's ( pnwer ) mission is "to increase the economic well-being and quality of life for all citizens of the region." The pnwer website boasts an annual "gross regional product" of nearly $700 billion (US), and supposes, somewhat provocatively, that "if it were a nation," it would rank tenth amongst the world's leading economies. At least as active as its eastern counterparts, the pnwer group is attempting to harmonize approaches in the fields of agriculture, environmental technology, forest production, government procurement, recycling, telecommunications, tourism, trade and finance, and transportation. pnwer subcommittees are looking at a regional energy strategy, methods for states and provinces to reduce soaring health-care costs, best practices for sustainable development, border-security issues, foreign investment, and sharing information to upgrade workforce skills. The group lobbied hard for an end to the Alberta beef ban and all member states supported Vancouver's Olympic bid. Fast on the heels of a similar arrangement between Ontario and New York State, in 2002 Michigan and Ontario signed a memorandum of understanding that calls for close co-operation in the crucial areas of trade, tourism, transportation, border issues, and the environment. The Ontario/Michigan Tourism Action Group has been set up to "explore new tourism products and marketing opportunities for the Ontario/ Michigan area." All three of these transnational political groupings represent a new chapter in North American governance, with both Canada and the blue states bringing powerful assets to the partnership. Canada's vast energy reserves (including hydro, natural gas, oil from the Alberta tar sands, and, potentially, Newfoundland's offshore reserves, as well as wind power across the Prairies) provide the kind of energy security that is essential to make transnational political regions semi-autonomous. A wealth of natural resources give provincial governments considerable leverage, but the bargaining chips don't end there. Canada also sports a highly educated workforce and relatively low production costs. For example, American employers save on health-care costs by locating production facilities in Canada or outsourcing to Canadian firms because workers in Canada are covered by national health-care insurance. The blue states, in turn, have some of the best universities and research facilities on the planet. With world-class business schools like Wharton, Harvard, Kellogg, and Stanford, and research universities like mit , Carnegie Mellon, and the California Institute of Technology, the blue states' vast intellectual resources, combined with Canada's university centres of excellence and groups like the Toronto-based Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, give the budding partnerships a leg up on other regions of the world in cutting-edge commercial development. Silicon Valley, Route 128 in Boston, and the Washington-Baltimore corridor--i.e., the most advanced high-tech industrial clusters anywhere--are all located in blue states eager to establish cross-border zones of commercial and intellectual activity. I f such a transnational regional political entity were to mature, it would likely seek closer commercial and political ties with the European Union, whose values and vision it shares. The European Union would provide an emerging North American Union with an alternative economic arena that has commercial clout approaching that of the U.S., thus giving the region the leverage it would need to establish at least a partial breakaway from the iron grip of the American market. The EU and Canada have already laid the foundation for such a union in the 1996 Joint Political Declaration on EU-Canada Relations. The declaration was designed to create a relationship between the EU and Canada in economic and trade relations, foreign security issues, and other transnational issues. The EU's success is, in no small measure, attributable to the distributive nature of power exercised in Europe. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is said to have remarked, "If I pick up the phone and call Europe, who answers the line?" The EU represents a new network form of governance, a non-hierarchical governing model made up of myriad interests including nation states, regions, civil society organizations, and transnational corporations, in which no single player is powerful enough to completely dominate the game. It's pure "process politics," a continuous dialogue among all of the interests in which compromise and consensus between all of the parties is integral to success. The North American transborder governing experiments share much in common with the EU model. But what makes these new political arrangements so attractive is that their respective citizens tend to have a shared world view and a common dream about the kind of future they would like to have for themselves. Like many Canadians, blue-state citizens worry about being absorbed into an agenda increasingly at odds with their own values, beliefs, and hopes for the future. And, I should add, they are becoming increasingly angry about their taxes being redistributed to support what they perceive to be a flawed and faded American Dream. The American people are deeply and irreconcilably polarized--like partners in a marriage who have drifted apart over the years and now find they have little in common. Meanwhile, people of the blue states and Canada are beginning to pursue the making of a new romance, born of shared values and mutual interests. Is it possible that a new North American Union might be in the offing in the not-so-distant future.

T here is an old saying in real estate--location, location, location. No sooner had the 2004 presidential election been decided than maps began appearing all over the Internet, recasting the North American landscape into two distinct political and cultural regions, with Canada and the Northeast, upper Midwest, and West coast states all coloured in blue, and the rest of the continental United States coloured in red.

Israel's Knesset Advances Bill Seeking Death Penalty for "Terrorists" Meanwhile, members of Israel's parliament, the Knesset, erupted in a shouting match Wednesday, as Prime Minister Netanyahu and right-wing lawmakers advanced legislation that would make it easier to carry out death sentences against Palestinians convicted on terrorism charges. Capital punishment is legal in Israel but has not been implemented since 1962, when Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann was put to death for his role in the Holocaust.

Israel's Knesset Advances Bill Seeking Death Penalty for "Terrorists" Meanwhile, members of Israel's parliament, the Knesset, erupted in a shouting match Wednesday, as Prime Minister Netanyahu and right-wing lawmakers advanced legislation that would make it easier to carry out death sentences against Palestinians convicted on terrorism charges. Capital punishment is legal in Israel but has not been implemented since 1962, when Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann was put to death for his role in the Holocaust.

Anne Applebaum's Dull Conspiracy Existence The neocon demagogue Anne Applebaum asks : No one has yet explained, for example, why Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych not only left Kiev last week after signing a treaty brokered by the European Union but also ordered security guards to abandon all government buildings as well. Was that an unsubtle invitation for the opposition to ransack the offices so that he could claim he had been chased out by a violent coup? No, Mrs. Applebaum, it wasn't. The removal of the guards was a condition in the agreement (not "treaty") brokered by the European Union. Both parties will undertake serious efforts for the normalisation of life in the cities and villages by withdrawing from administrative and public buildings and unblocking streets, city parks and squares. Yanukovych kept his promises but the agreement was immediately broken by the fascist Pravyi Sektor rioters: Dmytro Yarosh, the leader of Right Sector, a coalition of hard-line nationalist groups, reacted defiantly to news of the settlement, drawing more cheers from the crowd. "The agreements that were reached do not correspond to our aspirations," he said. "Right Sector will not lay down arms. Right Sector will not lift the blockade of a single administrative building until our main demand is met -- the resignation of Yanukovych." The fascist then stormed government buildings and the parliament where beleaguered opposition politicians then illegally "impeached" the president. Sure, Yanukovich made a big mistake in believing that the rioters would adher to any agreement. But to spin Yanukovych's adherence to the agreement he signed and the fascists breaking it as a KGB conspiracy is quite a feat. The riot police has been dissolved and the fascist in the new coup government are now in control of each and every security department: [T]he most questions about the new government's direction will be raised by several key appointments of ultra-nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) and Pravyi Sektor (Right Sector) members to leading roles in the Defense Ministry, National Defense and Security Council, and the Prosecutor General's office. These people, and the U.S. favorite Yatsenyuk, now have all the power of the state while the EU supported opposition UDAR party of former boxer Klitschko is not even part of the government. It too was nulanded . The new fascist monopoly of force will make sure things turn out well ... or not . But should this go wrong as the pogroms start, as it is likely to happen, Anne Applebaum will certainly claim that this coup was a KGB conspiracy to begin with. To Mrs. Applebaum ANYTHING that is anti-Russian must be from the free will of the people while anything that might be turnout to be somewhat pro-Russian must be a KGB plot. Isn't being such a one-trick-pony a rather dull existence? Posted by b on February 28, 2014 at 02:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (164) GCHQ Wankers Somewhere, a British spy is wanking to your last naked video chat: The document estimates that between 3% and 11% of the Yahoo webcam imagery harvested by GCHQ contains "undesirable nudity". Discussing efforts to make the interface "safer to use", it noted that current "naive" pornography detectors assessed the amount of flesh in any given shot, and so attracted lots of false positives by incorrectly tagging shots of people's faces as pornography. How much "desirable nudity" do those GCHQ analysts look at? There seems to be more concern at the GHCQ for "protecting" its staff from seeing some pornography-like pictures than there is for the privacy of millions of normal people. Is that the right balance? Those who argue against these untargeted "collect it all" attempts by the spy agencies will soon be confronted with this counter-argument: "People who show "undesirable nudity" during their webchats are severely hindering the essential work NSA and GHCQ do. They are thereby objectively SUPPORTING THE TERRORISTS!" Posted by b on February 27, 2014 at 09:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (24) February 26, 2014 Posted by b on February 26, 2014 at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (114) February 25, 2014 A Few Ukraine Coup Links A collection of interesting reads on how the putsch in the Ukraine happened and the background behind it. Max Blumenthal is looking at the historic background of the Nazi groups in the Ukraine and there relation with Ukrainian exile groups in the United States. The connections are deeper than one might have thought: Is the U.S. Backing Neo-Nazis in Ukraine? - Exposing troubling ties in the U.S. to overt Nazi and fascist protesters in Ukraine. Many surviving OUN-B members fled to Western Europe and the United States - occasionally with CIA help - where they quietly forged political alliances with right-wing elements. "You have to understand, we are an underground organization. We have spent years quietly penetrating positions of influence," one member told journalist Russ Bellant, who documented the group's resurgence in the United States in his 1988 book, "Old Nazis, New Right, and the Republican Party." In Washington, the OUN-B reconstituted under the banner of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), an umbrella organization comprised of "complete OUN-B fronts," according to Bellant. By the mid-1980's, the Reagan administration was honeycombed with UCCA members, with the group's chairman Lev Dobriansky , serving as ambassador to the Bahamas, and his daughter, Paula , sitting on the National Security Council. Reagan personally welcomed Stetsko, the Banderist leader who oversaw the massacre of 7000 Jews in Lviv, into the White House in 1983. Paula Dobriansky was on of the neo-cons in the Bush administration: According to her State Department biography, Dobriansky's background includes having "lectured and published articles, book chapters, and op-ed pieces on foreign affairs-related topics, ranging from U.S. human rights policy to East European foreign and defense policies, public diplomacy, democracy promotion strategies, Russia, and Ukraine . The current lead on Eastern Europe in the State Department is "fuck the EU" neo-con Victoria Nuland. The coup in Kiev was a neo-con project. Also this comment by markfromireland at Ian Welsh's blog: To eliminate Russia as a threat to American hegemony you need to hive of The Ukraine and use it as a forward post against Russian resurgence. This is why the Americans have been exerting massive pressure on the European Commission and on European governments to bring the Ukraine into the North American/North Western European economic sphere. With the UKraine in the "Western" camp they can stymie Russian efforts to drag the Baltic Republics back into orbit around Russia. Without it that becomes far more difficult. There are allegations in the following piece that parts of the neo-nazis that attacked the police in Kiev have been trained in NATO countries. I have not verified this but it seems plausible: Ukraine: Neo-Nazi Criminal State Looming In Centre Of Europe - Analysis A number of NATO-sponsored training centers for the Ukrainian ultranationalist militants were opened on the territory of the Baltic states immediately after they joined NATO in 2004. The detailed photo report on a Ukrainian group taking a course of subversive activities at a NATO training center in Estonia in 2006 is available here (texts in Russian). Abundant financial and human resources were directed to bolster the paramilitary units of the radical UNA-UNSO, Svoboda and other ultranationalist organizations in the Ukraine. Since 1990s these thugs were participating in the Chechen and Balkan wars on the side of radical Wahhabi (!) militants and committing war crimes against captured Russian and Serbian soldiers and civilian population. One of the notorious guerilla fighters of the Ukrainian origin in Chechnya, Olexander Muzychko (aka criminal leader Sasha Biliy) today is heading a brigade of "Pravyi Sector", the radical militant driving force of the ongoing coup d'etat in Kiev. There have been reports, also mentioned in the above, from Russian sources that, allegedly, Israeli special forces were involved with the anti-semitic neo-Nazis in the Ukraine. That may sound implausible until you recognize that Israeli state policy is to move as many Jews as possible to Israel. To frighten those who still want to stay in their native country by promoting anti-semitic forces makes sense withing this (in itself anti-semitic) policy frame : For the life of me, I don't understand the Jews living in France. I don't understand the Jews living in Poland. I don't understand the one Jew living in Afghanistan (nor the one living in Eritrea) and I can't believe there are still 100 Jews in Egypt, Algeria, Iraq or Botswana. I don't understand the Jews living in the Ukraine and, to be honest, I don't much understand the Jews living in America either. ... But seriously -- if you are a Jew living in the Ukraine today, why aren't you packing your bags? If you are a Jew living in France, do you really expect it to get better? And, if you are a Jew living in the US, do you expect your grandchildren to still be Jewish? Chinahand aka Peter Lee explains how the U.S., by threatening sanctions on one oligarch, managed to change the majority in the Ukrainian parliament against Yanukovich: Looks Like US Played Hardball in the Ukraine...and Against the EU : So, by a less-than-generous view, it might be suspected that the United States encouraged demonstrators to break the truce, with the expectation that violence would occur and Yanukovich's equivocal fat cat backers, such as Akhmetov, would jump ship because the US had already informed them that their assets in the West would be at risk under US and EU sanctions. If this is the case, the EU perhaps has additional reason to feel sore and resentful at the US. By blowing up the truce and the transition deal, Nuland got Yanukovich out and "Yats"--the preferred US proxy, Arseniy Yatsenyuk--in, but at the cost of terminally alienating the Ukraine's pro-Russian segment--a segment, it might be pointed out, was actually able to elect Yanukovich in a free and fair election a while back. I do not expect any Russian move on the Ukraine. Putin will now sit back and let the "west" squabble about who will throw tons of money into the bottomless pit that Ukraine is going to become. No politician in Kiev who wants to be re-elected will dare to sign an IMF agreement that will send a generation of the Ukrainian people into deep poverty. Unless there are nazi-progroms in Russian affiliated parts of the Ukraine Putin now just has to wait for the apple to fall from the tree. Posted by b on February 25, 2014 at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (139) February 24, 2014 Ukraine: NSA "Leak" As A Threat To Merkel The United States and the EU disagree about the Ukraine. The Europeans would prefer not to incite the Russians (hey, they deliver the gas that heats our homes) and would prefer some compromise outcome in the Ukraine. That was the very reason why the EU financial offer to the Ukraine was paltry to begin with and had to be rejected. The U.S. wants a confrontation with Russia and a totally compliant puppet regime in Ukraine. While Merkel would like to install her protege boxer Klitschko in the Ukraine she does not want to pay for it - at least not much. The U.S. dislikes Merkel's choice and wants to install its own oligarch. That the very reason why the neocon U.S. assistant secretary of state Victoria Nuland said "fuck the EU". Now the U.S. managed to take down the political structure in the Ukraine and it wants to take over the whole show. But it still wants Europe, especially Germany, to pay for the mess. Thus this OpEd by a U.S. propagandist Ulrich Speck in today's NYT: What the West Must Do for Ukraine Because the offer was so weak, the door was open for Mr. Putin to sabotage it and for Mr. Yanukovych to reject it. Now the European Union needs to come back with a better offer -- not just association, but membership. ... Ms. Merkel must now show courage and strategic competence. If Eastern Europe becomes unstable, Germany will be affected too -- and deeply so. Only Berlin has the necessary weight and connections to bring all key players on board to make significant change possible. Interesting how the "west" is now reduced to Berlin paying up - and nothing else is meant here. And notice that little threat if "Eastern Europe becomes unstable, Germany will be affected too"? "Nice house you have there. Too bad if something would happen to it." There was an additional reminder this weekend for Mrs Merkel that she better do what she is told: The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has stepped up its surveillance of senior German government officials since being ordered by Barack Obama to halt its spying on Chancellor Angela Merkel, Bild am Sonntag paper reported on Sunday. ... Bild am Sonntag said its information stemmed from a high-ranking NSA employee in Germany and that those being spied on included Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, a close confidant of Merkel. A "high-ranking NSA employee in Germany" talking to Germany's most pro-U.S. broadsheet is not a whistle blower but an official issuing an authorized leak meant as a threat. The notice to Merkel: Pay up and don't even think of brokering a deal with Putin behind our back. Posted by b on February 24, 2014 at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (95) The Russians delivered tremendous Olympic games with beautiful shows, interesting competitions and with humor and love. The "western" media did their best to denigrate the games even before they started. The U.S. government put out ridiculous terror warnings to keep its citizens away from the games. U.S. journalists spitted about alleged double toilet bowl stalls which were obviously photographed during renovation works. Russia was portrayed as homophobic. But the games were beautiful. There was no terror, no gay bashing and the organization was as perfect as it can be. Where things went wrong they were resolved with humor and good will. That one Olympic ring that did not open correctly during the opening ceremony? It was reflected on in the closing ceremony when dancers humorously re-enacted that faulty ring opening with the faulty one eventually opening too. Make a mistakes, laugh about it and correct it. That's Russia! The idea to use the floor of the Fisht stadium as a huge projection screen was great. The use of the stadium roof as a gigantic multiple crane runway for moving objects and people in a third stage level was brilliant. Projections, lightning, music and fireworks all were used to perfection. The themes: Russian art, Russian ballet, Russian classic music, Russian literature, Russian history, Russian circuses. It was all about Russia the Great. And beautiful. The closing: a poetic invitation to self reflection in large levitating mirrors. The big bear mascot dropping a tear as the flame goes out. Hollywood can do no better. There were also great tributes to all the athletes and their efforts, struggles and victories. The Wall Street Journal had predicted 27 medals for Russia, 6 of them gold. Russian athletes won 33 medals, 13 of them gold. Predicted for the United States 32(13), achieved 28(9). Take that you party-poopers. The Russians will be very proud of these games. They will be grateful to their government and president for having delivered them. The internal and external message is understood: Russia has again found itself and it is stronger than ever. The U.S. is ill informed about and underestimating Russia. Therein lies the possibility of serious miscalculations. Posted by b on February 23, 2014 at 01:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (42) Ukraine: Move To Replace The President Is Illegal The Ukrainian opposition claims it wants to associate with the European Union because they desire the rule of law. Why do they then break the law and try to illegally remove the elected president from his office? The parliament now says it has temporarily handed the president's powers to speaker Oleksandr Turchinov, a top ally of gas oligarch Yulia Tymoshenko. But that move certainly did not follow Article 111 (impeachment) of the Ukrainian constitution: The President of Ukraine may be removed from office by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine by the procedure of impeachment, in the event that he or she commits state treason or other crime. The issue of the removal of the President of Ukraine from office by the procedure of impeachment is initiated by the majority of the constitutional composition of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. To conduct the investigation, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine establishes a special temporary investigatory commission whose composition includes a special procurator and special investigators. The conclusions and proposals of the temporary investigatory commission are considered at a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. For cause, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, by no less than two-thirds of its constitutional composition, adopts a decision on the accusation of the President of Ukraine. The decision on the removal of the President of Ukraine from office by the procedure of impeachment is adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine by no less than three-quarters of its constitutional composition, after the review of the case by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and the receipt of its opinion on the observance of the constitutional procedure of investigation and consideration of the case of impeachment, and the receipt of the opinion of the Supreme Court of Ukraine to the effect that the acts, of which the President of Ukraine is accused, contain elements of state treason or other crime. As far as I can tell none of the highlighted points have been met. Replacing the president through a simple vote is clearly illegal. It is also breaking the agreement achieved two days ago with the pressure from three EU ministers. Instead of leaving the place as had been agreed the fascist groups on the Maidan are growing with more radicals arriving. In the east pro Russian Ukrainians are preparing self defense groups. By each hour the situation is getting more and more out of control. The sorcerers apprentices , though not admitting it yet, are now helpless. Who will be the first to call up Moscow and to ask Putin for help? Posted by b on February 23, 2014 at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (78) Syria: Fragmented Insurgents Can Not Win The opposition situation in Syria is further fragmenting leaving the anti-Syrian forces with no real structure to work with. The U.S. and the Orwellian named "friends of Syria" first supported Burhan Ghalioun as the head of the Syrian National Council. The next white men's hope was Moaz al Khatib. Then came one Ghassan Hitto. Then the Muslim Brotherhood organisation Syrian National Council was widened into the Syrian National Coalition and the Saudis installed Ahmad al-Jarba as its leader. The U.S. then promoted Salim Idriss and his Supreme Military Council as its favorite. Meanwhile the Syrian National Coalition kicked out the original exile opposition group Syrian National Council. Last week Salim Idriss was kicked out as leader of the Supreme Military Council and replaced by the rather unknown Abdul-Ilah al Bashir. Idriss, together with nine of his commanders and their groups, is fighting back . Another insurgency leader who currently leads an outlet named Syrian Revolutionaries Front, Jamal Maarouf, is lobbying in Washington to become the new favorite U.S. assets. The myriad fighting "brigades" are seemingly changing their allegiances by the day depending on who is willing to pay them or who offers the better loot. The three Al-Qaeda affiliates, ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham are fighting each other with ISIS today killing Ahrar al-Sham leader Abu Khalid al-Suri who was a personal acquaintance of Osama Bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Layth al-Libi. The chaos within the opposition is predictably helping those who fight against them. In the north and east the Kurdish groups, at peace with the Syrian government, are winning ground. In the south and west the Syrian Arab Army is making steady progress. Local truces , in effect local surrender acknowledgements by insurgent groups, are now regular occurrences. An attempt by U.S. trained forces to take on Damascus, with Pakistani weapons delivered through the Saudis and coming from Jordan, was bombed into the ground before they could show any effect. The fighting will continue for a while but I am more assured then ever before that the Syrian government will win against the insurrection and the assorted foreign payed mercenaries. Posted by b on February 23, 2014 at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (15) February 22, 2014 Ukraine: "From the spirits that I called - Sir, deliver me!" What a deluge! What a flood! Lord and master, hear my call! Ah, here comes the master! I have need of Thee! from the spirits that I called Sir, deliver me! J.W. Goethe - The Sorcerer's Apprentice The opposition in the Ukraine and its paymasters in the U.S. and EU called up the spirits of the right, the fascist, to wage a coup against the elected president and to push their selfish objectives onto the Ukrainian public. Now those spirits won't go away : It was difficult to know how much of the fury voiced on Friday night in Independence Square was fiery bravado, a final cry of anger before the three-month-long protest movement winds down or the harbinger of yet more and possibly worse violence to come. Vividly clear, however, was the wide gulf that had opened up between the opposition's political leadership and a street movement that has radicalized and slipped far from the already tenuous control of politicians. ... Dmytro Yarosh, the leader of Right Sector, a coalition of hard-line nationalist groups, reacted defiantly to news of the settlement, drawing more cheers from the crowd. "The agreements that were reached do not correspond to our aspirations," he said. "Right Sector will not lay down arms. Right Sector will not lift the blockade of a single administrative building until our main demand is met -- the resignation of Yanukovych." Even if Yanukovych resigns the demands of the fascist rioters will not end. Ukraine's chief rabbi tells Kiev's Jews to flee city and he has very good reasons to do so. Right Sector and the Svoboda party are well known for accute anti-semitism. Yesterday sixty eight members of the ruling party of the regions changed over to the opposition which now has a majority in parliament. The parliament then changed the constitution to dismantle presidential powers, fired the interior minister who commanded the police force to defend government buildings and freed the corrupt gas-princess Tymoshenko from jail. Putin will be smiling. What the propagandists in the "west" always fail to mention is that Tymoshenko was jailed for a gas deal that favored Russia. She was in jail for agreeing to pay, allegedly, too high prices. Yanukovych, the man Putin hates and despises as a loser, is now out. Tymoshenko, the woman Putin loves signing lucrative trade deals with, is in. As the Ukrainian industry is not viable without access to Russian markets and the Ukrainian energy supply depends on Russian gas deliveries Moscow still has, and will continue to have, the upper hand over the Ukraine. At least half of the Ukrainian population is pro-Russian. No color revolution version 1.0, 2.0 or 3.0 and no IMF austerity loan will change those facts. Parts of the Ukraine will soon show signs of anarchy with those that protested and rioted without having any real aim moving towards criminal activities. The opposition, which is now empowered and will have to deliver results, will soon squabble and will again fall apart. The fascist forces, euphemistically called "nationalists" in "western" media, will win more power. The sorcerer's apprentices in Washington and Brussels will come to understand that they can not control the spirits they called upon. They will need to call the master to put the spirits they awoke back into their holes. The international number they will need to call starts with 007 495. Posted by b on February 22, 2014 at 09:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (121) February 21, 2014 Anti-China CIA Asset Meets Obama Obama to meet with Dalai Lama at White House in move certain to irritate China BEIJING -- The Dalai Lama is scheduled to meet President Barack Obama at the White House on Friday morning - their third meeting in four years ... ... While the Dalai Lama is being careful not to say things in public that could harm his people back in Tibet, the subject of human rights is likely to come up at the White House. "We are concerned about continuing tensions and the deteriorating human rights situation in Tibetan areas of China," Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, said in a statement Thursday. She added the United States continues to supports the Dalai Lama 's "middle way" approach to Tibet, which advocates neither assimilation nor independence for Tibetans in Tibet. Three meeting in four years are more than what senior NATO ally head of states can expect. It is also seriously damaging the relations with China. Why is Obama so eager to meet the Dalai Lama? What does "continue to support the Dalai Lama" mean? Continued, by the way, since the early 1950s ... The Dalai Lama's administration acknowledged today that it received $1.7 million a year in the 1960's from the Central Intelligence Agency, but denied reports that the Tibetan leader benefited personally from an annual subsidy of $180,000. The money allocated for the resistance movement was spent on training volunteers and paying for guerrilla operations against the Chinese, the Tibetan government-in-exile said in a statement. It added that the subsidy earmarked for the Dalai Lama was spent on setting up offices in Geneva and New York and on international lobbying. The Dalai Lama, 63, a revered spiritual leader both in his Himalayan homeland and in Western nations, fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against a Chinese military occupation, which began in 1950. The National Endowment for Democracy, a CIA related, Congress funded venture, is still spending lots of money on Tibetan groups related to the Dalai Lama. And that is only the publicly acknowledged part. The people the Dalai Lama leads are, like the Jihadists in Libya and Syria and the Fascists in the Ukraine, very reactionary forces. Even their functionaries have to admit that the old society they wish to somewhat reestablish was an authoritarian, backward mess: [A]ccording to the Chinese version of Tibet's history, before its "peaceful liberation" in 1951 (when Tibet was required to recognize Chinese sovereignty), Tibet was a benighted place where a few "feudal" and "reactionary" aristocrats together with monks oppressed a majority population of serfs and slaves, mostly by addling their minds with ritual and superstition. This may sound like Communist propaganda, but Chen Kuiyuan, one of the Chinese technocrats to have ruled Tibet in recent years, didn't exaggerate much when he pointed out in a 1997 speech that "when the Dalai ruled Tibet, there was not a single regular school; children of the working people had no right or opportunity to receive an education, and more than 90 percent of the Tibetan people were illiterate." Even Samdhong Rinpoche admits this is true ... How come this CIA asset gets three meetings in four years with this president? Are they cooking up something new against China? A Color Revolution 2.0 scenario like in Libya, Syria, Venezuela and Ukraine? Posted by b on February 21, 2014 at 01:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (47) February 20, 2014 Ukraine: White House Is "Outraged By Images" Anti-government protesters aim their weapons during clashes with riot police at Independence Square in Kiev February 18, 2014. (Vasily Fedosenko) The White House - Office of the Press Secretary We are outraged by the images of Ukrainian security forces firing automatic weapons on their own people. We urge President Yanukovych to immediately withdraw his security forces from downtown Kyiv and to respect the right of peaceful protest, ... One wonders what pictures the White House is looking at? Well, of course the real pictures ain't so helpful in pushing for "regime change". More "outrageous" pictures below the fold ... (Pics taken from this thread ) Posted by b on February 20, 2014 at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (142) The Ukrainian Government Is Fighting Fascists Some news accounts of yesterday's fighting in Kiev make it look as if the government yesterday started the fighting by clearing the Maidan plaza. That was not the case. There was an attempt by the opposition in parliament to change the constitution. That attempted was defeated by the dully elected majority coalition. Opposition protester then violently attacked the parliament building and tried to storm it. The police responded to that, pressed the protester back and later proceed to kick them out of their launching position. The violent protesters, mostly fascists, confirmed that timeline of events: Some protesters acknowledged that they had contributed to the violent spiral of events by attacking police officers during street battles early in the day near the Ukrainian Parliament, which the opposition had hoped would approve constitutional amendments curbing President Yanukovych's powers. The Ukrainian government is fighting against well armed fascists, not against peaceful protesters. Doug Saunders of Canada's Globe & Mail recently visited Kiev: This is the headquarters of Pravy Sektor, or Right Sector, the ultra-right-wing movement, described by some as fascist, whose hundreds of soldiers (they call themselves an army) have become the sharp edge of the two-month-old protest movement that has upturned the politics of Ukraine, cost several lives and forced President Viktor Yanukovych to dismiss the government and promise to reform the constitution. ... [T]he physical organization of these protests, the building of barricades around squares, much of the camp construction and policing, and the pitched and sometimes deadly battles with police are almost entirely the work of the extreme right . In some of Ukraine's smaller cities, the local protests and seizures of government buildings appear to have been entirely the work of Pravy Sektor. These folks are evil. Let us hope that Yanukovich now finally, though three month too late in my view, is coming down hard on them. Posted by b on February 19, 2014 at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (164) February 18, 2014 Syria: U.S. Option Review Finds All Are Still Bad We questioned in Real Or Propaganda? New Weapons To Syrian Mercenaries the report about MANPAD deliveries to mercenaries in Syria. Some U.S. official now claims that the U.S. is opposed to such deliveries. That may well be true but could also be an attempt to achieve plausible deniability. Either way it means that the number of MANPADs going to insurgents will likely be very limited. The U.S can still not come to terms with a survival of the syrian government under president Assad and is again looking at all the options of what it could do that it had already looked at and found to be bad. They are still all bad. There are some signs of panic though. How else to explain that the administration is asking the guy who helped to lose two wars on how to win one? Mr. Kerry recently discussed military and intelligence options in Syria in a private meeting with retired Army Gen. David Petraeus, who resigned as director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 2012, according to an official close to Mr. Petraeus. While CIA director, Mr. Petraeus, a former top U.S. commander in Afghanistan and Iraq, was a leading behind-the-scenes advocate of aiding the rebels in Syria. None of the new-old options listed in the linked piece, from no-fly zones to training more mercenaries, makes any sense. Syria and its allies would surely successfully counter any of them. But the administration is under constant pressure to do "something" and Obama is a rather weak person and may give in to it. It is interesting that all the options listed are somehow connected to action in south Syria. The north seems to no longer be in play. Did Turkey, after Erdogan's recent visit to Tehran and with upcoming election, say no to further involvement? The concentration on a southern schwerpunkt might also be the reason why the Syrian Military Council leader Idris was pushed out and replaced with a southern puppet. In total the state of play in Syria continues to move in favor of the government side. More and more groups agree to truce offers, give up their heavy weapons and essentially concede to have lost the fight. On can indeed argue that the civil war is dying a slow, agonizing death . Posted by b on February 18, 2014 at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (19) CNN Propaganda - "Lone Kid In The Desert" Edition Yesterday Hala Gorani, "Anchor, CNN's International Desk", tweeted this: The "4 year-old crossing desert alone" was retweeted over 7,500 time. But this picture did not look quite right and some people digged into the story. Was that kid really alone in the desert? Here is a wider shot as provided by Andrew Harper, "UNHCR's Representative to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan". bigger . The real picture, showing the kid was just following a large group, was retweeted, as of now, only some 150 times. Posted by b on February 18, 2014 at 03:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (18) February 17, 2014 Hypocrisy Thy Name Is John Kerry - Global Warming Edition Kerry Implores Indonesia on Climate Change Peril JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Secretary of State John Kerry urged Indonesia on Sunday to take steps to combat climate change, warning that failure to act would jeopardize the nation's resources and damage its economy. ... "This city, this country, this region is really on the front lines of climate change," Mr. Kerry said in a speech. "It's not an exaggeration to say to you that your entire way of life that you live and love is at risk." List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions per capita Rank 12, United States, 19.3 metric tons of CO 2 per capita (2007) Rank 130, Indonesia, 1.8 metric tons of CO 2 per capita (2007) Posted by b on February 17, 2014 at 04:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (39) February 15, 2014 Real Or Propaganda? New Weapons To Syrian Mercenaries I am not sure what to think about this Wall Street Journal piece. Its alternative headline is Saudis Agree to Place Large Holes in El Al Planes at Some Future Date : AMMAN, Jordan--Washington's Arab allies, disappointed with Syria peace talks, have agreed to provide rebels there with more sophisticated weaponry, including shoulder-fired missiles that can take down jets, according to Western and Arab diplomats and opposition figures. Saudi Arabia has offered to give the opposition for the first time Chinese man-portable air defense systems, or Manpads, and antitank guided missiles from Russia, according to an Arab diplomat and several opposition figures with knowledge of the efforts. I am unsure if this is just scaremongering or real. I doubt that the United States, which largely controls the weapons flow at least to south Syria, as well as its waging tail Israel would ever agree to such. All weapons in Syria can change hands in unpredictable ways. The U.S. pays and thereby probably believes to control the mercenaries on the ground: The U.S. for its part has stepped up financial support, handing over millions of dollars in new aid to pay fighters' salaries, said rebel commanders who received some of the money. It is dubious that the rather loose string of being a replaceable money source gives much control at all. The Israeli and U.S. plan is to create a buffer zone in the South to enable a further Israeli land grab in the Golan. That is the reason why Israel is supplying and supporting the fighters there. There are now new threats from Obama to "apply new pressure" on Syria because the second round of the Geneva II talks ended inconclusive. That "new pressure" will be the new weapon supplies. But the WSJ piece makes clears these new supplies have nothing to do with the Geneva II round but were planned much earlier: Rebel leaders say they met with U.S. and Saudi intelligence agents, among others, in Jordan on Jan. 30 as the first round of Syrian peace talks in Geneva came to a close. That is when wealthy Gulf States offered the more sophisticated weapons. The U.S. is not letting up from its "regime change" aim. I have long favored some action in Jordan and Turkey to discourage those countries from their support roles for the mercenaries and insurgents. One wonders why the Syrian services seem unable to provide such. Could Russia help? Posted by b on February 15, 2014 at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (72) Anti-Union Vote Will Kill New Tennessee Production Line Volkswagen workers reject United Auto Workers Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tenn., have rejected the United Auto Workers, shooting down the union's hopes of securing a foothold at a foreign-owned auto plant in the South. ... The UAW had advantages in organizing the Volkswagen plant it probably won't find elsewhere. For starters, Volkswagen -- under pressure from the powerful German steelworkers' union, IG Metall, which holds seats on the company's board -- decided not to resist unionization. The union's presence would have also allowed the company to set up a German-style "works council," in which representatives of both workers and middle management offer advice to executives on how to best run the plant. The workers who voted against the union are stupid. Some rightwing politicians told them that Volkswagen would not build an additional production line there should the workers vote for the union and thereby for a workers council. The boss at the plant denied that. The plant in Chattanooga is now the only major Volkswagen plant without a works council. Such work councils are one of the success factors for Volkswagen. New production line facilities for Volkswagen are decided by the global board in Germany where the global unions have half minus one of the votes. Where do the people in Tennessee think will those board members put a new production line? At that lone "rebellious" plant where the workers voted against the established management structure that works in the 100+ other Volkswagen factories and for their 550,000 other workers? Idiots. Posted by b on February 15, 2014 at 08:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (49) February 14, 2014 More "Democracy Promotion" In Libya The CIA's (and the Saudi's) main asset in Libya, the anti-Ghaddafi general Khalifa Haftar , is staging a coup against the somewhat elected puppet government in Libya: A Libyan military commander on Friday called for the suspension of the interim parliament and the formation of a presidential committee to govern until new elections are held. ... "The national command of the Libyan army is declaring a movement for the new road map," Haftar said in a statement in which he said the armed forces were calling for the country to be "rescued" from its upheaval. Of course no one in Washington will, like in the case of Eygpt, actually call this a "coup". This is another fine moment of U.S. sponsored "democracy promotion." It is no coincidence that it comes now as the green flag of Ghaddafi's movement is again raised in parts of Libya. Haftar's job will again be to facilitate and support AlQaeda affiliated forces from east Libya against the nationalists who are regaining power in the south and west. But without NATO air support, not likely to come again, Haftar's forces only have a small chance to win. Posted by b on February 14, 2014 at 05:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (13) Posted by b on February 13, 2014 at 01:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (88) February 11, 2014 Syria: More OpEd Nonsense While NYT Editorial Begins To Make Sense A rather weird OpEd in the New York Times argues for a military "responsibility-to-protect" intervention to provide "human corridors" to allegedly starving Syrians: If Russia blocks meaningful international action, and if the Assad regime or any rebel group refuses to allow humanitarian aid into the besieged areas, the sieges must be broken by any means necessary. We should invoke the Responsibility to Protect, the principle that if a state fails to protect its populations from mass atrocities -- or is in fact the perpetrator of such crimes -- the international community must step in to protect the victims, with the collective use of force authorized by the Security Council . And if a multinational force cannot be assembled, then at least some countries should step up and organize Syria's democratically oriented rebel groups to provide the necessary force on the ground, with air cover from participating nations. So if Russia and China block a Security Council resolution there must be an R2P Security Council resolution which Russia and China would block making any further action obviously illigeal. Then some countries could illegally use military forces to help the no-existing "democratically oriented rebel groups" to provide whatever. The once blocked Yarmouk Palestinian camp has been cleared from fighters against the government and is back under Palestinian and government control. Nearly half of the 2,000 civilians in a small area within Homs city that was under siege and that also holds several thousand of fighters have left the area. The next big areas which are under siege and in need of relief are the 50,000 people in the Shia towns al-Zahraa and Nubl. They are besieged by insurgents. Are we to believe that "democratically oriented rebel groups" will provide for them? And which country would be crazy enough to send its military to Syria to receive the wrath not only of the Syrian and Russian governments but also of the al-Qaeda oriented jihadis? Compared to that nonsense the main editorial in today's NYT makes nearly makes sense: [A] political solution is not out of the question if some right choices are made. The United States, for one, should drop its opposition to including Iran , which supplies arms and other assistance to Mr. Assad, in the negotiations. Russia, another weapons supplier, could send a powerful message to Mr. Assad by suspending its arms deliveries. Saudi Arabia and Qatar could send the same message to Mr. Assad's opposition by ending weapons deliveries to the rebels . And Turkey could close its border to the foreign fighters that have turned Syria into a cauldron of extremist elements that threaten the entire region. That is more realistic position than the so far uttered ones in the U.S. editorial world. But isn't it funny that it doesn't mention Jordan where the U.S. trains insurgents, provides them with weapons and then send them off to fight in Syria. Should that, in the mind of the NYT editors, continue? Interestingly president Obama picked up one issue from that editorial today. In a press confernece with the French president Hollande Obama called on the international community to stop the flow of foreign fighters into Syria. Was that directed at the Saudis and Turkey? Posted by b on February 11, 2014 at 01:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (69) That Dead Giraffe I resent lions that gorge cute giraffe babies . It is beastly and nasty when tofu is so delicious. How can a heardless human kill animals to feed lions. Will there be more revelations about zoos killing animals just to feed other animals? That would be a scandal! I am so enraged now, I'll stop reading such news and get me some bacon. Posted by b on February 11, 2014 at 08:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (12) February 09, 2014 Russian Skieres Show Real Olympic Spirit The German skiers in Sochi received brand new skis but still needed to grind them. A day before the races started the grinding machine they had brought with them broke down. Without appropriate grinding chances for any success in the competitions were low. The Austrian and the Swiss team were asked for help but declined. The Russians, without a fuzz, showed Olympic spirit and helped. They offered their grinding machine. During one night over 40 pairs of skis were prepared for the German team. Some of the German skiers, as well as some of their Russian competitors, are in serious competitive range of medals. The Russian, due to their graciousness, may have given away some Bronze, Silver or even Gold medal. They, unlike the Russia bashing "western" media, showed real Olympic spirit. May the best win. original report (in German) Posted by b on February 9, 2014 at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (37) February 08, 2014 U.S. EU United To Overthrow Democracy In Ukraine The flap about the "Fuck the EU" uttering of the U.S. assistant secretary of state Nuland is somewhat disguising the real issue. The unencrypted cell phone call between Nuland and the U.S. ambassador in Kiev ( transcript ) was likely recorded by the Ukraine's security services. While the State department tried (as usual these days) to blame the Russians, the tweet of a Russian official that pointed to the call recording came a full day after someone else had tweeted the link to it. The Russian official was thereby not the original source. The caught call reveals several issues: 1. The U.S. is undeniably trying to overthrow the democratically elected government and the elected president of Ukraine and wants to put one of its opposition puppets into the top job. Nuland herself claims (vid at 7:26) that the U.S. has since the 1990s "invested" over $5 billion for such "democratization" of Ukraine. It is likely that the U.S., as the Ukraine government claims, is paying many of the protesters in Kiev. 2. Some countries in the EU (Germany, Poland and the Baltic countries) also want to overthrow the Ukrainian government but they (especially Merkel) want another puppet, price boxer Klitschko, to become the top dog. But as the rest of the EU is not willing to pay up for buying the Ukraine government for the meager plundering of the already very poor country those EU countries that want a coup have little they can offer and no real way of threatening sanctions or other illegal means. The "fuck the EU" remark is only about the difference in style. The U.S. wants fast sanction against the legal government and the people of Ukraine and to install its own puppet while the EU wants a different puppet and a less noisy kind of coup. The dragging behind the scenes is also disguising another important issue. The protest in the Ukraine are led by extreme right wing movements which will not shy away from brutalities or even civil war: [T]he physical organization of these protests, the building of barricades around squares, much of the camp construction and policing, and the pitched and sometimes deadly battles with police are almost entirely the work of the extreme right. In some of Ukraine's smaller cities, the local protests and seizures of government buildings appear to have been entirely the work of Pravy Sektor. ... Here in Kiev, some members of the ragtag army of pipe-wielding, helmeted marshals and guards say they are supporters of the more mainstream right-wing Ukrainian-nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party, which won about 10 per cent of the vote in 2012 parliamentary elections and whose leader, Oleh Tyahnybok, has a history of using anti-Semitic insults. But the people in the largest and most aggressive group, who generally refuse to speak to journalists, are members of Pravy Sektor, an umbrella group of fascist, nationalist, football-hooligan and right-wing extremist gangs - some with neo-Nazi histories - which is generally considered to the right of Svoboda and which tends to be very secretive. It has not, to this point, been a political party. The U.S. as well as the EU seem to believe that they can keep these forces under control (do they pay them?). But just like the Jihadists in Syria are hardly controllable the fascist in Ukraine will certainly play their own game as soon as the U.S. EU pressure against the legal government gives them a chance to go for it. They even openly threaten to ignite a civil war. By pushing for the resignation of the elected president of Ukraine the U.S. and the EU are clearly risking, for their own selfish reasons, to throw Ukraine into an internal conflict they would be unable to control. The media uproar about the "fuck the EU" part is just hiding those lunatic aspects of these plans. Posted by b on February 8, 2014 at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (76) NYT Selectively Quotes To Denigrate Russian Olympics Even after the Sochi games have begun the New York Times and continue their ridiculous anti-Russian campaign reaching as a last straws to this or that official uttering while conveniently leaving out those quotes that give real meaning of what was said and which condemn the NYT for exactly what it does. Headlining The Darkness Behind Sochi's Sparkle the front page piece looks for lost doorknobs and missing pillows, how terribly inconvenient and impossible to happen in the "west", and talks about "Russia's oppressive antigay law and its suffocating restrictions on freedom of speech". This even after the opening show in Sochi included the Russian band t.A.T.u, famous for their lesbian kisses (vid), and lots of music by Tchaikovsky, the great gay composer. It calls as witness the president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, misrepresenting him as if he somehow did what the Times is doing: At the opening ceremony, during which he sat next to Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin, Bach gave a strong speech to kick off the Olympics. He made points that sounded like sharp digs at Putin and the law he signed that banned the distribution of so-called gay propaganda to children in Russia. In the most refreshing speech by an I.O.C. president in decades, Bach did not kowtow to the host country. He said the Olympics should set an example for "human diversity and great unity." "To the athletes, you have come here with your Olympic dream," he said. "You are welcome, no matter where you come from or your background. Yes, it's possible even as competitors to live together and to live in harmony with tolerance and without any form of discrimination for whatever reason." He did not have to come out and say it, but many people who heard him knew exactly what he meant. Bach said what is said at any Olympic Games. Leave out the politics. Be peaceful and tolerant. But the author obviously completely missed what Bach was really saying. The very next sentence in Bach's short speech, not quoted by the New York Times, was this : "Have the courage to address your disagreements in a peaceful, direct political dialogue and not on the backs of these athletes," he said. But that is of course not what the Times wants to do. It wants to mix the issues, sports and politics, and demean the apolitical games only to insert its political pet peeve. Posted by b on February 8, 2014 at 06:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (38) Against Anti-Sochi Propaganda A few links with regard to the Sochi Olympics and the ridiculous U.S. propaganda campaign to denigrate Russia and the games there: Shredding Sochi... in a Good Way Western journalists have been in the business of dismissing Russian achievements and magnifying Russian failures ever since Putin drove them into a collective derangement syndrome - he even haunts their dreams, as recently revealed by the Guardian's Shaun Walker - so the preemptive besmirching of the Sochi Olympics can't have surprised anyone. What is startling, though, is the unusually low competence of the effort, even by the standards of these people that are sarcastically referred to as "democratic journalists" in Russia. ( read on ) 8 Viral Sochi Olympics Photos That Are Total Lies Welcome to Sochi: Holiday resort, Olympic host - and gay capital of Russia Sochi organizer says 65 leaders coming to Olympics, a record for Winter Games Good luck to all the athletes and good luck to Russia. Posted by b on February 7, 2014 at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (30) The Bogus Aleppo Prison Breach Yesterday some insurgent groups in Syria claimed that the Aleppo prison was stormed after a suicide attack and that hundreds of prisoners were freed. The claim was widely reported in "western" media: BEIRUT (AP) -- A suicide bomber blew himself up at the gates of a Syrian prison Thursday and rebels stormed in behind him, freeing hundreds of inmates as part of an offensive aimed at capturing key government symbols around the northern city of Aleppo, activists said. Today the insurgent propaganda office claims that the government has recaptured the prison. Syrian troops retook Friday most of Aleppo's prison, lost to rebels a day earlier, in fighting that has killed at least 46 people over two days, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. But the fate of hundreds of prisoners reportedly freed after Islamist and jihadist fighters overran the facility was unclear, with suggestions that they may not have been able to flee amid the fighting. But the facts beg to differ . The vehicle based bomb and the British suicide bomber driving it never came to the prison gate but were defeated before reaching it. The prison's perimeter was not breached and no prisoners were able to escape in the first place. Jabhad al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham, which cooperated in the attack, lost dozens of fighters when the Syrian air force hit the areas around the prison. This case is just another reminder that neither the insurgency propaganda organizations, nor its multipliers in the "western" media can be trusted with regard to their information on Syria. Posted by b on February 7, 2014 at 09:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (27) February 06, 2014 "To Respect The Independence And Sovereignty Of Ukraine" Ukraine. Memorandum on Security Assurances Budapest, 5 December 1994 The United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Welcoming the accession of Ukraine to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons as a non-nuclear-weapon State, Taking into account the commitment of Ukraine to eliminate all nuclear weapons from its territory within a specified period of time, Noting the changes in the world-wide security situation, including the end of the Cold War, which have brought about conditions for deep reductions in nuclear forces. Confirm the following: The United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine, in accordance with the principles of the CSCE Final Act, to respect the Independence and Sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine . [...] So here is the U.S. showing its legal commitment to respect the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine by moving its puppets across the chess board: In a conversation leaked online and posted to YouTube on Feb. 6, voices closely resembling those of U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland discuss loosely the roles of Ukrainian opposition leaders and the United Nations, and frustration over inaction and indecision by the European Union in solving Ukraine's political crisis. ... The voice allegedly of Nuland adds that Klitschko should not be given a role in government. "I don't think it's necessary, I don't think it's a good idea," she says. "Yeah... I guess... in terms of him not going into the government, just let him sort of stay out and do his political homework and stuff," Pyatt says. ... Before the call ends, Nuland tells Pyatt she has "one more wrinkle" for him. Commenting on European pressure put on Yanukovych - or lack thereof - she explains that she has spoken to the United Nations and has gotten an official there who said that Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, agreed to send someone to Ukraine to "help glue this thing and to have the UN glue it." She adds: "And you know, fuck the EU ." "Exactly," Pyatt replies. "And I think we got to do something to make it stick together, because you can be sure that if it does start to gain altitude the Russians will be working behind the scenes to torpedo it. Let me work on Klitschko, and I think we should get a Western personality to come out here (to Ukraine) and midwife this thing,'' he adds. Victoria Nuland is the Assistant Secretary of State for Europe . Brussels will just love that call. Thanks whomever for putin that call on YouTube. Posted by b on February 6, 2014 at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (95) Peace Talks In Pakistan Eight month after the Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif won the elections peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban, which he had promised, have finally begun : The two sides gathered at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House in Islamabad for a preliminary meeting likely to chart a "roadmap" for future discussions, amid deep scepticism over whether dialogue can yield a lasting peace deal. Sources said that talks were held in a cordial atmosphere and that negotiations would now be continued on a daily basis. It is unclear though whether these talks will lead to an end of violent incidents which are attributed to the Taliban. A McClatchy report claims that prime minister Sharif no longer has hope for these talks to succeed and has planned an all out military assault on the Taliban borderlands with Afghanistan. There is reason to doubt that claim as the writer of that report also manipulates some facts: [T]he Pakistani prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, already has decided to press ahead with a massive military strike at the militants' headquarters in North Waziristan, a tribal area bordering Afghanistan - and the insurgents know it's coming. ... After being sworn in, Sharif insisted that the option of peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban be explored, despite opposition from the country's powerful military, which had all but routed the militants after five years of fighting involving 150,000 troops. The TTP used the eight months since to regroup, organize and publicly demonstrate their renewed strength with the two-month wave of terrorist attacks. That response to Sharif's reconciliatory policy has made him look ill-informed and naive, and much of the public anger generated by the terrorist attacks has targeted him. Of course the Pakistani military never "all but routed the militants" which is what make peace talks a necessity in the first place. The writer of that highlighted sentence is also leaving out some important historic events and is thereby coming to a very wrong conclusion. There were few attacks from the Taliban during the first few months of Nawaz Sharif's rule and preparations for peace talks went well along. But just a day before those were starting in earnest the Unites States killed the head of the TTP, Hakimullah Mahsud, in a targeted drone strike and thereby sabotaged those earlier peace talks. It was only after Hakimullah's assassination that the TTP launched a series of attacks against Pakistani security forces. For McClatchy to leave that out and to blame the attacks on Nawaz Sharif's willingness for peace talks is a serious manipulation of the facts. One central demand the TTP has is the end of the U.S. occupation in Afghanistan and the end of Pakistan's support for it. The United States fears that Nawaz Sharif will agree to that and therefore has an interest to make any peaceful solution in Pakistan impossible. Sharif's alleged plan to use a wide ranging military campaign to fight the TTP will end like all such plans have ended since the British colonized India - in disaster. The Taliban will slip away and come back as soon as the attack is running out of steam. The plans for that attack are based on pipe dreams. As McClatchy claims: [Sharif's national security adviser] Aziz laid out a new policy under which Pakistan would act to secure the northwest tribal areas by the time the United States withdraws the last of its combat troops from Afghanistan in December. That entails a decisive operation in North Waziristan, with Pakistan seeking the support of the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force on the Afghan side of the border to cut off TTP escape routes . How can ISAF forces block the border on the Afghan side when ISAF is withdrawing? It would take several brigades of ground troops to prevent Pakistani Taliban from slipping into Afghanistan. Such troops are no longer available and the planned campaign will therefore end just as pointless as earlier ones. The Taliban will cross the border and come back as soon as military exhausts it's campaign drive. Talks between the Taliban and the government are the only way to peace in Pakistan as well as in Afghanistan. One major point in such talks and a condition without which no success is possible is the end of foreign occupation and drone attacks. But as the U.S. wants to stay in Afghanistan it will do its best to sabotage such talks. Both those between the Afghan president Karzai and the Taliban in Afghanistan and those between the Pakistan premier Sharif and the Taliban in Pakistan. Posted by b on February 6, 2014 at 09:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (12) February 05, 2014 Syria: Some Regional Consolidations? The Jihadists unde the Islamic State of Iraq And Syria are consolidating positions on the Turkish border. The seem to want to get control over all border crossings. One wonders what their plans for Turkey look like. In the south Jabhat al-Nusra, disguised as U.S. sponsored FSA, is getting more entrenched. This is the result of U.S. arms, ammunition and tactical advice delivered through Jordan. The Syrian army is making good progress in and around the major cities. Damascus is pretty much cleared. Homs city has only a few pockets of insurgents left and the insurgents in parts of Aleppo city are now mostly encircled. The norther countrysides are a mixed picture. There is some fighting between the various Jihadist groups but recent attempts to take any new territory held by the Syrian government seems to have failed. All this seems like a winter lull spend on consolidating ones position while planning for this or that new offensive. Posted by b on February 5, 2014 at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (33) Sochi And Ukraine The anti-Yanukovich rhetoric in the German media has somewhat died down for now. Is this the silence before the storm? Or is this a response to the overwhelmingly negative reaction that 90% of the commentators had towards the very obvious pro-coup propaganda? I don't know. But the soon start of the Sochi Olympics lets me think back to the start of the Beijing Olympics which the United States used to let its proxy force Georgia attack Russian peacekeepers in Georgian areas that strove for independence. What has the "west" planned for the start of of the Sochi Olympics? Let me know some scenarios. Posted by b on February 5, 2014 at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (26) Smaller Protests Show Yanukovych Weakened? Can someone reconcile these two parts from a NYT report about Ukraine? First: On Sunday, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in Independence Square here in the capital, ... Rather than being placated by any of the concessions, the opposition has grown emboldened by the evidence that Mr. Yanukovych's position has weakened . So "tens of thousands" show that the president Yanukovych's position has "weakened". But what then is this further down in the piece? Though large, the turnout was far lower than at the movement's peak in early December, when more than 100,000 people gathered on three successive Sundays. The protests are far smaller now but that is a sign that the president's position has weakened? How does that fit? The attempts by the U.S. and the EU to now bribe Ukraine with more empty promises will not work. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Western powers were working on a financial plan for Ukraine whose numbers "won't be small" and won't hinge on Kiev first agreeing upon a long-term International Monetary Fund agreement, whose financial conditions Kiev has had difficulty complying with. However, she said the money was contingent on the new Ukrainian government pursuing economic and political reforms. U.S. officials said the goal was to convince Mr. Yanukovych to make a series of political reforms, including appointing a "true" technocratic government that would then start to make the tough economic changes sought by the IMF. It makes no economic sense for Ukraine, which depends on exports to Russia and on natural gas from Russia, to turn away from Russia and towards a predatory "west". Any IMF program, which would lend money just as Russia is willing to do but with much more destructive conditions, would likely be very harsh for the people. They know this and are not willing to give in. The U.S. and the EU are inciting the hard-rightwing and fascist "opposition" in Ukraine. The western darling Klitchko has called for the creation of "self-defense groups". One hopes that this call will be ignored like his previous two calls for a general strike which no one followed. Posted by b on February 3, 2014 at 08:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (40) February 01, 2014 Ukraine: "West" Playing With Fire - Intentions? The "west" is pushing a anti-democratic collection of right-wingers as a "democratic opposition" against the dully elected government of Ukraine. How can Kerry claim that these forces who fight the majority elected government are in a "fight for democracy"? There is a great danger here. The street-muscle of the "opposition" is fascist in its core and a quite violent collection of hooligans and militants: These groups range from right-wing radicals and soccer hooligans to military veterans and mobs of stick-wielding goons. And to the gall of more-established opposition figures, like the world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, they have become the revolution's most commanding presence. Anyone with a stake in resolving Ukraine's political crisis -- including the diplomats watching fretfully from the E.U. and U.S. -- will likely have to reckon with the role of these groups. But they are becoming increasingly hard to control. By hyping the "opposition", which could not win in elections, the "west" is giving succor to the extreme forces. These forces already pledge to incite a civil war. This is clearly, as we claimed , a repeat of the strategy that was used to throw Syria into ruins. Under the disguise of "peaceful protests" which, like in the Ukraine never were peaceful, radical forces are incited to fight the state and all its structures. But what is the purpose his obvious attempt to throw Ukraine into a state of unrest and possibly into a civil war? Did not Syria show that such radical forces will in the end hit back at the "west"? What is there to win but trouble? Posted by b on February 1, 2014 at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (93)

This is clearly, as we claimed , a repeat of the strategy that was used to throw Syria into ruins.

Annual celebration of conquest of Jerusalem habitually involves violent provocations by settlers who are protected by occupation forces, vandalism of Palestinian property and racist anti-Palestinian chants. Read more about Video: Israeli "Jerusalem Day" mob attacks Palestinian In a moving commencement speech, singer John Legend did something nearly unprecedented among celebrity commenters: he urged his audience to humanize Palestinians. Read more about John Legend implores us to love Palestinians

Annual celebration of conquest of Jerusalem habitually involves violent provocations by settlers who are protected by occupation forces, vandalism of Palestinian property and racist anti-Palestinian chants.

The last stop on my quick tour of Asia was an impromptu decision. After Tokyo , I had to leave Beijing within 24 hours. After considering, Seoul and Bangkok I decided to go with Hong Kong. So I flew to Hong Kong with no idea what to expect. Photos By Nigel D. Tokyo has, "Yens," Beijing has, "Yuans" and Hong Kong has, "Hong Kong Dollars." My flight was delayed so I landed in Hong Kong solo around midnight. Took a cab to my hotel and had to start posting on the site since it was the middle of the day in the U.S. In the morning I signed up for a tour, the easiest way to explore the city. My first stop was to, "Victoria Peak," to get an amazing view of the city. In this picture you see, "Victoria Harbour." Breathtaking view of the city. The next stop was a Sampan boat ride in the, Aberdeen Harbour. This is a huge floating seafood restaurant, I didn't get a chance to eat there. This isn't a boat, this is actually where someone lives on the water. I can only imagine what they have to go through during a storm. Rode around for about ten minutes, it was a relaxing trip. The driver didn't speak much English but when it was over he made it clear, "MONEY NOW." The ride is cheap, forgot how much exactly. The interesting thing about Hong Kong is it seems to be half buildings and skyscrapers and the other half trees and mountains. Seems like the best of both worlds. Post card views are everywhere. Paradise is never too far away in Hong Kong. Some interesting backpacks for sale, TSA might not approve. A look at the streets of Hong Kong. Where I was located had about every high end store you can think of, Hermes, Gucci, Moncler, etc. Every block there was an Indian man asking me if I wanted to buy a fake rolex. Some people were wearing face masks which I found strange. I thought it was because of pollution but I was told when some people are sick they wear one to keep other people from catching it. Also some people wear it because of allergies. Seen a lot of nice cars in Hong Kong, there are definitely a lot of high rollers out there. I read a CNN article saying Hong Kong has the best skyline in the world and it did not disappoint. It is the greatest skyline I have ever seen, and I have seen quite a few. Pictures can't convey how huge it is and it also has two sides. It is something you got to see with your own eyes. Every night at 8pm there is a lazer show called, "A Symphony of Lights." 44 Buildings light up with lazers to music for 20 minutes. It is the world's largest permanent light and sound show. The second tallest building in Hong Kong, "The International Finance Centre." You might remember this building from, "The Dark Knight." These boats have cruises in the Harbour so you can enjoy both sides of the skyline. While in Hong Kong you must bow to the statue of the legend Bruce Lee. So I took a few pictures and then people asked me to take pictures with them. Obviously there are not use to seeing black people. Took a few pictures and was asked if I play basketball. Next time I'm out there I will say I play for the Brooklyn Nets. I actually hit up a few clubs while in Hong Kong, only had two nights to explore. I hit up the, "Lan Kwai Fong," bar/club area along with red light district, " Wan Chai." "Lan Kwai Fong," had a lot of tourists, people spoke English and their was nice bars and clubs. This picture is a go go dancer from one of the clubs. I was the only black person in the club as expected. Definitely was a struggle with barely anyone speaking English. The, "Wan Chai," area also has bars but also has bootleg strip clubs. Me and a person I met out there got pulled into one by girls standing outside. They have a little scam they run on tourists. They have 2 dancers barely dancing inside and tell you to buy drinks. The drink you buy is regular price, but then the girls ask you to buy them a drink and their, "special drink," cost 5x a regular drink. All the girls at these venues can be taken home for the right price. I didn't find them cute, and just went in for a laugh. I went into another bar which you could tell was a hookup spot. Women looked like they were waiting to be taken back to a hotel room. Again I didn't find any woman attractive. I went on an off night, it must be crazy out there on a weekend. View of the tallest building in Hong Kong. Daytime view of the fourth tallest building in the world. On my second day I decided to take a trip to see Buddha. It took about a hour ride from where I was staying to get to Lantau Island. This was an amazing ride that I will never forget. Clearly not for those scared of heights, especially with the ride lasting 25 minutes. There is a little village with stores and restaurant right before you make the trip to see Buddha. Most people go up 240 steps to reach the statue while some can be driven by a tour guide. These statues surround Buddha in a circle and are known as, "The Offering of the Six Devas." Tian Tan Buddha is 112 feet tall and weighs 250 metric tons. Bouncers at Hong Kong clubs. Took a trip to an old school fishing village. These are the homes of people living there. On my tour there was an Asian guy with his wife and daughter. His daughter was for some reason carrying a little suitcase. As we got near the village he started asking how much it would be to buy land at the fishing village and if there were any hotels. The tour guide seemed shocked and said there are no hotels or land for sale. The guys ends up paying someone to let his family spend the night in the village and to go fishing the next day. The man said he had never been fishing. A true, "YOLO," move. Those were alive and moving around. The infamous, "Pufferfish." It is one of the most poisonous creatures in the world and if cooked wrong can lead to death. "There is enough toxin in one pufferfish to kill 30 adult humans, and there is no known antidote.( Source )" Thought about bring back a shark as a souvenir but I only had carry on luggage. So for the spring I went to, Rome, Dubai & Egypt. For the summer I went to, Amsterdam, Cannes, Beirut & Dubai. I just finished my Fall tour with Tokyo, Beijing and Hong Kong. Where in the world should I go for the winter?

The last stop on my quick tour of Asia was an impromptu decision. After Tokyo , I had to leave Beijing within 24 hours. After considering, Seoul and Bangkok I decided to go with Hong Kong.

A 2003 article in the Military Review has proven darkly prescient with last weekend's terrorist siege of an indoor shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya. Written by two retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonels, the piece outlines the emergence of modern-day siege warfare tactics, or the invasion of large architectural structures. In the magazine's September/October 2003 issue, Lester W. Grau and Geoffrey Demarest collaboratively warned that, "while perhaps not a likely target in a traditional military sense, an indoor shopping mall could be attractive as a terrorist target." Their article goes on to imagine what might happen when armed groups lay siege to megastructures--prisons, malls, airports, embassies, cinemas, skyscrapers, even entire gated subdivisions--asking, in the process, how we might protect ourselves when acts of war or terrorism erupt in the midst of our everyday, civilian environments. The disturbing realization is that, for the U.S. Army, the vulnerable targets of tomorrow are shopping malls and schoolyards, airports and sports stadiums, perhaps even suburban streets. The mall siege in Nairobi is perhaps only the most recent, horrifying example of how this will look. For the most part, however, the recommendations of the Military Review remain on the side of armed fantasy; the authors even refer to these structures as "Die Hard buildings," as if in a wink and a nudge to watching too many action movies, and their advice, for the most part, remains abstract and highly general. But their conclusion is straightforward enough: any building can be inverted or, in a sense, turned against the people who try to attack it, and this can be done by way of the architecture itself. You can tactically misuse the building, so to speak, to hide from or, even better, to trap and bewilder your assailants. Recall, for example, that, amongst the many terrifying stories emerging from the Nairobi mall, we learned that some people survived by climbing into ventilation shafts and HVAC ducts to hide. This was perversely mirrored by the attackers themselves, who equally misused the building for their ends. "The building's blueprints were studied, down to the ventilation ducts," the New York Times reports. Further, a few days before the siege, "powerful belt-fed machine guns were secretly stashed in a shop in the mall with the help of a colluding employee." Grau and Demarest go on to explain, indoor malls are already designed to manipulate human movement--"Planners design malls to move people slowly past a wide display of consumer goods while deterring theft," they write--so it is simply a question of accentuating or amplifying this tendency for tactical reasons, pushing certain users out like a splinter from skin or isolating them in tightly controlled dead ends. Here, the authors refer to the design of "circuitous paths," or routes of circulation that do everything but offer "a straight passage to the mall's main area." The mall, in this reading, is a labyrinth disguised as a retail space, filled with constrained halls and corridors that, if used aggressively, can confuse and strand potential adversaries. The retired Lieutenant Colonels leading us through this thought-exercise point out the obvious: that storefront gates can be closed automatically on a moment's notice, that elevators and escalators can be turned off or reversed, and that the limited passageways through which movement is channeled can be blocked off entirely. Guards, they suggest, "can seal intruders into a holding area that appears to be a normal lobby." Meanwhile, in a feature that would be as useful for chasing teenage shoplifters as for confronting terrorists, "if troublemakers try to exit the mall in a hurry, they must thread a circuitous path to get out. Mall parking lots, designed to impede a quick getaway, funnel traffic to a few exits, which police cars can reach rapidly." In any case, the sad and obvious reality of all this is that, if you are not in what amounts to a permanent state of readiness for such an attack--if you have not, in effect, militarized every shopping mall--then there is very little you will be prepared to do in response. The siege in Nairobi has made this all too tragically clear. At an Army Reserve base in New Jersey, soldiers practice "entering a building, clearing a room, and engaging targets during urban operations." Photo courtesy U.S. Army . At least part of the reason for this is that military plans for storming and re-taking densely populated civilian structures such as shopping malls--that is, laying siege to architectural megastructures--have few opportunities for realistic training and practice. Full-scale trial runs, for instance, of violent mall-clearing exercises featuring hundreds of panicked civilians would be nearly impossible to coordinate, and the risks of revenue loss or even physical damage to the buildings themselves are both obvious and hard to avoid. Briefly, consider other controversial examples of military training in civilian locations, such as the series of late-night military helicopter exercises held in downtown Los Angeles back in 1989. This involved full-scale trials of "urban approach and departure techniques" over high-rise apartments and office buildings in the business district--something repeated in 2009 with Blackhawk pilots flying through the city on summer evenings, intended "to familiarize military personnel with urban settings and prepare them for future assignments overseas." More exercises like these would clearly boost the readiness of military forces and police first-responders, but how far do we want to go risking near-total militarization of our cities in the name of personal safety? There was a lot of talk last year about an abandoned big box store in Texas that had been gut-renovated and transformed into a public library. It is by no means difficult to imagine a slightly different fate for that big box store, or for any of the nation's many dead malls : being transformed instead into a kind of counter-terrorism training center for urban warfare, where soldiers and police can learn how to resist modern siege tactics using the same guidelines outlined by the Military Review in 2003. The goal cannot be to militarize civilian architectural space by infesting our everyday environment with control technologies, or by simply turning city planning and the management of public space over to the Army; nonetheless, it seems smart to recognize that the architectural circumstances of war have changed, and that schoolyards , shopping malls, sports stadia, and even the suburbs are doomed to experience horrific, organized violence. Somehow preparing for this fate, without over-fortifying ourselves into self-imposed "Die Hard buildings," is one of the dark requirements of architects and security planners in the years to come.

a. Written by two retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonels, the piece outlines the emergence of modern-day siege warfare tactics, or the invasion of large architectural structures.

Here are recent two stories that are quite telling about what our government feels about women's reproductive health. Image used for representational purposes only. AFP. On 15 February, the Chhattisgarh High Court declared that RK Gupta, the doctor who conducted a botched sterilisation camp in Bilaspur in November 2014, had to be let off. It didn't matter that the man had performed tubectomies on 83 women in 90 minutes, or that 18 of these women had died because of it. It would be an "abuse of the process of the law" to proceed with the investigation, the bench said, because the investigators did not have the state government's sanction to prosecute Gupta, a public servant. Evidently this "abuse of the law" mattered more than the women who had died because of surgeries he had performed. Apparently, it also mattered more than the women who had been infected because he had used the same gloves, syringes, and sutures on all the women. After all, he had even been rewarded earlier in 2014 for his 'record' of 50,000 surgeries in his career. The second horrifying story is from Kalaburagi. On 6 February, more than 600 Dalit and Lambadi women gathered in front of the office of the Kalaburagi Deputy Commissioner to protest mass unwarranted hysterectomies that doctors in private hospitals had performed on them. The women had approached the doctors for problems like irregular menstrual cycles, white discharge, or pain in the lower abdomen, and instead of simply treating these problems, the doctors had told them that an urgent hysterectomy was the only way they could survive, or they would get cancer. "You have had children, so why do you need this organ?" the doctors asked them. We can only imagine the outrage that would have erupted if men's genitalia had ever been removed this way. It would have been no surprise if the government had fallen. These are two of the most recent cases that Minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi, and Minister of Health and Family Welfare JP Nadda obviously need to be reminded of, even though it hasn't even been a month since they happened. On 22 February (in fact reports of RK Gupta being freed broke a day before this), Gandhi wrote to Nadda demanding that all hospitals be asked to declare the number of caesareans they performed every month. Gandhi also called for the "naming and shaming" of gynaecologists who performed C-sections on women "for no reason at all except money," essentially saying that C-sections had also become a market. She was responding to a Change.org petition started by Mumbai-based Subarna Ghosh. Gandhi didn't stop there. She told reporters, "I would like all women in India to get together and start protesting because a caesarean for a woman is very invasive, and it turns a natural delivery into something that is an unnecessary operation." The key words in all this gyaan are obviously "invasive" and "natural delivery" -- but even if we forget the part where she's telling women what to do with their bodies, we can't help but feel like Gandhi has caught hold of the wrong end of the stick. Why is she telling women to chase after so-called "natural deliveries" instead of dealing with the pathetic problems women shouldn't have to deal with when they try to access healthcare (in this case reproductive healthcare) in the first place? The extremely disturbing stories about the women in Kalaburagi, or of how RK Gupta was let off by the Chhattisgarh High Court on an unbelievable technicality are not new. While the Kalaburagi case has been happening in profit-hungry private hospitals across the country, particularly in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, state-run negligent government hospitals, as RK Gupta showed us, are not any better. We also know the problems that are prevalent in government hospitals, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has conveniently ignored time and again in his rehashing of schemes for pregnant women. Since we've been using recent examples of a sustained disinterest in looking after women's reproductive health, there's also the Supreme Court (SC) believing that it makes perfect sense to deny women healthcare for the sake of 'research'. This time, on 23rd January, the SC dismissed a PIL on unethical research in cervical cancer screening by the Tata Memorial Hospital. The trials were supposed to compare the use of a "visual inspection with acetic acid" to a pap smear in detecting cervical cancer -- but the research used a control group, where 1,41,000 women were not given any screening for cervical cancer--254 of these women died. Despite this, the SC dismissed the PIL stating that the women hadn't died because they were denied medicine, never mind that denying the women access to easily available screening was the problem in itself. While we are at it, let us also just say that if Gandhi is calling all women to protest caesareans being performed and is so in favour of women getting organised, why has the government taken so long to notice and vaguely register that women in Kalaburagi have been protesting against these private hospitals performing unwarranted hysterectomies for the last two years? After all this time of not responding or providing flimsy explanations, it's not like the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the Ministry of Health have gone after the doctors who have committed these crimes. The maternal mortality rate in India is one of the highest in the world: In 2016, the World Health Organisation (WHO) found that nearly 45,000 women die during childbirth in India, accounting for nearly 17 percent of maternal deaths globally. A similar study by ORF in 2016 stated that after Nigeria, India was the second largest contributor to the number of global maternal deaths. What is the point if women go to gynaecologists to get their problems addressed, when the only solution they are offered is a hysterectomy or tubectomy? Women, it seems, have to choose from one of two terrible sides, both of which are driven by profiting from policing women's bodies: Private hospitals that have made women a market and government hospitals that have conducted tubectomies in huge numbers without any consideration. How has the government so easily forgotten the gynaecologist who, in Deepa Dhanraj's harrowing film Something Like a War (1991) said with great swagger that he can finish a tubectomy in 45 seconds? It's high time that Gandhi and the ministries all start looking beyond their own ideas of what is good for women and actually take women's healthcare seriously. With all this going on why is Gandhi spending her energy claiming that "natural births" are the issue at hand, as if there is some pure and morally uplifting way to go through childbirth? Notice then also the onus is on women to demand this pure existence? She might as well say that all pregnant women in India should demand organic food. The Ladies Finger (TLF) is a leading online women's magazine delivering fresh and witty perspectives on politics, culture, health, sex, work and everything in between.

Here are recent two stories that are quite telling about what our government feels about women's reproductive health. Image used for representational purposes only.

You are not signed in as a Premium user; we rely on Premium users to support our news reporting. Sign in or Sign up today! Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's resignation is sending the Left into a panic, terrified a fifth conservative vote could lead to overturning Roe v. Wade -- what Democrats like Sen. Dianne Feinstein have hallowed as "super-precedent." Meanwhile, pro-life groups are jubilant, waiting in hopeful expectation that the decision even abortion supporter Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg has called unjustified "heavy-handed judicial intervention" will be consigned to the trash bin of jurisprudential history. But what would a post- Roe world look like? Contrary to popular opinion, reversing Roe would not solve the abortion crisis in this country; it would simply kick the question back to the states to decide on a state-by-state basis, as was the regime pre- Roe . Historically, since the founding of this nation, abortion has always been a matter within the purview and jurisdiction of the states, and never a federal matter. It wasn't until 1973 in Roe that this changed. Critics claim with Roe that not only did the U.S. Supreme Court usurp jurisdiction over a question that belonged to the states, the justices also distorted the Constitution's "right to privacy," interpreting it in a way never intended. In the years immediately before Roe, the majority of states had outlawed abortion except for the life or health of the mother, while four had legalized it and 13 had allowed abortion in limited circumstances. The trend, however, was moving towards legalization -- until Roe , when five justices on the High Court determined by judicial fiat that the states no longer had the right to decide the matter. The straitjacket ruling of Roe imposed on all 50 states -- mostly against their will -- led to a polarization that even abortion supporters recognize has harmed the country. The legal landscape in the early 1970s before Roe v. Wade (courtesy of The Washington Post ) " Roe , I believe, would have been more acceptable as a judicial decision if it had not gone beyond a ruling on the extreme statute before the Court," said feminist Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg. "Heavy-handed judicial intervention was difficult to justify and appears to have provoked, not resolved, conflict." Some states already have "trigger laws" in case Roe is overturned. Laws in Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota and South Dakota will automatically outlaw abortion if Roe is reversed, the wording of South Dakota's law, for instance, making clear it goes into effect "on the date that the states are recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court to have the authority to prohibit abortion at all stages of pregnancy." Other states have abortion bans still on the books from pre- Roe times, which could be revived and enforced if the case is struck down. And then there are states that have enshrined the right to abortion in their constitution, including Alaska, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey and New Mexico, and who will likely continue to keep abortion legal. But the issue would no longer be a federal matter, resolved instead on a state-by-state basis through the ballot box -- as it was for approximately 200 years before Roe. With the right to travel protected under the Constitution, individuals who reject their state's abortion law can lobby to change them, or else move to another state. Pro-lifers will still have to battle to educate and inform the public about the reality of abortion, and continue to work to restore a Culture of Life, state by state (something pro-lifers were already busily engaged in before Roe ) -- but at least in a post- Roe world, outlawing Planned Parenthood mills and shutting down abortionists' business would no longer be an impossible scenario but a real possibility -- one out of reach of the long arm of the Supreme Court. We rely on you to support our news reporting. Please donate today.

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's resignation is sending the Left into a panic, terrified a fifth conservative vote could lead to overturning Roe v. Wade --

By Brigitte Gabriel | December 27, 2017 3:28 PM EST By Brad Wilmouth | December 30, 2011 12:29 PM EST By Brad Wilmouth | June 4, 2009 3:02 PM EDT On Tuesday's Hannity show on FNC, while interviewing author Brigitte Gabriel, host Sean Hannity suggested that, rather than make apologies for America in the Muslim world, that President Obama should point out that Muslims have benefited from America's assistance in various countries, and Gabriel pointed out that the United States sided with Muslims against Christians in the former Yugoslavia. Hannity posed the question: "Shouldn't the President be highlighting, for example, the sacrifice of America to help save some Kuwaiti Muslims and in Somalia and in Afghanistan and in Iraq and in other parts of the world?" Gabriel added:

Hannity posed the question: "Shouldn't the President be highlighting, for example, the sacrifice of America to help save some Kuwaiti Muslims and in Somalia and in Afghanistan and in Iraq and in other parts of the world?"

Inspired by the real-world issues presented in Fortitude , the new drama starring Stanley Tucci and Michael Gambon, Pivot TV and EcoHealth Alliance have teamed up to create Investigate "Fortitude ," a nine-part video series, hosted by Jacob Soboroff, that explores the real-life science behind the show. Through interviews with top scientists--epidemiologists, ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and Arctic experts-- Investigate "Fortitude " uncovers how the unintentional effects of climate change lead to important, unexpected, and fascinating realities. The third episode of Investigate "Fortitude," inspired by the moment in the third installment of Fortitude where Markus explains why one cannot die in Fortitude to DCI Morton (Stanley Tucci) kicks off a conversation regarding hypothetical situations in which freezing temperatures can potentially preserve animal carcasses and, as a result of melting ice caps, resurrect thousand-year old viruses in today's day and age. Watch more videos, discover the truth, and take part in the solutions around these issues at InvestigateFortitude.com now. In Fortitude, it's not just the cold that kills. All-new episodes of Fortitude premiere Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Pivot TV . Investigate 'Fortitude,' and Discover the Real Science Behind the Show 9 VIDEOS 'Fortitude' Shows the Real-Life Implications of Climate Change and Global Warming Spoiler Alert: In the final episode of ' Investigate "Fortitude," ' EcoHealth Alliance experts analyze the central mystery in the show and explain the ramifications of global disease outbreaks. The Parasites in 'Fortitude' Are Scary, but the Ones in Real Life Are Downright Terrifying This week's episode of 'Investigate 'Fortitude" ' discusses the frightening yet real parasites of the world, known and unknown, and how to avoid them. Environmental Toxins Are Making Us Sick, and We're to Blame? This week's episode of 'Investigate "Fortitude" ' discusses the impact of humans on the environment and how it contributes to emerging diseases. Can Infectious Diseases Affect Your State of Mind? Dr. Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance explains the effect of physical diseases on the mental state and how these viruses use it to their advantage. Are Melting Ice Caps Causing Houses in the Arctic to Sink? This week's episode of 'Investigate "Fortitude" ' explores the environmental and economical impacts of melting permafrost on Arctic societies. As Permafrost Melts, Chances of Discovering Mammoth Fossils Increase EcoHealth Alliance experts discuss the likelihood of finding more mammoth fossils as the Arctic permafrost thaws in the fourth installment of 'Investigate "Fortitude." ' Could Warming Temperatures Resurrect Deadly Diseases? EcoHealth Alliance experts discuss how melting ice caps could resurrect thousand-year-old viruses in the third installment of "Investigate 'Fortitude.' " Should You Spend Your Next Spring Break in the Arctic Circle? This video breaks down the ecological and economic impacts of ice hotels--as well as the environmental effects of global warming--in the Arctic. Does Being Unprepared Increase Your Chance of Contracting An Infectious Disease? Jacob Soboroff and EcoHealth Alliance experts discuss the implications of infectious diseases in the first episode of 'Investigate "Fortitude." ' 'Fortitude' Shows the Real-Life Implications of Climate Change and Global Warming The Parasites in 'Fortitude' Are Scary, but the Ones in Real Life Are Downright Terrifying Environmental Toxins Are Making Us Sick, and We're to Blame? Are Melting Ice Caps Causing Houses in the Arctic to Sink? Should You Spend Your Next Spring Break in the Arctic Circle? Does Being Unprepared Increase Your Chance of Contracting An Infectious Disease?

Inspired by the real-world issues presented in Fortitude , the new drama starring Stanley Tucci and Michael Gambon, Pivot TV and EcoHealth Alliance have teamed up to create Investigate "Fortitude ," a nine-part video series, hosted by Jacob Soboroff, that explores the real-life science behind the show.

1. GMA's Roberts to Hillary: Health Care Plan 'Ahead of Its Time' On Monday's Good Morning America, co-anchor Robin Roberts hosted a fawning town hall meeting live from Des Moines with presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. During the opening segment, which encompassed much of the program's first half hour, Roberts didn't bother challenging the New York Senator and, instead, asked her softball questions. She even told the former Fist Lady that "many people" felt her 1993 universal health care proposal was "ahead of its time." This led to a question by an audience member who, in '93, just happened to have been on the Clinton's universal health care task force. After which, Roberts wrapped up the segment by relaying one of Clinton's talking points: "We spent twice as much in this country on health care than any other country in the world." GMA devoted over 26 minutes of its two hour time slot to the fawning town hall meeting with Senator Clinton as Roberts allowed Clinton to talk uninterrupted or unchallenged for almost 18 of those 26 minutes. 2. NY Times Editors' Note: Woman Featured as Iraq Vet Never in Iraq In a lengthy, five paragraph "editors' note" published on Sunday, the New York Times conceded that Amorita Randall, one of the woman featured prominently in the March 18 New York Times Magazine cover story, "The Women's War" about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the alleged sexual abuse of female soldiers in Iraq, in fact did not serve in Iraq. Sara Corbett had written in the article which featured a page-and-a-half-sized picture of Randall on a sofa: "Her experience in Iraq, she said, included one notable combat incident, in which her Humvee was hit by an I.E.D., killing the soldier who was driving and leaving her with a brain injury." Earlier, Corbett relayed how "'saying something was looked down upon,' says Amorita Randall, who served in Iraq in 2004 with the Navy, explaining why she did not report what she says was a rape by a petty officer at a naval base on Guam shortly before she was deployed to Iraq." The March 25 editors' note concluded with strong suggestions of mental issues surrounding Randall: "It is now clear that Ms. Randall did not serve in Iraq, but may have become convinced she did. Since the article appeared, Ms. Randall herself has questioned another member of her unit, who told Ms. Randall that she was not deployed to Iraq." 3. Newsweek's 'Conventional Wisdom' Offers Three Thumbs Up for Dems There is no more consistent stack of baloney in the national media than Newsweek's "Conventional Wisdom Watch" manufacturers claiming they represent what all of Washington is thinking -- instead of the liberal fraction of Washington. This week's edition (called the "Executive Privilege Edition") began with a typical down arrow for President Bush: "Conditions for aides to meet Congress: No oath or transcripts. Sounds like one of Cheney's covert ops." They compare Bush to Nixon, but not to Bill Clinton, who also tried to block congressional and special-prosecutor investigations with executive privilege claims. But there were three "Up" arrows for Democrats: The Edwardses, Nancy Pelosi for her "antiwar" victory and Al Gore: "Oscar-worthy Gore-acle is a green Beltway idol." 4. Are Immigrants 'Victims' When They Fail to Pay the Mortgage? The top right-hand corner of Monday's Washington Post front page sounded like the return of Hurricane Katrina: "Foreclosure Wave Bears Down on Immigrants." Reporter Kirstin Downey began: "Immigrants are emerging as among the first victims of a growing wave of home foreclosures in the Washington area as mortgage lending problems multiply locally and across the country." But the "victims of a wave" line failed to ask the question: at what point are people who make bad financial decisions responsible for their own fate? The heart-breaking individual stories Downey told could have been avoided if the struggling homeowners had stared harder at the numbers. 5. Newspaper Casts Doubts on Obama's Life Story; TV Nets Ignore It There's been no shortage of flattering network stories about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. This weekend, however, the Chicago Tribune published a long investigative story about Obama's youth, discovering that the story of his own life that Obama presented in his memoir is sometimes at odds with the facts. "Several of his oft-recited stories may not have happened in the way he has recounted them," the Tribune's Kirsten Scharnberg and Kim Barker reported in Sunday's article, "The not-so-simple story of Barack Obama's youth." The Tribune reporters retraced the years young "Barry Obama" spent in Hawaii and Indonesia, and found several discrepancies in Obama's autobiographical accounts. But the broadcast networks ignored it on Sunday and Monday. On the networks' Sunday morning chat shows, the only mention of Obama came from NBC's Tim Russert, who asked ex-Senator Bill Bradley, "Do you think Barack Obama is someone who has tapped into idealism in our country?" 6. Rosie: Captured Brits a Contrived 'Gulf of Tonkin' for War w/Iran On Monday's The View on ABC, Rosie O'Donnell discussed the Iranian seizure of British sailors and adopted the Iranian view of the location of the British sailors as she implied that this may be a hoax to provide the President with an excuse to go to war: "But interesting with the British sailors, there were 15 British sailors and Marines who apparently went into Iranian waters and they were seized by the Iranians. And I have one thing to say: Gulf of Tonkin, Google it. Okay." O'Donnell soon repeated her suggestion: "They went into the water by mistake right at a time when British and American, you know, they're two, they're pretty much our biggest ally and we're considering whether or not we should go into war with Iran." On Monday's Good Morning America, co-anchor Robin Roberts hosted a fawning town hall meeting live from Des Moines with presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. During the opening segment, which encompassed much of the program's first half hour, Roberts didn't bother challenging the New York Senator and, instead, asked her softball questions. She even told the former Fist Lady that "many people" felt her 1993 universal health care proposal was "ahead of its time." This led to a question by an audience member who, in '93, just happened to have been on the Clinton's universal health care task force. After which, Roberts wrapped up the segment by relaying one of Clinton's talking points: "We spent twice as much in this country on health care than any other country in the world." [This item is adapted from a Monday posting, by Scott Whitlock, on the MRC's NewsBusters.org blog: newsbusters.org ] Robin Roberts proposed: "What you said then in, in '93, many people felt it was just, in some ways, ahead of its, ahead of its time. Somebody that was there, and want to ask you what is different now, between what happened then, and he is Dr. Steve Eckstat. He is, he works at the free clinic of Iowa. Doctor?" Clinton: "Hello, doctor." Dr. Steve Eckstat: "Morning. In 1993, I was a member of the Clinton Health Care Task Force when we were attempting to provide universal health care coverage of all Americans. We were unsuccessful, unsuccessful then and now the number of uninsured, 80 percent of whom are working families and individuals, has risen from 23 million in 1993 to over 46 million. If elected president, Senator Clinton, would you be willing to try again to provide universal health care coverage for all Americans and make that at priority for your administration?" At one point, Eckstat could be seen reading his rather lengthy "question." (See picture which will be added to the posted version of this CyberAlert and scroll down for a transcript of Clinton's long reply.) During a tease for the segment at the top of the 7am hour, Roberts offered a sympathetic spin on Clinton's health care program: Hillary Clinton: "Good morning. I'm delighted to be back here. It's going to be fun. We'll have a good discussion here today." Roberts: "We will. It will be lively, I'm sure. And you have agreed to answer their questions on health care and veterans care. So we'll get your questions throughout the morning. And also, you at home, you can e-mail questions to the Senator at ABCNews.com, because health care, such a vital issue in this country. One in six Americans, one in six, no health insurance. So what can the Senator do to fix the health care system? Universal health care. When, when you hear that word, sometimes people think, oh that must mean that our taxes are going to be raised. We'll get to all those issues and so much more throughout the morning, Diane." (In a follow-up NewsBusters posting, Scott Whitlock reported that Good Morning America devoted over 26 minutes of its two hour time slot on Monday to a fawning town hall meeting with Senator Hillary Clinton. Even more incredible is the fact that GMA host and event moderator Robin Roberts allowed Clinton to talk uninterrupted or unchallenged for almost 18 of those 26 minutes. During some of these long soliquies, the former First Lady repeatedly plugged her campaign website. ABC promises that future town hall meetings will include other presidential candidates, including, one assumes, Republicans. Will Mitt Romney or Sam Brownback be allowed to give what amounts to a campaign speech? See: newsbusters.org ) The first part of the town hall meeting, which aired at 7:08am on March 26, featured Roberts asking such tough queries as whether it was unfair for liberals to attack Hillary's support of the war. The ABC host also failed to press the Senator on what seemed like contradictions. At one point Clinton noted her support for the House bill to remove U.S. troops by summer of 2008 and then admitted that, as President, she would leave some troops in Iraq: Robin Roberts: "We are back here in Des Moines for our town hall meetings. And with us this morning is Senator Hillary Clinton. The presidential candidates we're bringing to you. And the campaign trail right into your living rooms, as we love to say. And the main topics today , health care and veterans care. First of all, again, Senator Clinton, thank you very much for your time this morning. And I know how, already, you've been wanting to mingle with the people here and how important that is to you. We want to get to their questions on health care and that's why they've come, but you've agreed also to answer some questions dealing with the news. Because, today, the Senate takes up their Iraq vote, the Iraq bill. We saw on Friday, the House-" Clinton: "Right" Roberts: " -historic, the way that they are calling for American troops to be out of Iraq by the end of the summer of 2008. Now, you have said that if this President does not end the war, if you are president, you will. So would you sign this House bill?" Clinton: "Yes, I would. And I'm hoping that we can get it passed in the Senate. The problem is, it just takes more vote to get that done. We have to get more Republicans in the Senate and that's been a challenge for us, but we're working very hard to persuade our Republican colleagues to start this path toward redeploying our troops out of Iraq. The President has said he would veto the House bill. I'm hoping that if enough Republicans speak up, and we get enough Republican votes we'll be able to get something passed and then perhaps he will work with us to start to extricate ourselves from Iraq." Roberts: "So you would sign a bill that has a hard, definitive deadline to get the troops out?" Clinton: "Well, at this point, that's not possible. But if I were President, I would certainly work with the Congress to begin to withdraw troops. In fact, you don't need the Congress to tell you to do that. The President can do that on his own, which is what I wish he were doing. And it is a realistic time table to begin to move troops out. But you have to as President be judging what happens as you go. And I have said, it is likely we'd have to leave a smaller contingent of troops to deal with al Qaeda because they are Iraq and we can't afford to let them have a staging ground against the rest of the region, or against us from part of Iraq. And, you know, if the Iraqis began to defend themselves, we would want to provide logistical and training support. That's what I've been saying for a couple of years that's what most of the Democrats have been saying. So far, it's fallen on deaf ears of the President, but we're doing everything we can to set deadlines, set goals, to put in bench marks, to some way try to work with the President to begin to make this happen." Roberts: "Everyone here is well aware of the criticism that you have received for voting for the war in 2002. You have taken responsibility for that. Just last week, your husband said it's unfair how some liberals have compared what you have said, and what you did to that of Senator Barack Obama who has said at the time he was opposed to the war. Is it unfair?" Clinton: "Well, I think that we're all in this together now. The important point is that the Democrats are united and we have all put forth plans, we have all voted for plans to begin the phased redeployment of our troops. I think we've got to keep the focus on the President. You know, the President rushed us to war. He didn't let the inspectors finish their work. He has mismanaged this and this is his responsibility and it is very regrettable that President refuses to listen to the people of our country, to see what's happening on the ground and begin to take steps to undo this policy. But I'm very proud that all the Democrats are saying the same thing. And that's what we should all be working towards is to begin to change this policy and get us on the right track." Roberts: "Well, that is something that the country, I think, completely agrees on, on both sides about that." A few minutes later, Roberts set up the question by Dr. Steve Eckstat, a former member of her '93 universal health care task force. Roberts: "What you said then in, in 'EUR~93, many people felt it was just, in some ways, ahead of its, ahead of its time. Somebody that was there, and want to ask you what is different now, between what happened then, and he is Dr. Steve Eckstat. He is, he works at the free clinic of Iowa. Doctor?" Clinton: "Hello, doctor." Dr. Steve Eckstat: "Morning. In 1993, I was a member of the Clinton Health Care Task Force when we were attempting to provide universal health care coverage of all Americans. We were unsuccessful, unsuccessful then and now the number of uninsured, 80 percent of whom are working families and individuals, has risen from 23 million in 1993 to over 46 million. If elected president, Senator Clinton, would you be willing to try again to provide universal health care coverage for all Americans and make that at priority for your administration?" Clinton: "Well, doctor, I certainly would. It's one of the reasons why I am running for president. I thank you for your work back in 1993. We had a dedicated group of doctors and nurses, hospital administrators and so many others who were working literally around the clock to try to achieve a health care plan that would be available, guaranteed, affordable for every American. I think we're in a better position to do that today than we were back in '93 and '94. In part, because the number of uninsured has grown and it's hard to ignore the fact that nearly 47 million people don't have insurance. But also because, so many people with insurance have found it's difficult to get health care because the insurance companies deny you what you need. And so there are many millions of more people who have had that experience, either themselves or in their families. And a lot of businesses are now saying we can't continue to afford to do this and it's really hard for small businesses, but even for large business to complete in the economy, especially globally, if they have to pay the cost of health care. The other thing we have information about now is how much money we're not spending in the right way in our health care system. We spend more money than anybody in the world by a very big number, but we don't provide people insurance and we waste a lot of money and we don't get the best results. And we don't get the best results. So, for all those reasons, I believe the American people are going to make this an issue in the 2008 campaign. And as President, I believe I learned a lot back in 1993 and 'EUR~94 about how to bring us together to actually start down the path of universal health care coverage. So, I'm very excited about it, because I know we can do this in America if we put our minds to it." Roberts: "Dr. Eckstat, thank you very much. And we'll have more of your questions throughout the morning. We spent twice as much in this country on health care than any other country in the world. So, we'll have much more with Senator Hillary Clinton throughout the morning." In a lengthy, five paragraph "editors' note" published on Sunday, the New York Times conceded that Amorita Randall, one of the woman featured prominently in the March 18 New York Times Magazine cover story, "The Women's War" about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the alleged sexual abuse of female soldiers in Iraq, in fact did not serve in Iraq as the story contended. Sara Corbett had written in the article which featured a page-and-a-half-sized picture of Randall on a sofa: "Her experience in Iraq, she said, included one notable combat incident, in which her Humvee was hit by an I.E.D., killing the soldier who was driving and leaving her with a brain injury." Earlier, Corbett relayed how "'saying something was looked down upon,' says Amorita Randall, who served in Iraq in 2004 with the Navy, explaining why she did not report what she says was a rape by a petty officer at a naval base on Guam shortly before she was deployed to Iraq." The March 25 editors' note concluded with strong suggestions of mental issues surrounding Randall: "It is now clear that Ms. Randall did not serve in Iraq, but may have become convinced she did. Since the article appeared, Ms. Randall herself has questioned another member of her unit, who told Ms. Randall that she was not deployed to Iraq. If The Times had learned these facts before publication, it would not have included Ms. Randall in the article." In fact, as FNC's Brit Hume pointed out in his Monday "Grapevine" segment: "The Navy says it warned the magazine that Amorita Randall may not have ever been in Iraq, before the story was printed, a warning the Times disputes it got. The Navy says it established that the woman had never been in Iraq on March 12 -- that six days before the story's release. The Times could have pulled the magazine, which had been printed, or at least put a correction in the news section of the paper. Or it could have changed the online version of the article. It did none of those things. Instead readers had to wait until yesterday -- a full week after the story came out -- to learn the truth." This wasn't the first embarrassing mess-up in the past year by the New York Times Magazine. Clay Waters of the MRC's TimesWatch recalled on Monday how in January "a pro-abortion story from El Salvador," run last April, "backfired when one of its main scary anecdotes about the harsh anti-abortion laws in that country turned out to be absolutely false." For more, go to: www.timeswatch.org Clay also pointed out how the Marine Corps Times chided the paper for insufficient fact-checking on the Randall case: The Navy, while expressing sympathy to a woman it believes is suffering from stress, is annoyed that the Times did so little to check the woman's story. A Times fact checker contacted Navy headquarters only three days before the magazine's deadline. That, said Capt. Tom Van Leunen, deputy chief of information for the Navy, did not provide enough time to confirm Randall's account of service in Iraq. Nonetheless, Van Leunen said, by deadline the Navy had provided enough information to the Times 'to seriously question whether she'd been in Iraq.' Aaron Rectica, who runs the magazine's research desk, disputes that. He said that by deadline, the Navy had not given the Times any reason to disbelieve Randall's claim of service in Iraq. Rectica said the Navy only told the paper that Randall's commanders believed she'd been in Iraq but that no one in the unit had been in combat. END of Excerpt For the Sunday posting by the Marine Corps Times: www.marinecorpstimes.com For Clay's March 26 TimesWatch article: www.timeswatch.org An excerpt from the portion of the March 18 "The Women's War" article which dealt with Randall, reporting which clearly shows that writer Sara Corbett and/or Times editors recognized doubts about Randall's veracity, but plowed ahead nonetheless: Unaware of the actual numbers, many of the women I talked to seemed, in any event, to have soaked up a larger message about the male-dominated military culture. "Saying something was looked down upon," says Amorita Randall, who served in Iraq in 2004 with the Navy, explaining why she did not report what she says was a rape by a petty officer at a naval base on Guam shortly before she was deployed to Iraq. "I don't know how to explain it. You just don't expect anything to be done about it anyway, so why even try?"... Amorita Randall lives across the state from Christensen, in a small town outside of Grand Junction. She is 27, a former naval construction worker who served in Iraq in 2004. Over the course of several phone conversations before visiting her in January, I grew accustomed to the way Randall coexisted with her memories. Mostly she inched up to them. On days she was feeling stable, she would want to talk, calling me up and abruptly jumping into stories about her six years in the Navy, describing how she was raped twice -- the second rape supposedly taking place just a matter of weeks before she arrived in Iraq. Her experience in Iraq, she said, included one notable combat incident, in which her Humvee was hit by an I.E.D., killing the soldier who was driving and leaving her with a brain injury. "I don't remember all of it," she told me when I met her in the sparsely furnished apartment she shares with her fiance?. "I don't know if I passed out or what, but it was pretty gruesome." According to the Navy, however, no after-action report exists to back up Randall's claims of combat exposure or injury. A Navy spokesman reports that her commander says that his unit was never involved in combat during her tour. And yet, while we were discussing the supposed I.E.D. attack, Randall appeared to recall it in exacting detail -- the smells, the sounds, the impact of the explosion. As she spoke, her body seemed to seize up; her speech became slurred as she slipped into a flashback. It was difficult to know what had traumatized Randall: whether she had in fact been in combat or whether she was reacting to some more generalized recollection of powerlessness. Either way, the effects seemed to be crippling. She lost at least one job and was, like a number of the women I spoke to, living on monthly disability payments from the V.A. Her fiance, an earnest construction worker named Greg Lund, at one point discovered her hidden in a closet in the apartment they share, curled in the fetal position, appearing frozen. "It scared the hell out of me," he said. "I'm like, am I in over my head here?" On another occasion, shopping with Randall at Lowe's, he had to pull her away from a Hispanic man she mistook for an Iraqi. "She was going to attack him," Lund said. "She was calling him 'the enemy' and stuff like that." The biggest tragedy for her was that her daughter, Anne, who is 4, was taken from her custody by the Colorado child-welfare authorities after she was found playing in the road unsupervised one day last June. At the time, Randall and her daughter were living with another family in a halfway house. Randall was inside folding laundry, believing -- she said -- that Anne was being watched by older children in the other family. There were days when Randall couldn't remember things, telling me her mind felt fuzzy. Accordingly, when she broached a subject that was difficult, her speech would slow down markedly and sometimes stop altogether. "Nothing is ever clear," she explained. "Sometimes I'll just have feelings. Sometimes I'll have pictures. Sometimes it'll be both." Her confusion could be both literal and moral. She blamed herself, in part, for the rapes, saying she felt peer pressure to drink heavily in the Navy, which made her more vulnerable. Randall's life story was a sad one, though according to the V.A. psychologists I spoke with, it was not atypical. Growing up in Florida, she said, she was physically and sexually abused by two relatives - a condition that has been shown to make a woman more prone to suffer assault as an adult. Eventually she landed in foster care. She told me she joined the Navy at 20 precisely because she was raised in an environment where "girls were worthless." The stability and merit structure of the military appealed to her. Stationed in Mississippi in early 2002, Randall said, she was raped one night in her barracks after being at a bar with a group of servicemen. The details are unclear to her, but Randall says she believes that someone drugged her drink. A couple of months later, she discovered she was pregnant. In November 2002, she gave birth to her daughter. Less than a year later, Randall's unit was deployed to the war, stopping first for several months on Guam. She put Anne in the care of a cousin in Florida. The second rape happened after another night of drinking. "I couldn't fight him off," Randall says. "I remember there were other guys in the room too. Somebody told me they took pictures of it and put them on the Internet." Randall says she has blocked out most of the details of the second rape -- something else experts say is a common self-protective measure taken by the brain in response to violent trauma -- and that she left for Iraq "in a daze." Given her low self-esteem and her tendency, as a trauma victim, to suffer from fractured memory, someone like Randall would make an admittedly poor witness in court. Randall claims that after returning from war, she told her commanders about the second rape but says she was told "not to make such a big deal about it." (The Navy says it knows of no internal records indicating that she had reported a sexual assault.) Since her daughter was removed from her custody last summer, she had been going for weekly hourlong therapy sessions with a civilian social worker, paid for by the V.A. She was also taking parenting classes at a social-services agency and petitioning to have the child returned to her care. Overall, she was feeling optimistic that through therapy, her PTSD was beginning slowly to subside. But she also felt it was a case of too little, too late, saying that before losing her daughter, she was receiving what for many women is considered to be a standard course of mental-health treatment in a V.A. system strapped for resources - a 60-minute counseling session held every month. Randall shrugged, describing it. ''We never got very far with anything,'' she said, "The guy would just ask me, 'So, how are you doing?' And I'd look at him and say, 'Well ? I guess I'm fine.'"... END of Excerpt That is but a small section of the lengthy 12,000-word story. For it in full: www.nytimes.com The March 25 "Editors' Note" The cover article in The Times Magazine on March 18 reported on women who served in Iraq, the sexual abuse that some of them endured and the struggle for all of them to reclaim their prewar lives. One of the servicewomen, Amorita Randall, a former naval construction worker, told The Times that she was in combat in Iraq in 2004 and that in one incident an explosive device blew up a Humvee she was riding in, killing the driver and leaving her with a brain injury. She also said she was raped twice while she was in the Navy. On March 6, three days before the article went to press, a Times researcher contacted the Navy to confirm Ms. Randall's account. There was preliminary back and forth but no detailed reply until hours before the deadline. At that time, a Navy spokesman confirmed to the researcher that Ms. Randall had won a Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal with Marine Corps insignia, which was designated for those who served in a combat area, including Iraq, or in direct support of troops deployed in one. But the spokesman said there was no report of the Humvee incident or a record of Ms. Randall's having suffered an injury in Iraq. The spokesman also said that Ms. Randall's commander, who served in Iraq, remembered her but said that her unit was never involved in combat while it was in Iraq. Both of these statements from the Navy were included in the article. The article also reported that the Navy had no record of a sexual-assault report involving Ms. Randall. After The Times researcher spoke with the Navy, the reporter called Ms. Randall to ask about the discrepancies. She stood by her account. On March 12, three days after the article had gone to press, the Navy called The Times to say that it had found that Ms. Randall had never received imminent-danger pay or a combat-zone tax exemption, indicating that she was never in Iraq. Only part of her unit was sent there; Ms. Randall served with another part of it in Guam. The Navy also said that Ms. Randall was given the medal with the insignia because of a clerical error. Based on the information that came to light after the article was printed, it is now clear that Ms. Randall did not serve in Iraq, but may have become convinced she did. Since the article appeared, Ms. Randall herself has questioned another member of her unit, who told Ms. Randall that she was not deployed to Iraq. If The Times had learned these facts before publication, it would not have included Ms. Randall in the article. That's online at: www.nytimes.com There is no more consistent stack of baloney in the national media than Newsweek's "Conventional Wisdom Watch" manufacturers claiming they represent what all of Washington is thinking -- instead of the liberal fraction of Washington. This week's edition (called the "Executive Privilege Edition") began with a typical down arrow for President Bush: "Conditions for aides to meet Congress: No oath or transcripts. Sounds like one of Cheney's covert ops." They compare Bush to Nixon, but not to Bill Clinton, who also tried to block congressional and special-prosecutor investigations with executive privilege claims. But there were three "Up" arrows for Democrats: The Edwardses, Nancy Pelosi for her "antiwar" victory and Al Gore: "Oscar-worthy Gore-acle is a green Beltway idol." [This item, by Tim Graham, was posted Sunday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] From the April 2 edition of the magazine: # The Edwardses [Up]. America sees a highly functional political family for a change. We're rooting for you, Elizabeth. # Pelosi [Up]. Finally wrangles an antiwar vote in House. Will get vetoed, but that's why Dems won. # Gore [Up]. Old: Ozone Man booted from D.C. a loser. New: Oscar-worthy Gore-acle is a green Beltway idol. It really would be more honest for Newsweek to call it "Newsweek Consensus Watch." Or "What We Say to Each Other Over Lunch." For the April 2 "Conventional Wisdom" online: www.msnbc.msn.com The top right-hand corner of Monday's Washington Post front page sounded like the return of Hurricane Katrina: "Foreclosure Wave Bears Down on Immigrants." Reporter Kirstin Downey began: "Immigrants are emerging as among the first victims of a growing wave of home foreclosures in the Washington area as mortgage lending problems multiply locally and across the country." But the "victims of a wave" line failed to ask the question: at what point are people who make bad financial decisions responsible for their own fate? The heart-breaking individual stories Downey told could have been avoided if the struggling homeowners had stared harder at the numbers. [This item in adapted from a posting by Tim Graham on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] For the Washington Post article: www.washingtonpost.com During his online "Media Backtalk" chat on Monday, Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz agreed with criticism that the story on immigrant "victims" of mortgage lenders didn't seem to assume that borrowers are in any way responsible for failing to make their mortgage payments. He even agreed with an online questioner's suggestion there was "subtle racism" in the tone of the story: "I think it was a mistake to describe immigrants who are having their homes foreclosed upon as 'victims' when there's no suggestion in the article that they were defrauded. We can have sympathy for them, sure, as we would for anyone losing his or her house. But don't they bear some responsibility for taking out high-interest loans for houses they could not really afford?" For Kurtz's March 26 chat session: www.washingtonpost.com For Graham's NewsBusters post about it: newsbusters.org Back to the March 26 front page story, Nahid Azimi, a supermarket cashier making $2,400 a month "found herself strapped into a no-down-payment loan with payments of $3,800 a month." That's a bad situation. But Downey's language (she "found herself" in a bad loan, as if she was blindfolded and walked through a maze) doesn't suggest she has any personal responsibility, even though Azimi's quotes show that clearly she wants to do the right thing. Another sad story of the Santos family getting stuck with trying to pay for two houses on a $60,000 income shows out the Washington-area real-estate market has flattened. They could have waited until one house was sold before buying a second, but to the Post, they're still "victims" of an impersonal "wave." The headline inside the paper as the story continued was "With Low Pay and Job Losses, Immigrants Among First Foreclosure Victims." These stories were used to illustrate a liberal point, that "laissez-faire regulatory policies" are the cause. Allen Fishbein, a spokesman for the Consumer Federation of America, was brought in to declare: "The regulators should have been more concerned about protecting consumers than about protecting financial institutions." But at what point is the consumer responsible for stepping into water over their head? There's been no shortage of flattering network stories about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. "You are the equivalent of a rock star in politics," NBC Today co-host Meredith Vieira told Obama in October. "You can see it in the crowds. The thrill, the hope. How they surge toward him. You're looking at an American political phenomenon," ABC's Terry Moran gushed on Nightline a few weeks later. "Barack Obama, with his fairy tale family, has personal charisma to spare," ABC's Claire Shipman enthused in January. "He does draw on something deeply good about this country. And we will have to see whether he can really deliver," MSNBC's Chris Matthews announced on Hardball in February. This weekend, the Chicago Tribune published a long investigative story about Obama's youth, discovering that the story of his own life that Obama presented in his memoir is sometimes at odds with the facts. "Several of his oft-recited stories may not have happened in the way he has recounted them," the Tribune's Kirsten Scharnberg and Kim Barker reported in Sunday's article, "The not-so-simple story of Barack Obama's youth." [This item, by Rich Noyes, was posted Monday on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] The Tribune reporters retraced the years young "Barry Obama" spent in Hawaii and Indonesia, and found several discrepancies in Obama's autobiographical accounts. But Sunday's World News on ABC never mentioned the Tribune's discoveries (the CBS Evening News was pre-empted by college basketball, while east coast editions of NBC Nightly News were pre-empted by golf), nor were they mentioned on Monday's ABC, CBS or NBC morning shows -- nor Monday night either. On the networks' Sunday morning chat shows, the only mention of Obama came from NBC's Tim Russert, who asked ex-Senator Bill Bradley, "Do you think Barack Obama is someone who has tapped into idealism in our country?" Would the networks' similarly skip over such detailed reporting if it cast doubts on a Republican candidate's credibility? Here's some of the key paragraphs of Sunday's Tribune story: More than 40 interviews with former classmates, teachers, friends and neighbors in his childhood homes of Hawaii and Indonesia, as well as a review of public records, show the arc of Obama's personal journey took him to places and situations far removed from the experience of most Americans. At the same time, several of his oft-recited stories may not have happened in the way he has recounted them. Some seem to make Obama look better in the retelling, others appear to exaggerate his outward struggles over issues of race, or simply skim over some of the most painful, private moments of his life. The handful of black students who attended Punahou School in Hawaii, for instance, say they struggled mightily with issues of race and racism there. But absent from those discussions, they say, was another student then known as Barry Obama. In his best-selling autobiography, "Dreams from My Father," Obama describes having heated conversations about racism with another black student, "Ray." The real Ray, Keith Kakugawa, is half black and half Japanese. In an interview with the Tribune on Saturday, Kakugawa said he always considered himself mixed race, like so many of his friends in Hawaii, and was not an angry young black man. He said he does recall long, soulful talks with the young Obama and that his friend confided his longing and loneliness. But those talks, Kakugawa said, were not about race. "Not even close," he said, adding that Obama was dealing with "some inner turmoil" in those days. "But it wasn't a race thing," he said. "Barry's biggest struggles then were missing his parents. His biggest struggles were his feelings of abandonment. The idea that his biggest struggle was race is [bull]." Then there's the copy of Life magazine that Obama presents as his racial awakening at age 9. In it, he wrote, was an article and two accompanying photographs of an African-American man physically and mentally scarred by his efforts to lighten his skin. In fact, the Life article and the photographs don't exist, say the magazine's own historians. Some of these discrepancies are typical of childhood memories -- fuzzy in specifics, warped by age, shaped by writerly license. Others almost certainly illustrate how carefully the young man guarded the secret of his loneliness from even those who knew him best. And the accounts bear out much of Obama's self-portrait as someone deeply affected by his father's abandonment yet able to thrive in greatly disparate worlds. Still, the story of his early years highlights how politics and autobiography are similar creatures: Each is shaped to serve a purpose. In its reissue after he gave the keynote address at the Democratic convention in 2004, "Dreams from My Father" joined a long tradition of political memoirs that candidates have used to introduce themselves to the American people. From his earliest moments on the national political stage, Obama has presented himself as having two unique qualifications: a fresh political face and an ability to bridge the gap between Americans of different races, faiths and circumstances. Among his supporters, his likability and credibility have only been boosted by his stories of being an outsider trying to fight his way in. As much as he may have felt like an outsider at times, Obama rarely seemed to show it. Throughout his youth, as depicted in his first book, he always found ways to meld into even the most uninviting of communities. He learned to adapt to unfamiliar territory. And he frequently made peace -- even allies -- with the very people who angered him most. Yet even Obama has acknowledged the limits of memoir. In a new introduction to the reissued edition of "Dreams," he noted that the dangers of writing an autobiography included "the temptation to color events in ways favorable to the writer...[and] selective lapses of memory." He added: "I can't say that I've avoided all, or any, of these hazards successfully." END of Excerpt For the March 25 article in full: www.chicagotribune.com On Monday's The View on ABC, Rosie O'Donnell discussed the Iranian seizure of British sailors and O'Donnell adopted the Iranian view of the location of the British sailors as she implied that this may be a hoax to provide the President with an excuse to go to war: "But interesting with the British sailors, there were 15 British sailors and Marines who apparently went into Iranian waters and they were seized by the Iranians. And I have one thing to say: Gulf of Tonkin, Google it. Okay." O'Donnell soon repeated her suggestion: "They went into the water by mistake right at a time when British and American, you know, they're two, they're pretty much our biggest ally and we're considering whether or not we should go into war with Iran." O'Donnell may have missed the news that not only do the United States and Britain insist they were not in Iranian waters, but Iraq and France do as well. Veteran journalist Barbara Walters did not bother to correct O'Donnell. [This item is adapted from a posting by Justin McCarthy on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] For those not well versed on the Vietnam War, the Gulf of Tonkin incident was an allegation of North Vietnamese aggression on U.S. warships that led the United States into a long bloody conflict with North Vietnam. It was later revealed that the President Lyndon B. Johnson was unsure the event occurred. Was O'Donnell suggesting that captured British sailors is nothing more than a hoax to provoke a war with Iran? The relevant portion of the March 26 show: O'Donnell: "But interesting with the British sailors, there were 15 British sailors and Marines who apparently went into Iranian waters and they were seized by the Iranians. And I have one thing to say: Gulf of Tonkin, Google it. Okay." Joy Behar: "Some other time. Some other time." O'Donnell: "Well, you know-" Barbara Walters: "It could be a decision making time. It's a very difficult situation. It's at the United Nations. It's being examined now. Should there be sanctions? Militarily, we certainly don't seem to be in the position to do something militarily. But it is a decision making time." O'Donnell: "Yes, but it's very interesting too that, you know, these guys, they went into the water by mistake right at a time when British and American, you know, they're two, they're pretty much our biggest ally and we're considering whether or not we should go into war with Iran. Behar: "But the U.N. was about to sanction them, also have an embargo against Iran. And the, and the timing [unintelligible] so they distracted the whole world with this." Elisabeth Hasselbeck: "Right and they may be about to expel the inspectors right now, too, which could be considered [unintelligible]" O'Donnell: "Right or it could be just the Gulf of Tonkin, which you should all Google." -- Brent Baker

On Monday's The View on ABC, Rosie O'Donnell discussed the Iranian seizure of British sailors and adopted the Iranian view of the location of the British sailors as she implied that this may be a hoax to provide the President with an excuse to go to war:

Seamus Bellamy / 5:33 pm Wed, Jun 20, 2018 Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini is what you'd call a renaissance bigot: He's equally comfortable refusing safe harbor to migrants in desperate need of medical care as he is whipping off statements about the left wanting to keep migrants in his country to use as slave labor. Looking for ways to push a cultural minority out of his country? He's all over that shit, too. Earlier this week, Salvini said that he would order a census of the Roma people currently living in Italy and expel those without residence permits. When asked about naturalized Roma residing in Italy, he answered, classy fucker that he is "...and Italian Roma? Unfortunately, we have to keep them." Originating in South Asia, the Roma, migrated to Europe hundreds of years ago. While some have integrated into the societies where they live, most live a nomadic lifestyle and keep their own customs. Having suffered generations of brutal discrimination, these itinerant communities tend to shun the communities and cities that they live near, in favor of keeping themselves to themselves, for safety's sake. This preference towards exclusivist living in the name of safety has led to many ugly stereotypes over the years: that Roma are all criminals, don't pay taxes, and are a plague on a productive society. Such false claims were used by the Nazis as an excuse to herd Roma into concentration camps. These same excuses have been used more recently to create areas of segregation where Roma are permitted to set up camp - often far from essential services such as schools and medical aid. Read the rest Golden West College professor and counselor Tarin Olson from Long Beach, CA was caught on video telling a couple to "go back to your home country." Not only is she a racist, but she's also ignorant, as the couple and their baby are American. "I want you to tell everybody why you told us to go back to our country," Tony Kao tells Olson in the video that he posted on Facebook, which went viral with 538,000 views as of yesterday. "You need to go back to your home country," Olson replies. "And what does that mean?" Tao asks. "Have your wife turn your phone off and I'll talk to you," the racist college counselor says. According to Los Angeles Times : On Monday, Olson said in an email to the Daily Pilot that she was "not in a good place emotionally after receiving so many disgusting emails .... for something that wasn't even racist and was then skewed by a guy named Tony who filmed me without my permission... "I feel my perspective will be twisted if discussing the skewed video which cut out part of the incident," she said in a statement to the station. "If you would like to have a full normal interview about the displacement of European-Americans, then I gladly am available to enlighten the public." Golden West College responded with this quote on Facebook and Twiiter: "It has recently come to our attention that there was a video posted on Facebook of a GWC faculty member making comments that the college does not condone or support. Read the rest Dayanna Volitich is a 25-year-old social studies teacher at Crystal River Middle School in Florida. She is the host (under the pseudonym "Tiana Dalichov") of a white nationalist podcast called "Unapologetic." Sample quote: "So many other researchers have already looked into this and that's just the way it is -- there are races that have higher IQs than others." Citrus County School District Superintendent Sandra Himmel announced on Saturday that Volitich has been "removed from the classroom." From HuffPost : In her most recent podcast on Feb. 26, a guest railed against diversity in schools, dismissing the idea that "a kid from Nigeria and a kid who came from Sweden are supposed to learn exactly the same" and have the "same IQ." Volitich enthusiastically agreed with the guest, and went on to argue that "science" has proven that certain races are smarter than others. In the same episode, Volitich boasted about bringing her white nationalist beliefs into the classroom and hiding her ideology from administrators. She said that when parents complained to the school's principal about how she is injecting political bias into the classroom, Volitich lied to the principal and said it was not true. "She believed me and backed off," she said. Volitich also agreed with her guest's assertion that more white supremacists need to infiltrate public schools and become teachers. "They don't have to be vocal about their views, but get in there!" her guest said. "Be more covert and just start taking over those places." "Right," Volitich said. Read the rest From the Gainesville Sun : One person replied to that Facebook post, calling it "messed up." Hamill replied, "u don't like it? don't read it then." From People : "It looks really scary, should be banned. You can never know who is under there. Could be terrorists with weapons," one member wrote, according to Norweigian English-language site thelocal.no... "People see what they want to see and what they want to see are dangerous Muslims. In a way it's an interesting test of how quickly people can find confirmations of their own delusions," Rune Berglund Steen said. Read the rest

He's equally comfortable refusing safe harbor to migrants in desperate need of medical care as he is whipping off statements about the left wanting to keep migrants in his country to use as slave labor. Looking for ways to push a cultural minority out of his country?

A Nazareth court has sentenced a Jewish settler to four years in prison and fined him 50,000 shekels ($14,000) for setting fire to the Church of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Prosecutors had called for a nine-year sentence against Yinon Reuveni. Reuveni's lawyer, who is known for his racist sentiments, Itman Ben-Gvir, announced that he will appeal against the ruling. Reuveni had set fire to the Catholic church believed by Christians to be where Jesus had performed the Loaves and Fishes Miracle. With the help of others, Reuveni's act of arson damaged two rooms in the church complex. Yehuda Asraf, another settler who owns the car that drove Reuveni to the church, was acquitted of a charge of aiding and abetting. This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License . If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For permissions beyond the scope of this license, please contact us . Spotted an error on this page? Let us know

A Nazareth court has sentenced a Jewish settler to four years in prison and fined him 50,000 shekels ($14,000) for setting fire to the Church of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

Kathy Miller is Ohio Trump campaign chair NO MORE after she gave an AMAZING interview with a Guardian reporter about racism, and how blacks aren't responsible anymore and the only ones who think racism is a problem are those who don't want to work. She tells it like it is!!! Most headlines just point to her saying that there wasn't racism until Obama - here's where she says that: Astounding ignorance. Ohio Trump campaign chair Kathy Miller: "There was no racism before Obama got elected..." https://t.co/SxITbW9JAZ pic.twitter.com/yQus7lz9VY -- My Daughter's Army (@MyDaughtersArmy) September 22, 2016 But the BEST portion of the interview comes AFTER this - where she says that blacks who blame racism just don't want to WORK!!! Wow. LOL!! I mean. OK. There's a whole lot to unravel here. It really does seem like this is just mainstream thought among supporters of Trump. But he never says anything like this, he just feeds into people who think this way. Now look, a lot of what she says is true. But she has this black and white view as if everything is peachy keen as long as people go to work. America is a wonderful place, and it's the best country in the world, but we have real problems that aren't solved by just simple-minded easy answers that Trump peddles. Kathy Miller has now resigned from her position. Comment Policy: Please read our new comment policy before making a comment. In short, please be respectful of others and do not engage in personal attacks. Otherwise we will revoke your comment privileges. WARNING: Our comment section is being blocked by ad blockers. So if you can't see it, then please disable your ad blocker and it should appear.

Kathy Miller is Ohio Trump campaign chair NO MORE after she gave an AMAZING interview with a Guardian reporter about racism, and how blacks aren't responsible anymore and the only ones who think racism is a problem are those who don't want to work.

Thousands of students walked out of their classes to protest congressional inaction on gun control earlier this month. As marches continue across the country, organizers estimate that more than a million students will take part in the anti-gun violence rallies. Along with parents, teachers, and administrators, these young people demanded that someone (someone else, that is) take action to enhance the safety of kids in schools. I decided to do something different. I enrolled myself and my daughter, a 17-year old junior, in an eight-hour, care under fire, force-on-force class. The course, offered by EDC Pistol Training in Miami, Florida, is intended to teach armed civilians and law enforcement officers to control bleeding from gunshot injuries in the context of an ongoing criminal or terrorist attack. In our class there were six other participants, including two other civilians and four officers from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. I've taken bleeding control and other trauma first aid training before. I've also taken force-on-force training before. But this class was unique because we provided care "under [simulated] fire." We were taught the following six-step response framework: Secure the scene. In a violent scenario this might involve using deadly force to stop an attacker or securing a firearm that was dropped by an attacker, a police officer, or a civilian casualty. In two scenarios, my daughter retrieved a gun from a participant who was hit and used it to carry on the fight. Triage any wounded. This includes rapidly determining if victims are bleeding from the extremities or suffering from a sucking chest wound--things you might be able to treat expeditiously. Provide trauma bleeding control. This may involve elevation and direct pressure, packing a wound and applying a pressure dressing, or applying an occlusive dressing or a tourniquet. Manage the scene. We were tested in our ability to give direction to other bystanders and victims. This includes things like directing them to move, to call 9-1-1, to help with scene security or the treatment and evacuation of other casualties. Move oneself and any casualties out of the danger zone. Communicate. It is critical to be able to give the appropriate information to law enforcement including providing a description of oneself, the attacker(s), and any casualties and the location of the incident. There is growing interest in trauma casualty training for "immediate responders" in the civilian concealed carry community, in law enforcement, and in the emergency preparedness space. Organizations like Seattle's Harborview Medical Center have been actively involved in providing bleeding control classes and have promoted the staging of bleeding control kits in public places, next to automated external defibrillators (AEDs). The concept of immediate responders is not a new one. The push to proliferate CPR training into communities to save lives began in the 1970s and grew out of the notion that earlier intervention saves lives and that there is almost always someone around who can and will help if only they have a modicum of the right kind of training. It has taken 40 years but today, 39 states have a requirement that CPR and AED use be taught to students as a high school graduation requirement. As many as 60 percent of fatalities from mass shooting attacks result from exsanguination--bleeding out. Another 30 percent from tension pneumothorax--sucking chest wounds that quickly lead to suffocation. Students in many public high schools are being taught CPR. They are being taught to run or to shelter in place in response to an active killer threat. Shouldn't they also be trained to suppress threats by any available means? The reality for us and our kids is that government action is not the solution. It has been 19 years since Jefferson County Sheriff's deputies failed to make a speedy entry into Columbine High School. The cops delayed while Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold taunted terror-stricken students and then shot them like fish in a barrel. But what has changed? Just last month members of the Broward Sheriff's Office delayed making entry into Marjory Stoneman High School and wasted precious minutes setting a perimeter and treating the walking wounded as Nikolas Cruz continued his slaughter of 17 students. To add insult to injury, we have learned, the BSO made as many as 30 trips to the killer's home in the last couple of years in response to complaints of alarming and violent behavior. No definitive action was ever taken to control Cruz. The SRO who resigned following the attack, along with two school counselors, recommended more than a year ago that Cruz be involuntarily referred for a psychiatric evaluation because of self-harm and homicidal ideation. There was no follow up action. We learned that the FBI had been given the killer's name by community members who believed he was on a path to homicidal violence including a school attack. No action was taken by the agency. Dave Grossman , a former West Point psychology professor and the most prolific writer and speaker on the topic of the active killer phenomenon, said, "We've raised a generation of kids who've been taught to put their heads down and wait for their turn to die." Parents and students need to stop looking to agencies and bureaus and school districts to be their saviors. Clearly, the training that we provide to students relative to armed threats needs to embrace more than closing doors, turning off lights and waiting for their turn to die. [Image Credit: Flickr-Laurie Shaull | CC BY 2.0 ]

Thousands of students walked out of their classes to protest congressional inaction on gun control earlier this month. As marches continue across the country, organizers estimate that more than a million students will take part in the anti-gun violence rallies.

That might be heresy to some in the Catholic universe, but the argument has much to be said for it-though don't expect Cardinal Edward M. Egan to be making that claim at tonight's Al Smith Dinner. The quadrennial white-tie gala fundraiser at New York's Waldorf Astoria is a glitzy affair and a rare combat-free zone on the eve of the presidential vote. That will be especially welcome given the tenor of the current campaign (and one must put the onus on the McCain-Palin camp-there is no "pox on both houses" equivalency here). It will also be tough for the candidates' speechwriters to come up with the usual jokey banter given the state of affairs in the nation and abroad. If I were Obama, I'd stick with conclave jokes about white smoke coming from McCain's ears...And maybe David Letterman can give McCain some Top Ten pointers tonight when McCain has his make-up visit to the show after his earlier bailout over the bailout... But there are at least a couple of ironies here. One is that the political bloodletting in the Catholic Church has reached such a point that a dinner honoring the first Catholic presidential candidate-and a man reviled for his faith-is virtually off-limits to Catholic candidates. For the last Al Smith dinner, in 2004, Cardinal Egan refused to host John Kerry because he is a pro-choice Catholic. Instead he invited former Republican President George H.W. Bush and former New York Gov. Hugh Carey, a Democrat, as this CNS story explains . Problem is, according to much of the "pro-life" rhetoric, Obama is the most "pro-abortion" candidate EVER, to the point that he supports "infanticide." (Yes, "scare quotes" are necessary given the nature of allegations.) So how is it that Obama gets to appear and Kerry doesn't? Putting up a "No Catholics Need Apply" sign at the Al Smith event may be the ultimate paradox. It wasn't always so... ...Time was when churchmen and candidates worked together for the Catholic good and the common good, such as when Smith was attacked in The Atlantic Monthly in a open letter by Charles C. Marshall. A reluctant Protestant apologist (he was drafted for the task by the magazine's editor), Marshall still recycled various dubious claims about Catholicism's incompatibility with democracy, and Catholics' standing as loyal Americans, as demonstrated (he said) by various papal encyclicals. Smith's first response-possibly apocryphal, but certainly true in a larger sense-was the memorable line, "What the hell is an encyclical?" Rather than castigating Smith (as would happen today), he received help drafting a response from the World War I hero Father Francis Duffy. (Cardinal Patrick Hayes also reviewed Smith's response and pronounced it "good Catholicism and good Americanism.") Smith's actual response re the encyclicals was: "So little are these matters of the essence of my faith that I, a devout Catholic since childhood, never heard of them until I read your letter." The second irony is that Obama's views may certainly be closer to Catholic social justice teachings than McCain's. (And hey, why didn't Obama point out in last night's debate that the Catholic bishops have closer ties to ACORN-to the tune of $1 million in grants-than he does?) His community-based activism and his views on justice and peace are far more consonant with Catholic social teaching than McCain's. Michael Sean Winters made that argument in The New Republic , and it occasioned a lively debate at Commonweal's blog . Moreover, Obama is the first presidential candidate of a prominent minority community and he has faced ugly abuse not only for his race but also for his faith-much as Smith did. Will 2008 be a replay of 1928? Or, put this way, is Obama the "real" Catholic candidate? Perhaps a useful thought experiment would be this: Imagine that Al Smith had been elected in 1928. Instead, we got Herbert Hoover. And I think you know what came next... BTW: The photo of Al Smith (second from the left, with the "Sachems of Tammany Hall, 1929, including Mayor James J. Walker") is courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York, where an excellent exhibit, "New York Catholics: 1808-1946," organized for the bicentennial of the diocese, continues through the end of this year. It's worth checking out if you're in the city.

That might be heresy to some in the Catholic universe, but the argument has much to be said for it-though don't expect Cardinal Edward M. Egan to be making that claim at tonight's Al Smith Dinner.

The lower house of the Brazilian Congress approved a constitutional amendment to cap spending on social welfare until 2037 Tuesday, an unprecedented move that will institutionalize neoliberalism across the board and force all future governments to limit expenditures in health, education, social welfare and public services for the next two decades. The constitutional amendment, or PEC 241, would limit the growth of public spending to the rate of inflation of the previous 12 months for up to 20 years, including any potential future Workers' Party government that may want to adopt progressive policies. It passed by 359 to 116 votes, receiving seven votes less than it did in a first-round vote. The house has yet to vote on six suggested changes to the text before it can send the amendment to the Senate for approval. The smaller margin that Brazil's coup president won the vote--it required 308 votes to be passed--pointed to the backlash coup-imposed president Temer is facing in implementing his neoliberal economic agenda. The spending ceiling can be revised after 10 years. According to a poll by Ibope in 2014 commissioned by the National Industry Confederation, the issues Brazilians believe should be addressed by the federal government are public order, health, public safety and education, in that order. However, PEC 241 is aimed at significantly reducing health and education programs in Brazil, from hospitals to disease prevention campaigns, as well as funding for schools and student loans for some of the poorest sectors of society. The austerity legislation stands in stark contrast to the policies of impeached President Dilma Rousseff and her progressive economic agenda, which focused primarily on social aid for Brazil's working class. The argument, according to Temer's government, is that PEC 241 will limit the amount of federal spending based on the rate of inflation. The bill states the budget for public spending each year will be defined by the growth of inflation in the country during the previous year, and no longer dictated by GDP revenue growth. This will reduce the nation's public debt and "stabilize" the country, according to the coup administration. Brazil's public debt in 2015 represented 66.2 percent of the country's GDP, according to Brazil's Central Bank. The Temer government promotes the idea that these are unsafe levels of debt, not only in the region but worldwide since in the same year Argentina had a public debt of 56 percent of its GDP and Chile had a debt of 17 percent.

The lower house of the Brazilian Congress approved a constitutional amendment to cap spending on social welfare until 2037 Tuesday, an unprecedented move that will institutionalize neoliberalism across the board and force all future governments to limit expenditures in health, education, social welfare and public services for the next two decades.

By Wendy Gittleson on January 9, 2015 7:45 pm * The anti-vaccine movement is gaining traction throughout the western world and the repercussions have been dangerous. There's been an outbreak of measles in Disneyland. There's an epidemic of whooping cough in California. It's estimated that more than 6,000 people have died from not being vaccinated and that there have been more than 143,000 preventable illnesses. Still, the ignorance prevails. A woman in Tacoma, Washington is at risk of losing her foster baby because she refuses to get the flu shot for her or for her older foster and adopted children. State law requires that all members of a foster family who are over two years old get a flu shot. It's a pretty understandable law. Babies are especially at-risk for the flu and it can be deadly. Still, Jamie Smith claims, as all the anti-vaxxers do, that she has "done a lot of research on it" and she doesn't like the side effects, which she believes to be caused by mercury. The mercury in flu vaccines is insignificant and in some types of the vaccines, there is no mercury at all. But even where there is mercury , it's not the type of mercury that has been shown to do any damage. The risk of autism has been thoroughly debunked. The mercury in fish is far more dangerous than the mercury in flu shots. Smith has a two-week-old baby boy in the home along with six older children. Her husband did receive the flu shot because it was a requirement of his job. Still, she's prepared to let the two-week-old, who she calls her "Christmas baby," go back into the system if that's what it comes to. "I've thought about that a lot," she said. "Unfortunately, I have to think about our kids who are in the house first and to me they're more important, their safety, than trying to fight to keep this little guy." Source: Raw Story Smith is hoping that she'll benefit from strength in numbers - that if enough foster parents join in her crusade, the state will relent. Here's the video: Image is screenshot from KOMO video. Author: Wendy Gittleson Political pundit, small business marketing guru, business blogger -- a true renaissance woman, which apparently makes her really old. By the way, did you know that every time someone mentions impeaching Trump (or shares one of Wendy's articles), an angel gets its wings? Follow Wendy on Twitter or Google Plus .

By Wendy Gittleson on January 9, 2015 7:45 pm * The anti-vaccine movement is gaining traction throughout the western world and the repercussions have been dangerous.

Rand Paul should just drop out and then lose his Kentucky Senate seat too. He can get a cushy job at a Koch-funded libertarian think tank and live out the rest of his days in relative obscurity. After awhile, he can make scary ads like his daddy does now. Why do I say that? Because stickers don't cause crazed gun brandishers to run the other way. "The other common denominator, other than mental illness," he added, "is that people are going to places where guns are prohibited. So when you have a gun-free zone at a school, it's like an invitation, if you are crazy and want to shoot people, that's where you go. I would do the opposite. I would have and encourage every school in American put stickers on every window going into the school saying, 'We are armed. Come in at your own peril. We have concealed carry for teachers who have it and we also have armed security and you will be shot.'" Such stickers should be placed on "every cockpit of every commercial airliner" and on "every school," he said. Let's all laugh together. Also, he should have to give up politics forever because he keeps lying about "gun-free zones." Just because I say so. Here's the audio from his latest:

I would do the opposite. I would have and encourage every school in American put stickers on every window going into the school saying, 'We are armed. Come in at your own peril.

Easter Bunny woes A judge in Canada last week ruled in favor of a Christian couple who lost their two foster daughters because they didn't follow the secular Easter Bunny tradition. Justice Andrew Goodman of Ontario's Superior Court of Justice said a child welfare agency violated Derek and Frances Baars' right to freedom of religion and expression. In 2016, the Children's Aid Society (CAS) of Hamilton, Ontario, removed the girls, ages 3 and 4, with one day's notice and banned the Baarses from fostering or adopting children in the future. The Baarses, who are members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, filed a suit against CAS last year. The couple did not ask for money, just a clear record so they could foster or adopt children in the future. In a judgment released last Tuesday, Goodman said the agency's actions were "capricious," "not in the children's best interests," and potentially revealed an "underlying animus" by the society and its workers, according to the National Post . During the trial, the Baarses said a CAS placement worker told them she was afraid they would discriminate against a same-sex couple as a prospective adoptive family--despite the fact that the girls were not up for adoption. Soon after, she terminated their foster agreement over the Easter Bunny issue. The Baarses are now in the process of applying to adopt a child in Edmonton, Alberta, and hope the court ruling will enable them to move forward. --K.C. Hidden gender An Ohio school board is investigating an incident involving accusations that a coach "outed" a transgender student to the male wrestling team. Aiden Pogue-Krabacher, a freshman at Wilmington High School in Wilmington, Ohio, was born female but identifies as a male and has been in the process of changing genders since the sixth grade. The student claimed the school's wrestling coach, Kelly Tolliver, publicly told the wrestling team that she couldn't use the boy's locker room because she was a girl. Aiden's mother, Sheila Pogue-Krabacher, spoke at a school board meeting late last month, claiming the incident involved public humiliation and that her child's biological gender was "privileged, medical information" the coach had no business sharing, according to WXIX-TV in Cincinnati. She also said the district had no official policies about transgender students. A school official said an investigation is ongoing. --K.C. Share this article with friends.

Easter Bunny woes A judge in Canada last week ruled in favor of a Christian couple who lost their two foster daughters because they didn't follow the secular Easter Bunny tradition.

It happened on Sunday : three masked men broke into the home of a 33-year-old lesbian in Lincoln, Nebraska, tied her limbs together with zip ties, carved homophobic slurs into her flesh and tried to set her home on fire. The woman managed to crawl, while bleeding and screaming, to a neighbor's doorstep, and Lincoln police arrived at the scene at approximately 4 AM. Police confirmed that the woman was injured and treated at a local hospital, that anti-gay graffiti was spray-painted inside the home and a fire was set in the kitchen, but burned itself out after causing about $200 in damage. The police declined to release information about the "crude words" carved into the woman's body. You may have heard this already, and if you have, you are likely stunned and horrified, as we are. We've spent the time between then and now trying to get some direct quotes from contacts we have including the victim's girlfriend and a vigil organizer but understandably, they haven't had a minute yet to talk, and we didn't want to wait any longer to publish something about it. via lgbtqnation According to Laya Salumbides Martin-Tardy, a local, the area in which the assault took place is relatively welcoming and peaceful: I actually live mere blocks from where this terrible crime happened. We live very close to the downtown area of Lincoln. I like to think that this area is well-diversified. Lots of artists, writers, musicians, alternative lifestylers, different faiths and heritages live around here. While there are small pockets of what some consider "sketchy," I've never considered this neighborhood to be dangerous. Quite the contrary. I love this neighborhood. I truly felt as if someone had violated not just the survivor, but the community as a whole. Katie Flood, a spokesperson for the Lincoln Police Department, stated that "multiple detectives" were working on the case and releasing details could "compromise [their] ability to conduct quality suspect interviews at a later date." At the present moment, LPD has no known suspects. The attack is being classified as a hate crime . Flood told the press that "according to our policy any offense is classified as a hate crime when it appears biased regarding someone's sexual orientation." A neighbor told ABC's KLKN affiliate , "When someone takes the time to handcuff someone with a zip tie and carve derogatory comments or words into somebody else's body, that's sheer hate and at this point, this is a hate crime." via Vigil Against Violence Tyler Richard , President of Lincoln's LGBT support organization Outinc, reassured members of the facebook group that he has "been in regular contact with not only the Mayor's office and LPD, but national organizations that have a history of working with these situations." Furthermore: "As said in Outlinc's media statement, our police department has a strong history of supporting the LGBT community. We were one of the first police departments in the midwest to have an LGBT liaison. Additionally, our Public Safety Director and former Police Chief Tom Casady spoke about his experience in investigating these incidents when he testified in support of the fairness ordinance this spring. These investigations are very complicated and it often takes a significant amount of time for law enforcement to reveal information. I hope that everyone will recognize the history of support from LPD and allow them to conduct a thorough investigation." The community response has been immense. Mere hours after the attack, Martin-Tardy organized a 500+ person candlelight Vigil Against Violence outside of the Lincoln Capitol. It all started at about noon on July 22. My friend [redacted] called to tell me that someone in the LGBTQIA community here in Lincoln had been assaulted. When she told me the details of what happened, we decided that this was not a matter we could be silent on . We decided to hold the candlelight vigil that very night. That's when I created a Facebook event page to spread the word as quickly as possible. via Martin Tardy Since the vigil and subsequent coverage, the Vigil Against Violence Facebook group has a membership of over 1,600 and vigils are being held all over the country. Nebraska's current hate crime laws state that citizens have the right to "live free from violence, or intimidation by the threat of violence, committed against his or her person." The legislation also "imposes additional penalties" for crimes committed because of a person's sexual orientation. Given the high profile rape/murder of Brandon Teena in Humboldt County, it's a relief to know that the state has made some legislative progress. Yet Lincoln's queer community has been under strain by ongoing attempts and failures to pass a "Fairness Amendment" which would ban housing and employment discrimination based upon sexual orientation and gender identity. Initially approved by Lincoln's City Council, an oppositional petition postponed the initiative from going into effect. An official public vote on the Fairness Amendment has yet to be scheduled. Situations like these reveal how quickly the subtle line between intolerance and brutality dissolves. The Fairness Act hearing got unexpected national press when Jane Sveboda stood before Lincoln's City Council this May and in protest of the Fairness Amendment and began spouting absurdist, homophobic statements about Hillary Clinton's lesbianism and anal sex causing intestinal rupture. The video of Sveboda, who it turns out is schizophrenic , went viral. Tragedies like these reveal precisely how large and strong our community is, and how hard we will fight in Lincoln and elsewhere to end intolerance. According to Martin-Tardy, the attack has really cemented a sense of community among LGBT individuals and their allies: It's too bad that something so dreadful had to happen to pull the community together, and I doubt that the people who attacked this woman intended for this kind of reaction. But to see us all put our differences aside and stand together in love and support... it's been overwhelming. The vibe seems to still be rolling. Through the wonders of social media, people are still sharing messages of love, posting pictu

It happened on Sunday : three masked men broke into the home of a 33-year-old lesbian in Lincoln, Nebraska, tied her limbs together with zip ties, carved homophobic slurs into her flesh and tried to set her home on fire.

Arming everyone is not the solution. Too many of us have stories of gun violence impacting us personally, whether we even realize or not. This is mine. I was 17 years old, and a nerd (yeah, that's pretty much life-long). I had gone to a camp for teenagers who were aspiring playwrights the previous summer. We were kids who gathered from all over the country and just wrote all day and attended plays in community rec centers and church basements. It's where I learned that those are the places where where the best theater is. People with day jobs -- retail workers, CPA's, etc -- absolutely becoming an August Wilson hero, or a Shakespearean king, to an audience of no one, just because they feel it in their bellies. One of the other kids who attended, a girl named Sharon, called me as the next summer approached to ask if I'd be returning. She said she'd only be going again if I was going, and she wanted me as bunk-mate. My thought: This can't be right. Maybe she's calling me by mistake? Sharon had been the absolute star of the camp the previous year. She was incredible. Did she forget who I am? Sharon, I'm Cindi. You know, little frizzy-haired girl? Always smelled of Calamine Lotion because of the mosquitoes...? Anyway yes, if Sharon was going, I was going. We were all talented kids - we wouldn't have been there otherwise. But like I said, Sharon was in a class by herself. Just dazzling. Everyone knew it, too, but nobody resented her. She was too humble, too witty, too brilliant. And yes, to my eternal honor, we literally shared a bunk bed in a dorm room in St. Paul, Minnesota, me on the bottom bunk and her on the top. And just like teenage girls are wont to do, we talked all night, every night, into the early morning hours, and we shared our secrets and zipped back and forth between topics profound and frivolous, and I laughed until my stomach and face hurt. Now, a very frequent topic for her writing was her "crazy aunt". It was actually quite tragic -- her aunt was schizophrenic but also had been raised by an abusive father. A horrible combination. Sharon wrote about this "crazy aunt" often, mostly focusing on the awkward situations her illness created for her family and strangers in public. Sharon made it funny. Never in a way that was insensitive to her aunt (quite the contrary; there was palpable affection), it was more about the scrapes and pickles the family found themselves in. Sharon found the laughs hidden in life's horrors, and that's what the best people do Anyway. About 2 weeks after camp ended, I received a call from Beck, one of the adults who worked at the camp as a writing mentor. I was so nervous to hear from her that I morphed into a stereotype of giddy teenage girl, just words tumbling out of my mouth, high-pitched and without pause "Oh my god, Beck!!!! Hi!!! How are you?! I can't believe you're calling me! Wait -- is this about Sharon and the playbill? Yes, she needs to keep the playbills from every play she sees; she told me a thousand times! Oh my god, I told her I'd mail it to her as soon as I could get to the post office, that crazy girl!" Beck was silent and it seemed like she was unsure how to proceed. "Cindi. No one's called you?" "From camp? Nope, haven't heard from anyone yet. Just a letter from Sharon. Why, what's up? And then the words: "Cindi, Sharon was murdered." And then I just started screaming in a rage. What the fuck, you are LYING.... My dad, alarmed, took the phone from me. He got all the information, the details that of course didn't really matter, from Beck. It was the "crazy aunt". A schizophrenic whose illness was evident to anyone who encountered her, professional or not, it was plain as day, was able to purchase two guns. Not sure why two but that's what she did. She purchased two guns on an angry impulse and that was that And as often as our insane gun policies that let any kook off the street purchase any semi-automatic weapon, weapons that allow dozens to be killed in less time than it takes microwave popcorn to finish, come up in America, I never thought of Sharon. It was a long time ago. Ancient history, long-buried in the part of my psyche I never visit. If you had asked me if I'd ever been touched by gun violence personally, I'm sure I'd have said no And I feel guilty writing about her, like I'm exploiting her, like "hey, I have a story too!" Of course it's not my story. I only knew her for 2 summers, 25 years ago. Just, I guess it stands to reason that more of us have been impacted by gun violence than we will ever realize. It is an American epidemic. And the time is long past for us to address it. Long past. I know there are nutters out there who'd say: Sharon's family should have owned a gun. Then Sharon would be alive. To them I'd just say that unless they kept it out on the coffee table, and loaded at all times, it wouldn't have helped. And hopefully even the most zealous gun nut doesn't keep it out on the coffee table, next to the TV Guide, cocked and ready, let alone the "responsible" ones. I mean, one would hope. And if you think arming everyone until we resemble those paragons of safety and tranquility like the Wild Wild West or the Star Wars Cantina is the answer, then I'd' remind that we are a country where they need to put warning labels on sleeping pills (apparently they can make you drowsy) and wire hangers (harmful if swallowed) No one wants to confiscate or ban guns. We couldn't if we tried. And we won't try. But sensible and thoughtful regulations? The time is long past. Anyway, back to Sharon. I don't remember her as much as I remember my feelings around her. And I remember details from the next few days after learning of her death, and all the kindness. For example, I remember Sharon's dad called me a few days after I found out, to comfort me. And I felt terrible, because this man just lost his daughter, but he's taking time for me? A generosity I can't fathom. I am a parent now myself, and I'm certain I wouldn't be able to do that. In fact, there really was overwhelming kindness, from all around, in the days that followed. People tend to show the beautiful parts of themselves following a tragedy. If only we could show some of that sense of community, and empathy, and awareness that we're all in this together, we are our brothers' keepers, a tapestry of interwoven lives, before the tragedy, in fact, to preclude the tragedy. That would be pretty great. (Visited 22 times, 1 visits today) Follow Cindi on her Facebook page Kicking Ass for the Middle Class . She is a lifelong liberal, a writer, an actiivist, and a mother. She tries to live her life by the Emerson dictum: "Be silly. Be truthful. Be kind." Latest posts by Cindi ( see all )

Arming everyone is not the solution. Too many of us have stories of gun violence impacting us personally, whether we even realize or not. This is mine.

Bosses of the potato chip company behind Ashton Kutcher's new advert have defended the actor after his impersonations of several ethnicities sparked an online backlash. The actor appears in a new promo for PopChips and he transforms into a number of outrageous and eligible bachelors looking for love on a fake dating website, including dreadlocked Brit Nigel, Bollywood producer Raj and tattooed Southerner Swordfish. The commercial caused controversy online, with many viewers accusing Kutcher and the advert's creators of racism. However, PopChip bosses have now hit back at the accusations, insisting the impersonations were all done in jest and never meant to be perceived as offensive. A statement from the company reads, "The new Popchips worldwide dating video and ad campaign featuring four characters was created to provoke a few laughs and was never intended to stereotype or offend anyone. "At Popchips we embrace all types of shapes, flavours and colours, and appreciate all snackers, no matter their race or ethnicity. We hope people can enjoy this in the spirit it was intended."

Bosses of the potato chip company behind Ashton Kutcher's new advert have defended the actor after his impersonations of several ethnicities sparked an online backlash.

Paul C. ("Chip") Knappenberger is the Assistant Director of the "Center for the Study of Science" at the Cato Institute . Knappenberger works alongisde the Center's Director , fellow climate change denier Patrick J. Michaels . [16] , [17] Chip Knappenberger is the former Administrator of the World Climate Report , a blog published by New Hope Environmental Services , "an advocacy science consulting firm" run by global warming skeptic, Patrick J. Michaels . The last recorded post was October 5, 2012, and it is unclear if the website is still in operation. [6] , [15] Knappenberger has co-authored several papers with fellow skeptic Patrick Michaels and is a former contributor and "Principal" of MasterResource , a "free-market energy blog." [1] Stance on Climate Change "The fact of the matter is that there does exist a growing body of scientific evidence that the climate changes in the coming decades will be modest and proceed at a rate that will lie somewhere near the low end of the IPCC projected temperature range." [2] December, 2016 "It's expected that the Arctic is going to warm more than the rest of the world. Now, does that mean it's all doom and gloom? There, I take exception to that. [...] Some particular elements of the press like to focus on the losers - and pretend like the winners don't exist at all. But in that same annual Arctic report card from NOAA , there is plenty of good to be found there." [21] "[W]e conclude that future global warming will occur at a pace substantially lower than that upon which US federal and international actions to restrict greenhouse gas emissions are founded. It is high time to rethink those efforts." [20] "The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) has recently reached a 'milestone' of 400 parts per million (ppm). In some circles, this announcement has been met with consternation and gnashing of teeth. The proper reaction is celebration." [18] "There is still a general lack of evidence that shows a statistically significant relationship between anthropogenic climate change and weather-related damage..." [4] "...the warming that appears in the compiled temperature history of the state [Utah] may not be evidence of regional (or larger-scale) climate change, but instead may be caused by non-climatic influences on the local thermometers." [3] Chip Knappenberger criticized a letter to Congress from 31 science associations advocating policies to combat climate change, reports The Washington Times . [12] On June 28, 2016, the American Association for the Advancement of Science ( AAAS ) issued the letter and a press release introducing the letter, describing it as a partnership of 31 leading nonpartisan scientific societies "reaffirming the reality of human-caused climate change, noting that greenhouse gas emissions 'must be substantially reduced' to minimize negative impacts on the global economy, natural resources, and human health." [13] The letter ( PDF ) addresses Members of Congress, writing to remind "of the consensus scientific view of climate change." [14] " Obviously folks should be free to deliver their opinions," said Knappenberger. "That said, since many of these organizations publish some of the most respected scientific journals, it certainly calls into question the degree of objectivity to which new science pertaining to the issues addressed in the letter is treated with. This is a far greater concern." [12] July 5, 2016 Following the release of a study suggesting "favourable conditions for additional Antarctic sea ice growth since 2000," Chip Knappenberger said that it "should come as a surprise to no one that natural variability is playing a strong role in Antarctic sea ice extent trends (i.e., recent growth)," reports The Washington Times . [10] " It is wrong to suggest that growth there suggests that global warming is not happening," said Chip Knappenberger, representing the Cato Institute's Center for the Study of Science. "Mostly, we have merely brought it up to point out the fact that global warming alarmists were only telling part of the story by focusing on what was going on in the Arctic." InsideClimate News describes the phenomenon as a "paradox [that] has puzzled scientists for years and given climate-change deniers fodder to dispute global warming." [11] March 24, 2016 Writing in The Hill , Chip Knappenberger suggests that President Obama should back out of the Paris Climate pledge : [9] "Rather than pay the rest of the world to look the other way, the president should revise, or better yet, rescind that promise. And now is the time to do that, before the grand signing ceremony of the Paris Climate Agreement that is scheduled for April 22, Earth Day, at the UN 's New York headquarters. Putting our name on a promise that we know we can't keep would be a disingenuous act, painting the Paris Agreement not as a serious undertaking, but as a global publicity stunt." [9] December 15, 2015 Chip Knappenberger co-authored a "working paper" with Patrick J. Michaels at the Cato Institute. The paper ( PDF ) makes "The case for lukewarming -- modest anthropogenic climate change in accordance with the lower end of expectations from mainstream science," which Michaels and Knappenberger describe as "simple, straightforward, and compelling." [19] , [20] Knappenberger was a speaker at the Heartland Institute 's Fourth International Conference on Climate Change ( ICCC4 ) where he gave a speech titled " Assessing the Consistency Between Short-Term Global Temperature Trends on Observations and Climate Model Projections. " [5 ] DeSmog has done research on the co-sponsors of the conference and found that 19 of the 65 sponsors (including Heartland itself) have received a total of over $40 million in funding since 1985 from ExxonMobil , Koch Industries family foundations or the Scaife family foundations . According to Knappenberger's archived profile at MasterResource , he has authored or co-authored over 20 papers "appearing in the peer-reviewed scientific literature," and others in scientific conference proceedings, professional journals, and the press. [1] Many of his papers were co-authored with fellow skeptic Patrick J. Michaels , and published by the Cato Institute a swell as other think tanks such as the Science and Public Policy Institute ( SPPI ). Some of Knappenberger's scientific articles have been debunked by DeepClimate . [8] Sample Publications Listed at Cato Institute Other Sample Publications Patrick J. Michaels, P.C. Knappenberger, and R.E. Davis, "The way of warming" ( PDF ), Regulation , Cato Institute, January 1, 2000, Volume 33, pages 10-16. Archived February 15, 2007. Archived .pdf on file at Desmog. Patrick J. Michaels, and P.C. Knappenberger, " Natural signals in the MSU lower tropospheric temperature record ," Geophysical Research Letters , August 2, 2000, Volume 27, pages 2905-2908. Paul C. Knappenberger, " Utah's Climate Variability ," SPPI Original Paper, September 29, 2010. Science and Public Policy Institute . P.C. Knappenberger, Patrick J. Michaels and R.E. Davis, "The Nature of Observed Temperature Changes Across the United States During the 20th Century " ( PDF ), Climate Research , July 2001, Volume 17, pages 45-53. J.D. Hux, P.C. Knappenberger, Patrick J. Michaels, and P.J. Stenger, "Development of a discriminant analysis mixed precipitation ( DAMP ) forecast model for mid-Atlantic winter storms" ( PDF ), Weather and Forecasting , Number 16, 2001, pages 248-259. " About - MasterResource ," MasterResource (blog). Archived February 19, 2012. Archived .pdf on file at Desmog. " Global Warming is More Scare than Science - (absolutely!) ," Chronwatch.com, June 19, 2005. Republished by Freerepublic.com. Archived July 28, 2016. Archive.is URL : https://archive.is/qZwW4 Paul C. Knappenberger, " Utah's Climate Variability ," SPPI Original Paper, September 29, 2010. Science and Public Policy Institute . Archived .pdf on file at Desmog. " Coal: 'Externalities' Can be Positive, Not Only Negative ," MasterResource , March 7, 2011. Archived July 28, 2016. Archive.is URL : https://archive.is/ I9Y0Q " Staff ," World Climate Report , March 15, 2005. Arhived July 28, 2016. Archive.is URL : https://archive.is/UpsbJ " Droughting the forecast ," The Heartlander , July 1, 2000. Archived July 28, 2016. Archive.is URL : https://archive.is/hnNDU " Michaels and Knappenberger's World Climate Report: 'No warming whatsoever over the past decade' ," Deep Climate , June 6, 2010. Archived July 26, 2016. Archive.is URL : https://archive.is/ LL sLE Paul C. "Chip" Knappenberger. " Time to Fess Up and Walk Back Our Paris Pledge ," The Hill , March 24, 2016. Archived April 12, 2016. WebCite URL : http://www.webcitation.org/6giocviJg Valerie Richardson. " Expanding Antarctic sea ice caused by 'natural climate fluctuations,' study finds ," The Washington Times , July 5, 2016. Archived July 26, 2016. Archive.is URL : https://archive.is/ JJN jJ (Press Release). " Thirty-One Top Scientific Societies Speak with One Voice on Global Climate Change ," AAAS .org, June 28, 2016. Archived July 27, 2016 . Archive.is URL : https://archive.is/p1Wq5 "Dear Members of Congress" ( PDF ) , AAAS .org, June 28, 2016. Archived .pdf on file at Desmog. Homepage . World Climate Report . Archived July 28, 2016. Archive.is URL : https://archive.is/ LL q1P " Paul C. 'Chip' Knappenberger ," Cato Institute. Archived July 28, 2016. Archive.is URL : https://archive.is/ QJ cph " Patrick J. Michaels: Director, Center For The Study Of Science ," Cato Institute. Archived July 28, 2016. Archive.is URL : https://archive.is/fslBz Paul C. "Chip" Knappenberger and Patrick J. Michaels. " CO2 : 400ppm and Growing ," Cato Institute, May 14, 2013. Archived July 28, 2016. Archive.is URL : https://archive.is/yGSBh Patrick J. Michaels and Paul C. "Chip" Knappenberger. " Climate Models and Climate Reality: A Closer Look at a Lukewarming World ," Cato Institute, December 15, 2015. Archived July 28, 2016. Archive.is URL : https://archive.is/Ibx13 Patrick J. Michaels and Paul C. "Chip" Knappenberger. "Climate Models and Climate Reality: A Closer Look at a Lukewarming World" ( PDF ) , Cato Institute, December 15, 2015. Archived .pdf on file at Desmog. " Expert: Arctic heating up, but it's not a bad thing ... " One News Now , December 22, 2016. Archived December 27, 2016. Archive.is URL : https://archive.is/ Z9 izo

Paul C. ("Chip") Knappenberger is the Assistant Director of the "Center for the Study of Science" at the Cato Institute . Knappenberger works alongisde the Center's Director , fellow climate change denier Patrick J. Michaels .

Keith Olbermann discusses "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and wonders why Obama continues to hesitate in halting gay discharges. He talks to Dan Savage, who asks, if 75% of the American public are sold on repealing DADT, how many more... Read Didn't get a chance to post this earlier today but Lt. Colonel Victor Fehrenbach appeared on yesterday's Rachel Maddow show (with the excellent Alison Stewart as her substitution) in a segment about Stonewall and Obama's White House LGBT... Read Defense Secretary Robert Gates today called the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy "very restrictive" and said the Pentagon is investigating "if there's a more humane way to apply [Don't Ask, Don... Read MODERN TONIC The editors of Modern Tonic present a weekly music update here on Towleroad. The rest of the week, they scan the pop-culture landscape for movie, TV, book and Web recommendations in their daily email. TODAY'S NEW RELEASES AND FREE DO... Read Some disturbing anti-gay harassment in the Twin Cities:The YouTube poster writes: "My friend and I were leaving the Gay Pride Festival in Minneapolis, MN (6/27/09) and came across a group of Somalian kids who asked my friend if he was gay. When... Read New coalition of EVIL: Far-right and anti-gay groups joining forces. NASA to release new images of Moon landing found on lost tapes? Man creates life-size Lego replica of...Amy Winehouse. Three charged in Monday night homophobic attack on Long Is... Read The Minnesota Supreme Court has declared Al Franken the winner in his U.S. Senate race against incumbent Norm Coleman: "'Affirmed,' wrote the Supreme Court, unanimously rejecting Republican Norm Coleman's claims that inconsistent pra... Read SONIA SOTOMAYOR: Supreme Court overturns nominee's decision in race case. TRIBUTE: Filipino prisoners choreograph elaborate tribute to the King of Pop. NICE COLLECTIVE: Cool Hunting catches up with the fashion duo to talk about their next collect... Read Lady Gaga made a stop in Manchester, UK to help decorate a charity garden for people affected by HIV. As usual, she made the most of her appearance: "But the wacky wardrobe went down a storm with workers at the HIV charity she was supporting. Sh... Read

Keith Olbermann discusses "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and wonders why Obama continues to hesitate in halting gay discharges.

Our long national nightmare is almost over: the five-year wait for a new Mass Effect game ends on 23 March. The original Mass Effect trilogy, for the uninitiated, is a set of roleplaying videogames in which you create a character - the hardened space marine Commander Shepard - who is tasked with stopping the destruction of the civilisations of the Milky Way by the terrifying Reapers. Over the course of the trilogy, the choices you make changes who lives, who dies and who tells your story - is it the grizzled leader of the anti-Reaper Alliance, the liberated artificial intelligence you teach to be a human being, or is it your own consciousness, now uploaded to an all-powerful warship? Now a new adventure in the same universe, Mass Effect: Andromeda , will take up the story of an explorer, Insert-Name-Here Ryder fleeing the Milky Way galaxy to make a new life in Andromeda. Once again, the choices you make will have galactic repercussions. With the release date soon approaching, I, like most Mass Effect fans, have entered into a fixed routine. Googling " Mass Effect: Andromeda " to see if a new trailer has been uploaded to YouTube. Drawing up a list of topics on my hand so when people ask me what I'm thinking about I don't have to explain to them what a Krogan is. Wondering which of the weird and wonderful aliens in my crew are down to bang. And most of all: working out who my Ryder will be. In the Mass Effect games, you can choose your race, gender, orientation, hobbies, whether you are professional or hot-headed, laid-back or logical. (In an exciting new development, your conversation choices at the beginning of the game will change the ones available to you as the game progresses. A calm and collected Ryder will be cooler under fire, but less able to reach out to their colleagues at times of emotional distress.) If Andromeda is as good as the games before it, I expect to play it multiple times with different Ryders: some friendly and approachable, others cold and mercenary, some in between. But the one thing I know for sure: my Ryder will be a woman, just as the characters I created not only in the original Mass Effect but in Dragon Age , Fallout , Skyrim and a host of other roleplaying games. Why? There are a lot of reasons. The first is that I am simply bored of tough-talking male heroes in science fiction. In the original Mass Effect games, that wasn't helped by the fact that the male voice actor, Mark Meer, seemed to have been asked to play Shepard as "Vin Diesel phoning it in", in contrast to the female actor, Jennifer Hale, who delivered a compelling performance which really made your Shepard sound like a real and complex person. The second is that, as most videogame writers are men, perversely, the more interesting love interests and plotlines tend to be reserved to women, as the male characters they can fall in love with are better drawn than their female counterparts. Most female love interests in video games fall into two groups. The first are carrying some kind of inner pain - Mass Effect 's Jack and Dragon Age' s Leilana are good examples of this - and the second are convinced the world is beneath them, ala Mass Effect 's Miranda and Dragon Age 's Morrigan. Happily, it turns out that the penis of the leading man is a sort of Goldilocks wand that creates women that are not too mouthy or too silent, but just right. The remainder of eligible bachelorettes in video games tend to have one character trait: an overwhelming desire to be with your character that is never adequately explained and would be the cause of a restraining order in real life. In the Mass Effect series, the archaeologist Liara T'Soni is the ur-example of that particular romance type. To be fair to BioWare, Mass Effect 's publishers, this isn't true of Ashley Williams, one possible love interest from the first game. She remains just as prickly and anti-alien after you hook up as before. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she is one of the most disliked characters in videogame history. The male hook-ups are primarily written to be really interesting friends with the optional ability to hook up, which tends to make their love stories more compelling and believable. The last reason is less flattering to me that the others, and it's this: when I play a man in these "create your own character" games I inevitably try to re-create myself as the game goes on. This isn't a good approach to roleplaying as the answer to the question "What would I, Stephen, do in this situation" is inevitably "Die". Freed of the entirely self-inflicted obligation to be myself, a female protagonist gives me the freedom to work out an entire backstory for my character, to work out her decisions, what she would do. Which is why while I don't yet know who Ryder is , I know who she isn't. > Martin McGuinness helped bring peace to Northern Ireland - but it's under threat

Here's yet another example of how the government fails to keep even the legislative promises its already made on gun violence protection.

My graduate school mentor was the editor of a leading journal in the field. I once asked him what kind of reviews he most hated to receive from his journal's reviewers. He said "It's not the openly abusive ones , though I hate those. What I really can't stand is when reviewers tell me what a submitted paper is not rather than what it is." Until I began editing scientific journals myself, I did not fully appreciate the wisdom in my mentor's remark. Let me describe the kind of comments on articles some reviewers generate: This study uses two years of ethnographic study of 100 drug dealers in Oakland, California to provide an up close understanding of the motives, behaviors, risks and income of individuals in the drug trade. Sadly, the study tells us nothing about national trends in drug markets, which would require a large quantitative survey of dealers in major metropolitan areas nationwide. But for a different paper, the same reviewer would write: This study used a large quantitative survey of drug dealers in major metropolitan areas to describe national trends in drug markets. Unfortunately, this approach tells us nothing about the motives, behaviors, risks and income of individuals in the drug trade, which would require extended ethnographic research in a single drug market. And for yet a different paper, the same reviewer would write This study used a large quantitative survey of drug dealers in major metropolitan areas to describe national U.S. trends in drug markets coupled with extended ethnographic research in a single drug market to describe the motives, behaviors, risks and income of individuals in the drug trade. Unfortunately, the study leaves us completely in the dark about cross-cultural comparisons of drug markets, which would require a multi-national study. When I see these kinds of reviews of what submitted manuscripts are not, I wonder if my editorial colleagues in cardiology have to deal with reviewers who say that research articles about the heart sadly tell us nothing about the kneecap. The premise of these reviewers is that authors do not have the right to determine the purpose of their own study. Rather, each piece of research should be judged based on the nearly infinite number of goals it might have pursued, but did not. The logical and practical impossibilities of this stance become obvious when you consider that like most editors, I am typically looking at multiple reviews of submitted work. If every reviewer is entitled to an individual, binding, opinion about what the purpose of the study should have been, manuscripts could only be published if all reviewers independently had the same fancy about what they study should have done (irrespective of what it was intended to do, natch). That's so unlikely that I would end up rejecting all submissions. I imagine the letters I would write back to authors: "Sorry, but Reviewer 1 felt your study of major depressive disorder did not add to his understanding of the Peloponnesian War, Reviewer 2 was disappointed that your work does not even evaluate Rod Carew's claim of being the best baseball player of his generation, and Reviewer 3 concluded that the method you chose had no possibility of resolving the long-running debate on the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin. p.s. Reviewer 3 also added that he hated 'Schindler's List' because there wasn't a single belly laugh in the whole movie." It is a worthy role for reviewers to point out that a study did not achieve its intended purpose. It is also valuable for reviewers to ask for a strong rationale for why the intended purpose of the study is important. But for reviewers to tell an editor that a paper is no good because it didn't achieve goals that it didn't pursue is less than useless. Ryan Cooper wants dovish former Senator Russ Feingold to challenge Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic primary: Feingold would almost certainly lose....But winning wouldn't be the point aEUR" the point would be to make Clinton worry about her left flank. Though she seems to be a true hawk, she surely realizes that Obama's opposition to the Iraq War was his most important advantage in 2008. All Feingold would have to do is mount a credible enough challenge to get Clinton to promise not to invade random countries for no reason. Ryan is invoking a widely-believed theory regarding the value of quixotic primary campaigns: The candidate may lose but his or her ideas will draw support, which will move the eventual President in a desired direction. This is an empirical proposition and I wonder whether or not it has generally proved true in U.S. political history. Setting aside the cases of strong challenges from the wings (e.g., Reagan versus Ford in 1976, Kennedy versus Carter in 1980) that didn't influence the expected future president because the candidate who got beat up in the primary went on to lose the general, are there data to support the theory that Ryan articulates so well? I can think of one imperfectly supporting example, which is Ross Perot's 1992 campaign. He had his own party and so was not truly a primary threat to the other candidates, but he was definitely someone from outside of the political mainstream with whom the other candidates had to grapple. Although Perot never had a chance to win, he did put the growing national debt on the public agenda and Bill Clinton's subsequent Presidential Administration took up the issue in its fiscal policy. On the other hand, Jerry Brown is an example of someone who challenged from the wings in a party primary (actually, several of them) without seeming to change the winning candidate's positions. One can imagine an even worse result for an upstart candidate than Brown's non-impact: A challenge from the wings that makes a future President less likely to adopt the challengers' views because the primary generates lingering bad blood between party factions. I can't think of an example where that happened off the top of my head, but I bleg you to put one forward in the comments if you can think of one. Looking for more systematic data on the impact of challenges from the wings, I contacted two political science experts: Jonathan Bernstein and John Sides. They both kindly got back to me quickly, and what follows is my understanding of what they told me (i.e., all errors mine). Jonathan pointed out that presidents do generally try to keep their campaign promises , a point which Ryan echoed in his article. This does not necessarily mean however that a primary candidate in a strong position (e.g., Hillary Clinton) would feel the need to make any promises in the face of a challenge from someone (e.g., Russ Feingold) who looked very likely to lose ( Ned Reskinoff develops this point at length). John Sides pointed me to two academic articles. Neither is precisely on point regarding Presidential elections but both nonetheless provide important information using data from Congress. Hirano and colleagues found little evidence that having been challenged in a primary shifts a politician to the wing of his or her party post-election. The authors note that general elections can move politicians back towards the middle even if they had to tack hard right or left to win a primary. A similar conclusion was reached in a different study conducted by Michael Peress . Though both throw some cold water on it, neither study in my opinion definitively rejects the theory that challenges from the wings can move an ultimate election winner in the challengers' political direction in an enduring way. It's definitely a question meriting further study and debate (which I hope everyone will engage in. In aid thereof I have linked to ungated pdfs of both papers). Many campaigns are launched on the assumption that the political influence process Ryan Cooper describes pans out in practice. If it does, people on the wings of a political party may wish to employ quixotic challenges more frequently. On the other hand, if the theory is one of those logical sounding but factually incorrect "rules of politics", people on the wings of a political party would be wiser to adopt other strategies to push their agenda. For the third installment of this monthaEUR(tm)s series of movie recommendations based on remakes, I wanted to do a Western. The obvious choice would be John SturgesaEUR(tm) Magnificent Seven , which is magnificent and often considered one of the top remake films of all time (source material: Seven Samurai ). But I couldnaEUR(tm)t pass up the opportunity to spotlight Sergio LeoneaEUR(tm)s 1964 take on a different Kurosawa movie ( Yojimbo ) in A Fistful of Dollars ( Per un Pugno di Dollari ). The plot centers on Clint EastwoodaEUR(tm)s most iconic creation, the Man With No Name (IaEUR(tm)ll call him Poncho to make life easier). Poncho is one mean dude with a cunning mind and a lightning trigger finger. When Poncho arrives in the small town of San Miguel, he sees a young boy being abused while traversing the main street. Poncho makes his way over to the inn, where the kindly innkeeper Silvanito tells the story of how the town has been mistreated much like the boy: while trying to get on with oneaEUR(tm)s day, residents of San Miguel are regularly harassed either by the town sheriff John Baxter (played by Wolfgang Lukschy) or by the three Rojo brothers (of whom RamA3n, played by Gian Maria VolontA(c), is the leader). Poncho hatches a dastardly plan and soon secures for himself a position as a hired gun for both families. He plays the two against one another, kills some scumbags, re-groups, kills some more scumbags, gets beaten up a little, kills a whole bunch of scumbags, and collects a whole pile of cash. And then he kills some scumbags. Poncho has frustratingly little to tell us about himself, much like the other characters in the story. This isnaEUR(tm)t a film for those looking for profound character development. Only fleetingly does Poncho reveal his own motives for taking on the crime families in San Miguel, or for assisting Silvanito and his daughter. Even then, donaEUR(tm)t expect to learn much of his aEUR" or indeed anyoneaEUR(tm)s aEUR" backstory. All the characters are pretty thin, really, but thereaEUR(tm)s plenty to keep you entertained all the same just by virtue of the two character traits you can get some purchase on: almost everyone is unremittingly opportunistic and violent toward one another. When Poncho rolls into town, the first moment in which he seems to pry his detachment loose is when he realizes thereaEUR(tm)s a chance to make a buck by profiting on death and misery. Comparing Fistful to Magnificent Seven clarifies one of LeoneaEUR(tm)s main contributions to Westerns. Before the Spaghetti Westerns, the good guy was always easily distinguishable from the bad guy. What difficulties the good guy had to endure were typically the challenge of forsaking one virtue for another (think Will KaneaEUR(tm)s deliberation between being a family man as opposed to being a lawman in High Noon , for example). Not so in LeoneaEUR(tm)s world. Here, even the protagonist is just rotten to the core. As one of LeoneaEUR(tm)s first credited efforts as director, Fistful has some rough edges. There are some woefully bad dubbing edits, and the film is replete with the hallmark gimmicks of a director still learning his craft. Some of those gimmicks would later become Spaghetti Western benchmarks, like the eyes that appear slowly from underneath the brim of a hat as the character raises his head, or characters entering the scene through the dusty cloud of smoke and sand. While it isnaEUR(tm)t always perfectly executed, and it can sometimes feel as though LeoneaEUR(tm)s trying just a little too hard to create a sense of drama, I usually give him a pass. After all, he is the reason those gimmicks became staples of the genre in the first place. IaEUR(tm)ve already written about my love of LeoneaEUR(tm)s Spaghetti Westerns. While I maintain that Once Upon a Time in the West is still my favorite Western, each of the installments in the Dollars trilogy is fun in its own aEUR" very different aEUR" right. HereaEUR(tm)s a fun bit of movie trivia: Leone fully intended to kill off Poncho (as well as Eli Wallach and Lee van Cleef, who would complete the Good , Bad , and Ugly set in the later instalments of the Dollars trilogy) in the opening scene at the train station in Once Upon a Time in the West . This was supposed to be the grand introduction of his next Man With No Name, with Charles Bronson as Harmonica, but scheduling conflicts meant that LeoneaEUR(tm)s vision never materialized. For the best, really; I might have wet myself if heaEUR(tm)d pulled it off.

My graduate school mentor was the editor of a leading journal in the field.

Photo Credit: Kzenon / Shutterstock.com No one should be called "honey" by anyone other than a great aunt or grandma. Ever. Especially in a courtroom, where everyone is supposed to be treated like equal human beings. The American Bar Association (ABA) finally banned sexist language in court and deemed it professional misconduct to discriminate against or harass anyone during a case in its new ethics guidelines. "Harassment includes sexual harassment and derogatory or demeaning verbal or physical conduct," the attorney handbook says, also defining discrimination as "harmful verbal or physical conduct that manifest bias or prejudice towards others." That means slimy old (let's just say it: male) lawyers can't call female lawyers , plaintiffs, or defendants "honey," "darling," or any other gendered term. This was previously only outlawed by 23 states and Washington D.C., and this is the first nationwide rule prohibiting sexist language in the courtroom. It took us until 2016 to get here, but we finally made it. Of course, there were still some lawyers opposed to the inclusive change who argued that banning offensive language would stomp on their freedom of speech, but luckily no one actually spoke against the new guideline at the ABA's annual meeting, where it was passed Monday. The National Association of Women Lawyers and other female lawyers were the ones pushing for the ABA to spell out what their male colleagues can and can't say to them in court. Along with courtroom interactions, the guidelines also specify that the rule applies to "interacting with witnesses, co-workers, court personnel, lawyers and others," "managing a law practice or law firm," and "participating in bar association, business or social activities in connection with the practice of law." So, lawyers of the male persuasion will have to come up with new names for their secretaries, too -- I would like to suggest their actual names, or whatever they prefer to be called. Despite the national rule, state bar associations will still be in charge of determining what penalties lawyers will face if they break it, which could range from paying a fine to being suspended, depending on how sexist they are in. However, the guideline still leaves room for attorneys to get by with calling women things other than their actual names by only prohibiting language the lawyer knows or reasonably should know is harassment or discrimination. So basically, douchebag lawyers can argue they didn't realize their offensive language was offensive, but hopefully state bar associations will set a wide scope of what they should reasonably know to be inappropriate. Don't let big tech control what news you see. Get more stories like this in your inbox, every day. Lauren Holter is Associate News Editor at The Frisky.

No one should be called "honey" by anyone other than a great aunt or grandma. Ever. Especially in a courtroom, where everyone is supposed to be treated like equal human beings.

Stories and photos you may have missed in the last 12 months. Compiled by Jo Lateu . (c) Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters (above) South Africa Gently does it: at a farm outside Klerksdorp, workers lower a tranquillized black rhino to the ground before dehorning it in an effort to deter poaching. A sign that this measure is working is borne out by the fall in poaching. In the first seven months of this year, 702 carcasses were found compared to 796 in the same period in 2015, but a review by the Department of Environmental Affairs revealed that elephant poaching has increased. Between January and July 2016, 414 alleged poachers were arrested. Fernando Del Berro An elderly woman crosses the border from the tiny Spanish enclave of Melilla into Morocco - one of thousands who each day carry on their backs up to 80 kilograms of goods for sale. For them the border is porous, allowing them to carry out irregular trade and avoid paying tariffs (it is legal to carry packages as long as they are 'personal baggage'). But for refugees the border is nearly impossible to cross. In 2016 Spain stepped up security to prevent asylum seekers gaining access to the European Union via its North African enclaves. Melilla is now enclosed by 10-metre fences and moats protected by guards. Edward McAllister/Reuters (above) Gabon Deja-vu? In a repeat of events that followed the 2009 election, anti-government protests broke out in September after incumbent Ali Bongo retained the presidency by a margin of less than one per cent of the votes. The charred interior of the parliament in the capital, Libreville, was all that was left after clashes between the police and supporters of opposition candidate Jean Ping. Three people were killed and over 1,000 arrested. International observers criticized the election and said that Bongo had benefited from preferential access to money and the media. Europe & Central Asia Children undergo physiotherapy in a rehabilitation and health centre on the outskirts of Minsk, an area left contaminated after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident. According to UNICEF, children born in Belarus since the disaster are more susceptible to thyroid cancers and a range of other health issues caused by the radioactive fallout. As the country marked the 30th anniversary of the disaster, controversy raged over the construction of a new nuclear power plant on the border with Lithuania, with politician Mikalai Ulasevich telling the press that the government 'are building a crematorium'. Cagdas Erdogan/Majority World (above) Turkey In April, militants took to the streets of Gazi, a mainly Kurdish and Alevi district of Istanbul. The area holds regular demonstrations against the government's treatment of ethnic minorities. President Erdogan's 2016 security crackdown has seen him take a harder line against the Kurdistan Workers' Party. In May he stated that the stalled peace negotiations, which he opened up in 2012 in an attempt to bring to an end more than 30 years of armed struggle for Kurdish autonomy, would not restart. Military operations, he declared, would continue 'until the very last rebel is killed'. Alex Masi Children at a summer camp in Azov hold their arms across their chests as they chant: 'Ukraine, holy mother of heroes, come into my heart... You, holy of holies, are my life and my happiness.' As the war between government forces and pro-Russian rebels continues, the next generation of fighters is being prepared for battle. In August, 50 youngsters aged 8 to 16 attending the camp were taught how to shoot and handle weapons. They also received survival training and tactical knowledge of combat scenarios. The total number of deaths in the conflict reached 9,700 in November. (above) United States A young resident sits on an elevated boardwalk in the indigenous Alaskan village of Newtok, July 2016. The permafrost - frozen ground which covers most of the US's northern outpost - is melting because of climate change. The ground sinks as it thaws, causing damage to roads and buildings and releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gases. Newtok's 350 inhabitants were due to be relocated in 2013 but the programme was halted due to local political disputes. The village's highest point - the local school - could be under water by the end of 2017. Carlos Jasso/Reuters (left) Cuba/Costa Rica A Cuban migrant couple rests inside a tent at a provisional shelter in Paso Canoas. Some 8,000 Cubans were trapped in Costa Rica at the beginning of the year, waiting for Nicaragua to let them continue their journey to the United States. US law currently allows Cubans the right to remain if they can reach the country, but Donald Trump is likely to challenge this once he gets into office. In February he told a reporter that allowing Cubans special access under the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act is 'wrong'. Within days of Fidel Castro's death in November, he had also threatened to reimpose sanctions on the Caribbean island. Carlos Vera/Reuters (above) Chile A demonstrator looks a riot police officer in the eye during a protest to mark the anniversary in September of the country's 1973 military coup. This photo went viral on social media, with some commentators likening the girl's defiance with that of the man who stood in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square in China in 1989. But Chileans took to the streets for many other causes too in 2016, including students calling for educational reforms; taxi drivers protesting against on-demand car service Uber; the fishing community wanting government action after a 'red tide' algal bloom that made seafood toxic; and hundreds of thousands to voicing their anger about the pension system. South Asia Mahesh Kumar A/AP/Press Association Images (above) India A rag-picker collects reusable material from a garbage dump in Hyderabad, October 2016. That same month, a stand-off between city officials and legislators halted refuse collection in Vijayawada, leaving rubbish piled high in the streets. But this represents just a small part of the country's garbage crisis: India generates 140,000 tonnes of waste every day, much of which ends up in landfill. Only 83 per cent of waste is collected, and only 29 per cent of that is treated. In January, a fire at a landfill site in Mumbai, which has rubbish piled 18 storeys high, was so large that its smoke was visible from space. Danish Ismail/Reuters A man injured in clashes between Indian police and protesters in July sits inside a Srinagar hospital. Kashmir experienced a summer of heightened violence and unrest following the killing by Indian security forces of Burhan Wani, a leader of Kashmiri separatist group Hizbul Mujahideen. In the aftermath of the murder, widespread protests led to 85 deaths, with 13,000 protesters and 4,000 security personnel injured, according to The Times of India . The Indian-controlled region was put under curfew in July, with the restrictions continuing into November in some areas. G M B Akash/Panos (left) Bangladesh Moin Miah, aged 75, holds on to a banana-palm stem as he floats in flood water looking for his lost belongings. Millions were affected by monsoon floods that hit northern and central Bangladesh in July and August. At least 250,000 homes were damaged, and 17,000 were washed away completely. According to the 2016 World Risk Report, which calculates disaster risk by multiplying vulnerability with exposure to natural hazards (cyclones, droughts, earthquakes, floods, and sea-level rise), Bangladesh is the fifth-riskiest place to live, after Vanuatu, Tonga, the Philippines and Guatemala. East Asia & Pacific (above) Solomon Islands On Guadalcanal island in the Ontong Java Atoll, inhabitants of Lord Howe Settlement gather on the beach. The settlement is vulnerable to storm surges and rising sea levels, and its population is now considering relocation to the capital, Honiara. But with only 2,400 people speaking the local Ontong Java language in a country with 69 indigenous languages (plus the official English, spoken by just two per cent of the population, and Solomon Pidgin, its lingua franca ), community leaders are concerned that their Polynesian identity and tongue will be lost as a new generation grows up in a location with no link to their ancestral land. Eranga Jayawardena/AP/Press Association Images (right) Sri Lanka Conservation workers carry mangrove saplings for planting in Kalpitiya, as part of an ambitious plan to protect 15,000 hectares of mangrove forests. The seawater-tolerant trees help protect and build landmasses and absorb carbon to mitigate the effects of global warming. They can also reduce the impact of natural disasters, as was seen when the Asian tsunami hit the island's eastern coast in 2004. Since then, mangroves have been protected areas, and cutting the trees down is punishable by law. In July 2016, President Maithripala Sirisena opened the country's first mangrove museum. Jorge Silva/Reuters (above) Thailand A harsh regime: inmates working out in a yard inside Klong Prem high-security prison in Bangkok in July. In October 2016, Thailand's prison population was just under 300,000, or 443 per 100,000 people in the country (Canada has 114 per 100,000; the US 693). They were squeezed into 144 jails with an official total capacity of 217,000. The country's Justice Minister, Paiboon Koomchaya, admitted in July that the government's draconian drug laws were failing and said he wanted to downgrade methamphetamine from a Category 1 substance, thus reducing prison terms for dealers or those caught in possession of the popular drug. (above) Lebanon A snail sits atop rotting oranges following much-needed rain in southern Lebanon in November. A report released by NASA in March revealed that the eastern Mediterranean drought, which began in 1998 and continues to affect Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Turkey, is the worst in the last 900 years. Scientists studied tree rings - which are thin in drought years and thick in years when there is plenty of water - to see if the current drought is unusual. Their conclusion, said lead author Ben Cook, was that it 'had some kind of human-caused climate change contribution'. Khaled Abdullah/Reuters (left) Yemen A woman looks through a tent flap during a March gathering of Houthi loyalists protesting against Saudi-led air strikes in Yemen's capital, Sana'a. In September, a Houthi source told the Al Arabiya News Channel that the first women's militia unit had been formed. Women in Yemen have long faced discrimination and violence, but the civil war has made them more vulnerable: the UNFPA reported that there were 8,031 recorded incidents of gender-based violence between January and September 2016, with the real figure likely to be much higher given the social norms that discourage women from reporting such abuse. Mohammed Salem/Reuters (right) Palestine Ninja style: a Palestinian youth in the Gaza Strip jumps with a sword as he demonstrates his skills in front of the remains of buildings that were destroyed by Israel in 2014. The teenagers, who have been receiving martial arts training at local clubs for the past two years, have decided to form a team to hold regular shows, in the hope that the publicity generated will eventually lead to them being invited to participate in international contests. With youth unemployment in Palestine at 42 per cent in 2016, many youngsters face poverty and frustration. Help us keep this site free for all New Internationalist is a lifeline for activists, campaigners and readers who value independent journalism. Please support us with a small recurring donation so we can keep it free to read online. Part of our February 2016 issue: ' Saudi Arabia and the West ', which revealed, among other things, that a whopping 71 per cent of arms deals with the Saudi regime and made with UK and US combine.

Stories and photos you may have missed in the last 12 months. Compiled by Jo Lateu . (c) Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters (above) South Africa Gently does it: at a farm outside Klerksdorp, workers lower a tranquillized black rhino to the ground before dehorning it in an effort to deter poaching.

1 Ace Rothstein Jun 1, 2018 * 12:11:18pm down 9 up report How did he pay it? Trump Casino chips? 2 rhuarc Jun 1, 2018 * 12:12:36pm down 7 up report Great news! Too bad it was only $25,000. Should have been way more. 3 Aucun pays pour les vieux ennemis Jun 1, 2018 * 12:13:38pm down 8 up report Goatnews has 20 grand? How? 4 Charles Johnson Jun 1, 2018 * 12:15:39pm down 20 up report Great news! Too bad it was only $25,000. Should have been way more. Agreed, but $25,000 is still going to hurt him. And next week he might get hit with an anti-SLAPP penalty in his lawsuit against Twitter. 5 Joe Bacon Jun 1, 2018 * 12:16:05pm down 4 up report Hey! Maybe he used the royalties from his Coolidge book to come up with the cash! 6 Eclectic Cyborg Jun 1, 2018 * 12:20:28pm down 4 up report Following up on the last thread re: Al Qaeda upset about wrestlers wearing the cross: I think they were referring to tattoos. Many wreslters have multiple tattoos of all kinds, including personal slogans, names of loved ones and yes, crosses. 7 makeitstop Jun 1, 2018 * 12:21:38pm down 10 up report re: #3 Aucun pays pour les vieux ennemis Goatnews has 20 grand? How? Had. 8 goddamnedfrank Jun 1, 2018 * 12:22:03pm down 11 up report re: #4 Charles Johnson Agreed, but $25,000 is still going to hurt him. And next week he might get hit with an anti-SLAPP penalty in his lawsuit against Twitter. Also Chuck was only one of 22 defendants, the lawsuit continues against the rest. 9 Aucun pays pour les vieux ennemis Jun 1, 2018 * 12:22:09pm down 1 up report What's particularly hilarious, is if Mueller had been investigating Clinton, Hannity and the GOP howler monkeys would think it money well spent. We know what the GOP and Trump are doing. That's why they want Mueller to stop - he's uncovering all kinds of criminality. 11 Charles Johnson Jun 1, 2018 * 12:24:32pm down 9 up report It would not surprise me if Chuck is on Robert Mueller's list, too. He's been involved in a lot of the stuff going on behind the scenes. 12 Aucun pays pour les vieux ennemis Jun 1, 2018 * 12:24:36pm down 5 up report re: #6 Eclectic Cyborg Following up on the last thread re: Al Qaeda upset about wrestlers wearing the cross: I think they were referring to tattoos. Many wreslters have multiple tattoos of all kinds, including personal slogans, names of loved ones and yes, crosses. Ironic, since Leviticus prohibits tattoos. 13 A dark and stormy covfefe Jun 1, 2018 * 12:26:35pm down 1 up report 14 lawhawk Jun 1, 2018 * 12:27:20pm down 4 up report re: #11 Charles Johnson It would not surprise me if Chuck is on Robert Mueller's list, too. He's been involved in a lot of the stuff going on behind the scenes. Coincidental that Trump's gotten an upgrade in legal counsel? Yeah, I think not. I would surmise that Rage Furby knows that he's in serious trouble and needs a legit legal counsel to deal with what's likely coming his way. Settling out of this case was the smart move and lets him focus on the far more serious matter that opens him to potential criminal charges.it frees resources to deal with the most important problem he's facing. 15 gocart mozart Jun 1, 2018 * 12:29:20pm down 10 up report Yeah, the lawyer told him "Take the $25,000 settlement offer, don't be a choad." Shame it didn't go to trial. The longer he would have testified, the more zeros the jury would have tacked on. 16 goddamnedfrank Jun 1, 2018 * 12:29:30pm down 6 up report Also just FYI no notice is filed yet for Joel Vangheluwe's acceptance of the Got News LLC settlement offer, only his father Jerome's acceptance is listed. Both plaintiffs accepted Chuck's personal settlement offer. Probably just a technical delay but it's also possible that Joel will be getting more out of Got News. 17 dangerman Jun 1, 2018 * 12:30:59pm down 3 up report What's particularly hilarious, is if Mueller had been investigating Clinton, Hannity and the GOP howler monkeys would think it money well spent.] they would think it's not nearly enough money, not nearly a large enough investigating team, and why is it taking so long to just state the obvious truth 18 Belafon Jun 1, 2018 * 12:31:14pm down 8 up report re: #12 Aucun pays pour les vieux ennemis Ironic, since Leviticus prohibits tattoos. If you're going to get a biblical reference as a tattoo, it should be to that one. 19 dangerman Jun 1, 2018 * 12:33:16pm down 2 up report If you're going to get a biblical reference as a tattoo, it should be to that one. it might cause you to self destruct / blow up 20 scottslemmons Jun 1, 2018 * 12:34:28pm down 2 up report re: #15 gocart mozart Yeah, the lawyer told him "Take the $25,000 settlement offer, don't be a choad." "But pay me right now, ya ginger Nazi." 21 goddamnedfrank Jun 1, 2018 * 12:49:18pm down 9 up report Question for the lawyers about that Trump tweet calling for Sam Bee's firing. Is there any point where he can be sued for tortious interference? I know executive acts don't count as bills of attainder and similarly the first amendment technically applies to laws passed by Congress. I also know he's immune from lawsuits stemming from official acts but it's hard to see how that tweet qualifies and it seems like it violates the spirit if not the letter of the Constitution. Which is why I asked about tortious interference, I don't see how he's immune from the repercussions of abusing the power afforded by his status as President in a wholly private act clearly intended to damage the contractual relationships of a private citizen. 22 lawhawk Jun 1, 2018 * 12:52:37pm down 7 up report Sued? Yes. Win that suit? Not likely. It would be a novel case to be sure, and I can't recall if/when it's come up in the past. But then again, before all this is over, we're going to have an entirely new and voluminous catalog of cases relating to Trump and his admin. 23 goddamnedfrank Jun 1, 2018 * 12:53:05pm down 4 up report LOL Paul Nehlen seems really pressed by that lawsuit, his lawyer has filed THREE motions to dismiss. This is the Rage Furby's new lawyer: crainsdetroit.com 25 lawhawk Jun 1, 2018 * 12:53:56pm down 9 up report Trump's being played and that's McConnell's warning that Trump's so fixated on getting a meeting that he's giving up all kinds of concessions in the process. 26 Charles Johnson Jun 1, 2018 * 12:55:55pm down 10 up report LOL Paul Nehlen seems really pressed by that lawsuit, his lawyer has filed THREE motions to dismiss. [Embedded content] The other defendants can't be happy that Furby caved in so quickly. They really got burned when they decided to recirculate his bullshit story. 27 KGxvi Jun 1, 2018 * 12:56:37pm down 4 up report Question for the lawyers about that Trump tweet calling for Sam Bee's firing. Is there any point where he can be sued for tortious interference? I know executive acts don't count as bills of attainder and similarly the first amendment technically applies to laws passed by Congress. I also know he's immune from lawsuits stemming from official acts but it's hard to see how that tweet qualifies and it seems like it violates the spirit if not the letter of the Constitution. Which is why I asked about tortious interference, I don't see how he's immune from the repercussions of abusing the power afforded by his status as President in a wholly private act clearly intended to damage the contractual relationships of a private citizen. It'd be difficult, I think. Here's the California jury instructions on tortious interference with contract, it lays out the elements pretty well. I'm not sure one could satisfactorily show that Trump's actions "prevented performance or made performance more expensive or difficult." Especially since advertisers have been dropping the show - if TBS were to cancel the show (not likely), then Trump's defense team could point to advertisers making the decision to drop the show as being the real reason it was canceled. 28 goddamnedfrank Jun 1, 2018 * 12:57:29pm down 7 up report Sued? Yes. Win that suit? Not likely. It would be a novel case to be sure, and I can't recall if/when it's come up in the past. But then again, before all this is over, we're going to have an entirely new and voluminous catalog of cases relating to Trump and his admin. It would be a reach but I'm imagining a situation where discovery produced documents showing that TBS executives explicitly discussed overt pressure being put on them by Trump and potential fallout for the company. I know it would take more than just that tweet but the tweet itself shows the danger of having a President this unhinged and prone to acting on personal grudges. cf Amazon / Bezos / Washington Post 29 Joe Bacon Jun 1, 2018 * 12:58:01pm down 5 up report re: #24 Charles Johnson So Ginger Snapped pays 25,000 to the plantiff and a bet it's a sweet chunk o'change to his lawyer! 30 MsJ Jun 1, 2018 * 12:59:44pm down 6 up report re: #26 Charles Johnson The other defendants can't be happy that Furby caved in so quickly. They really got burned when they decided to recirculate his bullshit story. Let them all burn. 31 Patricia Kayden Jun 1, 2018 * 1:01:24pm down 3 up report Great news! Too bad it was only $25,000. Should have been way more. Exactly. He got off lightly. 32 wrenchwench Jun 1, 2018 * 1:01:57pm down 14 up report I just 'early voted' at the county admin. bldg. I happened to notice the drop-box for 'property taxes and solid waste payments'. Then I come back and there's a Chuck C. 'floor pooper' Johnson post! What a coincidence! 33 KGxvi Jun 1, 2018 * 1:02:06pm down 9 up report Sued? Yes. Win that suit? Not likely. It would be a novel case to be sure, and I can't recall if/when it's come up in the past. But then again, before all this is over, we're going to have an entirely new and voluminous catalog of cases relating to Trump and his admin. The constitutional stress that Trump has brought to bear is probably the best argument for a constitutional convention since 1789. But the potential ramifications of a convention would likely mean the end of the republic as we know it. Fuck, this is crazy shit we're dealing with. 34 wrenchwench Jun 1, 2018 * 1:03:04pm down 2 up report QFT. 35 Belafon Jun 1, 2018 * 1:07:02pm down 9 up report The constitutional stress that Trump has brought to bear is probably the best argument for a constitutional convention since 1789. But the potential ramifications of a convention would likely mean the end of the republic as we know it. Fuck, this is crazy shit we're dealing with. Here's what you'd have to design: An enforcement mechanism that is strong enough even if the leader's party controls the major branches of government, he/she can still be held accountable, but not so strong that it can't be used to go after the president just because. 36 Charles Johnson Jun 1, 2018 * 1:08:35pm down 10 up report Yea, verily, shit is all fucked up. Of this there can be no doubt. 37 FormerDirtDart Jun 1, 2018 * 1:10:15pm down 8 up report Trump has now read the letter, White House confirms re: #37 FormerDirtDart Shannon Pettypiece? Kind of an unfortunate name for a journalist... 39 Aucun pays pour les vieux ennemis Jun 1, 2018 * 1:14:05pm down 3 up report re: #35 Belafon Here's what you'd have to design: An enforcement mechanism that is strong enough even if the leader's party controls the major branches of government, he/she can still be held accountable, but not so strong that it can't be used to go after the president just because. I'm not sure how to design that, but I know it will involve a blockchain, since I've been assured that blockchains are the future. 40 Kragar Jun 1, 2018 * 1:14:42pm down 15 up report Fun fact: If you vote for a Racist who promises to enact laws which are racist because you feel you're going to benefit from that racism, you're a racist. 41 Charles Johnson Jun 1, 2018 * 1:15:57pm down 31 up report She glowed up so hard on us. Y'all said she isn't a planet and she went out and got a whole revenge bod, and now y'all keep saying you miss Pluto being a planet but you had your chance!! Look at her, she has Moved On!! https://t.co/xfrotFtjUe 42 KGxvi Jun 1, 2018 * 1:16:20pm down 6 up report Here's what you'd have to design: An enforcement mechanism that is strong enough even if the leader's party controls the major branches of government, he/she can still be held accountable, but not so strong that it can't be used to go after the president just because. The thing is, we theoretically have those protections. The problem is we have politicians more beholden to party than to country. It's ultimately a moral failing of leadership, and I'm not sure there's any system (including Plato's Republic) that can account for such a failure. As for the constitutional convention. Just imagine the debate on rights? Is the right to privacy a constitutional right? Does that mean abortion is protected or is abortion no longer part of the right to privacy? Or the debate on whether to codify the administrative procedures act and effectively create a fourth branch of government? There are a billion constitutional questions that would mean a much longer/more detailed constitution than what we have now. 43 mmmirele Jun 1, 2018 * 1:19:10pm down 25 up report I'm going to the doctor in a little while because I need renewals on a whole raft of prescriptions...and I have an earache. It just feels weird going in at my age (late 50s) and saying, "I have an earache." But I do, I have an earache. It's not like it's interfering with my life but it's not normal. The PA will probably just look down my ear canal and see some inflammation and it will all be a big nothingburger. That's what I keep telling myself because I haven't had an earache since LBJ was in office. 44 KingKenrod Jun 1, 2018 * 1:20:37pm down 11 up report Question for the lawyers about that Trump tweet calling for Sam Bee's firing. Is there any point where he can be sued for tortious interference? I know executive acts don't count as bills of attainder and similarly the first amendment technically applies to laws passed by Congress. I also know he's immune from lawsuits stemming from official acts but it's hard to see how that tweet qualifies and it seems like it violates the spirit if not the letter of the Constitution. Which is why I asked about tortious interference, I don't see how he's immune from the repercussions of abusing the power afforded by his status as President in a wholly private act clearly intended to damage the contractual relationships of a private citizen. Civil rights violation seems like a better path, for violating her free speech, press, and association. The question is whether Trump is speaking as an individual vs as president, because Trump has his own free speech rights as an individual. But I think he loses that because Sarah Sanders, as part of her official job, attacked Bee on Trump's behalf. 45 Varek Raith Jun 1, 2018 * 1:21:07pm down 4 up report I'm going to the doctor in a little while because I need renewals on a whole raft of prescriptions...and I have an earache. It just feels weird going in at my age (late 50s) and saying, "I have an earache." But I do, I have an earache. It's not like it's interfering with my life but it's not normal. The PA will probably just look down my ear canal and see some inflammation and it will all be a big nothingburger. That's what I keep telling myself because I haven't had an earache since LBJ was in office. Or an alien. Take this flamethrower. / 46 Renaissance_Man Jun 1, 2018 * 1:21:13pm down 11 up report re: #42 KGxvi The thing is, we theoretically have those protections. The problem is we have politicians more beholden to party than to country. It's ultimately a moral failing of leadership, and I'm not sure there's any system (including Plato's Republic) that can account for such a failure. This is exactly the problem. The US was a system designed to have checks and balances within the law, the grand experiment of government that could change through consent and legal means, rather than war or hereditary succession. The US has always been a self-correcting system, even in the most trying of times. Now, however, those checks and balances have failed, and continue to fail every day. They fail because the system did not and could not account for the massive corruption and debasement of not only one man, not only a dozen people, but millions. Millions of people utterly convinced of the most shameful lies, and wanting to be lied to for no other reason than to feed their hate. 47 Belafon Jun 1, 2018 * 1:21:56pm down 2 up report The thing is, we theoretically have those protections. The problem is we have politicians more beholden to party than to country. It's ultimately a moral failing of leadership, and I'm not sure there's any system (including Plato's Republic) that can account for such a failure. As for the constitutional convention. Just imagine the debate on rights? Is the right to privacy a constitutional right? Does that mean abortion is protected or is abortion no longer part of the right to privacy? Or the debate on whether to codify the administrative procedures act and effectively create a fourth branch of government? There are a billion constitutional questions that would mean a much longer/more detailed constitution than what we have now. A constitution written today would be a legal document, not a statement of ideals. 48 Belafon Jun 1, 2018 * 1:23:41pm down 12 up report I don't consider Trump to be our constitutional crisis. Our constitutional crisis is the GOP Congress's failure to enforce the laws we have. And we will have failed as a country when we, the people, decide we're too tired to force Congress to do its job. 49 Jay C Jun 1, 2018 * 1:23:45pm down 5 up report re: #36 Charles Johnson Like others here, I'm surprised that Chuckles The Troll even has $25G to cough up - maybe that's his portion of the settlement because it's most (one would hope ALL) of his ready cash? And as for a Constitutional Convention? I'd say - at the minimal least - An Extraordinarily Bad Fucking Idea . The notion of a CC has been bruited about for years: almost always by the extreme wingiest of wingnuts, who are typically Terminally Butthurt by having to abide by some of the provisions of the current document. Like those relating to freedom of the press, speech, religion, etc: guarantees of due process, restrictions on legal powers, restrictions on state powers, etc.: all of which CC enthusiasts seem to think are bad ideas - or at least should only be applied to "deserving" citizens (and you can guess how "deserving" would be defined). Yeah, the 1789 Constitution has some flaws: but it would be a pretty sure bet that whatever might replace it would be - again, at the minimal least - orders-of-magnitudes worse. 50 Aucun pays pour les vieux ennemis Jun 1, 2018 * 1:24:12pm down 3 up report re: #43 mmmirele I'm going to the doctor in a little while because I need renewals on a whole raft of prescriptions...and I have an earache. It just feels weird going in at my age (late 50s) and saying, "I have an earache." But I do, I have an earache. It's not like it's interfering with my life but it's not normal. The PA will probably just look down my ear canal and see some inflammation and it will all be a big nothingburger. That's what I keep telling myself because I haven't had an earache since LBJ was in office. I'm 51 and had my first earache in about 40 years last month. My ear canal was swollen shut, but a couple of days of alternating hot and cold packs got it back to normal. 51 freetoken Jun 1, 2018 * 1:25:16pm down 8 up report Constitutional conventions are not held anymore because we (and most any other country) are too large. What is important for any of us to care about are elections. Especially state elections, and this is where I fear many people just give up. We as a society still have remnants of theocracy in our blood. By which I mean that many people still want to think top down. They will go out to vote for President but not show up in other elections for other offices. The past 40 years or so, the religious right has won over and over in the statehouses, because they show up in off-year elections. Most of the fuckery with rights is happening at the state legislature level. Trump is not the creator of America's current atavism. He's the benefactor, the guy who knows how to manipulate to reap the benefit without doing the work. The work of atavism has been done day in and day out in local politics, where the religious right shows up dare I say religiously, and if the rest of us don't show up then we lose. 52 freetoken Jun 1, 2018 * 1:26:23pm down 0 up report Left off the important word "not" in that little rant...so reload for the proper rant. 53 Belafon Jun 1, 2018 * 1:26:39pm down 5 up report I'm going to the doctor in a little while because I need renewals on a whole raft of prescriptions...and I have an earache. It just feels weird going in at my age (late 50s) and saying, "I have an earache." But I do, I have an earache. It's not like it's interfering with my life but it's not normal. The PA will probably just look down my ear canal and see some inflammation and it will all be a big nothingburger. That's what I keep telling myself because I haven't had an earache since LBJ was in office. I developed an ear infection when I was 42, 6 years ago. It actually damaged my high pitch hearing, which was truly annoying because I took care of my hearing, rarely playing things like music much louder than what I needed to hear. re: #49 Jay C Like others here, I'm surprised that Chuckles The Troll even has $25G to cough up - maybe that's his portion of the settlement because it's most (one would hope ALL) of his ready cash? And as for a Constitutional Convention? I'd say - at the minimal least - An Extraordinarily Bad Fucking Idea . The notion of a CC has been bruited about for years: almost always by the extreme wingiest of wingnuts, who are typically Terminally Butthurt by having to abide by some of the provisions of the current document. Like those relating to freedom of the press, speech, religion, etc: guarantees of due process, restrictions on legal powers, restrictions on state powers, etc.: all of which CC enthusiasts seem to think are bad ideas - or at least should only be applied to "deserving" citizens (and you can guess how "deserving" would be defined). Yeah, the 1789 Constitution has some flaws: but it would be a pretty sure bet that whatever might replace it would be - again, at the minimal least - orders-of-magnitudes worse. The folks who want a Constitutional Convention basically want to codify white political dominance for as long as possible, demographic change notwithstanding. They want to take advantage of current actual gerrymandering as well as the de facto gerrymandering caused by the urban concentration of Democratic-leaning minorities. 55 Charles Johnson Jun 1, 2018 * 1:28:01pm down 8 up report I had an earache recently too - turned out to be wax buildup. The doc broke out the Industrial Strength Ear Flushing Utensil, ran a bunch of warm water through my head several times, and eventually it all washed out. 56 wrenchwench Jun 1, 2018 * 1:30:04pm down 5 up report I'm going to the doctor in a little while because I need renewals on a whole raft of prescriptions...and I have an earache. It just feels weird going in at my age (late 50s) and saying, "I have an earache." But I do, I have an earache. It's not like it's interfering with my life but it's not normal. The PA will probably just look down my ear canal and see some inflammation and it will all be a big nothingburger. That's what I keep telling myself because I haven't had an earache since LBJ was in office. I have tinnitus, as of the middle of May. Apparently, it's practically normal. I got a referral to an audiologist, pending something . I used to get earaches as the first sign of everything, when I was a kid. At least I finally learned that it's not 'tintinitus'. I must have thought it was named for Rin Tin Tin for some reason. I'm going to the doctor in a little while because I need renewals on a whole raft of prescriptions...and I have an earache. It just feels weird going in at my age (late 50s) and saying, "I have an earache." But I do, I have an earache. It's not like it's interfering with my life but it's not normal. The PA will probably just look down my ear canal and see some inflammation and it will all be a big nothingburger. That's what I keep telling myself because I haven't had an earache since LBJ was in office. "I ain't goin' to school today. I got a earache!" "'Earache' my eye! I'll give you a buttache!" 58 Dave In Austin Jun 1, 2018 * 1:31:03pm down 2 up report re: #55 Charles Johnson I had an earache recently too - turned out to be wax buildup. The doc broke out the Industrial Strength Ear Flushing Utensil, ran a bunch of warm water through my head several times, and eventually it all washed out. 59 Aucun pays pour les vieux ennemis Jun 1, 2018 * 1:32:16pm down 2 up report re: #56 wrenchwench I have tinnitus, as of the middle of May. Apparently, it's practically normal. I got a referral to an audiologist, pending something . I used to get earaches as the first sign of everything, when I was a kid. At least I finally learned that it's not 'tintinitus'. I must have thought it was named for Rin Tin Tin for some reason. I had tinnitus for a year after going to a Ramones, Iggy Pop, Dickies show. I was deaf by the time the second band took the stage. It's back a little bit now that I'm getting old. 60 Joe Bacon Jun 1, 2018 * 1:32:29pm down 5 up report One of the side effects of diabetes is drying out of the ear canal and the flakes fall which irritates me to no end. Dr prescribed Clinere sticks that I use to clean the ears a couple times during the day. 61 Aucun pays pour les vieux ennemis Jun 1, 2018 * 1:33:34pm down 13 up report re: #58 Dave In Austin Those are fine. You need to watch out for this kind. 62 Aucun pays pour les vieux ennemis Jun 1, 2018 * 1:34:48pm down 4 up report re: #57 Blind Frog Belly White "I ain't goin' to school today. I got a earache!" "'Earache' my eye! I'll give you a buttache!" 63 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 1, 2018 * 1:37:41pm down 2 up report re: #43 mmmirele I'm going to the doctor in a little while because I need renewals on a whole raft of prescriptions...and I have an earache. It just feels weird going in at my age (late 50s) and saying, "I have an earache." But I do, I have an earache. It's not like it's interfering with my life but it's not normal. The PA will probably just look down my ear canal and see some inflammation and it will all be a big nothingburger. That's what I keep telling myself because I haven't had an earache since LBJ was in office. your latest earworm got stuck and can't turn around to leave... 64 wrenchwench Jun 1, 2018 * 1:38:13pm down 2 up report re: #59 Aucun pays pour les vieux ennemis I had tinnitus for a year after going to a Ramones, Iggy Pop, Dickies show. I was deaf by the time the second band took the stage. It's back a little bit now that I'm getting old. Saw the Ramones twice and met them once, met the Dickies and saw them at the Whisky A Go Go, and several other loud bands. Never had it before. At least the ringing in my ears is not very loud. And have yet to see Iggy. 65 freetoken Jun 1, 2018 * 1:40:01pm down 3 up report Social media algorithms are like, the stupidest algorithms... For some reason, Twitter flagged the following video as having "sensitive" material and I had to click ok to view it: Warriors Vs Cavs Season 4 pic.twitter.com/hp3t066XSO 66 Aucun pays pour les vieux ennemis Jun 1, 2018 * 1:41:19pm down 1 up report re: #64 wrenchwench Saw the Ramones twice and met them once, met the Dickies and saw them at the Whisky A Go Go, and several other loud bands. Never had it before. At least the ringing in my ears is not very loud. And have yet to see Iggy. Nice. I once missed a Dickies show because it was the same time as a Ramones show. It turned out that the Dickies went on late so the Ramones could see their show. I've never met the members of either band. 67 FormerDirtDart Jun 1, 2018 * 1:42:32pm down 15 up report You brought a knife to a gun fight, son https://t.co/IIL9euNeDF 69 Interesting Times Jun 1, 2018 * 1:48:41pm down 5 up report Tiffany, Don Jr., Ivanka, and Jared are all joining @POTUS on his flight to Camp David. if he's bothering to get Tiffany there, we're nuking someone this weekend yeah? https://t.co/ESx1tb25GN -- Rebecca Schoenkopf, Wonkette Editrix, King Of You ( @commiegirl1 ) June 1, 2018 70 gocart mozart Jun 1, 2018 * 1:48:58pm down 5 up report OK, so Arkady Babchenko just pulled a Buck Williams. If I follow that right, that means Putin is Jonathan Stonagal. And that means Nicolae Carpathia, the Antichrist, is some other leader Putin has propped up and manipulated into office. Maybe Tim LaHaye WAS a prophet. 71 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 1, 2018 * 1:52:15pm down 14 up report "We should beware of the demagogues who are willing to declare a trade war against our friends, weakening our economy, our national security, & the entire free world, all while cynically waving the American flag." - Ronald Reagan 72 gocart mozart Jun 1, 2018 * 1:52:36pm down 14 up report hopefully Samantha Bee has learned that if you're gonna go after one of Trump's children NEVER go after the one he wants to bang 73 KGxvi Jun 1, 2018 * 1:55:26pm down 4 up report For the record, I don't favor a constitutional convention. I think the most likely outcome would be dissolution of the Union were it to happen. I just don't see how you write a constitution today that gets ratified by voters in states as diverse as California, Texas, Florida, Maine, and Wyoming. The closest thing we've seen to a constitutional convention recently was the Treaty of Lisbon. That took six months to negotiate and was the fourth EU treaty since the early 1990's. It would take twice as long to write a new US constitution, which means there would invariably be elections going on while it was happening. Add in the fact that social media would lead to leaks of every debate/discussion that it's fairly obvious that nothing would ever actually be accomplished. 74 gocart mozart Jun 1, 2018 * 1:56:24pm down 5 up report As retweeted by that other professional snowflake, Roseanne Barr. O'Brien has been viciously harassing me, my husband and my loved ones for having an opinion different than his, and supporting @realdonaldtrump . O'Brien went so far as to contact my husband's employer and had him fired because of MY OPINIONS and my fight for Jews to exist. that hollywood liberal elitist commie pinko? fucking RINO! 76 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 1, 2018 * 1:57:15pm down 9 up report https://t.co/4St1wSRmw8 is back up, and we're creating a stronger digital foundation. https://t.co/ylwyksHdBJ WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF https://t.co/WRu0EN45wL 77 KGxvi Jun 1, 2018 * 1:58:39pm down 1 up report re: #74 gocart mozart As George Washington once famously said, "dafuq?" 78 Eclectic Cyborg Jun 1, 2018 * 1:59:43pm down 3 up report "No, I don't think LOL belongs in the Constitution...and that's way too many exclamation points." "Can we at least keep the emojis in?" 79 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 1, 2018 * 2:04:41pm down 7 up report RAW VIDEO: Lava isn't the only thing boiling over in Hawaii! See how an argument between neighbors escalated to gunfire. https://t.co/OtbH7FRIo9 pic.twitter.com/ut2jFyMbYk 80 KGxvi Jun 1, 2018 * 2:06:28pm down 9 up report re: #79 Backwoods_Sleuth I'm beginning to think the Second Amendment shouldn't apply to white guys. 81 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 1, 2018 * 2:07:40pm down 4 up report Bare-knuckle boxing from a bygone era looks for a comeback, starting with upcoming sanctioned bouts in Wyoming @bobmoen https://t.co/L0xeS1QPAf 83 Mike Lamb Jun 1, 2018 * 2:08:37pm down 3 up report re: #74 gocart mozart As retweeted by that other professional snowflake, Roseanne Barr. [Embedded content] Suck it, you feckless C-U-Next-Tuesday. 84 lawhawk Jun 1, 2018 * 2:09:44pm down 5 up report A handful of states have tried their hand at a constitutional convention, and that too has been a mixed bag. Some states are required to place a question on the ballot every number of years to hold one. Most of these have failed . People seem to forget that the constitutional convention was basically done in secret, and it was drafted in secret to then be publicly declared the end product. Even then the founders knew that leaking out information about what was being drafted could sabotage the entire endeavor. 85 Joe Bacon Jun 1, 2018 * 2:10:45pm down 3 up report Ah, just what we need...more brain damaged boogie... 86 dangerman Jun 1, 2018 * 2:11:23pm down 1 up report Trump's being played and that's McConnell's warning that Trump's so fixated on getting a meeting that he's giving up all kinds of concessions in the process. that's also mcconnell saying this is negotiating 101 and you dont have to read 'the art of the deal' to know this 87 KGxvi Jun 1, 2018 * 2:12:45pm down 0 up report re: #81 Backwoods_Sleuth Ok, I'll admit, I'm mildly intrigued. Not enough to actually buy the PPV, but as a fight fan, I will probably look for results/info on the event at some point this weekend. 88 gocart mozart Jun 1, 2018 * 2:13:58pm down 3 up report She glowed up so hard on us. Y'all said she isn't a planet and she went out and got a whole revenge bod, and now y'all keep saying you miss Pluto being a planet but you had your chance!! Look at her, she has Moved On!! https://t.co/xfrotFtjUe 89 dangerman Jun 1, 2018 * 2:14:30pm down 1 up report 90 dangerman Jun 1, 2018 * 2:15:24pm down 3 up report Here's what you'd have to design: An enforcement mechanism that is strong enough even if the leader's party controls the major branches of government, he/she can still be held accountable, but not so strong that it can't be used to go after the president just because. that used to be congress 91 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 1, 2018 * 2:15:36pm down 9 up report Here are consecutive sentences. pic.twitter.com/nomv40RPb4 Pointless analysis: This claim is the sibling of his "I didn't say I want to arm teachers, I want to arm some teachers" claim from February. 92 Renaissance_Man Jun 1, 2018 * 2:15:59pm down 1 up report Law-abiding gun owner. 93 Amory Blaine Jun 1, 2018 * 2:16:59pm down 2 up report Eagerly awaiting the shot of CCJ broke and homeless, shitting in an alley. 94 TedStriker Jun 1, 2018 * 2:17:02pm down 2 up report re: #61 Aucun pays pour les vieux ennemis Those are fine. You need to watch out for this kind. [Embedded content] Star Trek II: Chekov Screams Again! 95 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 1, 2018 * 2:17:20pm down 3 up report JUST IN: Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, whose resignation becomes effective today, issued 5 pardons and commuted 4 sentences on his way out of office. https://t.co/WR4sq7m4oY pic.twitter.com/a5HZLWFZEF 96 gocart mozart Jun 1, 2018 * 2:18:35pm down 4 up report Donald Trump says his letter from Kim Jong-un was "a very nice letter". Eight minutes later, he says he hasn't opened it yet. pic.twitter.com/ZOgqODlsY7 -- Channel 4 News ( @Channel4News ) June 1, 2018 "The envelope was very nice." https://t.co/ZHmtXTCT0S Beatya by 1:45, Patton. Admittedly, it is an obvious joke. "The envelope is nice, very classy." 97 KGxvi Jun 1, 2018 * 2:19:18pm down 1 up report A handful of states have tried their hand at a constitutional convention, and that too has been a mixed bag. Some states are required to place a question on the ballot every number of years to hold one. Most of these have failed . People seem to forget that the constitutional convention was basically done in secret, and it was drafted in secret to then be publicly declared the end product. Even then the founders knew that leaking out information about what was being drafted could sabotage the entire endeavor. We get constitutional amendments on the ballot here in California every couple of election cycles, but never an actual call for a convention - probably because it is so easy to amend. As for the convention in 1789, I'm fairly certain that a big part of that was the fact that even though they were supposed to just fix the Articles of Confederation, they pretty much immediately agreed to create a whole new system. 98 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 1, 2018 * 2:21:22pm down 4 up report My trick for brightening dark under-eyes https://t.co/SJEM42PJAz There's so much nuance when it comes to prison reform. https://t.co/RoaipB8v7k We've literally elected Humpty Dumpty... We've literally elected Humpty Dumpty... [Embedded content] Hopefully this one won't get his wall. 101 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 1, 2018 * 2:25:02pm down 8 up report "By having the meeting with Santa Fe family members, which is considered official White House business, Trump will now be able to bill much of his trip to taxpayers." https://t.co/yy2RsDl0JU -- Pe Resists (@4everNeverTrump) June 1, 2018 102 Single-handed sailor Jun 1, 2018 * 2:25:44pm down 7 up report Ronald Reagan in 1988 celebrating trade with Canada, railing against tariffs and protectionism and celebrating the economic philosophy of Adam Smith, that trade is not zero sum. Pretty much the opposite of where Donald Trump is now. Via @John_Dearie https://t.co/nN3Z5fKvql 103 goddamnedfrank Jun 1, 2018 * 2:27:04pm down 4 up report [Embedded content] This is really dumb. Pads weren't invented to protect people's faces, they were invented to keep boxers from breaking the bones in their hands. The human hand (particularly the fifth metacarpal) is remarkably fragile in comparison to the strength a person can put into a punch. 104 Skip Intro Jun 1, 2018 * 2:29:36pm down 1 up report They're planning the coup. 105 TedStriker Jun 1, 2018 * 2:30:42pm down 2 up report re: #93 Amory Blaine Eagerly awaiting the shot of CCJ broke and homeless, shitting in an alley. Schadenfreude would be a pic of CCJ drinking bum wine in the gutter. 106 FormerDirtDart Jun 1, 2018 * 2:31:59pm down 6 up report BREAKING: the Puerto Rico Health Department has buckled under pressure and released the number of deaths for each month, thru May of 2018. In September 2017, when Hurricane Maria made landfall, there was a notable spike, followed by an even larger one in October. pic.twitter.com/3Irw1eUOTC [Embedded content] I witnessed a very similar incident in Lubbock about 25 years ago. I was in the front yard. My neighbor Mark,, who lived on the left hand side, came driving down the street. He missed his driveway and drove past my house. He suddenly realized his mistake and stopped in front of the house on the other side. He reversed and backed up toward his driveway. As he reached the driveway, the idiot who lived across the street came running out of his house waving a shotgun. He ordered Mark out of the car. I told my wife to call the police. The idiot screamed that Mark was a pedophile who had stopped suddenly to kidnap the idiot's 4 year old son, who was playing in the front yard. Mark kept yelling, "But I live here!" The idiot yelled, "You're a freak looking for kids to abduct!" I got the idiot to give me his gun before the police arrived. They checked Mark's ID, got my account, and arrested the idiot. He was out in a few days and moved away immediately. He claimed he knew Mark lived in that house but was STILL sure he was only coming back to grab the boy and not to, say, go into his own home. He got 90 days in jail and probation. 108 gocart mozart Jun 1, 2018 * 2:34:41pm down 5 up report 109 gocart mozart Jun 1, 2018 * 2:35:17pm down 8 up report Salvador Dali at a book signing, taken with a fisheye lens, by Philippe Halsman, 1963. pic.twitter.com/7hSaKv1S0t 110 goddamnedfrank Jun 1, 2018 * 2:37:51pm down 12 up report "Hate on David Duke all you want ..." Bigotry is popular with a large number of shit-witted hobgoblins is not an argument. 111 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 1, 2018 * 2:39:52pm down 12 up report Canada has treated our Agricultural business and Farmers very poorly for a very long period of time. Highly restrictive on Trade! They must open their markets and take down their trade barriers! They report a really high surplus on trade with us. Do Timber & Lumber in U.S.? -- Donald J. Trump ( @realDonaldTrump ) June 1, 2018 Except that, according to your own government, you're lying: 1. "Canada took MORE agricultural exports from the U.S. than any other country in 2017" - U.S. Dept. of Agriculture 2. "Canada had a trade DEFICIT with the U.S. of $8.4B in 2017" - Office of U.S. Trade Representative https://t.co/aArciTSsHq 112 Teukka Jun 1, 2018 * 2:41:31pm down 1 up report I'm going to the doctor in a little while because I need renewals on a whole raft of prescriptions...and I have an earache. It just feels weird going in at my age (late 50s) and saying, "I have an earache." But I do, I have an earache. It's not like it's interfering with my life but it's not normal. The PA will probably just look down my ear canal and see some inflammation and it will all be a big nothingburger. That's what I keep telling myself because I haven't had an earache since LBJ was in office. re: #55 Charles Johnson I had an earache recently too - turned out to be wax buildup. The doc broke out the Industrial Strength Ear Flushing Utensil, ran a bunch of warm water through my head several times, and eventually it all washed out. Check the pharmacy out for ear oil, I use a brand named Vaxol but there are other brands too. Basically, it's medical grade vegetable oil and helps the ear canal to keep non-attractive for wax. Some brands have a bulb for flushing your ear canal at home in the package as an option. Also remember that you should insert anything smaller than an elbow into your ear canal. 113 Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel Jun 1, 2018 * 2:42:34pm down 7 up report Relic from 1964 (This is undergoing a revival by RWNJs who would be horrified if they knew that Goldwater was strongly pro-choice.) Democrats retorted, "In your guts you know he's nuts." 114 Amory Blaine Jun 1, 2018 * 2:42:37pm down 2 up report Some dude died at a Ghost concert here yesterday. I guess he collapsed in the mosh pit. 115 Grunthos the Flatulent Jun 1, 2018 * 2:42:56pm down 2 up report 116 goddamnedfrank Jun 1, 2018 * 2:44:27pm down 26 up report Irish media: Men: Repeal won't work. Women: I think we've got this. Men: Let me tell you why your campaign is flawed. Women: We're quite good at this actually. Men: Let me tell you why you'll lose. Women: Pretty sure we're going to win. Men: Let me tell you how you won. 117 freetoken Jun 1, 2018 * 2:49:41pm down 5 up report re: #111 Backwoods_Sleuth I so hope Trudeau and his ministers go all out on Trump. 118 Joe Bacon Jun 1, 2018 * 2:55:55pm down 5 up report I so hope Trudeau and his ministers go all out on Trump. Then Trump retaliates by calling for a wall on our northern border... in clear violation of the Webster-Asburton Treaty... 119 The Vicious Babushka Jun 1, 2018 * 2:56:23pm down 6 up report REPORT: Far-Right Blogger Settles Defamation Suit Over Falsely Naming Man As Killer Charlottesville Driver - https://t.co/LrqdqgJRUq pic.twitter.com/Tdwe1XFulB I so hope Trudeau and his ministers go all out on Trump. why is our economy so bad when everyone else is doing so good? we need more tarrifs! 121 KGxvi Jun 1, 2018 * 2:57:24pm down 1 up report re: #118 Joe Bacon Then Trump retaliates by calling for a wall on our northern border... in clear violation of the Webster-Asburton Treaty... South Park did it. re: #113 Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel Relic from 1964 (This is undergoing a revival by RWNJs who would be horrified if they knew that Goldwater was strongly pro-choice.) [Embedded content] Democrats retorted, "In you guts you know he's nuts." My folks found some of their ancient Goldwater material, most of it in pretty good shape, a few weeks ago. I've been thinking of taking pictures of 'em to put on Instagram -- I'm torn between my desire to post pictures of old stuff and not wanting to post Republican stuff... :/ 123 Patricia Kayden Jun 1, 2018 * 2:57:58pm down 1 up report 124 Eclectic Cyborg Jun 1, 2018 * 2:57:58pm down 2 up report re: #118 Joe Bacon Then Trump retaliates by calling for a wall on our northern border... in clear violation of the Webster-Asburton Treaty... Good luck trying to get Canada to pay for it. 125 Aucun pays pour les vieux ennemis Jun 1, 2018 * 2:58:32pm down 8 up report This kook, along with a lot of other far-right bloggers, think they can do whatever they want, and hurt whoever they want. They need more wake-up calls like this one. -- Jeff "We call BS" Furlington ( @FurlingtonJeff ) June 1, 2018 126 freetoken Jun 1, 2018 * 2:58:33pm down 3 up report re: #118 Joe Bacon The G7 meeting next week ought to be a hoot. I suppose this or that leader might court Trump for some special favor, but I can't imagine Trudeau, May, or Macron or Merkel bending to Trump. The Japanese might, but the other's will not. 127 freetoken Jun 1, 2018 * 2:59:23pm down 4 up report It would not surprise me if Trump finds a way to avoid the G7, or if he does go, then find a way to leave early. 128 Jay C Jun 1, 2018 * 2:59:35pm down 1 up report re: #106 FormerDirtDart [Embedded content] So, assuming that the overall death figures for PR are reasonably steady over time, the "spike" for Sept., Oct. and Nov. of 2017 looks to be about 1400 more than the previous period: which is an easily-believable number from a hurricane as bad as Maria (and certain more credible than the ludicrous "64" number our idiot government has been clinging to) - but way short of the "4500+ " that has been floated around. I mean, with as destructive a storm as Maria, the higher number is sadly believable as well, I'm just curious as to the discrepancy. 129 Joe Bacon Jun 1, 2018 * 2:59:39pm down 2 up report re: #119 The Vicious Babushka [Embedded content] Ah 25K to settle that lawsuit, 25K in legal fees, child support and alimony payments to his ex...Ginger Snapped is going to have to get a real job at In-N-Out...and he can chat with Baked Alaska out in the parking lot... 130 Egregious Philbin Jun 1, 2018 * 3:01:02pm down 1 up report I bet that Chucky Baby needs to mop up all the poop on his floor.... 131 freetoken Jun 1, 2018 * 3:02:35pm down 1 up report re: #129 Joe Bacon I wonder if he will try bankruptcy. Legal settlements are protected through bankruptcy? 132 Joe Bacon Jun 1, 2018 * 3:04:10pm down 1 up report I wonder if he will try bankruptcy. Legal settlements are protected through bankruptcy? Karma for Ginger Snapped would be filing for Social Security Disability and having the claim denied... 133 freetoken Jun 1, 2018 * 3:04:22pm down 2 up report re: #128 Jay C The late summer/august spike is clearly a statistical outlier, by a great amount. This alone will tell us that these additional deaths are not a random occurrences. It's pretty clear that the lack of health care and proper sanitation are going to be issues that come up over and over. 134 FormerDirtDart Jun 1, 2018 * 3:06:52pm down 18 up report women have to change because men have sads lgbt have to change because straights are uncomfy blacks gotta do stuff to make whites happy muslims need to reassure christians theyre not evil to quote the good captain america: "no, you move" pic.twitter.com/yjmlMfXHpY 135 FormerDirtDart Jun 1, 2018 * 3:09:06pm down 11 up report Good freakin' grief. Nathan Larson is a pedophile and a white supremacist. And he's running for Congress https://t.co/X8UAbs5sKC via @usatoday This was the first random paragraph I read: pic.twitter.com/gLBM8Pvvfy 136 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 1, 2018 * 3:09:11pm down 6 up report re: #126 freetoken The G7 meeting next week ought to be a hoot. I suppose this or that leader might court Trump for some special favor, but I can't imagine Trudeau, May, or Macron or Merkel bending to Trump. The Japanese might, but the other's will not. he will just send Javanka. 137 Skip Intro Jun 1, 2018 * 3:10:30pm down 3 up report he will just send Javanka. I think that's exactly what he'll do. 138 FormerDirtDart Jun 1, 2018 * 3:13:51pm down 6 up report DON'T MISS THE CUTENESS! Today is the last day of our Facebook Live with Maddie and her puppies from approximately 4-4.30 PM Pacific. Maddie was rescued from animal testing. You can also watch the previous days on our Facebook now: https://t.co/MZbY4IeCpO pic.twitter.com/QMOVXBYVIY 139 Stanley Sea Jun 1, 2018 * 3:17:24pm down 7 up report Isn't It Ironic: Greitens Signs 'Revenge Porn' Law Just Before Leaving Office https://t.co/pCdiLbYf6h via @TPM 140 TedStriker Jun 1, 2018 * 3:17:39pm down 5 up report re: #137 Skip Intro I think that's exactly what he'll do. Or Pence. Trump himself, he's doesn't have the balls to go there now with all of the bear-poking he's given them lately. I wonder what lame-ass excuse we'll get from the WH. 141 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 1, 2018 * 3:19:29pm down 12 up report [Embedded content] Gov. Eric Greitens has left the state Capitol building in Jefferson City Note that the Furby has still not sued anyone for claiming that he shat on the floor. I wonder if there is a video? 143 Blind Frog Belly White Jun 1, 2018 * 3:22:56pm down 4 up report re: #142 Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel Note that the Furby has still not sued anyone for claiming that he shat on the floor. I wonder if there is a video? Considering that all the faux-"alpha males" like Chuckie make a big deal out of not eating salad, maybe there's what you might call 'hard evidence'... 144 Blind Frog Belly White Jun 1, 2018 * 3:24:10pm down 1 up report re: #143 Blind Frog Belly White Though it does remind me of 'This Is Spinal Tap' - "You can't dust for vomit." 145 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 1, 2018 * 3:26:17pm down 4 up report "This was a meeting where a letter was given to me by Kim Jong-Un, and that letter was a very nice letter. Oh, would you like to see what was in that letter? I haven't seen the letter yet. I purposely haven't opened it... I haven't opened it." [?] pic.twitter.com/r4Z8WvT9EG -- Holly Figueroa O'Reilly BWCS ( @AynRandPaulRyan ) June 1, 2018 146 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 1, 2018 * 3:28:09pm down 13 up report Trump allies acknowledge the President's controversial pardon of Dinesh D'Souza was a signal to Robert Mueller https://t.co/8JIxapAe21 pic.twitter.com/lg331AZXoh -- New York Daily News ( @NYDailyNews ) June 1, 2018 It's not controversial, it's a blatant disregard for the rule of law. There was no question that he was guilty since he pleaded guilty. He never maintained his innocence. It's an abuse of the pardon power. https://t.co/5qAySEho2E -- Andrew C Laufer, Esq ( @lauferlaw ) June 1, 2018 147 Blind Frog Belly White Jun 1, 2018 * 3:31:25pm down 11 up report The latest Joy Reid kerfuffle strikes me as ridiculous. Now that McCain's dying of Glioblastoma, they drag up some 11 year old post made in response to McCain telling a rally at a gun company that if he were younger he'd shoot Osama bin Laden with one of their guns. And she posted a picture of his head 'shopped onto a guy holding two guns, which I guess turned out to be the Virginia Tech shooter. "How can you be so disrespectful to an American Hero dying a horrible death?" Well, at the time, he was a guy running for President, saying stupid swaggering horseshit. "How dare you accuse an American Hero dying a horrible death of saying stupid swaggering horseshit?" (rolls eyes) 148 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 1, 2018 * 3:36:39pm down 5 up report Today, it was my great honor to be with the brave men and women of the United States Coast Guard! pic.twitter.com/RAyPbOGXuZ -- Donald J. Trump ( @realDonaldTrump ) June 1, 2018 Donald Trump: "During the hurricanes I was in Texas, I was in Puerto Rico, I saw the work you did...I don't think any brand has gained more momentum or has gained more of anything than the brand of the United States Coast Guard" A study estimates 4,645 people died in Puerto Rico apparently the Coast Guard is a "brand"... 149 ckkatz Jun 1, 2018 * 3:37:04pm down 1 up report 150 mmmirele Jun 1, 2018 * 3:38:34pm down 20 up report Returned from the PA's...nothing outwardly wrong with my ear but they did get me scheduled for a colonoscopy consult in 10 days. (I've been putting it off.) And I'm 8 pounds lighter than I was in January. 151 Renaissance_Man Jun 1, 2018 * 3:39:14pm down 21 up report re: #150 mmmirele Returned from the PA's...nothing outwardly wrong with my ear but they did get me scheduled for a colonoscopy consult in 10 days. (I've been putting it off.) And I'm 8 pounds lighter than I was in January. That's an unusual way to look at the inner ear. 152 TedStriker Jun 1, 2018 * 3:40:00pm down 6 up report re: #151 Renaissance_Man That's an unusual way to look at the inner ear. Sounds like the reaaallly long way to me... 153 Skip Intro Jun 1, 2018 * 3:42:12pm down 8 up report Sounds like the reaaallly long way to me... They charge by the inch. 154 The Vicious Babushka Jun 1, 2018 * 3:43:56pm down 18 up report Common sense is not so common within the Trump administration. #TheResistance pic.twitter.com/EmJboM7w5T 155 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 1, 2018 * 3:44:15pm down 21 up report Hate on Jordan Peterson all you want, but he's tapping into frustration that feminists shouldn't ignore. If feminists don't like his message, maybe they should offer a better one. https://t.co/BUjWdErO3V (via @latimesopinion ) pic.twitter.com/zc65urHbnU 156 Hecuba's daughter Jun 1, 2018 * 3:47:02pm down 4 up report It is a well-established scientific principle that every accusation that Trump levels against Democrats is actually some nefarious activity he's engaged in. So -- for years he claimed that unemployment was much higher than the official reports and the jobs reports were suspicious: my question -- is it possible that the statistics this morning are manipulated figures that are, in fact, not true? 157 gocart mozart Jun 1, 2018 * 3:48:14pm down 1 up report Nice 27 point turn Tag yourself U.S. isolated at G7 meeting over tariffs: French minister https://t.co/xaazOX81o3 pic.twitter.com/V5tbecxNsM re: #151 Renaissance_Man That's an unusual way to look at the inner ear. "Take the long way home." 160 BeachDem Jun 1, 2018 * 3:53:18pm down 5 up report [Embedded content] apparently the Coast Guard is a "brand"... Sounds like the same bullshit speech he gave to the Coast Guard in Florida on Thanksgiving--same "brand" crap. Oh, except he probably had to leave out the introduction to Melon, as I'm assuming she's still among the missing and wasn't with him today. 161 Charles Johnson Jun 1, 2018 * 3:53:36pm down 10 up report When it comes to nuclear buttons and now to envelopes, size apparently matters pic.twitter.com/0T6qdzU9MI re: #161 Charles Johnson Diplomacy is now done by exchanging greeting cards. 163 gocart mozart Jun 1, 2018 * 3:55:10pm down 3 up report [Embedded content] Wow, the ratio on that is pretty amazing. 165 goddamnedfrank Jun 1, 2018 * 3:58:15pm down 10 up report re: #146 Backwoods_Sleuth [Embedded content] Frankly the argument that pardons shouldn't be given to people who are clearly guilty is a weak one since the Burdick decision makes the acceptance of a pardon an implicit admission of guilt. A better argument is that pardons are supposed to be an act of grace by the executive that somehow benefits and heals society. For instance George Washington gave the first two pardons to John Mitchell and Phillip Weigel, convicted of treason, because he didn't want to see them hanged and become martyrs which might have led to further riots and destabilization. There was no question that the two men were guilty and the pardons weren't given to benefit the men or the anti Whiskey tax political faction they represented but were instead given to show that the federal government was merciful and just, strong but not tyrannical. The real problem with Arpaio, D'Souza and Libby's pardons is that they were implicitly carried out in the furtherance of a political gambit by the President to undermine the government's authority in ongoing law enforcement proceedings that he believes threaten him personally. The entire goal of these pardons is to test the waters for more explicit acts of obstruction of justice. 166 gocart mozart Jun 1, 2018 * 3:58:34pm down 1 up report Fliptree: Best Idea - Dinesh D'Souza https://t.co/LxPzRz2Zei via @YouTube There's nothing new under the sun 168 Patricia Kayden Jun 1, 2018 * 4:04:28pm down 8 up report A jury awarded $4 to the family of Gregory Vaughn Hill Jr., who was fatally shot by a Florida sheriff's deputy-- $1 for funeral expenses and $1 each to Hill's three children. https://t.co/jW20v42vfq This is why everyone needs to vote. To protect the rights of all Americans,. This is disgraceful. https://t.co/WpClDMt0ER 169 dangerman Jun 1, 2018 * 4:07:35pm down 2 up report re: #145 Backwoods_Sleuth video "This was a meeting where a letter was given to me by Kim Jong-Un, and that letter was a very nice letter. Oh, would you like to see what was in that letter? I haven't seen the letter yet. I purposely haven't opened it... I haven't opened it [Embedded content] "I don't have a fucking clue where I am or what I'm doing" 170 dangerman Jun 1, 2018 * 4:10:27pm down 3 up report Returned from the PA's... nothing outwardly wrong with my ear but they did get me scheduled for a colonoscopy consult in 10 days. (I've been putting it off.) And I'm 8 pounds lighter than I was in January. I wouldn't think that would be the next logical test But i am not a doctor 171 Colere Tueur de Lapin Jun 1, 2018 * 4:11:02pm down 8 up report re: #135 FormerDirtDart Holy crap. I read some random paragraphs, switching through sections, and the third or fourth on was a reference to "saint elliot", the incel who killed 7 and wounded 14 people in Isla Vista. Virginia, you got a winner in this dude. re: #156 Hecuba's daughter It is a well-established scientific principle that every accusation that Trump levels against Democrats is actually some nefarious activity he's engaged in. So -- for years he claimed that unemployment was much higher than the official reports and the jobs reports were suspicious: my question -- is it possible that the statistics this morning are manipulated figures that are, in fact, not true? Remember, in 2016, Trump said, "We have 93 million people out of work. They look for jobs, they give up, and all of a sudden, statistically, they're considered employed." He used that number to say that the REAL unemployment rate should be 42% - combining the % Not In Labor Force with U3 unemployment. That number was the "Not In Labor Force" number, everyone over 16, not in jail and not either employed or looking for a job (primarily students, housewives, and retirees). That number is now almost 96 million, and what he said should be considered the REAL unemployment rate is about 41% - barely changed from 2016. 173 dangerman Jun 1, 2018 * 4:15:34pm down 3 up report Frankly the argument that pardons shouldn't be given to people who are clearly guilty is a weak one since the Burdick decision makes the acceptance of a pardon an implicit admission of guilt. A better argument is that pardons are supposed to be an act of grace by the executive that somehow benefits and heals society. For instance George Washington gave the first two pardons to John Mitchell and Phillip Weigel, convicted of treason, because he didn't want to see them hanged and become martyrs which might have led to further riots and destabilization. There was no question that the two men were guilty and the pardons weren't given to benefit the men or the anti Whiskey tax political faction they represented but were instead given to show that the federal government was merciful and just, strong but not tyrannical. The real problem with Arpaio, D'Souza and Libby's pardons is that they were implicitly carried out in the furtherance of a political gambit by the President to undermine the government's authority in ongoing law enforcement proceedings that he believes threaten him personally. The entire goal of these pardons is to test the waters for more explicit acts of obstruction of justice. "The original idea was to give the president the power to right wrongs when the justice system failed. For example, if evidence later surfaced proving that an innocent person had been imprisoned, the president could free that person. It was never intended to let a supporter of your party off the hook after having pleaded guilty to a political crime".. electoral-vote.com yesterday 174 FormerDirtDart Jun 1, 2018 * 4:16:24pm down 13 up report He can't get Mexico to pay for it? 175 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 1, 2018 * 4:18:04pm down 10 up report WH releases pic of letter from Kim Jong Un. It's a very big letter. pic.twitter.com/GQNbvOXcSs Is it me or does this letter make Trump's hands look...small? cc: @darth https://t.co/KiPfRuUz8I 176 FormerDirtDart Jun 1, 2018 * 4:18:39pm down 10 up report BREAKING: What first appeared to be a gesture indicating North Korea might be willing to dismantle its nuclear weapons program, appears to have been little more than a propaganda effort for the world's cameras, @barbarastarrcnn reports https://t.co/1sLegVPr4H pic.twitter.com/cQ6jq8cA7X 177 Skip Intro Jun 1, 2018 * 4:18:57pm down 3 up report re: #168 Patricia Kayden That's not completely accurate. Because the jury found that Hill was 99% responsible for getting killed, they'll each receive a penny each. "The original idea was to give the president the power to right wrongs when the justice system failed. For example, if evidence later surfaced proving that an innocent person had been imprisoned, the president could free that person. It was never intended to let a supporter of your party off the hook after having pleaded guilty to a political crime".. electoral-vote.com yesterday Like a lot of other powers, it presumed that we'd either elect a grownup to the office, or elect responsible legislators to balance him. If you fail in either, you'll probably be okay. If you fail in both, you're... It was a gesture, alright. 180 FormerDirtDart Jun 1, 2018 * 4:22:38pm down 3 up report re: #171 Colere Tueur de Lapin Holy crap. I read some random paragraphs, switching through sections, and the third or fourth on was a reference to "saint elliot", the incel who killed 7 and wounded 14 people in Isla Vista. Virginia, you got a winner in this dude. Um. How does one commit suicide with a heavy machine gun? pic.twitter.com/WvBEzlCwVW -- JJ MacNab ( @jjmacnab ) June 1, 2018 He's a conservative candidate who was convicted of a federal felony which makes him eligible for a Presidential pardon. I started this post as a joke but it really isn't. 181 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) Jun 1, 2018 * 4:24:52pm down 8 up report [Embedded content] North Korea has talked the master negotiator into paying for their 5 star accommodations? Genius. 182 gocart mozart Jun 1, 2018 * 4:28:26pm down 13 up report Melania hasn't been seen ever since the 'sinkhole' was filled. Coincidence? pic.twitter.com/9hKJ0zOkZM 183 jaunte Jun 1, 2018 * 4:30:34pm down 5 up report Here's that information on Seth Rogan you asked for. pic.twitter.com/H88guyXStS 184 TedStriker Jun 1, 2018 * 4:34:55pm down 4 up report re: #177 Skip Intro That's not completely accurate. Because the jury found that Hill was 99% responsible for getting killed, they'll each receive a penny each. That's not all: if I read that story right, the family isn't even getting 4 cents out of this, because the judge set aside the "award". It's fucking bullshit, from top to bottom. 185 wrenchwench Jun 1, 2018 * 4:38:39pm down 10 up report I am proud of #NM 's very own activist, Gabriela Hernandez, @NM_Dream_Team Director. She will be joining other esteemed speakers at this year's @TeenVogue Summit. She is a true advocate in the fight for social justice & she is #HereToStay . #TeenVogueSummit https://t.co/3vyjV6RRKC Michelle Lujan Grisham got my vote for Dem nominee for governor today. 186 goddamnedfrank Jun 1, 2018 * 4:38:47pm down 6 up report "The original idea was to give the president the power to right wrongs when the justice system failed. For example, if evidence later surfaced proving that an innocent person had been imprisoned, the president could free that person. It was never intended to let a supporter of your party off the hook after having pleaded guilty to a political crime".. electoral-vote.com yesterday The larger point I'm making is that pleading guilty is irrelevant to the impropriety here. Neither Arpaio nor Libby pled guilty and their pardons are just as offensive. Libby's is possibly the worst since it was entirely done to undermine the idea that obstruction of justice, perjury and lying to the FBI should be a punishable offense, at least when politically connected Republicans do it in furtherance of *eagle-scream freedom-boner* . That pardon in particular was aimed at sending a message to Flynn and the conspiracy theorists who want his entire prosecution, guilty plea and testimony reversed. D'Souza's pardon similarly was intended to send a message to Cohen that if he holds out there might be a pardon waiting for him sometime after the end of the Mueller probe. Arpaio's pardon sent a message to every local official and agency head that court orders (especially regarding actions against immigrants) can be taken with a grain of salt. Every single one of these pardons has been signed with an overt goal of undermining the perceived legitimacy of the Courts and the FBI while sending a message to Trump's allies and would be enablers that down the line he'll have their back if they break the law on his behalf. In the mind of his followers "justice" is becoming a plastic concept that molds itself into the shape of whatever comports with Trump's expedient desires. 187 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 1, 2018 * 4:41:37pm down 16 up report This has got to be one for the record books. Oil industry joins with solar and wind industry to condemn Trump admin plan to prop up coal industry by forcing electric grid to buy coal power. Oil/wind/solar as allies? Fascinating times. pic.twitter.com/PmTRyw70SK 188 Ace Rothstein Jun 1, 2018 * 4:43:47pm down 2 up report 189 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 1, 2018 * 4:44:51pm down 11 up report :D "I knew kids around this area liked pot but I never thought they were into marijuana as well!" pic.twitter.com/FmROngyHxO 191 goddamnedfrank Jun 1, 2018 * 4:47:22pm down 3 up report [Embedded content] 192 wrenchwench Jun 1, 2018 * 4:47:47pm down 12 up report To kick off Pride month ACC style, here's a kitten with rainbow eyes. pic.twitter.com/MHiOYGw8DP They'll end up being billed for the bullets. 194 gocart mozart Jun 1, 2018 * 4:58:15pm down 4 up report @SarahKSilverman had the best take on the "c" word. It underlines what Sam Bee was getting at when she called Ivanka a feckless cunt: https://t.co/4b8K4a7ovf 195 sagehen Jun 1, 2018 * 4:59:53pm down 4 up report A better argument is that pardons are supposed to be an act of grace by the executive that somehow benefits and heals society. For instance .... Like when Jimmy Carter pardoned several hundred thousand draft dodgers. 196 gocart mozart Jun 1, 2018 * 5:01:31pm down 2 up report "You Can't Beat Jordan Peterson With Arguments I Attributed To You," A Very Useful and Good Faith Argument https://t.co/viQHvxxhmO pic.twitter.com/5053efste4 197 Khal Wimpo (the extinguisher of tiki torches) Jun 1, 2018 * 5:06:05pm down 2 up report Wondering if this order from the judge in CCJ's case had anything to do with the hasty settlement? CAME ON TO BE CONSIDERED Plaintiffs' Motion for Issuance of Second Summonses for Unserved Defendants in the above referenced matter, and the Court is of the opinion that said motion should be in all things granted. IT IS, THEREFORE, ORDERED that Plaintiffs' Motion for Issuance of Second Summonses for Unserved Defendants is GRANTED. 198 freetoken Jun 1, 2018 * 5:08:35pm down 10 up report That @realDonaldTrump is President of the US is a direct result of our society's unwillingness to come to grips with the dangers of fundamentalist Christianity. -- freetoken fights fecking fascists ( @freetoken ) June 2, 2018 199 Khal Wimpo (the extinguisher of tiki torches) Jun 1, 2018 * 5:09:19pm down 4 up report Check out all the co-Defendants listed here. They're all going to be getting some presents from process servers right about now. So. Reading possible motivations for CCJ's quick exit from the suit - after the order that everyone else be served came through, at that point, CCJ was no longer going to be able to postpone discovery. Discovery is where the legal bills start really piling up. However: by settling this way, CCJ is basically throwing everyone else named in the suit under the bus. Nehlen et al., are going to be served now, they're going to be on the hook, and they're not going to be able to rely on CCJ to stand up for them. It's a real cowardly, backstabby move. I.E.: totally in keeping with what we know of CCJ's character 200 MsJ Jun 1, 2018 * 5:13:23pm down 8 up report 202 MsJ Jun 1, 2018 * 5:16:34pm down 7 up report It's becoming apparent that Melania has left trump. Of course, any sane woman would (have never married a louse like him to start with). Bye bye, M. 203 dangerman Jun 1, 2018 * 5:17:47pm down 3 up report re: #181 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) North Korea has talked the master negotiator into paying for their 5 star accommodations? Genius. 204 freetoken Jun 1, 2018 * 5:18:40pm down 3 up report I have no idea why Melania has gone dark. I also don't know if there is any big significance to it. However, if this goes on a few more days, the questions are going to start to pile up. 205 dangerman Jun 1, 2018 * 5:19:11pm down 4 up report That's not all: if I read that story right, the family isn't even getting 4 cents out of this, because the judge set aside the "award". It's fucking bullshit, from top to bottom. I'll say it Fucking florida 206 gocart mozart Jun 1, 2018 * 5:20:13pm down 6 up report first you need a team name and a mascot. -- Hold My Beer ( @bobbbobbbob ) June 1, 2018 My NFL team will be called the the Boston Agnostic Jews and the mascot is a Leonard Cohen T-shirt with an open button down over it https://t.co/qmIv4p1mZl Hey, I already pitched my idea for the opening sequence to explain Roseanne's absence.... 208 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) Jun 1, 2018 * 5:23:27pm down 10 up report I have no idea why Melania has gone dark. I also don't know if there is any big significance to it. However, if this goes on a few more days, the questions are going to start to pile up. The entire criminal Trump gang went to Camp David, even the hated kid Tiffany, Melania was no where to be found. Family pow-wow to break the news and how what to do next? 209 dangerman Jun 1, 2018 * 5:24:19pm down 3 up report The larger point I'm making is that pleading guilty is irrelevant to the impropriety here. Neither Arpaio nor Libby pled guilty and their pardons are just as offensive. Libby's is possibly the worst since it was entirely done to undermine the idea that obstruction of justice, perjury and lying to the FBI should be a punishable offense, at least when politically connected Republicans do it in furtherance of *eagle-scream freedom-boner* . That pardon in particular was aimed at sending a message to Flynn and the conspiracy theorists who want his entire prosecution, guilty plea and testimony reversed. D'Souza's pardon similarly was intended to send a message to Cohen that if he holds out there might be a pardon waiting for him sometime after the end of the Mueller probe. Arpaio's pardon sent a message to every local official and agency head that court orders (especially regarding actions against immigrants) can be taken with a grain of salt. Every single one of these pardons has been signed with an overt goal of undermining the perceived legitimacy of the Courts and the FBI while sending a message to Trump's allies and would be enablers that down the line he'll have their back if they break the law on his behalf. In the mind of his followers "justice" is becoming a plastic concept that molds itself into the shape of whatever comports with Trump's expedient desires. 100% The rest of the e-v quote: Nor was it intended as a means of rallying political support (it's not a coincidence that Trump pardons people one at a time, and makes a big show of doing it). The President suggested that his next beneficiaries might be Rod Blagojevich and Martha Stewart, both of whom just happen to be former "The Apprentice" contestants. With the D'Souza pardon (and the others that may come down the pike), Trump is (once again) saying that the rule of law doesn't apply to his friends and supporters. There is also the not-so-subtle message to people like former campaign manager Paul Manafort and former fixer Michael Cohen that a pardon awaits those who are loyal to him 210 Skip Intro Jun 1, 2018 * 5:25:46pm down 8 up report re: #202 MsJ I still think he got mad and beat the crap out of her. I wonder if the the Secret Service would have shot her if she fought back? 211 freetoken Jun 1, 2018 * 5:27:50pm down 3 up report Forgotten American history: Once upon a time, the various wives of the senior executives of the US government caused a crisis and greatly affected American affairs: So one of Trump's heroes, Andrew Jackson, actually replaced cabinet members because they dissed the wife of one of his confidents. Just a warning: whatever is up with Trump, don't put it past him to pull something big. Forgotten American history: Once upon a time, the various wives of the senior executives of the US government caused a crisis and greatly affected American affairs: So one of Trump's heroes, Andrew Jackson, actually replaced cabinet members because they dissed the wife of one of his confidents. Just a warning: whatever is up with Trump, don't put it past him to pull something big. I don't put it past him to pull something big. I put it past him to pull something smart. re: #208 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) The entire criminal Trump gang went to Camp David, even the hated kid Tiffany, Melania was no where to be found. Family pow-wow to break the news and how what to do next? Whoever he grabs and kisses on the forehead, they're fucked. 214 jaunte Jun 1, 2018 * 5:32:24pm down 12 up report WH releases pic of letter from Kim Jong Un. It's a very big letter. pic.twitter.com/GQNbvOXcSs This is exactly the kind of smiling photo op, tailor-made to serve as propaganda for a repressive regime, that diplomats in previous administrations worked hard to avoid. https://t.co/96asv0lRSP 215 Skip Intro Jun 1, 2018 * 5:34:07pm down 2 up report re: #212 Blind Frog Belly White Trump is laying out the order of succession after he siezes power. 216 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) Jun 1, 2018 * 5:34:23pm down 1 up report How many American flags does Trump need in that office? 217 Stanley Sea Jun 1, 2018 * 5:35:22pm down 3 up report I have no idea why Melania has gone dark. I also don't know if there is any big significance to it. However, if this goes on a few more days, the questions are going to start to pile up. Unintended fish lips. Prob extreme. 218 jaunte Jun 1, 2018 * 5:36:10pm down 10 up report He forgets where he is every 30o. [Embedded content] Ronan, if you think THIS is bad, just wait for Singapore. Kim Jong Un will get his picture taken on equal footing with the President of the United States, he'll keep his nukes and his power, and Trump will pay his hotel bill, complete with lots of room service and the pay-per-view porn on the TV. 220 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) Jun 1, 2018 * 5:38:16pm down 6 up report re: #219 Blind Frog Belly White Ronan, if you think THIS is bad, just wait for Singapore. Kim Jong Un will get his picture taken on equal footing with the President of the United States, he'll keep his nukes and his power, and Trump will pay his hotel bill, complete with lots of room service and the pay-per-view porn on the TV. Trump is screwing our long time allies while he is slobbering over despots and letting the US taxpayers pick up their bar tab. 221 Stanley Sea Jun 1, 2018 * 5:38:49pm down 2 up report He forgets where he is every 30o. Wonder if they removed the 2nd POTUS flag after Pete Souza brought it up. 222 goddamnedfrank Jun 1, 2018 * 5:39:28pm down 5 up report Like when Jimmy Carter pardoned several hundred thousand draft dodgers. Yes, great example and probably the bravest pardon in modern history. 223 Renaissance_Man Jun 1, 2018 * 5:40:05pm down 4 up report re: #210 Skip Intro I still think he got mad and beat the crap out of her. I wonder if the the Secret Service would have shot her if she fought back? I remain on record as of the opinion that her recovery time is within the bounds of normal for what she had and there's nothing nefarious here. 224 Dave In Austin Jun 1, 2018 * 5:42:01pm down 13 up report This offends me more than Samantha Bee calling Ivanka a feckless cunt! pic.twitter.com/L8z8GP45kO 225 gocart mozart Jun 1, 2018 * 5:43:02pm down 11 up report For Sunday's episode we tried to do a light segment called "Internet Goofs" and it did not go as planned... pic.twitter.com/mZM4HnMXCk -- The Break with Michelle Wolf ( @thebreaknetflix ) June 2, 2018 Interesting column: Trump's Power Isn't Fear. It's Fatigue. Nobody is scared of getting their ass kicked by Donald Trump. But that doesn't mean he can't exhaust them into submission. He puts the 'Dope' in 'Rope-A-Dope. 227 dangerman Jun 1, 2018 * 5:43:41pm down 2 up report I wanted to say north florida as I usually do but it's st Lucie county Not north enough I used to own a business in Port St Lucie, so sigh........ 228 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) Jun 1, 2018 * 5:45:37pm down 4 up report re: #223 Renaissance_Man I remain on record as of the opinion that her recovery time is within the bounds of normal for what she had and there's nothing nefarious here. Hope you're right but if I were a dog I'd be barking at this, it stinks to high heaven. Still not recovered enough to sit in a helicopter for a trip to Camp David but well enough for Donald to bail on his sick wife? 229 dangerman Jun 1, 2018 * 5:46:19pm down 0 up report re: #210 Skip Intro I still think he got mad and beat the crap out of her. I wonder if the the Secret Service would have shot her if she fought back? Question we never used to have to consider 230 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) Jun 1, 2018 * 5:48:23pm down 7 up report Melania is in the witness relocation program talking to Mueller right now.... Be best. [Embedded content] I see shit like that and I can't figure out if they're really THAT stupid, or are they really THAT corrupt? I mean, honestly, if there is a god and he/she/it really put Trump in the White House, then either it's God The Colossal Jokester* putting one over on us, or it's a god completely unworthy of praise. * God the Colossal Jokester is my term for the idea that God created a 15 billion year old Universe, with a 4 Billion year old Earth, 6000 years ago. 232 Skip Intro Jun 1, 2018 * 5:49:14pm down 3 up report re: #224 Dave In Austin Now that's a person who needs to be checked out before being allowed to own a gun. 233 dangerman Jun 1, 2018 * 5:49:45pm down 4 up report re: #220 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) Trump is screwing our long time allies while he is slobbering over despots and letting the US taxpayers pick up their bar tab. And Congress is absentee Question we never used to have to consider "Hey, I'm just asking questions!" and, "Is it irresponsible to speculate? It's irresponsible NOT to speculate." 235 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) Jun 1, 2018 * 5:50:57pm down 3 up report And Congress is absentee They're riding the "Tax Cuts and Federalist Society Judges" gravy train as far as they can. 237 Interesting Times Jun 1, 2018 * 5:51:46pm down 7 up report Already may be a winner! pic.twitter.com/t6iVsQ6lGe 240 Dave In Austin Jun 1, 2018 * 6:01:55pm down 8 up report Amazing. This guy's sign says: I'm Muslim. Some people call me a Terrorist. Do You Trust Me? If yes, Hug me pic.twitter.com/vbvczvGRJD 241 stpaulbear Jun 1, 2018 * 6:02:22pm down 5 up report I have no idea why Melania has gone dark. I also don't know if there is any big significance to it. However, if this goes on a few more days, the questions are going to start to pile up. I'm starting to believe that he hit her. 242 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge Jun 1, 2018 * 6:08:21pm down 1 up report I'm starting to believe that he hit her. Thing is, I don't think he could have beaten up Stephen Hawking. He'd have one of his bully-boys start on her, maybe she turned to run, got a hard blow in one kidney--which can be a serious matter. Now the family is meeting to see what they can offer her to keep quiet, or whether they can get away with having her whacked.... 243 ipsos Jun 1, 2018 * 6:09:16pm down 5 up report I'm starting to believe that he hit her. There are so very many legitimate, factual, documented reasons to hate what Trump is actually doing... I'm not wild about the (as yet baseless) speculation about Melania. Just saying. [Embedded content] This Trump messiah stuff has gotten to be quite a thing among evanglical grifters: Mark Taylor says the 2016 election was a choice between "a demon-possessed witch" and "a man of God" while Richard Keltner says that Hillary Clinton is "a satanic, Illuminatic witch that's into Pizzagate, child-humping and satanic rituals." https://t.co/LzE7QQWtRr -- Right Wing Watch ( @RightWingWatch ) June 1, 2018 245 I Would Prefer Not To Jun 1, 2018 * 6:12:22pm down 0 up report There are so very many legitimate, factual, documented reasons to hate what Trump is actually doing... I'm not wild about the (as yet baseless) speculation about Melania. Just saying. It's a waste of time and energy. Also, not a very likely scenario. More likely she's had enough of his shit. The rest of the family is getting together at Camp David so it looks like a real family. 246 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) Jun 1, 2018 * 6:12:52pm down 2 up report re: #244 Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel This Trump messiah stuff has gotten to be quite a thing among evanglical grifters: [Embedded content] This was one of the stories below that story: HOUSTON -- President Donald Trump spent more than an hour privately Thursday with some of those impacted by a Texas mass school shooting that killed 10 and wounded more than a dozen on May 18. But at least one of the victim's parents came away unimpressed. Rhonda Hart, whose 14-year-old daughter, Kimberly Vaughan, was killed at the school, told The Associated Press that Mr. Trump repeatedly used the word "wacky" to describe the shooter and the trench coat he wore. She said she told Mr. Trump, "Maybe if everyone had access to mental health care, we wouldn't be in the situation." Hart, an Army veteran, said she also suggested employing veterans as sentinels in schools. She said Mr. Trump responded, "And arm them?" She replied, "No," but said Mr. Trump "kept mentioning" arming classroom teachers. "It was like talking to a toddler," Hart said . 248 Charles Johnson Jun 1, 2018 * 6:15:10pm down 8 up report After caving on his Charlottesville defamation case, Holocaust denier Chuck C. Johnson has a hearing next week in his lawsuit against Twitter, trying to force them to restore his account. (LOL.) Twitter filed an anti-SLAPP motion. This ought to be good. https://t.co/LXhxaOAgPv 249 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) Jun 1, 2018 * 6:16:08pm down 7 up report There are so very many legitimate, factual, documented reasons to hate what Trump is actually doing... I'm not wild about the (as yet baseless) speculation about Melania. Just saying. 3 weeks without reliable news about where the First Lady of the United States is is worth mentioning imho. Imagine, if you will, if it were RBG or HRC. Something stinks. 250 Interesting Times Jun 1, 2018 * 6:20:03pm down 7 up report re: #242 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge Thing is, I don't think he could have beaten up Stephen Hawking. When he was younger, though: He's gotten enraged at far more minor things than poll numbers -- and he's *obsessed* with poll numbers. This is what he did to his ex-wife Ivana when she recommended a scalp surgeon he didn't like: pic.twitter.com/abENjjrol1 251 I Would Prefer Not To Jun 1, 2018 * 6:20:18pm down 4 up report re: #249 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) 3 weeks without reliable news about where the First Lady of the United States is is worth mentioning imho. Imagine, if you will, if it were RBG or HRC. Something stinks. Perhaps Melanie is just a touch passive aggressive and enjoys torturing her husband. Perhaps she is seeking more money to keep her mouth shut and go away quietly. 252 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) Jun 1, 2018 * 6:21:50pm down 1 up report re: #251 I Would Prefer Not To Perhaps Melanie is just a touch passive aggressive and enjoys torturing her husband. Perhaps she is seeking more money to keep her mouth shut and go away quietly. It would be irresponsible not to speculate. 253 A Mom Anon Jun 1, 2018 * 6:22:25pm down 4 up report re: #249 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) I honestly hope she's somewhere safe with Barron and recovering from whatever the hell is happening. Maybe she just had enough of his disgusting face and said fuck it. The kid's out of school and I'm sure there are any number of places she could lay low. But sooner or later there has to be more than some bullshit Twitter responses. This whole thing is just weird and at the very least being handled clumsily. 254 gocart mozart Jun 1, 2018 * 6:22:29pm down 12 up report First lady Melania Trump will not join the President at Camp David this weekend, marking the 22nd day since she was last seen publicly https://t.co/RZEpI93WOS pic.twitter.com/ZgELOcJV4s Robot Wife developed a flutter and is offline for maintenance and upgrade. Since she's foreign made, some of her parts are on back order due to the ongoing trade war. If the outage goes on for more than 30 days, Trump will be given a loaner by the dealership. https://t.co/XZMdDubTXc 255 blueraven Jun 1, 2018 * 6:22:35pm down 1 up report re: #147 Blind Frog Belly White The latest Joy Reid kerfuffle strikes me as ridiculous. Now that McCain's dying of Glioblastoma, they drag up some 11 year old post made in response to McCain telling a rally at a gun company that if he were younger he'd shoot Osama bin Laden with one of their guns. And she posted a picture of his head 'shopped onto a guy holding two guns, which I guess turned out to be the Virginia Tech shooter. "How can you be so disrespectful to an American Hero dying a horrible death?" Well, at the time, he was a guy running for President, saying stupid swaggering horseshit. "How dare you accuse an American Hero dying a horrible death of saying stupid swaggering horseshit?" (rolls eyes) It's a bit more complicated than that. ... more old posts have been unearthed, including ones that: promote an Alex Jones-produced video alleging 9/11 was an inside job; feature a doctored photo of Sen. John McCain as the shooter in the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre; praise Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's proposal to relocate the "Zionist regime" from Israel to Europe; declare that she "loves" xenophobic TV host Lou Dobbs for his takedown of an "open borders advocate;" and claim that Mexican migrants come to the U.S. not for freedom but just "to send home money." Obviously she has changed but she should have done something like Charles did and get it all out at once. A full Mea Culpa would have been best. Now shit just keeps popping up and she has to apologize all over again. Hard to move on from that. 256 dangerman Jun 1, 2018 * 6:22:36pm down 1 up report re: #249 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) 3 weeks without reliable news about where the First Lady of the United States is is worth mentioning imho. Imagine, if you will, if it were RBG or HRC. 257 freetoken Jun 1, 2018 * 6:23:49pm down 5 up report re: #244 Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel That @realDonaldTrump is President of the US is a direct result of our society's unwillingness to come to grips with the dangers of fundamentalist Christianity. -- freetoken fights fecking fascists ( @freetoken ) June 2, 2018 258 Skip Intro Jun 1, 2018 * 6:25:51pm down 4 up report re: #249 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) 3 weeks without reliable news about where the First Lady of the United States is is worth mentioning imho. Imagine, if you will, if it were RBG or HRC. Something stinks. Reagan was shot and within a couple of days there pics of him in the hospital. 259 gocart mozart Jun 1, 2018 * 6:26:34pm down 2 up report 260 gocart mozart Jun 1, 2018 * 6:27:39pm down 23 up report I was asked what I think about the use of "c*nt" and, to be honest, I don't have any experience in that department. 261 Hecuba's daughter Jun 1, 2018 * 6:28:01pm down 11 up report re: #258 Skip Intro Reagan was shot and within a couple of days there pics of him in the hospital. She and Barron are hiding out with the Obamas. They are both attorneys and working on getting her out of her pre-nup. ///// 262 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) Jun 1, 2018 * 6:31:09pm down 12 up report re: #261 Hecuba's daughter She and Barron are hiding out with the Obamas. They are both attorneys and working on getting her out of her pre-nup. ///// Melania Trump has been missing for longer than Anthony Scaramucci was employed. Fliptree: Best Idea - Dinesh D'Souza https://t.co/LxPzRz2Zei via @YouTube 266 ipsos Jun 1, 2018 * 6:33:59pm down 8 up report To clarify: Yes, I think it's weird and newsworthy that she's been out of public view for so long. It's the baseless speculation ("he was beating her! she's getting a divorce!") I could do without from our side. 267 Joe Bacon Jun 1, 2018 * 6:35:18pm down 8 up report re: #224 Dave In Austin 268 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) Jun 1, 2018 * 6:36:24pm down 8 up report Why does the press report that "Melania" tweeted that message the other day when she obviously did not? I have no idea why she disappeared but I think it's super weird the way the press covers her. No other First Lady that I can remember got this kind of "hands-off" treatment. -- Michael Ian Black ( @michaelianblack ) June 1, 2018 And if she's a victim, what is the nature of her victimhood? She's a rich woman married to the most powerful man in the world. If she is a victim, in whatever manner, I'd like to know how. -- Michael Ian Black ( @michaelianblack ) June 1, 2018 269 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 1, 2018 * 6:37:40pm down 4 up report re: #208 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) The entire criminal Trump gang went to Camp David, even the hated kid Tiffany, Melania was no where to be found. Family pow-wow to break the news and how what to do next? is Eric being held in an undisclosed safe area just in case of disaster? 270 freetoken Jun 1, 2018 * 6:38:08pm down 8 up report re: #268 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) The whole pretense that Trump-as-President is normal is absurd. Everything about Trump is an outlier in the history of Presidents. 271 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) Jun 1, 2018 * 6:39:32pm down 3 up report re: #269 Backwoods_Sleuth is Eric being held in an undisclosed safe area just in case of disaster? Eric is having an extended vacation with some of his father's Russian buddies. 272 Teukka Jun 1, 2018 * 6:40:09pm down 2 up report re: #231 Blind Frog Belly White I see shit like that and I can't figure out if they're really THAT stupid, or are they really THAT corrupt? I mean, honestly, if there is a god and he/she/it really put Trump in the White House, then either it's God The Colossal Jokester* putting one over on us, or it's a god completely unworthy of praise. * God the Colossal Jokester is my term for the idea that God created a 15 billion year old Universe, with a 4 Billion year old Earth, 6000 years ago. You know, there's a song about that. Listen to the lyrics... *whistles innocently as he runs for cover* 274 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 1, 2018 * 6:41:20pm down 1 up report Born AGAIN every minute... JC Christian, asshole. Chuck/Charles. But you knew that. re: #267 Joe Bacon [Embedded content] That vehicle has Cali license plates. Why haven't they been rounded up by the Hispano-gay ACORN militia and carted off to state FEMA camp yet? 277 Joe Bacon Jun 1, 2018 * 6:45:39pm down 8 up report re: #273 Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel Born AGAIN every minute... I will never forgive the Pulpit Pimps who turned my family into brainwashed Republicans who slobber over the ground Trump walks on! 278 Charles Johnson Jun 1, 2018 * 6:46:46pm down 7 up report Yes, he does know that. 279 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) Jun 1, 2018 * 6:53:28pm down 1 up report Has rage furby threatened to sue you yet over this article? 280 Stanley Sea Jun 1, 2018 * 6:53:48pm down 2 up report re: #276 Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel That vehicle has Cali license plates. Why haven't they been rounded up by the Hispano-gay ACORN militia and carted off to state FEMA camp yet? Fresno, probs. 281 Charles Johnson Jun 1, 2018 * 6:54:54pm down 10 up report re: #279 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) Has rage furby threatened to sue you yet over this article? No, but his lawsuit calendar is pretty full right now. 282 Stanley Sea Jun 1, 2018 * 6:56:02pm down 1 up report Fuck, somewhere hot inland. 283 Skip Intro Jun 1, 2018 * 6:56:07pm down 1 up report Or Bakersfield, El Dorado, Nevada, or Placer Counties. 284 stpaulbear Jun 1, 2018 * 6:56:37pm down 3 up report re: #276 Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel That vehicle has Cali license plates. Why haven't they been rounded up by the Hispano-gay ACORN militia and carted off to state FEMA camp yet? I'd wonder how they haven't had their windows smashed, but a car tarted up like that probably has a half dozen dash cameras pointed out every window so that they can catch any criminals within 10 feet of the vehicle red-handed. It screams paranoia. 285 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge Jun 1, 2018 * 6:57:31pm down 6 up report re: #276 Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel That vehicle has Cali license plates. Why haven't they been rounded up by the Hispano-gay ACORN militia and carted off to state FEMA camp yet? That it's a Honda is a nice touch.... 286 freetoken Jun 1, 2018 * 6:58:21pm down 12 up report For those not keeping up with the innards of America's largest Protestant denomination, the SBC, the firing of Paige Patterson has become a shitstorm. After he was given the golden parachute, the seminary's executive committee a few days later stripped him of everything when new information was presented to them. And now the Patterson defenders, who from my quick looks at their Twitter profiles tend to be Trumpers (of course), are screaming about the liberals trying to railroad Patterson. One issue that came to light is that a box of letters were missing from the archives of the previous institution of which Patterson headed up. Then yesterday, a wife of one of Patterson' former deputies published a long blog entry defending Patterson, trying to discredit the women complaining about Patterson. This same wife included images of letters whose provenance is unclear but may be part of the box of material stolen from the other school's archives. So today the SWBTS and the SBC had to come out and condemn this so-called defense of Patterson and the publishing of private letters. And still the Patterson defenders are flocking to this egregious act as if somehow the posting exonerates Patterson. It's a real shitshow and it couldn't have happened to a more appropriate group of people. 287 dangerman Jun 1, 2018 * 6:58:40pm down 3 up report [Embedded content] Whileminteresting and provocative this is a bit besides the point Screw their personal relationship and screw her medical condition whatever it may or may not be We have a right and the need to know if it's a national security issue 288 Hecuba's daughter Jun 1, 2018 * 6:59:28pm down 1 up report re: #276 Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel That vehicle has Cali license plates. Why haven't they been rounded up by the Hispano-gay ACORN militia and carted off to state FEMA camp yet? Do we know that is a real car or just a fake photoshop. 289 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 1, 2018 * 7:00:23pm down 3 up report re: #288 Hecuba's daughter Do we know that is a real car or just a fake photoshop. It's depressing, to me, that you have to even ask that. No one should ever be forced to take that sort of sentiment seriously. 290 Skip Intro Jun 1, 2018 * 7:03:17pm down 5 up report re: #288 Hecuba's daughter Do we know that is a real car or just a fake photoshop. I've seen crazier cars than that around here. 291 Big Beautiful Door Jun 1, 2018 * 7:04:16pm down 0 up report re: #156 Hecuba's daughter It is a well-established scientific principle that every accusation that Trump levels against Democrats is actually some nefarious activity he's engaged in. So -- for years he claimed that unemployment was much higher than the official reports and the jobs reports were suspicious: my question -- is it possible that the statistics this morning are manipulated figures that are, in fact, not true? No, I am still confident that the honorable civil servants at the BLS aren't cooking the books. Besides, if Trump demanded a revision, he would tell them to claim he created a half million jobs, not a totally credible and pedestrian 223k. 292 jaunte Jun 1, 2018 * 7:04:43pm down 7 up report For the North Koreans, negotiating with #Trump carries the prestige of meeting 'the world's biggest emperor,' @MartinHimel tells @TalHeinrich & @DavidShuster pic.twitter.com/f2aaAQ9cRv The world's biggest emperor... with no clothes. 294 jaunte Jun 1, 2018 * 7:08:28pm down 11 up report Hannity Echos What an InfoWars Conspiracy Theorist Told Him: 'I'm The Next Target of The Deep State' https://t.co/PtgUfUlzUb pic.twitter.com/Lb3GvuQ7LJ How to ease into telling your family that something really gross and unsanitary you did is about to hit the news https://t.co/CqZpCPupU8 295 Hecuba's daughter Jun 1, 2018 * 7:09:38pm down 2 up report re: #290 Skip Intro I've seen crazier cars than that around here. My embarrassment -- it does say meme in lower right -- but forgive my aging eyes... 296 JordanRules Jun 1, 2018 * 7:10:14pm down 8 up report The shoe retailer is the latest company to drop Ivanka's fashion brand, joining stores like Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus. https://t.co/2WVsLYYlUE 297 freetoken Jun 1, 2018 * 7:10:34pm down 10 up report One thing, long known but ignored too often, that this Paige Patterson scandal brings to light is that for fundamentalist Christians and especially for their colleges and seminaries, the important thing is to follow the leader. Leaders who are all men, of course. In practice, for all the claims that Catholics (papists) commit idolatry by worshipping the Pope, it is Protestant fundamentalists who get herded into cattle calls that make them bow to the will of their denominations' leaders. I realize more liberal churches are less likely to end that way, but it is true of the Southern Baptists and many other groups. 298 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge Jun 1, 2018 * 7:10:34pm down 5 up report The thing is, from their point of view, tRump is a perfectly normal Capitalist head of state. He actually is everything they've always said we are. 299 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) Jun 1, 2018 * 7:12:12pm down 10 up report There is no telling what disgusting Hannity stuff got hoovered up in the Cohen document seizure 300 BeachDem Jun 1, 2018 * 7:12:57pm down 1 up report Or Bakersfield, El Dorado, Nevada, or Placer Counties. 301 Unshaken Defiance Jun 1, 2018 * 7:12:59pm down 3 up report re: #298 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge The thing is, from their point of view, tRump is a perfectly normal Capitalist head of state. He actually is everything they've always said we are. We have a President low enough to meet their highest expectations. 302 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge Jun 1, 2018 * 7:13:50pm down 1 up report When you've lost Neiman Marcus.... (That isn't hyphenated any more?) 303 Big Beautiful Door Jun 1, 2018 * 7:14:23pm down 5 up report re: #168 Patricia Kayden [Embedded content] Apparently the jury decided he was mostly at fault for being drunk in his home. First I heard that getting drunk is a capital offense. 304 The Major Jun 1, 2018 * 7:14:44pm down 0 up report re: #299 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) There is no telling what disgusting Hannity stuff got hoovered up in the Cohen document seizure Quite a bit of that has come out already...unless Cohen has the dirt on Hannity caught sleeping with the infamous dead woman or live boy scenario.... 305 Skip Intro Jun 1, 2018 * 7:15:32pm down 2 up report That's ok. Daddy gave her space to sell her crap in Dump Tower. 306 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 1, 2018 * 7:16:59pm down 11 up report re: #303 Big Beautiful Door Apparently the jury decided he was mstly at fault for being drunk in his home. First I heard that getting drunk is a capital offense. Being drunk while black is a capital offense. Well, then again, doing anything besides being an obedient slave while black is apparently a capital offense in Trump's America. 307 JordanRules Jun 1, 2018 * 7:18:04pm down 3 up report re: #304 The Major Quite a bit of that has come out already...unless Cohen has the dirt on Hannity caught sleeping with the infamous dead woman or live boy scenario.... The feds are playing puzzlemaster and rebuilding shredded docs as we speak. No telling what may come next. 308 freetoken Jun 1, 2018 * 7:18:12pm down 13 up report Shitstorms can have a silver lining: I am done with religion...DONE. Not with Jesus, but with religion. When women like @SharayahColter and @Candi_Finch present stolen documents out of context in the name of God to defend their cult leader Paige Patterson, that's it, that's all. I've HAD IT. https://t.co/sOpVUfiDrm -- (((Deana "That Rock in Your Shoe" Holmes))) ( @mmmirele ) June 2, 2018 As more dirty laundry is aired, perhaps more epiphanies will follow. 309 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) Jun 1, 2018 * 7:18:17pm down 11 up report Buffalo Wild Wings is about to claim they accidentally ate some boneless ambien. pic.twitter.com/ySIHG57Ypp 310 TedStriker Jun 1, 2018 * 7:18:44pm down 6 up report I'm starting to believe that he hit her. To quote Spock, who was quoting one of his "ancestors", when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Melania's "unscheduled kidney surgery" and her subsequent prolonged absence from the public eye (her alleged tweets from the past few days proves nothing, other than someone in the WH thought, "oh shit, have her say something!"), well after she would have been released from the hospital, certainly fits those criteria. 311 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge Jun 1, 2018 * 7:18:50pm down 4 up report re: #303 Big Beautiful Door Apparently the jury decided he was mstly at fault for being drunk in his home. First I heard that getting drunk is a capital offense. Well, here, being drunk in your house with your car keys in your pocket--or actually accessible to you in any way--carries the same penalty as DUI. They call it "Being in Physical Control of a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor." They haven't gotten around to making it a death-penalty offense, but give them time. 312 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 1, 2018 * 7:19:49pm down 4 up report re: #309 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) Somebody is going to be in SERIOUS need of a new job come Monday. 313 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) Jun 1, 2018 * 7:20:13pm down 16 up report It's all fun and games until the Buffalo Wild Wings social media intern wins his first primary. 314 Stanley Sea Jun 1, 2018 * 7:20:32pm down 4 up report re: #303 Big Beautiful Door Apparently the jury decided he was mostly at fault for being drunk in his home. First I heard that getting drunk is a capital offense. Everyone is guilty of that. We just try to refrain from kid's bday parties. Another instance of black lives must adhere to higher standards. 315 freetoken Jun 1, 2018 * 7:21:11pm down 11 up report For those who want the story: Leaders of a Southern Baptist seminary dropped a bombshell Friday night about why they two days earlier fired their president, a longtime leader of the huge denomination: He lied about his treatment of an alleged rape victim, according to a new statement, and he tried to isolate another woman from the seminary's chief of security so he could "break her down." 316 b.d. (Witch Hunt!!) Jun 1, 2018 * 7:21:43pm down 11 up report re: #312 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Somebody is going to be in SERIOUS need of a new job come Monday. Buffalo Wild Wings is suddenly tweeting one racist thing after another. Looks like Roseanne Barr has found employment after all. 317 meteor Jun 1, 2018 * 7:21:56pm down 10 up report Service dog gets time to shine in school yearbook https://t.co/3kXblmeMfQ pic.twitter.com/MZgfMrSkpR 318 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 1, 2018 * 7:22:23pm down 8 up report re: #314 Stanley Sea Everyone is guilty of that. We just try to refrain from kid's bday parties. Another instance of black lives must adhere to higher standards. Hell's bells, the night Mrs. Fish got in her car accident, two police officers came into my house while I was drunk (indulging in a drunk gaming-night session while she was supposed to be out with friends for a birthday). No shots, no arrest, not even a stern talking-to, just a reminder that I was in no condition to drive anywhere and perhaps I needed a ride to the hospital. But, I'm a white male, so obviously I was safe. 319 William Lewis Jun 1, 2018 * 7:22:53pm down 5 up report You know, there's a song about that. Listen to the lyrics... *whistles innocently as he runs for cover* [Embedded content] Yes, I've quoted that one in church more than once. Kinda meant it recently when a good man of our parish died suddenly of a massive coronary at ~65 yo. One of the other hymns in my prayer book is John Lennon's Imagine. 320 JordanRules Jun 1, 2018 * 7:24:09pm down 17 up report Tell me 3 words better than I love you. 321 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 1, 2018 * 7:24:59pm down 3 up report Trump is incarcerated. Mrs. Fish would say, "I brought wine." Substitute chocolate for wine in certain circumstances. 322 jaunte Jun 1, 2018 * 7:25:25pm down 9 up report Trump project in Indonesia gets Chinese government partner https://t.co/JfVpuv5fAi 324 TedStriker Jun 1, 2018 * 7:26:21pm down 6 up report Democrats control Congress. Democrats win presidency. 325 William Lewis Jun 1, 2018 * 7:26:29pm down 3 up report re: #301 Unshaken Defiance We have a President low enough to meet their highest expectations. Trump is the kind of capitalist like whom Stalin said would happily sell him the rope to hang them. 326 freetoken Jun 1, 2018 * 7:26:52pm down 10 up report For background: Patterson led a purge of SWBTS, to cleanse it of the liberals, in his view. (Mohler would do the same at the sister institution up in Kentucky.) Part of that purge resulted in the ascent of complementarianism views of women. Not just as an abstract concept, but in implementing academics. Concurrent with this was a cult that formed around Patterson, so his guys were in leadership. The seminary even made a stained glass window of him and his wife (really.) This is the America that elected Trump. 327 JordanRules Jun 1, 2018 * 7:27:05pm down 3 up report Last election annulled. That's pretty damn perfect. 328 Ace Rothstein Jun 1, 2018 * 7:27:12pm down 9 up report 329 TedStriker Jun 1, 2018 * 7:27:37pm down 1 up report Surprising absolutely no one who's been paying attention and has functioning brain cells. 330 JordanRules Jun 1, 2018 * 7:27:48pm down 7 up report 331 Ace Rothstein Jun 1, 2018 * 7:29:33pm down 10 up report 332 dangerman Jun 1, 2018 * 7:29:38pm down 4 up report To quote Spock, who was quoting one of his "ancestors", when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Melania's "unscheduled kidney surgery" and her subsequent prolonged absence from the public eye (her alleged tweets from the past few days proves nothing, other than someone in the WH thought, "oh shit, have her say something!"), well after she would have been released from the hospital, certainly fits those criteria. Conan Doyle 333 Unshaken Defiance Jun 1, 2018 * 7:29:39pm down 1 up report re: #319 William Lewis The wife and I have this all cranked up 334 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 1, 2018 * 7:30:24pm down 2 up report Spock even admitted that he was quoting the fictional detective, did he not? 335 Stanley Sea Jun 1, 2018 * 7:30:29pm down 2 up report Spock even admitted that he was quoting the fictional detective, did he not? That's the joke. 337 De Kolta Chair Jun 1, 2018 * 7:32:54pm down 3 up report Ooops: It's quite obvious that somebody at BWW really, really looks up to Tommy. 338 Big Beautiful Door Jun 1, 2018 * 7:33:04pm down 7 up report re: #223 Renaissance_Man I remain on record as of the opinion that her recovery time is within the bounds of normal for what she had and there's nothing nefarious here. Yeah, but remember the rampant speculation the Right engaged in when Hillary got a bit sick in public? 339 FormerDirtDart Jun 1, 2018 * 7:33:07pm down 4 up report Trump is incarcerated. 340 TedStriker Jun 1, 2018 * 7:33:10pm down 4 up report 341 fern01 Jun 1, 2018 * 7:33:10pm down 9 up report Trump is incarcerated. It is impossible to comprehend what he is doing to the US and the world. All I can determine is he wants to be Emperor, remove elections and be the King. The only world leaders he talks with are those who have permanent appointments - Russia, NK and China. He is ending what we knew of democracy & the weasels in government are smiling away their own future. Horrified is not the half of it. 342 Unshaken Defiance Jun 1, 2018 * 7:33:31pm down 0 up report To quote Spock, who was quoting one of his "ancestors", when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Yes, until more than one thing is other than impossible. The rule about a proportion between the weight of the charge and the weight of the evidence prevails. 343 William Lewis Jun 1, 2018 * 7:34:05pm down 1 up report re: #333 Unshaken Defiance As I recall we share a liking for Halestorm. [Embedded content] The wife and I have this all cranked up I sent you a link to this the other day. You didn't get the private message? THAT said, its a barn burner like Love Bites. I liked the material on the last two albums but if they split the difference on this one, well, it won't break my heart. My speakers, maybe... ;D 344 Charles Johnson Jun 1, 2018 * 7:35:01pm down 30 up report I just learned that there are harvest mice that sleep in tulip petals. There is good in the world. pic.twitter.com/L30fJLxcXk 345 Amory Blaine Jun 1, 2018 * 7:35:20pm down 6 up report Chocolate rations have been increased from 30 grams to 25 grams. Double plus good. 346 dangerman Jun 1, 2018 * 7:35:36pm down 0 up report re: #334 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Spock even admitted that he was quoting the fictional detective, did he not? I couldn't say..... 347 Single-handed sailor Jun 1, 2018 * 7:37:07pm down 15 up report California's biggest-ever wildfire declared extinguished. https://t.co/b41Au7XNGT 348 Stanley Sea Jun 1, 2018 * 7:37:16pm down 15 up report Dog, the stories I should write about this hotel's long term occupants. Me included. At least I bought the desk staff & housekeeping (angels) staff cupcakes. Keeping karma clean. 349 Unshaken Defiance Jun 1, 2018 * 7:37:21pm down 1 up report re: #343 William Lewis I completely missed it. And that's surely my bad. 350 FormerDirtDart Jun 1, 2018 * 7:37:43pm down 11 up report re: #344 Charles Johnson My hope is tiny ladders built from toothpicks. pic.twitter.com/CbbHiIPcA7 351 freetoken Jun 1, 2018 * 7:39:21pm down 6 up report re: #344 Charles Johnson I know I've grown way too many plants when the first thing that struck me when viewing that image is that the tulip has the wrong number of perianth elements. 352 Belafon Jun 1, 2018 * 7:40:02pm down 3 up report It is impossible to comprehend what he is doing to the US and the world. All I can determine is he wants to be Emperor, remove elections and be the King. The only world leaders he talks with are those who have permanent appointments - Russia, NK and China. He is ending what we knew of democracy & the weasels in government are smiling away their own future. Horrified is not the half of it. He can only end it if we give in. 353 Amory Blaine Jun 1, 2018 * 7:40:02pm down 8 up report I rewarded some new trainees today with donuts, much to my surprise it was national donut day! 354 JordanRules Jun 1, 2018 * 7:40:13pm down 3 up report re: #348 Stanley Sea Dog, the stories I should write about this hotel's long term occupants. Me included. At least I bought the desk staff & housekeeping (angels) staff cupcakes. Keeping karma clean. You really should! I've always been fascinated by hotels and especially those with long term peeps. Cupcakes!! Very nice gesture. 355 William Lewis Jun 1, 2018 * 7:42:28pm down 1 up report re: #349 Unshaken Defiance I completely missed it. And that's surely my bad. NP. I was just wondering if I'd misspelled your name in it or something. I just knew that if you hadn't heard it yet you'd want to. 356 Stanley Sea Jun 1, 2018 * 7:43:17pm down 8 up report You really should! I've always been fascinated by hotels and especially those with long term peeps. Cupcakes!! Very nice gesture. Even better, it was Nothing Bundt Cakes. To.die.for. 357 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 1, 2018 * 7:43:46pm down 5 up report re: #348 Stanley Sea Dog, the stories I should write about this hotel's long term occupants. Me included. At least I bought the desk staff & housekeeping (angels) staff cupcakes. Keeping karma clean. I always make an effort to be kind to customer service reps, waiters/waitresses, delivery guys and gals, and housekeeping. Tip extra big. Don't be a douchecanoe. Etc. God only knows how many assholes those folks have to put up with every single fucking day, I don't want to be another one. Even if it is their fuckup, they're usually doing their best. 358 William Lewis Jun 1, 2018 * 7:44:06pm down 7 up report So, I was thinking evil thoughts earlier. About a possible tattoo. Right upper arm. A fairly fancy cross with the Latin "bellator iustitia socialis" inscribed within :) 359 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 1, 2018 * 7:44:32pm down 2 up report re: #351 freetoken I know I've grown way too many plants when the first thing that struck me when viewing that image is that the tulip has the wrong number of perianth elements. mouse obviously enjoyed a midnight snack... 360 FormerDirtDart Jun 1, 2018 * 7:44:51pm down 18 up report Well, we were hacked. And it wasn't funny. We apologize for the awful posts, which obviously did not come from us. -- Buffalo Wild Wings ( @BWWings ) June 2, 2018 Finally Buffalo Wild Wings verified that they were hacked. But I still have a bunch of white supremacists harassing me because of the tweet from the BWW account.. I'm willing to settle out of court for an 80 piece order of Lemon Pepper wings, and some curly fries https://t.co/hbPWKPyoOG 361 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 1, 2018 * 7:46:07pm down 12 up report World order built on lies, we pray for your devastation. pic.twitter.com/P6wYxcQqon 362 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 1, 2018 * 7:46:50pm down 2 up report [Embedded content] I have to disagree with them on one point. It was fucking hilarious while it lasted. Admittedly, it was at their expense so it may not be funny to them , but the rest of us were immensely enjoying ourselves. 363 Amory Blaine Jun 1, 2018 * 7:46:59pm down 0 up report Aww. He's a good boy. 364 freetoken Jun 1, 2018 * 7:47:03pm down 1 up report re: #359 Backwoods_Sleuth mouse obviously enjoyed a midnight snack... But... there is one too many , either petal or sepal. Tulips like many flowering plants can both have a great deal of genetic variability, and developmental issues. There are varieties of tulips which are "double" so to speak, with many more petals and sepals than normal. 365 jaunte Jun 1, 2018 * 7:47:42pm down 14 up report There could be no state hit harder than Texas. More than 2.6 million jobs at risk overall with the new steel and aluminum tariffs threatening 470,000. https://t.co/pyRCntKoJF -- Beto O'Rourke ( @BetoORourke ) June 1, 2018 I hope enough Texans wake up in time to get rid of Cruz. 366 Backwoods_Sleuth Jun 1, 2018 * 7:48:26pm down 3 up report 367 Amory Blaine Jun 1, 2018 * 7:51:39pm down 6 up report I had an amazon order from Germany delivered in three days. Impressive. 368 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge Jun 1, 2018 * 7:54:35pm down 4 up report re: #367 Amory Blaine I had an amazon order from Germany delivered in three days. Impressive. When Bezos' New Glenn rocket is ready, they'll send your orders on a ballistic trajectory. 369 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 1, 2018 * 7:56:18pm down 2 up report re: #367 Amory Blaine I had an amazon order from Germany delivered in three days. Impressive. In the meantime, the USPS suffered a "truck mechanical failure" and a package that was supposed to be delivered yesterday - due to a mis-delivery to the wrong USPS facility - is now slated to be delivered to my house next week. 370 Skip Intro Jun 1, 2018 * 7:56:38pm down 4 up report Gorsuch resigned today. Trump replaces him with Tiffany. 371 Amory Blaine Jun 1, 2018 * 8:00:26pm down 5 up report Nite all. Stay vigilant. 372 Cheechako Jun 1, 2018 * 8:02:29pm down 4 up report Boy, would I like to be a fly on the wall at Camp David this weekend. The family dynamics and scheming is going to be very interesting. 373 stpaulbear Jun 1, 2018 * 8:03:52pm down 7 up report Via WaPo Glenn Snoddy, a Nashville studio engineer who built a pedal that enabled guitarists to create the snarling "fuzz tone," unleashing sonic distortion possibilities that influenced generations of rock guitarists, died May 21 at his home in Murfreesboro, Tenn. He was 96. The fuzz effect was first heard -- by accident -- on country singer Marty Robbins's 1961 record "Don't Worry." During the recording session, guitarist Grady Martin's six-string bass guitar was being run through a console with a defective transformer. The distorted and almost flatulent sound initially annoyed Mr. Snoddy, and he requested a redo. Martin, producer Don Law and the other musicians convinced him that they had stumbled on something new. 374 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 1, 2018 * 8:08:32pm down 4 up report Via WaPo Ah, distortion. As a sound engineer, it is forever a pain in my ass. It's a great sound, but when you're able to kick it on and off at will, it seriously fucks with the mix. I should get in the habit of maintaining different equalizer patches for guitars that run with and without distortion. 375 William Lewis Jun 1, 2018 * 8:12:24pm down 9 up report Via WaPo "Pay an homage to that daring 6BE6 vacuum tube which gave the ultimate sacrifice in that amplifier..that gave us the fuzz guitar and changed popular music forever." a comment on this song at Youtube. 376 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 1, 2018 * 8:16:12pm down 3 up report re: #375 William Lewis "Pay an homage to that daring 6BE6 vacuum tube which gave the ultimate sacrifice in that amplifier..that gave us the fuzz guitar and changed popular music forever." a comment on this song at Youtube. [Embedded content] Vacuum tubes. How many hardware junkies these days even know what those are? I feel old, and I'm not even a child of the mainframe days (my first computer was an actual IBM-compatible PC). 377 Eclectic Cyborg Jun 1, 2018 * 8:20:40pm down 4 up report re: #376 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Vacuum tubes. How many hardware junkies these days even know what those are? I feel old, and I'm not even a child of the mainframe days (my first computer was an actual IBM-compatible PC). I showed my 10 year old nephew an old CRT monitor of mine last weekend and he was like: "What the hell is that?" 378 William Lewis Jun 1, 2018 * 8:21:17pm down 2 up report re: #376 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Vacuum tubes. How many hardware junkies these days even know what those are? I feel old, and I'm not even a child of the mainframe days (my first computer was an actual IBM-compatible PC). Had that discussion the other day with a semi-pro musician who had just bought his first tube amp and an old engineer who is in our parish. It was a bit mind bending. The engineer couldn't really quite understand why we 2 musicians loved the sound of pushing a tube beyond what it was spec'ed to handle. Overdrive! 379 William Lewis Jun 1, 2018 * 8:21:43pm down 4 up report re: #377 Eclectic Cyborg I showed my 10 year old nephew an old CRT monitor of mine last weekend and he was like: "What the hell is that?" Let him watch it implode ... :D 380 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 1, 2018 * 8:22:21pm down 9 up report re: #377 Eclectic Cyborg I showed my 10 year old nephew an old CRT monitor of mine last weekend and he was like: "What the hell is that?" "Why, son, it's a miniaturized particle accelerator contained in a plastic box." 381 Ace-o-aces Jun 1, 2018 * 8:23:37pm down 7 up report I understand @bariweiss has declared Buffalo Wild Wings as the official restaurant of the Ideological Dark Web. 382 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 1, 2018 * 8:24:23pm down 0 up report re: #378 William Lewis Had that discussion the other day with a semi-pro musician who had just bought his first tube amp and an old engineer who is in our parish. It was a bit mind bending. The engineer couldn't really quite understand why we 2 musicians loved the sound of pushing a tube beyond what it was spec'ed to handle. Overdrive! One of my church guitarists uses a tube amp and puts it in our amp box for Sunday worship. He has by far the best guitar sound out of any of our semi-professional musicians that volunteer for our bands. I love advanced technology and all, but there's a few cases where the classics really do rule, and a good tube amp is definitely one of them. 383 Dave In Austin Jun 1, 2018 * 8:28:45pm down 1 up report re: #382 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Steel guitarist swear by them. 384 William Lewis Jun 1, 2018 * 8:33:34pm down 4 up report re: #382 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. One of my church guitarists uses a tube amp and puts it in our amp box for Sunday worship. He has by far the best guitar sound out of any of our semi-professional musicians that volunteer for our bands. I love advanced technology and all, but there's a few cases where the classics really do rule, and a good tube amp is definitely one of them. Being good Episcopalians (heh) we rarely have any guitar (piano/organ, are you kidding? :) but Randy has done a couple of glorious bits over the years. He's got a sweet little amp designed for acoustic guitar and it works quite well. 385 teleskiguy Jun 1, 2018 * 8:33:45pm down 1 up report re: #135 FormerDirtDart Jesus fucking Christ, that "manifesto" is a massive shmorgishborg of bad craziness. Wow. I think I need a shower. 386 William Lewis Jun 1, 2018 * 8:36:15pm down 0 up report Amen. This is just one of the reasons Captain America is my favorite superhero. 387 jaunte Jun 1, 2018 * 8:42:06pm down 8 up report Trump is planning this shit and these fucking peckerhead egghead journobros spent almost the entire day tweeting or reporting about some fucking 9 year old blog that's been deleted. I swear I can't say how I really feel. pic.twitter.com/wwiYJmyvdr 388 MsJ Jun 1, 2018 * 8:43:01pm down 6 up report She's not a feckless cunt, she's a lying, cheating, stealing, criminal, entitled cunt. 389 Ace-o-aces Jun 1, 2018 * 8:46:37pm down 6 up report She blocked me but I saved her tweet...LOL! pic.twitter.com/JohF3RYj8P 390 William Lewis Jun 1, 2018 * 8:46:52pm down 7 up report I mentioned this in passing earlier. I do consider this a hymn, an evocation of the sacred. I find it easy to believe in god, not so much in heaven given the crap done in the hope of one or the fear of it's opposite. This was, apparently, his last live performance. I hope you all don't mind me dropping this here tonight. 391 MsJ Jun 1, 2018 * 8:47:49pm down 4 up report It is impossible to comprehend what he is doing to the US and the world. All I can determine is he wants to be Emperor, remove elections and be the King. The only world leaders he talks with are those who have permanent appointments - Russia, NK and China. He is ending what we knew of democracy & the weasels in government are smiling away their own future. Horrified is not the half of it. We are living in and watching a fundamental change in the world order. The West is in trouble. 392 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 1, 2018 * 8:49:27pm down 3 up report re: #384 William Lewis Being good Episcopalians (heh) we rarely have any guitar (piano/organ, are you kidding? :) but Randy has done a couple of glorious bits over the years. He's got a sweet little amp designed for acoustic guitar and it works quite well. We're one of those more modern churches. We have a full electric band, slick presentation, hip to technology, etc. My role these days is less of sound engineer and more of showrunner/producer; I keep the tech stack functional so that the service experience is as close to flawless as we can get with a motley crew of volunteers and church-salary staff. 393 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge Jun 1, 2018 * 8:52:32pm down 1 up report re: #390 William Lewis I mentioned this in passing earlier. I do consider this a hymn, an evocation of the sacred. I find it easy to believe in god, not so much in heaven given the crap done in the hope of one or the fear of it's opposite. This was, apparently, his last live performance. I hope you all don't mind me dropping this here tonight. [Embedded content] Well damn!! -- Joe gar ( @JoeGar01 ) June 2, 2018 Was a senior foreign policy official, worked in Afghanistan & MENA, wrote for WSJ, WaPo, Foreign Policy & others on int'l relations over course of 15 yrs, studied int'l law, did doctoral research in int'l relations & wrote a well-received bestseller on subject, thanks for asking. https://t.co/C3W42VsEmQ 395 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jun 1, 2018 * 8:54:58pm down 4 up report Careful what you wish for, you just might get it. 396 stpaulbear Jun 1, 2018 * 8:55:55pm down 7 up report The WaPo gave this a lot of coverage today. It was up front on their web site this morning. I know I sound like a WaPo fanboy pretty often but, except fo a few bad missteps (and Marc Fucking Thiessen), they've been hitting it out of the park all year. It's worth a subscription. 397 Stanley Sea Jun 1, 2018 * 8:57:23pm down 6 up report The WaPo gave this a lot of coverage today. It was up front on their web site this morning. I know I sound like a WaPo fanboy pretty often but, except fo a few bad missteps (and Marc Fucking Thiessen), they've been hitting it out of the park all year. It's worth a subscription. Fahrenthold. Working the yam $$$ is bound to hit paydirt. 398 TedStriker Jun 1, 2018 * 9:03:29pm down 6 up report Damn, for all of its goofiness and zaniness, WKRP could really hit the social commentary ball out of the park, which was quite a few times during its run; as the straight man of the cast, Gordon Jump really made those moments work. 399 MsJ Jun 1, 2018 * 9:07:49pm down 3 up report Yale Law School (at 16) Lawyer (in New York state) State Department (at 21) Rhodes Scholar (at 24) Published Author Diplomat (NGO affairs in Pakistan and Afghanistan) United Nations (advocate for Darfur) Adviser (to the Secretary of State for Global Youth Issues) 400 sagehen Jun 1, 2018 * 9:10:32pm down 0 up report To quote Spock, who was quoting one of his "ancestors", when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Depending whether you're a Doylist or Watsonian... that quote is from either Arthur Conan Doyle or Sherlock Holmes. 401 William Lewis Jun 1, 2018 * 9:12:40pm down 0 up report re: #393 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge I had forgotten that episode. Thank you. 402 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge Jun 1, 2018 * 9:12:44pm down 2 up report Depending whether you're a Doylist or Watsonian... that quote is from either Arthur Conan Doyle or Sherlock Holmes. I think Holmes was real and Doyle was fictional. The man believed in fairies, for Pete's sake! 403 The Major Jun 2, 2018 * 5:30:21am down 0 up report re: #376 Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Vacuum tubes. How many hardware junkies these days even know what those are? (raises hand) I built an AM radio using a 3V4...And recently I had a hybrid amp which used 12AX7's as its pre-amp stage and Philips Class D output driver. 404 Chez Ko Pe Jun 2, 2018 * 12:14:19pm down 0 up report Didn't Chuckles once promise to "turn the proceedings into a clown show" or something like that if he was forced into court? I mean, ANYTHING involving CCJ is automatically a "clown show" by definition, but I'd love to see him answer a follow-up question.

1 Ace Rothstein Jun 1, 2018 * 12:11:18pm down 9 up report How did he pay it? Trump Casino chips? 2 rhuarc Jun 1, 2018 * 12:12:36pm down 7 up report Great news!

The commandos captured the man in Libya just before midnight local time on Sunday and are transporting him back to the U.S., officials told The Associated... The trial for Ahmed Abu Khattala, the alleged ringleader of the Benghazi, Libya, attack in September 2012, began today in Washington, D.C. Multiple sources have told Fox News that the guards hired to protect the Americans in Benghazi betrayed them in the end. These sources claim the firm "hastily recruited locals with terror ties who helped carry out the attack" that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens, Foreign Service Information Officer Sean Smith and CIA... The discussion started with my take on the VP debate. While we take time this day to remember each in our own way 9/11, we should note that this is also the fourth anniversary of the Benghazi attack that left four Americans dead: Christopher Stevens, an American ambassador; Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, former Navy SEALS; Sean Smith, an embassy aide. On... The Select Committee on Benghazi has released their final report on the 2012 terrorist attacks in Libya that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Instead of rescuing personnel , the Obama administration "huddled to craft their public response while military assets waited hours to deploy to Libya." Evidence also showed that... A year after the House Select Committee on Benghazi made its initial request, the State Department finally handed over 1,100 pages of records. These records contain include files, "stored on network folders used by senior employees within the Office of the Secretary, and emails from Cheryl Mills, Jake Sullivan, Huma Abedin, Susan... The House's Select Committee on Benghazi was created with bipartisan support to investigate the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi. Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State at the time. A former committee staffer alleged he was wrongfully terminated for refusing, "to conduct a partisan probe of the former secretary...

Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State at the time.

Sarah Palin claimed "there is definitely a War on Christmas" while promoting her new book at Liberty University's (LU) final fall convocation this past Wednesday. Roanoke reports that Palin also stated that "revisionists" want to secularize Christmas by creating a "winter solstice season." Palin added that her faith is "the most important thing to me" and that it "has certainly influenced all the decisions I have made." Palin was at LU promoting her new book "Good Tidings and Greater Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas" and was joined on stage by LU chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. and school spokesman Johnnie Moore. Palin was popularly received by LU students, who were excused from being late to classes if they were waiting afterward to get an autographed copy of her book. Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @TimPDion Timothy Dionisopoulos Dec 05, 2013 at 2:41 PM EDT

Sarah Palin claimed "there is definitely a War on Christmas" while promoting her new book at Liberty University's (LU) final fall convocation this past Wednesday. Roanoke reports that Palin also stated that "revisionists" want to secularize Christmas by creating a "winter solstice season."

Everyone's been talking about the climate, or at least the weather, recently. Indeed, whereas one weather event does not indicate a great deal (as the chaotic nature of the weather defeats most predictions) public opinion about climate change appears to be shifting in support of preventative measures. So big business is starting to take note and factor in climate protection costs in their long term planning. The recent polar vortex in North America, unseasonal warmth in Europe, and extreme heat in Australia have people looking at weather patterns with renewed interest, and what they see is a global pattern of extreme behavior. These events were all statistical outliers, which could be dismissed as normal variation. However, when you are faced with what looks like a new form of "El Nino" that passes over the Arctic, rather than the Atlantic Ocean, it begs a question whether there will be large-scale repeats of these "statistical outliers". Melting ice The underlying logic of climate change, that the atmosphere stores energy, and when there's proportionally more carbon dioxide in it, it stores more, is more widely accepted than ever. Also with the opening of the Northwest Passage through Canada and around Alaska, the basic logic that ice melts when it gets warm is undeniable. However, the pattern of freezing and thawing in the Arctic is not fully understood, and solid predictions remain unattainable. Now all of this is being watched by big business, and they are starting to plan for climate change, and the inevitable government legislation to combat its effects. 4% GDP A recent United Nations (UN) report expected that 4 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) would be being spent on climate change costs by 2030. Which demands governments factor it long term planning. The majority of world leaders are now in agreement with the principle that global temperatures should not be allowed to climb by more than two degrees, which is predicted to mean a 40-70% reduction in the emission of heat-trapping gases by 2050, in comparison to 2010 levels. When human population growth is factored in between 2010 and 2050, these numbers start to look massively challenging. Some experts think that these levels of reduction are technically attainable, but that this would involve massive investment in new cleaner technologies, hence the estimate of 4 percent of global GDP. This spending will mean costs for some businesses, and profits for others, as governments look for solid companies with a strong track record to implement changes, rather than the hodge-podge of small start-ups with big ideas that currently exist. Given the significance of this, a group of Democratic senators may have been right to complain to Fox News, CBS News, ABC News, and MSNBC, that climate change only had 27 minutes of coverage on Sunday shows in 2013. As these shows attempt to be responsive to both the public and advertisers, it might be interesting to know what drove the limited coverage, public denial and disapproval, or corporate interests. Parts Per Million The UN report is based on models that principally examine the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in parts per million (PPM). The magic number is 480 ppm, this is the "you shall not pass" line. Although some believe that a rise to 530 ppm and subsequent drop to around 480 ppm is far more likely. The problem with knowing exactly what will happen is that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is determined in part by emissions, and in part by the natural absorption of carbon, via the global carbon cycle. In other words, trees and plants use carbon to grow. BIOMASS mission measuring concept One of the uncertainties in modeling the carbon cycle globally is knowing how much biomass is actually present on Earth. Satellites that take optical images are typically used for estimates of biomass, where certain types of forests are assigned a density per unit area, and then pixels are counted to generate an estimate via a calculation (area in pixels x density per unit area). However, this technique is not considered particularly accurate, and so a much more direct system of measurement has been proposed by the European Space Agency (ESA). This proposal is for a radar based satellite, that can not only detect where biomass is on the surface of the Earth, but by careful analysis of the returned signal, can also give a strong indication of the density of that vegetation. Unfortunately it may be five years or more before BIOMASS mission is actually operational. The long-term planning around climate change is starting to increase, and the costs are starting to add up as a major factor. By Andrew Willig Climate Protection Costs Now a Factor in Long Term Planning added by Andrew Willig on January 16, 2014 View all posts by Andrew Willig -

The rules for a former Special Adviser wanting to write a book on their time in government are very clear: Sir Jeremy Heywood must give his personal approval.

The workers in DHS, which includes Centrelink, Medicare and Child... Michelle Fraser, an anti-abortion protester, had displayed placards of aborted foetuses with anti-... The action was organised to counter the annual anti-choice "Day of the Unborn Child" event, described as "a peaceful march to protect preborn babies". In reality, it is... Koala populations have fallen by about 80% in southern Queensland... Rio Tinto has reneged on its agreement with the MUA to have 70-80% Australian crew on its coastal fleet. Instead it is using exploited foreign workers who... She said Australia's workplace laws were broken and that "wage theft" had become the new business model for too many... About 1200 people in Brisbane on March 28 and 1000 in Sydney the next day heard from... It follows a history of disbelieved reports, futile ecological surveys and unverified sightings of the species that was... The Labor government came into power in the NT in a landslide on August 27. Among the many promises Labor... With 94.18% of the official vote counted, Lenin defeated former banker Guillermo Lasso, candidate for... The new law, which enjoyed cross-party support, blocks all exploration, extraction and processing of metals,... The documents were submitted by the White House... As of March 14, nearly 20,000 refugees and migrants had arrived in Europe this... Riot police hurled tear gas at the crowd as demonstrations continued, with a police car firebombed... But the Republican health insurance debacle, with Trump's replacement to Obamacare... Working alongside allied international distributors, the EZLN will use coffee sale funds to provide financial... Despite OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro's insistent attempts to push for Venezuela's expulsion... Through the hot days and cooler nights activists have been at each of Villawood's three entrances, checked every leaving... Zehra Dogan, an ethnic Kurd from Diyarbakir in south-eastern Turkey, was given the sentence by the... Last year's Toxic Tails is an album of beauty, anger and passion, traits often missing in today's sanitised music... The protesters demanded the unfreezing of the cultural budget, while holding banners reading "Unfreeze... In these days of growing media concentration, Green Left Weekly is a proudly independent voice committed to human and civil rights, global peace and environmental sustainability, democracy and equality. By printing the news and ideas the mainstream media won't, Green Left Weekly exposes the lies and distortions of the power brokers and helps us to better understand the world around us.

The workers in DHS, which includes Centrelink, Medicare and Child... Michelle Fraser, an anti-abortion protester, had displayed placards of aborted foetuses with anti-... The action was organised to counter the annual anti-choice "Day of the Unborn Child" event, described as "a peaceful march to protect preborn babies".

Two quotes from yesterday highlight the stakes in this upcoming election better than any that have preceded it. One features a Democrat mistakenly revealing what she really wants, while the other shows a much more polished approach towards the same end. First, let's review what Rep. Maxine Waters said to the president of Shell Oil during a House hearing: "And guess what this member* would be all about? This member would be all about socializing -- er, uh. [Pauses for several moments] .... would be about ... [pause] ... basically ... taking over, and the government running all of your companies." Take a look at the video that AP posted last night while Waters says this. As soon as the word "socialization" exits her lips, she knows she made a big blunder, not the least of which is that the actual term is "nationalization". Waters just declared a socialist policy of total confiscation in the House hearing room, and she looks for an exit strategy, finally winding up with the slightly more ambiguous idea of Washington "running" the oil companies. Two people in the background try mightily to stifle laughter at Waters' predicament. Waters provides the obvious example. Barack Obama tried the historically successful strategy of being generous with other people's money in the debate over the GI Bill. Yesterday, he expressed puzzlement over why John McCain couldn't be more generous to his fellow veterans, and McCain shot back in the wrong direction: Obama used the opportunity to once again tie his rival to the president. "I respect Sen. John McCain's service to our country," Obama said on the Senate floor this morning. "He is one of those heroes of which I speak. But I can't understand why he would line up behind the president in opposition to this GI Bill. I can't believe why he believes it is too generous to our veterans. I could not disagree with him and the president more on this issue." The McCain campaign responded by issuing a sharply worded and lengthy statement in the senator's name. McCain notes his support for an alternative to the Webb measure, but points out his own military service and points out Obama's lack thereof. "It is typical, but no less offensive that Sen. Obama uses the Senate floor to take cheap shots at an opponent and easy advantage of an issue he has less than zero understanding of," McCain said in the statement. "Let me say first in response to Sen. Obama, running for president is different than serving as president. The office comes with responsibilities so serious that the occupant can't always take the politically easy route without hurting the country he is sworn to defend. Unlike Sen. Obama, my admiration, respect and deep gratitude for America's veterans is something more than a convenient campaign pledge. I think I have earned the right to make that claim." McCain uses the wrong argument here, a thinly-veiled "chickenhawk" attack that demeans him. Does McCain really think that only veterans should run the government or have a voice in the Senate? Civilian control of the government and the military is a paramount principle of democracy. I know McCain understands that, but this pungent attack on Obama's lack of military service is a misstep. Where Waters failed yesterday, Obama succeeded. The Left argues incessantly about Why can't the wealthiest nation in the world afford [fill in the blank] ? The argument serves to shame their opponents into capitulating on the growth of federal spending and federal power, exploding entitlements into full-blown socialist nanny-state burdens that trap generations of future Americans into paying for our government-provided Utopia. In the end, this process will require the seizure of all capital by the government in order to support its bloated entitlement burden. The real argument against the Webb version of the GI Bill, the farm bill, and nationalization of the oil industry is that the federal government already spends too much money, and it has other priorities than income redistribution. McCain did make this point in his lengthy statement yesterday, but it got obliterated by the money quote about Obama's lack of service. We did not become the "wealthiest nation" through government confiscation and central economic planning. Our economic success came through the free flow of markets, a respect for private property, and a federal government that knew its Constitutional place. The decades-long impulse to solve every problem and redistribute wealth through the auspices of Washington DC threaten that long-term economic viability, and every additional giveaway program -- no matter how well-intentioned -- adds to the catastrophic collapse we or our children will experience through entitlements. Republicans need to make this argument central to their theme, but first they have to act like they believe it. And they need to convince the electorate to stop demanding these giveaways, a task which appears almost impossible, especially given the low state of GOP credibility on spending. McCain has more credibility on spending and reform, but he needs to focus his message better than he did yesterday. * - Some heard this as "liberal". The video seems inconclusive, but that would be quite an indictment ....

One features a Democrat mistakenly revealing what she really wants, while the other shows a much more polished approach towards the same end.

A 54 year-old Ocala, Florida woman was home alone when she shot a man who broke in and chased her upstairs into her closet. Victor Alex Etherington, 27, showed up drunk Sunday night at the woman's home and started banging on the windows demanding to be let in. The homeowner, fearing for her safety, told him to leave, but that only enraged the would-be home invader. Etherington then went around to the front door and kicked it in. Once inside, the man took off his shorts, which officers said had been defecated in, and got completely naked. The homeowner, who has not been identified, quickly ran and grabbed her phone and a .22 caliber handgun. She made her way upstairs and locked herself in a closet, but the man would not let up. The woman, who's husband is a reserve sheriff's deputy, shot Etherington once in the abdomen as he opened the closet door. "The intruder ended up with no clothes on in her bedroom," said Lauren Lettelier of the Marion County Sheriff's Office. The homeowner called 911 and told authorities what had just transpired. The criminal, who detectives believe may have lived in the residence years earlier, was rushed to the hospital. The suspect underwent surgery and is recovering in the intensive care unit. Local news footage, including an interview with police, below:

The homeowner, who has not been identified, quickly ran and grabbed her phone and a .22 caliber handgun.

Ammoland Inc. Posted on June 21, 2018 by Ammoland Video | Ammoland Inc. Posted on May 23, 2018 by Jeff Knox Video | Ammoland Inc. Posted on May 11, 2018 May 11, 2018 by Ammoland Could it be that half of our fellow citizens are flat out morons, some so blinded by ideology that they can't see past their own emotions to make a rational decision... Read More >>> Phrases like "military grade" & "military style" are, like the rest of the arguments used by gun control, are a deliberate attempt to sway public opinion by intentionally misrepresenting the facts... Read More >>> Ammoland Inc. Posted on April 2, 2018 by Ammoland What is most cowardly about Delta's actions is that they want to support the gun control movement but are still claiming they take no position on the issue. Read More >>> Youth across America attend "March For Our Lives" but whose words are they using? Who's paying for and organizing this? The left of course.. Read More >>> Ammoland Inc. Posted on March 28, 2018 by Ammoland Connecticut Carry continues to speak about the uncomfortable truths that result when people are manipulated by politicians when they are the most emotional. Read More >>> These protests are far from simple, grassroots teenager led movement that the mainstream media wants to believe. These fake marches funded by anti-gun billionaires and millionaires. Read More >>> Ammoland Inc. Posted on March 25, 2018 by NRAHQ Video | Ammoland Inc. Posted on March 16, 2018 March 28, 2018 by Ammoland Fakes like Mike Weisser and groups like Gun Sense Chester County try to come across as reasonable in an attempt to mainstream gun control and to exclude the advocates of liberty. Read More >>> Sixteen of our nation's senior military officers recently penned a letter to Congress under the banner of the Giffords Veteran Coalition... Read More >>> Video | Ammoland Inc. Posted on October 31, 2017 October 31, 2017 by Ammoland Right now NRA and ANJRPC are organizing one of the most important grassroots efforts in New Jersey history, to beat gun banner Phil Murphy. Read More >>> What they really want. It's not "reasonable regulation." It's give up your gun or the government takes it and you go to jail. Read More >>> Posts navigation Wild Bill : Dear Mrs Hodges, engage a skilled criminal defense attorney to nail down witnesses, statements, and other evidence, anyway! Don't wait.... Rattlerjake : God gave three instances where the killing of a man has no "bloodguilt" - 1)War, 2)Judicial punishment, 3)Self defense Wild Bill : @Mark, I concur, and thank God that she is an uncivilized, discourteous, and obvious loser. She makes her own ideas,... allan King : she would be the first one to scream armed police to come to her aid when her home is being... Wild Bill : @Tcat, He must have gotten the wrong idea and made himself fit the hard core unemployable profile. Now, his career...

Ammoland Could it be that half of our fellow citizens are flat out morons, some so blinded by ideology that they can't see past their own emotions to make a rational decision...

A man who has been living in the United States for decades just had his citizenship status revoked because of an insignificant omission on his application years ago. A man who obtained citizenship more than a decade ago has become the first individual to lose it under President Donald Trump. New Jersey resident Baljinder Singh, 43, who is originally from India, first arrived to the United States in 1991 but didn't have with him documents that could prove his identity. He also went under the name Davinder Singh and was subsequently deported. He eventually married an American citizen, who filed a visa petition for Singh, and in 2006 he was officially naturalized. Yet Singh failed to disclose his prior immigration troubles from the 1990s when he applied for his visa through his marriage in 2004. He would have been found out, but a mistake by the U.S. government while processing his fingerprint check allowed him to be naturalized without issue. In court this week, because of his omission -- but apparently not because of any other acts of law-breaking, violence, or more egregious actions -- Singh's citizenship status was revoked , downgraded to "permanent resident" status, allowing the government to deport him if they wish. "The defendant exploited our immigration system and unlawfully secured the ultimate immigration benefit of naturalization, which undermines both the nation's security and our lawful immigration system," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Chad Readler of the Justice Department's Civil Division. However, Singh's case appears to be quibbling over semantics more than anything else. His omission aside, it doesn't appear he did much of anything else wrong -- he obtained citizenship status through a legitimate marriage, and hasn't done anything unlawful since. That pales in comparison to a case from 2010 when another individual was revoked his citizenship status. Ibraheem Adeneye, originally from Nigeria, was similarly revoked of his citizenship after it was revealed he had produced fake marriage documents for himself. Adeneye was also producing fake marriage documents for other immigrants coming to the U.S. to help them attain citizenship. The two examples are incomparable. Singh erred only in that he omitted past attempts to become a citizen. Were he to have acted in a criminal manner like Adeneye had, taking action to revoke his citizenship would be justified. But Singh didn't do anything wrong once he became a citizen. And his omission, although an improper move on his part, didn't result in him committing any additional crimes while living in the U.S. Consideration for Singh's proper motives should have been given at his trial -- he was married, legitimately so, and wanted to live in the country as a legal citizen. That seems to be the very kind of person we want emigrating to the U.S. Despite Trump's promise to only deport immigrants with criminal records , the administration seems to be ignoring that notion as they target the innocent .

A man who has been living in the United States for decades just had his citizenship status revoked because of an insignificant omission on his application years ago.

FGD135: The offshoring, layoffs etc. you mention are implemented by the same demographic that stockpiles the guns. Implemented, not caused or ordered. Which means the guy handing out the pink slips is a) pretty much in the same group as the guy receiving the pink slip or is b) in the group the guy receiving the pink slip aspires to be in. It's not that easy to perceive your own social group or a social group that you'd like to join as a target. That's why I ask "Do they just not do target research?" Yes, the guy handing out the pink slips is often just one rung up the ladder from you and just the messenger; which I assume is why killings of immediate supervisors aren't terribly common; but the identities of C-level executives, board members, and the like are typically public knowledge for entities that aren't deliberately opaque shell entities(between SEC filings, if public; and LinkedIn you can learn a lot, other media sources provide further information) and those people are definitely not of the same social group; and 'a social group that you'd like to join' in only the most fantasy-heavy aspirations. None of that is to say that shooting them would reverse trends in globalization post WWII or the mid-70sish decoupling of wages from productivity; but if you think that your problem has a gun-based solution(which seems likely since you are stockpiling them) focusing on hitting as far up the food chain as you can seems like the least illogical thing to try. Seurat: Again, just look at what they're driving. Pickups used to be happy little farm vehicles. Now they look like they're ready to go to war. No disagreement about the trends in automotive styling(also available for the McMansion class in SUVs; as quoth Jello Biafra "Need my armored luxury tank to drive to work, drive home"); though ironically pickups actually ready to go to war are mostly ones so small and feature-light that they aren't even sold in the US; and mostly operated by people who would...not exactly...be greeted as comrades by the people discussed here: "Technicals" are reputed to punch well above their weight and cost; but mostly among people we either dislike or are trying to use as proxies against people we dislike even more. I suspect that the guy below would look at current US pickups designed to look 'tough' with roughly the same contempt reserved for H3-driving humvee fanboys.

FGD135: The offshoring, layoffs etc. you mention are implemented by the same demographic that stockpiles the guns. Implemented, not caused or ordered.

Recently, Pierre Azoulay, an MIT Sloan professor and the researchers from Kellogg School of Management and the US Census Bureau came together to analyse 'the ages of founders of growth-oriented startups'. They looked at '1,000 fastest growing new ventures' of the last 10 years and arrived at a startling conclusion. As most of us might tend to believe, the average age of the founders of these companies did not turn out to be 20 or even 30 but 45. In fact, even more surprising conclusion was arrived at when the researchers went on to find the mean age of an entrepreneur when he or she actually lays the foundation of a startup. When a total of 2.7 million founders were examined, the mean age of when they are founding startups unexpectedly turns out to be 42. Interestingly, similar results have emerged from the field of arts and sciences when we examine the relationship between age of a person and major breakthroughs achieved. In 2014, Jones and Weinberg examined 'Nobel Prize winners and great technological innovators in the 20th Century' and found that the average age when one achieves 'great scientific output' is 40. Truly, as an example, Alexander Fleming was 47 when he discovered Penicillin, the world's first antibiotic. The results of such studies are vital - not only for those in their mid-twenties and already starting to wilt under the pressure but also for the ones in their mid-forties who assume that they are well over the hill to embark on an entrepreneurial or an experimental journey. Representational Image. Reuters Worryingly, the outlook is now firmly established that if our generation were to produce great achievers it has to launch itself as early as possible. As it was the case a decade ago, graduates achieving the feat of starting their career at a $100,000 salary is no more a headline. People are now interested in the stories of the ones who could publish a book, start a Youtube channel, become a social media influencer or get their startup stories go viral even before hitting their twenties. Carefully crafted headlines on child prodigies, teenage entrepreneurs, tech wizards or the all aspiring lists of 30 under 30 create false reality and bring significant pressure at the doorstep of our generation. Indeed, this is a result when we try evolving our minds only through the headlines instead of following deep learning. If we deeply reflect on the combined result of above mentioned studies on why the average age of achieving success hit forties, following lessons can be learnt: A curious and experimental mind is key to achieving success. Richard Feynman, the prodigious Nobel Prize winning physicist, whom Bill Gates lovingly call as 'the best teacher I never had,' considered curiosity as key to breaking new grounds. Hence, as contrary as it may sound,we should throw the age deadlines out of the window and freely expose ourselves to diverse experiences, travel, read, engage with alternative viewpoints and also allow us the freedom to remain uncertain. It is amazing to see how the word failure is often marked with red, starting right from our school assessments. People are often advised to craft their CVs and polish stumbling stones in their life's journeys as successful halts. Those who have achieved consistently would vouch for the fact that the actual route to a long successful story often goes through a series of failure. Jonas Salk, the discoverer of polio vaccine, was often made fun of by his scientific peers for adopting unconventional methods. Eventually Salk proved that his failings were truly the stepping stone to achieve the vaccine that now saves lives of millions every year. When those who try and fail are encouraged then a nation has a better chance to produce discoverers and inventors and in turn knowledge driven start-ups, which is key for it to keep pace with the other economies. Another important lesson which, although goes beyond the commercial realm, could be the most important one for our lives. It is to do with falling in love, building relationships, and raising children. The pressure to achieve success in thirties is resulting in younger generation avoiding nurturing long-term relationships and delaying having children. Take for instance the case of the UK. For the first time in UK's history, there are now more women in their 40s who conceive than the ones below 30. The understanding of the fact that one can very well begin in their 40s and yet achieve greater success than their younger counterparts can takeaway the pressure of falling off the track from the minds of those wanting to raise families along with developing their careers. Finally, it is crucial to realize that when one lives with the principle that life is a journey, which requires us to keep trying, opportunities gets thrown at us from most unexpected corners. The iconic poet-writer Rabindranath Tagore was in his forties when he decided to pick brush and turn into a painter but failed miserably. He gave up only to pick it up again at the ripe age of sixty and eventually went on to create several masterpieces, which are now part of our proud national heritage. (The writer is a PhD in education from the University of Oxford and currently an associate fellow at Oxford Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies. Some of the ideas have been taken from his upcoming book Fluid - the approach applied by geniuses over centuries.)

As most of us might tend to believe, the average age of the founders of these companies did not turn out to be 20 or even 30 but 45.

Natalie Portman awarded $1 million 'Jewish Nobel Prize' in Israel for her social activism Jerusalem : Natalie Portman has been awarded Israel's 2018 Genesis Prize in recognition of her commitment to social causes and deep connection to her Jewish and Israeli roots, organizers of the prize announced on Tuesday. The $1 million award, known as "the Jewish Nobel Prize," is granted each year to a person recognised as an inspiration to the next generation of Jews through professional achievement and commitment to Jewish values. The Oscar-winning actress said she was "deeply touched and humbled" by the recognition. Natalie Portman was awarded Israel's 2018 Genesis Prize for her commitment to social causes and deep connection to her Jewish and Israeli roots. AP "I am proud of my Israeli roots and Jewish heritage. They are crucial parts of who I am," she said in a statement released by the organizers. She said she would use the prize money to "make a difference in the lives of women in Israel and beyond." Portman was born in Israel and moved to the United States as a young girl, evolving from a child actress into a widely acclaimed A-list star. She won the 2011 Best Actress Academy Award for her work in Black Swan , and in 2015, she directed and starred in Tale of Love and Darkness , a Hebrew-language film made in Israel based on an Amos Oz novel. The Genesis Prize noted Portman's social activism in areas such as gender equality, combatting poverty, microfinance and animal rights. "She exemplifies the core traits of the Jewish character and values of the Jewish people -- persistence and hard work, pursuit of excellence, intellectual curiosity, and a heartfelt desire to contribute to make the world a better place," said Stan Polovets, co-founder and chairman of the prize's foundation. He called her a "role model" for millions of young Jews worldwide. The foundation said Portman's award money would go to a number of women's causes, promoting education, economic advancement, health and political participation. It said a "significant portion" of the funds would advance women's equality in Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to present the award to Portman at a ceremony in Jerusalem next June. The Genesis Prize was inaugurated in 2014 and is run in a partnership between the Israeli prime minister's office, the private Genesis Prize Foundation and the chairman's office of the Jewish Agency, a nonprofit group with close ties to the Israeli government. It is funded by a $100 million endowment established by the foundation. Portman is the fifth winner and first woman to receive the prize. Previous recipients included former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, actor Michael Douglas, violinist Itzhak Perlman and sculptor Anish Kapoor. Updated Date: Nov 07, 2017 22:05 PM

Natalie Portman awarded $1 million 'Jewish Nobel Prize' in Israel for her social activism Jerusalem : Natalie Portman has been awarded Israel's 2018 Genesis Prize in recognition of her commitment to social causes and deep connection to her Jewish and Israeli roots, organizers of the prize announced on Tuesday. The $1 million award, known as "the Jewish Nobel Prize," is granted each year to a person recognised as an inspiration to the next generation of Jews through professional achievement and commitment to Jewish values.

Diversion No. 1 "It's the weeds that tell you to get out of your funk. They have no patience for dark thoughts and demand life-affirming action. Pulling out the judgemental bastards is the best therapy there is," recommends Carly Thomas, The Dominion Post , calling it 'weed-whacking happiness." The 10 th January has been designated Houseplant Appreciation Day. (It is also said to be Peculiar People Day, but we'll pass on that.) Dusty foliage lowers ability to photosynthesize. Smaller plants can be placed on the kitchen sink drainage tray for a thorough spritzing with tepid water. Larger plants may be treated to the same washdown in the bathtub, con brio . Since spider mites, the bane of overwintering houseplants, are discouraged by water this is also a method of protection against the pests--what might be termed ecosystem-based mitigation in greenie parlance. Diversion No. 2 Brit farmers have been urged to bury their underpants. The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) and Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) claim interring a pair of cotton underpants in a pasture can reveal vital information about soil fertility. According to the experts, sterile and lifeless soil will keep underwear intact, but organically thriving soil will eat away at the briefs, leaving nothing but the elastic waistband. Dig up the pants after just two months, and it is possible to judge how healthy the land is [ The Daily Telegraph ] The 10th January is also Bitter Dark Chocolate Day. This must please Ek Chuah, the god of Maya merchants and cacao growers. The Maya of Central America had discovered the delights of the fermented 'beans' of the cacao tree. It was the Nahuatl, that western Europeans would later call 'Aztecs,' who used the products of the cacahuacuauhuitl tree as their currency. The end result was what we now call chocolate. This derives in a roundabout way from the Nahuatl word cacahuatl . Unfortunately, to the invading Conquistadors, caca designates excrement or human waste. Thus, the treat became chocolate. What Ek Chuah thinks has not been unrecorded.

Dusty foliage lowers ability to photosynthesize. Smaller plants can be placed on the kitchen sink drainage tray for a thorough spritzing with tepid water.

January 10, 2018 Syria - Army Gains In Idleb - Insurgents To Challenge Foreign Occupiers While the U.S. seems to have given up on regime change in Syria it is still trying to sabotage the progress of the Syrian government and its allies. The recent drone attack on the Russian base Khmeimim in Latakia is just one example. Thirteen sophisticated armed drones with a reach of some 100 kilometers attacked the base at the same time as a U.S. electronic warfare plane was circling off the Syrian coast . The attack was unsuccessful. Russia has sophisticated electronic warfare means and hijacked the command over six of the drones. The other seven were taken down by Russian air defenses. To claim, as the U.S. does, that ISIS or some "rebels" did this is nonsense. ISIS has made short range weaponized drones flown by remote control in line of sight mode. This attack was by autonomous drones using GPS and barometric sensors to find their way to their targets. This is qualitatively on a whole new level. I doubt that Russia will let this go unanswered. Look out for some "mishap" that may soon hit some U.S. troops or interests abroad. Three significant military operations took place over the last few weeks. bigger In the south-west Syrian government troops, in cooperation with local Druze, managed to completely take the area of Beit Jinn next to the Lebanese border and the Israeli occupied Golan Heights. bigger Al Qaeda elements within the pocket gave up after Syrian troops captured the nearby mountain tops and achieved fire control over the area. They were transported off to Idleb. The northern blue part in the map above is now under government control. Immediately east of Damascus city the Ghouta pocket, held by various Jihadi groups, has long been a huge problem. Grenades fired from the area can easily reach the center of Damascus. Over the last eight weeks more than 350 civilians in Damascus city have been killed or wounded by such attacks. Ghouta is controlled by al-Qaeda elements, Ahrar al-Sham and the Saudi financed Jaish al-Islam. In the western side of the area government forces have long held on to a large military base. Two weeks ago elements of Ahrar al-Sham broke an existing de-escalation agreement and attacked the base with a huge force. The third grade troops guarding the facilities had problems defending against the attack and were losing ground. They were encircled and isolated. After a few days government reinforcements lifted the siege on the base and expanded the corridor leading to it. bigger It is high time to eliminate the Ghouta pocket. But the area includes densely built-up quarters and a move on it would require a large force and be very bloody. The Syrian government and its Russian supporters seem to believe that the Saudis can be influenced to give up on their Ghouta "rebels". It might then be possible to regain control over the area without an all-out fight. The third, largest and most importent operation of the last week is a fight in north-Hama and east-Idleb governorate. When in 2015 Idelb was occupied by U.S. and Turkey supported "rebels" the government held city of Aleppo lost its road connection to the southern core of the country. The Syrian government built a new road through the desert further east to resupply the city. But that road is insufficient for the amount of traffic needed to rejuvenate the now liberated Aleppo. A direct road connection from Damascus, Homs and Hama to Aleppo is needed passing through al-Qaeda held territory in eastern Idleb. After weeks of preparation by aerial bombing elite Syrian forces attacked from Hama northward towards Aleppo. After breaking through al-Qaeda's defense line they liberated nearly 100 townships and cities. In a new phenomenon local inhabitants of the area evicted the al-Qaeda "rebels" even before SAA troops arrived. These troop are now on the border of the large Abu-al-Duhur airbase which is the most strategic point in the wider area. bigger The al-Qaeda forces east of the wedge the government forces drove into Idleb governorate are in immediate danger of encirclement. They have started to flee towards the western parts of Idleb which are still open towards the Turkish borders. When the new road to Aleppo is secured the government troops will consolidate the pocket east of it. Further operations will then depend on the outcome of the various diplomatic initiatives which are currently worked on. The U.S. supported forces in north-east Syria still have problems to get a grip on the last ISIS held townships north of the Euphrates. The U.S. special forces have turned several local tribes, which had earlier fought with ISIS, to its side. They are re-training these forces. But the local tribes lack the fighting spirit and motivation to attack their former allies. In late January Russia will convene a large conference with hundreds of Syrian opposition and government figures to talk about the constitutional changes and elections in Syria. It is not yet sure who will take part in it. One problem are Kurdish organizations which Turkey, as one of the sponsors of the de-escalation process, does not want to see recognized as political entities. Turkey under Erdogan continues to be hostile to the Syrian government and people. Weapons are still flowing through the Turkish border to Jihadis in Idleb and ISIS fighters who flee the country towards Europe can still pass. Turkey covets the Kurdish Afrin enclave in north-west Syria but the current balance of force does not allow it to attack. In the greater picture (recommended) the Turkish anti-Kurdish occupation in the north-west of Syria and the U.S. pro-Kurdish occupation in the north-east cancel each other out. Neither force can move further without endangering their common NATO interests. Politically and militarily the U.S. is still the biggest threat to peace in Syria. The U.S. insists on a continuation of the stillborn Geneva process that was once convened by the UN to find a political solution in Syria. It still wants the government under President Assad to leave. People in the Trump administration still hope to gain at the conference table what they could not achieve in seven years of vicious proxy-fighting against the Syrian people. It is unlikely that they will now succeed. Syria has shown that it has the will and ability to resist U.S. "regime change". The military and its allies will continue to consolidate the current positions. But to free all of its northern parts from Turkish and U.S. occupation is too big of a task for the still small army. This can be more easily achieved by local insurgencies. Syria has battle hardened militia outside of its regular military. These have been trained by and fought with Hizbullah. They can be infiltrated into the occupation zones and make the situation unbearable for the occupiers. Syrian interests in these areas far outweigh those of the occupying countries. While it will take time there is little doubt that -in the end- the people of Syria will win this fight and liberate their country. Posted by b on January 10, 2018 at 08:48 AM | Permalink Minor point: it is surprising just how sophisticated hobbyist drones can be. You can buy modules for GPS and barometric pressure and multi-axis gyros etc. for dirt cheap. Of course, these modules will not be civilian grade and will not be hardened against jamming etc., which certainly sounds like what happened. Civilian GPS in particular can be easily over-ridden by external jamming. Granted that military systems are likely more robust, I am sure that the US is very interested in Russian anti-GPS jamming systems, given the heavy reliance of the US on GPS technology. Posted by: TG | Jan 10, 2018 8:56:45 AM | 1 well, what U really mean in your comment up here,TG? the US has deep interest in russian anti GPS systems but seemingly the 13 or so devices used last week to hit Russian bases were cheap hobbyist, shelf type stuff? Or have we misinterpreted your view? Posted by: augusto | Jan 10, 2018 9:28:01 AM | 2 "most impotent operation of the last week", it was quite potent and important Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 10, 2018 9:31:28 AM | 3 Russian MoD: a US spy plane was spotted patrolling above the two Russian bases in Syria at the time of the drone attack. https://www.rt.com/news/415374-drones-syria-terrorists-russian-defense/ Posted by: TG | Jan 10, 2018 8:56:45 AM | 1 The Russian MoD denies the drones were anything like hobbyist or makeshift drones, precisely. Those were serious military-grade combat drones. https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01-09/strange-coincidence-us-spy-plane-circled-near-russian-base-during-massive-drone Posted by: Lea | Jan 10, 2018 9:44:18 AM | 4 Hi, the first "bigger" map does not load. Posted by: Lech | Jan 10, 2018 10:00:00 AM | 5 The US/YPG forces hold mostly-desert eastern Syria, east of the Euphrates (yellow portion of upper map), including the oil fields in the south of that area, but they will be completely land-locked by Turkey, Iraq and Syria. The US (after suffering some pay-back casualties perhaps) will have to admit defeat and leave. Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 10, 2018 10:06:42 AM | 6 For as much as I would love to see the US leave Syria (and other occupied territories) it seems that given an inexhaustible supply of dollars and volunteers for its meat grinder this is not going to happen anytime soon. As can be construed from RT's recent article, the new Trump doctrine authorizes nuclear responses to conventional attacks. "One of the key changes to the US policy would be an expansion of circumstances in which a nuclear attack would be considered. Under the new NPR, a conventional attack that causes mass casualties or targets critical infrastructure may trigger a nuclear retaliation from the US." Which means that there will be disproportionate responses to regular attacks. It seems the US is learning from Israel. Therefore, I am pessimistic when it comes to withdrawal from Syria, unless the Bear gets tired of being poked and starts using some of its muscle. So the attack on the Kmeimin base was being monitored by a U.S. Poseidon spy craft in a swarm assault experiment. The Russians were aware of its unauthorized presence. Why didn't they shoot it? Posted by: CarlD | Jan 10, 2018 10:38:13 AM | 7 ZeroHedge quoting the Pentagon statement: "The Pentagon countered that while the US was "concerned" over the incident, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Adrian Rankin-Galloway, however, claimed that "those devices and technologies can easily be obtained in the open market." He later also told Sputnik that the US already saw what it called "this type of commercial UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] technology" being used in Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) missions." Interesting. How does HE know what technologies were used in the drones? Sounds like the US protest was a Freudian slip. And quite the coincidence that the operation was being monitored by a Poseidon. Was a warning radioed to the Russians that what appeared to be a swarm of drones was detected incoming? The attacks by various mediums over the last few days on the Russian airbase clearly shows defenses are being tested, and apparently tested in some scientific detail by having spy plane monitors. May be for planning of future attacks, may be because the US has determined it is losing and wants to gain as much intel as possible now, in case they have to bug out soon and lose the ability to test current tech Russian defenses. Where else in the world could they do so without starting a top-level conflict? One wonders if the drones were all configured differently, in an attempt to pin down up to what level of shielding Russian tech could take over a drone, and beyond which they would have to be shot down? Posted by: J Swift | Jan 10, 2018 10:46:08 AM | 8 The principal US objective, using ISIS, YPG and others, has been to break the "Shia crescent" from Tehran to Beirut, which the US stupidly created with its Operation Iraqi Freedom. That is a failure even with the US/YPG in eastern Syria, as seen here . So chalk up another military failure for the Pentagon and its clueless generals. Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 10, 2018 10:46:48 AM | 9 Thanks for the update b - very informative and valuable. I am In the UK and the BBC was showing news about poor children in Ghouta suffering because of the govt. With none of the background as to who is there. And what is actually going on I would like to ask in relation to the point raised by Don Bacon @6 Does the govt hold more of the important areas/big cities? What percentage of the population are in govt controlled areas? Thank you Posted by: James lake | Jan 10, 2018 10:49:42 AM | 10 from M K Bhadrakumar >Why is the US is contesting the Russian bases in Syria? The point is, these Russian bases are located in Latakia province along the Mediterranean coast. And the US military objective is to gain access to the Mediterranean coast for the Kurdistan enclave it is creating in Syria without which the enclave will be landlocked and dependent critically on supply routes via Turkey or Iraq, apart from being economically unviable (although it is an oil-rich region of Syria.) >The Saudi establishment daily Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Monday that the Trump administration is planning to grant diplomatic recognition to the Kurdistan enclave in northern Syria (which is of the size of Lebanon.) The idea is to create a permanent foothold for the US and Israel in a strategic, economically self-sufficient independent Kurdistan where the borders of Turkey, Iraq and Syria meet, and which may eventually reach Iran's western border with northern Iraq. >But the US-Israeli strategy will remain a pipedream if the Kurdistsn is land-locked and continues to be challenged by Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Hence the criticality of creating an access route to the Mediterranean via Latakia province.. . . here Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 10, 2018 10:54:42 AM | 11 The first map shows pockets of Dash still exist. The UN mandate called on countries that were able to "eradicate the safe haven" that Dash and al Qaeda had created for themselves in Syria. As long as pockets of Dash and al Qaeda exit, doesn't that allow US to justify their presence in the country? Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jan 10, 2018 11:02:25 AM | 12 I'm not surprised by the use of drones by the US. IMO Syria is THE testbed for new military technology, as the US can probe the efficacy of Russian S-400 systems. It was just a matter of time before swarming technologies were being tested in combat. As stated in other news sources, the attack would require a sophisticated control center to manage the attack, which would explain the presence of a US spy plane lurking nearby. The strategy of launching said drones from Turkish controlled areas adds the additional benefit of attempting to drive a wedge between the Turks and Russians. The downside of testing this new technology is that the result will be escalatory with a green light given to the Russians to test their drone technology on American assets. This is after all a war, cold to hot, irrespective to what the diplomats may say. IMO the entire affair is particularly tragic, as the constant drought besetting the entire Middle East for the last 5 to 9 years is just a prelude to the climatic challenges awaiting us all. The the situation will become all the more grim as water becomes more scarce, and temperatures soar, due to a runaway climate beginning to rear its ugly head with the melting of the Arctic. While the US lost half of its wheat crop in a matter of weeks to a flash drought last summer, Russia has become the largest exporter of wheat, due to our 2014 sanctions. I wonder what the West will do when it starts getting hungry and it has alienated a possibly great food supplier. Posted by: Michael | Jan 10, 2018 11:04:41 AM | 13 @James lake #10 The Syrian government controls all major cities, Russia and Syria have declared victory, and the US has changed its position on regime change: Assad can stay and the Syria people (not Washington) can decide who governs them. Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 10, 2018 11:06:34 AM | 14 As the US continues to strengthen it's strangle hold on a third of Syria, Russia apologists continue to claim that Russia saved Syria! Sure ok. Russia saved Syria from the wolf so that the lion could swallow it up. Posted by: paul | Jan 10, 2018 11:09:36 AM | 15 @paul #15 As the US continues to strengthen it's strangle hold on a third of Syria, Means nothing -- see my #6. Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 10, 2018 11:13:41 AM | 16 It's grim pleasure, and sort of entertaining fun, to sit among the armchair "warfighters" and geopoiliticians with all our varying degrees of expertise and knowledge. To sit and watch "events," and parse and digest and predict and prognosticate about all the complex goings-on in the subdivision of global forever war that we call "Syria." Which we cognoscenti tend to refer to as a reification with substance (yet lacking the kind of detail that can give a possibly more accurate and possibly predictive notion of 'What's shakin.' )The same simplification via hypostatization that we also do in talking and thinking about all the other players and moving parts of the Game, I guess necessarily, given the mode and scope of the blog form of communication. I imagine, probably inaccurately, that the more involved players, with their white papers and intelligence estimates and assessments and access to the Global Network-Centric Interoperable Battlespace thingie and all the inputs from intel and lobbyists and courtiers from all the players fiscally interested in movements and outcomes, might have better and more accurate and "grainier" views and understandings of the state of play, along with a more complete review of the bidding. And some kind of organizing principle in mind, for what they have done, what they are doing, and hope and plan to do in future. Of course if one looks around, one finds input and thinking that looks a lot like this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1269463/Afghanistan-PowerPoint-slide-Generals-left-baffled-PowerPoint-slide.html What are, and what "ought to be," the organizing principles best to be pursued and actuated by us nearly 8 billion humans? All well and good to be a little comforted that the Syrian national army (with its backers and allies) is maybe kicking some brigands and thieves and war-banders out of areas they have "taken over."' Takeovers done with the encouragement and assistance of other backers and allies. Or, given the Byzantine and Machiavellian and totally corrupt and cynical nature of the Game, maybe some of the same people "backing" and "supplying" and "training" the "pro-Government forces," who the heck knows?) All those "take-overs" accomplished with more ,or less, cooperation and resistance from people living there. So discourse about the Game and its play is structured around naming and attempting to analyze and put in context and rationalize and excoriate actions and structures of all the mostly mythical unitary characters, "monads" if you will, like "Syria" and "the US" and "Russia" and "Venezuela" and "Nigeria" and "China" and so forth, in this ongoing set of complex activities, shifting interests and alliances and supply chains and weapons development and murder. We, who spend time looking down this set of silos and postholes, try to tease out the threads of continuity and organization that we are just SURE must tie together, or at least explain and offer hints how to manipulate and ameliorate, all this activity and plotting and counter-counter-counter-inititaives and -operations. Kind of like the authors of a deep scholarly law review articles, who clam to find rules of decision and hence "rule of law" in the variegated decisions of our Supreme and lower courts. Do the people running all the bits of this have any kind of organizing principle(s) directing their so very energetic daily workload and planning sessions? Another blog owner, who ought to know, said in response to that question, 'of course not, it's as it has always been and will be, it's just individuals and groups pursuing immediate interests.' He, of course, spent his career working for, and now spends his days speaking for, an organizing principle, maybe styled 'reformed and more successful hegemony" in the current parlance. And he is only one of millions who are thus involved in the Game., pulling on one of the many ropes attached to the Jaganath all are worshiping and augmenting. So, many of us look for rationales and structures, and signs of hope that this is not just the end-game for our species, yet we sit in among people who are also (if only we knew, in this anonymous internet space where new forms of contention and deception and "persuasion") playing smaller or larger roles, as part of still other "operations and initiatives." And try to sort out "true facts" from the sly manipulations and deceptions and distractions of those ladling out the flood of Bernays Sauce we are all poaching in. Too bad there is no such thing as a Prime Directive, an organizing principle, particularly one that says "do not kill your species with your stratagems and predilections." Increasingly, it looks like a mass death wish, with all the stacking of means and modes of destruction and death, from nuclear weapons (proliferating, on top of the thousands "commanded" the Demonstrably Incompetent Yet Massively Self-interested Warfighters in every "nation-state" and "tribe with flags," like the 200 to 600 the Israelites have built, and now the NKs, and the hate-driven folks in India and Pakistan with their ancient enmities and "rational mutual suspicions. And ambitions") to CRSP-R technology, to the globalized world of trade and finance, to AI that even its proponents and creators fear, to plastics everywhere, soil depletion and killing of potable water resources to irreversible climate effects from several centuries of carbo-combusts-consumption, to the IoT as a self-destructive Golem, for which we have lost the magic word of control. And so forth. Though, of course, where lies and deception and stratagems plotted and carried out by the "successful few" at the top of heap are concerned, we can't even tell if it's the case that all the bad news and sorrows we are informed about aren't just part of some grand "fear, uncertainty and doubt" initiative and operation to fill us with existential dread and inject the virus of a vast sense of futility (an initiative that would go along with the asymptotic increase in looting behaviors by the Few and their commensallists) to keep the mass of us passive and bowed and accepting the sweep of the executioner's blade, after they have taken all our stuff and all our futures... Funny lines from "Buckaroo Banzai," rendered immortal by John Lithgow in his character as a Red Lectroid from the 8th Dimension: "Laugh'a while you can, monkey-boy!" And another, apropos of what I'm exploring here: "Jesu Christe! It'a Make the ganglia TWITCH!" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xCyyU0bSPtk One wonders, then, "Is that all there is?" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qe9kKf7SHco Posted by: JTMcPhee | Jan 10, 2018 11:18:50 AM | 17 Russia has an opportunity to go USS Liberty ship on US electronics planes and UAVs. Of course, they won't. The most interesting information from b. and Magnier's blog is that Syria intends to wage an insurgency war of its own against the Turks, Kurds, AQ, al Nusra proxies in the de-escalation zones. This seems very good. Better than waging a counter-insurgency war that the US and Israel are shaping for the Syrians to fight. The US attempt to turning ISIS and AQ into insurgents seems problematic. Mostly, they will be terrorists on small scale, disrupting transportation and reconstruction of Syrian economy. If Syria launches its own insurgents in "occupied" areas, it will have the 'sea' of the populace to support its warriors. Already, in Idlib this is occurring. And presumably, along the Lebanon, Golan borders. Whatever, the future is more war, large scale or small scale. Poor Syria. How its neighbors desire to consume her. Russia will be forced out of its recent enclave strategy sooner than later. Diplomacy without military leverage will not result in security or sovereignty as the Russians hope. Posted by: Red Ryder | Jan 10, 2018 11:19:07 AM | 18 Carl at 7 Trump the Isolationist. He's gone. Trump to enrich the MIC further with increased nuclear weapons development and then break out the nukes first in response to conventional weapons attacks. Use of nukes to be in response to an attack on "critical infrastructure". In other words, any road, bridge, water tower, airstrip, utility, drainage ditch. In other words, a wide-open interpretation. Carte Blanche. What could possibly go wrong? Posted by: fastfreddy | Jan 10, 2018 11:42:43 AM | 19 The first bigger map has a wrong URL and should be http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/syriamap20180109.jpg so withouth the 2 a's. I think it's not that the US invaders and their SDF grunts are having troubles clearing the area of Daesh but that a lot less resources are made available now that they lost the race to Abu Kamal and the US needs an official pretense to stay in Syria and occupy the area which is completely illegal under international law. Without Daesh there would be even less reason and the one given would stick even less. Posted by: xor | Jan 10, 2018 12:10:38 PM | 20 @13 plenty of snow in the Sahara now - that should help the water situation a little Posted by: xLemming | Jan 10, 2018 12:14:11 PM | 21 I don't want to sound OT but China has announced that they are thinking of stopping purchase of US Treasuries....and the markets are responding. In the bigger picture of goings on I think this will have a significant impact on US MIC activities everywhere, including Syria. IMO, China has just cleared its throat and said, "Its all about global finance and I have big cards to play NOW" Thanks for the quality posting about progress in Syria b I just think that global focus may now shift to the power levers that fund ongoing US presence in the ME/Syria. Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 10, 2018 12:41:08 PM | 22 Indeed! I don't know if you follow weather much, but a great site to monitor is nullschool weather. It collects the weather data from all over the planet from satellites, runs it through super computers and gives about 35 overlays of weather, pollution, and ocean currents in one animation for any point on planet that is only 3 hours old. Not only is it incredibly useful, but it is some of the best free eye candy I've found. Additionally, it allows an individual to monitor the entire planet's weather patterns. One thing I've been watching over the past two years is how the jets streams have become much more wavy, or broken, due to a melting Arctic. Inasmuch as the jet streams drive precipitation patterns, the location of storms and droughts have become much more unpredictable, and result in much more freakish weather such as snow in the Sahara, a constant drought in the western US, icy cold weather on the US East Coast, etc. Under old normal conditions the jet streams ran pretty much from west to east and acted as boundaries between Arctic cold air and equatorial warm air. With the differential of temperatures between the Arctic and Equator diminishing, as the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, the jet streams have become much wavier delivering Arctic cold blasts to the tropics, and massive warm storms to the Arctic. Additionally the jet streams will now tend to get "stuck" in one position so certain areas will have prolonged dry or prolonged wet. With a runaway climate this will accelerate melting the Arctic more and as a wonderful side effect release massive amounts of frozen methane, which is 27x (100 year) to 86x (5 year) more powerful than CO2. Cheers! Posted by: Michael | Jan 10, 2018 12:41:29 PM | 23 thanks b.. excellent coverage of what is happening in syria... unfortunately the usa-israel-ksa and company are not going to back down.. they will continue as they see the strengthening of syria as part of a larger problem of the strengthening of iran, or even iraq and other players that are not playing the same song book these players want.. i think the recent drone attack is proof of my viewpoint.. russia needs to make a move based on this brazen act and it needs to send a message loud and clear to not fuck with russia they way the usa-israel is doing at present.. Posted by: james | Jan 10, 2018 1:18:12 PM | 24 SAA is pushing through to Aleppo following the rail line. Seems more important than a new road. The ISIS pocket is advancing in step with SAA. On a map, it looks like they are covering SAA's right flank. Perhaps the ISIS pocket is Syrians looking for reconciliation? Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Jan 10, 2018 1:19:53 PM | 25 psychohistorian @22 China already reduced its UST holdings significantly in 2016 as capital flight accelerated. They then tightened their capital account window to stanch the flow. This announcement is not anything new in terms what has already happened in the past. Wall St will be quite happy if the Chinese actually get rid of more UST as they need a lot of high quality collateral for all their speculative activities. There's plenty of demand for UST both domestically and internationally. Posted by: ab initio | Jan 10, 2018 1:26:37 PM | 26 Thank you, b. It is extremely important to hear that there has been developed efficient countermeasures to drone technology, which has been for recent years the means to assassinate individuals and even groupa of innocent people who simply congregate for weddings and funerals. That's a new normal I hope will now become obsolete. Posted by: Juliania | Jan 10, 2018 1:28:18 PM | 27 I doubt that Russia will let this go unanswered. Look out for some "mishap" that may soon hit some U.S. troops or interests abroad. b, would you please keep us posted when this happens! Posted by: ab initio | Jan 10, 2018 1:29:06 PM | 28 Buy a drone from Alibaba length 3.4m, wingspan 4m, Range 900 Km, carry load of 5Kg. https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/CHILONG-Red-Dragon-V-9hrs-endurance_60568131307.html?spm=a2700.7724857.main07.77.6648f0c7i3zoWI Posted by: harrylaw | Jan 10, 2018 1:34:44 PM | 29 James Lake @ 20. I'm in the UK as well and now find it quite alarming how the BBC shapes the news. Recently on Radio 4 I listened to the BBC talking of a terrorist group related to or derived from Al Qaeda merely as "rebels", and giving the impression that their actions were part of a legitimate insurgency. That's not how 9/11 was described. It's all too like the BBC's Ukraine reporting, in which the neo-Nazi component was played down and the indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas in Donetsk and Lugansk spoken of as legitimate warfare. Crazy. And not only the PR. All those journalists and expensive editors and more admin staff than you can shake a stick at, and there's more fact to be got on some one man and a dog Russian news outlet. I heard recently of an old BBC hand describing the way the BBC changed after David Kelly. What with that and what with the material we now see put out by the BBC, I reckon that as far as foreign news goes we've got ourselves our very own Pravda on the Thames. Posted by: English Outsider | Jan 10, 2018 1:41:48 PM | 30 Were where the drones launched from? Launched from the sea would seem a bit to obvious that it was a US attack. Erdogan has been making angry noises about SAA progress in Idlib. His tame jihadi's from Mare' were in Washington the other day. Southern Turkey or jihadi held Latakia near the Turk border seem good launch sites. Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Jan 10, 2018 1:45:28 PM | 31 The Syrian government have said the Kurds can have an administrative devolution type settlement within a united and sovereign Syria, this is probably ok with Turkey. The US partitioning plan will not be agreed by Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Russia or Iran or by many Kurds. Because it is landlocked the oil and gas could not be exported. Maybe a Berlin airlift operation could work? Posted by: harrylaw | Jan 10, 2018 1:55:12 PM | 32 When the new road to Aleppo is secured Rather like PeterAU @21, I was rather puzzled by this expression, b, as the Syrian thrust is some 10-15 km to the east of the main road, not along any particular route except for the rail line. (Sorry if I appear to be complaining about your English, b, I am not, as I appreciate the difficulties of writing in a non-native language). They are of course heading for the Abu Dhuhour airbase, and to close the eastern pocket. If they succeed in linking up with Aleppo, I doubt that there will be a new better road to Aleppo, as there are only country roads, and the rail line is a dead loss, as not repaired, and even if repaired, not much used. I guess they didn't head for opening the main road, because there are a number of major towns along it, which could take time to reduce. Posted by: Laguerre | Jan 10, 2018 2:05:03 PM | 33 paul@ 15 If you look at map sites such as Military Maps (Russian) you will see that the SAA has taken the T4 pumping station and the border between Iraq and Syria. This has allowed Iraq and Syria to open a transportation route between Iraq ans Syria and allow oil to be pumped from Iraq to Syria. Given that the US backed Kurdish forces are surrounded and are a minority in the areas that they currently control militarily they will be forced to rejoin Syria. The US presence will be resupplied by air, which is expensive. The US faces the same issue now that Trump has cut aid to Pakistan. Given the attempted coup in Turkey by the NATO trained portion of the Turkish forces and the cooperation between Turkey on the Kurdish problem it is likely that the Turks will not cooperate with the US backed Kurdish forces. Besides there are at least three major Kurdish factions along with other ethnic groups and any attempt by one of the Kurdish groups to create a Kurdish state will be opposed by the general population. All the US can do now is continue to sow chaos and where possible to block the OBOR (BRI). In case anyone failed to notice the US internal economy is in dire conditions with a huge addiction problem, increasing poverty, failing infrastructure and environmental decay. It is only a matter of time until the US implodes as ancient Sparta did. One cannot say that the US founding fathers didn't warn about going the way of Sparta by creating a military regime. Posted by: Krollchem | Jan 10, 2018 2:29:25 PM | 34 @30 Peter AU 1: According to Tass , the drones took off from one of the four de-escalation zones in Syria, this one being in Iblib zone: "The ministry also said the drones that tried to attack Hmeymim and Tartus had been launched from the area of Muazzar, in the southwestern part of the de-escalation zone Idlib, held by the armed groups of the so-called moderate opposition." Posted by: JS | Jan 10, 2018 2:39:23 PM | 35 @30 Peter AU 1: The Duran is also confirming this was the site of the launch with the clarification that it was from the Turkish controlled portion of the de-escalation zone "Today Russia's Ministry of Defence says is saying that the drone attack was launched from a Turkish controlled area in the heart of a so-called 'de-escalation zone' in north west Syria's Idlib province." Posted by: JS | Jan 10, 2018 2:48:57 PM | 36 Maybe its time the Russians stop being so "nice" towards US war invaders and start shooting (back). Posted by: Hannibal | Jan 10, 2018 2:52:01 PM | 37 @36 Maybe its time the Russians stop being so "nice" towards US war invaders and start shooting (back). That would be very unwise. Posted by: Laguerre | Jan 10, 2018 2:55:01 PM | 38 JS 34 I would guess this is the place Mawzarah. The name Muazzar not on wikimapia search. Syrian Civil War Map shows the area to be controlled by a group that is not part of HTS. https://syriancivilwarmap.com/ From the Tass article, "The ministry also said the drones that tried to attack Hmeymim and Tartus had been launched from the area of Muazzar, in the southwestern part of the de-escalation zone Idlib, held by the armed groups of the so-called moderate opposition. In this connection the Russian Defense Ministry dispatched messages to the chief of the Turkish Armed Forces' General Staff Hulusi Akar and chief of the National Intelligence Organization Hakan Fidan." Be interesting to know what was in those messages. Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Jan 10, 2018 3:12:30 PM | 39 If i understand correctly, the rebels are somewhat collapsing in Idlib. I don't say more than somewhat as we have yet to see. This is not easy to understand, as they have Western support. They should be able to resist to the bitter end. But no, 70,000 refugees are running. What is it? The population have lost confidence in the Jihadis? Posted by: Laguerre | Jan 10, 2018 3:16:41 PM | 40 psychohistorian @22 China reduced their holdings of UST significantly in 2016 as capital flight accelerated. They then tightened their window. They've been doing this for sometime so nothing new here. The Saudis have done the same for a while. If china actually does reduce their UST holdings further than just make an announcement, there's plenty of domestic and international demand. Wall St would love to have more high quality collateral for their speculative activities. Posted by: ab initio | Jan 10, 2018 3:20:02 PM | 41 @Laguerre | Jan 10, 2018 2:05:03 PM | 32 "I was rather puzzled by this expression as the Syrian thrust is some 10-15 km to the east of the main road, not along any particular route except for the rail line." Yeah, there's this main road you mention, which is the M5 motorway. It's out of reach for the Loyalists, at least for now. The "new road" is a pretty direct link between Hama and Aleppo. It runs well west of the railway, exiting Hama exactly to the Northeast and leading into Aleppo from straight south of the city. If they can secure that road it should make transport much easier and safer. It still runs partly through ISIS as well as FSA territory, but hopefully the SAA will change that. Just one of the many difficulties the Syrian gov. is still facing. I have to admit I've found b's Syria assessments a bit too optimistic now and then, regarding Syria's powers to overcome these difficulties. I think the army was depleted pretty badly, the manpower issue must be a nightmare to deal with. Regarding support from the air, it seems gov. forces are still well equipped with helicopters, but with jets it's the exact opposite. Of those outdated models they started the war with, many if not most got destroyed. The fact that for combat, they have to rely on their fleet of Aero L-39 trainer aircraft as well says it all. "It is high time to eliminate the Ghouta pocket." Amen to that! But again, manpower. They don't even seem to have enough troops to tightly seal the area off. Supplies for the Islamists keep coming through, apparently. I'm guessing via Jordan, with much love from the US, SA and Israel. I really hope that once the election in Russia is over, Putin will go back to increasing Russia's military presence in Syria. It's badly needed. Hell, Russia maintains a huge and wholly independent segment of airborne troops, something like 3 divisions. Haven't seen any of those in Syria! Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Jan 10, 2018 3:30:11 PM | 42 re Scotch Bingeington 40 The effective Syrian army is very small now, the Tiger forces and that's about it. They do quite well now, in what they're doing. The strategy with the isolated pockets has been to starve them out, as with Eastern Ghouta. Looks to be successful, but you have to accept rockets on Damascus in the meantime. Posted by: Laguerre | Jan 10, 2018 4:10:06 PM | 43 Details on the drones: http://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/3923666.html# They had been crafted by experienced manufacturers using all kind of components, not buildt in a professional military equipment factory. However, the craftsmen have been experienced and used widely available professional components for these one-way drones. Might well be that they got some support and know-how from Western services who took care of plausible deniability. owever, the timely monitoring of the attack and the Russion defense capabilities is suspicious. I recommend https://translate.yandex.com/translate for translation. Posted by: Kassandra | Jan 10, 2018 4:26:28 PM | 44 @ Red Ryder: quite OT for this diary, but you'd mentioned currencies (yuan, especially?) a few diaries ago, mentioning the SWIFT clearing system, but the comment thread had advanced to three pages or so, and i didn't give this essay for your perusal. escobar thought that the unstated, but underlying changes for russia nd china being named 'revisionist powers' and 'rivals',was this news: 'The Petro-Yuan Bombshell by Pepe Escobar; The new 55-page "America First" National Security Strategy' ...including this stunning game-changer, at least as far as i'm concerned: "The decision follows the establishment by Beijing, in October 2015, of the China International Payments System (CIPS). CIPS has a cooperation agreement with the private, Belgium-based SWIFT international bank clearing system, through which virtually every global transaction must transit. What matters, in this case, is that Beijing - as well as Moscow - clearly read the writing on the wall when, in 2012, Washington applied pressure on SWIFT; blocked international clearing for every Iranian bank; and froze $100 billion in Iranian assets overseas as well as Tehran's potential to export oil. In the event Washington might decide to slap sanctions on China, bank clearing though CIPS works as a de facto sanctions-evading mechanism.", etc. https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/12/25/the-petro-yuan-bombshell/ Posted by: wendy davis | Jan 10, 2018 4:39:14 PM | 45 41 Laguerre, How small is the Syrian Army? Are recruiting and training possible? Even with the high amount of refugees, there should be enough young men of fighting age to conscript. At least 2000 per month. Enough weapons in the field to equip new soldiers. Pose as AQ and feed from the enemy. See, the US, sorry "The Coalition", would have bombed East Goutha to rubbles and there would only be rats scurrying among the debris. But, the Syrians would like it as intact as possible. Tear gas is an option, deafening noise of high frequency is another, specially against the young (I assume most jihadists are young people). Drone attacks are also possible. Imagination is an absolute necessity. Could also warn residents of East Goutha that 48 hours after the warning anybody staying in East Goutha is considered an enemy and shall be put out of commission. Then start mortar shelling the place at night with concussion shells intent to shock and awe whomever stayed to be collected in the morning. I realize that I am being an armchair general... Posted by: CarlD | Jan 10, 2018 4:41:12 PM | 46 if the US was in any responsible for those drones, it would also be very interested in watching the Russian response - the timing, success rate, etc, in order to also learn more about the russian equipment and capabilities in Syria for... uh... future 'reference' form the RT news article, "...Pentagon spokesman Maj. Adrian Rankin-Galloway, however, claimed that "those devices and technologies can easily be obtained in the open market.".... Well I guess those "open market" technologies and devices can go both ways, right? Who could believe that there won't be blow-back against US interests or forces somewhere in eastern Europe or the middle east? Posted by: michaelj72 | Jan 10, 2018 4:50:28 PM | 47 Iran has been developing drone warfare for years, they have just reverse engineered the US Sentinel RQ170 they brought down several years ago. Hezbollah also have armed drones flying around Israel.One intercepted flying near Dimona. Oh dear. "According to video evidence, the Lebanese militant group has used small, cheap unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, to drop bombs on Syrian rebels in northern Syria. A video posted on YouTube in August shows what appears to be shrapnel bombs being launched from micro-drone operated by Hezbollah". http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/analysis-hezbollah-enters-new-war-use-armed-drones-syria-11412100 Posted by: harrylaw | Jan 10, 2018 5:12:26 PM | 48 b, the link to the "bigger" version of the first map has a mistake (an extra "a") Posted by: claudio | Jan 10, 2018 5:19:52 PM | 49 South Front's reporting the liberation of the Abu Duhur Airbase. Thus, the creation of a caldron to the east will soon occur. I'd like to direct interested barflies to the latest entry at Syrian Perspectives where Ziad in the opening paragraph introduces us to the late outstanding historian at the Beirut American University Professor Kamal Salibi and "his monumental book: The Bible Came from Arabia ." His life works brought acclaim even as he remained unknown--airbrushed--here in the West because of his very important hypothesis: Israel in Arabia. My first Yandex search brought me to a different Wikipedia page than what I got on my second search ; although there doesn't seem to be any textual differences, the initial search result no longer appears, which is odd to say the least. The man appears to have been a classic Truth seeking scholar wiling to report the facts he discovered instead of supporting a political agenda. Is most controversial work, The Bible Came from Arabia , has become a very rare book, hard to find under $250; yet, his other two works in support of his hypothesis remain accessible and are discussed as my basic research into them has shown. Even more interesting is that he got his PhD in England studying under Bernard Lewis. I find it rather fascinating even if it's in the realm of esoteria given the reality of today's Palestine. Ziad always brings up the fact that today's "Jews" lack the proper DNA for any claim to Palestinian heritage. Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 10, 2018 5:39:25 PM | 50 Opps, Link to SyrPers article. Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 10, 2018 5:40:58 PM | 51 The massive weakness of Khmeimim is that it is overcrowded and does not have aircraft shelters, let alone hardened ones. If the drone attack forces Russia and Syria to build up their airbases, all the better for the long-term security of Syria. Likewise, Tartus needs better defenses, all the better to stand up to the Turkish naval buildup and seagrab. That's a price Russia will have to pay for a solid foothold. Posted by: fx | Jan 10, 2018 5:56:14 PM | 52 Canthama provides the latest from SyrPers; events are occurring rapidly: "The cauldron is about to be split in two over night, forces form Khanaser is advancing toward the TFs lines and the issue here is that this is the very last bottleneck for rats to flee the southern portion of the cauldron. "As soon as the cauldron collapse we may see the following situation: 1) 3,000 sq kms liberated 2) ISIS pocket will be over stretched, some 1,000 ISIS terrorists inside does not represent a massive force and even more stretched over 60-70 small villages, it will be very hard for ISIS to retain all the ground, they may retreat to better defended positions (higher ground). 5th Corp, Qalamoun Shield and some ISIS Hunters will feast on them, same group that destroyed ISIS in eastern Hama large pocket. 3) With al Hass plateau rat free, there will be massive amount of SAA/NDF/allies freed to focus on a much shorter frontline that will be a parallel line to M5, the concentration and firepower of the advancing Syrian/allies forces will be very significant. 4) Important to note that a lot of areas near M5 are not defended at all, no battles fought there since the total retreat early 2015, so al Qaeda and boyfriends/goats won't be able to build sophisticated defenses there as they currently have in northern Hama for instance or western Aleppo. It plays well for the TFs if the High Command continues to push this offensive toward controlling all M5." Meanwhile in Outlaw US Empire controlled Raqqa, no attempts at demining, clearing rubble or reconstruction of any sort occurring, which greatly contrasts with efforts in areas liberated by Syrian government forces--Assad must go for any such funding or activity to occur is the mantra from the coalition of the killers. Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 10, 2018 5:59:14 PM | 53 fx@50 Agree about Khmeimim airbase, I have a car worth PS100 pounds in a double bricked garage with a 12 inch concrete roof. If its true the Russians have $65 million dollar SU-35's parked up, and unprotected, that is unbelievable. Posted by: harrylaw | Jan 10, 2018 6:31:52 PM | 54 Ok...about the sophistication of DIY or hobby aircraft...and what you can and cannot do with off the shelf stuff... Some quite useless guessing and navel gazing going on here... First off...some pictures of the craft that were commandeered by electronic means and landed safely by Russian specialists... These are quite simple aircraft common in the radio-controlled [RC] aircraft hobby... The aerodynamic design is quite rudimentary and the engine is a gasoline type [we see that by the spark plug cable]...spinning a simple wood two-blade prop...the wingspan would appear to be on the order of maybe five or six feet... Buying or building something like this is a snap for anyone with RC experience... The airframe is actually quite primitive even by RC standards...making use of styrofoam for the wing and tail surfaces... The difficult part is getting it to fly beyond the line of sight limitations of the handheld radio-controller... Beyond line of sight flight can only be accomplished by means of an autopilot system...this too can be bought off the shelf...such as this item... The autopilot performs the same function as that in a full size plane...ie you punch in the flight plan and the autopilot uses its gyroscopic sensors to maintain the aircraft in a stable flying position firstly...and on the intended route secondly... These hobby autopilots may or may not be physically limited in some way because of the rules in the US about RC planes...especially autonomous flight beyond visual line of sight which is prohibited... More sophisticated autopilot systems are also available... Some hobbyists are even building their own autopilots for autonomous flight... using Arduino microcontroller boards...[which some of the ready made autopilots also use...] All of the sensors...ie the accelerometers for the gyros that keep the airplane in flying position...the barometric pressure sensors for altitude...and the GPS/Glonass receivers are quite cheap and readily available for a roll your own autopilot... So on this score it is in fact quite obvious that this type of aircraft can be built with off the shelf components...and many are doing so as a hobby... But here again...the rules state clearly that one may not operate an autopilot equipped ship beyond visual range... This does not mean that those autopilot systems cannot do that...they seem to be able to because the rules also explicitly state... 'Some autopilot flight-mode functions must not be operated at their maximum capabilities because they are contrary to AMA/FAA sUAS rules.' Once the airplane is built the flight would proceed like this...the engine is started by spinning the prop by hand... The handheld radio controller has a joystick that performs the same way as a control column in a full size airplane...ie moving it right or left deflects the ailerons on the trailing edge of the wing...initiating a banking turn... Moving it forward or back deflects the elevator on the trailing edge of the horizontal tailplane...initiating an up or down nose pitch... And a separate control moves the rudder surface which is on the trailing edge of the vertical tail or fin...initiating a left or right yaw of the aircraft... There is also a power control for the engine... The takeoff roll is performed and the airplane is stabilized in flight...the autopilot can then be switched on from the radio controller ...and it then takes over all of the aforementioned flight control inputs...and guides the course of the flight by means of GPS/Glonass... That's really all there is to it... The major difference between something like this and the remotely piloted large drones like the Predator, Reaper and such is that those are piloted at all times via satellite link...these are fully qualified military pilots btw... Obviously these primitive craft do not make use of satellite for remote control... The only piece of hardware that might be questionable here is the fusing device for detonating the explosive payload... Obviously the system on board the aircraft must be able to determine when the target is reached and to then detonate...the satnav system...ie GPS/Glonass would give the when ...but how that trigger would work might require a bit more sophistication... Even so I would not rule it out...DIY ingenuity should not be underestimated...we have people designing and building quite sophisticated 3D printers and all kinds of microcontrollers using the Arduino stuff... I would say that the Russians may be making some PR hay here...if they have some specific technical details that point to sophistication beyond what I have described here...they should release it so it can be evaluated... Now about the Navy Poseidon aircraft that just happened to be flying around in the area at the time...well that certainly does not look good... This is mostly an anti-submarine warfare [ASW] platform...but it doesd have some ground surveillance capabilities...certainly it would be capable of monitoring such a flight of drones... The suspicion is certainly there that the US is perhaps helping to coordinate some of this stuff...perhaps giving some RC training to some of the so-called 'rebels'... But the bulk of the technical capabilities of these kinds of craft could be easily done by a good RC hobbyist... Also of note...GPS signals are extremely weak and easy to jam [even by hobby equipment]...the Russian military hardware to do this is much more capable and is deployed in Syria... the Zhitel EW system... Posted by: FB | Jan 10, 2018 6:34:10 PM | 55 Actually...looking at the photo of one of the UAVs at the top of the page linked previously where we have an office desk for scale...it looks to have a span probably closer to 12 ft or so... Posted by: FB | Jan 10, 2018 7:07:43 PM | 56 I am bemused by the back and forth on the drone attack. Let us say I were an unnamed Western "intelligence" agency. Would I suggest that "moderate rebels" stage a drone attack utilizing my sophisticated equipment that could certainly be traced to me? Probably not. Would I be able to advise on how to acquire parts for, construct and WEAPONIZE (the latter not being the typical thing at which "RC hobbyists" are adept) amateur-looking drones? Probably. Indeed, I note that local RC hobbyists can acquire much sleeker-looking drones. Finally, would I or RC hobbyists be better at calculating and coordinating attack vectors factoring in the diverse variables including payloads so as to maximize stealth and effectiveness? Posted by: zakukommander | Jan 10, 2018 7:32:17 PM | 57 @19 -- "Trump the Isolationist. He's gone." In terms of banking he never was isolationist. "Trump waives criminal punishments for convicted banks, including Deutsche Bank, to whom he owes $130,000,000-$300,000,000" ( link ) Posted by: x | Jan 10, 2018 7:57:05 PM | 58 @ zakukommander... I have already said that yes it certainly would seem likely that there is a helping hand in this... As for weaponizing a model airplane...this is not that difficult in concept... You can see that the fuselage is basically covered in plastic held together with tape... A model airplane of this size could easily carry an explosive payload of perhaps several kg...I would say maybe three or four tops... Payload is a simple matter of the airplane wing's ability to lift a total amount of weight needed...including a fair bit of fuel for a 100 km flight...that's why we see this airplane has a rather large wing surface area... This would require some basic aeronautical design knowledge...but not beyond some RC hobbyists...many of which are practicing or retired pilots and aeronautical engineers... Do some among the 'rebel' crowd have these kinds of skills...? I don't know the answer to that... Are they getting help...? It should not surprise anyone if they are... Posted by: FB | Jan 10, 2018 8:35:18 PM | 59 @55 zakukomander, John Robb's been writing quite a bit about weaponizing drones and suggested terrorizing the OBOR as a matter of US national interest. I can almost smell the pride in this piece on the Hmeymim attack. http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2018/01/drone-swarm-vs-russian-base-in-syria.html Posted by: Jonathan | Jan 10, 2018 8:37:24 PM | 60 Just a point. Russia/ Putin will soon have a "freer" hand to up the ante in Syria. In the next few months Putin will likely win easy re-election, and a few months after that Russia will host a (very likely) very successful Football World Cup wrapping by mid-July. So in 6 months time the coast becomes clearer for Russia. Looking further ahead, Turkstream is due to come online by the end of next year, let's say Jan. 2020. I wouldn't be surprised if later this year Russia gives the Turks the "Green Light" for an Afrin "takeover". If not later this year, definitely by sometime in 2020 - which has the added bonus of being in a US Presidential Election year... Upping the pressure between NATO allies Turkey & USA for a US Administration seeking re-election. Posted by: Julian | Jan 10, 2018 10:36:59 PM | 61 @ Jonathan... I checked out this brief piece by John Robb... He adds this at the bottom... '...The swarm also appears to be remotely controlled, likely as a means to provide target acquisition and terminal guidance. This allowed defense units to hack them...' 'Remotely controlled' is highly unlikely...in fact I would say ridiculous... This cannot be done with off the shelf RC airplane stuff...which radio controllers only work within line of sight due to the nature of the radio frequency...which is 72 megaHertz...there are 50 dedicated channels from 72.01 to 72.99 MHz...in 0.02 MHz increments... This small slice of radio band is reserved for RC aircraft and this is what the radio controllers are built for... This frequency is in the VHF band... [very high frequency] which is used for FM radio, TV as well as air traffic control communications with aircraft...and air navigation systems...ie navaids for landing and such...each particular use of this band has a certain block of frequencies set aside for its exclusive use... Aircraft cruising at high altitude can communicate quite long distances in this band but this makes use of high ground antennas...so they are still line of sight communications...but can reach longer due to the antenna height and aircraft altitude... Even flying in a small plane at say 3,000 ft you will be lucky to get good radio at a distance of 40 nautical miles...[about 70 km] This equipment also uses more powerful radio transmitters and receivers...both on the ground and in the airplane... So 'remotely controlled' is not going to happen beyond line of sight with off the shelf model RC airplane equipment that is much weaker...that's going to be maybe a few kilometers... For radio comms beyond line of sight the HF [high frequency] band is used...this is a lower frequency of between 3 and 30 MHz...these can reach very long distances because the radio signals in this wavelength bounce off the ionosphere... These are used for radio comms with aircraft over ocean routes...where there are obviously no ground antennas nearby...but they are notoriously sensitive and temperamental...due to the bouncing... Anyway this kind of equipment is not suitable for a flight of 100 km...it is really for much longer distances...and would be very difficult for anything but an expert to cook up... So this John Robb...who claims to be a USAF Academy graduate in astronautics...as well as an airline transport pilot...is talking nonsense here about remotely controlled airplanes with off the shelf equipment reaching 100 km... Like I said earlier...a well working autopilot will get this kind of aircraft to 100 km if it is designed correctly...but there is no remote control involved once the autopilot takes over... Hacking into the airplane would not be that difficult by spoofing the GPS/Glonass receiver on board the aircraft...ie feeding a false location signal...this is how the Iranians brought down the extremely advanced USAF RQ170 Sentinel UAV... Posted by: FB | Jan 10, 2018 11:55:33 PM | 62 US tried to use a swarm of Tomahawks against the Syrian airbase last year, but lost over half of them. I guess they would be interested in what tech Russia used. Now a small swarm of drones attacks the Russian base and just by chance a US surveillance plane is loitering in the area. Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Jan 11, 2018 12:04:15 AM | 63 @61 Peter AU 1 Makes sense. Force the enemy to move so you can read him. Probing by fire, it was sometimes called. The attack serves multiple purposes. So it fits multiple analyses. Russian MOD says it was foreign, despite the plausible deniability built in. I wonder if we'll even see the Russian response - it depends what they want to find out, or demonstrate, I suppose. It's the ironic thing about Russia, the better it performs, the more its supporters are in the dark about what it's doing. Personally, I'm glad to see this turn into insurgency warfare. Less people die, the hands of the doomsday clock stop and maybe even relax a notch or two, and the tricks become more subtle. I read the analysis by Magnier and I can see why b recommended it. The piece by Bhadrakumar that Don Bacon linked @11 was equally good. And combined with the post by Ziad Fadel that karlof1 linked @49 we have a trifecta of superb analysis that rounds out b's summation, and places it all into global and historical perspective. We've entered an entirely distinct new phase of the Syrian conflict, which is itself the crucible of a much larger regional conflict, and ultimately of course a global and perhaps even civilizational conflict. This is the time of patience now, and those who are not patient will not meet the demands of this time, not on the battlefield, and not here on the sidelines - IMHO. Posted by: Grieved | Jan 11, 2018 1:59:58 AM | 64 @62 Guess I should have recapped those links: Magnier , Bhadrakumar , Fadel . Posted by: Grieved | Jan 11, 2018 2:08:51 AM | 65 Turkey is more plausible as the instigator of drones because they have the best control of what goes to Idlib-stan. Recently Erdogan was making pretty hostile comments against Assad, and he is unhappy with the offensive that aims to cut 1/3 of the Idlib-stan away. On the ground, both sides have limited number of mobile forces capable of serious attacks, and on Idlib-stan side, the leadership of such forces is fractured. Some decent counter attacks were launched in the last 24 hours, the advance of Tigers onto Abu Al-Duhur was repelled and there was an attack on the west flank of the salient that changed the control of two villages, if temporarily. This attack is ongoing. OTOH, Tigers are the best of SAA, of second-best are still quite good. Defense of Khanasser highway seem to consist of "third-best" and a quick reaction force that liquidates any breaches through third-best defenses. Now these "second-best" attack to split the east lobe of Idlib-stan into southern and northern parts, and they made impressive progress. That makes a real dilemma for the defenders how to allocate forces: Tigers on their west side, ISIS on their south, and Khanasser forces on the east (they were described as "SAA-led"). Strangely enough, ISIS pocket so far avoided attacks on SAA, but one was also reported in the last 24 hours. This is a multi-way war theater. Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 11, 2018 8:07:00 AM | 66 By "salient" I mean the territory conquered by Tiger offensive, with east and west flanks defended by a combination of "second-best" forces. b changed the adjective for that offensive from to "importent". That should be caught by a spell checker. Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 11, 2018 8:14:58 AM | 67 Posted by: Jonathan | Jan 10, 2018 8:37:24 PM | 60 John Robb's been writing quite a bit about weaponizing drones and suggested terrorizing the OBOR as a matter of US national interest. As they say, those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones . BTW, does the United States still have asylums? I only ask 'cos the morons seem to be running the government, the imbeciles seem to be running the Pentagon and CIA while the idiots populate the Washington think tanks. Posted by: Ghost Ship | Jan 11, 2018 8:18:27 AM | 68 Oh, and another thing? Does the United States have anything like the Pantsir? They used to have mobile radar-controlled autocannons but I think they were scrapped as being obsolete in the brave new world of air supremacy. I'd be interested to know how effective an F-22 or F-35 would be against a swarm of these drones. Actually I doubt the United States military would be so stupid as to organize an operation like this because it lays bare major issues they would have with such an attack. On the otherhand the idiots at the CIA are stupid and arrogant enough to do something like this and tell the USN that it would be worth their while to have a Posiden lurking in the area. I have to add that I'm a bit puzzled that it was a USN Boeing P-8 Poseidon that was used given it's designed for "anti-submarine warfare (ASW), anti-surface warfare (ASUW), and shipping interdiction, along with an early warning self-protection (EWSP) ability". I would have expected it to be something like the USAF Northrop Grumman E-8 Joint STARS. I suppose a naval aircraft flying over the Mediterranean is a bit more deniable. Posted by: Ghost Ship | Jan 11, 2018 8:41:21 AM | 69 Dear paul: "the us has a stronghold in Syria" Pls tell us how many inhabitants does this kurdish piece of land have and how much percent it is of Syrian population. Then clarify us how can Turkey with borders to its west will behave towards the existence of the kurdish/uncle sam stronghold... And how could washington prevent russians & turks to collude on this stupid move. Posted by: augusto | Jan 11, 2018 10:25:35 AM | 70 >>>> FB | Jan 10, 2018 11:55:33 PM | 62 ...which radio controllers only work within line of sight due to the nature of the radio frequency... The P-8 Poseidon would have line of sight to the drones. Also, launching the drones near the air base would have been difficult but positioning someone close to the base with a radio controller would be quite easy given that they can get within mortar range easily enough. So the drones are launched in Idlib with a local radio controller providing "terminal guidance" is possible. Posted by: Ghost Ship | Jan 11, 2018 10:41:38 AM | 71 Meanwhile over the other side of Idlib, the SAA have focused their attack on HTS and cutting off a large chunk of HTS controlled territory from the Idlib pocket. As usual the idiots of al Zinki, Ahrar al-Sham, TiP, FSA, etc. decide to attack the SAA even though the de-confliction agreement should prevent it. So, now the Russians will bomb al Zinki, Ahrar al-Sham, etc and the western MSM such as the Guardian, New York Times, Washington Post, etc. will overlook the terrorists' breach,and blame it all on Russia and Assad. The sooner the terrorists and all their supporters are "removed from the pages of history" the better. Posted by: Ghost Ship | Jan 11, 2018 10:49:22 AM | 72 Ghost Ship @ 71... Yes...the Poseidon would have been within line of sight to the drones even from a long distance... This is a good point... Being an ASW ship doesn't mean the P8 can't carry all kinds of additional gear on board as needed...it's a Boeing 737 after all...with plenty of room on board... This brings up the possibility that the P8 'could' conceivably have been carrying radio transmitters working in the 72 MHz band and able to remotely control the UAVs... These transmitters would need to be much more powerful than off the shelf RC airplane transmitters which are limited to just 0.75 watt power by the FCC... By comparison a passenger jet VHF radio is 25 watts...and ATC [air traffic control] radios are from 25 to 100 W... It would not be difficult for any radio engineer to build a custom radio set in the 72 MHz band that could be as powerful as you want...25 W would be plenty to reach well over 100 km at an altitude a P8 would fly at... The antenna would be quite small and could even be inside a flying aircraft...similar to the small handheld backup VHF radios used by private pilots... However...and this is a big one... Doing something like this would be sure to be picked up instantly by the Russians...who are monitoring every single radio blip over Syria and beyond... This kind of thing could not be denied... We recall the incident in Syria in October 2016 where the Russians identified two Belgian F16s flying out of Jordan that bombed a village near Aleppo... The problem was that the US side did not notify the Russians of the flight in advance as per the deconfliction rules... Brussels denied the flight ever took place...but the Russians even had the airplanes' tail numbers...which is the real shocker... This info is only available to 'friendlies' by means of the warplane's IFF [identification friend or foe] transponder...which transmits an encrypted radio code... Friendly aircraft can thus identify the plane...but adversaries cannot...[although they can hear the transmissions]... It is still a mystery as to how the Russians managed to do this...but they made a big diplomatic kerfuffle over it and even presented the proof to the Belgians...so one must assume that they did in fact manage to do this... This gives an important clue as to the Russians' capability in the electronic warfare sphere... Considering this...it would seem idiotic that the Americans would try something like controlling that flight of terrorist UAVs from one of their aircraft...it would be easily proven as a hostile act against Russian forces...the repercussions would be significant... As for the possibility of having some terrorists near Hmeimim and Tartus with off the shelf RC transmitters...well...this could of course happen...but one would assume such infiltrators could not get very near those facilities...and those weak transmitters might not be up to the job from a distance of more than a few km... In any case...it is not necessary...an autopilot equipped homemade UAV like this could quite easily do what these did... Posted by: FB | Jan 11, 2018 12:21:23 PM | 73 According to this article, Putin is saying Turkey had nothing to do with the drone attack. https://sputniknews.com/russia/201801111060680364-putin-syria-bases-attack/ ..."There were provocateurs there but they were not Turks, we know who was it was... We know, how much and whom they have paid for this provocation," Putin said... ..."Concerning the attacks, we have no doubts that they had been well prepared, we know when and where these drones were transferred, as well as the number of drones," Putin added... Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Jan 11, 2018 2:24:24 PM | 74 @65 Txs Grieved for the links.. Posted by: Lozion | Jan 12, 2018 12:01:42 AM | 75 Five years of the killing of the University of Aleppo where the "moderates" murdered hundreds of students. R.I.P. Posted by: elsi | Jan 15, 2018 6:35:33 PM | 76 Hi Elsi... I just saw your reply to me on the Seventeen Moments thread and tried to post a reply there but it is not coming up... I think this happens when there are a lot of hyperlinks in the message... I tried just now to post it here too...but again it is not working... PS: I know you aren't talking to me anymore...but I will still talk to you... Posted by: FB | Jan 16, 2018 3:15:25 PM | 77 The comments to this entry are closed.

The northern blue part in the map above is now under government control. Immediately east of Damascus city the Ghouta pocket, held by various Jihadi groups, has long been a huge problem.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which Trump's team said Obama shoved through the legal system in non-consensual ways which would make Kevin Spacey blush , has been upheld by a federal judge residing in the People's Republic of California. Temper your shock. From The New York Times : WASHINGTON -- In the middle of an intense political fight about the program that shields from deportation young immigrants who were brought illegally to the United States as children, a federal judge in California issued a nationwide injunction late Tuesday ordering the Trump administration to start the program back up again. The keyword here is "California" judge. Who was appointed to the bench by none other than alleged rapist, Bill Clinton. So there's that. If I were a betting woman, I'd say the judge plastered his home office with #ImWithHer signage. I guess it's better than portraits of the Puffy Pantaloon Queen. Saying the decision to kill it was improper, Judge William Alsup of Federal District Court in San Francisco wrote that the administration must "maintain the DACA program on a nationwide basis" as the legal challenge to the president's decision goes forward. In other words: keep the kids here until your heart finds the good lord. Where "the good lord" means public opinion swaying you to the "correct side." Probably spelled out in legal footnote somewhere. The Trump administration first said DACA had to go because it was implemented as well as Lena Dunham's fashion sense. That Obama's band of merry men hadn't gone through the proper legal channels in DACA's creation. In his ruling, Judge Alsup questioned the administration's contention that the DACA program had not been put into place legally. He asserted that the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security has long had the authority to grant the kind of temporary protections that formed the basis of the program. It almost sounds like Alsup's legal beagle practices are up to snuff. Until he scurried over to Trump's Twitter timeline in search of evidence. You know, as all prestigious judges do. Judge Alsup also cited several of Mr. Trump's Twitter posts that expressed support for the program. He noted that in September, the president wrote : "Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military? Really!" Such tweets, the judge said, bolstered the idea that keeping the program going was in the public's interest. Ah, so suddenly DACA is about the "public interest" and not whether or not its legal foundation is built on a house of sand-filled underpants. Obviously, Donald Trump couldn't help himself. His stubby, normal sized fingers (wink), flittered across his mobile keyboard to smack out this little beauty: It just shows everyone how broken and unfair our Court System is when the opposing side in a case (such as DACA) always runs to the 9th Circuit and almost always wins before being reversed by higher courts. -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 Which means we'll have to wait and see what the administration does next against the courts, and whether or not DACA gets scrubbed with a cloth or something. The big problem here is three-fold: We have an immigration enforcement system flecked with more holes that Debbie Wasserman Schultz's IT security . Federal judges who tilt further left than a drunk Amy Schumer make questionable calls based on Twitter streams and muh feelings. Once a law is created and implemented, even if the law was cooked up in a lab rivaling that of Frankenstein, it's hard to get rid of it. Good luck trying to neutralize a law electrified with life by a big-eared president with a verbal crutch reliance. Now we get to wait it out. Yippee. NOT SUBSCRIBED TO THE PODCAST? FIX THAT ! IT'S COMPLETELY FREE ON BOTH ITUNES HERE AND SOUNDCLOUD HERE .

In the middle of an intense political fight about the program that shields from deportation young immigrants who were brought illegally to the United States as children, a federal judge in California issued a nationwide injunction late Tuesday ordering the Trump administration to start the program back up again. The keyword here is "California" judge.

Ray DiLorenzo is a career pilot having retired after 22 years as a contract fire pilot with the California Department of Forestry (Cal-Fire). He is presently affiliated with Stand Up America founded by Maj. Gen. Paul E. Vallely (Ret). Most Recent Articles by Ray DiLorenzo: 1 2 3 Next Page Last Page Jul 14, 2018 -- Ray DiLorenzo After a sordid history of slavery, the KKK, and Jim Crow, the Democratic Party in the early 1960s enjoyed 'one brief shining moment'. Kennedy-style liberalism brought a pledge to further civil rights, equal rights under the law. It stood up against communism, made a commitment to conquer space, lower taxes and fiscal responsibility. Now we are witness to a takeover of a major political party in America and it's a two-pronged attack. It has been in the works for decades and they are nearing its completion. Jun 30, 2018 -- Ray DiLorenzo In 1860, the Democrat Party refused to accept the election of Abraham Lincoln. They were convinced he was an abolitionist that would put an end to their 'peculiar institution'. He was not. Lincoln often spoke against slavery, but his main objective was to preserve the Union while keeping slavery out of the new territories. The American Civil War was not a civil war at all. It was a war of secession. The South had no interest in taking over the seats of government in Washington. They merely wanted out of the Union. Today's Democrat Party does not want out, they want in and they want it all. Jun 23, 2018 -- Ray DiLorenzo The Democrats and their media comrades have worked hard to trash the President-Elect and now the President. Since day one they have tried to connect Trump to some Russia collusion conspiracy. But, after eighteen months, the story has not been able to stick. In fact, it may end up achieving the opposite effect. Last month it was Stormy Daniels. That trouncing hasn't worked either. Poor Democrats, they don't seem to be able to take the high ground on sexual assault stories. Now that they haven't achieved any traction thus far, the Left has decided to throw another piece of dirt on the wall to see if it sticks...child abuse. No one looked twice when Obama separated kids from their parents and housed them in detention centers, with photos to prove it. But now, somehow, it's different. It's a Republican. On Thursday, the Democrats even sent their loyal bag man, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) to Fox News to tell Trump supporters that their President is a "cold, con artist" who "hates kids and wants to see them suffer." Jun 2, 2018 -- Ray DiLorenzo The United States and other Western nations have been assaulted with Political Correctness (PC), the repudiation of saying what you think. It seems to have come from nowhere and on the surface it appears to protect minorities or the disadvantaged from being marginalized. In reality, it is designed to create dissatisfaction with the status quo, culturally, politically, socially, and economically, while creating victimology and deep division among people and groups. It is a loss of proportion, an absence of humor and the freedom to laugh at oneself. It pits good people against each other. PC is not a new phenomena. It is at least 100 years old and finds its genesis in Marxist theology during World War I. May 28, 2018 -- Ray DiLorenzo Memorial Day is a time for remembering those that died while serving our country. And so we shall. But this year, let's also remember the multitude of Americans that have and are dedicating themselves to the restoration of this great nation...the people that have placed themselves on the front lines of a battle for our very existence from those that would destroy our country as founded - the Conservative writers, speakers, radio and TV news analysts, parents that monitor school curriculum, citizens that attend town hall meetings, veterans, and all the dependable voters who refuse to buy into liberal, anti-American theology. May 12, 2018 -- Ray DiLorenzo "There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet an enemy" --George Washington When President Reagan was conducting a sound test before his weekly Saturday radio address on National Public Radio he said, "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." Of course, Reagan's words were not broadcast, but the word got out. Democrats everywhere were making appointments with their cardiologists. When President Trump told North Korea's Kim Jong-un that his nuclear button is bigger AND it works, Democrats again became paralyzed with fear and with trembling and gnashing of teeth. There were immediate calls for impeachment and an examination of his mental state. May 6, 2018 -- Ray DiLorenzo To all those who are sick and tired of politics as usual...tired of being angry, tired of having your hot button pushed, tired of being 'connected' with blowhards on Facebook, tired of the ranting and the raving, the complaints - real and imagined, and the swamp that refuses to drain...take a break. To the politicians and celebrities feverishly looking for a camera to stand in front of, tired power brokers, and reporters yelling stupid questions over forty other people...time out. Apr 28, 2018 -- Ray DiLorenzo The last presidential election was not just another election of a president, Republican vs. Democrat. Donald Trump's election was a movement, a clear sign that tens of millions of Americans are fed up with a government that only looks out for itself and a culture that is well on its way to oblivion. A government filled with rabid partisan politicians and corrupt career bureaucrats that plod along, ineffective, but comfortable in their impotence. A government filled with the types that are only interested in making their political adversaries look bad so they can appear to look good. Apr 21, 2018 -- Ray DiLorenzo The antebellum South saw a great rise in the agriculture industry. This profitable commerce needed a labor force for working the fields, cooking and serving the meals, and for general labor. Slaves from Africa bore most of the burden, but slaves from countries like Ireland were also used. Irish slaves came to America and the West Indies as early as 1625 when James II sold 30,000 Irish prisoners as slaves to the New World. It is estimated that approximately 100,000 Irish men, women, and children were transported to the colonies as slaves. Not to be called racist, Britain, in the 17th and 18th centuries, was an equal opportunity exploiter of human flesh, having sold over 600,000 Irish, Scottish, and Catholics into slavery. In early America, slavery was not a race issue, it was primarily a financial one. It was not until well into the 19th century, when the fusion of race, slavery, politics, and with the beginning of the ascension of the former white slaves, that people of African origin began to be known as Negros. Apr 14, 2018 -- Ray DiLorenzo There has been, in recent years, a dangerous trend among Democrats to get what they want through coercion or through circumvention, ignoring the Constitution and the democratic process. It has now surfaced in plain view for everyone to see. Democrats are notoriously committed to getting their way...the ends justifies the means...and they are tremendously confident in the willingness of Americans to see their rights dissolve. Apr 7, 2018 -- Ray DiLorenzo With California state government seemingly going its own way and with much division in the country, even in California where cities are beginning to push back against an extreme left tide, the subject of secession has re-awakened from its long sleep. California's governor and much of the Left apparently have decided that they want all the benefits of being part of the United States, but without the responsibility or adherence to the law of the land. With that we are reminded that the first cause of the American Civil War was the South's (Democrats) refusal to accept the outcome of a presidential election...the election of Abraham Lincoln. It was essentially a war between Republicans and Democrats. And so it revives. Mar 31, 2018 -- Ray DiLorenzo The main objective of all despots and most politicians is to stay in power. How do they manage to achieve that? The experts say fear, control of information, reward, and being somewhat nuts goes a long way to holding on to power. There are a few sub-rules as well...depend on as few people as possible to keep yourself in power; let the cronies that help keep you in power know they can be easily replaced; tax the people as much as possible to enrich yourself and pay off your toadies; distribute as little tax revenue as possible, just enough to give people the impression you care about them while keeping hope alive that things will get better. Mar 25, 2018 -- Ray DiLorenzo If there is any group that believes in get 'em while they're young, it's the Left. They have almost completely taken over the media, education system and entertainment industry, putting aside much educating and informing in favor of propagandizing and misleading. Who can deny that many of our founders have, in recent years, been depicted as pariahs?...our country painted as irredeemably racist and unjust? Like many of us, I watched the March For Our Lives and was near outraged at the ignorance. It was almost a remake of the sixties flower children, convinced they had a better idea, a better morality than their parents. They didn't! Grace Slick from San Francisco's Jefferson Airplane said it best, "In the sixties, we thought we could change the world. In the seventies, we found we couldn't even change ourselves, so we went for the money." Mar 17, 2018 -- Ray DiLorenzo Has the Left any arrows remaining in their quiver? The 'New' Democrat Party, if it is new at all, is certainly not afraid to try anything to win favor or an election. It has become an unrecognizable freak show. Democrats today are not interested in cooperation, teamwork, give-and-take or any kind of partnership in good governance. They insist on either running the show or tag-teaming to fight the opposition by every possible means. They brawl against racism where none exists. They fight for in-your-face homosexuality, transgenderism, abortion, satanism, euthanasia, selling body parts, restricting free speech. They fight against every minuscule form of offensive speech. They routinely demean their fellow Americans by calling them bigots and racists. Women and young girls wear vagina costumes. They don black masks and then attempt to display their sanctimony while they assault Trump supporters with bricks and bicycle chains. Some Democrat leaders may disavow groups like Antifa, but how many of these rioters are registered Democrats? They lure children to political rallies, trying to get them excited about restricting their constitutional rights when all that the kids cared about was getting out of school for a day. Mar 10, 2018 -- Ray DiLorenzo Dealing with North Korea is nothing new. Past presidents have doled out their wisdom or lack of it for decades. In 1994, President Clinton, taking a break from being the party animal, received reports from the CIA that North Korea had built or was building nuclear warheads, complete with threats of turning Japan and South Korea into a "sea of fire." In a 'tough' response, Clinton sent the always self-anointed Jimmy Carter, our very own Neville Chamberlain, but with his empty suitcases, to Pyongyang to 'confront the threat.' Carter 'succeeded' by promising North Korea two new reactors and $5 billion in aid, all for a promise to not hurt us. Mar 3, 2018 -- Ray DiLorenzo There has been a war going on for the hearts and minds of Americans since the first part of the twentieth century. There were those who wanted to import the Bolshevik Revolution to the United States, establishing a Communist Party, a worker's paradise, that would rule in America. They first had to radically change our culture to allow the cancer to grow and metastasize. During the exposure of many of these communists in the late 50s, and with the cold war in full swing, Communism went underground. Communism has re-emerged under new labels, Liberalism, Democratic Socialism and Progressivism. Since then, the Hard Left (including Hollywood, the education system, and the media) has been largely successful in turning the tables, portraying those who wanted to protect our nation from subversive activity as medieval inquisitors on witch hunts. Feb 24, 2018 -- Ray DiLorenzo We are burdened with a decades old liberal-socialist deep state, a corrupt mainstream media, and a public school and university system that perverts our history, culture and Constitution. This has spawned a legion of young and now mature individuals grabbing microphones. They make sweeping statements as ones with authority, but demonstrate their ignorance on subjects like the Constitution, of which they were taught little or nothing. The Left depends on this ignorance to further their grip on our liberty, furthering their agenda. It is manipulation on a grand scale. Feb 17, 2018 -- Ray DiLorenzo We live in two Americas. One cherishes freedom, the other demands safety and is willing to give up freedoms to achieve it. Recent surveys have shown a stark difference between the Left and Right on issues of patriotism and government's role in our lives. The Left wants and depends on big government, almost to a point of religious fervor. Liberals feel government is the only entity that can control the malevolence of mankind. The Right sees government as a necessary evil. Controlling the hostile tendencies of men and women belongs both to government and religion. Feb 10, 2018 -- Ray DiLorenzo I am a Republican, a conservative Republican. I believe in traditional proven social institutions, limited government, individual liberty, personal responsibility, a strong military, and capitalism. Government should provide people the freedom necessary to pursue their goals. What do Democrats believe in? The exact opposite with a major emphasis based on the need to not be a Republican. I'm sure there are many nice Democrats, people you can have lunch with or...wait, let me rephrase. I'm sure there are some nice Democrats...Democrats you can have lunch with or make small talk. But, the problem is most of the congenial, reasonable Democrats, especially in government positions, are long gone, leaving the remaining older, baby-boomer, sensible, grass roots Democrat voters alone in the wilderness, hanging on to the past, reminiscing of John Kennedy and Camelot. It was indeed one brief shining moment. Feb 3, 2018 -- Ray DiLorenzo One could easily argue that the country is in a state of disunion similar to the nation before the Civil War. Anyone who does not live in a vacuum can feel the demarcation. We have a very dangerous division...a divided middle class! It's divided politically, spiritually, ideologically, and socially. Each side has 'different dreams.' Every country on the planet has its rich and poor. But it's the middle class that makes for a vigorous and healthy society. The poor need to know they have some place to go...something to aspire to, while the rich need the middle class to provide a relief valve, a sort of protection from the sneering and suspicion of the poor. 1 2 3 Next Page Last Page

Ray DiLorenzo is a career pilot having retired after 22 years as a contract fire pilot with the California Department of Forestry (Cal-Fire). He is presently affiliated with Stand Up America founded by Maj. Gen. Paul E. Vallely

Newlyweds in Texas were excited about starting their lives together. They were especially excited about their new 'dream home', a Victorian-style house in a Texas community. The couple wanted to customize their new home, so they painted it a shade of bright teal. A real estate agent found the house so interesting that she posted a photo of the house on her website. Since then, the couple has suffered nothing but threats and abuse, all over the color of their home. Peter and Keely Dubrova really loved the bright shade of teal that they wanted to paint their home, but they didn't want any trouble. They made sure to get approval from their Home Owner's Association before making any bold moves. They were given permission to use their color, and the painting got right underway. They were initially very happy with their house, but then it turned into an awful headache. Neighbors immediately began to complain about the brightly-colored home. They've been told their house looks like a 'Smurf house', or some kind of giant forgotten Easter egg left on the edge of the neighborhood. The couple's been called mean names, like 'white trash'. Things were bad enough, but then an anonymous real estate agent snapped a photo and posted it online. Now, people from all over town are complaining about the house. The couple has even been getting death threats from some unhinged locals who must seriously hate the color teal. At first, the Dubrovas were hurt over the treatment they were getting, but they tried to brush it off. Then they were scared that some nut might actually attack them over their paint color choice. Then it became a matter of principle: it's their home, and they even got approval. Well, they had approval-- the HOA has revoked approval and said it was approved by mistake. HOA rules state that houses have to be neutral colors, and that bright teal paint is the opposite of neutral. It's the anti-neutral. "It got approved by [the homeowner's association] and a week and a half later we got a letter saying that we need to re-paint. For us, it was scary and the fact that people are coming onto our property to take pictures of our address," said Keely to KHOU 11 News. Neighbors feel it's unfair to them to have the house painted such a bold shade of blue. "I care because I could be next door trying to sell my house with no luck because no one wants to live next to that. Oh my gosh," said one person. Source: MailOnline Photos: MailOnline

A real estate agent found the house so interesting that she posted a photo of the house on her website.

Here are the answers for the questionnaire as provided by Mark Browne on 2015. Question Response Do you acknowledge that human life begins at conception (fertilization)? no response Are there any circumstances under which you believe a woman should have access to abortion? [Note: A surgical or medical intervention, designed to prevent the death of the mother (e.g. In the case of tubal pregnancy or cervical cancer) but which results in the unintended and undesired death of the pre-born child, is not an abortion.] no response Will you support measures to stop funding abortions with taxpayers' money in Newfoundland and Labrador? no response Do you agree women have the right to be thoroughly informed about the serious health consequences of abortion, the development of their child in the womb and the alternatives to abortion? no response Will you protect the rights of parents to educate their children according to their faith in matters of moral principles and beliefs concerning abortion, contraception and homosexuality? no response Will you oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide, and instead, support measures to promote "palliative care", the purpose of which is to alleviate pain, and enhance the quality of life for terminally ill patients and those with disabilities? [Note: Euthanasia is the direct and intentional killing of a person by action or omission, with or without that person's consent, for what people mistakenly believe are compassionate reasons.] no response Will you support legislation to protect the right of health care workers who refuse to participate in procedures which are in violation of their religious or conscientious beliefs? no response There are no videos available for Mark Browne. If you have relevant video from all-candidate meetings or other functions that is not copyrighted by a third party, please send it to us. RED light means the person is NOT SUPPORTABLE

Here are the answers for the questionnaire as provided by Mark Browne on 2015. Question Response Do you acknowledge that human life begins at conception (fertilization)? no response Are there any circumstances under which you believe a woman should have access to abortion?

On July 4th, Americans celebrate our freedoms. Unfortunately, we all but ignore the only President born on Independence Day--Calvin Coolidge, who, though denigrated by historians, produced remarkable results without sacrificing them "Every man realized in an instant what that order meant, death or wounds to us all; the sacrifice of the regiment to gain a few minutes time and save the position, and probably the battlefield, and every man saw and accepted the necessity for the sacrifice." While democracy historically was part of the great movement for human liberty, majorities potentially could be as dictatorial and dangerous as the most ruthless and oppressive kings and princes of the past. Cain and Abel represent rival responses to the suffering inherent in the human condition. Abel's suffering leads to his self-development as a warrior. Cain's suffering leads to envy, malevolence, and murder. Search engines are convenient, but do they undermine a student's opportunity to learn how to investigate a topic and retain information if a digital device is not immediately available to them? Data from the Obama administration Census Bureau and Department of Justice proves that illegal immigrants are far more likely to commit serious crimes than the U.S. population Signs included "My family didn't cross the border, the border crossed my family," and an adult holding a sign in front of a toddler that read, "Would you put me in a cage?"

On July 4th, Americans celebrate our freedoms. Unfortunately, we all but ignore the only President born on Independence Day--Calvin Coolidge, who, though denigrated by historians, produced remarkable results without sacrificing them "Every man realized in an instant what that order meant, death or wounds to us all;

TEHRAN - Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has made a case against the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS, rejecting that it has been successful so far. The Leader made the remarks on Tuesday in a meeting with visiting Slovenian President Borut Pahor who arrived at Tehran late on Monday for a formal visit at the head of a trade delegation. The U.S.'s anti-ISIS campaign has been a failure as Washington neither intends nor can uproot ISIS in the Middle East region, the Leader emphasized. The Leader elaborated on two standpoints in this regard. "According to the first view, the Americans have no plan to exterminate Daesh... and intend to act in such a way vis-a-vis Daesh that this problem would remain unresolved in Iraq or Syria." On the basis of a second scenario, the U.S. is open to a solution to get rid of ISIS but the situation does not allow it to achieve the goal. "Under the second view, the Americans are willing to resolve the issue of Daesh but mechanisms are not in such a way that make them able to do this..." The Supreme Leader also called for a multipronged effort by all independent governments, urging them to be more active in the international arena. "The Islamic Republic of Iran has always been calling on independent countries to play an active role in standing against exercising pressures on nations, and has asked them not to be silent and a bystander." On regional conflicts and the role of Iran in war-torn area, the Leader noted, "It behooves all countries to make efforts to quench the flames of the conflicts, and the Islamic Republic (of Iran), despite the propaganda by the arrogant current, is active and influential to achieve such goal, but it does not meddle in the affairs of other countries." Elsewhere in his remarks, Ayatollah Khamenei referred to far-reaching implications of insecurity in countries in the Middle East, saying, "Whereas European countries failed to give refuge to tens of thousands of refugees, it has been for years that Iran is hosting nearly three millions of the Afghani people and has provided them with education and living conditions..." He also rapped the Saudi invasion of Yemen, saying, "Independent governments must counter such incidents because pressuring a nation is in fact a pain and suffering for all humanity." The Leader further referred to numerous potentialities of Iran and Slovenia for the expansion of cooperation, expressing hope the talks held in Iran translate into closer ties in the future. The Slovenian president, for his part, said he had held very good talks with senior Iranian officials and expressed his country's keenness to deepen relations with Iran in all fields. Pahor added that Iran and Slovenia share plenty of experience and enjoy great potential for cooperation. AK/PA

TEHRAN - Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has made a case against the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS, rejecting that it has been successful so far.

The Republican primary for the senatorial special election in Alabama to fill the seat of now-Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, has concluded with a populist upset. State judge, Roy Moore, with little funding, little to no establishment GOP support, and even with the lack of the President's blessing, still managed to ride the same wave of populism that propelled Trump to the White House this past November. The very populism he seemed to forsake in his support for incumbent, Luther Strange. At first glance, his win may seem like a chance for all stripes of government skeptics to cheer. The entire establishment was against him and his funds were meager compared to his competitors. Moore's victory is proof that a candidate's message still has the ability to overcome the corrupting influence of money in politics and political insiders. But that is where the silver lining ends. Overall, Moore is not the champion of civil liberties we should root for, as can be seen in the following ways: Opposition to gay marriage, or any other form of contractual legal union between members of the same sex. Opposition to legal abortion and support of charging abortion doctors with homicide. Contempt for the separation of church and state as noted by his opposition to the ending of state-sanctioned prayer in public schools per Engel v. Vitale, 1962. His opposition to these major factors of liberal individualism is a setback for the Republican Party that has finally began moving away from such harsh positions on social wedge issues, substituting in more moderate stances, or at least acceptance of the fact that like it or not change has occurred and society isn't moving backward. His proponents will say that his support for full repeal of the Affordable Care Act, tough stance on immigration, and championing of religious freedom are all worth putting up with the less desirable aspects of his policy positions. Yet Senator Strange, himself of course flawed, has also been supportive of these positions , too, without the outright contempt for various social freedoms. Neither of the candidates were prime choices. But when a moderate-leaning conservative and a firebrand populist with contempt for civil liberties are your options, the former is the rational choice over the latter. Even Trump himself, who has been accused of the same sort of firebrand populism Moore espouses (though Trump was arguably more moderate on a variety of social issues than Moore) saw this logic and threw his support to Strange. Yet it was too late. Trump delivered the most recent Pandora's box of populism into American politics and once elected tried to keep it contained. As of Tuesday, Alabama voters blew the lid off the box, and the consequences could be grave. The following two tabs change content below. Bio Latest Posts

The Republican primary for the senatorial special election in Alabama to fill the seat of now-Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, has concluded with a populist upset.

Recent accounts of anti-Semitism rising worldwide have sparked terror in the hearts of Jews, reminiscent of an earlier era. Ten days ago the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released an unprecedented study on hostility towards Jews that went viral (see video below). It showed that worldwide anti-Semitism ranked surprisingly high at 26 percent. Moreover, almost half of those surveyed said that they had never heard of the Holocaust. According to the study, 93 percent of those living on the West Bank and Gaza have anti-Jewish feelings, which is not unexpected. Among European countries, the highest ranking country was Greece, at 69 percent. Compare this to a YouTube video made in France six months ago, demonstrating the Neo-Nazi modern adaptation of the Hitler salute that garnered some 120,000 hits. (See video below.) This past weekend the European Parliament held its 2014 elections on "Super Sunday." For Hungary, Fidesz won with Jobbik coming in second. In France, the far-right National Front and its incendiary leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, won their country's elections for the first time ever in the European Parliament, shocking the nation. Exit polls indicated that they garnered approximately 25 percent of the country's vote, while the ruling party received only 14 percent, which could eventually lessen the control of the ruling Socialist Party in France. The National Front party was initially formed on anti-immigration rhetoric, which has since been substituted with promotion of France's departure from the euro. The European elections allow members of 28 E.U. member states to decide the composition of the European Parliament and help to determine the president of the European Union. In other European Parliament elections, the U.K. and Greece also saw big wins for far-right groups. Across Europe, there were exceptions to the trend towards extremism, but not many. Earlier this month, in Hungary, Tamas Sneider, a former skinhead was elected deputy speaker of the country's national legislature, as a member of Hungary's neo-Nazi Jobbik party. In 1992 Sneider had been arrested for the beating of a Hungarian of Roma descent, which is in sync with the current vast mistreatment of the Roma in Hungary. After the recent vote, at a press conference, in response to questions about the 1992 incident, Sneider said that since everyone already knew about his past, it was time to move on and discuss his plans for the future. In November Hungary's Jobbik party presented a statue that commemorated the deeds of Admiral Miklos Horthy. The statue was not condemned by the ruling party in Hungary, Fidesz. This hearkens back to Horthy's early alliance and compliance with German rule and dogma, until the Germans were defeated in the eastern front in 1942 and 1943 and Hungarian units suffered great losses. Hungary tried to negotiate an armistice with the western Allies, only to be occupied by force in March 1944. This led to nearly 500,000 Hungarian Jews outside of Budapest being forced into ghettos and then in mid-May 1944 systematically deported to Auschwitz. By July 1944, the only Jewish community in Hungary that had not been deported was in the capital, Budapest. Fearful of reprisal from the western Allies and concerned about military losses, Horthy ordered that the deportations halt in July 1944. He was arrested following a German coup d'etat in October 1944. After the German Nazis took over in Hungary, the Jews of Budapest were ghettoized and persecuted, as well. One month ago, Hungary observed the 70th anniversary of the Holocaust with government-sanctioned commemorations. The largest Jewish group in the country boycotted these events, saying that they were an attempt to deliberately conceal the government's responsibility for its complicity in heinous crimes. These events occurred simultaneous to the Hungarian cabinet's plans to build another monument minimizing Hungary's alliance with the Nazis. The new monument would commemorate Nazi occupation of Hungary in 1944. This statue depicts Hungary as the Archangel Gabriel who is being swooped down upon by Germany in the shape of an imperial eagle. According to the Association of Hungarian Jewish Communities, Mazsihisz, this statue effectively deflects responsibility on Hungary and casts the nation as a victim, not a perpetrator, of Germany's occupation during World War II. Prime Minister Orban and Fidesz have not distanced themselves from the Jobbik party's fascist policies in Hungary. Urgent requests and demands have come from several fronts. Hungarian Jewish groups and politicians of the opposition party have made demands and protestors have tried to disassemble construction barriers to stop the recent statue project. Orban responded that there was no room for movement in his position. In Ukraine, synagogues are being fire-bombed and the White power flag and the Confederate flag are clearly displayed in the Ukrainian parliament. The fusion of thinly veiled government-sanctioned actions and overt anti-Semitic actions has given rise to terror for Jews worldwide. With statistics and real life actions such as these, Jews and concerned others wonder what is next, and where it will stop? In light of the ADL's recent comprehensive survey, videos such as one by Lori Patatnik in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, have begun to be aired. In her recording entitled, "Is your neighbor anti-Semitic?" (see below), she asks whether Jews know the true feelings of their neighbors. Answers to questions about anti-Semitism are not easily discerned. And, throughout the world, there are those both with malicious intent and those who speak in ignorance. While the haters certainly give reason for fear, the latter group can present hope for the Jewish people, who have always believed that education is deeply essential. In the context of a school curriculum or church program, and in talking with individuals, Jewish people can speak and educate about Jewish lives and history. When Jewish people speak and educate about Jewish lives and history, there are surprises to be found, and healing in the interactions. In doing so, there are surprises to be found, and healing in the interactions. Even when people have not previously known about the Holocaust or about Jewish people, their potential neutrality can open doors of communication. For true anti-Semitism, the only resistance is revised and enforced legislation, and even then, the rising terror among Jews and those who care for them cannot be abated. However, for those who are young or unaware, education can attenuate the fear and begin to alleviate old wounds. It is in striving to tip the balance towards the latter that change can occur. Video of a new global study from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) that measures anti-Semitism: The video below demonstrates the use of the Neo-Nazi Hitler salute in France and elsewhere, even side-by-side with unaware Jews. Lori Almost Live asks "Is Your Neighbor Anti-Semitic?" By Fern Remedi-Brown Anti-Semitism Rise of Terror [Video] added by Fern Remedi-Brown on May 27, 2014 View all posts by Fern Remedi-Brown -

Recent accounts of anti-Semitism rising worldwide have sparked terror in the hearts of Jews, reminiscent of an earlier era. Ten days ago the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released an unprecedented study on hostility towards Jews that went viral (see video below).

Following is one of the 40 perpetrators identified in UN Watch's 130-page report entitled "Poisoning Palestinian Children: A Report on UNRWA Teachers' Incitement to Jihadist Terrorism & Antisemitism." Abed Naser Hassen identifies himself as a teacher at UNRWA on Facebook. Below, is a screenshot of an antisemitic video Hassen shared on facebook in which the holocaust is denied. Beneath that is a transcript of the full video which can be found here . Full Video Transcription: It's very simple. You see, everybody says the harm that the Germans have done to the Jews. It's grossly exaggerated, it's true the Nazis - the nationalist socialist party - had some dirty racist points in its otherwise very beautiful program, which was very successful all in all. But it was - they had some nasty points against the Jews, this is true. And they were, in the third Reich and in Europe during the Second World War, between 100,000 and 600,000 Jews have been killed directly or indirectly because of the national socialist system. This number is ridiculous in comparison to what the French did in Algeria, the Jews have done in Palestine, and especially the British, Americans and the Russians have done to their people. They have killed millions. Now what did the Jews do? When you ask what the Germans have done to the Jews you must always ask what have the Jews done to the Germans. Since 1850 when the Jews got all the political rights in Germany in the German Reich they have done 3 things, which are really dramatic. Number one: They were a small minority of 2% of the population - at the time when Hitler came to power 500,000 within 60 million German people. 500,000 within 60 million. They were a small minority. This small minority managed to control about 50% of the media, gave [sic] about 70% of all judges, to have a tremendous influence on movie and theater, and in literature. They were overrepresented. This is one thing, they were absolutely overrepresented, as today in England, France and in United States. Secondly, Jews were at the origin of a lot of catastrophic financial bank crashes in Germany between 1870 and 1920. In that time, they made a lot of crashes which have - this is all documented, it's not Nazi propaganda or antisemitic or Arab propaganda, it's a lot of books have been published even by Jewish Germans about this problem - they have millions of German fathers have lost their incomes, their fortune, their savings because of these Jewish gangsters, bank gangsters, and speculation people. Then the third point - which was psychologically the most dangerous of all - they have introduced into German art and culture and theater and movie decadence immorality. The first homosexual theatre plays were made in Berlin in the 1920s, the first adultery theater plays were made in the 1880s, 1890s (100 years ago) by Jewish authors. Adultery, then sexual perversions of all sorts: sadism, masochism, lot of homosexuality, all these things. And then decadent art, and art which is absolutely ridiculous - so-called modern art - it was all pushed by Jewish intellectuals. And this created among the German people a big revolt. And also they wrote books ridiculing Christianity, ridiculing Jesus. I mean it was something like Salman Rushdie with the Muslims. And there were furious reactions in Germany and the Nazis of course benefited from it. And this is why Adolf Hitler came to power. And you see then Hitler, in 2 years from '33 to '35 - 6 million Germans were unemployed and within two years he brought 6 million unemployed Germans back into their jobs. He created 6 million jobs, it's incredible, in 2 years and this is the reason why the '6 million' thing came. You see, after the Second World War, the Zionists said we must give a counter-propaganda to this positive 6 million who have found six million jobs - positive - we must make something negative, 6 million corpses. And so came this fantastic number of 6 million, which is in every newspaper in everything.

Following is one of the 40 perpetrators identified in UN Watch's 130-page report entitled "Poisoning Palestinian Children: A Report on UNRWA Teachers' Incitement to Jihadist Terrorism & Antisemitism." Abed Naser Hassen identifies himself as a teacher at UNRWA on Facebook.

Over the past few weeks, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has come under attack in The New York Times , The Washington Post Wonkblog, the New Republic , U.S. News & World Report , Salon, Slate, and who knows where else for wanting congressional revenue forecasts to be based on "gimmicks," "tricks," and "voodoo," for wanting to "cook the books," for calling for "mischief" and for wanting the budget process to be "partisan." His sin? He wants revenue estimates to reflect economic reality. The optimal tax literature, the public finance literature, the economic growth literature and the price theory literature are very clear. Marginal tax rates and the tax treatment of investment have large "macroeconomic" effects on the economy. High marginal tax rates and tax policies that increase the cost of capital harm economic growth. Reducing high marginal tax rates and reducing the cost of capital improve economic growth. Historical examples in the U.S. and abroad abound. The current Joint Committee on Taxation revenue estimating methodology ignores these macroeconomic effects on work, savings, investment and output. Ryan's detractors want to keep committing economic malpractice by ignoring the impact of tax policy on the economy. Ryan wants to take into account nearly a century of economic science when estimating the future tax revenues of the federal government. His detractors' arguments are as valid as the arguments of those who ignored reality and maintained that the earth was flat long after the facts were clear. Reasonable people can disagree about the magnitude of the economic growth effects (although my reading of the evidence is that they are large). Moreover, it is cogent, though mistaken in my view, to argue that some social objective such as equalizing after-tax incomes or subsidizing alternative energy may justify the lost economic output, lost jobs and lower incomes that high marginal tax rates and a high cost of capital entail. But denying the economic reality of the adverse economic impact of current tax policy (called "deadweight loss" or "excess burden" in the economics literature) is not reasonable. It flies in the face of reality. Some argue that these estimates will be imprecise and should not be used. But it is better to have estimates that are approximately correct than those which are precisely wrong and known to be wrong. Why does this seemingly technical argument matter? Proponents of existing tax policy and those who support even higher tax rates and even more punitive taxation of investment understand that the current methodology makes tax increases seem as if they will raise more revenue than they actually will. Similarly, current methodology makes tax rate reductions or improvements in the tax treatment of business investment seem as if they will reduce tax revenues more than they actually will. Current methodology makes tax reform that reduces marginal tax rates while appropriately broadening the tax base more difficult. Moreover, the current methodology does not distinguish between tax reductions that improve economic growth (marginal tax rate reductions and better treatment for business investment) and those that have little positive impact (child credits). Similarly, not all tax increases or tax base broadening are created equal. Broadening the tax base by eliminating unwarranted subsidies is one thing, while base broadening or tax increases that raise the cost of capital or discourage work, savings and investment have a substantial negative economic effect. The bottom line is this: Calling for federal revenue estimates that take reality into account is not a gimmick or a trick or cooking the books. It is akin to acknowledging that the earth is a sphere and not flat. We should have done so long ago. Paul Ryan deserves commendation, not derision, for deciding to tackle this important institutional reform. It will remove an artificial barrier to tax policies that will renew prosperity and improve the lives of millions of Americans. - David Burton is senior fellow in economic policy at the Heritage Foundation Originally appeared in The Hill

David Burton is senior fellow in economic policy at the Heritage Foundation Originally appeared in The Hill

(Photo: Alex Bailey/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment) I f the phrase hadn't been so sullied in recent weeks, I'd say The Other Boleyn Girl is about an ambitious family that pimps out its daughters for the sake of power and prestigea characterization that in the sixteenth century, under Henry VIII, would have gotten you suspended from a gallows. Anne Boleyn (Natalie Portman) is the saucy flirt, her sister, Mary (Scarlett Johansson), the demure naif. At the instigation of her uncle and father, Anne comes close to bewitching King Henry (Eric Bana) but makes the mistake of looking more proficient on a horse than he does. So it's Mary (a newlywed) who becomes his mistress, while Anne hatches a plot to flash her dark eyes at the goatish monarch and then refuse to put out. Driven half-mad by thwarted lust, the king discards Mary, rebuffs the papacy, and forms a new religion to divorce Catherine of Aragonwho cannot bear him a male heir anyway, so Henry can claim there's civic virtue in his vice. Anne's triumph, though, is cruelly short-lived. Until the ascendency of Elizabeth I, women of the English court are infinitely replaceable. Directed by Justin Chadwick from a script by Peter Morgan ( The Queen ), The Other Boleyn Girl is a brisk feminist melodrama that is, historically speaking, a load of wank. It has the feel of a game of telephone, in which information is progressively mangled. The Boleyn sisters, who in life weren't close, are in Philippa Gregory's best-selling tony bodice-ripper both subtle rivals and intimate co-conspirators. Morgan transforms them into opposites who sometimes cling fiercely to each other, the promiscuous Mary a goody-good country girl with a demeanor that's vaguely Amish, the thoughtful Anne a Scarlett O'Hara in brilliant green. As a soap opera, the film offers none of the kinky pleasures of Showtime's The Tudors, in which Jonathan Rhys Meyers emits the kind of twisted pansexual vibe (his specialty) that could conceivably upend an empire. The Other Boleyn Girl is all on the surface. BACKSTORY The scorching pairing of Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson has been a nice late-winter gift for the pressthere was that bondage-flavored cover for W magazine and rumors of catfights on set (quickly and firmly denied by male lead Eric Bana). Two days after Valentine's Day, the fetching duo amped up the promotional tour with a steamy kiss on the red carpet at the Berlin Film Festival. For monarchy-minded gossip hounds, the most delicious tidbit came at the London premiere, when the two dewy Americans playing royalty shook hands with the real McCoys: Prince Charles and Camilla , the duchess of Cornwall. It's a resplendent surface, though, and the lines have a satisfying snap. As he proved in his portraits of Elizabeth II, Tony Blair, and Frost and Nixon, Morgan understands the distinction between public and private discourseand how in powerful figures the two modes bleed into each other, with private whims setting public policy for centuries. Morgan and Chadwick keep the focus tight, omitting Cardinal Wolsey, Sir Thomas More, and the devoutly religious Anne's role in helping to conceive and sell the Reformation that would sever both Catholics from Protestants and her head from her shoulders. Details, details. The Other Boleyn Girl skips from royal snub to royal snub, miscarriage to miscarriage, the Boleyns beginning and ending as pawns of arrogant males, their power illusory, their only solace their enduring sisterhood. And what of these young American actresses' putting on British accents to vie for the English king (played by an Aussie)? They seem, at first, like enthusiastic coeds in a college production of The Importance of Being Earnest, but once the dislocation fades, their commitment wins you over. For starters, they're so gorgeous they're museum-worthy. The cinematographer, Kieran McGuigan, uses candlelight to caress one side of the actresses' faces while leaving the other in velvety darkness. When Henry studies Anne at prayer, the downy hairs on the back of her neck have a glow that's first angelic and then devilishly alluring. Although her voice is untrained (it rasps when she pushes it), Portman gives The Other Boleyn Girl what it needs: not just a queen but a drama queen. Scarlett Johansson is the revelation, in part because the role is such a muddle of innocence and opportunism and dopey passivity. Johansson opens herself up to the camera, and roots Mary's improbable transitions in the character's impossible choices. With no evident strain, with almost everything internalized, Johansson keeps her head and makes you understand why Mary kept hers. A small child with a pacifier toddles, unwatched, into the waves while, on a different continent, an underage boy labors all day in an auto-body repair shop in a massive junkyard, tucking himself in at night in a seedy room over the garage, subsisting mostly on microwave popcorn: Two films, one American, one Brazilian, one slickly commercial, the other raw and probing, both set against a backdrop of extreme poverty and criminality, both touching on violent inequality and the terrible impact of absent fathers. If you guessed the American film was the slick one, guess again: Ramin Bahrani's Chop Shop is a low-budget verite triumph, set in Queens beyond the sight of baseball fans in nearby Shea Stadium. Bahrani's concentration is close to supernatural as he tracks the young, prepubescent Ale (Alejandro Polanco) from job to soul-numbing job, some legal, some extralegal, to the point where you're forced to suspend altogether your moral judgments and watch with a mixture of pain and awe. Working to survive and somehow save a few thousand dollars to buy a dilapidated truck from which the 16-year-old sister (Isamar Gonzales) who shares his little bed could sell food, Ale lives in a world where fathers (including the One Upstairs) are nowhere in evidence. Yet he moves from hope to hope. The only thing that rocks his world is seeing his sister turn tricks in the front seat of a car.

(Photo: Alex Bailey/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment) I f the phrase hadn't been so sullied in recent weeks, I'd say The Other Boleyn Girl is about an ambitious family that pimps out its daughters for the sake of power and prestigea characterization that in the sixteenth century, under Henry VIII, would have gotten you suspended from a gallows.

Written by Lance Ulanoff over 6 years ago Warmgate, Hotroversy, Heatgate: take your pick, there may be others to describe the latest Apple product controversy. This time critics and some users are saying the new iPad gets too hot. So hot for some that it reportedly shuts down. Apple has alre... Written by Stan Schroeder over 6 years ago After confirming an incompatibility between the iPhone 4S and China Mobile's SIM cards last month, Apple has now fixed the issue, according to China Mobile. The issue was in iPhone 4S's GSM chip, which only supported the P frequency band (885-915MHZ)... Looking to earn back some of the $12.5 billion it's spending to buy Motorola Mobility, Google sent a letter to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers looking for a maximum 2.25% cut of sales for phones that use Motorola's technology, i... Written by Samantha Murphy Kelly over 6 years ago Steve Jobs was a fanatic about product aesthetics and design, obsessing over everything from the size and shape of the original Macintosh to the look of on-screen app icons. His Apple stores were no exception. The stores have developed a reputation o... Written by Samantha Murphy Kelly over 6 years ago A small company in Arkansas is showing an unexpected side to Apple's voice-based intelligent assistant Siri. This YouTube video shows various home appliances being controlled via voice command on the iPhone 4S, from adjusting the thermostat and light... Written by GeekSugar over 6 years ago Didn't get an iPhone 4S this holiday? Don't worry -- there are other voice-recognition apps on the market that can stand up to Siri's voice-controlled awesomeness on your devices. In fact, a few of these apps are available for Android and BlackBerry ... Written by Veena Bissram over 6 years ago The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Name: Vocal Quick Pitch: Control and dictate ... Written by Charlie White over 6 years ago Apple's new iPhone spot does an unusual thing for an advertisement: It doesn't mention the iPhone at all. In fact, it's a commercial for the iPhone 4S's digital assistant, Siri, but notice the word "Siri" isn't mentioned, either. Poor Santa -- he has... Written by Pete Pachal over 6 years ago When it was discovered that Siri, Apple's much-hyped voice assistant in the iPhone 4S, would not reveal the location of abortion clinics when asked, many wondered if it meant Apple was taking a stand in the divisive abortion debate. Now Apple has com... Thanksgiving is over and the holiday shopping season is in full swing. With this in mind, we present our list of the top 10 iPhone 4S accessories for 2011 -- from cases to cars to money-holders and more.... Written by Pete Pachal over 6 years ago AT&T's bid to take over T-Mobile suffered a major setback this week when the Federal Communications Commission said the merger wasn't in the public interest since it would significantly diminish competition in the industry. Before the decision could ... Written by AppAdvice over 6 years ago Six weeks after the iPhone 4S arrived, the three largest U.S. wireless carriers are still struggling to keep up with demand for Apple's fifth handset, according to The Wall Street Journal. Launched in the U.S. and six other countries on October 14, t...

This time critics and some users are saying the new iPad gets too hot.

Shams ... Big money ... The crazies really do come out on Friday the 13 th . Take for example the folks at Politico, who tweeted , "NRA got more money from Russia-linked sources than earlier reported." Whoa! I remember reading yesterday that people were blowing out of proportion the amount of money that "Russia" gave the NRA. So I thought maybe this was something new? Nope. In the article , Politico shows that contrary to earlier reports of a single NRA life membership - $1500 cost - bought by a Russian national, the total amount people who live in Russia, including American citizens, gave to the NRA is a whopping, astronomical, $2,512.82. Yes, that's right: two thousand, five hundred twelve dollars and eighty-two cents. Let's match that with the title Politico tweeted. Kind of a letdown. But remember, most people don't click links, and Politico is looking to drive a narrative wholly unsupported by the facts with that title and tweet. Pai stands up for the First Amendment ... Progressives love civil liberties, except, of course, the civil liberties of political opponents. You'll remember that Sinclair Broadcasting recently had local anchors read a promo that attacked bias and fake news. Several Democratic senators asked the FCC to investigate the matter and to review the company's broadcast licenses. That isn't going to happen. FCC chairman Ajit Pai forcefully responded to the senators , saying, "I can hardly think of an action more chilling of free speech than the federal government investigating a broadcast station because of disagreement with its news coverage." Good for Pai. Let's FIGHT BACK together ... ... against the mainstream media's biased reporting, selective facts, and outright propaganda. Sign up now for the daily dose of sunlight you need to disinfect the media's lies. It's free! Perfect harmony ... Two journalists social justice warriors at USA Today are out with a list of the " 20 politically incorrect songs that would be wildly controversial today ." It's a laughable list. But perhaps the most hilarious of the songs listed is "Ebony and Ivory" by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder. Why? Here's what the authors said: McCartney and Wonder meant well with their hyper-literal interpretation of race relations. But their message of "people are the same, there's good and bad in everyone, so let's just get along" would be interpreted as hilariously naive by the more woke factions of today's cultural discourse. There's a term for these two authors: "fun sponge." I'm glad I only have about 30-40 years left on this Earth. I cringe at what it will become with this generation in charge. Krugman gonna Krugman ... NYT columnist Paul Krugman is out with the hottest of hot takes on Paul Ryan's retirement announcement. The piece, entitled, " The Paul Ryan story: From flimflam to fascism ," is a ridiculous take on Ryan. Look, conservatives have lots of reasons to be upset with Ryan for not standing for his supposed principles. This is just more pablum from one of America's wrongest political commentators. It even has Ryan as an enabler of Trump's slide into authoritarianism. These folks really believe that. Patriots Day weekend ... One of the things I miss most about Massachusetts is Patriots Day weekend. The Monday closest to April 19 has been Patriots Day in Massachusetts for ages. That's when we celebrate the men who answered the call to defend their weapons cache from British soldiers. Part of the celebration is the Boston Marathon and a morning Red Sox game. Celebrating Patriots Day in Massachusetts should be on your bucket list. Start out with the dawn re-enactment of the battle of Lexington, go to the Sox game, and then finish by watching the non-elite runners make their way through Kenmore Square. You won't be disappointed. Have you celebrated Patriots Day in Massachusetts before? If so, shoot me your recollections at [email protected] . And don't forget to tell your friends about the great newsletters we have at Conservative Review and CRTV. Author: Rob Eno Robert Eno is the director of research for Conservative Review. He is a conservative from deep blue Massachusetts but now lives in Greenville, SC.

"NRA got more money from Russia-linked sources than earlier reported." Whoa! I remember reading yesterday that people were blowing out of proportion the amount of money that "Russia" gave the NRA.

(UPDATE) Since the Dr. Wecht and Dawna Kaufmann interview about their latest collaborative effort was posted, the audio version of their chat with Guardian Liberty Voice journalist and writer Michael Smith was edited and is now available for readers to hear. This can be found at the end of this article. We would also like to remind fans of Dawna Kaufmann and Dr. Cyril Wecht's work to keep an eye out for the printed version of the ebook Final Exams which will be available very soon. The Guardian Liberty Voice has the privilege of an exclusive interview with Dr. Cyril Wecht MD. JD. and Dawna Kaufmann. They have written three true crime novels together and their latest is Final Exams which is available from planetannrule.com. Dawna Kaufmann is a widely read and respected true crime journalist who has reported on hundreds of high-profile cases of homicide as well as missing person's cases. Her work has been published in such esteemed publications as Cosmopolitan , The Los Angeles Times and many other newspapers including the Globe and the Star as well as National Enquirer . On top of her true crime writing career, Ms. Kaufmann has also written for film and television, including Saturday Night Live , MadTV and The Arsenio Hall Show amongst others. Dawna has written two previous true crime books with Dr. Cyril H. Wecht MD, JD. The latest being Final Exams which deals with four very different cases that Dr. Wecht worked on in his capacity as a forensic pathology expert. Dr. Wecht is a recognized expert in forensic medicine/pathology and considered one of the foremost authorities on the assassinations of both President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. Dr. Wecht has dealt with many high profile cases that include many "celebrity" deaths, Elvis Presley, the O.J. Simpson case, Jean Harris and JonBenet Ramsey amongst others. Dr. Wecht has performed autopsies, testified and done in-depth studies of these cases and revealed his experiences in dealing with many such high profile crimes in previous books such as Grave Secrets, Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey, and Cause of Death and quite a number of other publications. He has appeared on many different television shows including 60 Minutes , Geraldo at Large , the Dr. Phil show and others. Now Dr. Wecht and Dawna Kaufmann have teamed up again to present four different cases in a book titled Final Exams . These two professional crime specialists give an in-depth picture of each crime. The amount of time spent giving a full account of the victims, families and the crime leave the reader feeling a sense of rage, compassion, surprise and sadness. The Guardian Liberty Voice has the honor of providing an exclusive interview with these two true crime luminaries whose latest work; Final Exams is available now via annrulepresents.com. First of all I'd like to thank you both formally for taking time out of your busy schedules to talk to us here at The Guardian Liberty Voice . Dr. Wecht: Well thank you, we're delighted to be here Mr. Smith. Dawna Kaufmann: Thank you Michael, we're a fan of the Guardian Liberty Voice and it's a very exciting website. Guardian Liberty Voice: Thank you for saying so! Guardian Liberty Voice: This is your first collaboration for Ann Rule Presents , but you have worked together before Final Exams ; you wrote From Crime Scene to Courtroom in 2011 and Question of Murder in 2009. You two first got to know one another on the O.J. Simpson case. You have made a great team in your prior collaborations, and in this most recent one, what is it that keeps you two coming back to work together? Dawna Kaufmann: Well Dr. Wecht I think this is where you can talk about how beautiful I am and talented... Dr. Wecht: -laughing- Dawna Kaufmann: He's laughing...you see? Dr. Wecht: Well its like the song, Michael, The Second Time Around , you know like my first publication marriages, you know, so I was looking for a serial writer and Dawna now has been the newest addition and definitely the best. She is excellent... Really the reason that I came to work with Dawna after we met and discussed this collaboration is that she is just outstanding in her work. She is unbelievably diligent and I guess both of us have an obsessive-compulsive component to our personality, which will not allow us to let things slip by or just lie in the realm of conjecture. Dawna follows through in a very detailed fashion and she is also very fair and reasonable and she tries to get different sides; it isn't that she doesn't form strong opinions, she does. Once in awhile we may indeed disagree in terms of what we think about a particular issue or a person or a case, but, we always try to make sure that every aspect in covered...i.e. I know that I can depend on her and then of course her basic writing skills; that obviously is the bottom line; that is the foundation of everything upon which all of these other attributes that I refer to are constructed. Guardian Liberty Voice: Fantastic. I've got to agree. I think you make a wonderful team, an absolutely brilliant team. Dawna, do you have anything to add to that? Dawna Kaufmann: Oh, I sure do. Because Dr. Wecht who is, as you said, both a medical doctor and a lawyer. The specialty being forensic pathology, he is a medical detective and when somebody dies the body talks to him and he figures out what happened and his expertise can send someone to death row or get them out of prison if they have been falsely convicted. And he works on the most exciting cases. He has 56,000 cases in his files. So I couldn't pick a more expert, passionate person to partner with and I have the joy of being able to decide which of the cases we are going to focus on. This is our third book; our fourth is in the making, soon, but our third book now, is four different cases and we pick those that are almost cinematic. Dr. Wecht works sometimes for the prosecution, sometimes for the defense, but he doesn't shade his testimony to please any lawyer. That's what is so exciting about him. He is so iconoclastic and so independent. So the breadth of the cases; some are suicides, some are homicides; most are homicides...that we write about anyway. The twists and turns...I always say that people who read fiction should try non-fiction. Because with true crime you are really getting the absolute, most mind-boggling cases you can imagine. You end up saying, "How in the world did that happen?" Well, we go through all the steps. Guardian Liberty Voice: But it's so true. Truth is really stranger than fiction. People use it a lot as a cliche, but it 's so true. Secondly, having read several of your books on true crime it seems that you both have the same goal in mind. You don't just recount the crime and the circumstances surrounding it and the way in which it was solved; you both focus on the victims and their surviving relatives and partners that have been left behind. This is something you both obviously believe in. Not a lot of other true crime writers seem to catch this. Why do you think they miss the importance of this in their coverage? Dawna Kaufmann: Well, if I may say, I think Ann Rule is somebody I learned that from. She always cares about the victims' families. They drive her to find out what happened and Dr. Wecht also responds well to family members who want to have answers. Not in our books, per se, but in our other cases. Because I still write a lot for various magazines and when I have an interesting case, I go to Dr. Wecht and say, "What do you think happened here?" One I'll just throw out really quickly was Angie Dickinson's daughter committed suicide and I was talking to Angie. She thought her daughter was autistic or had Aspergers for many years. She was an adult, 41 and a very smart girl but ultra-sensitive person. It was such heartbreak for Angie. But when Dr. Wecht looked at the autopsy report his viewpoint was, this girl was such an achiever because she had such brain damage due to her premature birth that it was amazing that she achieved all that she did. So even though there was heartbreak in Angie Dickinson's part, she was surprised to learn this and never would have gotten it if she read the autopsy report. It took somebody like Dr. Wecht to interpret (the findings). Dr. Wecht: I try to look at every case in terms of the human being. I just did an interview with a high school girl today. Students are always writing and I try to respond and be gracious and ask them to call me on the weekend and devote some time (to them) and she asked a question that I am frequently asked, "How do you do this work? How do you handle it and what impact has it made on your life? Doesn't it do something to you to see all these tragic violent deaths?" I told her that I try to think of everybody as a human being; his/her family, background and how did things wind up this particular way; is there something that could have happened...and this, of course, is true for natural deaths. I did an autopsy yesterday on a 53 year-old guy who just had one bad coronary and that was enough to make him drop dead before his father whom he was working with at their home and I thought to myself, "My God, if this guy had some premonitory warning signs or symptoms;" and I don't know whether he did or not; I don't have that history/background at this time. But he was a perfect candidate for stents or a coronary artery bypass graft and so on and he could have been alive, maybe, for 30 more years. His father is already 30 years older than he. A one-month-old baby that I also did yesterday. A chubby...a beautiful baby, put down to bed and dead. And as far as I can see this is going to be another SIDS case, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. I was thinking that, well, this baby was put down prone and you're not supposed to do that. It's not criminal negligence and I hesitate to say even that it is negligence; some parents are not aware of the fact that the incidents of SIDS is much lower; it's not eliminated but it's much lower when the baby is put to bed on his/her back and they should not be put down face down and I thought about that, "My God, look at this beautiful, beautiful chubby baby who might alive if he had been put to bed on his back." These are just two examples of natural deaths that make me wonder and think and be sensitive... And then I just testified in a murder case recently that resulted in a first degree murder case and I think about the circumstances and which way it could have gone and the people involved and so on. As Dawna says, the important thing is to not lose sight of the fact that you are dealing with human beings; that every case, no matter how simplistic it might be on the one hand or how complex and horrendous it might be on the other hand, is a case, in and of itself involving human beings, their families, their feelings, their thoughts, their lives and what their futures might have been. Guardian Liberty Voice: That's a brilliant answer from both of you. Have you ever had a case that has outraged you or affected you in such a way that it took you quite awhile to forget about the issues? Dr. Wecht: Sure there's a lot of cases that you don't forget about and not just because they're famous or involving celebrities but because they're fascinating from a pathological standpoint; they were intellectually challenging and then the court cases that remain with you are the cases of sheer, utter, mindless violence and brutality. Especially when it involves a child, an innocent person or sometimes an older person who was somehow incapacitated or lived alone. Someone...not to suggest for one moment that to just kill somebody with one single gunshot or one stab wound or one blow to the head...that's okay; these aren't graded by a supreme being or maybe even by the courts, but they're graded in a moral or ethical sense and in the terms of psychological impact; the emotional significance to you...they have those accreditations, so those kind of cases you're reminded of how brutal human beings can be and I often think that to a great extent that many of the things we see with human beings are not really duplicated in the animal world. Guardian Liberty Voice: Very true. How about you Ms. Kaufmann? Have you got anything that's stuck with you? Dawna Kaufmann: Well the big cases, one of things that make Dr. Wecht and I good partners is that we obsess about three cases in particular that we will just never get over because there's just no justice and we know the facts of the cases so well that we could recite them word by word from what's in the autopsy reports and all the investigations...but that would be the assassination of John Kennedy, our president, the assassination of his brother Robert Kennedy who was running for president and the sex abuse and murder of JonBenet Ramsey which was just a case with a million moving parts... And wherever we are, if somebody brings them up we will just stop what we're doing and go talk to them and explain, maybe, what they don't know. We're always looking to speak to people who may have more info themselves. I've seen Dr. Wecht walk down the street and people would come over...or go through an airport and people would say something and he would just stop and talk about it, about many cases, but especially about these. Because the level of intrigue and passion...it sticks in both of our craws and we'll just never stop doing that. It's a lovely obsession. Dr. Wecht: Yeah, I would add a fourth. I agree with Dawna, on her recollection of these three cases, indeed, I'll just make one small correction, semantically; Dawna knows, of course, the difference. When she says they're open cases...they're officially closed, JFK, RFK, they're closed; well, for that matter, JonBenet Ramsey is officially closed too. What Dawna means by open is there's no question; when you get into the forensic scientific aspects and investigation analysis of these cases they indeed are open and I'll throw one more in, Dawna, that I'm sure you'll agree with; that is troubling and disturbing and involved multiple deaths, by the way, and that is the Hurricane Katrina Memorial Hospital deaths which is also, "officially closed." Dawna and I, in our book, showed clearly that these people were done in; they were euthanized; that they were, if you want to be gracious, mercy killings. I can't even give them that title because they really weren't mercy killings and eventually would have died, but not necessarily the next day or the next week or the next month; they might have lived for years and there too these deaths were passed over and knowingly, knowingly manipulated because of the political sociological milieu that existed in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. So yeah, I agree... Dawna Kaufmann: Absolutely, yes... Dr. Wecht: These are cases that are very troubling. I just spoke on JFK again last night at a governmental meeting of a bunch of organizations, communities in our county and they wanted me to speak on these three cases. People are always fascinated when you talk about the single bullet theory in the John F. Kennedy case and show why the Warren Commission Report is absurd and when you talk about the distance from which the fatal shot that killed Robert Kennedy was fired; one to one and a half inches; and people sit there and look at you in total amazement and awe... And when you talk about JonBenet Ramsey and you explain why the blow to the head was inflicted when she was already dead or dying and she was dead from a rope placed around her neck during the course of a sexual perversion game and you talk about the Memorial Hospital deaths, Hurricane Katrina, and talk about the toxicological levels of drugs that clearly could have been broken into four aliquots to kill four different people, that's how lethal the doses were...it's right there, right there! And yet totally ignored. I'm talking officially on the record, not making anything up, not exaggerating; no hyperbole. The facts are all laid out in the wonderful books that Dawna and I have done and so on. They're there. And so these cases will remain troubling for both of us, and we're not the only people in the world of course, but we remain...every time I think of these cases I get upset, I really do. Not that I sit around and agonize on them, I'm busy as anything, I'm very, very busy, I just did my 86th autopsy for the year today. I'm already on pace with my 409 from last year. And consultations are coming in from attorneys all over the country and occasionally internationally and I have an outstanding invitation to go to Dubai and give a lecture there to police officers and so I have enough to do. But, one should never forget an injustice. I don't mean to stand on a podium and be a preacher but injustice, and when it involves a major figure and when there was a deliberate cover-up especially a governmental cover-up. A governmental cover-up, and that's what we're talking about, and again, I'm not saying that you excuse something because you murder your neighbor and get away with it and it's a cover-up but when you have a cover-up from the highest officials in the country, such as we had with J.F.K., that's from major officials like with R.F.K., and from significant county and state officials with JonBenet Ramsey, from significant local and state officials with the Hurricane Katrina case as well as professional organizations and so on... Now, that is bothersome, troublesome, it is despicable, it is deplorable, it is unacceptable and it needs to be exposed and regrettably it is not sufficiently exposed because the government gets away with it. That's why they're the government and we're just the peasants, we're just the peons. Guardian Liberty Voice: Well thank goodness we've got peons such as you two around, because you shed light on so many different things. Apart from these high profile cases you also show just how important forensic pathology is, and not just in the courtroom, but at the crime scene investigation and afterwards. Basically, from where I sit, it looks as though you're doing a wonderful job of educating the "lay-person" because a lot of what you do is very complex in nature to us, and there are a lot of things that are very complex in scientific terms that the average layperson may not understand. So one of the big questions we had was how much do you actually have to "dumb down" the details that you guys provide so that the average person can pick up what you're saying? Dawna Kaufmann: Well I can answer that, because Dr. Wecht is excellent about breaking it down: the "medical-ease;" the "legal-ease" for a jury and that same talent comes when he talks to me about cases. When I first got involved with this I did not know the difference between an aneurism and an embolism, but now I do. He puts it in plain language so that the reader or the juror or the reporter can understand and that's a skill that he has and that is the thing that makes him so unique among people who do what he does. There are not many, by the way, who are medical examiners who are also lawyers. So he's just in a rarified universe there. Guardian Liberty Voice: Very true, very true. Dawna Kaufmann: You know, we always seek justice but...things change. Cases do get reopened; there could be a confession or a new piece of evidence or DNA testing that finally links to somebody and a case can all of a sudden loom up and come right back. At the same time, that same kind of testing can get somebody out of jail, who has been in jail for many years and just needs some re-interpretation of the forensics involved. At the end of one of our book chapters we left open a question and now there's going to be a new trial for the defendant in that case because there was something that wasn't kosher and Dr. Wecht kind of zeroed in on it and there's going to be a new trial for this person. So even when somebody is put behind bars? That could change. Everything could change, it is not set in stone; it's not black and white. Dr. Wecht: I agree with what Dawna just said and I think she stated it quite well. Guardian Liberty Voice : Brilliant. I'm going to move on now and talk more specifically about Final Exams. It's four different cases; each of the cases is quite different. Without giving too much away for readers, what in each of these cases made you chose these particular crimes for your book? Dawna Kaufmann: Can I just say this and then Dr. Wecht can take over. The four cases: two are from Pennsylvania; one is from Florida; one is from New York. The one in New York is called The Willing Victim. It's about a self-help guru; a Caucasian wealthy man who travelled to Harlem to look for a poor black guy because he wanted to be murdered. Jeffrey Locker, the self help guru who needed help to die and the man who complied. Dawna Kaufmann: The victim asks a guy he's never met to murder him. Why? Because he's broke and he wants his family to get, something like, 18 million dollars in insurance policies and if he dies from jumping off a bridge or some other way, he won't collect but if he gets some schnook to murder him his family can collect. That's a really odd case! The case from Florida is one that people will have heard about. It's Jessica Lunsford who was a nine year-old that it seems all of Florida was looking for back in 2005. She disappeared from the trailer where she lived with her father and her grandparents. The chapter is called The Girl in the Pink Hat because everyone remembers that missing child poster, this beautiful smiling little girl with a pink hat on. We go inside that case because investigators were really off the mark on that case. We also talk about what happened after the defendant is on trial; what happened to the family members. It is a very odd case. You may think you know a lot about that case but, believe me, there's so much more to be learned. And it's just fascinating stuff. Jessica Lunsford, known as "the girl in the pink hat" her death is easily the most tragic in the book. Dawna Kaufmann: A lot of times I say that Dr. Wecht is the C.S.I. and I'm the Criminal Minds if you want to talk about two TV shows that we replicate in our daily work. Because I like to get into what makes a killer do these things and he talks about the physical manifestations in the bodies. The chapter Hell Hath No Fury is about Dr. Andrew Bagby, who was murdered. It was clear who murdered him, his girlfriend, who was also a physician...The account of that murder was so horrific and weird that people just can't get over this case. I'll let Dr. Wecht talk about what the physical injuries were of these people. Dr. Wecht: Dawna has outlined them quite well. The case in New York was unique, there can't have been too many cases like that. At the beginning, you can image when the defendant told them about this guy offering him money and a ATM card to help him to kill himself so it would appear to be a murder in order to collect that huge amount of insurance that he had taken out for his family. You can imagine, I wasn't there, the inspectors must have looked at each other and smiled and said, "Boy this is a new one." But, at this point, and I want to make that clear, that is no longer an issue, it was not an issue in the trail. They came to realize that it was true but they still proceeded in saying that it did not make any difference. They did not allow me to demonstrate how this has been accomplished, with the defendant sitting in the passenger front seat holding the knife with the bottom of the handle against the steering wheel; the blade directed outward. The driver in this case; a man wishing to kill himself, plunged himself repeatedly into the knife. That's a fascinating case and the detectives, by the way, when they went to the home to tell the wife and three teenage kids that their husband/father had died in this horrible fashion, they got about as much emotional response as if you're told that your garbage can at home was tilted over in the driveway...maybe less. So maybe they then did begin to get a little suspicious. And this case, as Dawna said, is going to be reopened, a new trial, and we'll hope that a more fair-minded judge, and it will result in a more fair verdict with this individual... Dawna Kaufmann: We're not saying that he didn't do anything wrong; of course he did because he still deserves to be in jail, just not for life. Dr. Wecht: Yeah, you can't help somebody commit suicide. Dawna's right; it still a crime. There's no state in America that allows you to help somebody commit suicide, eliminating the three states that have "right to die" but those are limited to physicians and very special circumstances. Now the case in Florida, there is no question about how they screwed up at first, but then, eventually, they got the guy; who was a neighbor and so on. But what was important there is to show that the little girl could have been, should have been saved; that she was alive when she was put into that makeshift casket and so on; things that should have been pursued subsequently in terms of the negligence of the police agencies, etc. The two cases that occurred in western Pennsylvania both counties just outside Allegheny County, in Pittsburgh. In the one case, where she was a doctor too and she had travelled all the way from the Midwest to kill her former lover, who was the father of her soon-to-be-born child and she might have gotten away with it. Who knows? Andrew David Bagby - Hell Hath No Fury - modern technology helped to catch his killer. Dawna Kaufmann: It was the tracking of her GPS... Dr. Wecht: It showed the tracking of her in route and she escaped to Newfoundland. Dawna Kaufmann: Yes! She was a Canadian citizen so she fled to Canada and they protected her... Dr. Wecht: Yeah, with the child who had been born. Then when the parents of the deceased physician, Dr. Bagby, attempted to get involved and so on, what ensued thereafter with the woman and the child is just fantastic and we'll leave that for the readers. The other case A Cousin's Quest, was a lovely man in an ugly divorce situation. Literally, in less than 24 hours, the final document was to be signed, and he winds up brutally murdered, stabbed repeatedly and then ultimately with his head pushed through the glass windows. You know the doors that have little panels of glass on each side of them? The state police knew very quickly that it was one of their own, who was living with the estranged wife, they were living together. As he was struggling and rushing to get to the door to escape from his assailant his head was pushed through there and almost completely severed. It was almost a kind of physical guillotine and I went to the scene and worked things out and so on and it became pretty apparent who the culprit was. And that's what makes the chapter so fascinating Because the state police, they knew very quickly that it was, most probably, one of their own. Who was living with the estranged wife, they were living together; and so it took some time before that came to play. Another fascinating aspect of the case is the DNA. Some very special, highly sophisticated brand new DNA and medical procedures were introduced. A colleague of mine, he's a doctor, a Ph.D. specializing in dealing in DNA testing. He testified too. So that case has its own very special points of fascination and technical forensic scientific interest. I think that it's a nice collection of different cases and as you were talking before, Michael, about people learning from all of this. Indeed, Dawna and I are delighted that is the case and that certainly is one of our objectives. I'm not suggesting that it is the principle one or the sole one, but to know that we help to educate people; to make people more interested in the world of forensic science. It's a nice tangential or ancillary component of what we hope to achieve with these books. In any event it's a lot of fun, it's a lot of interest; it is something that we continue to do. John J. Yelenic - death before divorce in "A Cousin's Quest." Dr Wecht: AS Dawna said, we'll have another book coming out this year and I've got a whole bunch of cases, some of which I don't even think I've shared yet, in detail at least, with Dawna. So there is a constant array; there is a never-ending pool of cases to be written about that people don't hear about. Obviously, most people want to hear about celebrities, they want to hear about cases that become famous. JonBenet Ramsey, Laci Peterson; these are people who were not famous to begin with, they became famous by virtue of the news media being turned onto them for whatever reason. But these other cases, although they may not involve an O.J. Simpson or an Anna Nicole Smith or a Michael Jackson or a Phil Spector, they are very fascinating. I mean who knew Chandra Levy right before that case became fascinating. Who knew Jeffrey MacDonald before that case; who knew Sonny Von Bulow before her case? We don't always have an Elvis Presley, a Marilyn Monroe, but you can always have a forensic scientific puzzle and a fascinating story to tell. Guardian Liberty Voice: Agreed. Dawna Kaufmann: Well it is the puzzle too and that's what we really promote as we are writing. We are mindful of how the story telling is affecting the reader to keep turning those pages and to reveal these astounding twists and turns that are just completely real, but surreal at the same time. Guardian Liberty Voice: Agreed. I read the book and literally could not stop reading it until I have finished the entire thing. I did not want to put it down just because each case was, as you've described, very different, very unique and mind boggling in a lot of instances and very tragic and heartrending as well. I do know, moving on, that you guys are writing another book. I'm guessing, will that be another Ann Rule Presents book or is this going to be under a different umbrella? Dawna Kaufmann: Yes, this will be another Ann Rule Presents book. Let me just say, Ann Rule is the empress of true crime. She has something like 33 number one bestselling New York Times books. Everything she writes goes to the top of the bestseller list and I've been a friend of hers for the last 15 years and Dr. Wecht is as well. Her family put together planetannrule.com so that they could promote all of her books that had gone out of print to bring them back to the world as an e-book. If you don't have a Kindle or a Nook you can download a free one and then buy the book and it will download into your laptop, your computer, your reader, your cellphone, and that's what an e-book is. It's what most people are reading with these days. With Final Exams , we were the first duo to work under her umbrella and she's also graciously agreed to publish our next book, which is on the Kennedy assassination. That'll come out later this year. But with Final Exams it was so popular that so many people said, "Gee I'd like to have a copy that you could sign." So they are going ahead and doing a Final Exams print-on-demand run and we're going to have a paperback book come out of that as well. So if you don't have a reader and know what an e-book is, hang in there because in a few weeks, maybe within a month, we're going to have a print version of that. And you can either download it or order it at planetannrule.com and as well as finding out about Ann's latest books. I have to tip my hat to the people at Planet Ann Rule: Ann's daughter Leslie, Dhebi, Jake and Glenn. These are such professional people; they do the artwork; they do the promotions; they do the website; if you go to facebook.com/planetannrule you will see this interview, eventually, and you'll see all the other ones that Ann does and that we do and it's quite an operation that they have. Guardian Liberty Voice: That's brilliant. Dr. Wecht, anything to add to that? Dr. Wecht: No, I just want emphasis the fact that, it's my understanding, that these people are very responsible and they fulfill their commitments and I think that in no more than a month, quite possibly less, that book Final Exams will be available. So I urge people who are interested in these cases to keep that in mind. The other books that, by the way, we've been talking about; some, that going back some to before I started collaborating with Dawna; Cause of Death and Grave Secrets and Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey? And then the books I've done with Dawna; A Question of Murder and From Crime Scene to Courtroom and now this one, people can get them, from Amazon. Dawna Kaufmann: All of our books, or just put in Dr. Wecht's name in Google and you'll find them. Dr. Wecht: In e-book, right, right. And a lot of people, indeed, do that and the ones who aren't into that Kindle and Nook, hold on for a month, make a little note on the side of your desk to call your bookstore or contact planetannrule.com in a few weeks and find out when it becomes available. Guardian Liberty Voice: Fine, and I will try to remind folks about that on a regular basis because having read the book and, having read other books that you two have written, it was brilliant and anyone with this sort of interest would really, really enjoy reading it as it is very thought provoking and I would ask that, please, whenever you finish your next collaboration come and chat with us again. Dawna Kaufmann: Oh you can be sure of that. Dr. Wecht: It would be a great pleasure. You can be certain of that. Dawna Kaufmann: You can't imagine how exciting it is to have Dr. Wecht talk about the Kennedy assassination and this book is going to be quite a stunning achievement of his 50 years of involvement in this case. It's well worth waiting for. Guardian Liberty Voice: Most definitely. I'm quite looking forward to it. I'd like to say that this concludes our interview with both of you wonderfully fascinating people and that your latest book, Ann Rule Presents -- Final Exams: True Crime Cases from Cyril Wecht is out now in e-book and that a print version will be available in about a month's time. We will try to make sure that we remind people of this and we are very honored, The Guardian Liberty Voice is very honored and pleased to have had a chance to speak to both of you very talented and brilliant individuals. Thank you both for taking the time to have a chat. Dr. Wecht: Thank you Michael it's been most gracious of you to have invited us and to spend all this time and we deeply appreciate your interest and your excellent hosting, your wonderful questions in bringing out all of the fascinating facets of forensic science. Thanks so much. Dawna Kaufmann: Hear hear! Guardian Liberty Voice: Thank you, thank you very much; hopefully I will have a chance to interview you both again in the near future. This has been absolutely wonderful and I will probably come down off cloud nine tomorrow. This has been very exciting for me and hopefully will be for our readers as well. Dawna Kaufmann: Thank you Guardian Thank you very much. Dr. Wecht: Thank you. Guardian Liberty Voice: No problem, no problem at all. Thank you! Dr. Cyril Wecht and Dawna Kaufmann: Exclusive Interview on 'Final Exams' (UPDATE) added by Michael Smith on March 12, 2014 View all posts by Michael Smith -

(UPDATE) Since the Dr. Wecht and Dawna Kaufmann interview about their latest collaborative effort was posted, the audio version of their chat with Guardian Liberty Voice journalist and writer Michael Smith was edited and is now available for readers to hear.

Trump's first travel ban stopped 1,903 people for secondary inspection -- of which more than 76 percent were lawful permanent residents. When President Donald Trump enforced his first travel ban, it was almost immediately contested in the court. However, new documents made public by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) shows, in the nine days the ban was enacted, it stopped 1,903 people for secondary inspection -- out of which more than 76 percent were lawful permanent residents. According to the CBP document, 1,457 permanent residents were caught in the cross fire when Trump first imposed his ban on Jan. 27, 2017 , barring travel from seven Muslim-majority nations, without any prior warning. Out of the remaining 446 people subjected to secondary inspection, at least 134 withdrew their entry request. Entry request withdrawal would have caused the applicant to immediately leave the United States. In 2017, from Jan. 27 to Feb. 3, legal residents faced difficulties trying to return to the United States until U.S. District Judge James Robart issued a temporary restraining order blocking Trump's "Travel and Refugee Ban." The 28-page CBP document was made public due to multiple Freedom of Information Act requests. "This document lists all Executive Order related travelers who were encountered at CBP primary inspection in the air, land, and sea environments from January 27, 2017, to February 4, 2017, and were referred for secondary inspection," the document states . The document also states the "disposition" of almost 300 people who were not permanent residents and subjected to secondary processing was based on mere reference to a code that appeared on various visas and other federal provisions. However, in other cases, the disposition was more specific and did not allow entry under any other provision. For example, nine Syrians were specifically detained after secondary processing in Philadelphia. Similarly, an Iranian was detained in Miami. The Department of Homeland Security initially claimed permanent residents would not be subjected to secondary inspection, only to be overruled by the White House, which allowed entry in the United States on a case-to-case basis despite the permanent citizenship status. A memo , with the subject "Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States," was also made public due to an FOIA request, explained the process and conditions for waivers granted to permanent residents. On Jan. 29, 2017, the then-secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly claimed permanent citizenship to be a "dispositive factor" in granting waiver, except under rare circumstances. A day later, White House counsel Don McGahn, stated in a separate memo that permanent residents did not need any sorts of waivers as the executive order does not "apply to such individuals." Despite the various interpretations and continued attempts to explain the travel ban, more than three-quarters of the people stopped from entering the U.S. without additional inspection were, in fact, permanent citizens. In response to the initial travel ban, the president drafted a second, slightly more lenient ban , which was again rejected by the court. However, a third ban, with a list of slightly different countries, was temporarily approved by the U.S. Supreme Court in September 2017 while it considered its legality. The case date to determine the permanent application of this ban is set for April 2018. Read More

Trump's first travel ban stopped 1,903 people for secondary inspection -- of which more than 76 percent were lawful permanent residents. When President Donald Trump enforced his first travel ban, it was almost immediately contested in the court.

For Kylie Minogue impersonator, Millie Minogue, the art of drag has been a 30-year passion. Millie, who is bringing her pop-up Bar Kylie to the Sydney Mardi Gras this week, found an unlikely career path in early Kylie songs such as The Loco-Motion and I Should be So Lucky . "I was an apprentice hairdresser by day and at night I would go to a local gay club that held a drag night every Sunday," Millie says. Millie says the focus of drag in the late 1980s was on classic tunes - think Dusty Springfield's Son of a Preacher Man and Shirley Bassey's Hey Big Spender . David Bernobic and Millie Minogue. Millie's entrance into the drag scene heralded a new, younger vibe grounded in Australia. "My friend Peter Alexander (PJ king) suggested I give it a go," she says. "No one in the world was doing anything so young and so modern." Millie said after meeting her real life alter-ego, Kylie Minogue, in London for the first time the pop princess and gay icon phoned Millie and asked her to be part of her best-selling coffee book, Kylie Fashion, that was released in 2013. Millie considers the whole Minogue clan as friends - she has been seen partying at Melbourne's Love Machine nightclub with Dannii and she also put on her party hat at the bucks party of Dannii's ex-husband Julian McMahon. Millie Minogue's Aphrodite Show. The star of Carlotta, Les Girls and My Beautiful Boys believes Kylie is such a much-loved icon in the LGBT community because the pop pixie oozes fun and a sexy confidence. "Kylie, like Cher and Madonna, have a natural showmanship," Millie says. Millie says it is now time for Sydneysiders to get their gold hot pants at the ready for Bar Kylie's arrival at Slide in Darlinghurst. "This is our second time at the Sydney Mardi Gras and our third time in Sydney at Slide," Millie says. "Come dressed in your favourite Kylie outfit and get ready to dance because we play nothing but Kylie music all night." Kylie is not the only pop diva that will be celebrated in the lead-up to the Sydney Mardi Gras parade on Sunday, with The Imperial Hotel at Erskineville is hosting a Madonna Tribute Party on March 3 and 4. Singing DJ and self-confessed die-hard Madonna fan, Ray Isaac is promising non-stop Madonna music and live performances that are sure to get all Madonna fans into the groove.

For Kylie Minogue impersonator, Millie Minogue, the art of drag has been a 30-year passion. Millie, who is bringing her pop-up Bar Kylie to the Sydney Mardi Gras this week, found an unlikely career path in early Kylie songs such as The Loco-Motion and I Should be So Lucky

They don't always end in death, but the scars left on the victims and on society will last forever. WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT Situations involving horrible and unjustifiable deaths at the hands of police brutality are not exclusive to the 21st century, but the ability to record and post videos documenting the deaths is a novelty. The Black Lives Matter movement was fueled by the viral videos of police officers harming and killing unarmed black people, and it's only the most recent group to protest these offenses in a long line of groups in the last century. Though most of these cases of police brutality weren't caught on film, they still managed to make headlines despite lies told by the police to cover up the stories. Their deaths and the subsequent acquittal of most of these officers has sparked outrage, protests, and riots. Read below to find out about the worst and most infamous cases of police brutality in history. 1. Frank Jude, Jr. In 2004, 26-year-old Frank Jude was viciously beaten by several off-duty Milwaukee police officers as he was leaving a party. The group of men attacked Jude and his friend, Lovell Harris, claiming they stole one of the officer's wallets that contained their police badge. Harris' face was cut with a knife, but he was able to get free and run away. Jude was repeatedly punched and kicked, as well as stabbed in the ears with a pen so viciously that they bled profusely for over an hour. Even the on-duty officer who was called to stop the fight began stomping on Jude's head. In the state trial, the jury acquitted the three officers charged. There was a great deal of community outrage and demand for a federal investigation. The federal grand jury convicted the three officers who were originally acquitted, but did acquit the fourth officer. The badge was never found. 2. Kathryn Johnston Kathryn Johnston was tragically killed by two Atlanta police officers during a botched drug raid in 2006. The 92-year-old woman was alone inside her home when the officers burst in without warning. She fired at them with an old revolver, which didn't hit any of the officers, and they fired back at her 39 times. She was struck 5-6 times and handcuffed as she lay on her floor dying. The officers allegedly uncovered three bags of marijuana in her home, which they later admitted to planting there as false evidence when they found no drugs. The informant they claimed had bought drugs from her house said that he had never obtained drugs from her, and the two police officers involved in the shooting plead guilty to manslaughter. 3. Sean Bell Sean Bell was killed by NYPD detectives in late 2006, on the eve of his wedding, after the officers opened fire on his car, ultimately shooting at it 50 times. Bell and two of his friends were in the car, each of them suffering from serious bullet wounds, but Bell was the only one that died. The detectives were undercover at the strip club where Bell and his friends were at for his bachelor party because the club was suspected of being involved in prostitution. Accounts vary widely, but Bell's friends were leaving the club after an argument with someone else outside of the bar. The officers said that they heard the men say they were going to get a gun, so one of them allegedly identified themselves as an officer (since he was undercover and in plain-clothes) and Bell responded by driving the car forward and striking the officer. That's when the officer told the other detectives to open fire, killing Bell and injuring the passengers. Witnesses say that the officer never identified himself and that Bell likely thought the plain-clothes officer was trying to car-jack him. 4. Dymond Milburn A young 12-year-old girl, Dymond Milburn, was sent outside by her father to switch a circuit breaker when a van with three undercover police officers rolled up. The officers mistook her for a prostitute, yelling "You're a prostitute! You're coming with me!" Milburn tried to run while yelling for her dad, but one officer held a hand over her mouth while the other two beat her head, face, and throat. When her father came to the balcony after hearing his daughter's screams and informed them that she was his daughter and only 12, one officer responded that he didn't care and they continued. They took her to the station before she was allowed to get checked out at a hospital, and then three weeks later came to her school to arrest her for resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer. 5. Robert Davis Robert Davis, a 64-year-old retired elementary school teacher from New Orleans, was arrested and brutally beaten by police on suspicion of public intoxication. On the night of October 9, 2005, just a little over a month after Hurricane Katrina, Davis returned to New Orleans to check on his family's property. That night, he went to the French Quarter to buy cigarettes, where he encountered police and was subsequently beaten and punched in the head at least four times. It is illegal for police officers to hit a suspect in the head in New Orleans, but the police continued anyway. The four officers involved in the incident claimed that Davis was drunk and belligerent, and that he resisted arrest when police attempted to handcuff him. Thankfully, Davis survived the beating and stands firmly behind his claim that he was not drunk and had not had anything to drink for the last 25 years. What ensued on that night baffled him, and despite video evidence captured on that night to back up his claims, the officers involved were not convicted for assault. Continue reading the rest at True Activist. (Warning: graphic content.)

Dymond Milburn A young 12-year-old girl, Dymond Milburn, was sent outside by her father to switch a circuit breaker when a van with three undercover police officers rolled up.

Originally published on EcoWatch.com It's no secret - here in the United States, there's an election coming up. It's soon. It's a big decision for American voters. And it's a big deal. It's also not the only decision with global consequences this fall. Because at the same time the US campaign season was getting into the business end of things, more and more leaders all around the world were deciding to stand up to climate change and sign on to the historic Paris Agreement. In fact, 86 parties (representing over 61 percent of global emissions) have already joined this landmark agreement - which will now go into effect on November 4, four days before the US votes. Interesting timing, don't you think? Coincidence or not, the timing of the two events highlights what's at stake for our planet in these decisions and why - more than ever - we need to speak out loud and clear in support of leaders taking action on climate change . Because if we've learned anything after months and months of way too many ads, speeches, and debates, it's that politicians go where the voters tell them. So let's make the climate issue their issue, the one they can't afford to ignore. And not just this year, but in every year that follows. Why now? Because with the Paris Agreement becoming official, we finally have the framework to fight climate change together as one planet in a way we never have before. And with all the incredible progress we're seeing in renewables and other areas of solutions, we finally have the tools and technology to make a global shift from fossil fuels to clean energy, affordably and effectively. Want proof? Here are seven reasons we're hopeful for the future, because the solutions are out there: 1. Renewables are growing and getting cheaper Due to declining costs and improvements in renewable technologies, solar and wind projects are being built in more places around the globe more cheaply than any time in history. On top of that, if the price of photovoltaic cells continues to drop as rapidly as it has over the past 10 years , solar power could be as cheap as coal almost everywhere by as early as 2017 ! Some studies estimate 100 percent of the world's energy needs could be met with renewable sources by mid-century, as long as the right, supportive public policies are put in place to help implement them. That's where our elected leaders come in - and where you come in too . 2. Cost of rooftop solar is competitive In many places across the United States, not only is solar power becoming more affordable than ever before, it's actually becoming cost competitive with most utility rates for energy from fossil fuel. When solar power costs the same (or less!) as purchasing power from the grid, it's called solar grid parity , and it's an important milestone in demonstrating the cost-effectiveness of harnessing the power of the sun. The US is well on the way to achieving the SunShot Initiative's 2020 goal of solar grid parity - with several major regions following suit. 3. Remarkable progress in energy storage How we create energy with renewables is important. How we store this energy - so we can use it when needed - is just as critical. That's because the sun doesn't shine 24 hours a day every day, nor is it always windy. The good news is this: we're seeing incredible progress in energy storage. For example, a bill for California's energy storage mandate passed unanimously, instructing the state's investor-owned utilities to greatly expand electricity storage capacity. And since then, the state has expanded the mandate to allow even more energy storage. Similar policies in Japan and Germany are spurring similar growth in energy storage overseas. 4. The electric grid is evolving Just like energy storage is important for renewable energy to thrive, a smarter and more flexible electric grid is critical too. Smart grids improve energy efficiency, save money, and can improve reliability - all great reasons to move away from fossil fuels towards cleaner sources of energy. And since the grid is evolving and more renewables are being introduced, there is huge potential to revolutionize the energy market - for the benefit of the environment and economy. 5. The electric vehicle market is booming Sure, the news that Tesla was releasing its cheapest electric car yet threatened to break one corner of the internet, but that's not the only sign the electric vehicle industry and market are booming. Just look at China: the government has expanded incentives for electric vehicles, waiving or even cutting sales taxes. And plug-in cars are even changing the face of auto racing! Just last year, Miami hosted a Formula E race, where all the race cars were electric. How cool is that? 6. Transportation is more efficient and public transit is growing We can make transportation cleaner and more efficient. So let's step on it! Video courtesy of NowThis. Posted by Climate Reality on Monday, October 12, 2015 A recent survey by Consumer Reports found that the overwhelming majority of Americans (84 percent, in fact) believe automakers should keep making cars and trucks more and more fuel efficient. And automakers are listening - and not just in the US. At the same time use of public and mass transportation is growing rapidly. Technical improvements for new vehicles could avoid about 1.4 gigatons of CO2 annually by 2030, several countries are implementing eco-driving programs, and emissions mandates on cars in the US and EU are saving drivers at the pump in a big way. Meanwhile, huge investments in public transportation in countries like India and Colombia are helping contribute to energy conservation, land preservation, reduced air pollution, and so much more. 7. Energy efficiency is improving and saving you money The more efficient you are at a task, you're wasting less time to complete it, right? It works the same way with energy: the more efficient energy is, the less you'll waste. Listen to this: a study across certain countries showed in just five years, energy efficiency measures avoided the consumption of 570 million tons of dirty energy. In other words, without these measures, energy use across these countries would have actually increased by 5 percent. Help Make Climate Solutions a Reality There you have it. Solutions to the climate crisis undoubtedly exist, and for the first time in history, our leaders have the framework to make these climate solutions a reality. You can help by supporting those leaders today . Add your name below to pledge your support for leaders who make climate solutions a reality. Stay tuned later this week for proof that people everywhere are getting on board with climate solutions like these and so many more.

Solutions to the climate crisis undoubtedly exist, and for the first time in history, our leaders have the framework to make these climate solutions a reality.

By CNS News | June 30, 2016, 13:05 EDT Printed from: http://newbostonpost.com/2016/06/30/poll-fewer-americans-believe-in-god-than-in-past-decades/ (Courtesy of Wikipedia) (CNSNews.com) - Given a "yes" or "no" option, 89 percent of Americans -- about nine in 10 -- said they believe in God, while one in 10 say they do not, according to a new Gallup Poll conducted June 14-23, 2016. But the pollster notes that 89 percent is down from levels seen in past decades. When Gallup first asked Americans, "Do you, personally, believe in a God?" in 1944, 96 percent said yes. Between 94 percent and 98 percent of Americans said they believed in God in other surveys conducted through 1967. In 1976, Gallup modified the wording and asked Americans about their belief in "God or a universal spirit," with 94 percent to 96 percent expressing belief through 1994. In a separate poll conducted May 4-8, 2016, Gallup asked the question in a different way: "For each of the following items I am going to read you, please tell me whether it is something you believe in, something you're not sure about or something you don't believe in: God." In this poll, 79 percent said they "believe in" God, 10 percent said "not sure about," and 11 percent said "don't believe in." In 2001 and 2004, 90 percent of U.S. adults said they believed in God, with 7 percent and 5 percent, respectively, saying they were unsure. By 2007, the percentage choosing "believe in God" had dropped slightly to 86 percent, with another 8 percent expressing uncertainty. This year, "believe in God" dropped further to 79 percent with 10 percent unsure. "Still," Gallup notes, "the 89 percent who either believe in God or are unsure (as opposed to those saying they don't believe in God) is the same as the 89 percent who respond affirmatively when asked the simpler 'yes or no' question, 'Do you believe in God?' Gallup also asked people about angels, heaven, hell, and the devil, giving them three options -- believe in, not sure about and don't believe in. -- 72 percent said they believe in angels; 12 percent said "not sure about"; and 16 percent did not believe. -- 71 percent believe in heaven; 14 percent were not sure; 15 percent said no. -- 64 percent believe in hell; 13 percent weren't sure; 22 percent said no. -- And the devil take the hindmost: 61 percent believe, 12 percent not sure, 27 percent do not believe. The implications, according to Gallup: All of Gallup's questions about belief in God show declines from previous decades. This follows the general trend in drops in other religious indicators over the decades. Most notable among these is that close to 20 percent of Americans now say they do not identify with a specific religious group or denomination, compared with smaller percentages who had no religious identity in decades past. "The exact meaning of these shifts is unclear," the pollster states. "Although the results can be taken at face value in showing that fewer Americans believe in God than did so in the past, it is also possible that basic beliefs have not changed -- but rather Americans' willingness to express nonreligious sentiments to an interviewer has. "Whatever the explanation for these changes over time, the most recent findings show that the substantial majority of Americans continue to give a positive response when asked about their belief in God." Results for the Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted June 14-23, 2016, with a random sample of 1,025 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. For results based on the total sample of 1,025 adults interviewed May 4-8, 2016, the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 60 percent cellphone respondents and 40 percent landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods. -- Written by Susan Jones

By CNS News | June 30, 2016, 13:05 EDT Printed from: http://newbostonpost.com/2016/06/30/poll-fewer-americans-believe-in-god-than-in-past-decades/ (Courtesy of Wikipedia) (CNSNews.com) - Given a "yes" or "no" option, 89 percent of Americans -- about nine in 10 -- said they believe in God, while one in 10 say they do not, according to a new Gallup Poll conducted June 14-23, 2016.

Norman Finkelstein: A question of principle and practicality Dax D'Orazio | Dr. Norman Finkelstein was in Ottawa as part of a cross-Canada lecture tour organized by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East. He spoke with Dax D'Orazio before a lecture at Carleton. rabble news November 18 Union co-ops the future of labour? Mara Kardas-Nelson | A new collaboration between North America's largest industrial union and the world's largest worker-owned co-operative has reinvigorated proponents of an alternative to top-down business models. arts/media November 17 Who are the people in your neighbourhood? Meagan Perry | In this episode of rabble radio Sachin Seth meets with volunteers at the Fort York Food Bank, an interview with Anne McNeil, a Buddhist nun, and Lynn Thompson catches up with musicians, Baka Beyond. in their own words November 13 Red Seattle: A travelogue Ron Verzuh | On his latest trip, Ron Verzuh uncovers numerous examples of Seattle's radical roots. everyone's a critic November 11 The World Social Forum: Taking stock and moving forward Pierre Beaudet | There have been many critiques of the World Social Forum, from the right but often from the left. All in all, these critiques are often valid but miss the point. in their own words November 11 Open letter: Women's rights are not luxury items Mara Kardas-Nelson | Mara Kardas-Nelson is a U.S. citizen who spent four years in Vancouver, B.C. while studying at the University of British Columbia. She writes to her Washington state senators about health care reform. rabble news November 10 Hundreds dream green at Good Jobs conference Peter Hogarth and Charlotte Ireland | Hundreds came together for the Good Green Jobs Conference on Saturday to start building a green future that is economically viable, environmentally sustainable, equitable and just for all. everyone's a critic November 9 Part II: Soldiering on? The invisible injuries of war Krystalline Kraus | After yesterday's tragic events in Fort Hood, Texas, issues of mental health and the armed forces are in the spotlight. A serious look into these issues is warranted in Canada too. rabble news November 4 Geoengineering: Plan B for when Copenhagen fails? Diana Bronson | The belief that technology will save the world from climate change runs deep amongst government delegates in Barcelona. in their own words November 2 The National Post and the bankruptcy of media 'convergence' Gary Engler | The idea that there are "synergies" in owning a chain of national newspapers anchored by a "flagship" national paper still sounds good to some, despite its actual dismal history. arts/media October 30 Venezuela's classical music revolution takes Toronto by storm Robin Breon | The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra (SBYO) of Venezuela has taken Toronto by storm. The founder, Jose Antonio Abreu, was in town to accept the $50,000 Glenn Gould Priz in their own words October 30 Celebrating 40 years of Ottawa's Octopus Books Hugh Armstrong | Forty years ago a small group of us concocted the audacious plan to spin Octopus Books off from the tabloid paper of the day. rabble news October 29 Soldiering on? The human cost of war Krystalline Kraus | With October the deadliest month yet for occupying forces in Afghanistan, a look at the human toll of war, and things our governments will do to hide it from public view. briefly October 28 The high cost of contracting out: B.C. HandyDart strike Ian Beeching | Privatization and contracting out is directly impacting workers and people with disabilites in B.C. rabble news October 27 Bonuses for Canwest bosses? Gary Engler | When Canada's largest media conglomerate filed for court protection against creditors for a portion of the company on Oct. 6, laid-off employees lost severance pay, while some bosses got bonuses. rabble news October 26 Indigenous Sovereignty Week builds community-based resistance Greg Macdougall | Indigenous Sovereignty Week is now upon us. Close to 30 cities and communities across Canada (and even a few in the United States) will be holding public events from Oct. 24 to Nov. 1. rabble news October 23 The movement for a stable climate goes global this weekend Bill McKibben | Let's say you occasionally despair for the future of the planet. In that case, the place you need to be this week is the website for 350.org. politics October 22 Canada needs tax fairness not the HST James Clancy | We're long overdue for serious tax reform in this country. Most Canadians agree on this. But the new unfair Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) in Ontario and B.C. is not what most of us had in mind. rabble news October 22 Sanctuary for war resister: Rodney Watson takes refuge in Vancouver church Krystalline Kraus | Facing deportation to the U.S., Iraq War resister Rodney Watson has decided to seek sanctuary in a B.C. church. rabble news October 21 The PM and the piano: Tuning up for a majority government? Eric Mang | Following Harper's piano performance and the fawning support of some pundits in the media, polling firm Ekos surveyed Canadians' vote intentions. rabble news October 20 Free pass for a war criminal: Bush is back in Canada Gail Davidson | George W. Bush is back in Canada this week. A Lawyers Against War member wonders why Canadian law still isn't being applied to bar or prosecute him for his role in war crimes. rabble news October 19 UN endorses Goldstone: Can Israel now be held to account? Bahija Reghai | The U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva voted Friday to endorse the Goldstone report by a large margin (26-5) and "called upon all concerned parties to ensure their implementation." rabble news October 19 Ford negotiations: Time to end the era of concessions Herman Rosenfeld | The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) and the Ford Motor Company have been engaged in contract talks, scheduled to resume formally on October 26. in their own words October 16 It's time to organize: Labour movement needs to capture the popular imagination Gary Engler | Unions are stuck in a rut that seems to be getting deeper every day. We are losing members to layoffs, plant shutdowns and to bankruptcies that are the result of a worldwide financial crisis. rabble news October 16 Obama as LBJ: Can the president escape the Afghan quagmire? William J. Astore | It's early in 1965, and President Lyndon B. Johnson faces a critical decision. Should he escalate in Vietnam? Should he say "yes" to the request from U.S. commanders for more troops? rabble news October 15 Canada still a rogue state in global climate negotiations Diana Bronson | From September 28 to October 9, thousands of government negotiators and citizens groups went to Bangkok for the penultimate international meeting before the Copenhagen climate summit in December. rabble news October 14 Following the money: The Fraser Institute's tobacco papers Donald Gutstein | A rare glimpse of the role of corporate funding in shaping Fraser Institute programs was obtained as a result of the 1998 Agreement between 46 U.S. state attorneys general and the tobacco companies.

A question of principle and practicality Dax D'Orazio | Dr. Norman Finkelstein was in Ottawa as part of a cross-Canada lecture tour organized by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East.

A sharp-eyed taxi driver helped reunite a missing 11-year-old boy with his family Tuesday. Toronto Police took to social media around the noon hour appealing for help in finding Martin Tang. The boy had last been seen near Avenue Rd. and Bloor St. W. Wondimu Gebresilasie, a Beck Taxi driver, was waiting for his next fare downtown on Edward St., outside of the Toronto Coach Terminal, around 2:20 p.m. when he spotted the young boy wandering past the line of cabs. Curious to see where Martin was going, Gebresilasie stepped out of his taxi to check on him. "I want to go to Queen's Park," the driver recalled the boy telling him. He then asked the child for his name. "He said 'Martin' -- immediately (I knew he was the missing boy because) the name was on my screen," Gebresilasie said, adding Martin then gave his last name. "I was so excited. I picked up my radio and told my dispatcher." Gebresilasie called police and met officers in front of nearby Toronto General Hospital around 2:30 p.m. He said Martin was friendly and calm throughout the experience, but it was difficult talking with the boy since the child doesn't speak much English. The five-year driver with Beck said he heard about the missing boy through bulletins from taxi dispatchers and radio reports. He added he was just happy that he was able to help. "I'm a father, so I mean, I can imagine someone was looking for him," he said. "Anything could have happened to him when he was wondering, we don't know who's going to get him on the street." According to a police spokesman, Martin was reported to be in good condition. ****MARTIN TANG HAS BEEN LOCATED**** Martin is safe and is being reunited with his family. Thank you for your broadcasts and retweets ^ma -- Toronto Police OPS (@TPSOperations) August 11, 2015

A sharp-eyed taxi driver helped reunite a missing 11-year-old boy with his family Tuesday. Toronto Police took to social media around the noon hour appealing for help in finding Martin Tang. The boy had last been seen near Avenue Rd.

Book review: Damaged Goods: New Perspectives on Christian Purity by Dianna Anderson Whether surfing the internet or strolling the aisle of a local bookstore, the average Christian could be refreshed to catch a glimpse of Dianna Anderson's book Damaged Goods. The... Continue... It's an oft-repeated question: Is the Reformation still necessary? During this commemoration of Luther's protest, it's proper to consider how the Reformation impulse of yesteryear applies to our present moment in history. Central to the Reformation was the fact that God... Continue... When United States District Judge Myron H. Thompson ruled last fall that the Alabama Women's Health and Safety Act is unconstitutional, Planned Parenthood Southeast, Inc. v. Strange, 33 F.Supp.3d 1330 (M.D. Ala. 2014), he concluded his opinion with an analogy and... Continue... If we shadows have offended, Think but this (and all is mended) That you have but slumbered here, While these visions did appear. -Puck's Epilogue, A Midsummer's Night Dream It was only a dream. This is how Shakespeare decided to... Continue... "It's a baby. . . . The heart is right there." The doctor speaks these words, caught on a hidden camera, as she sifts through a dish holding the remains of a freshly aborted child. "Was that crack the little... Continue... In this issue of Light Magazine, Karen Swallow Prior asks if this is our pro-life moment and writes about current cultural attitudes toward abortion. Joy Allmond traces Southern Baptists' path to a pro-life position. Mike Cosper writes about how we... Continue... No one in American life is more committed to religious liberty for all than the Latter-day Saints. We disagree strongly on crucial matters of faith--including the question of what the gospel is and what the church is, even over the... Continue... There are a lot of legitimate reasons for Christians to be distressed at Christmas: Shifting sexual norms Public policies that deny human dignity to the vulnerable Heresy and controversy in the church. The threat of terrorism The commercialization of Christmas... Continue... Article by Brad Hambrick on Mar 11, 2016 LGBTQ Imagine you attended a church where your life struggle was never mentioned as an area to receive care, and, if it was mentioned, your struggle was the adversarial portion of a culture war commentary. How would your week-to-week experience of... Continue... Nineteen years ago, my wife and I began a journey. We both were struggling with our identities--my sexual identity and her identity as a woman and a wife. Our marriage had been shattered, and both of us, in unique and... Continue...

Damaged Goods: New Perspectives on Christian Purity by Dianna Anderson Whether surfing the internet or strolling the aisle of a local bookstore, the average Christian could be refreshed to catch a glimpse of Dianna Anderson's book Damaged Goods.

BARBARIC PRACTICES IN THE NAME OF RELIGION CANNOT BE TOLERATED BY CIVILIZED SOCIETY by Dwight Kehoe, Editor, TPATH , (c)2016 (Aug. 15, 2016) -- Throughout the long history of mankind, at least through the recorded epochs, there have been many forms of religious practices. Many periods, prior to a written language, chronicled events and social milieus via word of mouth or epic tales passed down through the generations. Later came inscribed verses which required alphabets or symbols for a structured language. One of the things that remain consistent and always extant in the history of mankind has been the belief in some form of deity and the rules required to adhere to the tenets of a belief which formed around a loving god. Even the earliest inhabitants of this world understood that there was just too much to understand and comprehend. There had to be, even to these pre-civilization people, something higher, something ubiquitous that controlled all which was beyond their ability to comprehend. Many societies, simply because there was no way to grasp the sun, the moon and the stars hanging over their heads inconsistently with their gravity-controlled existence, would elevate these things to god status. Some common peoples, seeing their rulers existing in a caste so far above the misery and struggles they endured, were easily convinced they were gods on earth. As the physical world became more understood there still remained, and will forever remain, unanswered questions. The belief in a god or gods grew from these new revelations, and organized religions began to form. Still, religions idolized several deities as opposed to a one true and singular God. Many scholars believe that Judea was chosen by God as the communication vehicle from heaven to earth, as it had advanced to an ideology of one God. The Jews were not chosen to be special or forever favored, but they were chosen to deliver the message of a One and only Father. Over the millennia, except for short-lived beliefs in sun gods or volcanic deities which demanded human sacrifices, every organized religion has been founded on the approval of a good and loving god. Whether it be Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism, or any of the other hundreds of systematized faiths, the common theme for all of them remained the same. Do good, care for your common man, love him as you would love the god which reigns supreme over your world. All, that is, except one. There is one dubious religion which provides not for love of the fellow man, but demands his death, a death void of compassion and filled with incomprehensible bloodletting, destruction, misery and evil. They label this malevolence as a religion, while in truth it encompasses less religion than the cold and heartless thought process of a shark devouring a baby seal. They at times quote phrases of peace and love while in the same breath preach, condone and require hatred, deceit and murder. These practitioners claim that their god is all-powerful and void of any fault or ability to err, but curiously he (it) has created human beings for the sole purpose of being eliminated. They will never address why their god would produce infidels, guilty of nothing more than where or how they were born, only to be decapitated, drowned in cages, set afire, tossed from roof tops or stoned to death. Contemplations such as that will never be considered by the purveyors of this evil. They will not ever allow themselves to be confronted with or be forced to consider them because to do so, would lower the veil, excuse the intentional pun, and expose the insanity of their beliefs. As we discuss this, I am reminded of that idiot Will Smith who recently made some comments about how much the Muslim people of Dubai love him. This statement was presented for the sole purpose of obfuscating the dangers posed by Islamic terror and thereby denigrating those who are concerned about it. Will Smith seems to have forgotten or never paid attention to the special love that Islam showed to the Orlando nightclub patrons, nor did he not notice the love the Islamists showed to those men burned alive in cages, or for that matter, the love they have shown for those hundreds of kneeling infidels in orange jumpsuits prior to their jugular veins being sliced open or their brains splattered in the sand. The comical Will Smith had better pray that these persons he so affectionately admires and whom he claims admire him never get a chance to show him what their love really looks like. His last ignoble snicker will be followed by his last vision on this earth. Food for thought: Would anyone enter a restaurant if some of the previous patrons had very recently died of food poisoning? How about if you were promised that most of the food is good and wholesome and that only a few items on the menu posed a threat? What if you were told that nothing has been done to find and remove the dangerous food items because they represented such a small percentage of the overall wonderful food available? Would that convince you to feed anything in that establishment to one of your children? Would you encourage others to sit and dine there? Clearly Will Smith, Obama and Hillary Clinton have no worries about challenging those odds, mostly because their elitist positions will never offer them that possibility. But your family? Not their worry. A thoughtful warning: As long as the chefs preparing the menu and the purveyors of Islam harbor and champion death and misery, neither shall belong to nor be tolerated in a civilized society. It is as much their duty to fix it as it is for a concerned society to refuse to exist in fear of it. Dangerous menu items had better be removed or the time will come when the people will close down that restaurant, permanently. Religious Perversion Creates a Deadly Cuisine added on Monday, August 15, 2016

(Aug. 15, 2016) -- Throughout the long history of mankind, at least through the recorded epochs, there have been many forms of religious practices.

Dianna Agron is a cheerleader no longer. The 29-year-old actress departs from her Glee roots in the new movie Bare, a stunning drama out on Friday, October 30. In Bare , directed by Natalia Leite, Agron plays Sarah, a girl stuck in her small Nevada hometown, bored with her life...until she falls in love with a mysterious drifter named Pepper (Paz de la Huerta) who shows her a new way to look at the world. BUST connected with Dianna via email to talk about Bare , her directing dreams and her resume of LGBT characters. Bare is a new direction for you! Why did you decide to get involved with the film? What appealed to you about the script and the character? The last two years have been challenging for me, because I have tried to make choices that are vastly different from the choices I have made before. I've tried not to repeat characters, or types of stories. Everything has been quite different and I am proud of that. What drew me to this role and story in particular was the chance to play a girl at a crossroads at a very important time in her life. Sarah is very innocent, and quite naive. She has the emotional capacity of someone much younger than she actually is. She is a person who is letting those around her make choices for her, and isn't taking charge of her own journey. Once she sees that she has other options, new things to discover, everything changes. What was it like acting with Paz de la Huerta in such an intimate relationship? It was important to me that there could be a clear difference between the two of us, and our characters. In some ways, I would have wanted to be Pepper. Probably because she is closer to who I really am in some ways. She's headstrong, a nomad, she can brazen at times, full of passion. In order for me to play the submissive, to play Sarah, I needed someone who could give me that kind of energy so that I could fall into that mindset. Luckily, that is what we had together and I was able to play someone very different than who I am as a person. This is a movie directed by a woman, about two women and with a cast of mostly women, which is very rare for Hollywood! What was it like being in that environment? It's very rare and yet it does exist! I think no matter what, the focus has to be on quality, compelling characters and stories, but when it aligns in this way, you can't help but be proud. Natalia and Alexandra [Leite, a producer on the film] are such badass women. They get things done, they have clear visions, and they are so talented. I love that they are carving their way in the industry, not simply for the fact that they are women, but because they have the talent to lead the way. You got your start on Glee , which has been praised for its approach to sexuality - including a plotline with your character; your character falls in love with Paz de la Huerta's in Bare, and you play a lesbian character in the upcoming movie Hollow In The Land. Do you feel a connection to the gay and lesbian community because of these roles? Free Download: Great Dames! Get inspired by some of our favorite interviews, featuring Dolly Parton, Solange, Tina Fey, Jessica Williams, Kathleen Hanna, Laverne Cox, the Broad City gals, and more! Plus, keep up with the latest from BUST. I feel a connection the the gay and lesbian community for several reasons. I grew up in San Francisco, which is quite liberal. I have many, many friends that are gay and lesbian, and I myself would hate not to tell stories that involve this community. We as actors, are storytellers, which means everyone should be represented. Sadly, this isn't always the case. I think that movies are a huge gateway to understanding and knowledge. You recently directed a short film for Tory Burch. Do you have plans to continue directing? I do. This wasn't my first time directing, but it definitely was the biggest budget I've had to play with. I've directed a few videos. One, in my old apartment without a budget at all, and another for a very small one, stealing a bunch of shots downtown Los Angeles. I'm still a fan of guerrilla filmmaking, but having the chance to shoot in Paris, have a proper casting, find our wonderful Margaret and two French boys...it was a dream. I love France, and loved the opportunity to shoot there. I think in the next few years, I would want to do a few more shorts, and there's also a few documentary ideas I have floating around. Right now, the focus is acting first, but I love directing just as much. So in the upcoming years, hopefully I get to wear both hats alternatively. Images via Facebook/Bare More from BUST Erika W. Smith is BUST's digital editorial director. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram @erikawynn and email her at erikawsmith@bust.com.

Dianna Agron is a cheerleader no longer. The 29-year-old actress departs from her Glee roots in the new movie Bare, a stunning drama out on Friday, October 30. In Bare , directed by Natalia Leite, Agron plays Sarah, a girl stuck in her small Nevada hometown, bored with her life..

US presidential candidate Donald Trump becomes lone survivor in Republican White House race as rival, John Kasich quits Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to supporters following the results of the Indiana state primary at Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York May 3, 2016. ( TRT World and Agencies ) Donald Trump on Wednesday became the last man standing in the race for the Republican US presidential nomination and faced the challenge of repairing deep fissures in the party, as his sole remaining rival, John Kasich, ended his campaign. Anointed the presumptive nominee after winning Indiana on Tuesday and driving his closest rival, US Senator Ted Cruz, from the race, the 69-year-old New York billionaire planned to set up a vice presidential selection committee and step up efforts to seek unity among a wider group of Republicans ahead of the Nov. 8 election. Trump's win in Indiana cleared the way for him to prepare for a likely general election match-up against Democrat Hillary Clinton. The former secretary of state lost the Indiana primary to tenacious challenger US Senator Bernie Sanders, but remains on course to become her party's nominee. Trump told NBC News he would probably work with the Republican National Committee to raise about $1 billion for the general election campaign. Kasich, the Ohio governor, had stayed in the race in hopes of persuading Republicans to choose him as the nominee at a contested convention in July. He ended his campaign as a clear path emerged for Trump to amass the delegates needed to secure the nomination outright. "As I suspend my campaign today, I have renewed faith, deeper faith that the Lord will show me the way forward and fulfil the purpose of my life," Kasich said in Columbus, the Ohio state capital. Republican US presidential candidate John Kasich speaks at the California GOP convention in Burlingame, California, on April 29, 2016. ( TRT World and Agencies ) Some Republican leaders said they would support Trump since he would be the nominee, stressing the importance of defeating Clinton in the general election. But there was no mad rush to support him as is typically the case when a presumptive nominee is crowned. Former President George W. Bush, whose brother Jeb was defeated by Trump in the primary campaign, made clear he was staying out of the race. "President Bush does not plan to participate in or comment on the presidential campaign," said his spokesman, Freddy Ford. A similar statement was issued by the spokesman for Bush's father, former President George H.W. Bush. "At age 91, President Bush is retired from politics," spokesman Jim McGrath said. John McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee, said he would support Trump. McCain is a US senator from Arizona who is seeking re-election this year and was insulted by Trump last year. "As John McCain has said, he will support the nominee of the Republican Party, who is now presumptively Donald Trump," said McCain's Senate campaign spokeswoman, Lorna Romero. Campaign wounds But the wounds from a brutal primary battle were still raw among many Republican loyalists who simply cannot bear to support Trump because they worry he could spell disaster for the party in November. Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska reiterated statements that he would not back Trump and pointed to a February Facebook post in which he said he would look for an alternative candidate if Trump became the nominee. Nebraska's other US senator, Republican Deb Fischer, made clear in an interview with Nebraska Radio Network that she would support the party's nominee but was not comfortable with Trump. "Mr. Trump is going to have to work hard to bring the party together," she said. South Carolina's Republican governor, Nikki Haley, issued a statement saying she would support the Republican nominee but was "not interested" in being the party's vice presidential running mate. But Oklahoma Republican Governor Mary Fallin endorsed Trump enthusiastically and welcomed talk of her as his possible No. 2. Since launching his White House bid last summer as a long shot amid a crowded field that included governors, former governors and US senators, Trump repeatedly defied predictions that his campaign would implode. He prevailed over rivals he derided as "grown politicians," despite making provocative statements along the way that drew sometimes furious criticism from many in the party but fed his anti-establishment appeal. In a series of television interviews on Wednesday, Trump made clear he would not be looking to placate everyone after a tumultuous primary campaign in which many establishment Republicans rallied around "Stop Trump" and "Never Trump" movements. Demonstrators hold a sign in protest of Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump during the California Republican Convention in Burlingame, California on April 29, 2016. ( Reuters ) Party loyalists have been appalled by the bombastic, bullying style of the former reality-television star, his denigrating comments about women and his proposals to build a wall on the border with Mexico and deport 11 million illegal immigrants. "I am confident that I can unite much of it, some of it I don't want," Trump said on NBC's "Today" show. "Honestly, there are some people I really don't want. People will be voting for me. They're not voting for the party." The New York Times quoted Trump as saying he would soon form a team to help him in the search for a vice presidential nominee to be announced in July. He put retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson on the committee. Carson, who like Trump has never held elective office or served in government, endorsed Trump after pulling out of the Republican presidential race earlier this year. Trump, who has honed an 'outsider' image, suggested he might make a more conventional choice as his running mate, telling the Times: "I'm more inclined to go with a political person." He made a play for working-class Democrats and independents in a CNN interview, saying he would be "open to doing something" on raising the hourly minimum wage but that to increase it too much could hurt companies' competitiveness. Support for Trump among Republicans jumped nationally in recent weeks to the highest level of the primary campaign, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling. A recent poll found Trump with the support of 53 percent of Republican participants, well above Cruz at 25 percent. In a potential general election contest, Clinton led Trump by about 10 percentage points among likely voters. The poll included 623 Democrats and 556 Republicans and had a credibility interval of 5 percentage points. Clinton called Trump a "loose cannon" on Wednesday and said America should not take a risk on an unreliable candidate.

US presidential candidate Donald Trump becomes lone survivor in Republican White House race as rival, John Kasich quits Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to supporters following the results of the Indiana state primary at Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York May 3, 2016.

If you don't know anything at all about Christian ethics or faith-related teachings on marriage - and judging from the Twitterverse and fans of the Huffington Post, they don't - you might find it strange that Mike Pence restrains his behavior in certain ways out of respect for his wife. Now, if you were a serious person, or even just a curious one, you might want to learn more about why he does these things. He's had a pretty darn successful marriage, after all, so the Pences must be doing something right. But if you're the type of people who dominate these corners of social media, you'll skip all that and just go straight to mockery. Because that's the kind of person you are. How much does Mike Pence respect his wife Karen? A lot. So much, in fact, that he voluntarily avoids certain situations that would almost certainly be innocuous, just to go the extra mile and ensure there is never even the slightest hint of broken trust in the marriage. This is known among Christians as the Billy Graham rule, because it tracks with limits Rev. Graham has long placed on his own behavior. By Dan Calabrese - Friday, March 31, 2017 - Full Story TORONTO, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) calling on the government to get a grip on bureaucrat pay, after todays release of the Sunshine List of government employees earning more than $100,000 has grown by 7 per cent in the last year. It doesn't wallow, nor does it feel like a car my grandfather would drive. In fact, it looks as if Lincoln has thrown down a gauntlet with the 2017 Continental, announcing to the world that the famed marque is not only back, but capable of taking on the competitors head to head. When was the last time you read that about a Lincoln Continental? It's something I had never written before, let alone thought. Oh, I liked the MKZ I drove last fall a lot, but as nice as it was it still felt like a "gussied up" Fusion (which it is, really), whereas after spending a week in the grand new Continental I came away excited for the future of the famed nameplate, which had kind of gone to sleep as a major luxury brand. By Jim Bray - Friday, March 31, 2017 - Full Story We've been talking a lot here lately about the danger of left-wing judges who basically ignore the law and the Constitution in search of any pretext, however flimsy, to toss out perfectly legal actions taken by President Trump. This is why Democrats are so terrified by the rise of judges like Neil Gorsuch, and even more so, the opportunity Trump will have throughout his presidency to give lifetime appointments to conservative judges at other levels of the federal judiciary. The courts are often the left's end run around the legislative process, but that end run is only available to them if they have enough left-wing judges on the courts to do their work for them. If you want to see where this can lead if taken to its logical conclusion, let's go once again to Venezuela. The most recent legislative elections did not go well for the socialist government of Nicolas Maduro, who has presided over an economic and societal breakdown so severe Venezuelans struggle to access even basic day-to-day goods. It's so bad that the nation with possibly the greatest petroleum reserves in the world faces a gasoline shortage. By Dan Calabrese - Friday, March 31, 2017 - Full Story -- BombThrowers : Is Sid Vicious spinning in his grave? Anne Frank has been quoted as saying, "Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness." That is precisely what happened for one rare day this week at the United Nations, the international body that was once instrumental in creating the state of Israel but is now being used by Israel's enemies as an instrument to destroy the Jewish state. A ray of light shone through the darkness of anti-Semitism that too often descends on the UN's chambers. Over 2,000 representatives from organizations, pro-Israel activists, diplomats and students filled the United Nations General Assembly hall on March 29th to speak out against the unrelenting campaign of hatred launched against Israel at the United Nations and on college campuses around the world. The event was sponsored by Israel's Mission to the UN, the World Jewish Congress and various pro-Israel organizations. The event focused in particular on the evils of the so-called boycott, divestment and sanction (BDS) movement against Israel. By Joseph A. Klein, CFP United Nations Columnist - Friday, March 31, 2017 - Full Story

If you don't know anything at all about Christian ethics or faith-related teachings on marriage - and judging from the Twitterverse and fans of the Huffington Post, they don't - you might find it strange that Mike Pence restrains his behavior in certain ways out of respect for his wife.

Turkish trio Arpanatolia brings together Anatolian folk songs and the modern Western harmonic system.| Photo courtesy of Arpanatolia. To celebrate the Turkish National Sovereignty and Children's Day, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey and the Turkish Consulate General in Vancouver presents Arpanatolia, the Turkey-based musical, at the Chan Centre Apr. 24. "The Turkish government is inviting children from all around the world, every April 23rd, to celebrate it all together. We are trying to continue that tradition," says Anil Inan, Turkish Consul General of Vancouver. Arpanatolia brings the Anatolian past to the present. The trio, comprised of Cagatay Akyol (harp), Ferhat Erdem (Anatolian instruments) and Cemal Ozkiziltas (percussion) brings together Anatolian folk songs, many of which have been around for millenia, with the modern Western harmonic system, showcasing a long and rich history of Anatolian culture through music. A history with the harp Since he was a child, Akyol knew that he wanted to become a musician, but up until his first day at his music conservatory, he had his eyes set on the violin. His instructors stated that only right-handed people could play violin, and since Akyol is left-handed he was forced to pick another instrument. Sensing that Akyol was unimpressed by the other options, the harp instructor asked if he would be interested in becoming a student of the harp. Akyol, having overheard a conversation describing the instrument earlier that day, agreed despite never having seen the instrument. "The harp teacher asked me, 'Would you like to play harp?' I said 'yes', and she asked me what it looked like," says Akyol. "And I heard a bit about it at the door [of the conservatory], so I said 'it's like a triangle, with the strings and such' and she said, 'Congratulations, then I'll take you!'" Playing the harp for nearly 40 years, Akyol is the second ever known male harpist from Turkey and has built a lengthy career of performance roles, including current solo harpist for the Turkish Presidential Symphony Orchestra, a position he has held since he was 19, as well as being the harpist for Arpanatolia. A 'kitchen' of music Founded nearly five years ago, Arpanatolia has pursued the goal of bringing the past to the present. By showcasing folks songs and instruments that date back to the Hittite empire (founded around 3600 years ago), Akyol aims to bring that era of music to audiences today. "Arpanatolia has a mission, I can say, because we are playing Anatolian music, our traditional music, our folk songs, which means we move the history of these pieces from the past to the future. We try to remember for the people, from their past and for the future also. Generally, music is a bridge from the past to the future," he says. Akyol feels that each song is like telling a piece of Anatolian history to the audience through a part of its own culture, so to help contextualize the music, the trio divulges a bit of the history behind each song before performing it. "Arpanatolia is not only a concert, but also a kind of lecture, a musical lecture, you could say, because each of the pieces is telling the history of the song to the people," says Akyol. For Aykol, the richness of Anatolian history and culture shines through its music, and it's a richness you can find no matter which part of its culture you look at. "We have very rich culture: if you look at a country to their food, to their 'kitchen,' you can see how they live," he says. "So we have incredible foods, and for each village you can find 30, 40 different [ones], which means you have a rich culture. So Arpanatolia has the likeness of a kind of 'kitchen' of music." For more info, please visit www.chancentre.com

Turkish trio Arpanatolia brings together Anatolian folk songs and the modern Western harmonic system.| Photo courtesy of Arpanatolia.

After a big buildup, the migrant caravan full of Central America's finest has finally arrived, and as screengrabs from local television broadcasts show, they gave America the bird. Seriously. Buried in a News 8 broadcast from San Diego was footage of illegal migrants and their supporters on the U.S. side breaching the U.S. fence on the border, waving a big Honduran flag, victory-style, and whipping out a big middle finger at America. In times past, arriving immigrants used to kiss the earth. Today, they wave the middle finger at us. Look at these photos, both from News 8 and the CBS national report, rough and blurry, admittedly, showing just what that caravan was about in all its anti-American tenor, which frankly, should have been the lede to the story: For a publicity stunt as staged as the migrant caravan from Central America, one that one might have expected to have been carefully choreographed to advance their narrative of needy people with sob stories needing asylum, what does it say that all we see are military-aged young men, some with tattoos, illegally entering the U.S. under the Honduran banner and angrily flashing the middle finger in what might be their first moments in America? Here are more photos showing that this crowd (and its cheering section on the other side) is anything but the women and children in peril being promoted by the group's organizers. Actually, it's almost all single military-aged young men in small groups, who seem to be angry at our country and us for not letting them in on demand. The beach from the San Diego side, where one Honduran flag is featured. This appears to be the scene from the Tijuana side, using the ocean as a reference, which also features Honduran flags in the crowd and at the top of the border fence. Really? More migrants. One of these pictured may be from among the Haitians who tried to get in from Tijuana a few months ago. A Haitian flag was featured earlier in the report. More than one Honduran flag of conquest over the U.S. border. Note the military-aged young men bunching in groups at the top and the yellow left-wing militant flag below. The sign in English suggests that the above photo was taken from the San Diego side, but the climbers are likely to have come from the Tijuana side since the idea is to get in. News reports said some did. The fence-scalers also wore masks. Not exactly pleading as pitiful refugees. Sarah Hoyt has a first-rate analysis of the whole situation here .

News 8 broadcast from San Diego was footage of illegal migrants and their supporters on the U.S. side breaching the U.S. fence on the border, waving a big Honduran flag, victory-style, and whipping out a big middle finger at America.

In this edition of the Current Affairs Interview, we confront two prominent political journalists about their borderline-obsessive coverage of Donald Trump. LEGAL NOTICE: Current Affairs in no way wishes to imply that the subjects intended to be interviewed by Current Affairs. The Current Affairs Interview is conducted non-consensually, and consists of bothering the interviewees on Twitter until they respond. The following is transcribed entirely from the results of such public Twitter harassment. It has been edited solely for grammar and clarity. Current Affairs: Six out of your last twelve articles appear to be about Donald Trump. Is there truly this much to say? Jamelle Bouie, Slate : Number one, yes. Number two, I write four to five times a week, so that's not really saying much. Current Affairs: My goodness, you mean there's mountains more where that came from! Mr. Bouie, Current Affairs pleads with you to devote your considerable writerly energy to other subjects. 50% Trump is no good. JB: The vast majority of my work has nothing to do with Trump. CA: A statement one wishes were true but one belied by the record. JB: So, what percentage of the 60 stories I've written since September do you think are about Trump? Ryan Cooper, The Week [unprompted]: I'd bet money it's no more than 10% Trump.* But more to the point, he's been leading the GOP field for 6 months. CA: Sorry, we forgot that political writing today means writing over and over about GOP frontrunners. Many apologies. [You probably have] many stories about how other Republicans are wrong, too. At this point, Jamelle Bouie evidently became so disgusted that he departed the conversation. RC: Jamelle and I write about all kinds of stuff. But, yes, Republicans are wrong about virtually everything, and it matters. CA: Don't think we don't spot the slip in your logic, Cooper! You've used "Republicans are wrong and it matters" to justify "My writing about Republicans being wrong matters." RC: It matters as much as anything else anyone writes matters, i.e. not very much. Neither you nor I nor anyone else is going to solve climate change with a couple of fucking blog posts. CA: Then one might as well have a blog about knitting as do your job. RC: Pretty much! Except I ain't gonna make rent with that. CA: Odd that political writers only pretend to care about solving the issues. Really they're just feeding the mill to pay the rent. RC: It might occasionally make some difference. But you've got to be insanely deluded to think writers are a major political actor. CA: But if this is true, then why write about Donald Trump's day-to-day idiocies instead of something else? RC: I don't! But the fact that a quasi-fascist is leading the GOP is interesting. CA: But this was what you initially defended. "Why, Jamelle Bouie, do you write so many Trump articles?" "Because he is important." RC: He is, I just don't cover his "day-to-day idiocies," [which are] mainly stuff he swiped from the Nuremberg Laws. But if other people want to, fine. That's as reasonable a use of their political energy as anything. CA: This is it! You media people are all nihilists! You do not actually think you are capable of anything. You give up the task of persuading people and just resign yourself to condemning Republican foolishness. RC: I try every day to persuade people, I just don't have illusions about whether they'll be convinced (they won't). CA: That doesn't sound to me like the attitude of someone who is trying very hard. RC: Read my stuff and judge for yourself, I don't care. Every political writer in the country has been calling Trump a liar for a week straight and it hasn't done jack shit. CA: EXACTLY! We have learned that "calling him a liar" doesn't work. But this resignation to inconsequentiality seems like suicide. We called the fascists liars, they came anyway. Well, then perhaps writing columns calling them liars wasn't the best way to prevent fascism! RC: Good thing the press isn't the only thing standing between us and Trumpist dictatorship. CA: Well, it's not exactly apparent what else is standing in the way! What exactly are you relying on here, if you believe influencing ideas is futile? RC: Just hope the economy doesn't collapse next year. -\_( tsu )_/- CA: A prayer, then. You literally think fascism is on the march and you're greeting it with a shruggie. If fascism threatens us, our every breathing moment should be dedicated to strategizing its destruction. RC: It has always threatened us. But the solution is proper economic policy and unions, not blog posts about non-Trump subjects. CA: Do people know how to implement proper economic policy and successfully build unions? If not, why is the job of the writer not to figure out how this is done and then tell people how they can do it? At this point, Mr. Cooper ceased to reply. The morning after our interview, we received a message from Mr. Cooper in reply to our suggestion that writers should try to produce work that helps people to do the things that he wishes people would do: "[Producing writing like that is] worth doing (and I do it) but I think you're misunderstanding the demographic profile of the average newspaper reader. 95% of journalism is infotainment for the upper middle class ." Well, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it. The entire op/ed mill is a stupefaction racket. The sole difference between The National Enquirer and Politico is the average reader's income bracket. Thus probably safe to ignore all political media. *It's actually 18%. Having said he would "bet money" that the number was under 10%, Mr. Cooper can send his check to: The Current Affairs Organization, P.O. Box 441394, West Somerville, MA 02144 Articles Written By Jamelle Bouie About Donald Trump (11/14/15 - 12/1/15) Due to space constraints, the following list is incomplete and has left off a number of articles by Mr. Bouie that, while they are about Mr. Trump, do not feature Mr. Trump's name in the headline and are thus make for somewhat less impactful list entries. "Donald Trump Is A Fascist," Nov. 25, 2015. "Donald Trump Is A Conservative Media Creation," Nov. 23, 2015. "Donald Trump Is Actually A Moderate Republican," Nov.19, 2015. "Why The Paris Attacks Will Only Boost Donald Trump," Nov. 16, 2015. "How Stupid Are The People of Iowa? Donald Trump Insults Everyone," Nov. 14, 2015. Some Post-Interview Analysis Wh at depressing creatures these journalists are! What a tragedy it must be to live this way, forever conscious of the superficiality and purposelessness of one's writing, yet doomed to continue pouring it forth. How can one inhabit such a position without lapsing into despair? If our conversation with Mr. Cooper is any indication, the answer is that one cannot. It is, in fact, not terriby fun writing five new Trump stories per fortnight. Thus one only has two possible means of protection against the realization of the emptiness of one's work: (1) touchy defensive posturing, a la Mr. Bouie (of the school that likes to say "How dare you impugn my work!") or (2) ritual confession and self-flagellatio n a la Mr. Cooper (in which the journalist convinces himself that, so long as he does not pretend to do more useful work than he knows he is doing, it is acceptable to remain useless.) There is something very odd indeed about this kind of attitude toward one's career. The political opinion-writer produces every word as if he is deeply invested in the consequences of an issue. As Mr. Cooper told us, these things matter. Yet he behaves as if these things do not matter very much at all; when confronted with the stakes he shrugs, says "Hey man, I'm just looking to pay my rent." The dissonance between the writer's two beliefs cannot be resolved. He believes politics have important and urgent consequences for people's lives, yet is content to twiddle his thumbs. And if one says to him "But are you not a mere thumb-twiddler?" he replies "I mean, what do you want me to do?" Ah, yes, the old "what are we supposed to do about it?" For aeons, it has served the cause of inaction, allowing the comfortable and slothful to rationalize their indulgences. Of course, it is easily met with an answer: "Think of something! That's your entire job!" But the political journalist is able to wall himself off from those who would place such demands upon his ingenuity. What is striking is how unwilling political writers are to defend their profession. They know full well that in the age of digital media, the Internet is a sprawling, cavernous echo chamber, and that their job is to make the first noise, so that others may reverberate it across time and space. But they have no aspiration toward altering the situation. They do not believe it can be altered, even though they themselves are the ones who remake it anew every day. What an aggravating abdication of duty! What fatalistic suicidal resignation! What a cowardly self-fulfilling prophecy! Try nothing, then complain that you've failed. Ah, but what about the question: what ought we do to, then? What would you do, Current Affairs, you arrogant little magazine, sitting about casting aspersions on decent journalists while you remain content to blow spitballs at these hardworking servants of the public good? Oh, but we've said it already! Ask yourself a different question when you write: not "Why is Republican X wrong about Issue Y?" but rather "How can I convince someone who disagrees with me about Republican X that they are mistaken?" Of course, today's political writers take these questions to mean the same thing. Yet they do not mean the same thing at all. If I write a column entitled "Donald Trump Is A Liar," and I document the various things this man has said that I believe are lies, and I use evidence and clear argument, I may think I have done my best. I have done nothing of the kind, however. For I have not asked myself a single question about my audience, e.g. "Will those who like Donald Trump and do not think he is a liar read an article entitled 'Donald Trump Is A Liar'?" (They will not.) "But then I am stuck," says the political writer. "They won't read it even though I'm right." No, you are not stuck. You must simply make an effort to build a writerly voice that people who disagree with you will enjoy reading. Telling them in blunt prose why their preferred candidate is a liar and a fascist is not the route to a congenial relationship between writer and audience. Perhaps be a friend to potential hostile readers, instead of an antagonist. Oh, but writers don't matter anyway, do they? So it hardly makes a difference whether you make an effort or not. But if you believe that, then for God's sake write about flowers or crochet instead. Otherwise, at least make some attempt to be useful and consequential?

In this edition of the Current Affairs Interview, we confront two prominent political journalists about their borderline-obsessive coverage of Donald Trump.

1 HappyWarrior May 12, 2016 * 7:10:09pm down 4 up report He's nowhere funny nor as clever as he thinks he is. 2 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge May 12, 2016 * 7:12:03pm down 20 up report 3 Reality Based Steve May 12, 2016 * 7:14:08pm down 4 up report He's nowhere funny nor as clever as he thinks he is. The voices in his head are planning an intervention for him. 4 Eric The Fruit Bat May 12, 2016 * 7:14:17pm down 4 up report Hey boss, ya might want to warn folks that they might want to visit his site using Tor due to his use of PermaCookies.... (that is, if they're masocistic enough....) 5 thedopefishlives May 12, 2016 * 7:14:48pm down 2 up report re: #4 Eric The Fruit Bat Hey boss, ya might want to warn folks that they might want to visit his site using Tor due to his use of PermaCookies.... His site's basically a honeytrap for stupid people. 6 nines09 May 12, 2016 * 7:16:21pm down 6 up report 8 teleskiguy May 12, 2016 * 7:20:35pm down 6 up report Meanwhile, the Rage Furby posted a new video to his YouTube account (how long will that last, we wonder?), claiming that he's going to be a delegate for Donald Trump at the Republican Convention in Cleveland. The video has about 130 views. It's a breakdown and shift in the media paradigm, with UpChuck leading the charge! 9 Feline Fearless Leader May 12, 2016 * 7:21:15pm down 4 up report I wonder whose couch he plans to crash on while going to Cleveland to be (or act like he is) a delegate? The GOP doesn't give them money to attend, and hotel space is at a premium. So one can expect this particular facet of his story to turn into a grift right after the CA primary at the very latest. 10 thedopefishlives May 12, 2016 * 7:21:52pm down 2 up report I actually wondered if Rage Furby was going to be a delegate. I remembered that he was a non-Trump groupie, but then I also remembered that none of that matters to the prestigious Chuck C. Johnson - all he cares about is feeling important. 11 Donnie With The Good Hair (AKA Sophist) May 12, 2016 * 7:23:37pm down 4 up report He's nowhere funny nor as clever as he thinks he is. The secretly-conceived child of Oscar Wilde and Dorothy Parker isn't as clever as Chuck thinks he is. 12 teleskiguy May 12, 2016 * 7:24:08pm down 6 up report Oh, he's important all right. He's well known on the Internet for being a floor shitter. That takes impressive asshattery to achieve. I'm wondering when he'll finally find himself yelling at cars from a street corner all day long. 13 thedopefishlives May 12, 2016 * 7:24:26pm down 2 up report Oh, he's important all right. He's well known on the Internet for being a floor shitter. That takes impressive asshattery to achieve. I'm wondering when he'll finally find himself yelling at cars from a street corner all day long. About the time the bourbon money runs out. 14 gocart mozart May 12, 2016 * 7:24:50pm down 16 up report @roddreher curious,how many hours a day do you obsess over other people's genitals? Don't you have any hobbies or is that it. -- gocart mozart ( @gocartmozart1 ) May 13, 2016 15 teleskiguy May 12, 2016 * 7:26:38pm down 4 up report re: #14 gocart mozart That guy is fucking creepy. And to think Andrew Sullivan gave the man's ideas credence at his blog. Worst $20 I've ever spent. Hindsight is always 20/20 I suppose. 16 HappyWarrior May 12, 2016 * 7:28:39pm down 3 up report 17 teleskiguy May 12, 2016 * 7:30:31pm down 3 up report 18 The globulosus alpuzzzzz from Wisconsin May 12, 2016 * 7:31:22pm down 2 up report I'm pretty sure I just saw Susan Sarandon as a doctor on the Wes Craven classic Shocker('89). I had no idea. 19 Donnie With The Good Hair (AKA Sophist) May 12, 2016 * 7:31:26pm down 9 up report [Embedded content] At this point, the strongest argument against laws protecting trans people seems to be "anti-trans activists will take advantage of them in order to act like assholes". 20 GlutenFreeJesus May 12, 2016 * 7:31:42pm down 2 up report 130 of them were Chuck himself. Refreshing. And refreshing. And refreshing. 21 Skip Intro May 12, 2016 * 7:32:16pm down 8 up report re: #10 thedopefishlives I actually wondered if Rage Furby was going to be a delegate. I remembered that he was a non-Trump groupie, but then I also remembered that none of that matters to the prestigious Chuck C. Johnson - all he cares about is feeling important. Apparently he didn't tell the CA GOP because I don't see his name on the delegate list. 22 thedopefishlives May 12, 2016 * 7:33:40pm down 1 up report re: #18 The globulosus alpuzzzzz from Wisconsin I'm pretty sure I just saw Susan Sarandon as a doctor on the Wes Craven classic Shocker('89). I had no idea. 23 Reality Based Steve May 12, 2016 * 7:34:47pm down 6 up report re: #21 Skip Intro Apparently he didn't tell the CA GOP because I don't see his name on the delegate list. [Embedded content] He's actually a Top Secret Double Nought Delegate. 24 thedopefishlives May 12, 2016 * 7:35:16pm down 1 up report re: #21 Skip Intro Apparently he didn't tell the CA GOP because I don't see his name on the delegate list. [Embedded content] 25 gocart mozart May 12, 2016 * 7:35:19pm down 6 up report Is Lindsey Huckleberry McFutsbudget about to endorse Trump? Senator Lindsey Graham called me yesterday, very much to my surprise, and we had a very interesting talk about national security, and more! -- Donald J. Trump ( @realDonaldTrump ) May 13, 2016 26 The globulosus alpuzzzzz from Wisconsin May 12, 2016 * 7:35:34pm down 1 up report I'd put money on it. It's a bit part towards the end. She dies. re: #25 gocart mozart Is Lindsey Huckleberry McFutsbudget about to endorse Trump? [Embedded content] It was just phone sex. 28 Pawn of the Oppressor May 12, 2016 * 7:37:09pm down 3 up report Kel-Tec 9mm "mighty"? Not only does he dry-hump the legs of actual racist murderers, he's got shit taste. Double bonus points for slickly adopting gun forum kill-the-n's slang in an attempt to sound cool. I guess he thinks that's a skill. We've seen your targets, Chucksie. You suck, your friends suck, your aim sucks, and it's lucky somebody told you which end is the loud end, else you'd have shot your foot off by now. (Maybe Chucksie should patrol the streets himself. Nobody would ever get shot again.) 29 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge May 12, 2016 * 7:38:54pm down 4 up report OT, but this is really annoying: Already sounds like it was written by a third-grader, right? But guess what their lead photo is? 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 30 Testy Toad T May 12, 2016 * 7:39:58pm down 2 up report re: #25 gocart mozart Is Lindsey Huckleberry McFutsbudget about to endorse Trump? [Embedded content] Graham has already burned five or six bridges on this long, long road. I think it's Trump thinking he can play Graham's discussion (presuming it wasn't just completely made up) into something that it's not. Loner Graham called me to talk about nations and war. Couldn't get any support himself, but now he wants to put his positions on my yuuuge shoulders. Smart thinker! 31 Reality Based Steve May 12, 2016 * 7:40:40pm down 18 up report FWIW, the very single worst thing about living alone. It's the shank of the evening, and nothing would hit the spot like some Chips & Dip, and there is NO CHIPS & DIP IN THE HOUSE, and no matter how hard you try, you can't find a single person to blame for it that isn't you. That's the worst part. And I still don't have Chips & Dip. 33 Testy Toad T May 12, 2016 * 7:41:30pm down 10 up report re: #31 Reality Based Steve and no matter how hard you try, you can't find a single person to blame for it that isn't you. That's the worst part. Bullshit, you can't. 34 Reality Based Steve May 12, 2016 * 7:42:02pm down 5 up report re: #29 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge OT, but this is really annoying: Already sounds like it was written by a third-grader, right? But guess what their lead photo is? [Embedded content] It's a LOT cheaper if you can fly other peoples spaceship through the explosions. It's like a rental car, you pay to get the extra insurance, and the next thing you know, you're doing doughnuts in the parking lot and jumping it over curbs. 35 Donnie With The Good Hair (AKA Sophist) May 12, 2016 * 7:43:47pm down 4 up report re: #31 Reality Based Steve It's the shank of the evening, and nothing would hit the spot like some Chips & Dip, and there is NO CHIPS & DIP IN THE HOUSE, and no matter how hard you try, you can't find a single person to blame for it that isn't you. That's what pets are for. 36 TedStriker May 12, 2016 * 7:44:32pm down 3 up report re: #27 The Vicious Babushka It was just phone sex. With Graham saying over and over again "Don't fuck this up". 38 The globulosus alpuzzzzz from Wisconsin May 12, 2016 * 7:45:25pm down 1 up report re: #32 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge Wow.. i don't know. If so, just wow. 39 Snarknado! May 12, 2016 * 7:45:41pm down 4 up report On another topic entirely, I'm going to a theatrical version of Rocky Horror this weekend. I just got an email from the theatre telling me that "props" (toast, rice, water pistols, toilet paper...) are not allowed in their theatre. But we are welcome to come in costume. 40 ObserverArt May 12, 2016 * 7:45:58pm down 2 up report Oh, he's important all right. He's well known on the Internet for being a floor shitter. That takes impressive asshattery to achieve. I'm wondering when he'll finally find himself yelling at cars from a street corner all day long. Are you sure he isn't already doing that? He would seem to have the time for it. 41 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge May 12, 2016 * 7:46:33pm down 3 up report re: #34 Reality Based Steve It's a LOT cheaper if you can fly other peoples spaceship through the explosions. It's like a rental car, you pay to get the extra insurance, and the next thing you know, you're doing doughnuts in the parking lot and jumping it over curbs. Farther down they have a picture of the actual MMS Satellites being stacked for launch To add insult to injury, the picture of the Progress is labeled "satellite in space". 42 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge May 12, 2016 * 7:48:19pm down 1 up report re: #38 The globulosus alpuzzzzz from Wisconsin Wow.. i don't know. If so, just wow. Here's the whole cast and crew. 43 stpaulbear May 12, 2016 * 7:49:39pm down 4 up report re: #31 Reality Based Steve FWIW, the very single worst thing about living alone. It's the shank of the evening, and nothing would hit the spot like some Chips & Dip, and there is NO CHIPS & DIP IN THE HOUSE, and no matter how hard you try, you can't find a single person to blame for it that isn't you. That's the worst part. And I still don't have Chips & Dip. I bought chips but no dip on the way home from work this evening. Chips weren't on the official grocery list. Now I'm kicking myself for having bought the chips because they're already half gone. 44 thedopefishlives May 12, 2016 * 7:51:05pm down 4 up report I bought chips but no dip on the way home from work this evening. Chips weren't on the official grocery list. Now I'm kicking myself for having bought the chips because they're already half gone. *stares wistfully at the 2/3 empty box of Cheez-Its* 45 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge May 12, 2016 * 7:52:38pm down 2 up report re: #25 gocart mozart Is Lindsey Huckleberry McFutsbudget about to endorse Trump? [Embedded content] Hell, he's even lost James Fucking Baker , the anal fistula that stole the White House for Bush the least. 46 TedStriker May 12, 2016 * 7:54:39pm down 2 up report re: #18 The globulosus alpuzzzzz from Wisconsin I'm pretty sure I just saw Susan Sarandon as a doctor on the Wes Craven classic Shocker('89). I had no idea. My own film appearence mystery that I'm working on is Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (you know, the good one with Gene Wilder and Jack Albertson): in the scene where the cops are interviewing the lady whose husband is kidnapped in exchange for a ransom of their case of Wonka bars, I'm pretty sure that's Lee Majors manning the recorder rig for the phone tap. 47 Donnie With The Good Hair (AKA Sophist) May 12, 2016 * 7:56:08pm down 1 up report re: #41 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge Farther down they have a picture of the actual MMS Satellites being stacked for launch To add insult to injury, the picture of the Progress is labeled "satellite in space". Well, technically everything in orbit is a satellite, right? 48 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge May 12, 2016 * 7:57:41pm down 1 up report My own film appearence mystery that I'm working on is Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (you know, the good one with Gene Wilder and Jack Albertson): in the scene where the cops are interviewing the lady whose husband is kidnapped in exchange for a ransom of their case of Wonka bars, I'm pretty sure that's Lee Majors manning the recorder rig for the phone tap. It took documentary proof to get my girlfriend to believe that Eve Eggers from The John Larroquette Show played Costanza Mozart in Amadeus . 49 jaunte May 12, 2016 * 7:58:32pm down 8 up report Trump goes after @JeffBezos in Hannity interview tonight, implies Bezos is why WaPo is digging into his history pic.twitter.com/HsArjIrWVc AlexJonesian/Palinesque babble. 50 Reality Based Steve May 12, 2016 * 8:00:32pm down 16 up report True Story from work today. We had a sales rep swing by the shop on Wednesday. We ordered a batch of dive lights from a new line he's carrying, and gave him some grief that we were still waiting on some stuff that had fallen though some cracks in the order process from a couple of months ago to ship. Placed a nice order, and that we'd pay when we got notification of shipping. That was yesterday about noon or so. Today they arrived FedEx Express from Canada. And they only charged us 25 bucks for the shipping costs. And with that, I'm going to take care of things and go to bed. Here is a picture of a baby penguin getting a checkup. 51 stpaulbear May 12, 2016 * 8:01:54pm down 2 up report re: #45 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge Hell, he's even lost James Fucking Baker , the anal fistula that stole the White House for Bush the least. Shenandoa was kind of a pop country hair band, but I've always loved the song 'Janie Baker's Love Slave' because it came out when Jimmy Baker was a big thing and I can't help believing that the song was a joke on him. (edit: Oops, wrong Baker. Wasn't paying enough attention) 52 bratwurst May 12, 2016 * 8:04:25pm down 12 up report @chicagotribune Because you're a bloated a-hole who was easily the most amoral Speaker of the House ever until the Hastert charges surfaced? re: #50 Reality Based Steve "But this penguin goes to 11." 54 Charles Johnson May 12, 2016 * 8:08:49pm down 14 up report It's kind of touching that Mark Zuckerberg thinks he can "talk to conservatives" and defuse their anger over imaginary Facebook censorship. It's just going to make it even worse. The way to handle these kinds of fake right wing outrages is to laugh at them, not humor them. re: #54 Charles Johnson Zuck's been applying those diplomatic skills with the Chinese, trying to end the seven-year blocking of Facebook there. Facebook is still blocked in China. Take that as you will. 56 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate May 12, 2016 * 8:13:47pm down 3 up report I am watching Rage Furby's latest video. God, it's painful. 57 Charles Johnson May 12, 2016 * 8:14:52pm down 3 up report re: #56 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate I am watching Rage Furby's latest video. God, it's painful. I love how he keeps swigging beer throughout. This guy is in a real downward spiral. I wonder if he'll ever hit bottom? 58 Eric The Fruit Bat May 12, 2016 * 8:14:54pm down 2 up report Sounds like he really doesn't want to win the presidency. Either that, or he's about to have a psychotic break. 59 Pawn of the Oppressor May 12, 2016 * 8:15:24pm down 4 up report Fun social experiment to try on Furball if he even has a venue anymore. 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 60 b_sharp May 12, 2016 * 8:16:22pm down 4 up report Damn RWNJ news sites fall for some crazy bull shit. I'm arguing with a RWer who claims Sanders paid $15.00/hr for protesters to disrupt Trump rallies. He used 2 links, one used abcnews.com.co as its source & 3 others used The Daily Squib as their source. I laughed. 61 Pawn of the Oppressor May 12, 2016 * 8:17:37pm down 5 up report Short, more honest Zuckerberg: " 'sup, Republican pussies. My software, my house, my rules. Call me when you invent something people actually want in their lives. BYE FELICIA. Suck my solid gold PA ring, -Marky" 62 HappyWarrior May 12, 2016 * 8:21:21pm down 4 up report re: #57 Charles Johnson I love how he keeps swigging beer throughout. This guy is in a real downward spiral. I wonder if he'll ever hit bottom? A woman president could do it. 63 Stanley Sea May 12, 2016 * 8:22:07pm down 1 up report *stares wistfully at the 2/3 empty box of Cheez-Its* How you feeling Bud? 64 teleskiguy May 12, 2016 * 8:23:53pm down 3 up report re: #60 b_sharp I picture you as a fairly mild-mannered man, a proud Canadian, and civil. You actually *talk* to these people. Right wingers and creationists and such. I tell you my good Canuck friend I would go MAD if I actually engaged these fuckers on Twitter as regularly as you do. You get a re: #57 Charles Johnson I love how he keeps swigging beer throughout. This guy is in a real downward spiral. I wonder if he'll ever hit bottom? Is it beer? It doesn't have an amber color. 66 teleskiguy May 12, 2016 * 8:26:24pm down 1 up report re: #65 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate Is it beer? It doesn't have an amber color. Could be shine for all we know. 67 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge May 12, 2016 * 8:27:53pm down 2 up report Everclear. 68 klys (maker of Silmarils) May 12, 2016 * 8:28:09pm down 5 up report It took until less than ten minutes of the third but I have abandoned my houseguests to follow the last bits of the game on Twitter. Last night's dinner conversation did include the completely factual statement "so after I finished the decapitations..." 69 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate May 12, 2016 * 8:28:44pm down 2 up report Could be shine for all we know. Or worse. Could be Zima. 70 teleskiguy May 12, 2016 * 8:28:58pm down 2 up report From all of the dead horses he beats. 72 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge May 12, 2016 * 8:32:59pm down 3 up report Well, I'm not a Jeff Bezos fan at all *, but if he can dig up some really damaging dirt on tRump, he'll atone for some of the damage he's done. *Despite living a mile or so from Blue Origin's headquarters--bastard never offered me a ride, anyway. 73 TedStriker May 12, 2016 * 8:35:44pm down 3 up report re: #68 klys (maker of Silmarils) It took until less than ten minutes of the third but I have abandoned my houseguests to follow the last bits of the game on Twitter. Last night's dinner conversation did include the completely factual statement "so after I finished the decapitations..." Congrats, because it's gonna be the Sharks that go on to the next round; the Preds just couldn't close it and are getting blanked. 74 gocart mozart May 12, 2016 * 8:35:59pm down 9 up report re: #54 Charles Johnson @Green_Footballs If only there was some kind of "doctrine" congress could enforce to make the media more "fair"... Nah, that's crazy talk. -- gocart mozart ( @gocartmozart1 ) May 13, 2016 75 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate May 12, 2016 * 8:40:18pm down 6 up report Finished the video. It's pretty clear that Rage Furby had no idea when he was invited to that pilot taping that he was going to be the foil. His first thought was, "Wow! I'm famous!" Then, he did the taping and reality was not what he imagined. Now, he's trying to retcon it as an exploration into "progressive comedy" and "how the other half lives." IOW, he's spinning the appearance as some kind of painful journalistic investigation, and that he probably won't do it again. Clearly, he is downcast. Dude has learned nothing since junior high school about social interactions. 76 Charles Johnson May 12, 2016 * 8:43:53pm down 1 up report Could be shine for all we know. It looks like dark beer to me, like Guinness or Anchor Steam. 77 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate May 12, 2016 * 8:43:57pm down 9 up report Lauren Chief Elk is a Berniebot. An extreme version. If you're supporting Hillary please block me now you worthless, blood thirsty, inept, ignorant bitches. -- Lauren Chief Elk ( @ChiefElk ) May 13, 2016 78 Reality Based Steve May 12, 2016 * 8:44:43pm down 4 up report re: #76 Charles Johnson It looks like dark beer to me, like Guinness or Anchor Steam. ATF and Acetone. 79 Pawn of the Oppressor May 12, 2016 * 8:46:16pm down 5 up report re: #75 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate I didn't watch - I don't poison myself that way - but I have thought more than once that the world is really looking at a ten-year-old who didn't get enough love. I wonder what his parents are like. 80 HappyWarrior May 12, 2016 * 8:46:24pm down 4 up report re: #77 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate Lauren Chief Elk is a Berniebot. An extreme version. re: #77 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate Lauren Chief Elk is a Berniebot. An extreme version. [Embedded content] I'm amazed at the hate. Where did it come from? Pure Bernie love = hate of all others? 82 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate May 12, 2016 * 8:47:47pm down 3 up report re: #79 Pawn of the Oppressor I didn't watch - I don't poison myself that way - but I have thought more than once that the world is really looking at a ten-year-old who didn't get enough love. I wonder what his parents are like. Supposedly, his parents are lefties and teachers. They're probably wondering where they went wrong, too. re: #81 Stanley Sea I'm amazed at the hate. Where did it come from? Pure Bernie love = hate of all others? I follow her because I've agreed with most of what she says. No, I'm not so sure. 84 TedStriker May 12, 2016 * 8:49:04pm down 2 up report re: #77 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate Lauren Chief Elk is a Berniebot. An extreme version. [Embedded content] She seems nice... 85 HappyWarrior May 12, 2016 * 8:50:31pm down 7 up report re: #83 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate I follow her because I've agreed with most of what she says. No, I'm not so sure. It's sad seeing that. I'm seeing the Bernie diehards I know resort to posting rw shit to tear down Clinton. And their constant trashing of anyone who doesn't worship Bernie is tiresome. 86 Stanley Sea May 12, 2016 * 8:52:03pm down 4 up report re: #83 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate I follow her because I've agreed with most of what she says. No, I'm not so sure. I'm hanging onto everyone I follow regardless of their insanity re Bernie. Will re-address after the election, but I'm going to hang tough (& marvel at their thoughts.) 87 Belafon May 12, 2016 * 8:52:09pm down 3 up report My oldest says that Bernie's speeches have switched from how to be Hillary to what the Democratic party needs to do. It's the opinion of his friends at school that he's winding down his campaign. 88 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate May 12, 2016 * 8:52:41pm down 6 up report It's sad seeing that. I'm seeing the Bernie diehards I know resort to posting rw shit to tear down Clinton. And their constant trashing of anyone who doesn't worship Bernie is tiresome. They will be so disappointed after the convention, like those cultists who aren't raptured up to Heaven like their spiritual leader says. 89 HappyWarrior May 12, 2016 * 8:54:30pm down 2 up report My oldest says that Bernie's speeches have switched from how to be Hillary to what the Democratic party needs to do. It's the opinion of his friends at school that he's winding down his campaign. I saw his CA campaign chair quit. 90 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge May 12, 2016 * 8:55:41pm down 3 up report re: #77 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate Lauren Chief Elk is a Berniebot. An extreme version. [Embedded content] Somebody needs to tell her: 91 petesh May 12, 2016 * 8:58:26pm down 0 up report re: #45 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge Hell, he's even lost James Fucking Baker , the anal fistula that stole the White House for Bush the least. On behalf of Jeb?!, I would like to point out that W is Bush the lesser. 92 jaunte May 12, 2016 * 9:01:36pm down 4 up report re: #86 Stanley Sea I'm hanging onto everyone I follow regardless of their insanity re Bernie. Will re-address after the election, but I'm going to hang tough (& marvel at their thoughts.) Me too, but my twitter timeline has been a constant stream of anti-Hillary propaganda. 93 Kragar May 12, 2016 * 9:03:57pm down 2 up report This guy: @megynkelly this is why when trump say media are all dishonest you guys prove him right. The wall and ban have 50%+ support by americans @megynkelly you let bill burton say that the wall and ban on muslims didn't have broad support ppl support both by 50%+ you know it if I do 94 jaunte May 12, 2016 * 9:08:50pm down 9 up report Ivanka praises her dad for 'elevating' the Presidential campaign: https://t.co/UGIuYjQUNm pic.twitter.com/lUqVpPeHFH Was that 50% of his neighbors? 96 Kragar May 12, 2016 * 9:16:09pm down 4 up report RWNJs are as bad at math as Bernie Sanders https://t.co/lmccbI0wEy https://t.co/j6l2aw7ZHU 97 jaunte May 12, 2016 * 9:16:10pm down 3 up report Trump loses another delegate as anti-Muslim pastor 'takes one for the team' https://t.co/v6svZlhjW8 98 petesh May 12, 2016 * 9:17:48pm down 5 up report Actually, it seems that Trump's advocacy of the wall has turned Americans off the idea. The actual questions pollsters asked were about building a fence, and in 2011 & 2015 responses used to be about 46 (in favor) - 47 or 48 (against) - 5 (dont know). In 2016, 38-58-4. Probably means a bunch of people had never thought about it and said "yeah, sure" but after listening to Donald and his critics, about 1 in 10 Americans saw the light (hallelujah!). This is promising. hotair.com 99 Feline Fearless Leader May 12, 2016 * 9:18:39pm down 4 up report I am beginning to think it's time to spend 6 months away from Facebook. A few friends are starting to ramp up political posts - or more often "likes" of someone else's screed. Not quite ready to scuttle some 20+ year friendships and can only hope the rhetoric dies down post-election. One was honest enough to say that he was going to vote Trump simply due to wanting conservative Supreme Court justices. Pretty narrow issue to focus on given Trump's baggage, but I also know there is a lot of long-standing Hillary-hate there also going back to when Bill was in office. 100 jaunte May 12, 2016 * 9:18:43pm down 3 up report Guy St Onge.... 'has in the past shared social media postings appearing to advocate killing Muslims and last year claimed: "Barack Hussein Obama and his tranny wife Michelle hate the USA!" And yet somehow he was attracted to the 'elevated' Trump campaign. Go figure! 101 teleskiguy May 12, 2016 * 9:26:30pm down 2 up report Softly now; we'll be doing a lot of that. 103 teleskiguy May 12, 2016 * 9:29:14pm down 2 up report re: #99 Feline Fearless Leader Keep in mind that the Internet is still an entirely *new* thing that our species is experiencing. We're still figuring the whole damn thing out, just like everything else. :) 104 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate May 12, 2016 * 9:32:42pm down 0 up report Oh, look. Someone else is suing Gawker. Let's see how long it take Rage Furby to pay attention. Shiva Ayyadurai, who is Fran Drescher's husband, claims Gawker has defamed him by reporting that he did not invent e-mail. 105 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate May 12, 2016 * 11:09:53pm down 6 up report Rage Furby claims UBeam is toast because its CEO is female. Never mind about the doubtful technology, or that most tech startups never get off the ground. The world according to Chuck C. Johnson 106 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate May 12, 2016 * 11:12:19pm down 11 up report My friend on Facebook who was all in for Donald Trump has had a revelation, and abandoned The Great Trump for being a "whore and a liar" because Trump snuggled up to Paul Ryan. I laughed. 107 teleskiguy May 12, 2016 * 11:58:17pm down 11 up report This graffiti in "Lithuania" indicates we need to send some Russians "on holiday" there. pic.twitter.com/xrfyk8DAmD 108 Decatur Deb May 13, 2016 * 12:07:09am down 1 up report It's 0207 in Central Time, and a day wants to start. 109 Decatur Deb May 13, 2016 * 12:38:47am down 12 up report re: #108 Decatur Deb It's 0207 in Central Time, and a day wants to start. Downing some red wine, to see if I can make the day start later. Time was well spent, determining that: a) The kidney stone will make me want to die. b) The other thing picked up on yesterday's CAT scan isn't going to kill me. 110 Alephnaught May 13, 2016 * 12:47:24am down 21 up report Finally got my new camera yesterday, and fired off a few test shots, as is usual, with the cat. With almost 21 years of experience of this, Ellie's clearly unimpressed by me doing experimental shots of her with my new camera. re: #109 Decatur Deb Downing some red wine, to see if I can make the day start later. Time was well spent, determining that: a) The kidney stone will make me want to die. b) The other thing picked up on yesterday's CAT scan isn't going to kill me. Can they shatter the stone with sound waves? Luckily I've not had the pleasure but 2 of my friends had theirs shattered. 113 teleskiguy May 13, 2016 * 1:09:30am down 1 up report The pain, bring the fuckin' dumbass redneck. BBRRRAAAAAWWWRRRR! 114 Kragar May 13, 2016 * 1:24:43am down 1 up report The Badab War, fought between 901.M41 and 913.M41, was one of the most insidious and dangerous internecine conflicts to wrack the Imperium of Man in recent history, made all the more lamentable because the unthinkable had occurred. As a result of a conflicting nexus of honour, treachery, politics and greed, several Space Marine Chapters turned Renegade against the Imperium and bloodshed and outright civil war ensued -- a war which turned entire armies of the Imperium's most powerful warriors against each other and in doing so swept millions to their deaths in its turbulence. Such was all the result of the treachery and hubris of the former Chapter Master Lufgt Huron of the Astral Claws Space Marine Chapter, the self-styled and infamous "Tyrant of Badab." The carnage wrought amongst the stars of the Maelstrom Zone during this conflict was such that it rocked the faith and order of untold Imperial worlds never touched directly by its violence, and caused loyal subjects to look upon their Adeptus Astartes protectors with fear. Such were the dire sins and hidden truths that lay behind the war, that a pall of secrecy and lies descended about the conflict even as it was fought. The rebellion was eventually put down by the forces of the Inquisition and those Astartes Chapters who remained steadfast in their duty to the Emperor of Mankind, but its instigators, the Astral Claws, wholly given over to Chaos in the course of the conflict, turned Renegade and its survivors become the infamous corsair band of Chaos Space Marines known as the Red Corsairs. The Red Corsairs are led by the treacherous Chaos Lord named Huron Blackheart, a vicious Champion of Chaos Undivided who is now nearly unrecognisable as the once-noble Lufgt Huron. Blackheart and the Red Corsairs currently dominate a large Chaos empire within the Warp Rift known as the Maelstrom in the Eastern Fringes of the galaxy. There Blackheart plots his vengeance upon the Imperium and prepares to build a new empire dedicated to the Ruinous Powers that will bring the demesne of the Traitor Legions within the Eye of Terror to shame. 115 Timothy Watson May 13, 2016 * 1:35:05am down 4 up report We've already been contacted by several Republican staffers who are looking to call Facebook executives before Congress for violating the law. I like how, for conservatives, the "law" means whatever they want it to mean, coming from the same people who argue for an original intent reading of the Constitution. 116 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light) May 13, 2016 * 1:42:32am down 3 up report re: #115 Timothy Watson We've already been contacted by several Republican staffers who are looking to call Facebook executives before Congress for violating the law. I like how, for conservatives, the "law" means whatever they want it to mean, coming from the same people who argue for an original intent reading of the Constitution. I am sure that the lawmakers are aware of the law, but they are also cynical and manipulative and aware that to most of us idiots out there, FB and Twitter are not private corporations but some sort of public utility. They are as much a public space as the food court at the local shopping mall. Open to the public, but still on private property. But the GOP needs something else to stoke the narrative that their landslide defeat in November was caused by the hostile liberal censoring PC LGBT media. 117 Tigger2 May 13, 2016 * 1:49:15am down 5 up report re: #77 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate Lauren Chief Elk is a Berniebot. An extreme version. [Embedded content] I gave her what she wanted a block. 118 Ming5000 May 13, 2016 * 1:51:14am down 6 up report Sometimes I am shocked at what dwells in some regions of the USA. I had to look up the "dindu" reference in CCJ's tweet. Just awful: Urban Dictionary : Dindu urbandictionary.com Dindu. An innocent African-American, a description used by the family members of criminal African-Americans who din do nuffin. 119 Ming5000 May 13, 2016 * 2:08:30am down 3 up report Keep in mind that the Internet is still an entirely *new* thing that our species is experiencing. We're still figuring the whole damn thing out, just like everything else. :) That is a good point. There are many disruptions going on. We cannot simply lament and disengage. We have to participate and work through it. Think about the challenges our parents and ancestors had. We may think, "why isn't this shit fixed by now?" Well, shit still broke. So, get to work. (Trying to encourage myself) 120 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light) May 13, 2016 * 2:20:55am down 2 up report re: #99 Feline Fearless Leader I am beginning to think it's time to spend 6 months away from Facebook. A few friends are starting to ramp up political posts - or more often "likes" of someone else's screed. Not quite ready to scuttle some 20+ year friendships and can only hope the rhetoric dies down post-election. One was honest enough to say that he was going to vote Trump simply due to wanting conservative Supreme Court justices. Pretty narrow issue to focus on given Trump's baggage, but I also know there is a lot of long-standing Hillary-hate there also going back to when Bill was in office. I dump people who get too political on FB. There are plenty of political blogs to voice our opinions or outrage. Like this one. FB is about where and who you had lunch with or what cute things your kids and pets are up to. I also delete all food prOn unless it is something home made. (I also prefer amateur porn, btw...) 121 nkdee May 13, 2016 * 2:33:00am down 5 up report To be fair, all 130 of them are probably REALLY important people. I am SURE that they are "Republican staffers" who have contacted him and maybe Trump himself! Yeah....that's it...TRUMP is going to get involved on behalf of Chuckie! 122 teleskiguy May 13, 2016 * 2:35:38am down 8 up report That "dindu" shit was fucked, eh? I looked it up and about puked. UpChuck is a hardcore white supremacist. It goes deeper. What I do here is try to have fun. And take folks outside their zones. Climbing boot-top powder in the North Couloir of Star Peak yesterday. Go skiing. 123 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light) May 13, 2016 * 3:09:25am down 3 up report That "dindu" shit was fucked, eh? I looked it up and about puked. UpChuck is a hardcore white supremacist. It goes deeper. And the point is, there are plenty of sites where that sort of speech is entirely welcome. 124 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate May 13, 2016 * 4:04:03am down 4 up report re: #123 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light) And the point is, there are plenty of sites where that sort of speech is entirely welcome. Rage Furby does not understand that aspect. He's never learned that one has to change one's language depending on the situation and context. He wants verboten words to be freely used wherever and whenever by everyone. Hard to say if that's a result of being "on the spectrum," as he claims, or a result of just plain cussedness. 125 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light) May 13, 2016 * 4:08:44am down 1 up report re: #124 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate Rage Furby does not understand that aspect. He's never learned that one has to change one's language depending on the situation and context. He wants verboten words to be freely used wherever and whenever by everyone. Hard to say if that's a result of being "on the spectrum," as he claims, or a result of just plain cussedness. Yes, these guys are upset that they cannot use the n-word or other offensive terms whenever and wherever they want to without consequence, because why should other people get to do it when they "cant"? 126 Joe Bacon May 13, 2016 * 4:48:17am down 4 up report re: #123 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light) And the point is, there are plenty of sites where that sort of speech is entirely welcome. And there's also a political party that openly advocates such out and out racism! 127 Patricia Kayden May 13, 2016 * 4:53:06am down 4 up report No surprise that he was suspended by FB. Now he has to be suspended from Youtube. 128 Dr. Matt May 13, 2016 * 4:54:07am down 9 up report Conservatives spend every waking moment disparaging government and glorifying private business. Of course, with the bullshit story about facebook "censoring" conservatives, the first thing they do is to run to government for help. It's like they have zero sense of self awareness. 129 Patricia Kayden May 13, 2016 * 5:04:19am down 4 up report re: #97 jaunte So how many bigots does Trump have in his delegate count? Can you imagine if this was happening to any of Secretary Clinton's delegates? Or Senator Sanders'? It's amazing how the media is ho-hum about this constant dribble of news that Trump attracts and associates with bigots as if this is a normal thing. 130 Alyosha May 13, 2016 * 5:07:24am down 1 up report Roger Ebert's review of 'Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie'. Probably not post-worthy, but I love that film. Saw their live show recently. Hilarious in parts but mostly genuinely uncomfortable. The best part was that the closing act was apparently a standup comic that was riding their coattails and attempting to raise his exposure. Some of his bit was pretty funny, but then the houselights came up and exit music started playing. And the delivery of his jokes, while not improving, became funnier; at least to me. The music gradually gets louder and louder, all but drowning him out and Tim and Eric reappear, partly naked and halfway through having their makeup removed. Then they procede to shoo the audience away. I get that the cult status makes it difficult to explain why a joke works without feeling as though your reasoning is contrived (fundamentally that's not how a joke works anyway), but it's a return to the origin of where laughter comes from. The experience of a potential threat, and relief at its diminishment. Sheer absurdity. Slapstick. Kinda reminds me of this: 131 Dr. Matt May 13, 2016 * 5:10:49am down 4 up report 132 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light) May 13, 2016 * 5:15:18am down 2 up report re: #128 Dr. Matt Conservatives spend every waking moment disparaging government and glorifying private business. Of course, with the bullshit story about facebook "censoring" conservatives, the first thing they do is to run to government for help. It's like they have zero sense of self awareness. I think that a lot of them are aware, but this is part of building up the narrative to cover their impending loss in the elections: the tricksy liberal medias were out to get them!!! 133 Dr. Matt May 13, 2016 * 5:16:54am down 3 up report re: #132 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light) I think that a lot of them are aware, but this is part of building up the narrative to cover their impending loss in the elections: the tricksy liberal medias were out to get them!!! In other words: Lather.Rinse.Repeat 134 Shiplord Kirel May 13, 2016 * 5:27:23am down 11 up report In case you missed it yesterday: I am really starting to like the Daily News . "Racist McShootFace" Drives Auction Price of George Zimmerman's Gun Past $65 Million Before Being Suspended https://t.co/2fCvd1UuNj That account [Racist McShootFace] has since been suspended, and bidding has returned to normal. The most recent seemingly legitimate bid was placed by the user "Brez Morrell," for $485,000. I really hope the $485,000 bid is bullshit too. 136 Alyosha May 13, 2016 * 5:33:53am down 11 up report I am really starting to like the Daily News . It's not often that I have this same sentiment. Whatever George Zimmerman buys with the money from the auction, I hope he fatally overdoses on it. Shitty thing is, he'll find a buyer for that thing. All this attention, while natural, only drives the price up. 137 I Would Prefer Not To May 13, 2016 * 5:48:04am down 4 up report I call BS on 485,00. 138 Decatur Deb May 13, 2016 * 5:48:45am down 2 up report re: #111 Single-handed sailor Can they shatter the stone with sound waves? Luckily I've not had the pleasure but 2 of my friends had theirs shattered. Nope--too late. Litho has a pretty narrow window from detection to dislodgement. Sorry for the delay, went back to bed. 139 MsJ May 13, 2016 * 5:49:36am down 1 up report On behalf of Jeb?!, I would like to point out that W is Bush the lesser. Funny, I always thought Jeb! was the smarter brother. Then we met him nationally. All I can say is UGH. To think George was the smarter Bush. Yikes. 140 Decatur Deb May 13, 2016 * 5:51:08am down 2 up report re: #137 I Would Prefer Not To I call BS on 485,00. Back at the link comments they have the record of a bust. 141 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light) May 13, 2016 * 5:52:15am down 6 up report GZ will probably wind up auctioning it off at a private gun show. And yes, I hope he chokes on the wad of money he will inevitably earn from it. 142 Decatur Deb May 13, 2016 * 5:56:19am down 5 up report re: #141 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light) GZ will probably wind up auctioning it off at a private gun show. And yes, I hop[e he chokes on the wad of money he will inevitably earn from it. That points to a genuine fixable policy issue to focus the outrage--the legality of uncontrolled, unreported, 'private' sales. 143 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light) May 13, 2016 * 5:57:12am down 6 up report re: #142 Decatur Deb That points to a genuine fixable policy issue to focus the outrage--the legality of uncontrolled, unreported, 'private' sales. GZ has a chance to become the poster child for gun control loopholes 144 BlueSpotinAL May 13, 2016 * 6:08:15am down 4 up report Sometimes I am shocked at what dwells in some regions of the USA. I had to look up the "dindu" reference in CCJ's tweet. Just awful: It is a credit to you and me that we did not know what dindu meant, and I even knew what it was once and deleted from my vocabulary. 145 I Would Prefer Not To May 13, 2016 * 6:10:02am down 5 up report re: #137 I Would Prefer Not To I call BS on 485,00. 146 lawhawk May 13, 2016 * 6:10:21am down 5 up report re: #124 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate Rage Furby does not understand that aspect. He's never learned that one has to change one's language depending on the situation and context. He wants verboten words to be freely used wherever and whenever by everyone. Hard to say if that's a result of being "on the spectrum," as he claims, or a result of just plain cussedness. No. He's a racist shitweasel. And claiming to be on the spectrum doesn't excuse it. He's gotten enough pushback from website operators to know the difference. He has called it exploring different viewpoints in the past, but the reality is that he's attracted to white supremacists and racists. He uses their language freely. He cites to the racist and white supremacist sites regularly. Kinda like Trump. 147 Teukka May 13, 2016 * 6:13:42am down 1 up report You heard Dan Quayle got compelled by the Power Of Trump? nypost.com 148 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light) May 13, 2016 * 6:15:11am down 5 up report You heard Dan Quayle got compelled by the Power Of Trump? nypost.com 149 Alyosha May 13, 2016 * 6:15:53am down 3 up report re: #142 Decatur Deb That points to a genuine fixable policy issue to focus the outrage--the legality of uncontrolled, unreported, 'private' sales. re: #143 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light) GZ has a chance to become the poster child for gun control loopholes If there's a silver lining to this, I'll take it. 150 Stanley Sea May 13, 2016 * 6:19:03am down 5 up report Morning! My cat woke me up at 550. !!!!! noooooo They're playing the trump tapes, where he impersonated himself. He fucking denied it was him. LOL so embarrassing. What a start to Friday! 151 Alyosha May 13, 2016 * 6:21:08am down 2 up report re: #150 Stanley Sea Morning! My cat woke me up at 550. !!!!! noooooo They're playing the trump tapes, where he impersonated himself. He fucking denied it was him. LOL so embarrassing. What a start to Friday! 153 Belafon May 13, 2016 * 6:26:00am down 2 up report In case you missed it yesterday: [Embedded content] I am really starting to like the Daily News . I've been thinking about this a bit. I think we should set up a fund to buy the gun from George. Get it to around $18,000-20,000. The reasoning is this: That would be enough money to get him to sell the gun, but that much money would really only allow him to further destroy himself. 154 Alyosha May 13, 2016 * 6:26:23am down 2 up report Makes sense. Libya's the albatross, right? Is this the set-up for a hand-over in which Clinton tries to right a perceived fault in her history? At this point I can't really fault this, even if my weird cynicism was amazingly accurate. The US has set up two military outposts in Libya for special operations troops. Nice scoop from @missy_ryan https://t.co/1LMGq8mAgQ re: #150 Stanley Sea Morning! My cat woke me up at 550. !!!!! noooooo They're playing the trump tapes, where he impersonated himself. He fucking denied it was him. LOL so embarrassing. What a start to Friday! I wish my cats would let us sleep in until that late. // These two by my pool every Spring it seems. 156 The Vicious Babushka May 13, 2016 * 6:28:26am down 9 up report 'Trump-Putin kiss' graffiti goes viral https://t.co/38Df15Sp9f #Lithuania pic.twitter.com/Q6sOS8L1tS 157 lawhawk May 13, 2016 * 6:29:09am down 16 up report So, Trump liked to call up reporters claiming to be a Trump spokesman to address reporter questions about Trump's infidelities and other Trump business. Apparently Trump now thinks those audio recordings are off limits because they're too old. Trump indicated this AM he thought the 1990s recording was too old to ask him about, not like the Clinton WH and Obama birth certificate 158 Stanley Sea May 13, 2016 * 6:30:29am down 7 up report So, Trump liked to call up reporters claiming to be a Trump spokesman to address reporter questions about Trump's infidelities and other Trump business. Apparently Trump now thinks those audio recordings are off limits because they're too old. [Embedded content] It is so obvious it is him & he denied it! still laughing. 159 The Vicious Babushka May 13, 2016 * 6:30:32am down 14 up report OK wingnuts, Obama has praised the accomplishments of white people. Are you happy now? "This is also a special day for the millions of Americans who proudly trace their ancestry to the Nordic countries" -- @POTUS #NordicVisit 160 Belafon May 13, 2016 * 6:31:41am down 4 up report Makes sense. Libya's the albatross, right? Is this the set-up for a hand-over in which Clinton tries to right a perceived fault in her history? At this point I can't really fault this, even if my weird cynicism was amazingly accurate. 1. Clinton isn't SoS. She wouldn't have any real input. 2. I have never seen Obama act that way. Obama does things because he thinks they're the right things. At least for him, politics stops at the water's edge. 161 Alyosha May 13, 2016 * 6:31:45am down 10 up report The story itself suggests that this is pretty much a part of Obama's broader strategy against Daesh. Hey, just because Obama's in the last year of his term doesn't mean he stops working. 162 I Would Prefer Not To May 13, 2016 * 6:32:09am down 3 up report re: #159 The Vicious Babushka OK wingnuts, Obama has praised the accomplishments of white people. Are you happy now? [Embedded content] He does live in the White House. 163 Sir John Barron May 13, 2016 * 6:32:17am down 4 up report The story itself suggests that this is pretty much a part of Obama's broader strategy against Daesh. Hey, just because Obama's in the last year of his term doesn't mean he stops working. In an election year?!!? 164 Belafon May 13, 2016 * 6:33:07am down 4 up report re: #159 The Vicious Babushka OK wingnuts, Obama has praised the accomplishments of white people. Are you happy now? He won't say "white"!! What a racist! 165 Sir John Barron May 13, 2016 * 6:33:14am down 4 up report re: #159 The Vicious Babushka OK wingnuts, Obama has praised the accomplishments of white people. Are you happy now? No. He didn't say White. Also didn't say radical Islamic terrorism. 166 Sir John Barron May 13, 2016 * 6:33:52am down 3 up report re: #157 lawhawk So, Trump liked to call up reporters claiming to be a Trump spokesman to address reporter questions about Trump's infidelities and other Trump business. Apparently Trump now thinks those audio recordings are off limits because they're too old. Everything is fine. 167 lawhawk May 13, 2016 * 6:34:53am down 10 up report Trump lives and works in NYC. His offices are in midtown. It's a short stroll from his offices to the network studios of NBC (Rockefeller Center), ABC (Times Square for GMA, 66th St for the NYC affiliate), and Fox (6th Ave at 47th). CBS is over on the West Side at 11th and 57th. Yet time and again Trump only does call ins with the networks. Trump with yet another call in interview to Fox and Friends. Just gonna throw this out there... pic.twitter.com/ly3nZBVE6R Bastard likes to have people on his beck and call. Going and doing the appearances in person is beneath him. Sorry, but you can't phone in your WH work. 168 Stanley Sea May 13, 2016 * 6:35:59am down 3 up report Trump lives and works in NYC. His offices are in midtown. It's a short stroll from his offices to the network studios of NBC (Rockefeller Center), ABC (Times Square for GMA, 66th St for the NYC affiliate), and Fox (6th Ave at 47th). CBS is over on the West Side at 11th and 57th. Yet time and again Trump only does call ins with the networks. [Embedded content] Bastard likes to have people on his beck and call. Going and doing the appearances in person is beneath him. Sorry, but you can't phone in your WH work. His hair isn't done till noon. 169 I Would Prefer Not To May 13, 2016 * 6:36:20am down 2 up report re: #167 lawhawk Trump lives and works in NYC. His offices are in midtown. It's a short stroll from his offices to the network studios of NBC (Rockefeller Center), ABC (Times Square for GMA, 66th St for the NYC affiliate), and Fox (6th Ave at 47th). CBS is over on the West Side at 11th and 57th. Yet time and again Trump only does call ins with the networks. [Embedded content] Bastard likes to have people on his beck and call. Going and doing the appearances in person is beneath him. Sorry, but you can't phone in your WH work. You can if the phone is gold plated. 170 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate May 13, 2016 * 6:36:57am down 2 up report No. He's a racist shitweasel. And claiming to be on the spectrum doesn't excuse it. He's gotten enough pushback from website operators to know the difference. He has called it exploring different viewpoints in the past, but the reality is that he's attracted to white supremacists and racists. He uses their language freely. He cites to the racist and white supremacist sites regularly. Kinda like Trump. I'm not doubting it. He's painted himself into the only corner that would halfway accept him. His ties with the other RWNJ media people are toast, because he's made himself into a one-man Purity Patrol. I think the guy wants to belong to some group, any group that will let him in. The thing is, the white supremacists don't really like him, because he married an Asian. But he doesn't understand this, much as he didn't understand the Comedy Central invitation. 171 Alyosha May 13, 2016 * 6:39:30am down 2 up report re: #170 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate I'm not doubting it. He's painted himself into the only corner that would halfway accept him. His ties with the other RWNJ media people are toast, because he's made himself into a one-man Purity Patrol. I think the guy wants to belong to some group, any group that will let him in. The thing is, the white supremacists don't really like him, because he married an Asian. But he doesn't understand this, much as he didn't understand the Comedy Central invitation. He is the alt-right's Ben Shapiro. 172 MsJ May 13, 2016 * 6:39:46am down 3 up report re: #159 The Vicious Babushka OK wingnuts, Obama has praised the accomplishments of white people. Are you happy now? That would be a big NO. There's nothing Obama could do to make them happy. Well...nothing that would make the rest of humanity happy. 173 Alyosha May 13, 2016 * 6:40:07am down 1 up report He is the alt-right's Ben Shapiro. Right there with Milo. Trump lives and works in NYC. His offices are in midtown. It's a short stroll from his offices to the network studios of NBC (Rockefeller Center), ABC (Times Square for GMA, 66th St for the NYC affiliate), and Fox (6th Ave at 47th). CBS is over on the West Side at 11th and 57th. Yet time and again Trump only does call ins with the networks. [Embedded content] Bastard likes to have people on his beck and call. Going and doing the appearances in person is beneath him. Sorry, but you can't phone in your WH work. Call-ins instead of face to face allow him to manipulate the media and avoid hard questioning. Donald Trump's secret for avoiding hard questions #tcot #UniteBlue https://t.co/wgNXQceCQB pic.twitter.com/Nyxf71jrRU re: #174 The Vicious Babushka Call-ins instead of face to face allow him to manipulate the media and avoid hard questioning. [Embedded content] Trump's the kind of guy who is only comfortable when he is in charge. Scripted political speeches are not his style. Face to face interviews are not his style. Neither allow Trump be Trump, and bombast his points across. re: #124 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate Rage Furby does not understand that aspect. He's never learned that one has to change one's language depending on the situation and context. He wants verboten words to be freely used wherever and whenever by everyone. Hard to say if that's a result of being "on the spectrum," as he claims, or a result of just plain cussedness. I'm beginning to think it's more similar to a toddler noticing that a certain word draws him attention -- without having any clue what the meaning or context of the word is. Since the attention-getting is the only goal the toddler then proceeds to repeatedly use (or scream) the word. re: #176 Feline Fearless Leader I'm beginning to think it's more similar to a toddler noticing that a certain word draws him attention -- without having any clue what the meaning or context of the word is. Since the attention-getting is the only goal the toddler then proceeds to repeatedly use (or scream) the word. Bingo! Student reportedly shot at South Carolina high school; 2 schools on lockdown https://t.co/utxRNqqnaG pic.twitter.com/HMwo2mKbsv 179 FormerDirtDart May 13, 2016 * 6:50:30am down 2 up report re: #178 The Vicious Babushka Student reportedly shot at South Carolina high school; 2 schools on lockdown Friday in "Murica... Hey, you got to get your school shootin's in before the summer break kicks in... 180 The Vicious Babushka May 13, 2016 * 6:55:28am down 7 up report Baby Whiplash fantasizing about girls bathrooms again. What a weird fetishist. Who died and made Obama God, redefining male and female? Oh, yeah, our sanity and decency. That was probably it. Obama-Baal has spoken, and he's revoking Genesis 5:2 https://t.co/1jU1wtylor So essentially, the Obama administration just ordered every girl in public school to hold it until she gets home. 182 Sir John Barron May 13, 2016 * 6:57:15am down 4 up report re: #180 The Vicious Babushka Who died and made Obama God, redefining male and female? Oh, yeah, our sanity and decency . That was probably it. -- Ben Shapiro re: #180 The Vicious Babushka Baby Whiplash fantasizing about girls bathrooms again. What a weird fetishist. [Embedded content] More like he's imagining every public school across the nation with hordes of men and transgenders trying to use the ladies' rooms. 184 Sir John Barron May 13, 2016 * 6:57:39am down 1 up report re: #180 The Vicious Babushka Baby Whiplash fantasizing about girls bathrooms again. What a weird fetishist. Rather early in the am for Baby Whiplash to be hitting the sauce so hard. 185 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate May 13, 2016 * 6:58:15am down 1 up report re: #184 Fourth Football of the Apocalypse Rather early in the am for Baby Whiplash to be hitting the sauce so hard. Probably still sobering up from the night before 186 Belafon May 13, 2016 * 6:59:30am down 2 up report re: #180 The Vicious Babushka Baby Whiplash fantasizing about girls bathrooms again. What a weird fetishist. Their were no trans-pervs until 2016! Trying to think of the type of insult they would use is hard. Obama says a boy can be a girl without changing anything objectively perceptible. So why wouldn't boys just walk into girls bathrooms? 188 The Engineer Lobuno May 13, 2016 * 7:01:41am down 4 up report re: #156 The Vicious Babushka This is very wrong. I mean, look at Trump's hand... it looks normal sized, not tiny-baby sized as they are. 189 b.d. May 13, 2016 * 7:02:09am down 3 up report re: #180 The Vicious Babushka Baby Whiplash fantasizing about girls bathrooms again. What a weird fetishist. [Embedded content] And in a month this thing that Obama did to ruin the world will be accepted as a no-brainer, forgotten and commonplace. It's hard to keep the wingnut outrage machine fueled up these days. 190 ChuckJager95 May 13, 2016 * 7:02:20am down 3 up report The last two pages have been my first introduction to Rod Dreher, and holy shit is he unhinged. Like "climbing a clock tower any minute" unhinged. I'm thankful for him though as now I have more ammunition for my conservative FB friends who inexplicably feel as though it's the left making much ado about nothing and creating a political football out of thin air. re: #188 The Engineer Lobuno This is very wrong. I mean, look at Trump's hand... it looks normal sized, not tiny-baby sized as they are. That's not Trump's hand. re: #187 The Vicious Babushka Next, cats and dogs will be lying together. 193 The Vicious Babushka May 13, 2016 * 7:03:31am down 7 up report Why hasn't anyone told Baby Whiplash that girls bathrooms do not have open urinals? I thought all young men have to be taught not to rape, but now the Obama administration says they can mosey on over to the girls' room. 194 Alyosha May 13, 2016 * 7:04:52am down 5 up report re: #187 The Vicious Babushka Because you don't raise whelps with a dick to be animals just because they're the privileged sex, you utter fiend. 195 jeffreyw May 13, 2016 * 7:05:22am down 7 up report Imgur Good morning! 196 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate May 13, 2016 * 7:06:23am down 5 up report The thing is, most kids won't really care who uses which restroom. We're not talking about elementary school here, but middle school and older. I'm pretty sure most of them will just shrug their shoulders and say, whatever. 197 b.d. May 13, 2016 * 7:07:35am down 2 up report re: #192 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate Next, cats and dogs will be lying together. This country will end if we: LET GAYS IN THE MILITARY!!! LET CHILDREN OF UNDOCUMENTED STAY!! GIVE PEOPLE ACCESS TO HEALTH INSURANCE!! [Embedded content] I know of at least a few establishments in Philadelphia that have unisex rest rooms. Essentially a chain of small rooms not much larger than stalls - and no distinction that any particular one is male-only or female-only. A lot of this fuss is a fossil of building design and attempts at efficiency. Heck, just do a little historical reading and you come across cases (US Navy for instance) where buildings or ships were designed with only one set of mass bathrooms since it was never expected to support both sexes in the first place. 199 Timothy Watson May 13, 2016 * 7:09:00am down 4 up report re: #180 The Vicious Babushka Baby Whiplash fantasizing about girls bathrooms again. What a weird fetishist. [Embedded content] So God didn't create intersex persons? Or did the Fall cause that? 200 FormerDirtDart May 13, 2016 * 7:09:07am down 9 up report re: #192 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate Next, cats and dogs will be lying together. 201 b.d. May 13, 2016 * 7:09:37am down 4 up report CAN I STILL MAKE A CAKE THAT LOOKS LIKE A LADIE'S ONLY RESTROOM!?! re: #199 Timothy Watson So God didn't create intersex persons? Or did the Fall cause that? Baby Whiplash claims that "intersex" and "transgender" don't exist. 203 weave May 13, 2016 * 7:10:16am down 11 up report What the fuck is wrong with NC? So they are trying to protect children from a non-existent threat by exposing them to a new more-likely threat. Don't they know teenagers get into fights -- and tend to grab anything handy nearby and use it as a weapon? This will not end well. 204 ChuckJager95 May 13, 2016 * 7:11:02am down 8 up report re: #60 b_sharp Damn RWNJ news sites fall for some crazy bull shit. I'm arguing with a RWer who claims Sanders paid $15.00/hr for protesters to disrupt Trump rallies. He used 2 links, one used abcnews.com.co as its source & 3 others used The Daily Squib as their source. I laughed. I too had to point out the abc url to someone who forwarded them the same thing. I was told "it doesn't make it any less true" to which I countered "if there was any truth to it, then why drum up fake legitimacy with a bunk website?" Somehow I was labeled a sheep in this exchange. 205 Timothy Watson May 13, 2016 * 7:11:10am down 3 up report re: #202 The Vicious Babushka Baby Whiplash claims that "intersex" and "transgender" don't exist. Christ, what a moron. How did that idiot graduate from UCLA and Harvard Law School? I think we should demand a copy of his transcripts. 206 b.d. May 13, 2016 * 7:12:15am down 2 up report re: #205 Timothy Watson Christ, what a moron. How did that graduate from UCLA and Harvard Law School? I think we should demand a copy of his transcripts. I heard that his student ID had the words "foreign student" plastered on the top of it. 207 Timothy Watson May 13, 2016 * 7:12:24am down 4 up report So they are trying to protect children from a non-existent threat by exposing them to a new more-likely threat. Don't they know teenagers get into fights -- and tend to grab anything handy nearby and use it as a weapon? This will not end well. Will it be wrong for me to laugh when a principal or superintendent gets covered in the stuff? And, trust me, that shits burns. I was exposed to it for a training at a former job. 208 Skip Intro May 13, 2016 * 7:12:50am down 2 up report I can remember a time, long, long ago, when N.C. was considered to be the sane Carolina. Hard to believe that now. 209 Alyosha May 13, 2016 * 7:15:02am down 12 up report First shameless self-promoting Tweet. Because you don't raise whelps with a dick to be animals just because they're the privileged sex, you utter fiend. @benshapiro I swore... never again... 210 Lidane May 13, 2016 * 7:17:02am down 4 up report Watching the wingnuts lose their minds over POTUS weighing in on trans student rights in public schools is so bizarre. I honestly cannot believe that some people think that where a trans person goes to the bathroom is a vital issue to the republic, but here we are. 211 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate May 13, 2016 * 7:17:13am down 2 up report Neither of them smoke, apparently. 212 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light) May 13, 2016 * 7:17:23am down 5 up report re: #174 The Vicious Babushka Call-ins instead of face to face allow him to manipulate the media and avoid hard questioning. Something he learned from Rush Limbaugh 213 b.d. May 13, 2016 * 7:18:45am down 1 up report First shameless self-promoting Tweet. [Embedded content] I swore... never again... Has anyone told Ben that he still has a better shot of getting some sexy love if he continues to visit the Men's room rather than the Ladie's? 214 Alyosha May 13, 2016 * 7:19:44am down 3 up report re: #213 b.d. Has anyone told Ben that he still has a better shot of getting some sexy love if he continues to visit the Men's room rather than the Ladie's? I rather think the concept of love has eluded him completely. 215 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light) May 13, 2016 * 7:22:22am down 5 up report re: #187 The Vicious Babushka Obama says a boy can be a girl without changing anything objectively perceptible. So why wouldn't boys just walk into girls bathrooms? because they have a sense of decency and propriety? 216 Lidane May 13, 2016 * 7:22:30am down 4 up report Tony Perkins: Obama using trans restroom access to "sacrifice children," cause "social chaos" https://t.co/8Ls5Gairq8 217 FormerDirtDart May 13, 2016 * 7:23:57am down 9 up report Just a daily reminder that the Republican nominee for President has a serious pathological disorder. https://t.co/0rrhEcajea On @TODAYshow , Donald Trump denies that his voice is the voice in WaPo recording, even though years ago he said it was him joking around. -- Jenna Johnson ( @wpjenna ) May 13, 2016 218 jeffreyw May 13, 2016 * 7:26:02am down 11 up report re: #192 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate Next, cats and dogs will be lying together. 219 thedopefishlives May 13, 2016 * 7:27:10am down 4 up report 220 Belafon May 13, 2016 * 7:28:39am down 4 up report re: #198 Feline Fearless Leader I know of at least a few establishments in Philadelphia that have unisex rest rooms. Essentially a chain of small rooms not much larger than stalls - and no distinction that any particular one is male-only or female-only. A lot of this fuss is a fossil of building design and attempts at efficiency. Heck, just do a little historical reading and you come across cases (US Navy for instance) where buildings or ships were designed with only one set of mass bathrooms since it was never expected to support both sexes in the first place. My last year on a ship, 1996, they were installing curtains around the open urinals in the engine rooms because women were being assigned to ships. 221 Alyosha May 13, 2016 * 7:29:12am down 5 up report Until I see the syphilitic boils, I'm gonna err on the side of Alzheimers. Just like Reagan. 222 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light) May 13, 2016 * 7:30:58am down 6 up report We need to have a serious national discussion. Topic one: although the Bible mentions only two sexes, science tells us that the issue is a bit more complicated than that. Topic two: genitals and breasts are not necessarily connected with sexuality Topic three: sexuality is not necessarily connected with immorality and perversion 223 b.d. May 13, 2016 * 7:31:08am down 12 up report re: #192 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate Next, cats and dogs will be lying together. Thanks Obama! Until I see the syphilitic boils, I'm gonna err on the side of Alzheimers. Just like Reagan. I was joking with a family member that Trump may very well have neurosyphilis given his own comments about STDs and his "dating" habits. My last year on a ship, 1996, they were installing curtains around the open urinals in the engine rooms because women were being assigned to ships. I worked in an office at one time which had only one restroom. There was a sign on the door that you flipped over to indicate which gender was using it. 226 Timothy Watson May 13, 2016 * 7:31:36am down 4 up report re: #223 b.d. Looks like a low-level encounter in Dungeons & Dragons. 227 Timothy Watson May 13, 2016 * 7:32:24am down 2 up report re: #225 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate I worked in an office at one time which had only one restroom. There was a sign on the door that you flipped over to indicate which gender was using it. Heh, I keep thinking about Ally McBeal myself. 228 Belafon May 13, 2016 * 7:33:05am down 3 up report re: #199 Timothy Watson So God didn't create intersex persons? Or did the Fall cause that? I bet children born with both sets of genitalia or women born with xy chromosomes cause Ben's brain to lurch down his spine. 229 thedopefishlives May 13, 2016 * 7:33:07am down 1 up report re: #225 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate I worked in an office at one time which had only one restroom. There was a sign on the door that you flipped over to indicate which gender was using it. BUT WHAT IF A MAN GOES IN THERE AND THE SIGN IS STILL FLIPPED TO WOMAN!!!!!! 230 Alyosha May 13, 2016 * 7:34:57am down 1 up report re: #224 Timothy Watson I was joking with a family member that Trump may very well have neurosyphilis given his own comments about STDs and his "dating" habits. Next we'll hear that he has his tapwater taken in Michigan. For the second time in history Pb will have helped collapse an empire. / BUT WHAT IF A MAN GOES IN THERE AND THE SIGN IS STILL FLIPPED TO WOMAN!!!!!! A very loud, "get the hell out of here!" Conversely, the end of civilization as we know it. 232 Timothy Watson May 13, 2016 * 7:36:04am down 7 up report I bet children born with both sets of genitalia or women born with xy chromosomes cause Ben's brain to lurch down his spine. And I... m6DwrJE2zgMxJW1fnfWGV3RHF/pstiKDNQy+xn2i18XTf1gjt09vIWb0vP5Qp8/B2tMJLisR3QtmSPaga9SG+bJgomV2vj/NDLtZRAsOgmEfngR8erd4sF+putoQPDD3qtOL9nYwd0ph+HtgWnzdi+FHyxDgz5BpwRzD4I4/dBDCvLa3FOdotY/kjpOLPQIY8bYCebQRUww= 233 Belafon May 13, 2016 * 7:36:08am down 2 up report My oldest son is going to a private Methodist college. This year, he was the only male in an on-campus apartment with three females, one of which shared a bedroom with him. He'll have the same arrangement next year, with different roommates. In 88, when I went to college, it was controversial at WPI to have one floor of a dorm with men on one half of a floor and women at the other half. 234 lawhawk May 13, 2016 * 7:36:18am down 5 up report Next we'll hear that he has his tapwater taken in Michigan. For the second time in history Pb will have helped collapse an empire. / Probably a side effect of eating the food at Trump Towers. 236 The Vicious Babushka May 13, 2016 * 7:37:10am down 6 up report Stop the rape culture. Don't let boys into girls bathrooms. #ItsOnUs My oldest son is going to a private Methodist college. This year, he was the only male in an on campus apartment with three females, one of which shared a bedroom with him. He'll have the same arrangement next year, with different roommates. In 88, when I went to college, it was controversial at WPI to have one floor of a dorm with men on one half of a floor and women at the other half. Well, you know those Methodists. Bunch of backbenchers, those people are. // 238 thedopefishlives May 13, 2016 * 7:38:52am down 9 up report re: #236 The Vicious Babushka [Embedded content] So, wait. NOW they're worried about the rape culture? But when we talk about "normal" rape, it's all, "she asked for it" and "she's a slut anyway"? So, wait. NOW they're worried about the rape culture? But when we talk about "normal" rape, it's all, "she asked for it" and "she's a slut anyway"? That was the last outrage du jour. We're on a new one now. Try to keep up. ;-) 240 thedopefishlives May 13, 2016 * 7:40:27am down 4 up report re: #239 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate That was the last outrage du jour. We're on a new one now. Try to keep up. ;-) *mutters under his breath* Damn kids these days... Attention spans... GET OFF MY LAWN! 241 The Engineer Lobuno May 13, 2016 * 7:41:10am down 1 up report re: #191 The Vicious Babushka That's not Trump's hand. I thought that the hand over Putin was Trump's... 242 FormerDirtDart May 13, 2016 * 7:43:58am down 13 up report Reporter asks if male janitor can clean in ladies' room. "I don't know the answer to that," -- Patrick. #RPT16 Always left unsaid: 'We didn't think it through.' 244 Lidane May 13, 2016 * 7:45:45am down 17 up report Target CEO fires back at boycott threats https://t.co/z1iJjfgAEK pic.twitter.com/rJyE3OQxWR Cornell likened the public backlash against Target to when the retailer started using African American models in advertising in the mid 1960s. "Back then it wasn't well received, but sitting here today we know we made the right decision," Cornell said. Cornell also noted that a majority of Target's stores already have a family restroom and "we are committed over the next few months to make sure every one of our stores has that option because we want all our guests to be welcomed in our stores." 245 Belafon May 13, 2016 * 7:46:14am down 5 up report So, wait. NOW they're worried about the rape culture? But when we talk about "normal" rape, it's all, "she asked for it" and "she's a slut anyway"? "What will get a Republican elected?" That's all they're thinking. 246 Belafon May 13, 2016 * 7:49:08am down 4 up report OUTRAGE! It will definitely be interesting here in Texas next year. Patrick says he plans on introducing a bill next year about transwomen in bathrooms. Another state senator said he'd help Target pack up and leave. On the other hand, I think Jerry Jones was drooling at the thought of hosting the NCAA games at Jerry World after NC's law, and I don't think he'll be too happy if the state fucks that up. There are plenty of other businesses that will be thinking the same way. 247 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN May 13, 2016 * 7:49:52am down 2 up report It occurred to me that Trump may have to put control of his investments in a blind trust if he were President. A. Would he really consent to that, and B. Who would want THAT job? 248 Dr. Matt May 13, 2016 * 7:52:22am down 8 up report Weedlord Bonerhitler and Racist McShootface. Sometimes you really have to love internet trolls. 249 Decatur Deb May 13, 2016 * 7:54:07am down 2 up report "What will get a Republican elected?" That's all they're thinking. Don't sell these mofo's short. Someone has done a bunch of focus groups and determined that Bathroom Panic legislation will bring a lot of RW stalwarts to the polls in November. "For the children." 250 Sir John Barron May 13, 2016 * 7:54:30am down 1 up report re: #234 lawhawk Adelson's endorsement, in an op-ed in the Washington Post, matters because he's very wealthy and very willing to spend his wealth to elect Republicans. He spent as much as $150 million trying to defeat President Obama in 2012. Money, meet Fire. Fire, meet Money. 251 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN May 13, 2016 * 7:55:08am down 0 up report re: #247 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN 252 Dr. Matt May 13, 2016 * 7:56:41am down 5 up report How many bloated assholes, dudebros, and douche bags can you fit in one section.... 253 Decatur Deb May 13, 2016 * 7:57:15am down 1 up report re: #250 Fourth Football of the Apocalypse Money, meet Fire. Fire, meet Money. At the levels of wealth you are describing, the burn rate cannot overtake the accumulation rate. Adelson ended the 2012 election with more money under his mattress than when it began. 254 Alyosha May 13, 2016 * 7:58:41am down 3 up report re: #249 Decatur Deb Don't sell these mofo's short. Someone has done a bunch of focus groups and determined that Bathroom Panic legislation will bring a lot of RW stalwarts to the polls in November. "For the children." The Helen Lovejoy crowd. 255 Sir John Barron May 13, 2016 * 8:01:36am down 1 up report re: #253 Decatur Deb At the levels of wealth you are describing, the burn rate cannot overtake the accumulation rate. Adelson ended the 2012 election with more money under his mattress than when it began. That's unfortunate. That's unfortunate. Adelson owns casinos. 'Nuff said. 257 Decatur Deb May 13, 2016 * 8:06:08am down 0 up report re: #256 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate Adelson owns casinos. 'Nuff said. And Fortuna has nothing to do with casinos. 258 lawhawk May 13, 2016 * 8:07:50am down 12 up report re: #256 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate He's one up on Trump. He owns casinos and makes money on them - unlike Trump. 259 Dr. Matt May 13, 2016 * 8:08:03am down 6 up report Fans agree: Trisha's Skillet Apple Pie is the best of the best! Get the recipe (and browse more of our fave apple pies) by clicking the link in our profile. #NationalApplePieDay 260 Lidane May 13, 2016 * 8:09:49am down 11 up report CNN Anchors Join in on the Fun When Jimmy Kimmel Announces He's Running For Vice President https://t.co/BAL2WIzSIW pic.twitter.com/CtFxL1lega As the CNN anchors poked fun of their media coverage, themselves and the election in general, Kimmel continued to explain that "I don't need a number 1 to make a number 2." After answering several questions about policy and his lead in the polls (since there's currently no VP competition) Blitzer asked the most important question: "Do you think you're making a mockery of this election?" "I think it's too late for anyone to do that, Wolf," Kimmel replied. He's probably right. 261 Alyosha May 13, 2016 * 8:17:17am down 5 up report Lyin' Donald says he's not John Barron. Testified in 90s that he was. Ban call-in interviews til we figure what the Hell's going on. Psycho! 262 FormerDirtDart May 13, 2016 * 8:18:44am down 0 up report [Embedded content] OK, so I need to be eating some apple pie as I stand indoors under an open umbrella, while under a ladder, as I punt a black cat, that is crossing my path, breaking a mirror 263 Alyosha May 13, 2016 * 8:22:09am down 8 up report Totes Cute AF. She's telling a story https://t.co/u4hZhufmLO TRUMP: Let me introduce my incredible running mate *electric buzz* REPORTER: That's just a hologram of yourself TRUMP 2: Not true, not true He's not SMOTI for nothing. Big Brother Obama Forces Public Schools to Allow Trans Students to Use Bathroom of Choice https://t.co/04Q2JEp8K7 via @gatewaypundit Big brother Obama. Right. It's the GOP that is pushing big brother solutions for bathroom policing with their nonsensical laws that are in search of a problem. All this energy is expended by the GOP to goose their base into a frothing mass of irrational hate/fear towards transgenders, even though this isn't exactly a problem. Where are all the documented cases of guys dressing as women in order to attack them in women's bathrooms. There's just no evidence that it's a widespread problem. In fact, there's no epidemic of attacks by cross dressers. What we are finding is that guys are going into women's bathrooms to "self-police" this, and end up assaulting or harassing women that they don't think belong in the women's rooms. The only folks who don't belong there are these knuckle dragging guys who take it upon themselves to "police" a law that doesn't make any sense, is unenforceable, and is the very kind of big brother response that SMOTI thinks Obama is doing. There's nothing more Big Brother than government imposing on who can use which bathroom and criminalizing who does what - in a locked bathroom stall. I get the feeling that these would have been the same people complaining about building separate restrooms for women in the first place. 266 Belafon May 13, 2016 * 8:26:33am down 5 up report It was not a problem until 2016. Normally I would do a "what changed" but the answer is obvious: They're going to get their asses handed to them unless they scare their voters. SMOTI would have been one of the people objecting to joint bathrooms for whites and blacks. 268 Dr. Matt May 13, 2016 * 8:28:17am down 4 up report Big Brother Obama Forces Public Schools to Allow Trans Students to Use Bathroom of Choice t.co via @gatewaypundit -- Jim Hoft ( @gatewaypundit ) May 13, 2016 In other words, the <0.5% of the population that identifies as Trans will continue to do what they always did until RWNJs starting their shit over it. It was not a problem until 2016. Normally I would do a "what changed" but the answer is obvious: They're going to get their asses handed to them unless they scare their voters. Somehow I suspect this latest attempt will fail miserably, because even conservative voters can smell a dead fish. 270 allegro May 13, 2016 * 8:29:56am down 3 up report Didn't this transexual thing get started with Bruce turned Caitlin who wants to be Bruce again? Did a lot of real damage methinks. 271 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light) May 13, 2016 * 8:31:43am down 1 up report Didn't this transexual thing get started with Bruce turned Caitlin who wants to be Bruce again? Did a lot of real damage methinks. Sorta like what happened with Climate Change when Al Gore came out in public against it. Not that I blame him for the outrage, but he was rather arrogant to think that he could simply divorce himself from politics and declare himself an Elder Statesman 272 Belafon May 13, 2016 * 8:32:10am down 3 up report re: #269 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate Somehow I suspect this latest attempt will fail miserably, because even conservative voters can smell a dead fish. Some conservative voters have family that would be affected by this. My mayor got told off by a woman who voted for him because it would affect her daughter. 273 Belafon May 13, 2016 * 8:33:31am down 1 up report Didn't this transexual thing get started with Bruce turned Caitlin who wants to be Bruce again? Did a lot of real damage methinks. No. It started because Target said "Hey, you know how trans people have been using the bathroom of their identity for a long time? We're OK with that, and not only that, we're going to make it our policy to not deny them that ability." 274 Timothy Watson May 13, 2016 * 8:34:00am down 3 up report Didn't this transexual thing get started with Bruce turned Caitlin who wants to be Bruce again? Did a lot of real damage methinks. Well, she (or he, if that story was accurate) is a raging wingnut who supports Trump, but that seems to be lost on the other wingnuts. 275 Decatur Deb May 13, 2016 * 8:34:22am down 2 up report re: #269 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate Somehow I suspect this latest attempt will fail miserably, because even conservative voters can smell a dead fish. Optimist. 276 Sir John Barron May 13, 2016 * 8:35:34am down 4 up report re: #268 Dr. Matt In other words, the <0.5% of the population that identifies as Trans will continue to do what they always did until RWNJs starting their shit over it. OBAMA BIG GOVERNMENT BIG BROTHER!!!!!! 277 Sir John Barron May 13, 2016 * 8:36:14am down 1 up report He's not SMOTI for nothing. Big brother Obama. Right. It's the GOP that is pushing big brother solutions for bathroom policing with their nonsensical laws that are in search of a problem. All this energy is expended by the GOP to goose their base into a frothing mass of irrational hate/fear towards transgenders, even though this isn't exactly a problem. Where are all the documented cases of guys dressing as women in order to attack them in women's bathrooms. There's just no evidence that it's a widespread problem. In fact, there's no epidemic of attacks by cross dressers. What we are finding is that guys are going into women's bathrooms to "self-police" this, and end up assaulting or harassing women that they don't think belong in the women's rooms. The only folks who don't belong there are these knuckle dragging guys who take it upon themselves to "police" a law that doesn't make any sense, is unenforceable, and is the very kind of big brother response that SMOTI thinks Obama is doing. There's nothing more Big Brother than government imposing on who can use which bathroom and criminalizing who does what - in a locked bathroom stall. I get the feeling that these would have been the same people complaining about building separate restrooms for women in the first place. I'm glad Dim Jim has weighed in on this. 278 allegro May 13, 2016 * 8:36:57am down 4 up report No. It started because Target said "Hey, you know how trans people have been using the bathroom of their identity for a long time? We're OK with that, and not only that, we're going to make it our policy to not deny them that ability." I believe Target was responding to the non-troversy that was already in motion. 279 lawhawk May 13, 2016 * 8:37:10am down 9 up report Aftr outcry ovr white natlst, anti-Islam pastor on Trump's CA delegate list, CA GOP did this https://t.co/qHdU3j1Sca pic.twitter.com/6E0uMcoz8B Now, it's been reported that Trump's delegate has resigned, but that doesn't actually take his name off the slate, since it wasn't done in time per CA state law. State law trumps the CA GOP bylaws. Not the other way around. 280 Reality Based Steve May 13, 2016 * 8:37:33am down 4 up report He's not SMOTI for nothing. [Embedded content] Big brother Obama. Right. It's the GOP that is pushing big brother solutions for bathroom policing with their nonsensical laws that are in search of a problem. All this energy is expended by the GOP to goose their base into a frothing mass of irrational hate/fear towards transgenders, even though this isn't exactly a problem. Where are all the documented cases of guys dressing as women in order to attack them in women's bathrooms. There's just no evidence that it's a widespread problem. In fact, there's no epidemic of attacks by cross dressers. What we are finding is that guys are going into women's bathrooms to "self-police" this, and end up assaulting or harassing women that they don't think belong in the women's rooms. The only folks who don't belong there are these knuckle dragging guys who take it upon themselves to "police" a law that doesn't make any sense, is unenforceable, and is the very kind of big brother response that SMOTI thinks Obama is doing. There's nothing more Big Brother than government imposing on who can use which bathroom and criminalizing who does what - in a locked bathroom stall. I get the feeling that these would have been the same people complaining about building separate restrooms for women in the first place. The GOP, making government so small it can look under the bathroom stall and see your naughty bits. 281 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light) May 13, 2016 * 8:39:31am down 4 up report You have to deal with a set of hard-wired ideas that just set these people off into a white-hot rage: First: that God only created two genders and that anything in between the two is an aberration and an abomination unto Him Second: that genitals and breasts are inherently sexual features, despite the fact that they also serve other purposes Third: That sexuality outside of marriage and procreation is inherently perverse and sinful The thoughts of LGBTs using a restroom that does not conform to the set of genitals they were issued at birth is an abomination, and an invitation to sin and sexual perversion. There is no convincing these people otherwise. 282 FormerDirtDart May 13, 2016 * 8:42:45am down 3 up report [Embedded content] Now, it's been reported that Trump's delegate has resigned, but that doesn't actually take his name off the slate, since it wasn't done in time per CA state law. State law trumps the CA GOP bylaws. Not the other way around. CA GOP Updated delegates list. still no sign of Chuckles 283 Sir John Barron May 13, 2016 * 8:44:40am down 5 up report CA GOP Updated delegates list. still no sign of Chuckles [Embedded content] He's a delegate under special double super secret probation rules. CA GOP Updated delegates list. still no sign of Chuckles [Embedded content] I wonder if he'll go to Cleveland anyway, and try to wangle his way in. 285 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate May 13, 2016 * 8:45:50am down 3 up report Mr Sandman is calling me away. See you all later. 286 allegro May 13, 2016 * 8:47:22am down 1 up report re: #280 Reality Based Steve The GOP, making government so small it can look under the bathroom stall and see your naughty bits. Cameras in every toilet for your protection! WHOOP-WHOOP-WHOOP alarms installed for violations! 287 Dr. Matt May 13, 2016 * 8:47:30am down 8 up report In a segment that aired on All in With Chris Hayes, Senecal repeated his belief that President Obama should be hanged "from the white mosque," this time adding that it should be televised and Hillary Clinton should be hanged as well. Even more disturbingly, Senecal called for the cities of Milwaukee and Detroit to be designated "nuclear bomb sites" because they have become "totally disgraced by Muslims." "We need to bomb them out," said Senecal. "I could care less they're in the U.S. I don't want them in the U.S. They don't belong here. They belong in the sand dunes they came from." Sadly, he doesn't really sound that much different from Trump. 288 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light) May 13, 2016 * 8:49:08am down 2 up report Sadly, he doesn't really sound that much different from Trump. These people serve an important purpose for Trump...they distract the discussion from the fact that DT has no record of public service and is entirely unfit and unqualified for the office he is campaigning for. The less we talk about that, the better. 289 Alyosha May 13, 2016 * 8:51:49am down 8 up report Arlington National Cemetery was founded today. The significance -- Lincoln saying we'll bury them in your goddamn backyard -- is often lost. Take that, Lee. With that, I'm out too. 290 nines09 May 13, 2016 * 8:52:39am down 2 up report Good morning. OT, but a good laugh. I'm a hockey fan and this, to me, is a scream. The Washington (DC) Capitals are a perennial powerhouse who seem to be destined to never drink from the Stanley Cup. Won the Presidents Trophy for best regular season record this year. Stars abound. Fail. If you are a Caps fan, or any other haunted team, this, Bud, is for you. Iframe 291 Sir John Barron May 13, 2016 * 8:53:18am down 2 up report re: #287 Dr. Matt Starting to worry this guy might now be on the short list for VP. 292 Stanley Sea May 13, 2016 * 9:06:48am down 0 up report [Embedded content] Now, it's been reported that Trump's delegate has resigned, but that doesn't actually take his name off the slate, since it wasn't done in time per CA state law. State law trumps the CA GOP bylaws. Not the other way around. So he's short 2 delegates? 293 jeffreyw May 13, 2016 * 9:15:59am down 7 up report re: #259 Dr. Matt Hmm... I asked very plainly for a tuna pie but you have ignored me again. ...and why is it named "curiosity". Doesn't look lethal to me. 294 Stanley Sea May 13, 2016 * 9:17:07am down 1 up report Hmm... I asked very plainly for a tuna pie but you have ignored me again. [Embedded content] Are you a chef? Are these yums you post your creations? 295 lawhawk May 13, 2016 * 9:17:37am down 8 up report We owe a great debt to the Native American community. If elected president we will keep those promises. https://t.co/vkYplvRQaW He plans on upholding treaties with Native Americans? So, he's giving back the Black Hills to Native American tribes? You know, because that's part of the Treaty of Laramie . Words have meanings, and actions have consequences. He says one thing, but the reality is he isn't going to uphold all the treaties. Just parts of some. I've been out to the Black Hills, and I've driven through parts of the Pine Ridge reservation. I don't think for one moment that his claim to respecting those treaties means giving these tribes what they are due - which is the land. 296 FormerDirtDart May 13, 2016 * 9:18:10am down 2 up report re: #292 Stanley Sea So he's short 2 delegates? No, CA GOP is able to seat alternates, but the state laws prevent the changing of names on the list presented by the state 297 jeffreyw May 13, 2016 * 9:18:47am down 2 up report re: #294 Stanley Sea Naw - just a retired old fart with a cooking hobby. Thanks for the compliment, though. 298 Stanley Sea May 13, 2016 * 9:19:34am down 1 up report Naw - just a retired old fart with a cooking hobby. Thanks for the compliment, though. You are very good! YUM 299 Kragar May 13, 2016 * 9:19:55am down 7 up report 301 thecommodore May 13, 2016 * 9:24:48am down 0 up report The Donald has been closing the gap with Hillary. 302 Ziggy_TARDIS May 13, 2016 * 9:25:58am down 0 up report I'd be curious to see the higher polls. Who are they from, and are they reputable? 303 Belafon May 13, 2016 * 9:27:45am down 1 up report The Donald has been closing the gap with Hillary. [Embedded content] Republicans are falling in line. 304 b.d. May 13, 2016 * 9:29:35am down 3 up report Republicans are falling in line. No one could have predicted that! 305 KingKenrod May 13, 2016 * 9:29:44am down 4 up report The Capitol Police once kicked the Rage Furby out of a GOP fundraiser because of his history of harassing Senator Thad Cochran. He's not getting anywhere near the convention. 306 lawhawk May 13, 2016 * 9:31:19am down 2 up report Not entirely sure. Look at the polls showing head-to-head between Clinton/Trump and Sanders/Trump . Trump gets the same level of support in both - 38%. The only difference is in who's backing Hillary or Sanders, and even then, there's a gap of undecideds - 11 points in the Sanders matchup, and 18 points in the Hillary-Trump matchup. That's why it's way too soon to draw any conclusions about any election outcome at this point. 307 thecommodore May 13, 2016 * 9:32:15am down 3 up report re: #302 Ziggy_TARDIS I'd be curious to see the higher polls. Who are they from, and are they reputable? Here's a link to the chart. I customized it by removing Rasmussen, which has usually been a pro-GOP outlier over the past several years. But even with that, even though Hillary still leads, Trump has been trending upward. Yes, the election is six months away, and it's too early, blah blah blah, but the fact that this race is now competitive when Hillary should be flirting with a landslide victory concerns me. 308 FormerDirtDart May 13, 2016 * 9:32:22am down 2 up report Facebook is down so get ready for a real-time experiment into just how much traffic it sends to your sites, journalists -- Hayes Brown ( @HayesBrown ) May 13, 2016 309 Ziggy_TARDIS May 13, 2016 * 9:32:40am down 2 up report On the same token though, the Republicans have not yet even attacked Sanders, who has all sorts of skeletons in his closet. 310 Ziggy_TARDIS May 13, 2016 * 9:33:17am down 4 up report Ah, so that's your angle. "Concern." I see where this is going. 311 lawhawk May 13, 2016 * 9:33:46am down 7 up report New law regulating abortion clinics like sex offenders could close 2 of Alabama's 5 clinics https://t.co/EwicTjEHwS pic.twitter.com/yOMk94mSJ5 [Embedded content] My cat does that when he's by the window and trying to lure a birdie into his mouth. My wife calls it 'sweet-talking.' 313 Belafon May 13, 2016 * 9:37:17am down 1 up report Here's a link to the chart. I customized it by removing Rasmussen, which has usually been a pro-GOP outlier over the past several years. But even with that, even though Hillary still leads, Trump has been trending upward. Yes, the election is six months away, and it's too early, blah blah blah, but the fact that this race is now competitive when Hillary should be flirting with a landslide victory concerns me. The Republicans would vote for a tree struck by lightning if it had an R next to its name. Our country is very polarized. All of the Democrats that would have voted Republican 35 years ago are Republicans now. All of the Republicans that would have voted for Democrats 35 years ago watch Fox news and believe unemployment has gone up over the last eight years. And a landslide still isn't measured in popular vote, it's measured in electoral college. Don't get that worried. I don't even think Obama's margins in 2008 were this large right now, though don't quote me on that. Plus, and it's similar to Obama, Clinton is going to lose a few percent because she's a woman. 314 makeitstop May 13, 2016 * 9:37:33am down 1 up report re: #269 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate Somehow I suspect this latest attempt will fail miserably, because even conservative voters can smell a dead fish. Yes, but a lot of them really like dead fish smell. / 316 ObserverArt May 13, 2016 * 9:40:07am down 0 up report re: #180 The Vicious Babushka Baby Whiplash fantasizing about girls bathrooms again. What a weird fetishist. [Embedded content] When it comes to any Benny Shapiro Tweet I wish he could hold it. 317 ObserverArt May 13, 2016 * 9:42:51am down 3 up report re: #189 b.d. And in a month this thing that Obama did to ruin the world will be accepted as a no-brainer, forgotten and commonplace. It's hard to keep the wingnut outrage machine fueled up these days. Isn't that the truth. I think they get about 20 gallons to the mile. My cat does that when he's by the window and trying to lure a birdie into his mouth. My wife calls it 'sweet-talking.' Someone posted a link somewhere on someone's study of cat "chattering" and surmised that it is possibly a cat imitating the bird sounds and trying to lure them closer. Whenever one of my Siamese did it due to bird on other side of window the other Siamese would come running since he knew what it was about. 319 Pawn of the Oppressor May 13, 2016 * 9:44:37am down 1 up report re: #180 The Vicious Babushka That kid is so broken. He is so totally damaged when it comes to anything sexual, I wonder if he's got some past trauma he needs counseling for. 320 thecommodore May 13, 2016 * 9:46:08am down 3 up report re: #313 Belafon The Republicans would vote for a tree struck by lightning if it had an R next to its name. Our country is very polarized. All of the Democrats that would have voted Republican 35 years ago are Republicans now. All of the Republicans that would have voted for Democrats 35 years ago watch Fox news and believe unemployment has gone up over the last eight years. And a landslide still isn't measured in popular vote, it's measured in electoral college. Don't get that worried. I don't even think Obama's margins in 2008 were this large right now, though don't quote me on that. Plus, and it's similar to Obama, Clinton is going to lose a few percent because she's a woman. You're right about GOP loyalty. But what gives me hope is that Trump hasn't polled above 40% this year against Hillary. He needs to lose in an epic McGovern/Mondale landslide. He is such an awful candidate, and such an awful person. If he ends up with Romney or McCain like numbers on election day, I will be fearful for this country. 321 ObserverArt May 13, 2016 * 9:46:39am down 1 up report re: #193 The Vicious Babushka Why hasn't anyone told Baby Whiplash that girls bathrooms do not have open urinals? Ben Shapiro @benshapiro I thought all young men have to be taught not to rape, but now the Obama administration says they can mosey on over to the girls' room. 10:02 AM - 13 May 2016 So let me get this straight...if a guy walks into a women's rest room it cna be considered rape??? Ben has one wild RWNJ imagination. I hope he doesn't have a law degree. I though he was a BS in Politics. 322 Timothy Watson May 13, 2016 * 9:47:36am down 0 up report So let me get this straight...if a guy walks into a women's rest room it cna be considered rape??? Ben has one wild RWNJ imagination. I hope he doesn't have a law degree. I though he was a BS in Politics. He, allegedly, graduated Harvard Law School with honors. 323 Skip Intro May 13, 2016 * 9:48:01am down 4 up report Trump's current position on his taxes: IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!!!!! All the youtube comments I've read agree with Trump. 324 zerosumgame0005 May 13, 2016 * 9:49:47am down 0 up report Not for nothing but if you happen to be "reviewed" by a Dirty Bernie-bot "FB mod" you will get bounced as well. I am on a 30 day suspension for posting a pro Hillary meme, they are fucking morons 325 KGxvi May 13, 2016 * 9:52:37am down 0 up report The Republicans would vote for a tree struck by lightning if it had an R next to its name. Our country is very polarized. All of the Democrats that would have voted Republican 35 years ago are Republicans now. All of the Republicans that would have voted for Democrats 35 years ago watch Fox news and believe unemployment has gone up over the last eight years. And a landslide still isn't measured in popular vote, it's measured in electoral college. Don't get that worried. I don't even think Obama's margins in 2008 were this large right now, though don't quote me on that. Plus, and it's similar to Obama, Clinton is going to lose a few percent because she's a woman. I'm curious to see what polling says in some states that we don't normally see a lot of numbers - Texas, the Great Plains states, etc. Having experienced the shift in California following Prop 187, I could see Trump doing something like that to Texas. I could also see general election voters being turned off by Trump's shenanigans (keep in mind, the primary electorate is about a third of the electorate in the general) in some of those states that would normally vote for the Republican nominee. Perhaps I'm too optimistic that people will eventually realize that Trump is a dumpster fire rolling downhill... 326 Feline Fearless Leader May 13, 2016 * 9:53:42am down 3 up report You're right about GOP loyalty. But what gives me hope is that Trump hasn't polled above 40% this year against Hillary. He needs to lose in an epic McGovern/Mondale landslide. He is such an awful candidate, and such an awful person. If he ends up with Romney or McCain like numbers on election day, I will be fearful for this country. The 35% is showing that they are quite willing to give (and keep giving) power to a collection of people who do not have their interests in mind. As long as those at the top continue to allow the 35% to maintain their discriminatory and partriarchal behaviors towards the other 35% (and whoever else they please to declare as the "other".) I am seeing anti-minority, anti-gay, and anti-immigrant rhetoric getting "likes" from friends in Facebook. Same crap that has been flying around in this country for a couple of hundred years, just with the target group* changing. Conservatism in this country has simply gotten ugly at this point. * - I have not opted to go nuclear on any of these people yet and start pointing them to that same rhetoric in a historic sense where a group *they* belong to is the target; e.g. Irish, Catholic, etc. etc. 327 ObserverArt May 13, 2016 * 9:54:22am down 1 up report I too had to point out the abc url to someone who forwarded them the same thing. I was told "it doesn't make it any less true" to which I countered "if there was any truth to it, then why drum up fake legitimacy with a bunk website?" Somehow I was labeled a sheep in this exchange. Don't you know...to the RWNJ world outside of this site we are all sheep. Baaaaa! < Irrelevant sheep bleating. 328 lawhawk May 13, 2016 * 9:54:54am down 6 up report . @tedcruz doesn't want to be on the Supreme Court https://t.co/5H5CRze1gy | Getty pic.twitter.com/OjhsUrinyJ First of all, no one asked. Second of all, I'm not sure any of his current Senate colleagues would approve him. That's how much they detest him. 329 Belafon May 13, 2016 * 9:55:33am down 3 up report I'm curious to see what polling says in some states that we don't normally see a lot of numbers - Texas, the Great Plains states, etc. Having experienced the shift in California following Prop 187, I could see Trump doing something like that to Texas. I could also see general election voters being turned off by Trump's shenanigans (keep in mind, the primary electorate is about a third of the electorate in the general) in some of those states that would normally vote for the Republican nominee. Perhaps I'm too optimistic that people will eventually realize that Trump is a dumpster fire rolling downhill... We won't know for sure until after Labor Day, when people start really paying attention, but I do think some states that should be safe for Republicans are going to be in play. I do hear that Latinos are naturalizing and registering to vote because of him. I think the ads from the Clinton campaign come out that attack Donald by quoting him are going to have a real effect. And I think the way he responds to the questions he's now going to get asked are going to affect the electorate. 330 ObserverArt May 13, 2016 * 9:55:37am down 1 up report re: #205 Timothy Watson Christ, what a moron. How did that idiot graduate from UCLA and Harvard Law School? I think we should demand a copy of his transcripts. You mean Benny Shaprio is a lawyer? Damn. 331 Pawn of the Oppressor May 13, 2016 * 9:56:16am down 4 up report Professional right-wing twat Ben Shapiro is marooned on a tropical island resort full of MTF trans-gender ladyboys, and he can't leave until he learns to be nice. It's the feel-good Oscar-bait dramedy of the year! You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll see things that give you strange feelings! 332 Joe Bacon May 13, 2016 * 9:57:21am down 3 up report You mean Benny Shaprio is a lawyer? Damn. Pee Wee Herman would be a more competent lawyer that Bennyboy! 333 KGxvi May 13, 2016 * 9:57:34am down 1 up report [Embedded content] First of all, no one asked. Second of all, I'm not sure any of his current Senate colleagues would approve him. That's how much they detest him. Being a Supreme Court Justice would seem way too much like work after spending three years basically doing nothing but bitching. Justices actually have to resolve issues rather than just complain about them. Can't imagine Cruz would want to actually have to do that at this point. 334 Belafon May 13, 2016 * 9:57:44am down 1 up report First of all, no one asked. Second of all, I'm not sure any of his current Senate colleagues would approve him. That's how much they detest him. I think some Republican Congressperson suggested that the way to unite the party was for Trump to say he would appoint Cruz to the Supreme Court. 335 ObserverArt May 13, 2016 * 9:58:45am down 2 up report I rather think the concept of love has eluded him completely. Why not, the whole concept of live and everything it entails eludes him. I hope they wrap him in bubble wrap and put a little yellow safety helmet on him when he goes outside. 336 KGxvi May 13, 2016 * 10:00:52am down 1 up report We won't know for sure until after Labor Day, when people start really paying attention, but I do think some states that should be safe for Republicans are going to be in play. I do hear that Latinos are naturalizing and registering to vote because of him. I think the ads from the Clinton campaign come out that attack Donald by quoting him are going to have a real effect. And I think the way he responds to the questions he's now going to get asked are going to affect the electorate. We've got polling that hints that Georgia, Utah, and Arizona may be in play - that's a lot of ground that a competent Republican politician would not have to defend. It is going to be an incredibly interesting general election... 337 thecommodore May 13, 2016 * 10:01:11am down 1 up report I'm curious to see what polling says in some states that we don't normally see a lot of numbers - Texas, the Great Plains states, etc. Having experienced the shift in California following Prop 187, I could see Trump doing something like that to Texas. I could also see general election voters being turned off by Trump's shenanigans (keep in mind, the primary electorate is about a third of the electorate in the general) in some of those states that would normally vote for the Republican nominee. Perhaps I'm too optimistic that people will eventually realize that Trump is a dumpster fire rolling downhill... Real Clear Politics has a nifty demographic calculator where you can adjust the vote percentage of different ethnicities and speculate what that would do to the Republican vote vis a vis the 2012 election. In a sane world, you would have to think that hispanics would be motivated to turn out against Trump, and that he would be lucky to get 10% of the their vote, given his demonstrably insane comments about mass deportations and building "the wall" (not to mention making Mexico pay for it). So if hispanic turnout increases to 55% (from 48% in 2012), and if Trump polls only 10%, what you talk about would definitely happen - Texas would flip to the Democrats, and Arizona might as well. Indiana would even be in reach. 338 Skip Intro May 13, 2016 * 10:02:02am down 0 up report re: #332 Joe Bacon Pee Wee Herman would be a more competent lawyer that Bennyboy! True that seeing that the best job Benny was able to get was as a political hack writer at Breitbart. 339 thecommodore May 13, 2016 * 10:02:16am down 3 up report Ah, so that's your angle. "Concern." I see where this is going. It's not that kind of concern. 340 KGxvi May 13, 2016 * 10:03:00am down 0 up report 538 has something like that too, I've played with it a bit. But I tend to look at that as more speculation than actual data. Which is why I'm interested in polling numbers. 341 Timothy Watson May 13, 2016 * 10:03:22am down 0 up report re: #338 Skip Intro True that seeing that the best job Benny was able to get was as a political hack writer at Breitbart. Wikipedia says he was licensed to practice in California and had been working at a major firm in Los Angeles. 342 Belafon May 13, 2016 * 10:04:57am down 4 up report re: #341 Timothy Watson Wikipedia says he was licensed to practice in California and had been working at a major firm in Los Angeles. The fact that he has a page and I don't - and I'm pretty sure my throw away code has contributed more to the human race than him - is annoying. 343 Sir John Barron May 13, 2016 * 10:06:08am down 2 up report re: #341 Timothy Watson Wikipedia says he was licensed to practice in California and had been working at a major firm in Los Angeles. His tweets aren't very lawyerly. Shame to waste that valuable education. 344 Timothy Watson May 13, 2016 * 10:06:47am down 2 up report re: #343 Sir John Barron His tweets aren't very lawyerly. Shame to waste that valuable education. The same could be said of Ann Coulter's writings. 345 Sir John Barron May 13, 2016 * 10:07:35am down 2 up report re: #344 Timothy Watson The same could be said of Ann Coulter's writings. That's right, Ann's a lawyer, too. The profession should be ashamed of itself. Or at least their law schools. 346 KGxvi May 13, 2016 * 10:07:53am down 1 up report re: #341 Timothy Watson Wikipedia says he was licensed to practice in California and had been working at a major firm in Los Angeles. Just checked the state bar's website. His license is active and his public address is an office in Sherman Oaks, but it doesn't look like it's tied to a major law firm. 347 thecommodore May 13, 2016 * 10:08:22am down 5 up report re: #345 Sir John Barron That's right, Ann's a lawyer, too. The profession should be ashamed of itself. Or at least their law schools. I would have Orly Taitz represent me before I ever hired Ann Coulter to do that. 348 sagehen May 13, 2016 * 10:13:00am down 0 up report We've got polling that hints that Georgia, Utah, and Arizona may be in play - that's a lot of ground that a competent Republican politician would not have to defend. It is going to be an incredibly interesting general election... You'd think so, but... The reason some ultra-R districts don't want Trump are entirely different than the reasons WE don't want him. Maybe they don't love him yet because think he doesn't hate the same people who they hate, and he'll have to persuade them that he's got enough hate to spread around and cover all the categories... 349 weave May 13, 2016 * 10:15:28am down 17 up report OFFS give me a break with the fear mongering. Boys will not be able to just wander into the girls room whenever they want. A trans student will need to declare their gender and stick to it. No male student who is not trans is going to want to pretend to be a female for the rest of their school years just to sneak into the girls room and get their jollies. Are people really this stupid? 350 Jenner7 May 13, 2016 * 10:17:07am down 10 up report 351 Skip Intro May 13, 2016 * 10:17:14am down 5 up report Damn. GOP committee ends talk of secession at party convention A Texas GOP committee struck secession language from a proposed party platform late Thursday, ending anticipation for an independence debate on the convention floor Friday. Party leaders voted 16 to 14 in favor of nixing the language with one member abstaining. For now, that's likely the end of a saga that drew national attention as an activist group ably advanced the call for Texas independence through the state GOP apparatus to the party convention, even as party leaders and most members scoffed at the notion. It was the most high-profile emergence of Texas recurrent secessionist movement since the early 1990s, when the country watched a west Texas hostage situation unfold. Now advocates of the fringe agenda say they come away encouraged. "The movement is growing," wrote secession advocate Jesse Newberry on Facebook after the plank was tossed from the platform. "This isn't a failure. It's a success to have made it this far." Please don't give up, assholes. 352 CuriousLurker May 13, 2016 * 10:17:16am down 7 up report According to the article linked to in Great White Snark's page , here are some comments from the current high bidder "Brez Morrell." Charming, huh? Then there's this: This shit just got even more crazy. https://t.co/RzN1rNrarB Racists defend George Zimmerman after 'Pharma Bro' offers to buy gun as 'reminder' of racism https://t.co/CXtj3WuKUf pic.twitter.com/GXIeaOTI6w More of that make America great again bullshit, huh? Are all of you as proud of our country as I am today? // 353 HappyWarrior May 13, 2016 * 10:17:48am down 5 up report OFFS give me a break with the fear mongering. Boys will not be able to just wander into the girls room whenever they want. A trans student will need to declare their gender and stick to it. No male student who is not trans is going to want to pretend to be a female for the rest of their school years just to sneak into the girls room and get their jollies. Are people really this stupid? Yes, yes they are. @Kragar_LGF @anbtruth @JohnEriclive trump disenvaled his support hillary has stated her love and support for Byrd a known KKK leader Glossing right over that Byrd soundly renounced the KKK decades ago. Meanwhile "disenvaled", seriously? WTF https://t.co/ByyjivTCCT 355 HappyWarrior May 13, 2016 * 10:19:14am down 1 up report According to the article linked to in Great White Snark's page, here are some comments from the current high bidder "Brez Morrell." Charming, huh? [Embedded content] More of that make America great again bullshit, huh? Are all of you as proud of our country as I am today? // So Christian and so much love. Really if you feel Zimmerman acted in self-defense(I sure as hell don't), the man's a fucking monster who has done little to dispel the idea that he stalked Trevon for no reason other than his narrow minded bigotry. 356 CuriousLurker May 13, 2016 * 10:20:21am down 0 up report Link to GWS's page added. Refresh to view. 357 Sir John Barron May 13, 2016 * 10:20:31am down 0 up report His newsletters must be a riot. 358 blueraven May 13, 2016 * 10:20:49am down 0 up report Real Clear Politics has a nifty demographic calculator where you can adjust the vote percentage of different ethnicities and speculate what that would do to the Republican vote vis a vis the 2012 election. In a sane world, you would have to think that hispanics would be motivated to turn out against Trump, and that he would be lucky to get 10% of the their vote, given his demonstrably insane comments about mass deportations and building "the wall" (not to mention making Mexico pay for it). So if hispanic turnout increases to 55% (from 48% in 2012), and if Trump polls only 10%, what you talk about would definitely happen - Texas would flip to the Democrats, and Arizona might as well. Indiana would even be in reach. I would love to see TX go blue, but I just don't, for one minute, think that is going to happen this election cycle. Then again, I would love to be wrong! The Republicans are just too powerful and dug in right now. Also, there are still plenty of Hispanic voters who are Republicans. George W, and Rick Perry knew the power of their vote and went after it. We will see if Greg Abbott/Trump will change the dynamic. 359 HappyWarrior May 13, 2016 * 10:20:53am down 2 up report [Embedded content] That wouldn't be the same Byrd that Nixon considered for a Supreme Court nominaton would it? Conservatives love to rag on Byrd but Byrd actually apologized for his racist past. Unlike Jesse Helms who as recently as 1992 bragged about how he'd make an African-American colleague cry by whistling Dixie. I really really wish that Jesse Helms had lived to see Barack Obama elected because that pathetic right wing piece of shit would have been able to see everything he fought so hard to preserve go down in shambles with an African-American elected ot the presidency. 360 Skip Intro May 13, 2016 * 10:21:16am down 2 up report Trump taps climate change skeptic, fracking advocate as key energy advisor Republican presidential contender Donald Trump has turned to one of America's most ardent drilling advocates and climate change skeptics to help him draft his energy policy. The New York billionaire has asked U.S. Republican Congressman Kevin Cramer of North Dakota - a major oil drilling state - to write a white paper on energy policy, Cramer and sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Cramer and some other Trump energy advisers also recently met with lawmakers from western energy states, who hope Trump will open more federal land for drilling. Cramer said his paper would emphasize the dangers of foreign ownership of U.S. energy assets, burdensome taxes, and over-regulation. 361 HappyWarrior May 13, 2016 * 10:21:50am down 3 up report re: #360 Skip Intro But there's no difference between Clinton and Trump. // 362 lawhawk May 13, 2016 * 10:23:10am down 0 up report 363 CuriousLurker May 13, 2016 * 10:23:15am down 6 up report Ugh, gonna go back and put the RS tweet with Zimmerman's pic behind a spoiler tag. Can't stand looking at his grinning stupidity. *barf* 364 Big Beautiful Door May 13, 2016 * 10:23:46am down 5 up report I would love to see TX go blue, but I just don't, for one minute, think that is going to happen this election cycle. Then again, I would love to be wrong! The Republicans are just too powerful and dug in right now. Also, there are still plenty of Hispanic voters who are Republicans. George W, and Rick Perry knew the power of their vote and went after it. We will see if Greg Abbott/Trump will change the dynamic. It would be nice if Trump had to actually work for Texas' electoral votes. If Hillary can run a fifty state campaign and the GOP has to work to hold states like Arizona and North Carolina, the election is already won. 365 Skip Intro May 13, 2016 * 10:24:29am down 4 up report But there's no difference between Clinton and Trump. // Tell that to the Bernie Bro assholes. 366 Sir John Barron May 13, 2016 * 10:24:40am down 2 up report re: #351 Skip Intro Party leaders voted 16 to 14 in favor of nixing the language with one member abstaining. Maybe the 14 who want to defect can organize a secession from the Texas State GOP. 367 CuriousLurker May 13, 2016 * 10:25:10am down 3 up report There, that's better. Refresh the comment to hide the creep's pic. 368 lawhawk May 13, 2016 * 10:25:23am down 16 up report By the way I've seen Mr. Trump's tax returns. He made several terrific donations to the Human Fund, among others. 369 thecommodore May 13, 2016 * 10:25:39am down 4 up report I would love to see TX go blue, but I just don't, for one minute, think that is going to happen this election cycle. Then again, I would love to be wrong! The Republicans are just too powerful and dug in right now. Also, there are still plenty of Hispanic voters who are Republicans. George W, and Rick Perry knew the power of their vote and went after it. We will see if Greg Abbott/Trump will change the dynamic. W and Perry didn't propose mass deportations. 370 Sir John Barron May 13, 2016 * 10:25:49am down 1 up report Please don't give up, assholes. Maybe the 14 can organize a GOP secession from the Texas GOP. Call themselves the GOP Texas Front. 371 Dr. Matt May 13, 2016 * 10:26:06am down 3 up report re: #351 Skip Intro "The movement is growing," wrote secession advocate Jesse Newberry on Facebook after the plank was tossed from the platform. "This isn't a failure. It's a success to have made it this far." Movement is another name for taking a shit. So let me get this straight...if a guy walks into a women's rest room it cna be considered rape??? Ben has one wild RWNJ imagination. I hope he doesn't have a law degree. I though he was a BS in Politics. He is also a mind reader, he knows what "Leftists" think. All of them, Katie. "Men are all rapists.""False.""Men who think they're women should go to women's bathrooms.""That's crazy.""BIGOT!"-- Leftist arguments "We want thing A. We would NEVER want thing B.""Okay.""Now we want thing B.""No.""Too late. Wrong side of history."-- Leftist arguments "We should make schools let felons teach kindergarten.""Bad idea.""Where has it been a problem before, huh? HUH?!"-- Leftist arguments All over the country, private schools are celebrating the new Obama transgender bathroom decree. Enrollment will skyrocket. 373 HappyWarrior May 13, 2016 * 10:26:48am down 4 up report re: #364 Big Beautiful Door It would be nice if Trump had to actually work for Texas' electoral votes. If Hillary can run a fifty state campaign and the GOP has to work to hold states like Arizona and North Carolina, the election is already won. The way I'm looking at is even Bush who was a much more appealing candidate across the spectrum than Trump is barely won his elections and if you're like me, don't believe he won 2000 at all due to the shenanigans there, point is the GOP has a lot of states they have to gain and an increasingly unfavorable map with also increasingly unfavorable demographics. The GOP will look back and see their mistake was shitting Hispanics and they're taking a huge shit with Trump. Trump might be another Goldwater that sends Hispanics away from even considering the Republican Party. Remember Nixon got a third of the African American vote in 1960 but in 1964, it was below 10% and it hasn't even come close to what Nixon did in 1960 since. The GOP has become the bitter old white man's party. 374 Big Beautiful Door May 13, 2016 * 10:27:00am down 1 up report Please don't give up, assholes. Let's give Texas back to Mexico./half 375 GlutenFreeJesus May 13, 2016 * 10:28:34am down 2 up report re: #370 Sir John Barron 376 HappyWarrior May 13, 2016 * 10:28:57am down 5 up report re: #372 The Vicious Babushka So let me get this straight...if a guy walks into a women's rest room it cna be considered rape??? Ben has one wild RWNJ imagination. I hope he doesn't have a law degree. I though he was a BS in Politics. He is also a mind reader, he knows what "Leftists" think. All of them, Katie. [Embedded content] Ben is fucking stupid. He should return his JD because that may have been the most stupid shit I've ever read by him and man he says a lot of stupid shit. Secondly, what about transmen. Right wing dumbasses like Ben are only focused on "Men in dresses". Honestly, I'd be a lot more concerned with a child sharing a bathroom with Ben Shapiro than any transperson since Ben has proven himself to be a hateful little brat who mocks children. 377 Sir John Barron May 13, 2016 * 10:29:46am down 0 up report re: #371 Dr. Matt Movement is another name for taking a shit. Rage Furby isn't here. 378 jaunte May 13, 2016 * 10:30:06am down 0 up report "Terrific" Could mean 'large', could mean 'filled with terror.' 379 lawhawk May 13, 2016 * 10:31:16am down 2 up report And filled with signs and wonders? /sorry, just had a Passover Seder flashback. 380 Big Beautiful Door May 13, 2016 * 10:32:43am down 2 up report re: #373 HappyWarrior The way I'm looking at is even Bush who was a much more appealing candidate across the spectrum than Trump is barely won his elections and if you're like me, don't believe he won 2000 at all due to the shenanigans there, point is the GOP has a lot of states they have to gain and an increasingly unfavorable map with also increasingly unfavorable demographics. The GOP will look back and see their mistake was shitting Hispanics and they're taking a huge shit with Trump. Trump might be another Goldwater that sends Hispanics away from even considering the Republican Party. Remember Nixon got a third of the African American vote in 1960 but in 1964, it was below 10% and it hasn't even come close to what Nixon did in 1960 since. The GOP has become the bitter old white man's party. They are trapped in a demographic death spiral. The party desperately needs to broaden its appeal, but in the short term politicians like Trump can win primaries by appealing to white racial resentment, alienating minorities even more. Until it stops they may not win another presidential election. 381 Decatur Deb May 13, 2016 * 10:33:16am down 4 up report And filled with signs and wonders? /sorry, just had a Passover Seder flashback. Or a Paul Simon flash. 382 HappyWarrior May 13, 2016 * 10:33:17am down 5 up report re: #380 Big Beautiful Door They are trapped in a demographic death spiral. The party desperately needs to broaden its appeal, but in the short term politicians like Trump can win primaries by appealing to white racial resentment, alienating minorities even more. Until it stops they may not win another presidential election. It needs to be taken out back and shot. 383 I Would Prefer Not To May 13, 2016 * 10:34:31am down 4 up report It needs to be taken out back and shot. I'd prefer an abortion. 384 HappyWarrior May 13, 2016 * 10:36:11am down 10 up report I'd like Shapiro and all the other transphobic morons to answer how they're going to determine someone's birth gender just by looking at them. And this has already happened. There have been women who have been accused of being men being denied access to the bathroom. This is just so typical of the conservative ideology. They always invent a problem where there is not a problem and frankly the worst thing is they're busy huffing and puffing about this shit while they ignore other very real problems in our world. It's bad enough that they want state sanctioned discrimination, it's even worse that they want this while ignoring poverty, bigotry, and other issues. 385 lawhawk May 13, 2016 * 10:36:16am down 8 up report Interesting: racial concerns affect Trump support more powerfully than economic concerns. https://t.co/8RE2s3YWny pic.twitter.com/ydvrNUycLL Well, this isn't particularly surprising. Racism is really what's driving Trump's support. More than the economic "argument," it's about Trump getting at what really drives GOP support - fear that whites are falling behind - when that simply isn't happening. Whites still enjoy far more rights and privileges than everyone else. That everyone else is catching up to share in the same equal rights and privileges under the law is what drives this fear. Everyone else catching up means whites are falling behind according to the GOP/right wing worldview that they've been touting for years. Heaven forbid everyone else is entitled to the same protection under the law as written - including access to vote, equal protection under the law, etc. Blacks and other minorities finally get treated equally, and the GOP caterwauls that whites are losing rights. It's the same mindless BS that drives nonsense about how the stock market is down from when Obama took office, or that the economy is in worse shape now than then. 386 HappyWarrior May 13, 2016 * 10:36:36am down 2 up report re: #383 I Would Prefer Not To I'd prefer an abortion. Nah they should have to carry it to full term. 387 b.d. May 13, 2016 * 10:36:58am down 5 up report re: #372 The Vicious Babushka He is also a mind reader, he knows what "Leftists" think. All of them, Katie. [Embedded content] Isn't it about time for Ben to get a job? 388 ObserverArt May 13, 2016 * 10:37:53am down 2 up report Please excuse the dang typos in my comments. I'm trying to catch up with the thread and was responding too quickly. It's freaking embarrassing! Sorry. But I am caught up now. So, I guess it is time to get busy and fall behind again. Heh. (Please forgive me Sister Barbara and Mrs. Von Der Embse. - I don't wanna go to hell!) 389 HappyWarrior May 13, 2016 * 10:38:04am down 5 up report [Embedded content] Well, this isn't particularly surprising. Racism is really what's driving Trump's support. More than the economic "argument," it's about Trump getting at what really drives GOP support - fear that whites are falling behind - when that simply isn't happening. Whites still enjoy far more rights and privileges than everyone else. That everyone else is catching up to share in the same equal rights and privileges under the law is what drives this fear. Everyone else catching up means whites are falling behind according to the GOP/right wing worldview that they've been touting for years. Heaven forbid everyone else is entitled to the same protection under the law as written - including access to vote, equal protection under the law, etc. Blacks and other minorities finally get treated equally, and the GOP caterwauls that whites are losing rights. It's the same mindless BS that drives nonsense about how the stock market is down from when Obama took office, or that the economy is in worse shape now than then. The Tea Party always was an outlet for hypocritical right wing whites to rage against the fact that they have to call a black man, Mr. President. They can claim they're just concerned about fiscal issues all they want but that was always a load of dishonest shit. The TP at its core has been about right wing whites threatened by losing influence in a changing America. 390 Sir John Barron May 13, 2016 * 10:40:00am down 4 up report re: #387 b.d. Isn't it about time for Ben to get a job? "So, Ben, what is it you actually DO around here?" 391 HappyWarrior May 13, 2016 * 10:41:00am down 5 up report re: #390 Sir John Barron "So, Ben, what is it you actually DO around here?" I was naively hoping that seeing the bigotry he was exposed to following the Trump campaign manager incident would be a wake up call to what his ideology of choice really is. 392 Big Beautiful Door May 13, 2016 * 10:41:00am down 9 up report re: #384 HappyWarrior I'd like Shapiro and all the other transphobic morons to answer how they're going to determine someone's birth gender just by looking at them. And this has already happened. There have been women who have been accused of being men being denied access to the bathroom. This is just so typical of the conservative ideology. They always invent a problem where there is not a problem and frankly the worst thing is they're busy huffing and puffing about this shit while they ignore other very real problems in our world. It's bad enough that they want state sanctioned discrimination, it's even worse that they want this while ignoring poverty, bigotry, and other issues. They fight the culture wars precisely because they don't want to address real issues. When the only issue you care about is paying for massive tax cuts for the rich by cutting everything else, you have to distract the rubes by offering them an enemy to focus on, whether its blacks, Hispanics, muslims or lgbt people. 393 lawhawk May 13, 2016 * 10:41:23am down 8 up report re: #390 Sir John Barron Well-well look. I already told you: I deal with the god damn customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people? 394 HappyWarrior May 13, 2016 * 10:42:02am down 3 up report re: #392 Big Beautiful Door They fight the culture wars precisely because they don't want to address real issues. When the only issue you care about is paying for massive tax cuts for the rich by cutting everything else, you have to distract the rubes by offering them an enemy to focus on, whether its blacks, Hispanics, muslims or lgbt people. Yep. That's very true. Their ideology at its core is about protecting the very powerful and they need the cultural wars to distract less well off people from realizing how backwards their economic policies are. 395 Stanley Sea May 13, 2016 * 10:42:05am down 8 up report The economic argument used to hide racism has been going on what, forever? 396 Belafon May 13, 2016 * 10:44:46am down 3 up report Which means that arguing economics was never going to sway these Republican voters. 397 ObserverArt May 13, 2016 * 10:45:46am down 4 up report I'd like Shapiro and all the other transphobic morons to answer how they're going to determine someone's birth gender just by looking at them. And this has already happened. There have been women who have been accused of being men being denied access to the bathroom. This is just so typical of the conservative ideology. They always invent a problem where there is not a problem and frankly the worst thing is they're busy huffing and puffing about this shit while they ignore other very real problems in our world. It's bad enough that they want state sanctioned discrimination, it's even worse that they want this while ignoring poverty, bigotry, and other issues. They have created many of the problems they try to fix. Much of the social ills this country has had to repair over the years were borne from conservative thinking. If the idiots would just follow the damn simple wording in the Constitution the problems would never have occurred. Add in the fact many consider themselves to be so religious yet they actually fail those words and lessons too, so you end up with righteous mistakes that are out of order civilly and with their religion. 398 jaunte May 13, 2016 * 10:46:06am down 11 up report I announced today that Texas is fighting this. Obama can't rewrite the Civil Rights Act. He's not a King. #tcot https://t.co/vDgfQPZXjR 400 HappyWarrior May 13, 2016 * 10:48:22am down 7 up report They have created many of the problems they try to fix. Much of the social ills this country has had to repair over the years were borne from conservative thinking. If the idiots would just follow the damn simple wording in the Constitution the problems would never have occurred. Add in the fact many consider themselves to be so religious yet they actually fail those words and lessons too, so you end up with righteous mistakes that are out of order civilly and with their religion. Honestly, I'm legitimately hard pressed to think of a single cultural issue the right has been on the correct side of in our history. Let's see Emancipation? Nope, conservatives either defended slavery's legality and morality or opposed its abolition. Women's suffrage? Nope. Civil rights for minority groups? Again nope despite their revisionism, conservatives were very much opposed to Civil Rights if not on racial grounds, the folly of states rights ground. Gay marriage? Nope. And it will continue. Social conservatism especially is a flawed ideology because social conservatism cannot accept change and change is what drives society. 401 HappyWarrior May 13, 2016 * 10:48:59am down 3 up report [Embedded content] Nah, Greg, you want Trump to be your fueher. Really focus on something that actually matters a damn rather than harassing transgendered children, you fuckwad. 402 Kragar May 13, 2016 * 10:49:00am down 10 up report Watch: Texas Lt Governor Invokes Bible to Tell Schools to Ignore Obama Transgender Directive https://t.co/ouuZpAGu8C 403 jaunte May 13, 2016 * 10:49:10am down 15 up report He's fighting to keep transgendered people as a distraction for conservative voters. 404 HappyWarrior May 13, 2016 * 10:49:46am down 4 up report [Embedded content] They really aren't even trying to hide the fact anymore that they are a theocratic party above all else. 405 Decatur Deb May 13, 2016 * 10:50:05am down 8 up report 406 jaunte May 13, 2016 * 10:50:37am down 8 up report Can't bash the blacks or the gays without severe pushback, time to bash the transgendered while we keep sneaking up on the wimmens. 407 Big Beautiful Door May 13, 2016 * 10:52:12am down 4 up report Even bigger than same-sex marriage, and that is going to destroy Western Civilization!/ 408 HappyWarrior May 13, 2016 * 10:52:37am down 4 up report Can't bash the blacks or the gays without severe pushback, time to bash the transgendered while we keep sneaking up on the wimmens. Yep gay bashing has failed so it's time for a new scapegoat. 409 allegro May 13, 2016 * 10:53:42am down 1 up report re: #280 Reality Based Steve The GOP, making government so small it can look under the bathroom stall and see your naughty bits. Cameras in every toilet for your protection! WHOOP-WHOOP-WHOOP alarms installed for violations! re: #403 jaunte He's fighting to keep transgendered people as a distraction for conservative voters. Piddle Wars The Drama Llama forecast has been changed, there is now a 100% chance of a drama llama. 411 Kragar May 13, 2016 * 10:57:22am down 3 up report 412 Kragar May 13, 2016 * 10:57:47am down 11 up report I guess @GregAbbott_TX was worried that NC was getting all the attention pic.twitter.com/l0XDktGYrW 413 jaunte May 13, 2016 * 10:58:51am down 6 up report "So Barack Obama, if schools don't knuckle down to force girls showering with boys and force 8-year-old girls to have to endure boys coming into their bathroom, he's taking money from the poorest of the poor," Patrick said. "The president of the United States will be ending the free breakfast and free lunch program. That's what he's saying." "Ridiculous Dan" Patrick 414 lawhawk May 13, 2016 * 10:59:50am down 5 up report Ah, the Other Dan Patrick. /it's deep and I don't think it's playable. 415 John Vreeland May 13, 2016 * 11:01:49am down 4 up report He's gonna get caught, Just you wait and see. "Why is everybody always pickin' on me?" 416 jaunte May 13, 2016 * 11:02:04am down 3 up report The Texas Dan Patrick has distinguished himself by driving his five sports bars into bankruptcy. 417 Timothy Watson May 13, 2016 * 11:02:12am down 5 up report "Ridiculous Dan" Patrick Uh...hasn't the GOP been trying to get rid of free lunches and breakfasts for decades? 418 Nyet May 13, 2016 * 11:02:43am down 3 up report 420 HappyWarrior May 13, 2016 * 11:02:54am down 7 up report "Ridiculous Dan" Patrick I don't know what I find more disturbing that Dan Patrick thinks eight year old transgendered students are sex offenders or that he actually thinks he can pretend like he and his party give a damn about the poor. 421 jaunte May 13, 2016 * 11:02:58am down 2 up report re: #417 Timothy Watson This time they think they can do it and blame "King" Obama. 422 KGxvi May 13, 2016 * 11:02:59am down 1 up report Ah, the Other Dan Patrick. /it's deep and I don't think it's playable. that was always one of my favorite sportscenter catch phrases/calls. That and "as cool as the other side of the pillow" 423 Sir John Barron May 13, 2016 * 11:03:04am down 6 up report re: #413 jaunte "So Barack Obama, if schools don't knuckle down to force girls showering with boys and force 8-year-old girls to have to endure boys coming into their bathroom, he's taking money from the poorest of the poor," Patrick said. " The president of the United States will be ending the free breakfast and free lunch program. That's what he's saying." Yeah, WE wanted to end the free breakfast, free lunch programs! 424 The Vicious Babushka May 13, 2016 * 11:03:21am down 4 up report What's the difference between a cupcake and a muffin? Asking for a friend. 425 KGxvi May 13, 2016 * 11:03:38am down 4 up report re: #424 The Vicious Babushka What's the difference between a cupcake and a muffin? Asking for a friend. 426 Decatur Deb May 13, 2016 * 11:04:56am down 10 up report re: #423 Sir John Barron Yeah, WE wanted to end the free breakfast, free lunch programs! I'd be stopping Yankee dollars going to any school system that can afford a 60 million dollar stadium. 427 Big Beautiful Door May 13, 2016 * 11:05:23am down 5 up report re: #424 The Vicious Babushka What's the difference between a cupcake and a muffin? Asking for a friend. Muffins are "healthy", so you can eat them guilt-free. 428 Belafon May 13, 2016 * 11:05:44am down 4 up report I don't know what I find more disturbing that Dan Patrick thinks eight year old transgendered students are sex offenders or that he actually thinks he can pretend like he and his party give a damn about the poor. Living in Texas, I can assure you he doesn't give a damn about the poor. 429 Kragar May 13, 2016 * 11:06:25am down 3 up report re: #424 The Vicious Babushka Cupcakes are little cakes. Muffins are little breads 430 The Vicious Babushka May 13, 2016 * 11:06:34am down 2 up report So then these are really Sour Cream Pecan Muffins? Gotcha. 431 lawhawk May 13, 2016 * 11:06:41am down 2 up report re: #424 The Vicious Babushka What's the difference between a cupcake and a muffin? Asking for a friend. Besides the frosting? Cupcakes are mini cakes, so have similar texture/components. Muffins can range from sweet to more savory and the texture can vary. 432 Belafon May 13, 2016 * 11:07:30am down 4 up report re: #426 Decatur Deb I'd be stopping Yankee dollars going to any school system that can afford a 60 million dollar stadium. The Texas state Supreme Court finds every few years that the state keeps violating its constitution by the way it funds schools, but since the Supreme Court has no enforcement authority, the state doesn't change anything. 433 The Vicious Babushka May 13, 2016 * 11:08:38am down 7 up report Women really need to stop womansplaining being a woman to men who think they're women. Those guys should mansplain about womanhood to women. 434 thedopefishlives May 13, 2016 * 11:09:02am down 2 up report re: #433 The Vicious Babushka Leave it to Ben to Shapirosplain. Benny's primary problem is he really thinks he's witty. His utter mean-spritedness takes away any comedic value, even if he happens upon said comedic value by total accident. 437 Sir John Barron May 13, 2016 * 11:11:24am down 1 up report Now I'M going to be hitting the sauce pretty soon if this keeps up. 438 wrenchwench May 13, 2016 * 11:12:27am down 1 up report re: #424 The Vicious Babushka What's the difference between a cupcake and a muffin? Asking for a friend. My favorite bakery started calling their Black Bottom Cupcakes Black Bottom Muffins. Chocolate cake, chocolate chips, and that full-of-protein Cream Cheese cake stuff in the middle. Mmmmm, healthy! 439 The Vicious Babushka May 13, 2016 * 11:12:28am down 5 up report What in the utter fuck who even is this insane person i just can't even Imagine a 13 year old girl getting her first period, going into the bathroom with an 18 year old ADULT male in a school bathroom. I have a use for Shapiro: Talking any rogue artificial intelligences to death. He could outdo Mudd and Kirk. 441 jaunte May 13, 2016 * 11:12:39am down 5 up report Dan Patrick says Texas will turn down $10 billion a year in education funding rather than comply w/ bathroom policy. https://t.co/4ZCTlprpkN re: #437 Sir John Barron I'm having an apple liqueur. Yummy. 443 jaunte May 13, 2016 * 11:13:02am down 2 up report re: #439 The Vicious Babushka What in the utter fuck who even is this insane person i just can't even [Embedded content] God, I hadn't seen her name in years. And they had been several good years too. 445 wrenchwench May 13, 2016 * 11:13:28am down 2 up report Leave it to Ben to Shapirosplain. He could use a Humansplaination. 446 InfidelOfFreedom May 13, 2016 * 11:14:15am down 10 up report Abbott and Patrick are the primary examples of why I have ZERO patience with the purity folks. These guys fully and openly advocate rewriting the Constitution to make us a theocracy. I cannot fathom what horrors they would inflict on this state if they were given the chance. As far as I can tell, the only thing standing between these assholes and a theocracy is a Democrat in charge of the federal government and a Supreme Court that honors the Constitution over the Bible. 447 jaunte May 13, 2016 * 11:15:34am down 18 up report . @PressSec said that placing police outside bathrooms to look at birth certificates "doesn't sound like small government to me." -- Katie Zezima ( @katiezez ) May 13, 2016 448 lawhawk May 13, 2016 * 11:17:48am down 13 up report Think he hit this right on the head. Here is the nut of my take. pic.twitter.com/alBBSKEvGi And with HRC, it's likely a continuation of that theme, with a woman taking the top slot while men are pushed down. That's a slightly more PC way of saying that these folks are seriously butthurt over equal rights and protections. 449 wrenchwench May 13, 2016 * 11:18:00am down 5 up report re: #439 The Vicious Babushka What in the utter fuck who even is this insane person i just can't even [Imagine a 13 year old girl getting her first period, going into the bathroom with an 18 year old ADULT male in a school bathroom.] Because having a man know about your period is WORSE THAN RAPE!!! 450 InfidelOfFreedom May 13, 2016 * 11:18:26am down 2 up report Cupcakes are little cakes. Muffins are little breads Jim Gaffigan said that muffins are "bald cupcakes." I'm going with that :) 451 Sir John Barron May 13, 2016 * 11:19:48am down 1 up report re: #439 The Vicious Babushka What in the utter fuck who even is this insane person i just can't even IMAGINE!!!!!!1 453 Big Beautiful Door May 13, 2016 * 11:21:29am down 1 up report Ten BILLION Dollars. Maybe the complete collapse of the Texas public school system will finally push the state from deep red to purple. [Embedded content] It's like Texas, Alabama, and North Carolina are competing to see who can be America's worst shithole of ignorance and prejudice. Alabama's newly signed law prohibits any clinic that performs abortions within 2000 feet of a K-8 school. That makes as much sense as prohibiting tire stores within 2000 feet of a laundromat. 455 CuriousLurker May 13, 2016 * 11:21:43am down 7 up report re: #407 Big Beautiful Door Even bigger than same-sex marriage, and that is going to destroy Western Civilization!/ Gee, and here I thought we Muslims were going to get to destroy Western civilization. Damn, why do LGBT Americans get to have ALL the fun? It's not fair. // 456 John Vreeland May 13, 2016 * 11:21:58am down 13 up report . @benshapiro It's gotten so all the boys go into the girls' room now to stand in line for a stall and listen to real girls pee. -- John Vreeland ( @JohnMVreeland ) May 13, 2016 457 Sir John Barron May 13, 2016 * 11:22:32am down 3 up report re: #455 CuriousLurker Gee, and here I thought we Muslims were going to get to destroy Western civilization. Damn, why do LGBT Americans get to have ALL the fun? It's not fair. // Nope, you blew it. 458 Nyet May 13, 2016 * 11:23:31am down 4 up report Gee, and here I thought we Muslims were going to get to destroy Western civilization. Damn, why do LGBT Americans get to have ALL the fun? It's not fair. // Don't forget to think intersectionally. America will be destroyed by gay ethnic Jews who converted to Islam. 459 Decatur Deb May 13, 2016 * 11:23:31am down 2 up report Ten BILLION Dollars. Hey, y'all! We could use that money here in Alabama. We let people piss where they like, so far. re: #453 Big Beautiful Door Maybe the complete collapse of the Texas public school system will finally push the state from deep red to purple. Perhaps they figure that by keeping Texans poorly educated, they can squeeze out another election cycle or two before that Hispano-Pocalypse? 461 Joe Bacon May 13, 2016 * 11:24:06am down 2 up report Don't forget to think intersectionally. America will be destroyed by ethnic gay Jews who converted to Islam. Oh, him. I'm not sure he's up to it. 463 Patricia Kayden May 13, 2016 * 11:25:55am down 7 up report re: #454 Blind Frog Belly White It's like Texas, Alabama, and North Carolina are competing to see who can be America's worst shithole of ignorance and prejudice. Alabama's newly signed law prohibits any clinic that performs abortions within 2000 feet of a K-8 school. That makes as much sense as prohibiting tire stores within 2000 feet of a laundromat. I bet they have no problems with gun stores being close to schools though. 464 lawhawk May 13, 2016 * 11:26:29am down 3 up report re: #454 Blind Frog Belly White That seems pretty specific. Have to wonder if someone decided to map out locations of schools and clinics, and saw that they were within 2,000 feet, and therefore decided to write it that way. 465 Decatur Deb May 13, 2016 * 11:26:45am down 2 up report re: #463 Patricia Kayden I bet they have no problems with gun stores being close to schools though. At least we don't have to show our birth certificates to buy an AK. 466 Kragar May 13, 2016 * 11:27:15am down 7 up report The more conservatives talk about transgendered people, the more you realize what sick fuckers conservatives are. pic.twitter.com/7qmv9xdxYn re: #465 Decatur Deb At least we don't have to show our birth certificates to buy an AK. Or, really, much of anything else except your money. 468 Decatur Deb May 13, 2016 * 11:28:30am down 1 up report re: #467 Blind Frog Belly White Or, really, much of anything else except your money. Can put several on a credit card if you plan to go out in a blaze of glory. 469 Patricia Kayden May 13, 2016 * 11:29:25am down 0 up report Speechless! Beyond stupid. 470 thedopefishlives May 13, 2016 * 11:29:41am down 1 up report re: #468 Decatur Deb Can put several on a credit card if you plan to go out in a blaze of glory. In my mind, that would rank right up there with "buying a one-way ticket to LAX" on the list of warning signs, but we can't investigate gunz. 471 Feline Fearless Leader May 13, 2016 * 11:29:52am down 1 up report Honestly, I'm legitimately hard pressed to think of a single cultural issue the right has been on the correct side of in our history. Let's see Emancipation? Nope, conservatives either defended slavery's legality and morality or opposed its abolition. Women's suffrage? Nope. Civil rights for minority groups? Again nope despite their revisionism, conservatives were very much opposed to Civil Rights if not on racial grounds, the folly of states rights ground. Gay marriage? Nope. And it will continue. Social conservatism especially is a flawed ideology because social conservatism cannot accept change and change is what drives society. They have to fight the culture war since to not do so would mean having to fight the class war that is actually going on with it then also being clear which side is actually which. 472 Decatur Deb May 13, 2016 * 11:31:04am down 4 up report re: #470 thedopefishlives In my mind, that would rank right up there with "buying a one-way ticket to LAX" on the list of warning signs, but we can't investigate gunz. Nah, 4 AKs on credit is just Christmas shopping. re: #468 Decatur Deb Can put several on a credit card if you plan to go out in a blaze of glory. Max out the Visa on guns, ammo, and body armor. Go on killing rampage. Leave your widow in debt. Sounds like a plan! /// In my mind, that would rank right up there with "buying a one-way ticket to LAX" on the list of warning signs, but we can't investigate gunz. Well, yeah, but if you buy a return ticket, that means you're expecting to fail in your bid to become a Star! 475 mroop May 13, 2016 * 11:42:15am down 0 up report 130 of them were Chuck himself. Refreshing. And refreshing. And refreshing. If you take a couple minutes and refresh a couple hundred times YouTube will see this as fraud and freeze the count. :) 476 Decatur Deb May 13, 2016 * 11:43:26am down 3 up report re: #473 Blind Frog Belly White Max out the Visa on guns, ammo, and body armor. Go on killing rampage. Leave your widow in debt. Sounds like a plan! /// These guys wives and kids took off with a trumpet player years ago, looking for stability. 477 Big Beautiful Door May 13, 2016 * 11:50:12am down 0 up report re: #464 lawhawk That seems pretty specific. Have to wonder if someone decided to map out locations of schools and clinics, and saw that they were within 2,000 feet, and therefore decided to write it that way. They just copied the limit in sex offender laws. 478 TK-421 May 13, 2016 * 12:52:27pm down 0 up report Conservative are such fucking rubes, "Maybe a WMD is under here, maybe a transgender is in there." Soooo fucking stupid. 479 retired cynic May 13, 2016 * 1:31:21pm down 0 up report re: #152 Dave In Austin [Embedded content] I am really late, but a friend just told me a story from back in the 60s. Some girls from Chicago came down here to the boonies, and was told about the beer gardens we had down here. The host placed a row of a case of brown beer bottles upside down in a weeded garden bed. Wow!!! 480 retired cynic May 13, 2016 * 2:03:08pm down 0 up report

1 HappyWarrior May 12, 2016 * 7:10:09pm down 4 up report He's nowhere funny nor as clever as he thinks he is. 2 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge May 12, 2016 * 7:12:03pm down 20 up report 3 Reality Based Steve May 12, 2016 *

With the effects of climate change increasing at an alarming rate, developed nations meet in Rwanda to phase out HFC gases in a historic deal. The deal introduces several measures to help fight climate change. ( TRT World and Agencies ) In a major step against climate change around 200 countries accepted a legally binding deal to curb greenhouse gases used in refrigerators and air conditioners, a Rwandan official announced on Saturday. The world's two biggest economies, the US and China, are part of the deal which divides countries into three groups with different deadlines to reduce the use of factory-made hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) gases. "It's a monumental step forward," US Secretary of State John Kerry said as he left the talks in the Rwandan capital of Kigali late on Friday. The pact calls for developed nations, much of Europe and the United States, to reduce their use of the gases gradually, with a 10 percent cut by 2019 and an 85 percent reduction by 2036. Congratulations to breakthrough in Kigali on #HFCs ! We have agreement on #HFCphasedown https://t.co/HmCBpA23F5 #MontrealProtocol #MOP28 pic.twitter.com/3ZVY9fw7DH -- Patricia Espinosa C. (@PEspinosaC) October 15, 2016 Two groups of developing countries will freeze their use of the gases by either 2024 or 2028, and then gradually reduce their use. India, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and the Gulf countries will meet the later deadline. "Last year in Paris, we promised to keep the world safe from the worst effects of climate change. Today, we are following through on that promise," said UN Environment Chief Erik Solheim in a statement. The deal introduces a wave of measures to help fight climate change. Last week, the 2015 Paris Agreement to curb climate-warming emissions passed its required threshold to enter into force after India, Canada and the European Parliament ratified it. The Kigali deal, unlike the Paris agreement, is legally binding, has specific timetables and an agreement by rich countries to help emerging nations adapt their technology. Historic moment. Parties stand in union to celebrate adoption of the #KigaliAmendment to the #MontrealProtocol . Today goes down into history pic.twitter.com/7Z3r5gPoQi -- REMA RWANDA (@REMA_Rwanda) October 15, 2016 The United Nations says phasing out HFCs will cost billions of dollars. But scientists say the reduction of HFCs could be a major contribution to slowing climate change, avoiding perhaps 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9 Fahrenheit) of a projected rise in average temperatures by 2100. Reflecting increased demand from an expanding middle class in Asia, Latin America and Africa, environmental groups had called for an ambitious agreement on cutting HFCs to limit the damage from the roughly 1.6 billion new air conditioning units expected to come on stream by 2050. The future is right here, today, in Kigali! A new milestone in mankind's ability to stand up to mankind's threats. pic.twitter.com/FJJXWmIIzY -- Busingye Johnston (@BusingyeJohns) October 15, 2016 The HFC talks build on the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which succeeded in phasing out the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), widely used at that time in refrigeration and aerosols. The aim was to stop the depletion of the ozone layer, which shields the planet from ultraviolet rays which are linked to skin cancer and other conditions.

With the effects of climate change increasing at an alarming rate, developed nations meet in Rwanda to phase out HFC gases in a historic deal.

A small group has posted a petition called "Drop the T" to Change.org, broadcasting their demand that three eminent LGBT advocacy groups-Lambda Legal, the Human Rights Campaign, and GLAAD-sever their relationships with the transgender community. In other words, the "T" should be erased from the unifying acronym "LGBT," and thus from the concerns of those who advocate for lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. The reasoning? The anonymous petition explains , "We feel [the transgender] ideology is not only completely different from that promoted by the LGB community (LGB is about sexual orientation, trans is about gender identity), but is ultimately repressive and actually hostile to the goals of women and gay men." Whoa there. It might be time to take a gender studies class or ten. Borrow a copy of Stone Butch Blues from the library. And recognize that the acronym you're attempting to shorten has since become far more capacious . Unfortunately, those who put forward this petition have their supporters. At the time of this post's publication, the petition had elicited 2,048 signatures. The author, a gay male, has also spoken to conservative website the Federalist in order to further promote this cause: "Any attempt to rationally discuss issues that gays/lesbians/bisexuals are concerned about regarding the trans movement is met with unparalleled vitriol, harassment, death threats, and silencing-demanding that the person commenting contrary to the trans narrative be banned from forums, for example." Death threats and silencing, you say? As it happens, I hear those words associated painfully often with the transgender community. No one is saying, of course, that there should not be careful discussions about the future of queer activism. As New York magazine notes , "[The] conversation...has to evolve. Do transfolks feel that some of their issues are not properly addressed by mainline LGBT organizations, and are there areas where they wish well-meaning LGB allies would back off and let transfolks have the mic when it comes to trans issues, with the LGBs (perhaps quietly) providing financial, technical, or feet-on-the-ground support? That's worth exploring. But the impetus should come from the trans community." In the meantime, all three of the organizations named by the petition have condemned its demands. You can also go here to sign "Stand with Trans People - Reject 'Drop the T,'" a counter-petition drawn up by British advocate Jonathan Boniface. Contact the author at rachel.vorona.cote@jezebel.com .

A small group has posted a petition called "Drop the T" to Change.org, broadcasting their demand that three eminent LGBT advocacy groups-Lambda Legal, the Human Rights Campaign, and GLAAD-sever their relationships with the transgender community.

MYSTERY RANCH, an industry-leading backpack company recently sat down with Adam Janke, Editor in Chief at The Journal of Mountain Hunting and Host of their "Beyond the Kill" Podcast. Read More >>> Leupold & Stevens, Inc., and The Boone & Crockett Club have presented the 2016 Hunt Fair Chase Award to Michael Swyers for his incredible solo Rocky Mountain goat hunt in British Columbia, Canada... Read More >>> Often we tend to overkill on our planting. My magic 60 acres had plenty of wild blackberries and some raspberries in 20-acre pasture. When I mowed the pasture, I intentionally did not mow down..... Read More >>> In this article that first appeared at Forbes.com, Dr. Mark Hendrickson observes recent action (or lack thereof) from the Federal Reserve and suggests that a realignment of federal policies..... Read More >>> Any problems, or even disasters, that particular immigrants may cause are unlikely to be caused within the gated communities or other upscale enclaves where the elites live. Read More >>> I see lots of stupid ARs in my classes; guns loaded up with cheap aftermarket crap with no real world need at all..... Read More >>> Steel Will Knives, a premium brand that produces knives with the highest standards of quality, announced Rogers Sports Marketing are now representing them throughout the southern United States. Read More >>> Bass Pro Shops is more than just a store that is a gateway to the great outdoors. The industry leader in conservation efforts is once again leading the way and partnering with National Hunting..... Read More >>> The day of the rally will be Saturday, February 25th, 2017. We will be meeting at the Center on the Grove at 3:00 p.m. We will then march to the Capitol from there. Read More >>> A Program called the Southern Illinois Patrons of Youth Trapshooting (SIPYT) was unveiled by the ATA this year, reaching out to local businesses and organizations interested in showing their..... Read More >>> The South Dakota Public Hunting Atlas and Hunting Handbook are "must haves" for anyone spending time in this state's outdoors. Read More >>> This week PA Regional Director for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Carl Mowry will provide us with an overview of the display. Carl will also discuss a number of activities involving..... Read More >>> Outdoor Channel will be available to all DISH customers on Channel 396 as part of a five-week free preview, starting Wednesday, September 7 and ending Wednesday, October 5. Read More >>> LaserLyte, innovators in firearms laser technologies, are now offering the LaserLyte UTA-CU integral laser and light for the Taurus Curve as an aftermarket accessory. Read More >>> The 2016 SCTP Nationals in Marengo, Ohio, proved no different when 525 and 810 young athletes toed the 27-yard line on July 13 and July 15th respectively. Read More >>> Last Chance to Register for the 2016 NRA World Shooting Championship Presented by Kimber & Nightforce, scheduled for Sept. 15-17 in Glengary, W.V. Read More >>> DNREC Secretary David Small and Kitts Hummock residents gathered Thursday at the small community on central Delaware's Bayshore to encourage volunteer signups for the 2016 Delaware Coastal..... Read More >>> The pocket-size Firefield T180 Tactical Mini Flashlight guides every hard-earned step to victory with big time shock-and-awe LED illumination. Read More >>> A Soldier from the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) was added to the 2016 U.S. Paralympic Shooting Team. Read More >>> For lightning-quick transitions from close-range to mid-range, the Sightmark 3X Tactical Magnifier Pro flip-to-side mount delivers rock solid stability Read More >>> Wild Bill : Dear Mrs Hodges, engage a skilled criminal defense attorney to nail down witnesses, statements, and other evidence, anyway! Don't wait.... Rattlerjake : God gave three instances where the killing of a man has no "bloodguilt" - 1)War, 2)Judicial punishment, 3)Self defense Wild Bill : @Mark, I concur, and thank God that she is an uncivilized, discourteous, and obvious loser. She makes her own ideas,... allan King : she would be the first one to scream armed police to come to her aid when her home is being... Wild Bill : @Tcat, He must have gotten the wrong idea and made himself fit the hard core unemployable profile. Now, his career...

MYSTERY RANCH, an industry-leading backpack company recently sat down with Adam Janke, Editor in Chief at The Journal of Mountain Hunting and Host of their "Beyond the Kill" Podcast.

A disgraced ex-cop, loser, and Donald Trump fanatic by the name of Jim Stachowiak is calling on "lone wolf patriots" to show up at the GOP convention in July, fully armed, so they can shoot at any black protesters who happen to show up. Stachowiak posted a video to YouTube in which he declared: "I am encouraging patriots and Trump supporters and those that support liberty and freedom to come lawfully armed with lethal and non-lethal weaponry." Some background on Jim Stachowiak is instructive to help one better understand just what an enormous heap of human excrement he truly is: He has been permanently banned from Facebook He was charged with criminal defamation for identifying another person as a terrorist He refers to the Black Lives Matter movement as, "Black Lies Matter" He was fired from his job as a cop for official misconduct; a job he held for only three years Also in the YouTube video, Stachowiak says : "They (black protesters) have threatened to cause riots in Cleveland and nationwide. It is our sworn duty and obligation for all those like me and many of you who have taken the oath to defend this country against all enemies foreign and domestic." And how does Stachowiak suggest his hired hit men do that? Like this : "We should answer the call with our Second Amendment. Yes, I'm encouraging patriots to come prepared to defend this nation against a domestic terrorist organization supported by the terrorist in the White House, Obama. "Come prepared, because this may spark another revolution. It won't be decided if that spark turns into a bonfire by we who love liberty, for we will defend, not attack. We won't act, but we will react." What I find most amazing about haters like this useless piece of garbage is that they decide to announce their plans on the internet, where everyone can see it. Which means the Cleveland Police Department, FBI, and Secret Service will be waiting for them when they arrive. We can only hope they provoke the cops and get arrested. Here's the video Stachowiak posted on YouTube: This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org.

A disgraced ex-cop, loser, and Donald Trump fanatic by the name of Jim Stachowiak is calling on "lone wolf patriots" to show up at the GOP convention in July, fully armed, so they can shoot at any black protesters who happen to show up. Stachowiak posted a video to YouTube in which he declared: "I am encouraging patriots and Trump supporters and those that support liberty and freedom to come lawfully armed with lethal and non-lethal weaponry."

Cheers to Andra Day and Common singing "Stand Up for Something" as a tribute to the Dreamers From a reader: On the Jimmy Kimmel Show, Andra Day and Common dedicated "Stand Up for Something" to the Dreamers. (Watch and listen here .) Before singing, Andra Day said, "I just gotta take a minute to address all of the Dreamers. With the end of DACA and the possibility of deportation looming, we just want you guys to know that we stand with you, and we will not stop fighting for you. We dedicate this performance to you guys tonight." At the end of the song, Common said, "For the Dreamers: Trump and Congress are failing you, but we the people will fight to the end till we win the Dream Act. We will fight to the end. We the people, we stand with you." Here are the heartfelt lyrics of the song. Read more. Cox Farms Calls for Resisting White Supremacy From a reader: Cox Farms, located in Centreville, Virginia, has been posting signs about social issues. Their most recent one reads "RESIST WHITE SUPREMACY." Last year they posted other signs on the street outside their farm: "We Love Our Muslim Neighbors" and "Immigrants Make America Great!" On their Facebook page, they explained the new sign: Our little roadside signs have power. Most of the time, they let folks know that our hanging baskets are on sale, that today's sweet corn is the best ever, that Santa will be at the market this weekend, or that the Fall Festival will be closed due to rain. During the off-season, sometimes we utilize them differently. Sometimes, we try to offer a smile on a daily commute. Sometimes, a message of support and inclusion to a community that is struggling makes someone's day. Sometimes the messages on our signs make people think... and sometimes, they make some people angry. Last week, some of our customers and neighbors asked us to clarify the sentiment behind our sign that said "Rise & Resist." So, we changed it to read "Rise Up Against Injustice" and "Resist White Supremacy." We sincerely believe that fighting injustice and white supremacy is a responsibility that can- and should- unite us all. We struggle to see how anyone other than self-identified white supremacists would take this as a personal attack. Some have asked why we feel called to have such a message on our signs at all. Here is why: Cox Farms is a small family-owned and family-operated business. The five of us are not just business-owners; we are human beings, members of the community, and concerned citizens of this country. We are also a family, and our shared values and principles are central to our business. (see Cox Farm Facebook page. ) The local pig union showed its true white supremacist colors by calling for a boycott of Cox Farms' hay rides and pumpkin patches. When someone responded to the sign by posting on social media "Resist white supremacy is not an inclusive message.... When you single out a group of people you exclude them. This is a sad message," Aaron Cox-Leow responded, "Yes, generally speaking, we are comfortable excluding white supremacists." Gregg Popovich: "We Live in a Racist Country" From a reader: When Gregg Popovich, who is white and is the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs, was asked about the importance of the NBA celebrating Black History Month, he said: I think it's pretty obvious the league is made up of a lot of Black guys. To honor that and understand it is pretty simplistic. How would you ignore that? But more importantly, we live in a racist country that hasn't figured it out yet. And it's always important to bring attention to it, even if it angers some people. The point is, you have to keep it in front of everybody's nose so they understand it still hasn't been taken care of and we have a lot of work to do. On Wednesday, Dan Le Batard, who has a radio and television sports talk show on ESPN, essentially said, "I think we should consider playing the audio clip of Popovich saying 'We live in a racist country' at the end of each show this week." U.S. Winter Olympian rips Vice President Mike Pence as leader of the U.S. Olympic Delegation as other U.S. Olympians speak of possible protests From a reader: Adam Rippon, an openly gay U.S. Winter Olympian figure skater, was dismayed to find out that Vice President Mike Pence was leading the U.S. Olympic delegation. He told USA Today : You mean Mike Pence, the same Mike Pence that funded gay conversion therapy? I'm not buying it. If it were before my event, I would absolutely not go out of my way to meet somebody who I felt has gone out of their way to not only show that they aren't a friend of a gay person but that they think that they're sick. I wouldn't go out of my way to meet somebody like that. I don't think he (Pence) has a real concept of reality. To stand by some of the things that Donald Trump has said and for Mike Pence to say he's a devout Christian man is completely contradictory. If he's okay with what's being said about people and Americans and foreigners and about different countries that are being called "shitholes," I think he should really go to church. Pence's office immediately issued a release that, in part, stated, Rippon's "accusation is totally false and has no basis in fact." Of course this is another lie by someone in the fascist Trump/Pence regime, as a statement Pence made in 2000 on his congressional campaign website stated, "Resources should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior." It is widely believed that this meant "conversion therapy." Further, in 2006, when Pence voiced his support for a constitutional amendment that would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman, he said gay relationships would bring about "societal collapse." (For more on Pence see the revcom.us articles " Vice President Mike Pence: The Christian Fascist 'Alternative' to the Fascist Donald Trump ," May 13, 2017, and " Mike Pence: A Christian Fascist Who's a Heartbeat Away from the U.S. Presidency ," November 21, 2016.) Rippon is not the only U.S. Olympian who is speaking out. Others have said that they are considering protesting, despite Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter, which states: "No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas." Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn has already said that she will not go to the White House with the Olympic team. She said, "I hope to represent the people of the United States, not the president. I want to represent our country well. I don't think that there are a lot of people currently in our government that do that." Olympic bobsledders Elana Meyers Taylor and Kehri Jones may speak out. Meyers Taylor said, "I think the hardest thing is that all of us would love to just stick to sports--but if you want us to be role models to kids then you need to stand for more than just sports." Olympic freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy said, "Whether it's Black Lives Matter or trans rights or climate change, there's so much to be stood up for right now ... And I think we will see athletes standing up for it, and I don't know how it will be yet, in what form, but I'm sure that we will." Laurenne Ross, Olympic downhill skier, said she wouldn't be surprised if a U.S. athlete protests while receiving a medal. She said, "Part of me would be proud of that person for standing up or kneeling, or whatever, for their rights and using their voice. Part of me would be a little bit heartbroken that we are being torn as a nation and we are doing these actions that make us seem that we're not one anymore." The 2018 Winter Olympics are taking place on the 50th anniversary year of the most famous Olympic protest of all time when U.S. athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave a black-gloved clenched fist on the victory stand during the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City to protest the oppression of Black people. Revcom will be reporting if something significant happens at the Winter Olympics being held in PyeonChang, South Korea, starting on February 9. "Racism is insidious and it's still our national sin" Three white NBA coaches speak out on MLK Day From a reader: NBA teams played a full slate of games on Monday as they usually do to celebrate MLK Day. Three white coaches, Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs, Stan Van Gundy of the Detroit Pistons, and Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors had something to say about what MLK Day means to them this year. From Popovich: "Dr. King, he was truly a person who was interested in making America great for everyone. He understood that racism was our national sin, and if everybody didn't come together it would bring everybody down, including white people. That promise that he basically demanded for America to fill from way back then is what put us on the road to make America great. At the same time, we all know the situation now. And I think he'd be a very, very sad man to see that a lot of his efforts have been held up and torn down. It doesn't matter if you're looking at the Voting Rights Act or the ridiculous number of people of color who are incarcerated." "(Racism) is insidious and it's still our national sin that we have to work on. Every time I hear somebody (like Donald Trump) say they're not a racist, you know they are. So, those are some of the thoughts I have on this day. You want to be happy for some things, but current circumstances make it very difficult to clap too much." From Van Gundy: "Sadly, though, I think the 50th anniversary of his (MLK's) death finds us going backwards on the issue of racial equality. The Voting Rights Act has been largely dismantled. Men of color, and even boys of color, face systemic inequality in the justice system, and we used the war on drugs to lock up a generation of Black men. Affirmative action is being torn down. Police are killing men like a modern-day Bull Connor, and economic equality is headed in the wrong direction." "Marches like Charlottesville are disturbing. It used to be that the KKK wore hoods, embarrassed to reveal their identity. Now people with racist beliefs proudly march in the open and are not even repudiated by our president. So yes, we honor Dr. King and all that he sacrificed and all that he accomplished. But if we truly want to honor him, we must get back out and fight like he did against the now-resurgent voices of racial injustice, discrimination and hate. I think 25 years ago Dr. King might have been happy to see some progress. My guess is today he would be in tears over where we are headed." From Kerr: "I love Martin Luther King Day in terms of what it means to the NBA, what it means to the country. It's become a great day for the NBA because we celebrate basketball, but what we're really celebrating is equality and inclusion, which is what the NBA represents. We've got players from all over the world, all different backgrounds. We've got players who are really socially active trying to promote peace and understanding, and these are all ideals Dr. King felt so strongly about." "So, today is a great day for the league and for our country, and a good day to remember what's truly important and what we are aspiring for as a country, and that we can do a lot better. All of us." "(King) would be less than inspired by the leadership in our country, no doubt about that." "I do think social media has something to do with it. I really do. There's so much anger on social media, and there's such a forum now for everybody to display this anger without repercussion. Just sit behind your keyboard and tell everybody whatever vulgar, profane thing you want to say, and you're free from repercussion, and yet you're sending out this anger and vile into the atmosphere. So there's a lot of that included into what's happening right now." Stan Van Gundy, Coach of the NBA Detroit Pistons, Supports NFL Players Refusing to Stand for the National Anthem and for Their Demands From a reader: In a November 14 essay in Time , Stan Van Gundy, the coach of the NBA Detroit Pistons, said he supports the NFL players who are refusing to stand for the national anthem in protest of police brutality and social injustice and he calls on others "to join me in supporting them." Van Gundy, who is white, talks about coaching in the NBA for 20 years in a league that is 75 percent Black and what he has learned about "the issues they and their families have had to encounter." He wrote, "I have an obligation as a citizen to speak out and to support, in any way possible, those brave and patriotic athletes who are working to bring change to our country. I believe all of us do." Van Gundy points out that "These athletes could take the easy route and not placed their livelihoods at risk by standing up for what they believe in. They've put in their hard work. They could accept their paychecks and live lives of luxury. Instead, they are risking their jobs to speak up for those who have no voice." He goes on to say that "Those who have been at the forefront of great advances in social justice have always been willing to make significant personal sacrifices, and that group has always included athletes," and he names Muhammad Ali, Tommie Smith, John Carlos, and Colin Kaepernick as those who have sacrificed for the cause of calling out social injustice, and that these current NFL players are following in their footsteps. He points out that these NFL players are not just protesting on Sunday, but "On virtually every Tuesday during the NFL season (the NFL's traditional off-day), these committed athletes are using their platform as professional athletes in town halls, statehouses and even Washington, D.C., to listen, learn, meet with leaders, advocate for change and put the issues of criminal justice reform in the spotlight." The changes they are advocating for are: Ameliorating harsh sentencing guidelines and ending mandatory minimum sentences. Enacting clean slate laws where convictions would be expunged after a certain period of time of good behavior. Eliminating cash bail. Reforming juvenile justice. Ending police brutality and racial bias in police departments. This was the issue that started the current player protests. At the end of his essay, Van Gundy says, "We should all join them in ensuring their collective voice is heard." Van Gundy's essay is online here . Nobel Peace Prize Winner Calls Colin Kaepernick a Hero and Wants to Take a Knee with Him From a reader Jody Williams, recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, called Colin Kaepernick a hero for taking a knee in protesting police murders of Black people. Williams, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work seeking the ban of anti-personnel mines, gave her support to Kaepernick during her October 15 acceptance speech when she was receiving the Human Rights Awards from the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill, New York. In an interview after her speech, she talked about why the athletes are taking a knee: (It's because) the seeming inability of this country to deal with racism in general, but in particular, the police brutality against primarily Black men. There certainly has been violence against Black women but the killings of Black men have been very, very disturbing to many people. I think [they] helped spark the Black Lives Matter movement. So when Kaepernick decided to use his fame to take a knee, and by doing so, make a public statement about the need to deal with this, I thought it was outstanding, personally. And when others joined him, it I think was a pivotal moment in race issues in the country. We may not see a dramatic change immediately, but that Kaepernick took a knee, and then other Black athletes and white athletes joined in in their own way and found the support of the team owners, etc.--it reminds me of the chain of people protesting apartheid outside of the South African Embassy. You know, the impact of doing it again and again and again, famous people and not-so-famous people--it does make a difference. Then she talked about the importance of those who have a disproportionate influence speaking out: They mean that important figures have decided that they will use their fame to make a difference. And that also empowers the not-so-famous to stand up and make a difference. I think it's terrific. I think it's long overdue. Despite the fact that, you know, Muhammad Ali--going to jail instead of going to war, and the two athletes in the Olympics raising their fists--famous people have done it before, but not to this extreme. I wish I could take a knee with Kaepernick. When I first saw that he took a knee, I [thought], "Oh, yes! If I could only go to a football game and take a knee with him, I would be so proud." Whether he ever plays football again, the man has made a statement that affects our culture. And for that alone, he is a hero. Hertha Berlin Soccer Team Takes a Knee in Solidarity with Kaepernick Hertha BSC (Berliner Sports Club), a German association soccer club based in the Charlottenburg area of Berlin, took a knee in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick and the NFL players' protest during their home game on Saturday, October 14. Hertha's starting lineup, coaching staff, general manager, club officials, and substitutes joined in the protest before the start of the game. Sebastian Langkamp, Hertha's defender, told Sky TV, "We're no longer living in the 18th century but in the 21st century. There are some people, however, who are not that far ideologically yet. If we can give some lessons there with that, then that's good." The Club released a statement on Twitter that said, "Hertha BSC stands for tolerance and responsibility! For a tolerant Berlin and an open-minded world, now and forevermore!" Salomon Kalou, a forward for the team, who is from Ivory Coast, said their action was inspired by the NFL players' protest against police brutality and murder of Black and other people of color, in the face of the attacks against them by Trump. He said, "We stand against racists and that's our way of sharing that. We are always going to fight against this kind of behavior, as a team and as a city... [Racism] shouldn't exist in any kind of event, in the NFL or in the football world, soccer as they call it there. It shouldn't exist in any sport, period." Hertha BSC (Berliner Sports Club), a German association soccer club based in the Charlottenburg area of Berlin, protests Saturday, October 14, in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick and the NFL players Credit: AP Richard E. Frankel, Professor of Modern German History, on Trump's Pardon of Anti-Immigrant Sheriff Joe Arpaio: "To this German historian, the implications are ominous" Richard E. Frankel is associate professor of Modern German History at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and is the author of Bismarck's Shadow: The Cult of Leadership and the Transformation of the German Right, 1898-1945 . The following originally appeared at historynewsnetwork.org , website of the Columbian College of Arts & Sciences at George Washington University. In August of 1932, in the town of Potempa, nine Nazi Stormtroopers murdered a supporter of the German Communist Party, kicking him to death in his own apartment as his family watched in horror. Six were convicted with five receiving the death penalty. After the verdict, Hitler sent them a telegram in which he declared to them his "boundless loyalty." Shortly after he came to power in 1933, he pardoned the killers. While former Sheriff Joe Arpaio never kicked anyone to death, his pardon by President Trump raises disturbing parallels. Upon gaining power, Hitler immediately pardoned allies who'd perpetrated ghastly crimes against those deemed enemies of the nation. What do we make of Trump's pardon of a political ally, a man duly convicted of systemic deprivations of people's constitutional rights--people Trump never considered part of his America? As a professor of modern German history, this administration seemingly provides such unpleasant reminders of Germany's dark past on a regular basis. What can German history teach us about this latest episode? How, for example, did the pardon of the Potempa killers help us better understand Hitler? What implications did it have for development of the Third Reich? And how does that knowledge help us better understand Trump and the danger that his pardon of Arpaio poses for the future of the United States? Read complete article. Roger Waters: "I support my hero Colin Kaepernick, and all the fellow heroes in the NFL who stood up for rights and justice and equality" At his September 28 concert in Boston, Roger Waters took a knee in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick and other sports stars resisting police murder and the recent attacks from Trump. As he took the knee on stage in front of a massive screen with the word RESIST projected on it, Rogers said: I support my hero Colin Kaepernick, and all the fellow heroes in the NFL who stood up for rights and justice and equality. They're part of a far larger movement all over the globe standing up for equal civil rights and equal rights for all the peoples of the world no matter what their race, ethnicity or religion. Rogers' entire current Us + Them tour has been laced with statements of resistance against the Trump/Pence fascist regime. NBA Basketball Players and Coaches Speak Out in Support of the NFL Players' Protests Against Trump From a reader : On Sunday, September 24, the world saw NFL players, joined in some cases by coaches and owners, deliver a powerful statement by sitting, taking a knee, locking arms together, or remaining in the locker room during the singing of the national anthem at nearly every game played that day and at the Monday night game. They were responding to the vicious, racist attacks unleashed by Trump at his Nazi rally in Alabama Friday when he declared that when a player refuses to stand for the national anthem, the owners should "get that son of a bitch off the field now." The taking the knee protest was started last year by then S.F. 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick against the police brutality and murder of people of color. As Carl Dix said , with Trump's fascist, racist rant against the NFL player protesters, this Klucker-in-chief was making clear what his "Make America Great Again" is all about. The day following the NFL players' Sunday protests was the first day of NBA basketball practice, when all of the teams speak to the press. Many players and some coaches made thoughtful comments to the media, giving a glimpse of the impact the actions of the football players is having. It should be mentioned that last week, after Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors NBA team publicly said he wasn't going to be part of any team celebration at the White House, Trump tweeted that he was disinviting the Warriors. Here are highlights from some of the comments from NBA players and coaches: Jabari Parker, player for the Milwaukee Bucks: I'm not really surprised at what he said, because basically that's the narrative of Mr. Trump and that's the type of person he is. ... I think that anybody with any responsibility has the opportunity to create change and to take a side. You have good and you have bad. There's no in-between, because when you're in the middle, you're in favor of the oppressor. That's a quote by Desmond Tutu. As far as the flag goes, it's not like people are [protesting] for any ordinary reason. There's a huge meaning, a broad horizon to it. A lot of people are frustrated that nothing's changed from the time that we've learned it from kids until now. There's been a lot of bad going on with the oppression of colored folks and minorities... Stan Van Gundy, head coach, Detroit Pistons: There are serious issues of inequality and injustice in this country. People of conscience are compelled to oppose racism, sexism and intolerance of people of different sexual identities and orientation wherever and whenever they see it. I stand with those opposing such bigotry. I as an individual and the Detroit Pistons as an organization support diversity, inclusion and equality. J.J. Redick, player for the Philadelphia 76ers: There's very few days that go by where I don't get pissed off at something Trump does, so this weekend was kind of like a normal thing... There's nothing that I would ever want to say to Trump or interact with Trump. I agree with LeBron [James, of the Cleveland Cavaliers] in the sense that what the White House and what the presidency used to represent does not represent that during these four years. It just does not. It's now a mockery of what the presidency and the White House stood for. So, I would have zero interest in ever going there. [Reddick is a white player.] Gregg Popovich, coach of the San Antonio Spurs: Obviously, race is the elephant in the room and we all understand that. Unless it is talked about constantly, it's not going to get better. "Oh, they're talking about that again. They pulled the race card again. Why do we have to talk about that?" Well, because it's uncomfortable. There has to be an uncomfortable element in the discourse for anything to change, whether it's the LGBT movement, or women's suffrage, race, it doesn't matter. People have to be made to feel uncomfortable, and especially white people, because we're comfortable. We still have no clue what being born white means.... You have advantage that are systemically, culturally, psychologically rare. And they've been built up and cemented for hundreds of years.... People want to hold their position, people want their status quo, people don't want to give that up. Until it's given up, it's not going to be fixed.... [Referring to NASCAR team owners who said NFL protesters should be fired and even leave the country...] I had no idea that I lived in a country where people would actually say that sort of thing. I'm not totally naive but I think these people have been enabled by an example that we've all been given. You've seen it in Charlottesville, and on and on and on. Erik Spoelstra, coach of the Miami Heat: I commend the Golden State Warriors for the decision they made [not to accept Trump's invitation to go to the White House]. I commend NFL players and organizations for taking a stand for equality, for inclusion, for taking a stand against racism, bigotry, prejudice... Professor's first act as American citizen--get arrested for protesting in support of DACA students Harvard Professor Ahmed Ragab's first act as an American citizen was to get arrested for protesting in support of DACA students. Ragab drove directly from his citizenship ceremony to a protest in Cambridge, Massachusetts to stand in solidarity with other Boston area professors and protest the DACA repeal. He wrote in part in a Washington Post opinion letter : With the Trump administration abolishing DACA, my students now live in fear that the lives they have built will be wrestled away, that they could be thrown out of this country, which is theirs as much as it will ever be mine. Adding insult to injury, President Trump is using them as pawns in his political games. First, shirking his responsibility, he put their fate in the hands of Congress. Then he suggested that he would take action if Congress doesn't, and that they will not be a deportation priority. Finally, he tweeted that they have nothing to fear "for six months." Throughout, the abuse continues. These young people are to continue working, studying and serving this country while simply hoping that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents don't show up, and they are expected to believe in a system that consistently rejects their rights and threatens their lives and families. The discourse defending DACA focuses on these young people being in the United States "through no fault of their own." This narrative vilifies their parents to avoid difficult, broader questions about immigration, racism and xenophobia. My "DACAmented" students are here thanks to their parents, who made many sacrifices to offer their children better lives. Two generations ago, James Baldwin wrote of "the American Negro": "It is a terrible thing for an entire people to surrender to the notion that one-ninth of its population is beneath them. Until ... we are able to accept that we need each other, that I am one of the people who build the country, there is little hope for the American Dream." Baldwin's prescient diagnosis is still germane; our society still denies the contribution of millions of undocumented Americans to the making of this country, and dismisses their rights to the fruits of what they helped build. The American Dream lives in tortured dissociation: claimed to be for all, but denied to many. So last week, my fellow Boston professors and I protested beside a statue of Charles Sumner, an abolitionist who nearly lost his life for rejecting the Fugitive Slave Act. We crossed Massachusetts Avenue to stand in the middle of the street. As a friend put it, we wanted to bridge the distance between law and justice with our bodies. Before we were arrested, the officers informed us that we were disturbing the peace. But the peace that we disturbed is but a veneer obscuring the injustices embedded in arbitrary immigration systems and institutional racism. Banner unfurled at Boston's Fenway Park: "Racism is as American as Baseball" Letter from a reader: On Wednesday, September 13, a group of white people dropped an enormous banner, "RACISM IS AS AMERICAN AS BASEBALL," over the famous "Green Monster" wall in Boston's Fenway Park during a nationally televised game between the Boston Red Sox and the Oakland Athletics. The group stated "We are a group of white anti-racist protesters. We want to remind everyone that just as baseball is fundamental to American culture and history, so too is racism. White people need to wake up to this reality before white supremacy can truly be dismantled. We urge anyone who is interested in learning more or taking action to contact their local racial justice organization." "We are responding to a long history of racism and white supremacy in the United States that continues to pervade every aspect of American culture today. We deliberately chose a platform in an attempt to reach as many people as possible." After Adam Jones of the Baltimore Orioles was taunted with bags of peanuts thrown at him and being called the "N-word" by Boston fans earlier in the season, the group decided that something had to be done. Other Black players spoke up after Jones did, saying similar things happened to them when they played in Boston against the Red Sox. The Boston Red Sox was the last Major League Baseball team to have a Black player on its roster. Tom Yawkey, the owner of the Red Sox from 1933 to 1976, continuously rejected any attempts to integrate the team. He refused to sign Jackie Robinson, who called Yawkey "one of the most bigoted guys in baseball." The current owner of the Red Sox, John Henry, is attempting to remove the name of the street, Yawkey Way, where Fenway Park is located and rename it with the name of a famous Red Sox player, like David Ortiz, who is known as "Big Papi." In speaking to the issue of racism in Boston, the group that dropped the banner said, "...we saw, we see Boston continually priding itself as a kind of liberal, not racist city, and are reminded also constantly that it's actually an extremely segregated city. It has been for a long time, and that no white people can avoid the history of racism, essentially. So we did this banner as a gesture towards that, to have a conversation about that." A Voice of Conscience in Sports World-- ESPN Reporter Calls Trump a "White Supremacist" From a reader: The shit hit the fan on Tuesday, September 12, after Jemele Hill, an anchor on ESPN's SC6 (SportsCenter at 6) news show, tweeted out on Monday that Donald Trump is a "white supremacist." Hill has been known for not shying away from politics in her commentaries. She began her tweets about Trump by first going after singer Kid Rock, a supporter of the fascist Trump/Pence regime, by responding to his tweet that he was thinking about running for the U.S. Senate and claiming he "loves black people," and then accused the "extreme left" of "trying to use the old confederate flag BS" to label him a racist. Hill responded by tweeting out, "He loves black people so much that he pandered to racists by using a flag that unquestionably stands for dehumanizing black people." The Twitter thread by Hill continued after she was attacked for her tweet about Kid Rock. She posted her Trump tweets in reply to them: "Donald Trump is a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself w/ other white supremacists." "Trump is the most ignorant, offensive president of my lifetime. His rise is a direct result of white supremacy. Period." "He is unqualified and unfit to be president. He is not a leader. And if he were not white, he never would have been elected." "Donald Trump is a bigot. Glad you could live with voting for him. I couldn't, because I cared about more than just myself." "The height of white privilege is being able to ignore this white supremacy, because it's of no threat to you. Well, it's a threat to me." Hill then was barraged with racist and anti-woman tweets calling her a "nigger" and a "bitch." The white supremacist supporters of Trump, including Breitbart and Fox News, called for ESPN to fire her. ESPN tried to throw her under the bus when they "disavowed" what she said, and put out a statement, "We have addressed this with Jemele and she recognizes her actions were inappropriate." Then on Wednesday September 13 the White House called for ESPN to fire Hill--Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee-Sanders responded to a question about the tweets by saying "That's one of the more outrageous comments that anyone could make and certainly something that I think is a fireable offense by ESPN." But broadly from athletes, Hill immediately got support from Colin Kaepernick, who tweeted out, "We are with you @jemelehill." Deadspin.com reported, "ESPN Issues Craven Apology For Jemele Hill's Accurate Descriptions Of Donald Trump." Reggie Miller, former NBA basketball all-star, tweeted out, "I'm on team @jemelehill..." Current NBA all-star Dwayne Wade responded to Miller's tweet with, "Sign me up!" Hill, who grew up in poverty-ridden Detroit, has continuously brought politics into sports. In 2008, she compared rooting for the Detroit Pistons with rooting for the Boston Celtics, a team that traditionally became known as the team for white people to root for in a predominantly Black league, when she wrote, "Rooting for the Celtics is like saying Hitler was a victim. It's like hoping Gorbachev would get to the blinking red button before Reagan. Deserving or not, I still hate the Celtics." (Listen to Bob Avakian's talk about the NBA, "Marketing the Minstrel Show and Serving the Big Gangsters," at revcom.us) Earlier this year, Hill was reporting on Colin Kaepernick not currently being signed by an NFL team because of his political views by refusing to stand for the national anthem in protest of police brutality and murders against Black people. In reporting that Kaepernick had compared the cops of today with "slave patrols," she said the comparison of police to "slave patrols" was "inflammatory, but historically accurate." After she was attacked for bringing politics into sports and ESPN was attacked as being liberal, she gave an interview to Yahoo.com (See https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sportscenter-anchor-jemele-hill-espns-politics-athletes-dragging-us-193537563.html ) I just hadn't noticed the correlation between us being called more liberal as you see more women in a position on our network... as you see more ethnic diversity, then all of a sudden ESPN is too liberal. So I wonder, when people say that, what they're really saying. The other part of it is that we're journalists, and people have to understand, these uncomfortable political conversations... the athletes are dragging us here. I didn't ask Colin Kaepernick to kneel. He did it on his own. So, was I supposed to act like he didn't? Gregg Popovich, every week at his press conferences, is having a 10-minute soliloquy on Donald Trump. Am I supposed to act like he's not doing that? You have athletes saying they're going to the White House, not going to the White House, that's all sports news. It didn't just start with this generation of athletes, it's always been that way. Sometimes when I hear a viewer say they don't want their politics mixed with sports, I say, "What did you think about Muhammad Ali?" And then all of a sudden it's glowing praise. In another interview she said: Whether we want to discuss it or not, athletes are dragging us into these conversations. It's not that Mike [her co-host, Michael Smith] and I wake up one day and say, "Hey, today we're going to be MSNBC." It's usually based off a news story that is relevant to sports. If ESPN attempts to suspend or fire Jemele Hill for telling the truth, people need to come to her defense in a big way. Munroe Bergdorf, L'Oreal's First Trans Model Fired for Calling Out White Supremacy Munroe Bergdorf, a transgender model was recently hired by L'Oreal to be featured in a YouTube ad for its True Match Foundation. However, Bergdorf's deal with the company did not last very long. Bergdorf posted comments on Facebook calling out white supremacy, white privilege and systemic racism in the United States. She wrote: Honestly I don't have energy to talk about the racial violence of white people any more. Yes ALL white people" .... "Because most of ya'll don't even realize or refuse to acknowledge that your existence, privilege and success as a race is built on the backs, blood and death of people of colour. Your entire existence is drenched in racism. From micro-aggressions to terrorism, you guys built the blueprint for this shit." .... "Come see me when you realise that racism isn't learned, it's inherited and consciously or unconsciously passed down through privilege," she added. "Once white people begin to admit that their race is the most violent and oppressive force of nature on Earth... then we can talk." Immediately the media attacked Bergdorf filled with vitriol, how can she say, "All white people are racist?" The media continued by spreading falsehoods and distorting her statements. In fact, Bergdorf's statements represent undeniable truths about the nature of this system and its foundation in white supremacy that continues up until today. Bergdorf did not remain silent after being fired. She took to Facebook again to clarify her statements, making a powerful point: "When I stated that 'all white people are racist,' I was addressing that fact that western society as a whole, is a SYSTEM rooted in white supremacy--designed to benefit, prioritise and protect white people before anyone of any other race," she wrote. "Unknowingly, white people are SOCIALISED to be racist from birth onwards. It is not something genetic. No one is born racist." To read more of Munroe Bergdorf's posts and her response to L'Oreal click here Messages of Resistance at the MTV Video Music Awards This week MTV held its annual Video Music Awards. This year's VMAs were far from apolitical--a number of artists made righteous political statements, many against white supremacy. During her presentation for best pop video, Paris Jackson, daughter of Michael Jackson, condemned the white supremacists and Nazis that marched in Charlottesville. Jackson said, "I hope we leave here tonight remembering that we must show these Nazi, white supremacist jerks in Charlottesville and all over the country that as a nation with liberty as our slogan, we have zero tolerance for their violence, hatred and their discrimination." Katy Perry jokingly compared the votes for best video award for the show to the votes cast in the election, saying this is "one election where the popular vote actually matters." Somali nominee K'naan wore a mock "Make America Great Again" hat with a message scrawled in Arabic. The night's big performance was by Kendrick Lamar, who started his song with a brief message about police brutality. Later in the night, singer Cardi B showed support by giving a shout out to Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who is being blackballed from the the NFL because of his refusal to stand for the national anthem in protest of police brutality and murder of people of color. Cardi said, "Colin Kaepernick, as long as you kneel with us, we gonna be standing for you baby." Susan Bro, whose daughter Heather Heyer was killed in Charlottesville when a white supremacist slammed his car into a group of anti-racist protestors, took the stage at one point. She was joined by Robert Wright Lee IV, pastor and descendant of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. "We have made my ancestor an idol of white supremacy, racism and hate," said Lee. "Today, I call on all of us with privilege and power to answer God's call to confront racism and white supremacy head-on." Strong and steadfast, Susan Bro spoke about Heather and the foundation she has started in honor of her. She then presented the Best Fight Against the System Awards as a tribute to Heather's passion for social justice. Susan Bro said, "I want people to know that Heather never marched alone. She was always joined by people from every race and every background in this country." The winners of the Best Fight Against the System Awards were: Logic ft. Damian Lemar Hudson, for "Black Spider Man"; The Hamilton Mixtape, for "Immigrants (We Get the Job Done); Big Sean for "Light"; Alessia Cara, for "Scars To Your Beautiful" (Body image); Taboo ft. Shailene Woodley, for "Stand Up/Stand N Rock #NoDAPL"; and John Legend for "Surefire." Punk Rock Band Anti-Flag: Time to remove "all monuments to the Confederacy and the racism for which they stand" Punk rock band Anti-Flag has released a new track, "Racists," in the wake of the recent fascist/white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. In the lyric video, photos of the KKK, Confederate flag, pro-Trump signs, and other images appear on the screen along with the song's words, including the chorus: Just 'cause you don't know you're racist A bigot with a check list Just 'cause you don't know you're racist You don't get a pass when you're talkin' your shit Along with releasing the song, the band released a statement saying: We stand in solidarity with those fighting racism and fascism in the streets of Charlottesville and beyond. We believe it is time for the removal of all monuments to the confederacy and the racism for which they stand. We must put these symbols of white supremacy into places where the proper context can be provided for what they actually are; outdated, backwards, and antithetical to what we believe the values of humanity should be. It is past time to have real conversations on systemic racism and America's history of it. There are museums memorializing the Holocaust all across Europe, while America continues to try to hide from its racist and murderous past and present NFL Player Anquan Boldin Quits Because of Charlottesville: "There's something bigger than football" All-Pro National Football League wide receiver and Super Bowl champion Anquan Boldin has quit football, just two weeks after signing a contract with the Buffalo Bills, saying, "Just seeing things that transpired over the last week or so [in Charlottesville], I think for me there's something bigger than football at this point." In an interview with ESPN, Boldin said he was "drawn to make the larger fight for human rights a priority" and that "my life's purpose is bigger than football." Boldin, a 14-year NFL veteran, said that he has been considering retirement for a while, but the events that unfolded in Charlottesville helped prompt his decision. He said, "I can remember as a kid wanting to get to the NFL and wanting to be a professional football player. I dedicated my life to that, and I never thought anything would take the place of that passion. But for me, it has." He went on, "I'm uncomfortable with how divided we are as a country. Is it something new to us? No. Is it something that we're just starting to experience? No. But to see just how divided we are, I'm uncomfortable with that." Last year, Boldin was awarded the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award for his volunteer and charity work. In talking about that, he said, "Humanitarian work is something that I've been working on for years. Advocating for equality, criminal justice reform, all of those things are something that I've been working on for years. So this is not just a fly-by-night decision for me. It's something that I've been dealing with for years, and it's something that I'm willing to dedicate my life towards. Do I think I can solve all the problems that we have in this country? Of course not. But I think I do have a duty to stand up and make my voice heard and be a voice for those that don't have a voice. "My passion for the advocacy work that I do outweighs my passion for football at this point," he said. "So I'm not coming back to play for a contender or to do anything else. I'm done with the game of football." Artist Joseph Guay on his "Border Wall" Installation in Atlanta Several weeks ago, a large art installation popped up along a busy Atlanta street. The project is "Border Wall," by Joseph Guay, who explains, "It is modeled after the proposed $20 Billion dollar wall for the US/Mexico 1,989 mile border. The purpose of this installation is to create social awareness on the issues surrounding immigration in the United States." Guay's wall is 40 feet long, 16 feet tall and made of steel, rebar, and concrete. As part of his conception for the work, the "Border Wall" was constructed by undocumented Mexican workers. One side of the wall shows a giant image of Donald Trump, the other side is adorned with a massive Mexican flag. The "Border Wall" sits strikingly behind a barbwire fence in an abandoned parking lot. Guay has invited anyone who wants to express their thoughts on the Trump wall and on the issue of immigrants and immigration by posting and writing graffiti on the wall. In just a few weeks, the wall has been covered mostly with anti-Trump statements, messages of love for immigrants, and a number of Refuse Fascism NO! signs. On his website , Joseph Guay says: "The incredible souls that we label as illegals, poor immigrants, the people who want to steal our jobs...( undocumented Mexican labor workers ) have actually come together to help construct this wall. They believe in showing the world what a dividing wall looks and feels like. They believe in letting the American public know, in a peaceful way, that they are not here to take anything. They are actually here to give and help build our 'United' States. One worker has shared several stories of his difficult journey here. He also explained how other individuals raised $15,000 US in order to pay an illegal transporter to get them into this country... only to be treated like slaves on their arrival. Every story he tells makes me upset at the incorrect way we are dealing with this issue. I hope this project will give a better voice to the difficult topics individuals face that are only looking for a better life, and the difficult topics we face as a country. I can't help but ask myself... Does this wall stand for more than just a border crossing point? Maybe it's a symbol of division.... division of land, of cultures, of race, and equality. If we start going in this direction as a nation then where do we stop? I do not know, but I hope we can collectively explore the path together and find a more humane solution." Artist Joseph Guay's "Border Wall" Installation in Atlanta Photo: special to revcom.us Mitch O'Connell, Artist, on his Anti-Trump Billboard in Mexico City: "Mexico came to mind because Trump started out his campaign by being cruel and mean to everyone in Mexico" Chicago-based artist Mitch O'Connell's artwork featuring an "alien invader" image of Donald Trump now towers above one of Mexico City's busiest roads. The billboard features a monstrous image of Trump with a blue and red fleshless face and the slogan "Make America Great Again," and an American flag waves in the background. O'Connell said the idea came as he was designing a poster for a science-fiction and horror film festival. The artist said that he intended the project to be posted in a U.S. city but was denied a permit 30 times. "No one wanted to touch it because it's political," he said. O'Connell's mind then turned to Mexico. He said, "Mexico came to mind because Trump started out his campaign by being cruel and mean to everyone in Mexico." With the help of an Argentinian artist living in Mexico City, O'Connell brought his controversial billboard to fruition. O'Connell says, "With every month that passed since I did the drawing two years ago, he has become more like that crazy alien. It seems over time he became more and more like the movie, so it became more and more appropriate over time." David Strathairn: "July 15, We Have to Stand Up and Say NO!" From David Strathairn: Our form of a humane, compassionate, all-inclusive governance, guaranteed us by the founding principles of our constitution, a government, remember?, "of the people, by the people, and for the people", is in a battle for its life against the vile, malignant, fascist agenda of the Trump/Pence regime. This regime and it's co-conspirators, is being allowed to infiltrate more widely, more deeply, and more insidiously, into the precious fabric of our daily lives, everyday, assaulting our inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness by spreading bias, hatred, greed, and distrust; threatening to tear apart our own nation's vital need for communality and inclusiveness; displaying a disgusting example of basic human decency; attempting to establish economic policies that will only fill their already bulging pockets while fleecing tens of millions of people of essential human services; trying to pass laws of ethnic, religious, and gender oppression; seeking to control the way we chose our public servants; arrogantly and ignorantly destabilizing crucial global alliances to a frightening degree; and willfully denying, while adding to, the undisputed scientific facts that the health of our planet is under serious duress. And this is all happening right under our noses. We have to stand up and say NO. However we can, Wherever we can. Before it's too late. Add your voice on July 15th . The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go. Lily Eskelsen Garcia, National Education Association: "We will not find common ground with an administration that is cruel and callous to our children and their families." Over the weekend, the National Education Association (NEA) met for their annual conference in Boston. The NEA has three million members at all levels of education and describes itself as the "largest professional employee organization" in the U.S. The tone of the conference was certainly different from years past--fear and defiance of the Trump Regime permeated the air. Lily Eskelsen Garcia, the president of the NEA, delivered a speech indicting Trump and his Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, for their "profoundly disturbing" agenda aimed at destroying public education. She said, "I do not trust their motives. I do not believe their alternative facts. I see no reason to assume they will do what is best for our students and their families." While not naming them by name, Garcia made clear that the NEA was taking a sharply different stand from heads of other unions who have had friendly meetings with Trump: "There will be no photo-op.... We will not find common ground with an administration that is cruel and callous to our children and their families." In her speech Garcia warned that educators' resistance will have a backlash from the Trump regime: "They're going to hit us with everything they've got because we are a threat to them. They will try to take away your freedom to organize. They will try to take away your freedom to negotiate with a collective voice. They will try to silence us because when we win, the entire community wins." Garcia went on to say that teachers must be prepared to fight back against the Trump/Devos's fascist agenda while defending the students, families, and communities under attack. Read text of her talk here Neil Young: "Children of Destiny" Neil Young surprise-released a new song titled "Children of Destiny" in time for the Fourth of July weekend. The song features a new young rock group, Promise of the Real, fronted by Willie Nelson's son, Lukas Nelson, as well as a 65-piece orchestra. The video for the song shows flag-waving crowds, protests/marches, beautiful nature scenes, and the destruction of war. The song shifts between upbeat to melancholy and so does the imagery. The song's chorus is powerful and a call to resistance. Young sings: Stand up for what you believe Resist the powers that be Preserve the land and save the seas For the children of destiny. The children of you and me Then, suddenly, the imagery shifts and so does the emotion of the song as Young sings: Should goodness ever lose, and evil steal the day Should happy sing the blues, and peaceful fade away. What would you do? What would you say? How would you act on that new day? The upbeat chorus kicks back in as Young answers his own questions with images of resistance and protests: "Resist the powers that be..." Watch the video: Corey Stoll, actor in New York Public Theater's production of Julius Caesar , calls the performance an act of resistance Corey Stoll played Julius Caesar's assassin, Marcus Brutus, in the New York Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar. The Public Theatre's staging of the play depicted the murdered title character as Donald Trump--and this outraged the fascists. Trump's fascist base was up in arms, and they disrupted the performances multiple times. In an essay written after the final show, Stoll says that he realized that the play itself was an act of resistance. "The protesters never shut us down, but we had to fight each night to make sure they did not distort the story we were telling," recalls Stoll. He continues, "At that moment, watching my castmates hold their performances together, it occurred to me that this is resistance." Stoll and the rest of the cast performed amidst the media's distortion of the meaning and intention of the play, along with fascist trolls yelling things like, "Liberal hate kills" and "Goebbels would be proud." (Joseph Goebbels was the Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany.) In addition, Donald Trump Jr. went on TV to lambaste the play, claiming that it was responsible for the shooting at the congressional baseball game. The director of the play also said that the performance received multiple death threats. Stoll writes, "In this new world where art is willfully misinterpreted to score points and to distract, simply doing the work of an artist has become a political act. I'm thankful for all the beautiful defenses of our production written in the last few weeks. But the cliche is true: In politics, when you're explaining, you're losing. So if you're making art, by all means question yourself and allow yourself to be influenced by critics of good faith. But don't allow yourself to be gaslighted or sucked into a bad-faith argument. A play is not a tweet. It can't be compressed and embedded and it definitely can't be delivered apologetically. The very act of saying anything more nuanced than 'us good, them bad' is under attack, and I'm proud to stand with artists who do. May we continue to stand behind our work, and, when interrupted, pick it right back up from 'liberty and freedom.'" Read Stoll's entire essay at Vulture.com . Diala Shamas, supervising attorney at the International Human Rights Clinic, on Supreme Court reinstating parts of Trump's Muslim ban: "Lawyers alone can't save us from Trump. The Supreme Court just proved it." Diala Shamas, a lecturer in law and supervising attorney at Stanford Law School's International Human Rights Clinic, has worked extensively with Muslim communities in the U.S. as well as refugees abroad. Her June 27 piece for the Washington Post, which appeared right after the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated large parts of the Trump/Pence regime's Muslim ban, was titled "Lawyers alone can't save us from Trump. The Supreme Court just proved it." Shamas begins by recalling that when Trump first issued the Muslim ban in January, she and other lawyers who went to the airports to help immigrants and refugees detained or stranded because of the ban were treated like "superheroes" by the crowds that had gathered. While she appreciated the good will, she also writes that "it also seemed to foreshadow a dangerous tendency to rely on the courts and lawyers to act as a balance to our new administration's executive power." Her fear came to life when the Supreme Court reinstated significant parts of the Muslim ban, which had been blocked by several appeals courts. Shamas explains that "The logic of this decision turns fundamental premises of refugee law, immigration law and the international system on their heads..." As she notes, "Significantly, it was also a per curiam decision, issued on behalf of the full court--meaning that the justices usually considered bastions of the left partook in its holding and its underlying logic." Shamas warns, "While lawyers are important allies, the dangers of entrusting us with the pushback against executive overreach--as the liberal camp began to do almost instantly after Trump issued the original executive order--are now evident." She points to U.S. history and present-day struggles as evidence that rights cannot be won solely by relying on the courts: "Even landmark civil rights cases--whether Roe v. Wade or Brown v. Board of Education-- were preceded by significant organizing and mobilization. Victories in the Supreme Court (and in lower courts) reflected their times, cementing hard-earned popular progress only after the political ground had already begun to shift." Shamas cautions people against "finding comfort" in the possibility of the Supreme Court further reviewing the case or the case becoming moot by that time. Instead, she remarks, "We must renew popular and political interest in pushing back against the executive order--and the many iterations that could follow, including other forms of discriminatory immigration profiling--in more sustained, nonlegal ways." Read Diala Shamas's article here . Moby: "In This Cold Place" music video portrays horrors of the Trump regime--and is attacked by fascist ghouls Musician Moby and the Void Pacific Choir recently released the new music video "In This Cold Place" featuring animation by Steve Cutts. Among the many animated characters in the video is Trump as a Transformers-like robot that wreaks destruction and then turns into a swastika/dollar sign and self-destructs. Trump supporters are lashing out at Moby for this work of art. One fascist blog, for example, accused him of "corrupting children into hatred and accepting violence against President Trump." As RefuseFascism.org points out, "Meanwhile, around the country, Muslims, immigrants, people of color, and others face threats to their well-being and their very lives on a daily basis at the hands of these same fascists. This is art that plays an important part in exposing the illegitimacy of this regime. It deserves to be shared, debated, and defended." Watch the video: Reza Aslan, former host of CNN series Believer : "When the house is on fire you can't just calmly describe the flames. You need to get onto the roof and scream at the top of your lungs, 'Fire!'" Reza Aslan is the former host of the CNN show Believer , which followed Aslan as he traveled the world and explored different religions. Aslan, who is Muslim, and his staff were deep into the production of the second season of the show, and he was literally packing his bags to fly to the first location to shoot some footage when he received the news that his show had been canceled. Why? Following the recent terror attacks in London, Trump seized the opportunity to reiterate the fascist call for a ban on Muslims traveling to the U.S. Outraged, Aslan took to Twitter and called President Trump "a piece of shit"--and for that, CNN fired him. This was soon after this same network cravenly fired comedian Kathy Griffin for a joke she made that Trump did not like. In a recent interview on Deadline.com, Aslan said he was "bummed" about the canceling of his show and having to let his staff go in the middle of production--but, he said, "I think that there is something much more important right now, which is the assault on our democracy and I need to make sure that that fight is the fight that I am fighting first and foremost." Asked whether he regrets his tweet, Aslan responded, "I don't regret the sentiment. I'm not trying to exaggerate here but look, when the house is on fire you can't just calmly describe the flames. You need to get onto the roof and scream at the top of your lungs, 'Fire!' And I think that nothing less is tolerable at this time that we are living in." Aslan's sense of urgency is something that people broadly should learn from and act on. Read the rest of Reza Aslan's interview here . Jacob Ayol, Security Supervisor at Denver International Airport and Sudanese Refugee, Speaks Out Against Trump's Muslim Ban Jacob Ayol came to the United States in 2003 from Sudan. He spent several years in the U.S. military before finding his current job as security supervisor for the Denver International Airport. He was at the airport when Trump's first Muslim travel ban went into effect, and says there was lots of fear and confusion among many people at the airport. As the head of security, he faced questions from employees and passengers who were coming to him for answers that he could not provide. He states that there was an overall "fear of the unknown." The travel ban reminded him of the fear felt in his former country and the religious divide between Sudan and South Sudan. "Each wanted to be superior, and each was afraid of the other," Ayol says. "It has brought our country to its knees and divided our country. It's not just history; it's real life. We just all want to live. We want to appreciate life and not tell the other what to believe." Ayol has joined with the Service Employees International Union in opposing the travel ban and believes that sharing his story and the stories of other refugees will help in that fight. "It's important if you've ever lived where you don't see buildings, where you don't know where you will eat tomorrow, you don't see clean water. If you ever live like that, you will understand that it is very important that someone have a shot at life." Read the rest of Jacob Ayol's story here . Steven Thrasher, Writer for the Guardian : "Yes there is a free speech crisis. But its victims are not white men." A writer at large for the Guardian US, Steven Thrasher was, among other honors, named Journalist of the Year in 2012 by the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association. In a June 5 piece at theguardian.com, Thrasher makes incisive points about what is widely being discussed by media "talking heads on both the left and the right" as a "freedom of speech crisis." Thrasher notes that those talking heads are "not lacking in a freedom to speak, nor are the white conservatives on college campuses they seem so worried about. It's women and people of color who struggle the most finding a platform--but there is a conspicuous lack of concern about that by free speech crusaders." Thrasher raises the recent example of what happened to Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, a Princeton professor and the author of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation . After she gave a commencement address at Hampshire College in which she said that Donald Trump had "fulfilled the campaign promises of a campaign organized and built upon racism, corporatism and militarism," she was threatened with lynching and being shot in the head; and she said, "I have been repeatedly called 'nigger,' 'bitch,' 'cunt,' 'dyke,' 'she-male,' and 'coon'--a clear reminder that racial violence is closely aligned with gender and sexual violence." Thrasher writes that he and his journalist colleagues have also been recipients of such outrageous and violent threats. And as Thrasher notes, all this is not happening in a vacuum: "They are happening in a country where the majority of white voters elected a man who bragged about grabbing women 'by the pussy' without consent. They are happening in a country where, as Business Insider put it , 'Trump has unleashed a white crime wave' against people of color from Maryland to Kansas to Oregon . "They are happening in a country where Confederate monuments are removed at night (for the safety of those removing them) but where pro-Confederate forces feel safe to carrying torches . They are happening in a country where an academic philosophy journal will publish a Black Lives Matter symposium without any black philosophers. "And they are happening in a country where black children are shot by the police, where the greatest basketball player of all time has a racial slur painted on his home, and where a noose was found at the nation's newest black history museum." Read Steven Thrasher's article online here . C. Christine Fair, Georgetown University Professor, on Confronting neo-Nazi Leader Richard Spencer: "This is our December 1932" Christine Fair is a Provost's Distinguished Associate Professor at Georgetown University's Security Studies Program in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. A May 25 op-ed in the Washington Post by Fair was titled, "I confronted Richard Spencer at my gym. Racists don't get to lift in peace." Recently, while working out at the gym, Fair came face to face with Richard Spencer. Spencer heralds himself as the new face of white supremacy, the "alt-right," which is in fact a euphemism for fascist neo-Nazi thugs. Spencer is a strong supporter of Trump, whom he believes is mainstreaming his racist vision of an "ethno-state." Some will recall, after the election, Spencer and his "alt-right" storm troopers celebrating and referring to Donald Trump as their "Fuhrer," giving Nazi salutes, and shouting "Hail Trump," summoning to mind the Nazi "Heil Hitler." Fair courageously called Spencer out as a "vocal propagandist for racism" right in the middle of his workout. Immediately, Spencer took to YouTube to decry his "unfair" treatment and lambaste Fair in the most misogynist of terms. As Fair points out, Spencer "sought to garner sympathy by arguing that he is a model gym user--he should be allowed to spread hate and stoke racist, misogynist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and other bigoted forms of violence, and organize torchlit nighttime rallies that conjure up images of similar rallies staged by the Klan--all without facing consequences for his actions when off the job, so to speak." Fair simply responds, "But Spencer is wrong." Fair goes on to compare the current historical moment with that of Germany in December 1932. She says, "I imagine Germans sitting around their tables in December 1932 lamenting the eroding civil society and expansion of hateful, nationalist rhetoric between bites of Wiener schnitzel and sips of beer. They see what's coming but they are too uncomfortable to do anything." Fair ends her article with a challenge to today's "Good Germans" (she refers to Richard Collins, a Black U.S. Army lieutenant who was recently murdered by a white man who was involved in a Facebook group that posts racist material): This is our December 1932. We have a choice. Good people can acquiesce to the purported demands of polite society and concede that Spencer's right to lift weights in peace is more important that the rights of men like Collins to live full and productive lives, that being a white supremacist is not a 9-to-5 job, and that as long as he doesn't bring his torch into an establishment, Spencer and his associates should be treated as any other civilized person. Or we can refuse to treat this hateful, dangerous ideology as just another way of being, and fight it in every space we occupy. I've made my choice. You need to make yours. Read C. Christine Fair's op-ed here . Lincoln Blades, Contributor to Teen Vogue : "White male terrorists are an issue we should discuss" In a May 9 piece for Teen Vogue , Lincoln Blades explores why the United States needs to take seriously the presence of white male extremists. He contrasts the swirling media coverage and intense government response of mass attacks carried out by Islamic jihadists and the lack of coverage by the media and the government's reluctance to identify attacks carried out by white (often right wing) men as acts of terrorism. He also notes Trump and other politicians' fierce response to attacks by Muslims, while refusing to address the far more likely scenario of white supremacists attacking Black people. After the San Bernardino shooting, Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, and Marco Rubio all jumped at the opportunity to declare that America was at "war." Then candidate, and current president, Donald Trump took the rhetoric a step further by calling for a broad-sweeping ban on Muslims entering the United States. But, five days earlier, a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs was targeted by a white male devout Christian, and there was no degree of rage expressed by those same Republican presidential candidates or the accompanying hyperbolic war proclamations. In fact, the shooter, Robert Dear, was referred to as a "gentle loner" by The New York Times .... Who radicalized Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who in 2015 executed nine unarmed black churchgoers inside of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina? After he was arrested, it was discovered that he had published a website where he espoused racist ideology, regurgitating bigoted talking points on the false "epidemic" of "black-on-white" crimes, espousing that black people are inherently "violent" and that white women need to be protected from black men. It's easy to say that his views were influenced by a small, fringe group of insane right-wing extremists, but it's seemingly far more difficult for us to collectively accept that these prejudiced talking points have been given life through mainstream media bias, and even by the president of the United States, who once tweeted a racist meme that incorrectly cited myths about "black-on-white" crime in America as fact. Read Lincoln Blade's entire article here . Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie--on connection between the murders by a white-supremacist Nazi in Portland and Trump's anti-Muslim bigotry On May 26, Jeremy Joseph Christian, a known white supremacist and neo-Nazi, began harassing two teenage Muslim women on MAX, Portland's subway train. Christian was verbally assaulting the two young women, yelling racist and anti-Muslim slurs. When several men on the train attempted to intervene, Christian pulled out a knife and stabbed three men. Two of the men died from their wounds, and a third is in a hospital. Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie, a contributor at HuffingtonPost.com wrote a powerful piece a day after the attacks. Currie is a minister in the United Church of Christ, Director of the Center for Peace and Spirituality, and University Chaplain at Pacific University. He lives just a few blocks from where the attack took place. In his piece, Currie discusses correlation between hate crimes and the election of Donald Trump, pointing to the reported increase in hate crimes by 197% since the day after the election to February. He notes that Trump and others are being helped in spreading anti-Muslim bigotry by "Christian leaders such as Franklin Graham, a close ally of the president." Dr. Currie calls on Christians and others to oppose the hate incited by Trump and his cronies: Islam is not evil or a dangerous religion. Fundamentalism, however, can turn any faith tradition into a violent movement. Consider the number of terrorist bombings at women's health clinics in the United States by so-called Christians over the last several decades, and the link between white nationalist domestic terrorist groups that identify as part of a fringe movement within Christianity. Trump, Graham, and others have helped to incite violence at their rallies and in the streets. This new normal can only be called sinful. The attack in Portland can only be called domestic terrorism. My prayer is that every Christian body speaks out against hate crimes such as the one that occurred in Portland last night. It is vital that the interfaith movement in the United States continues to stand-up as a counterweight to those who would use religion as a tool of division. All our faith traditions, at their core, are about building just societies and freeing people from oppression. We must be about the work of bringing people together; not building walls to keep one another apart. Read the whole article by Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie article here . Max Perry Mueller, Religious Studies Professor: How Trump and Pence Together Embody a "White Christian America" in Decline Religious studies professor Max Perry Mueller, writing before the election of the Trump/Pence regime, dug into the seeming contradiction between the worldview of Donald Trump and Mike Pence. Mueller, an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, described Mike Pence's long history of perverse Christian fascist legislation, which is substantial to say the least. He reminded readers that Pence as vice president would be "just a heartbeat--or impeachment--away from the Oval Office," describing him as "a politician who, as Pence himself implied at the vice presidential debate, believes it his 'calling' to legislate his religious views into public policy." In his piece, Mueller hit on some important reasons why Trump and Pence, despite some of their obvious differences in worldview and public persona, dangerously complement each other: Pence's first--and primary--identity as a conservative Christian and the governing worldview that it forms in many ways aligns with Trump's own view of seeing the world divided starkly into allies and enemies, good deals and bad deals, security and menace. In this sense, both Trump and Pence are restorationists. And their restorationist visions for America are complementary. Trump's is racial; Pence's is religious. Together, their ticket embodies a "white Christian America" in decline, as Robert P. Jones has powerfully described it . In a Trump-Pence ticket, white Christian America not only hopes to resist the forces demographic and cultural change, but to restore white Protestant Americans (especially men) to their place of unchallenged preeminence. See Mueller's article, "The Christian Worldview of Mike Pence," here . Michelangelo Signorile, Editor of HuffPost "Queer Voices" on Firing of Comey: "Stop Being Polite and Immediately Start Raising Hell" In a May 10 article, Michelangelo Signorile, editor-at-large of the "Queer Voices" column on HuffPost, says that with the firing of FBI Director James Comey, Donald Trump "made his most frightening authoritarian power grab yet." He writes, "This could be viewed as a direct step toward consolidating power and, yes, toward fascism, as we've seen play out in other countries--in Turkey recently, and in many other countries in history from which you could choose as an example." Signorile puts forward sharply that, given this very dangerous situation, "It's time to move beyond polite protests within specified boundaries. It's time to escalate the expression of our outrage and our anger in a massive way." He goes on: Starting today and from here on , no elected official--certainly those in the GOP defending and supporting Trump on a variety of issues, for example--should be able to sit down for a nice, quiet lunch or dinner in a Washington, DC eatery or even in their own homes. They should be hounded by protestors everywhere, especially in public--in restaurants, in shopping centers, in their districts, and yes, on the public property outside their homes and apartments, in Washington and back in their home states. White House officials too--those enabling the authoritarian--need to be challenged everywhere, as do all those at the conservative think tanks who support Trump and those who publicly defend him in their columns and on television. Go here to read the entire piece, "To Save America We Must Stop Being Polite And Immediately Start Raising Hell." Joan Baez: "In the new political and cultural reality in which we find ourselves, there is much work to be done" On April 7, in recognition of her nearly 60-year folk singing career, Joan Baez was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The following is from her acceptance speech: What has given my life deep meaning, and unending pleasure, has been to use my voice in the battle against injustice. It has brought me in touch with my own purpose. It has also brought me in touch with people of every background... And I've met and tried to walk in the shoes of those who are hungry, thirsty, cold and cast out, people imprisoned for their beliefs, and others who have broken the law, paid the price, and now live in hopelessness and despair. Of exonerated prisoners who have spent decades in solitary confinement, awaiting execution. Of exhausted refugees, immigrants, the excluded and the bullied. Those who have fought for this country, sacrificed, and now live in the shadows of rejection. People of color, the old, the ill, the physically challenged, the LGBTQ community. And now, in the new political and cultural reality in which we find ourselves, there is much work to be done. Where empathy is failing and sharing has been usurped by greed and the lust for power, let us double, triple, and quadruple our own efforts to empathize and to give of our resources and our selves. Let us together repeal and replace brutality, and make compassion a priority. Together let us build a great bridge, a beautiful bridge to once again welcome the tired and the poor, and we will pay for that bridge with our commitment. We the people must speak truth to power, and be ready to make sacrifices. We the people are the only one who can create change. I am ready. I hope you are, too. I want my granddaughter to know that I fought against an evil tide, and had the masses by my side. Read the whole speech here . Henry Scott Wallace: "American Fascism, in 1944 and Today" In a May 12 op-ed in the New York Times, Henry Scott Wallace--lawyer and co-chairman of the foundation Wallace Global Fund, which promotes "sustainable development"--compares Trump to the fascist Benito Mussolini, whose regime ruled Italy leading up to and through World War 2. Wallace's grandfather was Henry A. Wallace, who was vice-president under Franklin D. Roosevelt in the early 1940s. In 1944, Henry A. Wallace wrote an article in the New York Times titled "The Danger of American Fascism." According to Henry Scott Wallace, his grandfather's article "described a breed of super-nationalist who pursues political power by deceiving Americans and playing to their fears..." He writes, "'[I]n my view, he predicted President Trump." In the op-ed, Henry Scott Wallace cites different quotes from his grandfather's article and points to their relevance today. One point the op-ed addresses is how fascists use lies: In fact, they use lies strategically, to promote civic division, which then justifies authoritarian crackdowns. Through "deliberate perversion of truth and fact," [Henry A. Wallace] said, "their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity." Thus might lying about unprecedented high crime rates legitimize a police state. Lying about immigrants being rapists and terrorists might justify a huge border wall, mass expulsions and religion-based immigration bans. Lying about millions of illegal votes might excuse suppression of voting by disfavored groups. The op-ed appears in the May 12 print issue of the NY Times and online here . Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Americanah) in The New Yorker , December 2, 2016 "Now is not the time to tiptoe around historical references. Recalling Nazism is not extreme; it is the astute response of those who know that history gives both context and warning." Statement from Faculty at the University of Southern California, published in the Los Angeles Times , March 23, 2017 We are USC Faculty. We are scientists, artists, and thinkers from over 115 countries, working together every day, side by side, to understand the world around us and to share what we've learned with future generations. We proudly affirm the core mission of the university as a place for the generation of knowledge, the preservation of scholarship, and informed discussion and debate, all of which are vital to a healthy democracy. We will vigorously defend our core values of academic freedom, high standards of evidence, free inquiry, openness, and inclusion against policies and actions driven by fear, bigotry, and propaganda. We are committed to: -- protecting the human rights of our students, our fellow faculty, staff, and all members of the USC community, irrespective of their race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, religion, nationality, or citizenship status. -- supporting and encouraging all university efforts to provide critical resources for staff, students and faculty who are most vulnerable and at greatest risk. -- supporting faculty, students, and staff who engage in civil disobedience and protest if members of the academic community are harmed or deported due to targeted state actions. We will Fight On! Shaun King: "No President who ever owned human beings should be honored" In his article "No President who ever owned human beings should be honored" on March 15, Shaun King wrote in the New York Daily News that Adolf Hitler "is a monster who should never be honored," and continued: Just as this is true for Hitler, it is true for any American President who ever owned human beings and forced them into a life of slavery. The Holocaust and slavery are each an unjust disgrace. King details the monstrous horrors of slavery and then calls out Trump: Today, Donald Trump is going out of his way to honor President Andrew Jackson. He should never be honored. Over his lifetime his family owned at least 300 human beings. This is terrible and no contribution he made in his life will ever outweigh this fact. To this very day, Andrew Jackson's own estate openly admits that the key source of his wealth came from owning human beings and forcing them to work on his plantation. At the time Jackson died, he owned about 150 people. He was a full-fledged unrepentant bigot. The enslaved Africans on his plantation were often whipped and beaten. If they escaped, fugitive squads searched for them and returned them back to the plantation. One advertisement put out by Jackson for a runaway slave offered $10 for every 100 lashes given to the slave who was caught. Is that not sick to you? This makes Andrew Jackson a monster. Nothing he did as President of the United States is good enough to look past this. The same holds true for every single American President who owned human beings. Read the whole article here Michael Bennett, NFL football player, supports the women's strike on International Women's Day Michael Bennett, who plays for the Seattle Seahawks, who participated in the pro football players' national anthem protest, and who refused to be a shill for Israel against the Palestinian people (see " Pro Football Player Michael Bennett Refuses to Be a Shill for Israel " Revolution, February 14, 2017, revcom.us), had his statement in support of the women's strike on International Women's Day read by Dave Zirin on his podcast. Here are some excerpts from Bennett's statement: "As a Black man in America sometimes I get overwhelmed and discouraged by what I see, from the police killings of unarmed Black men to the unequal educational system to mass incarceration, but when I look into my daughter's eyes, I see the courage of Harriet Tubman, the patience of Rosa Parks, the soul of Ida B. Wells, the passion of Fanny Lou Hamer, and the heart of Angela Davis. I see the future. I see hope. And, I'm inspired because it will be women who lead the future. So, I'm writing this to express my unconditional solidarity for the women's strike on International Women's Day, March 8th." "It's about the women across the Earth who are suffering. Women not so worried about the glass ceiling because they are trying to survive a collapsing floor. It's about women of color across the Earth who live on less than one dollar a day. It's about all women who are subject to sexual assault and violence. "I stand with the women's strike because I agree with their unity statement that reads that this day is 'organized by and for women who have been marginalized and silenced by decades of neoliberalism directed towards working women, women of color, Native women, disabled women, immigrant women, Muslim women, and lesbian women.'" "I encourage my fellow football players to take off their helmets and stand with these brave women across the world." "We need change, and to quote Frederick Douglass, 'Without struggle, there is no progress.'" (The statement is 35 minutes into the podcast at https://www.thenation.com/article/the-edge-of-sports-podcast-the-enduring-legacy-of-hoop-dreams/ ) Former ABC News Reporters, Executives, Producers Urge Strong Stand Against Trump As of March 1, more than 230 former ABC News correspondents, executives and producers have signed a letter urging the network's top executive to take a firm stand against any Trump administration effort to curtail press access. The letter was written after White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer held a briefing on February 24 and, in an unprecedented move, excluded several news organizations that have done stories Trump didn't like. The letter called the February 24 incident "an alarming new development enacted by an administration that has declared war on respected news outlets" and asked James Goldston, president of ABC News, to "take a public stand" and "Refuse to take part in any future White House briefings based on an invitation list of who's in/who's out." The letter noted that there has been strong public protest by Dean Baquet, executive editor of the New York Times , and statements by the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg that they would not participate in future briefing where reporters are barred. Signees include former White House correspondent Sam Donaldson; former ABC reporters Ken Kashiwahara, Jeanne Meserve and Lynn Sherr; four former executives and four former executive producers of "World News Tonight" and top leaders at "Nightline," "20/20'' and "Good Morning America." Kayce Freed Jennings, the widow of the late anchor Peter Jennings, was also one of the signers. ABC News is one of the media organizations Trump has labeled as the "enemy of the American people" and "fake news." ABC was allowed into the Spicer briefing, while CNN, New York Times , Los Angeles Times , Politico and BuzzFeed were denied access. Reporters from other organizations, including the Associated Press, USA Today and Time magazine, refused to attend the briefing in protest. Tim Rogers at Fusion: Calling Trump "Presidential" Is the First Step to Normalizing Fascism Tim Rogers is senior editor for Latin America at the cable and satellite TV channel Fusion. After Trump's February 28 speech to Congress, Rogers wrote a piece titled "Calling Trump's speech 'presidential' is the first step to normalizing fascism" (March 1, 2017) noting that "talking heads were quick to applaud Trump for acting 'presidential.'" Rogers goes on to say: But Trump's speech to Congress was only presidential by fascist standards. What Trump laid out, in the methodical words penned by an ideologue behind the throne, was a frightening vision of a country under siege by foreign hordes that are trying to establish a "beachhead of terrorism" to convert the United States into a "sanctuary for extremists." Trump depicted a dark world in which the U.S. is fighting "a network of lawless savages" that it must "extinguish ...from our planet." Trump was talking about ISIS in that instance, but his fear-mongering over foreigners wasn't limited to Islamic State fighters any more than the travel ban was limited to Muslims from seven countries. The narrative of barbarians at the gate was woven throughout Trump's speech, which seemed to build on George W. Bush's worldview of "You're either with us, or against us." But Trump's view is even racist and alienating by W's standards. From his call to build a border wall as "a very effective weapon against drugs and crime," to reiterating his appallingly cynical pledge to create a new Homeland Security Office to "serve American victims" of crimes committed by immigrants, Trump's whole speech was to lay out a dichotomy of us versus them, or "America first" in Trumpspeak. ... When the speech was over, Trump lackeys congratulated themselves on a "home run"--actually, make that a "grand slam." But even normally critical pundits said they thought Trump looked "presidential." That's dangerous thinking. Calling Trump's fear-mongering "presidential" is a first step to normalizing fascism. It's granting acceptance to the dangerous fascists skulking behind the golden curtains of the Oval Office. Anderson Cooper 360deg @AC360: Van Jones: Trump "became President of the United States" when he honored the widow of the Navy SEAL killed in Yemen. ... In an America where Trump's speech can be called "presidential," it'll be a slippery slope to despotism. Read Tim Roger's article in its entirety here . "I am vowing, here and now, not to show papers in this situation" " American citizens had their introduction to the Trump-era immigration machine Wednesday ..." So begins "Papers, Please," an article that appeared in The Atlantic online on February 27, about the February 22 domestic flight from SFO to JFK airport where every passenger was told by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents to show their ID before they could get off the plane. The agents claimed they were looking for a passenger who was undocumented and had a criminal record; it turned out that the person they sought was not on the plane. In the article, written by Garrett Epps, legal scholar, novelist, and contributing editor to The Atlantic , he examines all possible legal authorities and concludes that there is no justification in U.S. law for what was done to the passengers on that plane. And then Epps, demonstrating the courage of his convictions, writes: " I am vowing, here and now, not to show papers in this situation. I know that it will take gumption to follow through if the situation arises. What will be the reaction of ordinary travelers, some with outstanding warrants or other legal worries? Should we expect heroism of people who just want to get off an airplane? " "I wasn't pulled out because I'm some kind of revolutionary activist, but my God, I am now." Mem Fox's Terrifying Detention at the Los Angeles Airport Mem Fox, an award winning author from Australia, was pulled off an airplane when she arrived at Los Angeles International Airport and held in detention for almost two hours and interrogated for 15 minutes. In an op-ed article in The Guardian , she tells of her terrifying, belligerent, and violent experience. She describes the room "like a waiting room in a hospital but a bit more grim than that.... There was no water, no toilet... Everything was yelled..." She said that she "heard things happening in that room happening to other people that made me ashamed to be human." She describes an elderly Iranian woman in a wheelchair where they were yelling at her at the top of their voices--"Arabic? Arabic?" They screamed at her "ARABIC?" She told them "Farsi." A woman from Taiwan was being yelled at about how she made her money: Does it grow on trees? Does it fall from the sky?" Mem said, "...the agony I was surrounded by in that room was like a razor blade across my heart." When she was called to be interviewed, she was degraded, and called it "monstrous." She told them that she writes books about exclusivity. She had one of her books in her bag and said, "I am all about inclusivity, humanity and the oneness of the humans of the world; it's the theme of my life." He yelled at her, "I can read!" She was standing the whole time and said, "The belligerence and violence of it was really terrifying. I had to hold the heel of my right hand to my heart to stop it beating so hard." Interview with Claudia Koonz, Historian and Author of The Nazi Conscience Claudia Koonz is a historian of Nazi Germany and the author of Mothers in the Fatherland: Women, the Family and Nazi Politics, The Nazi Conscience , and other works. She was interviewed on The Michael Slate Show on KPFK Pacifica Radio on February 10. This is a transcript of the interview, slightly edited for length and clarity. Michael Slate: In broad strokes, let's talk about how fascism developed in Germany. Claudia Koonz: OK. First of all, let's remember that nobody ever heard of Hitler until the early 1930s. He was unemployed. The only steady job he ever had in his life was when he fought in World War I for four years. He was quite brave. This was a splinter party. As late as 1928, ten years after the defeat in World War I, the Nazis got 2.6% of the vote. 1930, they got 18% of the vote. 1932 they were up to the high point ever, 37.4% of the vote. So, the Nazis were never voted into power. Hitler was appointed into power. So the question is, how did this disreputable, fringe party of loudmouth, brawling Stormtroopers get from a tiny splinter party to the center in 1932, which put Hitler in position to get appointed as chancellor? John Legend: "Are we going to just accept inhumanity, or are we going to resist?" The singer John Legend has won ten Grammy Awards, one Golden Globe Award, and one Academy Award. He will be playing Frederick Douglass in the second season of the WGN series Underground . In a recent interview in the New York Times Magazine he was asked, "Has there been a piece of art that has affected you politically?" He replied: Books have certainly affected me. In college, I took a class that centered on a book called "Obedience to Authority," which was trying to explain why an ordinary German would be a worker at a concentration camp, or why anyone would be part of a system that is so evil and corrosive, and how they deal with authority and whatever cognitive dissonance they need to have to do something so inhumane. Then we read some James Joyce and Virginia Woolf; all those books in that class opened my eyes to the way human beings deal with authority and deal with how we become inhumane. I took those classes 20 years ago, but I've been thinking about that a lot when I think about how we're reacting to Donald Trump right now. The interviewer then asked, "How are you applying that thought process to contemporary times?" Legend said: Yeah, are we just going to go about our lives and try to be normal? I've seen a tweet going around about how a lot of people say that they would have been part of the civil rights movement, so this is basically that chance, this moment of truth for our society. Are we going to just accept inhumanity, or are we going to resist? Read the New York Times Magazine interview with John Legend here . Ann Frank Center for Mutual Respect Condemns Trump's So-Called "Condemnation" of Anti-Semitic Attacks On February 21, Donald Trump issued a statement supposedly condemning anti-Semitic attacks on Jewish institutions. At his February 16 press conference, Trump had insulted and bullied a correspondent from an Orthodox Jewish news agency who asked if Trump could condemn the wave of threats against Jewish institutions. Trump cut him off, yelled "quiet!" and "sit down" and ranted that this was "a very insulting question." Trump then declared himself "the least anti-Semitic person that you've ever seen in your entire life" while refusing the reporter's request to condemn attacks on Jewish institutions. Days after this, on February 20, Jewish community centers in ten states were targeted with bomb threats and forced to evacuate. There were also 170 graves at an historic Jewish cemetery in Missouri desecrated in the last few days. Immediately after Trump's February 21st statement, the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect posted a response on Facebook. The Center takes inspiration from Anne Frank, a Jewish teenager hunted down and killed by the Nazis. Her Diary is a famous chronicle of hiding out from the Nazis. The center "calls out prejudice, counters discrimination and advocates for the kinder and fairer world of which Anne Frank dreamed." The statement said in part: The President's sudden acknowledgement is a Band-Aid on the cancer of Antisemitism that has infected his own Administration. His statement today is a pathetic asterisk of condescension after weeks in which he and his staff have committed grotesque acts and omissions reflecting Antisemitism, yet day after day have refused to apologize and correct the record. Make no mistake: The Antisemitism coming out of this Administration is the worst we have ever seen from any Administration. The White House repeatedly refused to mention Jews in its Holocaust remembrance, and had the audacity to take offense when the world pointed out the ramifications of Holocaust denial. And it was only yesterday, President's Day, that Jewish Community Centers across the nation received bomb threats, and the President said absolutely nothing. Berkeley Law School Faculty and Staff: #NoBanNoWall Members of Berkeley Law (University of California, Berkeley School of Law) are taking a public stand against Trump's executive orders intensifying repression against immigrants and on the U.S.-Mexico border through a #NoBanNoWall photo project . Close-up photos of faculty and staff members show them with handwritten or printed signs. Their statement reads: President Trump's immigration executive orders, enforcement actions, and xenophobic threats directly impact members of our law school community. They undermine the public mission of our university to ensure access to the talented pool of students and researchers that reflects the diversity in the State of California and the world. They attack the ability of the university to fulfill its unique role as a site for the generation of knowledge and the free exchange of ideas among students, faculty, and staff of all nationalities, backgrounds, and creeds. They threaten our values of diversity and inclusion, which ensure a vibrant democracy. We oppose the executive orders and President Trump's attacks on certain communities. We are committed to maintaining the law school as a just and inclusive community. The PDF of the poster is available here . "Hands Off Our Revolution"--More than 200 Artists Around the World Say "We will not go quietly" When you go to the website, Hands Off Our Revolution, the first thing you see is the flashing words: HANDS OFF OUR BORDERS... WATER... AIR... LAND... CITIES... HOMES... PLANET... BODIES... HEALTH... JUSTICE... FRIENDS... FAMILIES... LOVES.... LIVES... More than 200 artists, writers, photographers, musicians and curators from around the world--including well-known figures such as Anish Kapoor, Steve McQueen, Laurie Anderson, Ed Ruscha, Matthew Barney, Rosalind Krauss, Maya Lin, Hank Willis Thomas, Catherine Opie, Yinka Shonibare, David Byrne, and Michael Stipe--have joined this spirit of resistance, signing the following Mission Statement: We are a global coalition affirming the radical nature of art. We believe that art can help counter the rising rhetoric of right-wing populism, fascism and the increasingly stark expressions of xenophobia, racism, sexism, homophobia and unapologetic intolerance. We know that freedom is never granted--it is won. Justice is never given--it is exacted. Both must be fought for and protected, yet their promise has seldom been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp, as at this moment. As artists, it is our job and our duty to reimagine and reinvent social relations threatened by right-wing populist rule. It is our responsibility to stand together in solidarity. We will not go quietly. It is our role and our opportunity, using our own particular forms, private and public spaces, to engage people in thinking together and debating ideas, with clarity, openness and resilience. The website also announces a project to do a "series of contemporary art exhibitions and actions that confront, head on, the rise of right-wing populism in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere... to help envision and shape the world in which we want to live." The Mission Statement in 10 different languages and the full description of the project are online at handsoffourrevolution.com . "I want to be a voice for the voiceless": Pro Football Player Michael Bennett Refuses to Be a Shill for Israel Bennett, who plays in the NFL (National Football League) for the Seattle Seahawks, announced he will not be joining an NFL delegation to Israel. Bennett has been involved in the struggle by professional athletes to protest police brutality. He took up the protest in the NFL started by San Francisco 49er Colin Kaepernick, who refused to stand for the national anthem. Bennett called for white athletes to take a stand against police murders, saying "You need a white guy to join the fight. The white guy is super important to the fight. For people to really see social injustices, there must be someone from the other side of the race who recognizes the problem, because a lot of times if just one race says there's a problem, nobody is realistic about it." Bennett has also posted photos and quotes from Black Panther leader Fred Hampton on his Instagram page. Bennett had originally planned to be on the delegation because he wanted to have interaction with both Palestinian and Israeli people. But he learned from an article in the Times of Israel that the trip would isolate him from the Palestinian people and turn him into a "goodwill ambassador." Then he read an open letter in The Nation magazine, signed by John Carlos, Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte, Alice Walker, and others calling on the athletes to "reconsider taking this trip to ensure you are standing on the right side of history." Bennett then wrote an open letter that he posted on Instagram and Twitter. Meryl Streep on standing up against "armies of brownshirts and bots": "You have to! You don't have an option" Actor Meryl Streep received the National Ally for Equality Award at a fundraising gala held by the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ civil rights organization, on Saturday night, February 11. In her acceptance speech, Streep said: [F]undamentalists, of every stripe everywhere, are exercised and fuming. We should not be surprised that these profound changes come at a steeper cost than we originally thought. We should not be surprised that not everyone is totally down with it. If we live through this precarious moment, if his catastrophic instinct to retaliate doesn't lead us to nuclear winter, we will have much to thank this president for. He will have woken us up to how fragile freedom is.... I am the most overrated, overdecorated and, currently, over-berated actress, who likes football, of my generation. But that is why you invited me here! Right? The weight of all these honors is part of what brings me to this podium. It compels me, against every one of my natural instincts (which is to stay home), it compels me to stand up in front of people and say words that haven't been written for me, but that come from my life and my conviction and that I have to stand by.... It's terrifying to put the target on your forehead. ... And it sets you up for all sorts of attacks and armies of brownshirts and bots and worse, and the only way you can do it is if you feel you have to. You have to. You don't have an option, but you have to stand up and speak up and act up. Hear Meryl Streep's whole speech here . A Tribe Called Quest at Grammys: "Resist, Resist, Resist" The Grammy Awards on Sunday night, February 12, closed with an electrifying set by the legendary hip-hop crew A Tribe Called Quest joined by Busta Rhymes, Anderson .Paak, and Consequence. At mid-point in the Tribe's medley of several songs, Busta Rhymes came--on and focused right on the outrages being carried out by Trump and his regime: "I'm not feeling the political climate right now. I just want to thank President Agent Orange for perpetuating all of the evil that you've been perpetuating throughout the United States. I want to thank President Agent Orange for your unsuccessful attempt at the Muslim ban. When we come together--we the people, we the people, people!" As he said those words, Tribe member Q-Tip, along with a woman wearing a hijab and others, bust through a wall on the stage. Q-Tip then launched into the Tribe song "We the People." And as he went into the hook, which sarcastically hits at those who spew hate and intolerance--"All you Black folks you must go/All you Mexicans you must go/And all you poor folks, you must go/Muslims and gays, boy, we hate your ways/So all you bad folks, you must go"--a diverse grouping of people of different nationalities, genders, and style of clothing walked up on to the stage. The performers all lined up at one point with fists in the air, and protest signs reading "No Wall No Ban" and photos of different faces were projected in the background. The powerful performance, inspiring performance closed with the chants from the stage: "Resist! Resist! Resist!" "The Rock," Misty Copeland, Steph Curry Hit Under Armour for Calling Trump an "Asset" On Tuesday, February 7, on CNBC's Halftime Report , Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank called Trump "a real asset for the country" and lauded his plans to "make bold decisions and be really decisive." The next day, ballerina Misty Copeland, actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and NBA star Steph Curry, who all have endorsement deals with the athletic clothing company, spoke out against Plank. Copeland wrote in an Instagram post, "I strongly disagree with Kevin Plank's recent comments in support of Trump." In a Facebook post, Johnson said Plank's comments were "neither my words, nor my beliefs" and said that he would ultimately "stand with this diverse team, the American and global workers, who are the beating heart and soul of Under Armour." Curry told the San Jose Mercury News that he agreed with Plank's comment on Trump... "if you remove the 'et'" from the word "asset." When asked if he would abandon Under Armour, Curry said that if "the leadership is not in line with my core values, then there is no amount of money, there is no platform I wouldn't jump off if it wasn't in line with who I am." Curry went on to say, "So that's a decision I will make every single day when I wake up. If something is not in line with what I'm about, then, yeah, I definitely need to take a stance in that respect." George Prochnik on Stefan Zweig, Trump, and "When It's Too Late to Stop Fascism" George Prochnik wrote the book The Impossible Exile: Stefan Zweig at the End of the World (2015). Zweig was an Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist, and biographer who at the height of his literary career in the 1920s and '30s, was one of the world's most popular writers and most widely translated living author. Zweig was a Jewish intellectual and his books were burned in Berlin in 1933. Like millions of others, with the rise of Hitler, he was driven into exile. Zweig went to London, New York, and then to Brazil where he committed suicide in 1942. Prochnik wrote a piece in the February 6 issue of The New Yorker , "When It's Too Late To Stop Fascism, According to Stefan Zweig." Prochnik says when Zweig sat down to write his biography, "He was determined to trace how the Nazis' reign of terror had become possible, and how he and so many others had been blind to its beginnings." Zweig wrote: "the big democratic newspapers, instead of warning their readers, reassured them day by day, that the [fascist] movement ... would inevitably collapse in no time" and that Hitler had "elevated lying to a matter of course." Prochnik writes: Reading in Zweig's memoir how, during the years of Hitler's rise to power, many well-meaning people "could not or did not wish to perceive that a new technique of conscious cynical amorality was at work," it's difficult not to think of our own present predicament. Last week, as Trump signed a drastic immigration ban that led to an outcry across the country and the world, then sought to mitigate those protests by small palliative measures and denials, I thought of one other crucial technique that Zweig identified in Hitler and his ministers: they introduced their most extreme measures gradually--strategically--in order to gauge how each new outrage was received. "Only a single pill at a time and then a moment of waiting to observe the effect of its strength, to see whether the world conscience would still digest the dose," Zweig wrote. "The doses became progressively stronger until all Europe finally perished from them."... In Zweig's view, the final toxin needed to precipitate German catastrophe came in February of 1933, with the burning of the national parliament building in Berlin--an arson attack Hitler blamed on the communists but which some historians still believe was carried out by the Nazis themselves. "At one blow all of justice in Germany was smashed," Zweig recalled. The destruction of a symbolic edifice--a blaze that caused no loss of life--became the pretext for the government to begin terrorizing its own civilian population. That fateful conflagration took place less than 30 days after Hitler became chancellor. The excruciating power of Zweig's memoir lies in the pain of looking back and seeing that there was a small window in which it was possible to act, and then discovering how suddenly and irrevocably that window can be slammed shut. To read the whole article, go here . Wagner College (Staten Island, NYC) Profs Denounce Trump Executive Orders In a February 8 paid ad in the Staten Island Advance newspaper, 33 professors at Wagner College, a liberal arts college in New York City, denounced Trump's executive orders and other actions. The statement is in the form of an open letter to Representative Dan Donovan, a Republican congressman from a district on Staten Island, who supported Trump's executive order banning refugees and immigrants from seven majority-Muslim countries saying it was "in America's best interest." The Wagner professors' statement said they "first and foremost" condemn that ban, saying that "this order creates religious discrimination and does so intentionally." The professors also condemned Trump's removal of any mention of climate change and LGBTQ rights from the White House website, Trump's attacks on the press and fact-based journalism, and his continued profit-making from his global holdings. They ended their statement with: "We believe the above actions, among others, taken by the Trump Administration are a threat to our democracy, our economy, our American values, our international alliances, and the ideals of citizenship and respect for knowledge and diversity that we strive to foster in our students." Read the statement and list of signatories (PDF) here . Two NBA Coaches Take On Trump this Week Popovich and Kerr Speak on Racial Inequality and the Muslim Ban From a reader: This week GQ published an article by Jay Willis, " Gregg Popovich and Steve Kerr Would Make a Great Presidential Ticket " where "these two have no time for the 'stick to sports' bullshit." Kerr and Popovich, both who are white, have been close friends since Kerr played for the San Antonio Spurs, coached by Popovich. Kerr coaches the Golden State Warriors in the San Francisco Bay Area. When Popovich was asked about Black History Month he said, "But more than anything, I think if people take the time to think about it, I think it is our national sin. It always intrigues me when people come out with, 'I'm tired of talking about that or do we have to talk about race again?' And the answer is you're damned right we do. Because it's always there, and it's systemic in the sense that when you talk about opportunity it's not about 'Well, if you lace up your shoes and you work hard, then you can have the American dream.' That's a bunch of hogwash. If you were born white, you automatically have a monstrous advantage educationally, economically, culturally in this society and all the systemic roadblocks that exist, whether it's in a judicial sense, a neighborhood sense with laws, zoning, education, we have huge problems in that regard that are very complicated, but take leadership, time, and real concern to try to solve. It's a tough one because people don't really want to face it." Kerr was born in Lebanon, where his father was president of the American University of Beirut. His father was murdered at the university by two men in 1984, and soon after an unknown Islamic group called the press to claim responsibility. Kerr weighed in on Trump's Muslim Ban this past week when he said, "As someone whose family member is a victim of terrorism, having lost my father--if we're trying to combat terrorism by banishing people from coming to this country, we're really going against the principles of what our country is about, and creating fear. It's the wrong way to go about it. If anything, we could be breeding anger and terror, so I'm completely against what's happening. I think it's shocking. I think it's a horrible idea and I feel for all the people who are affected, families are being torn apart." Kerr also had something to say about the liars in the Trump administration when he told reporters after a game with the Orlando Magic that "Sean Spicer will be talking about my Magic career any second now. 14,000 points. Greatest player in Magic history." Kerr actually scored 5,437 points while playing in the NBA from 1988-2003. Shawn Gaylord, Advocacy Counsel for Human Rights First: "I would call on the entire LGBT community to stand up and say 'not in our name'" In a February 3 article for the Advocate titled "Trump's Executive Orders: Divide and Conquer," Shawn Gaylord, advocacy counsel for Human Rights First focusing on LGBT issues, makes an important point about how Trump must not be allowed to pit different sections of the people against each other. Gaylord writes, "I am sure I am not alone in reading through each statement and each executive order [from Trump] with a sense of foreboding as we watch community after community being targeted by a government that seems determined to roll back the progress of the last few decades." He notes that so far Trump's executive orders have not "specifically targeted people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity," though, as he points out, among the sections of the people targeted so far--women, refugees, immigrants, religious minorities, people of color--LGBT people are part of each. Noting that there is one direct mention of "sexual orientation" is Trump's executive order banning immigrants and refugees from seven mainly Muslim countries, Gaylord writes: A quick read might cause you to think it was actually a move to protect LGBT people. But on closer examination, you quickly realize that what is at play is something we dreaded all along. The protection of LGBT people is cited as a justification for a set of cruel and unnecessary new immigration policies that, no matter how carefully worded they might be, amount to a Muslim ban. The "Purpose" section, which purports to explain what the executive order is designed to accomplish, notes, "The United States should not admit ... those who would oppress members of one race, one gender, or sexual orientation." It is not clear exactly how immigration authorities would know which individuals "would" take such actions, although I suspect they will turn to broad generalizations about religious groups. This language, like other sections of the order, seems clearly designed to target Muslims. We saw this coming and we cannot let it stand.... The Trump administration seems to be employing every tactic at its disposal, but one of the most egregious is this strategy of "divide and conquer." By appealing to the shared desire that LGBT people might live their lives free from violence, the Trump administration is hoping we will turn that desire into fear and hatred of another marginalized community. He did it after Orlando, he did it with this executive order, and I would call on the entire LGBT community to stand up and say "not in our name." Read Shawn Gaylord's article at the Advocate web site. Cleveland Clinic Doctors, Medical Students, and Other Medical Staff: Trump's actions "directly harm human health and well-being in the United States and abroad" When Trump signed the executive order banning Muslims from seven countries from entering the U.S., one of the people affected was a first-year internal medicine student at the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic hospital, Dr. Suha Abushamma. Even though she has a legal visa and documents allowing her to legally study and work in the United States, she was not allowed to re-enter the country because she has a passport from Sudan--one of the seven banned countries--and was forcibly diverted to Saudi Arabia. Her colleagues at the Cleveland Clinic, along with more than 1,400 other medical students, doctors, and other medical staff have issued an open letter criticizing the heads of the hospital for not taking a stand against Trump's Muslim ban. The letter points out that far from condemning Trump's actions, "the Cleveland Clinic silently continues to promote ties with the Trump administration." In fact, an upcoming Cleveland Clinic fundraiser--with tickets costing upwards of $100,000--is scheduled to be held at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. The open letter says: Through this action you are supporting a president who has, in his first ten days in office, reinstated the global gag rule, weakened the Affordable Care Act, fast-tracked construction of both the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines through legally protected native lands, and banned legal U.S. residents from majority-Muslim countries. All of these actions directly harm human health and well-being in the United States and abroad. Your willingness to hold your fundraiser at a Trump resort is an unconscionable prioritization of profit over people. It is impossible for the Cleveland Clinic to reconcile supporting its employees and patients while simultaneously financially and publicly aiding an individual who directly harms them. The open letter and list of signatories is available here NARAL Pro-Choice America: "Gorsuch represents an existential threat to legal abortion in the United States..." After Trump announced the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court seat that has been empty since Antonio Scalia died last year (see " Trump Picks 'Scalia Clone' to Replace Scalia on the Supreme Court "), the pro-choice group NARAL issued a statement saying in part: ...President Trump's decision to speed up the announcement of his Supreme Court nominee will not distract from the hundreds of thousands of Americans demonstrating in the streets and at airports. After Trump's disastrous first week on the job--from his global gag rule to his travel ban on Muslims--we cannot afford to elevate his destructive agenda with a lifetime appointment to our nation's highest court. With Judge Neil Gorsuch, the stakes couldn't be higher when it comes to women and our lives. Gorsuch represents an existential threat to legal abortion in the United States and must never wear the robes of a Supreme Court justice. With a clear track record of supporting an agenda that undermines abortion access and endangers women, there is no doubt that Gorsuch is a direct threat to Roe v. Wade and the promise it holds for women's equality. The fact that the court has repeatedly reaffirmed Roe over the past four decades would no longer matter, just as facts often don't seem to matter to President Trump. Confirming Gorsuch to a lifetime on the Supreme Court would make good on Trump's repeated promises to use his appointments to overturn Roe v. Wade and punish women. NARAL and our 1.2 million member-activists call on the Senate to reject Trump's nominee using any and all available means, including the filibuster. The complete statement from NARAL on Trump's nomination of Gorsuch is online here . Emma Stone, Actor: "We have to speak up against injustice, and we have to kick some ass" At the Screen Actors Guild award on January 29, Emma Stone won the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for her work in the film La La Land . In her acceptance speech she said: We're in a really tricky time in the world and our country and things are very inexcusable and scary and need action and I'm so grateful to be part of a group of people that cares and that wants to reflect things back to society. Later in an interview backstage, she said: We have to speak up against injustice, and we have to kick some ass.... I was thinking about art this year, and that in a time like this, for so many, horrific things are happening. It's so special to be a part of people who want to reflect what's happening back to the world and to make people happy. I would hope that people would fight for what's right and what's just fucking human.... I think if we're human beings, and we see injustice, we have to speak up, because staying silent, as they say, only really helps the oppressor. It never helps the victim. So I think that, yes, right now, I would hope that everyone, when seeing things being done that are absolutely unconstitutional and inhumane, would say something, anything. Whether it's at school or at an awards show or work, offices, or online. Saira Rafiee, CUNY Grad Student: "We, the 99% of the world, need to stand united in resisting the authoritarian forces all over the world" Saira Rafiee, an Iranian Ph.D. student in political science at the CUNY (City University of New York) Graduate Center, was traveling back to the U.S. from Iran when Trump issued the executive order banning people from seven majority Muslim countries, including Iran, from entering the U.S. Rafiee, an Iranian citizen, was visiting family and was on her way back to New York, with legal documents, to resume her work and studies at CUNY. Saira Rafiee wrote on Facebook about what happened: I got on the flight to Abu Dhabi, but there at the airport was told that I would not be able to enter the U.S. I had to stay there for nearly 18 hours, along with 11 other Iranians, before getting on the flight back to Tehran. I have no clue whether I would ever be able to go back to the school I like so much, or to see my dear friends there. But my story isn't as painful and terrifying as many other stories I have heard these days The sufferings of all of us are just one side of this horrendous order. The other side is the struggle against racism and fascism, against assaults on freedom and human dignity, against all the values that even though are far from being realized, are the only things that would make life worth living. As a student of sociology and political science, I have devoted a major part of my scholarly life to the study of authoritarianism. The media has published enough statistics during the past few days to show how irrelevant this order is to the fight against terrorism. It is time to call things by their true names; this is Islamophobia, racism, fascism. We, the 99% of the world, need to stand united in resisting the authoritarian forces all over the world. Ben Cohen, Founder/Editor of The Daily Banter : "This Is Straight Up Fascism" Ben Cohen is the founder and editor of The Daily Banter (thedailybanter.com). Originally from London and now living in Washington, DC, he has written for the Huffington Post and ESPN.com. His January 27 article, "Trump's Weekly List of Crimes Committed by Immigrants is Straight Up Fascism," says in part: Adding to his list of executive orders and policy proposals designed to roll back civil liberties, wreck the environment and insult foreign nations, the Trump administration is also mandating that Homeland Security "make public a comprehensive list of criminal actions committed by aliens." This was included in Trump's new executive order on immigration, and according to the Independent , "Will also include details of so-called 'sanctuary cities' that refuse to hand over immigrant residents for deportation"... Make no mistake about it, this is straight up fascism... nothing more than a nasty scare tactic designed to instill fear in white Americans and create a new way of dividing the country along ethnic identity lines. We have seen this over and over again throughout history. Fascist dictators rise to power through the scapegoating of immigrants and minorities, then hold onto office by continuing the tactic. The Trump administration clearly believes it is a winning formula and Trump has made so called "illegals" the focal point of his first few days in office. From insisting that he only lost the popular vote due to (completely non-existent) widespread voter fraud to his executive order to build a wall stopping Mexicans from entering the country, Trump is betting big on white fear keeping him in office. The weekly list of immigrant crime is appalling and will simply fan the flames of xenophobia and hate.... Read Cohen's article here . Rihanna: "What an immoral pig" On January 28, singer Rihanna tweeted: Disgusted! The news is devastating! America is being ruined right before our eyes! What an immoral pig you have to be to implement such BS!! As of January 30, there have been 175,000 re-tweets of this Rihanna tweet. Cast of Stranger Things : "We will get past the lies. We will hunt monsters!" On Sunday night, January 29, the Netflix series Stranger Things won the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble. A capsule description of the series says: "In a small Indiana town in the early 1980s, a boy goes missing after finding something sinister lurking in the woods. Nearby, a girl with extraordinary powers escapes from a sinister government facility and joins together with the boy's friends to get him back." At the televised SAG award show, David Harbour, who plays Chief Hopper in the series, stepped up to the mic to accept the award on behalf of the cast. After making a number of acknowledgements he turned to current events. He called on his fellow actors to: Go deeper and through our art battle against fear, self-centeredness, and exclusivity of our predominantly narcissistic culture.... As we act in the continuing narrative of Stranger Things , we 1983 Midwesterners will repel bullies. We will shelter freaks and outcasts, those who have no hope. We will get past the lies. We will hunt monsters! And when we are at a loss amidst the hypocrisy and the casual violence of certain individuals and institutions, we will, as per Chief Hopper, punch some people in the face when they seek to destroy the weak and the disenfranchised and the marginalized! And we will do it all with soul, with heart, and with joy. We thank you for this responsibility. University Science Professors Call for Defense of Science and Government Scientists Three university science professors--Graham Coop, Professor of Evolution and Ecology, UC Davis; Michael B. Eisen, Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology, UC Berkeley; Molly Przeworski, Professor of Biological Sciences, Columbia University--have issued a statement in support of scientists within the government who are under attack. Their message is as follows: Governmental scientists employed at a subset of agencies have been forbidden from presenting their findings to the public. We have drafted the following response for distribution, and encourage other scientists to post it to their websites, when feasible. In Defense of Science We are deeply concerned by the Trump administration's move to gag scientists working at various governmental agencies. The US government employs scientists working on medicine, public health, agriculture, energy, space, clean water and air, weather, the climate and many other important areas. Their job is to produce data to inform decisions by policymakers, businesses and individuals. We are all best served by allowing these scientists to discuss their findings openly and without the intrusion of politics. Any attack on their ability to do so is an attack on our ability to make informed decisions as individuals, as communities and as a nation. If you are a government scientist who is blocked from discussing their work, we will share it on your behalf, publicly or with the appropriate recipients. You can email us at USScienceFacts@gmail.com . Laurence Tribe, Constitutional Law Professor: "Trump must be impeached for abusing his power" Laurence Tribe, Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School and the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University, sent out a series of tweets on January 28--as thousands of people protested at airports across the U.S. against the anti-Muslim order Trump signed the day before: Vital to impeach and remove Trump before his cruel brand of bigotry and scapegoating seeps even more deeply into our national bloodstream. Trump just said what he's doing at the airports "is working out very nicely." The man has no eyes, no brain, and no heart. Trump must be impeached for abusing his power and shredding the Constitution more monstrously than any other President in American history. The tragic scenes unfolding at JFK and other US airports expose Trump as a heartless merciless monster. He must be stopped. Trump's promise to prioritize Christian over Muslim refugees when the 90-day ban lifts violates the Religion Clauses of our First Amendment. Jewish Voices for Peace on Trump's Anti-Muslim, Anti-Refugee Order: "We pledge to resist in every way that we can" On January 25, Jewish Voices for Peace released the following statement in anticipation of Trump's issuing of an executive order the next day targeting refugees and immigrants from mainly Muslim countries: As the Trump administration follows through on the some of most harmful and alarming promises of his campaign, we will follow through on ours: to love, defend and fight alongside our friends, neighbors, and communities directly under attack. Decades of racist, Islamophobic, and xenophobic policies and discourses around national security, the "War on Terror," and immigration have laid the groundwork for this nightmare set of policies designed to target, profile, surveil and ban people due to their religion, race, national origin or legal status. These new policies will build on existing infrastructure, primarily impacting people who have fled from countries that the United States has bombed or invaded, as well as those whose local economies have been destroyed by our military operations and trade policies. While the details of these new policies are still unfolding, we pledge to resist in every way that we can. We'll put our hearts, souls, and bodies on the line to stop hateful and racist attacks. We will organize our communities to stand alongside our Muslim, immigrant & refugee neighbors, in the halls of Congress & government institutions, and in the streets. We cannot let this stand. Nikki Giovanni, the well-known African- American poet, essayist, and a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech, recently spoke with the Huffington Post. During the interview, she said the following: "My heart breaks for the next generation with these fools in the white house. Asking us to give Trump a chance is like asking Jews to give Hitler a chance. I read that eight percent of blacks voted for him. That's like a vote for slavery. I'm so proud of women for standing up at the Women's Marches all over the country. In Washington it was so crowded that you couldn't move. These women were telling Donald Trump 'not on our watch'. Saying they won't bow down or bend over and take the worse from him. Why take abortion and make us have children and then deny those kids healthcare?... "Trump will not listen and only a fool would try to reason with him. He is beyond redemption." For the entire interview go here : Philip Roth on Trump: "What is most terrifying is that he makes any and everything possible, including, of course, the nuclear catastrophe" Philip Roth's 2004 novel The Plot Against America imagines a scenario where there is a fascist takeover in America--through the ballot box. The aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh--who in his day was one of the three or four biggest celebrities in the world and a Nazi sympathizer--sweeps the 1940 election in a landslide. Then, in steps both incremental and rapid, fascism comes in. At the time, Roth wrote in the New York Times Book Review that he did not intend to write this as a political roman a clef (a novel in which real people or events appear with invented names). He said he wanted to dramatize some "what-ifs" that never happened in America. Now Roth is commenting about the current relevance of The Plot Against America. A piece titled "Philip Roth E-Mails On Trump" by Judith Thurman appears in the January 30 issue of The New Yorker . Thurman says Roth was asked via e-mail if the scenario in his book has now happened. Roth's response, in part: It isn't Trump as a character, a human type--the real-estate type, the callow and callous killer capitalist--that outstrips the imagination. It is Trump as President of the United States. I was born in 1933, the year that F.D.R. was inaugurated. He was President until I was twelve years old. I've been a Roosevelt Democrat ever since. I found much that was alarming about being a citizen during the tenures of Richard Nixon and George W. Bush. But, whatever I may have seen as their limitations of character or intellect, neither was anything like as humanly impoverished as Trump is: ignorant of government, of history, of science, of philosophy, of art, incapable of expressing or recognizing subtlety or nuance, destitute of all decency, and wielding a vocabulary of seventy-seven words that is better called Jerkish than English... Unlike writers in Eastern Europe in the nineteen-seventies, American writers haven't had their driver's licenses confiscated and their children forbidden to matriculate in academic schools. Writers here don't live enslaved in a totalitarian police state, and it would be unwise to act as if we did, unless--or until--there is a genuine assault on our rights and the country is drowning in Trump's river of lies. In the meantime, I imagine writers will continue robustly to exploit the enormous American freedom that exists to write what they please, to speak out about the political situation, or to organize as they see fit... My novel wasn't written as a warning. I was just trying to imagine what it would have been like for a Jewish family like mine, in a Jewish community like Newark, had something even faintly like Nazi anti-Semitism befallen us in 1940, at the end of the most pointedly anti-Semitic decade in world history. I wanted to imagine how we would have fared, which meant I had first to invent an ominous American government that threatened us. As for how Trump threatens us, I would say that, like the anxious and fear-ridden families in my book, what is most terrifying is that he makes any and everything possible, including, of course, the nuclear catastrophe. The New Yorker piece with quotes from Philip Roth is available online here . Roger Cohen, NY Times Columnist: "Trump's outrageous claims have a purpose: to destroy rational thought" Roger Cohen is an author and columnist for the New York Times . Before becoming a columnist for the Times , he worked as a foreign correspondent in 15 countries. In the January 24 edition of the Times , his column titled "The Banal Belligerence of Donald Trump" said in part: I have tried to tread carefully with analogies between the Fascist ideologies of 1930s Europe and Trump. American democracy is resilient. But the first days of the Trump presidency--whose roots of course lie in far more than the American military debacles since 9/11--pushed me over the top. The president is playing with fire. To say, as he did, that the elected representatives of American democracy are worthless and that the people are everything is to lay the foundations of totalitarianism. It is to say that democratic institutions are irrelevant and all that counts is the great leader and the masses he arouses. To speak of "carnage" is to deploy the dangerous lexicon of blood, soil and nation. To boast of "a historic movement, the likes of which the world has never seen before" is to demonstrate consuming megalomania. To declaim "America first" and again, "America first," is to recall the darkest clarion calls of nationalist dictators. To exalt protectionism is to risk a return to a world of barriers and confrontation. To utter falsehood after falsehood, directly or through a spokesman , is to foster the disorientation that makes crowds susceptible to the delusions of strongmen. Trump's outrageous claims have a purpose: to destroy rational thought. When Primo Levi arrived at Auschwitz he reached, in his thirst, for an icicle outside his window but a guard snatched it away. "Warum?" Levi asked (why?). To which the guard responded, "Hier ist kein warum" (here there is no why). As the great historian Fritz Stern observed, "This denial of 'why' was the authentic expression of all totalitarianism, revealing its deepest meaning, a negation of Western civilization." Americans are going to have to fight for their civilization and the right to ask why against the banal belligerence of Trump. Read the whole Cohen column here . Poem by Nina Donovan, "I am a nasty woman" performed by Ashley Judd at Women's March: "I feel Hitler in these streets" The poem, "I am a nasty woman" by 19-year-old Nina Donovan was performed by actress Ashley Judd at the Women's March in Washington, DC on January 21. It starts: I'm not nasty as a man who looks like he bathes in Cheetos dust. A man whose words are a distract to America. Electoral college-sanctioned, hate-speech contaminating this national anthem. I'm not as nasty as Confederate flags being tattooed across my city. Maybe the South actually is going to rise again. Maybe for some it never really fell. Blacks are still in shackles and graves, just for being black. Slavery has been reinterpreted as the prison system in front of people who see melanin as animal skin. I am not as nasty as a swastika painted on a pride flag, and I didn't know devils could be resurrected but I feel Hitler in these streets. A mustache traded for a toupee. Nazis renamed the Cabinet Electoral Conversion Therapy, the new gas chambers shaming the gay out of America, turning rainbows into suicide. I am not as nasty as racism, fraud, conflict of interest, homophobia, sexual assault, transphobia, white supremacy, misogyny, ignorance, white privilege ... your daughter being your favorite sex symbol, like your wet dreams infused with your own genes. Yeah, I'm a nasty woman -- a loud, vulgar, proud woman. To listen to the whole poem performed by Ashley Judd go here : Sierra Club on Trump's Energy Plan: "A shameful and dark start" The Sierra Club is the largest grassroots environmental organization in the U.S., with more than 2.7 million members and supporters. On the day of his inauguration, Trump released his energy plan (available on the White House website). In response, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune released the following statement: Minutes after he was sworn in, any illusion that Trump would act in the best interests of families in this country as President were wiped away by a statement of priorities that constitute an historic mistake on one of the key crises facing our planet and an assault on public health. What Trump has released is hardly a plan--it's a polluter wishlist that will make our air and water dirtier, our climate and international relations more unstable, and our kids sicker. This is a shameful and dark start to Trump's Presidency, and a slap in the face to any American who thought Trump might pursue the national interest. Matthew Rothschild: "Trumpolini.... Beware" Matthew Rothschild is the executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a nonprofit, nonpartisan political watchdog group. His January 21 article titled, "The fascist overtones in Trump's inaugural address" starts underneath a photo of Benito Mussolini, leader of Italy's National Fascist Party from 1922 until 1943, and says in part: It was hard to listen to Trump's inaugural address without hearing some not-so-faint echoes of fascism. The most obvious was his invocation of "America First" as the "new vision" that "will govern our land." But it's not a new vision or a new name. In fact, "America First" was the name of the isolationist and anti-Semitic organization in the 1930s that wanted to accommodate Nazi Germany. But there were other echoes as well.... Like 20th century fascists, he extolled the nation's "glorious destiny." He saluted "the great men and women of our military and law enforcement." And then he invoked the divine will. "Most importantly," he said, "we are protected by God." And let's not forget that his campaign slogan and the coda to his inaugural address, "Make America great again," itself strikes a fascist chord: nostalgia for national greatness, mixed with grievances (that can lead to scapegoating) about who is to blame for the loss of such greatness. If you were looking for Trump to take the high ground in his inaugural address and call on "the better angels of ourselves," you were kidding yourself. That is not who he is. He is Trumpolini. To read the whole article go here Big Bang Theory on Eve of Trump Inauguration: "Beware of Darkness" Vanity cards have become a trademark for Chuck Lorre Productions. At the end of every episode of shows Lorre produces there are different messages that read somewhat like a comment or observation on life or what's going on in society. This was done with shows Lorre produced like Dharma & Greg and Two and a Half Men . And these vanity cards appear at the end of The Big Bang Theory-- the #1 comedy on TV for many seasons . On the eve of Donald Trump's inauguration, the message that flashed across at the end of The Big Bang was the lyrics to George Harrison's song, "Beware of Darkness": Watch out now, take care, Beware of greedy leaders They'll take you where you should not go While Weeping Atlas Cedars They just want to grow, grow and grow Beware of darkness Then another quote, this one from Monty Python: Run away! Run Away! Roger Waters from Pink Floyd on Inauguration: "The resistance begins today" Roger Waters, English singer, songwriter, bassist, and composer, is the co-founder of the rock band Pink Floyd--internationally known for albums like The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall. On January 20, the day of Trump's inauguration, Waters posted a video for his Trump-slamming performance of "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" in Mexico City last October. A message also went up on his Facebook: "The resistance begins today." The performance took place in Zocalo Square before 300,000 fans. During the song, the huge screens flash graphics of ugly Trump faces with text like "Charade" and "Gotta stem the evil tide." There is an image of Trump doing a Hitler Nazi salute and the KKK. At the end, disgusting quotes from Trump are seen on the screen. The final text: "Trump eres un pendejo" (Trump, you're an asshole)." Some of the lyrics to "Pigs (Three Different Ones)": Big man, pig man, ha ha charade you are You well heeled big wheel, ha ha charade you are And when your hand is on your heart You're nearly a good laugh Almost a joker With your head down in the pig bin Saying "Keep on digging." Pig stain on your fat chin What do you hope to find When you're down in the pig mine You're nearly a laugh You're nearly a laugh But you're really a cry Petition to White House Correspondents' Association: "Stand up to Trump's blacklist" At his January 11 press conference, Trump refused to take a question from CNN reporter Jim Acosta, saying, "You are fake news." Angelo Carusone from Media Matters posted a petition, "Tell the White House Press Corps: Stand up to Trump's blacklist," to be delivered to the White House Correspondents' Association, which says: If Trump blacklists or bans one of you, the rest of you need to stand up. Instead of ignoring Trump's bad behavior and going about your business, close ranks and stand up for journalism. Don't keep talking about what Trump wants to talk about. Stand up and fight back. Amplify your colleague's inquiry or refuse to engage until he removes that person/outlet from the blacklist. The goal is to get 300,000 signatures. As of January 22, nearly 290,200 people had signed. The petition includes a background that says in part: Trump has a history of doing this--and worse. He has literally banned the Des Moines Register from covering his events. He banned Univsion from attending his events. He revoked The Washington Post's credentials for a period in retaliation for a headline that he didn't like. He revoked Politico's credentials for a while to punish them for an article he didn't like. BuzzFeed--which Trump called "a pathetic pile of garbage" during the press conference--has been on a blacklist since June of 2015. The Daily Beast is on the blacklist and is almost always denied credentials as a result. This list isn't exhaustive, either. But journalists covering Trump don't learn. Time and time again, as one outlet after another is frozen out, reporters continue to go about their interactions with Trump and his people as if nothing is wrong. Enough is enough. Some principles are more important than competition among news outlets.... To read the petition and full background go here . Citizen Therapists Against Trumpism: "We cannot remain silent as we witness the rise of an American form of fascism" Citizen Therapists for Democracy, an association of psychotherapists, states that their mission is to: "Learn and spread transformative ways to practice therapy with a public dimension; Rebuild democratic capacity in communities; and Resist anti-democratic ideologies and practices." The website of Citizen Therapists for Democracy contains "A Public Manifesto" from Citizen Therapists Against Trumpism. It has been signed by 3,500 people and says in part: As psychotherapists practicing in the United States, we are alarmed by the rise of the ideology of Trumpism, which we see as a threat to the well-being of the people we care for and to American democracy itself. We cannot remain silent as we witness the rise of an American form of fascism. We can leverage this time of crisis to deepen our commitment to American democracy.... Why speak collectively? Our responses thus far have been primarily personal--and too often confined to arm-chair diagnoses of Donald Trump. But a collective crisis faces our nation, a harkening back to the economic depression and demoralization of the 1930s (which fed European fascism) and the upheaval over Jim Crow and Black civil rights in the 1950s.... As therapists, we have been entrusted by society with collective responsibility in the arena of mental, behavioral, and relational health. When there is a public threat to our domain of responsibility we must speak out together, not just to protest but to deepen our commitment to a just society and a democratic way of life. This means being citizen therapists who are concerned with community well-being as much as personal well-being, since the two are inextricably joined. To read the whole statement go here . Punk Band United Nations on Inauguration Day: "Never Again Is Fucking Happening Again" United Nations, hardcore supergroup led by frontman for the band Thursday, Geoff Rickly, released a new song on January 20, the day of Trump's inauguration. The song is called "Stairway to Mar-a-Lago"--Mar-a-Lago is Trump's estate in Florida which he says will be his "winter White House." Some of the lyrics go: Dimwitted bigot Misplacing sympathies From on your cross Tell them who matters Policing cities in ruin It blows my mind How these Nazis Took the stage And pandered to Your deepest fears Dead and cold The Gipper must be Rolling in his grave Never again, Again and again Never again is Fucking happening Again New from Outernational: "Decision"--"How will you live? What will you decide?" The band Outernational released a new song and video on the morning of the Trump inauguration, titled "Decision." Miles Solay of Outernational wrote, "I am writing to you from the USA on the morning that a fascist regime is being coronated. I will be in the streets of Washington, DC today and tomorrow. The regime of Donald Trump and Mike Pence is illegitimate because fascism is illegitimate. If ever there was a time in our lives to act as if the future depended on us, now would be that time. GET INVOLVED AND TAKE TO THE STREETS WHEREVER YOU ARE." The lyrics of "Decision" include: Decision! Enforced! You can't say you hate this While you're waiting for the cure... Deception! All the lies! America was never great Eat your apple pie and genocide Decision! Of your life! How will you live? What will you decide?... Listen and download audio here . New Anti-Trump Song by Entrance: "Not Gonna Say Your Name" "There are people who say we ought to give you a chance. But there's not a chance in hell that we'll sit back and watch you try to turn back the clock and sigh and say, oh well." This is how "Not Gonna Say Your Name" starts--a new song released on January 16 by Los Angeles-based musician Guy Blakeslee (aka ENTRANCE). The song's video features clips of anti-Trump protests that broke out in the days after the election. Blakeslee says, "I really wanted to write a song expressing my own feelings about the election and the state of things in our country--like many I was in a state of mourning. I wondered, how can I sing about this without saying his name?" All proceeds from song purchases are going to Planned Parenthood. Blakeslee said: "I decided to use the song to benefit PP because one of the things that is so shocking about the election result is that it sends such a negative message to women and girls.... It's the least I could do - for all of the women in the world, in my life, and especially for my mother - to fight back and make a clear statement that we will not accept this backwards agenda." In a piece in TheTalkhouse, Blakeslee wrote: When the result was called at the crack of dawn that November morning, I knew I had to come back home as soon as possible and join with my fellow Americans in resisting this imminent slide toward fascism, tyranny, intolerance, bigotry, sexism, xenophobia and unchecked capitalist pillaging. In a psychological state quite similar to mourning, I was inspired and comforted watching from afar on social media as friends and family joined hundreds of thousands of others in the streets and wished I could be there with them to say NO to hatred and regression and YES to love and continued communal progress. While in Amsterdam a few days later, the idea for this song ("Not Gonna Say Your Name" ) came to me; I was writing a lot of angry words and I was desperately trying to figure out how to say something positive, to make some kind of contribution and offer a different way of thinking about the situation instead of just complaining and fixating on this person that so many of us can't help but despise. To read the whole piece by Blakeslee go here To watch the video of "Not Gonna Say Your Name" go here . News of Girl Scouts Marching for Trump Inauguration "filled me with rage" The Girl Scouts of America have come under severe criticism for its decision to have 75 Girl Scouts march in Trump's inauguration parade. People are saying they should not participate--given Trump's ugly comments about women and Pence's extreme anti-abortion views. Jean Hannah Edelstein, a New York-born, London-based journalist and the author of Himglish and Femalese: Why Women Don't Get Why Men Don't Get Them , wrote in a January 18 opinion piece in the Guardian : The news that the Girl Scouts are sending a contingent to participate in Donald Trump's inauguration filled me with real rage. How can an organization that promises to build "girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place" send them to celebrate the ascent of a leader who would likely consider them fair game for sexual assault if they grow up to be "beautiful"? ...what would be emotionally and physically safe for a girl about watching the swearing-in of Mike Pence as Vice President, a man who's sworn to overturn the laws that allow them to use the bathrooms where they feel safe? What of Muslim Girl Scouts, who've been told that their names will be put on a list, or undocumented girls, who are also welcome to join Girl Scouts? Should they march, or should only the girls who Donald Trump might one day rate "a 10" be encouraged to participate? ...Yes, it's a tradition: they've marched at inauguration for decades. But does tradition justify collaboration with an administration that promises to oppress the young women it's supposed to serve? As shown by John Lewis and the other members of Congress who are choosing to skip the inauguration, sometimes human rights are more important than protocol. The Girl Scouts is an organization that has stood up for the human rights of girls and women for many years. Why quit now? Read this whole piece here . Charles M. Blow on the Day Before Inauguration Day: "Are You Not Alarmed?" New York Times columnist, Charles M. Blow's piece on January 19, 2017 is titled, "Are You Not Alarmed?" and says: I continue to be astonished that not enough Americans are sufficiently alarmed and abashed by the dangerous idiocies that continue to usher forth from the mouth of the man who will on Friday be inaugurated as president of the United States. Toss ideology out of the window. This is about democracy and fascism, war and peace, life and death. I wish that I could write those words with the callous commercialism with which some will no doubt read them, as overheated rhetoric simply designed to stir agitation, provoke controversy and garner clicks. But alas, they are not. These words are the sincere dispatches of an observer, writer and citizen who continues to see worrisome signs of a slide toward the exceedingly unimaginable by a man who is utterly unprepared. In a series of interviews and testimonies Donald Trump and his cronies have granted in the last several days, they have demonstrated repeatedly how destabilizing, unpredictable and indeed unhinged the incoming administration may be. Their comments underscore the degree to which this administration may not simply alter our democracy beyond recognition, but also potentially push us into armed conflict... This is insanity. But too many Americans don't want to see this threat for what it is. International affairs and the very real threat of escalating militarization and possibly even military conflict seems much harder to grasp than the latest inflammatory tweet. Maybe people think this possibility is unthinkable. Maybe people are just hoping and praying that cooler heads will prevail. Maybe they think that Trump's advisers will smarten him up and talk him down. But where is your precedent for that? When has this man been cautious or considerate? This man with loose lips and tweeting thumbs may very well push us into another war, and not with a country like Afghanistan, but with a nuclear-armed country with something to prove. Are you not alarmed? Green Day: Trump and "Troubled Times" Green Day continues to call out Trump as a fascist. A video of the song "Troubled Times" from their latest album, Revolution Radio , was released on Monday, MLK Day. A statement from Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said, "Today we celebrate love and compassion more than ever." The song/video doesn't name Trump but the message is clear through the imagery. There's a Trump-like figure with KKK teeth wearing a "Make America Great Again" cap--spewing hateful, racist garbage before crowds as Kluckers come out of the White House. Cops beating up Black people. But there are also images of resistance: People with signs saying "Stop racism, islamophobia, and war," "No border wall," and "Against racist hate." Clips from the Civil Rights Movement and the the women's suffrage battle. At the end, the stakes of the situation are underscored with a nuclear mushroom cloud. This isn't the first time Green Day has called out Trump. Shortly after the election, during their MTV and American Music Awards performances of the song "Bang Bang," they added the chant: "No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA." Armstrong said, "It was a good start to challenge [Trump] on all of his ignorant policies and his racism." The lyrics to "Troubled Times" are searing: What good is love and peace on earth? When it's exclusive? Where's the truth in the written word? If no one reads it A new day dawning Comes without warning So don't blink twice What part of history we learned When it's repeated Some things will never overcome If we don't seek it The world stops turning Paradise burning So don't think twice We live in troubled times We live in troubled times Rapper T.I.: "Be Aware or Be Bamboozled" On MLK Day, Rapper T.I. (Tip Harris) sent out a series of tweets and videos addressed to Black celebrities and athletes who are meeting with Trump. "Attn.!!!! Be clear.... There IS an agenda behind all these meetings. "There's a strategic plan that people are trying to make you a part of.... Do not accept any invitation to have any meeting, no matter how positive you think the outcome may be." "Given what's going on between him & Congressman Lewis... All y'all looking CRAZY right now!!!! Be Aware, BE Alert, Or Be Bamboozled." One tweet has a photo of Malcolm X with a quote from him: "The first thing the (white racist) does when he comes in power, he takes all the Negro leaders and invites them for coffee. To show that he's all right. And those Uncle Toms can't pass up the coffee. They come away from the coffee table telling you and me that this man is all right." T.I. writes: "Sound familiar? Malcolm knew it then.... Be Aware, Be Alert, or Be Bamboozled." One tweet addresses Trump: "Should it ever seem at times like we are against you, I assure it is a result of you defining yourself as the representative of those who are and who always have been against us... The deck has always been stacked against us in this country. With every generation there has been strategic steps to oppress, imprison, and control us." See T.I.'s tweets and videos here . Statement from Michael Dietler, professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago, at Chicago Protest Against Trump-Pence Regime and Police Terror on MLK Day A small but determined group of protesters rallied in the cold Chicago rain on MLK Day, where Christian clergy, representatives from the Muslim community, and youth spoke along with other fighters in the movement to Stop Trump and Pence. After the rally the protest took off in two parallel marches down both sides of State Street, stopping on the corners to speak to people who were out on the cold, wet street. Protestors criss-crossed back and forth across State Street, blocking traffic briefly a number of times. Some people along the route joined in the march briefly, and others took up posters and/or bundles of the Call and were organized to organize others in the fight to stop the fascist Trump-Pence regime. Speakers at the rally addressed the need and possibility of stopping the Trump-Pence regime from taking power and the recently released Justice Department report detailing years of abuse of Black and brown people by the Chicago police. They included Rev. Gregg Greer of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Rev.Pughsley; Salman Aftab from the American Muslim Task Force on Civil Rights and Elections; Raja Yaqub from the American Muslim Aliance; and a middle school student who spoke about the terror Pence will bring to the LGBTQ community with his promotion of electro-shock torture "conversion therapy." The following statement from Michael Dietler, professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago was read. This day, of all days, should raise awareness of the danger that Donald Trump poses to this country, and to the world. The contrast with Martin Luther King could not be stronger. Today the nation honors a fearless champion of human rights and human dignity, a man of principle who dedicated his life to the service of others and was willing to be sacrificed in the struggle against injustice. We also honor all those heroes of the Civil Rights movement, those thousands of ordinary people who courageously put their bodies and their lives on the line to oppose the racist, oppressive, violent regimes that tried to deny people their rights. In ironic contrast, this Friday, a new president will be sworn in who waged a disgraceful campaign of lies and deceit, of racist bigotry and hatred, of misogyny, fear, and ignorance. Donald Trump has no principles, no concern for anyone but himself. He has spent his life in the relentless pursuit of personal wealth and power, using any means available without regard to the consequences for others. He is a liar, fraud, and a dangerous egomaniac who has already normalized racism, xenophobia, and misogyny and prepared a cabinet of robber barons ready to pillage the country. Now is the time for all good people of conscience to come together to oppose this destructive force, before it is too late. Let the voice of the people rise again in solidarity with the spirit of the Civil Rights movement: justice and equality for all! Stand up against racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and greed! Clip from Ava DuVernay Documentary 13th-- Searing Exposure of Trump on the "Good Old Days" Ava DuVernay is an American director, screenwriter, film marketer, and film distributor. Her film Selma , which told the story of the campaign led by Dr. Martin Luther King for equal voting right and the famous march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965,was nominated for Best Picture at the 2014 Oscars. And DuVernay became first Black female director to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award. DuVernay's recent Netflix documentary 13th just picked up three Critics' Choice Awards and is on the Oscar shortlist for best documentary. 13th , named for the constitutional amendment that abolished slavery with the exception of punishment for crime, digs deeply into and exposes the rise of mass incarceration in the USA. 13th includes a series of powerful clips that shows Donald Trump and footage from the Civil Right era--where Trump is talking about "the good old days." During the film's press screening at the New York Film Festival in October, DuVernay talked about how she debated whether to include Trump, who at the time was the Republican presidential candidate, in the documentary. She said, "Take him out? Leave him in? No, he doesn't deserve a place in this thing, and such. But you gotta show that stuff because it's too important and it can't be forgotten," 13th is available to stream on Netflix. Pete Vernon in Columbia Journalism Review: "Trump and his team have shown a willingness to retaliate, bully, and ban journalists" At his January 11 press conference, Trump refused to take a question from CNN reporter Jim Acosta, saying, "You are fake news." In an article in the Columbia Journalism Review titled "Trump berated a CNN reporter, and fellow journalists missed an opportunity" Pete Vernon says: CNN Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta stood pleading with Trump to acknowledge his question, referencing earlier attacks made by Trump and his press secretary about the accuracy of a CNN report detailing Trump's ties to Russia. "Mr. President-elect, since you have been attacking our news organization, can you give us a chance?" Acosta yelled above the scrum of reporters. "No! Not you. No! Your organization is terrible," the President-elect shot back. When Acosta persisted in shouting for recognition, Trump pointed a finger at him and said, "Don't be rude. No, I'm not going to give you a question." Trump then turned to the next question, and the press conference proceeded from there. It was a striking moment not only for the direct confrontation between the two men, but also for the fact that it seemed to have no effect on other journalists in the room. No one immediately leapt to Acosta's defense.... I wished those journalists in attendance had picked up Acosta's line of questioning, or even refused to continue asking questions, until the President-elect acknowledged the organization he had earlier attacked.... Next Friday, the new administration begins. As a candidate, and now as the President-elect, Trump and his team have shown a willingness to retaliate, bully, and ban journalists whose questions he doesn't want to answer. As an industry, we must be prepared for more moments like today's, and we must be ready to respond accordingly. Peter Vernon's article is available online here . Theologians Raise Opposition to Jeff Sessions for "positions that compromise the rights of these vulnerable populations" A group of Christian theologians of various denominations delivered an open letter to the heads of the Senate Judiciary Committee to oppose the nomination of Jeff Sessions as U.S. Attorney General. The signatories include Peter Goodwin Heltzel, New York Theological Seminary; Jeannine Hill Fletcher, Fordham University; Gary Agee, Anderson University (Indiana); Cornel West, Harvard University; James Cone, Union Theological Seminary; Jim Wallis, Sojourner ; and others. The theologians' letter says in part: Vulnerable populations in our country--victims of police brutality, undocumented workers, LGBTQ persons, women, people of color, and people of non-Christian faiths--are placed at increased risk of further harm when our laws are not upheld. Yet, throughout his career, Senator Sessions has taken positions that compromise the rights of these vulnerable populations. His racist comments reflect prejudice against people of color. His opposition to immigration reform, LGBTQ rights, women's rights and equal access for persons with disabilities make it unlikely that he shares the Christian vision of justice and protection of the vulnerable that we embrace. The letter and signatories are available online here . Powerful Video Produced by Katy Perry: #DontNormalizeHate A moving and deeply thought-provoking PSA video produced by Katy Perry asks the question: is history repeating itself? The short video features actor Hina Khan, a Muslim of Pakistani heritage, and begins with the voice of 89-year-old Haru Kuromiya--recalling how, when she was a girl during World War 2, her family, along with about 120,000 other Japanese Americans, were first put on a registry and then forced by the U.S. government into concentration (internment) camps. According to the LA Times , "Codirected by filmmakers Aya Tanimura and Tim Nackashi, the #DontNormalizeHate PSA landed the early support of director Spike Jonze and actor-activist George Takei. But it was Perry whom Tanimura credits for making the short possible." The video has close to 300,000 views since it was posted on YouTube--it should be seen by millions. Watch it below: Bruce Springsteen: "The country feels very estranged..." Bruce Springsteen on Marc Maron's WRTF podcast on January 2 (at the end) is asked what his biggest fear is about Trump and says: That a lot of the worst things and the worst aspects of what he appealed to come to fruition. When you let that genie out of the bottle - bigotry, racism, when you let those things out of the bottle, intolerance, they don't go back in the bottle that easily if they go back in at all. Whether it's a rise in hate crimes, people feeling they have license to speak and behave in ways that previously were considered un-American and are un-American. That's what he's appealing to. And so my fears are that those things find a place in ordinary, civil society; demeans the discussions and events of the day and the country changes in a way that is unrecognizable and we become estranged, as you say, you say hey well, wait a minute you voted for Trump, I thought I knew who you were, I'm not sure. The country feels very estranged, you feel very estranged from your countrymen. So those are all dangerous things and he hasn't even taken office yet. The podcast is available here Children's and YA authors refuse "to quietly accept or assent to this 'Gleichschaltung,' this getting in line with fascism and making it mainstream" Recently, Threshold, an imprint of the book publisher Simon & Schuster, gave a $250,000 book deal to Milo Yiannopoulos, writer for the neo-Nazi, white-supremacist Breitbart News Network and supporter of Trump. There was immediate outrage against the deal from writers, bookstores, book reviewers, and others. (See " Outrage at Simon & Schuster's Book Deal for Pro-Trump Racist .") Now more than 160 children's and young adult (YA) book authors and illustrators with Simon & Schuster have sent a letter protesting the deal to the Simon & Schuster CEO and "all the readers and supporters of books for children." As technology editor at Breitbart, Yiannopoulos promoted "GamerGate," a vicious flood of degrading attacks and terroristic threats against prominent women in the video game development community. This summer he was banned from Twitter after his followers carried out a racist harassment campaign against Black comedian/actor Leslie Jones. The letter from the authors and illustrators reads in part: Threshold has placed Simon & Schuster's considerable reputation and weight behind one of the most prominent faces of the newly repackaged white supremacist/white nationalist movement and financially supported a man who routinely denigrates, verbally attacks, and directs dangerous internet doxxing and hate campaigns against women, minorities, LGBTQ individuals, Muslims, and anyone he chooses to target who supports equality and human decency. Irrespective of the content of this book, by extending a mainstream publication contract, Threshold has chosen to legitimize this reprehensible belief system, these behaviors, and white supremacy itself.... As Simon & Schuster authors and illustrators who are already published, with books in the release pipeline, with contracts in place, we do not have to quietly accept or assent to this "Gleichschaltung," this getting in line with fascism and making it mainstream. We reject the wisdom of this decision. This man, and this book, are not America. This man, and this book, are not the bulk of Simon & Schuster. This man, and this book, are not us, the authors and illustrators of Simon & Schuster. We believe that the children we write for deserve a better America. Among the signers of the letter are winners of Newbery, Caldecott, and National Book Award honors, including Cassandra Clare, Laurie Halse Anderson, Christian Robinson, Dan Santat, Marla Frazee, Ellen Hopkins, and Rachel Renee Russell. The Publisher's Weekly article on this, including the text of the full letter and the list of signatories, is available online here . Charlotte Church, Singer, Refuses Invitation from Tyrant Trump Charlotte Church is a Welch singer who performs in many genres and has a big following. She has sold over ten million records worldwide. The Trump team, which has already been turned down by most of the entertainers they have asked to perform at the inauguration, sent an invitation to Church. Church tweeted her reply directly to Trump @realDonaldTrump: "Your staff have asked me to sing at your inauguration, a simple Internet search would show I think you're a tyrant. Bye." Her message was followed by four poop emoji. This is the link to her tweet. Australian Tennis Star: T-Shirt Statement on Trump At the Australian Open tennis tournament, Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios made a statement about Donald Trump with his T-shirt. During his match with Rafael Nadal he wore a shirt that had Trump's face covered with devil-like illustrations and the words "Fuck Donald Trump" at the bottom. Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights: "Sessions has 30-year record of racial insensitivity, bias against immigrants, disregard for the rule of law, and hostility to the protection of civil rights" The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights sent a letter to the U.S. Senate opposing the confirmation of Sessions as Attorney General, saying: On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of more than 200 national organizations committed to promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States, and the 144 undersigned organizations, we are writing to express our strong opposition to the confirmation of Senator Jefferson B. Sessions (R-AL) to be the 84th Attorney General of the United States. Senator Sessions has a 30-year record of racial insensitivity, bias against immigrants, disregard for the rule of law, and hostility to the protection of civil rights that makes him unfit to serve as the Attorney General of the United States. In our democracy, the Attorney General is charged with enforcing our nation's laws without prejudice and with an eye toward justice. And, just as important, the Attorney General has to be seen by the public--every member of the public, from every community--as a fair arbiter of justice. Unfortunately, there is little in Senator Sessions' record that demonstrates that he would meet such a standard. To read the whole letter go here Shaun King: "One of the most dishonest men on Earth is about to become our leader" Shaun King's column in the Monday, January 9 New York Daily News was titled "Americans must call Trump out on lies, not get so used to them that we become desensitized to his dishonesty." King writes, in part: Last night, Meryl Streep, in an acceptance speech for a lifetime achievement award that she won at the Golden Globes, reminded the audience that our incoming President once openly mocked a reporter with a physical disability from the stage of a rally....Trump has now outrageously said he has no recollection of ever meeting Kovaleski and was not aware of his disability, but that is another outrageous lie. He did not meet Kovaleski once or twice. He did not meet him three or four times, or even half a dozen times, but met with Kovaleski at least a dozen times across the years. They met in Trump's office, at events, and at press conferences. They were so close that Kovaleski described them as being "on a first name basis for years." To fight back against Streep reminding us of what he did, Trump is lying about lies about lies. His lies have so many layers that it often seems like he gets lost and simply cannot keep up.... Our incoming President of the United States is a liar. He tells them often. He lies far more often than he tells the truth. We must call him out on it. We must not become desensitized to his lies. We must not get so used to them that they become normal to us. One of the most dishonest men on Earth is about to become our leader. I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't deeply concerned about what comes next. To read the whole piece by Shaun King, go here . Meryl Streep at Golden Globe Awards Speaks Out on Trump: "When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose" On Sunday night, January 8, Meryl Streep received The Cecil B. DeMille Award, an honorary Golden Globe Award given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for "outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment." In accepting the award, she said, in part: An actor's only job is to enter the lives of people who are different from us and let you feel what that feels like. And there were many, many, many powerful performances this year that did exactly that--breathtaking compassionate work. But there was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart. Not because it was good. There was nothing good about it. But it was effective and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh and show their teeth. It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter, someone he outranked in privilege, power and the capacity to fight back. It kind of broke my heart when I saw it and I still can't get it out of my head because it wasn't in a movie. It was real life. And this instinct to humiliate, when it's modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody's life because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose. Watch Meryl Streep's acceptance speech here Jello Biafra on Trump: "What we're looking at here is Jim Crow 2.0" Jello Biafra is the former lead singer for the band Dead Kennedys, known for songs like "California Uber Alles" and "Nazi Punks Fuck Off." In a recent interview in Rolling Stone magazine he said: As laughable as Rick Perry has been as governor of Texas and other [presidential] campaigns, he's also very dangerous. At first they were saying Secretary of Agriculture for him, but then suddenly Secretary of Energy. That dude is in charge of our nukes now and he's also part of a fundamentalist Christian doomsday cult. ... It was basically yet another cult like the one Sarah and Todd Palin prescribed, whose whole mindset was "Jesus is coming soon, and in order to expedite we should be wasting every last natural resource and clear-cutting every tree we can right now because Jesus is coming back again. It's OK to run up further budget deficits, because Jesus loves America, he's going to put the money back."... People are freaked out that Trump has made the head of Exxon the Secretary of State, and the guy is so tight and in bed with Putin--well, there's another part of Rex Tillerson I hope people are going to highlight, too. He's the one who finally admitted climate change existed as head of Exxon, but then he said mankind will adapt and so it's no big deal.... What we're looking at here is Jim Crow 2.0, and they're going to be even more hardcore about that in the 2018 election, to keep anybody with a conscience from being able to vote. Look at who the new Attorney General is going to be, the same guy who in the Eighties said he thought the people in the Ku Klux Klan were all right "until I saw some of them smoked pot." Cornell William Brooks: NAACP opposes nomination of Jeff Sessions "bodily, spiritually, morally, by encouraging civil disobedience" Cornell William Brooks, president and CEO of the NAACP, and five other civil rights leaders were arrested January 3 after sitting in at Jeff Sessions' office in Washington, DC, demanding the withdrawal of his nomination by Trump for Attorney General. In a January 5 interview on Democracy Now , Brooks said: Our objections are, fundamentally, Senator Sessions represents a kind of dim and dystopian view of American civil liberties and civil rights. And so our objections are at least threefold, first of which is that he has demonstrated an unwillingness to acknowledge the reality of voter suppression that we have seen from one end of the country to the other, as attested to in the Fourth Circuit decision that found voter suppression in North Carolina, the Fifth Circuit decision which found voter suppression in Texas. He has not acknowledged the reality of that, and certainly not the reality of voter suppression in his own state... In terms of immigration rights, he is one--among one of the most conservative, ultraconservative, extremist senators in terms of his opposition to comprehensive immigration reform. In addition to that, he has voiced an openness to a immigration ban on a global religion, namely Islam, which cannot be squared in any way, shape, fashion or form with the U.S. Constitution. Number three, his views on criminal justice reform stand in stark contrast to both red state and blue state governors. In other words, he stands for law and order in Nixonian and draconian terms, at a moment in which we have over 2 million Americans behind bars, 65 million Americans with criminal records, 1 million fathers behind bars.... Brooks said the NAACP is "unapologetically opposed" to Sessions and is calling for civil disobedience protests: The board of directors of the NAACP voted to oppose this nomination. And we're doing so not only as a matter of policy, but we're doing so bodily, spiritually, morally, by encouraging civil disobedience--that is to say, standing in the tradition of Mohandas K. Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, standing in that tradition by sitting down. And so, we understand that the odds may be difficult, but we, as the NAACP, don't gauge our principled opposition to a nominee based upon odds and probabilities, but rather the rightness of the cause.... Read the whole interview here . Joshua Pechthalt, Calif. Federation of Teachers President: "The similarities with the rise of fascism in Europe in the 1930s...are chilling" In the November-December issue of California Teacher, Joshua Pechthalt, the president of the California Federation of Teachers (CFT), which is part of the American Federation of Teachers, has a piece titled "Responding to election of Donald Trump: Reassess, Mobilize, Defend." Pechthalt writes: In the last few weeks, I have had many discussions trying to sort out the implications of a Trump presidency. His nomination for Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, who has been a pro-voucher, pro-charter school advocate, demonstrates he wants to privatize and charterize public schools. President-elect Trump is making clear where he wants to take the country. Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, who has said positive things about the KKK and will likely head the Justice Department, indicates this administration will not be an advocate for criminal justice reform, voting rights, and countless other social justice efforts. More disturbing will be Trump's appointments to the Supreme Court. A generation of justices will be in the majority and committed to an agenda that is opposed to union rights, women's rights, voting rights, environmental protection, and other matters that will affect our children and grandchildren. Trump has also strengthened his relationship with Steve Bannon, the former leader of Breitbart News and one of the leaders of a movement known as the alt-right. The alt-right sees this appointment as an opportunity to fan the flames of white nationalism, racism and anti-Semitism. One needs only to watch the Nazi salute at a recent gathering of alt-right supporters in the nation's capital to be alarmed. The similarities with the rise of fascism in Europe in the 1930s, and the growing neo-fascist movement now gaining traction in Western European countries, are chilling and require a response... The issue of California Teacher containing the article by Pechthalt is available online here . Thousands Sign Petition Against University of Tennessee Marching Band Participation in Trump Inauguration The University of Tennessee marching band is scheduled to march in Trump's Inauguration parade, but a lot of alumni of the school and residents of Tennessee are protesting this. More than 3,340 people have already signed an online petition calling on the president and director of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville to stop the university marching band from playing in the inaugural parade. The change.org petition , signed "Concerned Citizens and Alumni," says in part: 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. As residents of Tennessee, we believe that the attendance at the upcoming inauguration of a band representing the state of Tennessee would condone this behavior. As alumni, we believe that no university should risk its reputation and credibility by welcoming such ignorance and celebrating a man like Trump. It is for this reason that we urge that the band not march at the upcoming inauguration. San Francisco teacher calling on educators across the country to take up the "NO!" Rosie O'Donnell on Trump: "Less than 3 weeks to stop him" On January 1, comedian and TV entertainer Rosie O'Donnell tweeted: DONALD TRUMP IS MENTALLY UNSTABLE - LESS THAN 3 WEEKS TO STOP HIM AMERICA The day before, in response to a Donald Trump New Year's Eve tweet, O'Donnell tweeted: @realDonaldTrump - we know what to do RESIST YOU - and everything you represent #notANYONESpresident #resist #liar #cheater #fraud #crook She also tweeted: Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending. ~ Maria Robinson Then on January 3, @ROSIE retweeted: #NoFascistUSA @RefuseFascism The amount of flak @Rosie O'Donnell is taking right now for stating fact, as if SHE's out of line, is criminal. #NoFascistUSA #DontNormalize Petition at Olivet Nazarene, Christian University, Speaks Out Against Trump's "well-documented sexism, his political alliances with white supremacists, and his hostility toward immigrants and refugees" Olivet Nazarene is a Christian university located south of Chicago in Illinois. When school officials announced that the Olivet Nazarene band would be taking part in Trump's inauguration, there was immediate opposition. An online petition, "Withdraw Olivet Nazarene University from Inaugural Parade," has gathered over 2,000 signers. The petition , addressed to the college president and administrators, says in part: Sadly, President-elect Trump has consistently articulated and advocated policies that undermine the Christian commitments of communities like Olivet. His well-documented sexism, his political alliances with white supremacists, and his hostility towards immigrants and refugees are just a few positions incompatible with Christian teachings in general and the Nazarene message of holiness in particular. Any university presence at the inauguration would suggest toleration or, even worse, endorsement of the President-elect's objectionable attitudes on these and other issues. Such a presence is simply unacceptable. We call on you to decline this and any other invitations to participate in President-elect Trump's inaugural festivities. We make this request not out of partisan opposition. Both educational and religious organizations should be capable of holding differing political opinions within the bonds of community. Yet, conservatives and liberals alike acknowledge that President-elect Trump has demeaned and alienated many, with little or no effort made towards reconciliation. For Olivet to embody the faith it proclaims, we have a responsibility to stand with those marginalized by the President-elect's divisive rhetoric rather than march in celebration of it. Rebecca Ferguson Says She'll Sing at Trump Inauguration Invite IF She Can Sing "Strange Fruit" Rebecca Ferguson is a British singer and songwriter. Her 2015 album "Lady Sings the Blues," covering classic songs by Billie Holiday, made the charts in the UK. Ferguson says she was asked to sing at Trump's inauguration and says she will do it.... IF she can sing "Strange Fruit"--a song first recorded by Billy Holliday in 1939 that scathingly indicts the lynchings of Black people in the American South. Ferguson wrote on TwitLonger: I've been asked and this is my answer. If you allow me to sing "strange fruit" a song that has huge historical importance, a song that was blacklisted in the United States for being too controversial. A song that speaks to all the disregarded and down trodden black people in the United States. A song that is a reminder of how love is the only thing that will conquer all the hatred in this world, then I will graciously accept your invitation and see you in Washington. Best Rebecca X Gregg Popovich, Coach of NBA San Antonio Spurs: "[Trump] is in charge of our country. That's disgusting" Soon after the election, Gregg Popovich, one of the top coaches in the National Basketball Association (NBA), was asked to comment on Trump's victory. The following are excerpts from his comments: It's our country, we don't want it to go down the drain. Any reasonable person would come to that conclusion. But it does not take away the fact that he is fear-mongering--all the comments, from day one--the race baiting, trying to make Barack Obama, the first Black president, illegitimate. It leaves me wondering where I've been living and with whom I'm living. And the fact that people can just gloss that over and start talking about the transition team, and we're all gonna be kumbaya now and try to make the country good without talking about any of those things. And now we see that he's already backing off of immigration and Obamacare and other things, so was it a big fake? Which makes you feel it's even more disgusting and cynical that somebody would use that to get the base that fired up. To get elected. And what gets lost in the process are African-Americans, and Hispanics, and women, and the gay population, not to mention the eighth-grade developmental stage exhibited by him when he made fun of the handicapped person. I mean, come on. That's what a seventh-grade, eighth-grade bully does. And he was elected president of the United States. We would have scolded our kids. We would have had discussions and talked until we were blue in the face trying to get them to understand these things. And he is in charge of our country. That's disgusting. See a YouTube of Popovich (along with another NBA coach, Stan Van Gundy) commenting on Trump here . Mormon Tabernacle Singer Quits Over Trump Inauguration: "I could never throw roses to Hitler." The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is scheduled to sing at Trump's inauguration and 19,000 members of the Mormon Church have already signed a petition against them performing. Now, a member of the choir, Jan Chamberlin, has resigned over this, saying, "I could never throw roses to Hitler. And I certainly could never sing for him." Her letter, which was posted on Facebook, says: Since "the announcement" [of the Choir performing at the inauguration], I have spent several sleepless nights and days in turmoil and agony. I have reflected carefully on both sides of the issue, prayed a lot, talked with family and friends, and searched my soul. I've tried to tell myself that by not going to the inauguration, that I would be able to stay in Choir for all the other good reasons. I have highly valued the mission of the Choir to be good-will ambassadors for Christ, to share beautiful music and to give hope, inspiration, and comfort to others. I've tried to tell myself that it will be alright and that I can continue in good conscience before God and man. But it's no use. I simply cannot continue with the recent turn of events. I could never look myself in the mirror again with self respect... I also know, looking from the outside in, it will appear that Choir is endorsing tyranny and fascism by singing for this man... Tyranny is now on our doorstep; it has been sneaking its way into our lives through stealth. Now it will burst into our homes through storm. I hope that we and many others will work together with greater diligence and awareness to calmly and bravely work together to defend our freedoms and our rights for our families, our friends, and our fellow citizens. I hope we can throw off the labels and really listen to each other with respect, love, compassion, and a true desire to bring our energies and souls together in solving the difficult problems that lie in our wake... History is repeating itself; the same tactics are being used by Hitler (identify a problem, finding a scapegoat target to blame, and stirring up people with a combination of fanaticism, false promises, and fear, and gathering the funding). I plead with everyone to go back and read the books we all know on these topics and review the films produced to help us learn from these gargantuan crimes so that we will not allow them to be repeated. Evil people prosper when good people stand by and do nothing. We must continue our love and support for the refugees and the oppressed by fighting against these great evils. For me, this is a HUGELY moral issue.... I only know I could never "throw roses to Hitler." And I certainly could never sing for him. To read the whole letter go here . Rockette Speaks Out Against Trump: "A moral issue, a women's issue" The Radio City Rockettes, whose trademark routine is a line of dancers doing eye-high leg kicks in perfect unison, are scheduled to perform at Trump's inauguration. Right away there were signs that some of the dancers are very disturbed about this. In a shameful move, the union representing the Rockettes, the American Guild of Variety Artists, sent an email to the dancers saying they were "obliged" to perform at the inauguration. Later the company that owns the Radio City Rockettes, the Madison Square Garden Company, told Rolling Stone magazine that individual dancers "are never told they have to perform at a particular event, including the inaugural. It is always their choice." But one can imagine the pressure being put on these women to perform and what it could mean for their careers if they refuse. Recently, MarieClaire.com wrote a piece about this controversy, including quotes from an exclusive interview they did with "Mary," one of the Rockettes. The following are some excerpts from this article: The dancer next to Mary was crying. Tears streamed down her face through all 90 minutes of their world-famous Christmas Spectacular as they kicked and pirouetted and hit mark after mark on the glittering Radio City Music Hall stage. This was Thursday, three days before Christmas, the day the Rockettes discovered they'd been booked to perform at the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. "She felt she was being forced to perform for this monster," Mary told MarieClaire.com in an exclusive interview. "I wouldn't feel comfortable standing near a man like that in our costumes," said another dancer in an email to her colleagues. For Mary? "If I had to lose my job over this, I would. It's too important. And I think the rest of the performing arts community would happily stand behind me." ... "There is a divide in the company now, which saddens me most," Mary says. "The majority of us said no immediately. Then there's the percentage that said yes, for whatever reason--whether it's because they're young and uninformed, or because they want the money, or because they think it's an opportunity to move up in the company when other people turn it down." ... Mary says that to her knowledge, no women of color have signed up to perform that day. "It's almost worse to have 18 pretty white girls behind this man who supports so many hate groups." ... "This is not a Republican or Democrat issue--this is a women's rights issue," she continues. "This is an issue of racism and sexism, something that's much bigger than politics. We walk into work and everyone has different political views. The majority of the stage crew are Trump supporters; there's a 'Make America Great Again' bumper sticker on the crew doors at the side of the stage." But the majority of the staff skews liberal, she says, especially considering the many LGBT employees at Radio City. "It's the ensemble. It's the people in our wardrobe and hair department, some of whom are transgender," she says. "These are our friends and our family, who we've worked with for years. It's a basic human-rights issue. We have immigrants in the show. I feel like dancing for Trump would be disrespecting the men and women who work with us, the people we care about." On December 29, former Rockette Autumn Withers said in an interview on cable news channel MSNBC that the group has performed at previous inaugurations but Trump is different: [W]e've never had an incoming president who has publically and repeatedly demeaned women and said derogatory things about women. And I think that's what makes this is a really unique situation and elevates it above a situation of just doing your job as a Rockette as you would for any other event and elevates it to a moral issue, a woman's rights issue. What does this say, the optics of having the Rockettes perform at Trump's inauguration? How does that normalize these comments and remarks that Trump has made to women at large and is that OK? He has talked about grabbing women's genitals, he has called them names from dogs, pigs, slobs, crooked, nasty. And to have a beautiful line of women dancing behind him I think on a larger level kind of normalizes his derogatory comments. I have Republican female family members and even when you bring up his comments they're very uncomfortable and they still agree that this is a women's rights issue.... The whole MarieClair.com article is available here . To listen to the MSNBC interview with Autumn Withers, go here . 1,500 Past and Current Fulbright Scholarship Recipients: "The consequence [of Trump becoming president] could be dire for both international cooperation and peace" The Fulbright Program, funded by the U.S. government and private sources, gives prestigious scholarships to about 8,000 recipients yearly--for students, academics, artists and others in the U.S. to study and do research abroad and for recipients in other countries to do the same in the U.S. After the presidential election, three past and current Fulbright grant recipients wrote an open letter expressing alarm at Trump's victory. The letter has gathered signatures from over 1,500 other past and current Fulbright scholarship recipients from 95 countries. Their letter says in part: "We have, for the last eighteen months, watched the electoral process unfold in the United States as the president-elect openly engaged in demagoguery against a number of vulnerable populations, courted hate groups, threatened the press, and promised vindictive actions against his opponents. This is not populism; it is recklessness. The consequence could be dire for both international cooperation and peace. We are now worried by the prospect of his inauguration into one of the world's most powerful offices with the power to carry out his stated intentions. While we respect the American electoral system, we write to express our deepest concerns." The letter and list of signatories are available online here . Franz Wasserman, Survivor of Nazi Germany: "We have to counter this trend toward fascism in every way we can." Franz Wasserman, 96 years old, was a youth in Germany during the 1930s and saw the rise of the Nazis first-hand. He's never considered himself an activist. But with the election of Trump, he felt he had to act. He wrote a letter to U.S. senators warning of the parallels between Trump and Hitler--and shared it with others. Jerry Lange, a columnist for the Seattle Times, received a copy, and he wrote a piece on Wasserman that appeared on December 26. Wasserman begins the letter: "I was born in Munich, Germany, in 1920. I lived there during the rise of the Nazi Party and left for the U.S.A. in 1938. The elements of the Nazi regime were the suppression of dissent, the purging of the dissenters and undesirables, the persecution of communists, Jews and homosexuals and the ideal of the Arians as the master race. These policies started immediately after Hitler came to power, at first out of sight but escalated gradually leading to the Second World War and the holocaust. Meanwhile most Germans were lulled into complacency by all sorts of wonderful projects and benefits." Today, Wasserman writes, "The neo-Nazis and the KKK have become more prominent and get recognition in the press. We are all familiar with Trump's remarks against all Muslims and all Mexicans. But there has not been anything as alarming as the appointment of Steve Bannon as Trump's Chief Strategist. Bannon has, apparently, made anti-Semitic remarks for years, has recently condemned Muslims and Jews and he and Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the pick as National Security Adviser, advocate the political and cultural superiority of the white race. At the same time Trump is trying to control the press... We can hope that our government of checks and balances will be more resistant than the Weimar Republic was. Don't count on it." The Seattle Times article with quotes from Franz Wasserman and his story is available here . Feminist Scholars: "We cannot and will not comply. Our number one priority is to resist." The following "Statement by Feminist Scholars on the Election of Donald Trump as President" is posted at a number of sites on the Internet and so far has more than 900 signatories: "On Tuesday, November 8, 2016, a sizeable minority of the U.S. electorate chose to send billionaire Donald Trump, an avowed sexist and an unrepentant racist, who has spent nearly forty years antagonizing vulnerable people, to the White House. Spewing hatred at women, people of color, immigrants, Muslims, and those with disabilities is Trump's most consistent, and well-documented form of public engagement. Trump bragged about sexually assaulting women because, as he quipped, his celebrity made it easy for him to do so. We can only assume that the hostile climate and anxiety about what is to come were contributing factors. The political shift we are witnessing, including the appointment of open bigots to the president-elect's cabinet, reaffirms the structural disposability and systemic disregard for every person who is not white, male, straight, cisgender, able-bodied, and middle or upper class. "As a community of feminist scholars, activists and artists, we affirm that the time to act is now. We cannot endure four years of a Trump presidency without a plan. We must protect reproductive justice, fight for Black lives, defend the rights of LGBTQIA people, disrupt the displacement of indigenous people and the stealing of their resources, advocate and provide safe havens for the undocumented, stridently reject Islamophobia, and oppose the acceleration of neoliberal policies that divert resources to the top 1% and abandon those at the bottom of the economic hierarchy. We must also denounce militarization at home and abroad, and climate change denial that threatens to destroy the entire planet. "We must also reject calls to compromise, to understand, or to collaborate. We cannot and will not comply. Our number one priority is to resist. We must resist the instantiation of autocracy. We must resist this perversion of democracy. We must refuse spin and challenge any narratives that seek to call this moment "democracy at work." This is not democracy; this is the rise of a 21st century U.S. version of fascism. We must name it, so we can both confront and defeat it. The most vulnerable, both here and abroad, cannot afford for us to equivocate or remain silent. The threats posed by settler colonialism and empire around the globe have never been more real, nor has our resolve to oppose these injustices ever been stronger. Concretely, within the U.S., we oppose the building of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and the establishment of a registry for Muslim residents. "We owe this moment and the communities we fight for our very best thinking, teaching, and organizing. We must find creative solutions to address the immediate needs of those who will be acutely affected within the first 100 days of Trump's presidency. We must push ourselves into new, and more precise and radical analytical frameworks that can help us to articulate the stakes of this moment. "The most important thing we can do in this moment is to make an unqualified commitment to those on the margins through our actions, insist that the media be allowed to do its job; and protect the right to protest and dissent. We recognize clearly that our silence will not protect us. Silence, in the aftermath of 11/8 is not merely a lack of words; it is a profound inertia of liberatory thought and praxis. So - what are we waiting for? We are who we are waiting for. We pledge to stand and fight, with fierce resolve, for the values and principles we believe in and the people we love." The statement and list of signatories is available here . Center for Constitutional Rights: "We must resist and prevent at all costs a slide into American fascism" Shortly after Trump's election, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York City issued this statement: "We send love and solidarity to all those who are hurting and afraid that Donald Trump's America excludes them. We share the despair of the millions who are in shock that a candidate supported by the KKK has won the presidency of the United States. "If there is a silver lining in this election result it is that it is impossible now to deny the racism, sexism, and xenophobia that have been part of America for centuries. Our duty is to stand together with all those who dissent from this bigotry and to defend and protect vulnerable communities. That has been CCR's mission for 50 years, and we will work harder than ever to defend civil and human rights and the U.S. Constitution. "The dangers of a Trump presidency go beyond the attacks on people of color, women, Muslims, immigrants, refugees, LGBTQI people, and people with disabilities. His campaign was marked by the strategies and tactics of authoritarian regimes: endorsing and encouraging violence against political protesters, threatening to jail his opponent, refusing to say he would accept the results of the election if he lost, punishing critical press. Together with all those who value freedom, justice, and self-determination, we must resist and prevent at all costs a slide into American fascism. "Resistance is our civic duty." Lauren Duca, Teen Vogue Editor: Trump's "Gaslighting" and the Fight for the Truth Lauren Duca is an editor for Teen Vogue magazine and has been a contributing reporter/writer for several other magazines including Huffington Post , Vice , New York , and The New Yorker . In a December 10, article published in Teen Vogue titled "Donald Trump Is Gaslighting America," she writes: "Trump won the Presidency by gas light. His rise to power has awakened a force of bigotry by condoning and encouraging hatred, but also by normalizing deception. Civil rights are now on trial, though before we can fight to reassert the march toward equality, we must regain control of the truth. If that seems melodramatic, I would encourage you to dump a bucket of ice over your head while listening to 'Duel of the Fates.' Donald Trump is our President now; it's time to wake up. "'Gas lighting' is a buzzy name for a terrifying strategy currently being used to weaken and blind the American electorate. We are collectively being treated like Bella Manningham in the 1938 Victorian thriller from which the term 'gas light' takes its name. In the play, Jack terrorizes his wife Bella into questioning her reality by blaming her for mischievously misplacing household items which he systematically hides. Doubting whether her perspective can be trusted, Bella clings to a single shred of evidence: the dimming of the gas lights that accompanies the late night execution of Jack's trickery. The wavering flame is the one thing that holds her conviction in place as she wriggles free of her captor's control. "To gas light is to psychologically manipulate a person to the point where they question their own sanity, and that's precisely what Trump is doing to this country.... At the hands of Trump, facts have become interchangeable with opinions, blinding us into arguing amongst ourselves, as our very reality is called into question.... The good news about this boiling frog scenario is that we're not boiling yet. Trump is not going to stop playing with the burner until America realizes that the temperature is too high. It's on every single one of us to stop pretending it's always been so hot in here... "The road ahead is a treacherous one. There are unprecedented amounts of ugliness to untangle, from deciding whether our President can be an admitted sexual predator to figuring out how to stop him from threatening the sovereignty of an entire religion. It's incredible that any of those things could seem like a distraction from a greater peril, or be only the cherry-picked issues in a seemingly unending list of gaffes, but the gaslights are flickering. When defending each of the identities in danger of being further marginalized, we must remember the thing that binds this pig-headed hydra together. As we spin our newfound rage into action, it is imperative to remember, across identities and across the aisle, as a country and as individuals, we have nothing without the truth." To read the whole article go here . Journalist Summer Brennan: "I promise to be a siren going off..." On December 19, Summer Brennan, an award-winning investigative journalist, author, and visiting scholar at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, tweeted: "Trump is a fascist. I promise to be a siren going off about this national disaster until it is averted or stopped. #resist" Constitutional Law Scholars to Trump: "We feel a responsibility to challenge you in the court of public opinion" In an open letter to Trump dated December 13, constitutional legal scholars associated with law schools across the U.S. wrote, "Some of your statements and actions during the campaign and since the election cause us great concern about your commitment to our constitutional system." The open letter gets into some of these issues: First Amendment protection of the rights of free speech and free press; "poisonous anti-Muslim rhetoric"; violation of government checks and balances; threats to overturn the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion; appointment of Alabama Senator Sessions, with a "troubling history on voting rights and civil rights," as Attorney General; "baseless charges concerning voter fraud"; and "inflammatory rhetoric" that has been "taken as invitation to discriminate and to act out in all kinds of hate-filled ways." In the point on anti-Muslim attacks, the open letter notes: "To make matters worse, your proposed national security advisor, Michael Flynn, has described what he calls 'Islamism' as a 'vicious cancer inside the body of 1.7 billion people' that 'has to be excised.' Such rhetoric is shocking in its ignorance and bigotry; it must not become normalized. We continue to hear talk of a 'Muslim registry' being created by your administration--or a nationality-based registry that would be a proxy for religious discrimination. To our national shame, the federal government during World War II carried out--and the Supreme Court's discredited Korematsu decision upheld--the mass internment of Japanese Americans based upon no individualized suspicion of wrongdoing; the federal government under President Ronald Reagan subsequently apologized and paid reparations. We urge you to reconsider your naming of Flynn and to renounce a Muslim registry or anything like it." The open letter concludes: "Although we sincerely hope that you will take your constitutional oath seriously, so far you have offered little indication that you will. We feel a responsibility to challenge you in the court of public opinion, and we hope that those directly aggrieved by your administration will challenge you in the courts of law. We call upon legal conservatives who cherish constitutional values to join us in speaking law to power. And we call upon citizens, lawyers, educators, public officials, and religious leaders to use every legal means available to protect the most vulnerable members of our society and our constitutional guarantees. At no point that any of us can remember has this need been more imperative than it is now." See a pdf of the open letter and list of signatories here . America Ferrera: Future under Trump is "terrifying" but "we can't give up the fight" America Ferrera is an actress who has won many awards, including an Emmy, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In a December 14 interview, she was asked, "How are you feeling about the future of our environment during the Trump administration?" She said: "When you have a president-elect who says he doesn't even know if climate change is real, for the next four to eight years, the future looks pretty horrible. We know that climate change is real, and yet he's still questioning it. So, that's pretty terrifying. We haven't had any time to waste for a long time now, and it's a pretty devastating thing to start moving backward. So yes, I think that it's really daunting. But we have to be committed to staying alert and staying awake and staying educated and using our voices to push back. It doesn't mean it's gonna be easy, or there's ever going to be a defining last fight where we win and we never have to go back and defend the idea that climate change is the real thing we need to pay attention to. But we can't give up the fight." Celebrities Refuse to Perform at Trump Inauguration During his presidential campaign, many musicians, actors, and other celebrities spoke out against Donald Trump. And now he and his team are having a hard time getting musicians to perform at his inauguration. A number of celebrities have been asked and refused, and some have made it clear that if they are asked, they will refuse. Read more here Open Letter Protesting American Library Association Press Release: "I am absolutely not ready to work with President-elect Trump" On November 20, Sarah Houghton wrote an Open Letter to Julie Todaro, President of the American Library Association, protesting a press release from the ALA in which Todaro stated, "We are ready to work with President-elect Trump, his transition team, incoming administration and members of Congress to bring more economic opportunity to all Americans and advance other goals we have in common." Houghton has been an active member of the ALA for 16 years and says, "I have never before this week considered canceling my membership." Houghton says in her letter: "I am absolutely not ready to work with President-elect Trump. He has stood for racism, prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination for his entire life--including during his campaign. Those are all things ALA stands firmly against. Explain to me why we're ready to work with a bigot? Because I'm not ready for that at all. The rest of this release went on to detail some of the things libraries do for communities--coming off as a weak and pandering missive begging for scraps and, in truth, coming from a place of fear." Houghton points to another ALA press release that highlights "how libraries can advance specific policy priorities of the incoming Trump administration in the areas of entrepreneurship, services to veterans and broadband adoption and use" and says: "This trajectory away from justice and toward collaboration with a fascist regime disturbs me greatly. These comments are tone deaf and, not only do not represent my values as a librarian, but do not represent the shared values of the American Library Association and its membership. There is a time to walk a middle road, to give voice to a moderate viewpoint of an organization's membership. This is not that time. This is the time to stand tall and proud, and give voice to the fiery ethics and values that our profession has held dear for so long in the face of fascism and bigotry. "I have no intention of supporting this incoming administration in any way whatsoever. With the transition team and other appointments being floated in the press, President-elect Trump has made it clear that racism, sexism, bigotry, assault, discrimination of all kinds, and the destruction of basic civil liberties are foundational to his administration's philosophy. I refuse to be complicit in the work of the Trump administration and cannot in good faith remain part of a professional organization that chooses to be complicit." Read the whole letter here . Celebrity Chefs vs. Trump Anthony Bourdain , currently host of CNN's travel and food show Parts Unknown, was asked in a recent interview about sushi chef Alessandro Borgognone's decision to move his restaurant to Trump's Washington, DC, hotel. Bourdain said he would "never eat in his restaurant" and felt "utter and complete contempt" for the chef. He explained, "I'm not asking you to start putting up barricades now, but when they come and ask you, 'Are you with us?' you do have an option. You can say, 'No thanks, guys. I don't look good in a brown shirt. Makes me look a little, I don't know, not great. It's not slimming.'" In a tweet on December 22, Bourdain said, "I am not 'boycotting' anything. I choose to not patronize chefs who tacitly support deporting half the people they've ever worked with"--clear reference to Trump's threat to deport millions of Mexican immigrants. Jose Andres operates more than a dozen restaurants in cities including Washington, DC; Miami; Las Vegas; and Los Angeles. In 2015, after Trump made disgusting racist comments about Mexican immigrants, Andres withdrew the commitment he'd made to open a restaurant in Trump's new DC hotel. Trump sued him for breach of contract, seeking $10 million in damages. Andres countersued, and said, "More than half of my team is Hispanic, as are many of our guests. And, as a proud Spanish immigrant and recently naturalized American citizen myself, I believe that every human being deserves respect, regardless of immigration status." Andres tweeted on December 19: "I am a proud immigrant!! To my fellow immigrants thank you for the amazing work you do every day. #ToImmigrantsWithLove" Trump is required to appear to be deposed in Andres's suit, just weeks before his scheduled inauguration. Fiona Apple's Christmas Song: "Trump's nuts roasting on an open fire..." At the December 18 "We Rock with Standing Rock" benefit concert in Los Angeles, singer Fiona Apple did a fiery performance of her version of the Christmas standard "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" that begins: "Trump's nuts roasting on an open fire..." She ends with "Donald Trump... Fuck You!" to the loud cheers of the audience. Watch it here: George Polisner, Executive of Tech Company Oracle: "I am here to oppose [Trump] in every possible and legal way" George Polisner, a top executive at the tech corporation Oracle, publicly resigned from the company on December 19 after Oracle co-CEO Safra Catz announced she was going to join Trump's presidential transition team. Catz was among the executives from major tech companies, including Amazon, Google, and Apple, who met with Trump last week--a shameful meeting that helped to lend legitimacy to the Trump-Pence fascist cabal. When Polisner learned of this, he sent his letter to Catz and at the same time posted it on the LinkedIn website. His resignation letter says in part, "Trump stokes fear, hatred and violence toward people of color, Muslims and immigrants. It is well-known that hate crimes are surging as he has provided license for this ignorance-based expression of malice.... He seeks to eviscerate environmental protections, the public education system, LGBTQ rights and women's rights." And Polisner says in the letter: " I am not with President-elect Trump and I am not here to help him in any way. In fact--when his policies border on the unconstitutional, the criminal and the morally unjust--I am here to oppose him in every possible and legal way." (emphasis in the original) Polisner told the UK Guardian that he decided to make his resignation letter public because he "decided it was too important to die as a private letter" and that "I thought I could either be a role model in terms of a path forward or a cautionary tale." Read George Polisner's resignation letter here . Actor Michael Sheen: "In the same way as the Nazis had to be stopped in Germany in the Thirties, this thing that is on the rise has to be stopped" Michael Sheen is a Welsh stage and screen actor whose work includes starring roles in the 2008 film Frost/Nixon and the current Showtime series Masters of Sex. On December 17, the Sunday Times of London ran a profile on him, titled "Michael Sheen gets political. This time it's for real." The writer of the profile had expected Sheen to discuss his role in the upcoming sci-fi film Passengers. "Instead, Sheen, 47, wants to talk about politics. Lately, it's been bothering him a lot. No, that's not nearly strong enough. What he calls the 'demagogic, fascistic' drift of politics in the western world in the past few years, culminating in Donald Trump's election victory, has left Sheen horrified, furious and determined to do everything he can to counter it. It's why, after several years of increasing commitments to a broad spread of causes, including the NHS, Unicef, the Freedom of Information Act, fighting homelessness and campaigning against fracking, the actor is preparing to go all in. He plans to start fighting the rise of the 'hard populist right'--evident in France, Austria, Poland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Britain and the United States--via grassroots organizing in his beloved Port Talbot (he pronounces it "P'Talbot") and see where it takes him." (Port Talbot is Sheen's hometown in Wales.) Later, the profile quotes Sheen saying, "In the same way as the Nazis had to be stopped in Germany in the Thirties, this thing that is on the rise has to be stopped. But it has to be understood before it can be stopped." The whole profile is available at the Times website here (the site requires registration for free access). 100+ Professors at Notre Dame Say: We are coming forward to stand with the professors you have called "dangerous" A website called "Professor Watchlist," run by a group called Turning Point USA, has posted the names of more than 200 professors they accuse of putting forward "leftist propaganda" and "discriminating" against right-wing students. This campus witch-hunt is a sign of the time of Trump. Among the names appearing on the Watchlist are two Notre Dame academics: philosophy professor Gary Gutting and Iris Outlaw, director of Multicultural Student Programs and Services. The Watchlist said Gutting was added because he wrote that the country's "permissive gun laws are a manifestation of racism," and Outlaw because she "taught a 'white privilege' seminar that pledged to help students acknowledge and understand their white privilege." In response, more than 100 Notre Dame faculty members published an open letter in the Observer , the student newspaper at Notre Dame, defying the Professor Watchlist. Their statement said in part: "We surmise that the purpose of your list is to shame and silence faculty who espouse ideas you reject. But your list has had a different effect upon us. We are coming forward to stand with the professors you have called 'dangerous,' reaffirming our values and recommitting ourselves to the work of teaching students to think clearly, independently, and fearlessly. "So please add our names, the undersigned faculty at the University of Notre Dame, to the Professor Watchlist. We wish to be counted among those you are watching." The full letter and list of the names are available at the Observer site. In his December 5 piece titled "Trump's Agents of Idiocracy," in the New York Times , columnist Charles Blow wrote: "What if Trump has shown himself beyond doubt and with absolute certainty to be a demagogue and bigot and xenophobe and has given space and voice to concordant voices in the country and in his emerging Legion of Doom cabinet? In that reality, resistance isn't about mindless obstruction by people blinded by the pain of ideological defeat or people gorging on sour grapes. To the contrary, resistance then is an act of radical, even revolutionary, patriotism. Resistance isn't about damaging the country, but protecting it..." Read the whole column here MIT Faculty: "The President-elect has appointed individuals to positions of power who have endorsed racism, misogyny and religious bigotry, and denied the widespread scientific consensus on climate change." More than 500 members of the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have issued a statement opposing Trump's official appointments and "upholding the value of science and diversity." The signers include people from every academic department at MIT, nine department and program heads, and four Nobel Prize recipients. Notable signatories to date include Susan Solomon, Co-Chair of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; Tim Berners-Lee, World Wide Web inventor; Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor Emeritus; Joichi Ito, Director of the MIT Media Lab; and Junot Diaz, Pulitzer Prize winning author. This is an important development, and this kind of stand needs to spread to other campuses and through the academic community, even as people get more clarity on the actual fascist nature of Trump and the incoming regime. Read the MIT faculty statement here . Shaun King: "No, we should not wait and see what a Trump administration does. We should organize our resistance right now." New York Daily News columnist Shaun King's writes: "Now, in the name of a peaceful transition, both President Obama and Hillary Clinton are striking a conciliatory tone. I understand that such a tone is a tradition in American politics, but everything about Donald Trump and this election breaks with tradition. President Obama may feel obligated to strike such a tone, but I don't have such an obligation. Perhaps President Obama feels that by striking such a tone, it makes it more likely that Donald Trump will be moderate after his inauguration. I don't believe that for one second." His column concludes: "We can't wait until he does those things before we act against him. We must outsmart and out-organize his team. I implore you to ignore anybody saying anything other than that. They've been wrong all year. We must act and we must act now." Read Shaun King's piece here . "Trump is saying Hitler-level things in public... And I feel like it's dangerous for us to be complacent" Read John Legend's comments here . Green Day at American Music Awards, November 20: NO TRUMP! NO KKK! NO FASCIST USA! During the live TV broadcast of the American Music Awards on Sunday night, November 20, the punk rock band Green Day let loose with a defiant condemnation of Donald Trump. In the middle of performing "Bang Bang," from their latest album Revolution Radio, the band, led by singer Billie Joe Armstrong, broke into the chant: "No Trump! No KKK! No fascist USA!" ABC TV executives were reportedly thrown "completely off guard." The audience gave Green Day a standing ovation. This is the kind of bold, truth-telling denunciation of Trump--calling out what he actually represents--that we need much more of, right now! Watch a video clip here. "Farewell, America" by author Neal Gabler, November 10 Whatever place we now live in is not the same place it was on Nov. 7. No matter how the rest of the world looked at us on Nov. 7, they will now look at us differently ... With Trump's election, I think that the ideal of an objective, truthful journalism is dead, never to be revived. Like Nixon and Sarah Palin before him, Trump ran against the media, boomeranging off the public's contempt for the press. He ran against what he regarded as media elitism and bias, and he ran on the idea that the press disdained working-class white America. Among the many now-widening divides in the country, this is a big one, the divide between the media and working-class whites, because it creates a Wild West of information - a media ecology in which nothing can be believed except what you already believe. With the mainstream media so delegitimized -- a delegitimization for which they bear a good deal of blame, not having had the courage to take on lies and expose false equivalencies -- they have very little role to play going forward in our politics. I suspect most of them will surrender to Trumpism -- if they were able to normalize Trump as a candidate, they will no doubt normalize him as president. Cable news may even welcome him as a continuous entertainment and ratings booster. And in any case, like Reagan, he is bulletproof. The media cannot touch him, even if they wanted to. Presumably, there will be some courageous guerillas in the mainstream press, a kind of Resistance, who will try to fact-check him. But there will be few of them, and they will be whistling in the wind. Trump, like all dictators, is his own truth. Read more here . Architect Resigns from Association for Pledging to "Play Nice" with Trump Two days after Trump's election, Robert Ivy, the CEO and executive vice president of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), sent a memorandum to the organization's members saying, "The AIA and its 89,000 members are committed to working with President-elect Trump to address the issues our country faces, particularly strengthening the nation's aging infrastructure. ... It is now time for all of us to work together to advance policies that help our country move forward." When Frederick "Fritz" Read, the founder and head of Read & Company Architects in Baltimore, saw this, he acted immediately. He sent a letter condemning Ivy's statement and declaring his resignation from the AIA. He wrote: "The alacrity with which Robert Ivy hopped out there to promise the President-Elect that the AIA will play nice with his administration, without even a pro forma caution that what Mr. Trump has promised and threatened are deeply antithetical to the values that many of us cherish, is the final straw for me, the last bit of evidence I needed, that our only serious interest as an organization has become a craven interest in securing our piece of the action. The AIA does not represent my personal or professional interests. Please consider this my resignation from the AIA, effective immediately, and remove both my name and that of my firm from your membership records. I am appalled." In a subsequent email to an official of the Baltimore AIA chapter who talked about how AIA relations with the U.S. government have always been and should continue to be "neutral," Read wrote: "Am so curious how a pledge made explicitly on behalf of all 89,000 members of open-ended and unqualified support for a climate-change-denying, xenophobic, racist, sexist, repeated bankrupt can possibly be understood as a statement of organizational neutrality. ... Ours is not an honorable history of willingness to forgo enrichment simply on principle, and this statement slips all too closely to the worst of that: are we all too young or forgetful to recall that Albert Speer was one of ours?" Speer was Hitler's chief architect who headed major projects under the Nazi regime and became Minister of Armaments and War Production during World War 2. Under mounting criticism from architects, architecture faculty, and other architecture professionals, Ivy and other leading AIA officials were forced to apologize to the membership for their craven remarks about working with the Trump administration. Read more about this here at Architect News online Center for Biological Diversity: "Lash Out at the Darkness and Fight Like Hell" In the November 10 issue of their online newsletter "Endangered Earth," the Center for Biological Diversity included a statement saying, "We're only thinking about one thing right now: stopping Donald Trump from destroying the planet." The statement goes on to say, "If President Trump carries out the disastrous promises he made while campaigning, the Environmental Protection Agency will be gutted, the Endangered Species Act will be repealed, old-growth forests will be clearcut, hard-fought global climate change agreements will be undermined, and polluters will be given free rein over our water and air." And the center vowed, "There's no way in hell we're letting that happen." Read the entire statement here. Read the Center's piece here . Jewish historians speak out on the election of Donald Trump Hostility to immigrants and refugees strikes particularly close to home for us as historians of the Jews. As an immigrant people, Jews have experienced the pain of discrimination and exclusion, including by this country in the dire years of the 1930s. Our reading of the past impels us to resist any attempts to place a vulnerable group in the crosshairs of nativist racism. It is our duty to come to their aid and to resist the degradation of rights that Mr. Trump's rhetoric has provoked. However, it is not only in defense of others that we feel called to speak out. We witnessed repeated anti-Semitic expressions and insinuations during the Trump campaign. Much of this anti-Semitism was directed against journalists, either Jewish or with Jewish-sounding names. The candidate himself refused to denounce--and even retweeted--language and images that struck us as manifestly anti-Semitic. By not doing so, his campaign gave license to haters of Jews, who truck in conspiracy theories about world Jewish domination. Read entire statement here Issa Rae, Actor: "The scariest part is how normal it's becoming to some people" Issa Rae is star of the HBO series Insecure . Sunday night, January 9, on the red carpet at the Golden Globes awards in Los Angeles., she was asked what she thought of Trump. Rae said: Every single time I see a tweet from that man, every single time I see the administration that he's bringing in, it just gets worse and worse. And the scariest part to me is how normal it's becoming to some people. And I think we just have to keep calling things out, it's like nope, you're lying, nope, that's not true, nope, that doesn't work that way. As long as we don't continue to let him slide, then there might be some hope, but it's scary. Actor Debra Messing: "This is a regime that will strip away the rights of millions..." Debra Messing, best known for her starring role in the TV comedy series Will & Grace, tweeted on December 18: This is a regime that will strip away the rights of millions. Threaten the lives of millions. And threatens the planet. #NOFASCISTUSA Messing is one of the signatories of the Call to Action of RefuseFascism.org. On Wednesday, January 4, when the Call appeared as a full page in the New York Times, she tweeted a photo of that Times page with the #NoFascistUSA hashtag and link to refusefascism.org. Literary Magazine Editor Philip Elliot: "Fascism is rising. Not just in the U.S. but across Europe too" Philip Elliot is the editor-in-chief of Into The Void , a print and digital literary magazine based in Dublin, Ireland, "dedicated to providing fantastic fiction, nonfiction, poetry and visual art from all over the world." In a recent roundtable with several editors, the online journal The Review Review asked the question "How Will a Trump Presidency Impact Literary Magazines?" Elliot answered: Fascism is rising. Not just in the U.S. but across Europe too. In the West we're experiencing similar circumstances that led to its rise a century ago and now the wheel has turned again. People say to me, especially because I live in Ireland, that I'm overreacting to this; that's it's just more politics, everything will blow over, etc. They fail to see the bigger picture. What's been put into motion here, catalyzed by the election but arisen from a far more complex sense of discontent and fear, is the greatest threat to our newly-progressive societies that we've ever seen. More than anything else, my fear is that we as artists and curators of art will allow our way of thinking to become the "It's just politics, it will all blow over soon" attitude. I fear that because nothing terrible is going to happen right away, we will normalize this whole affair and accept it. What people forget is that Hitler began his slow climb to absolute power in 1918. Bad things are coming, that's for certain, but they will come slowly, and they will come under the guise of good. As writers, we peer under the masks of things for a living and that skill is more important now than ever. Art's duty to criticize the bad and protect the good is infinitely more important in times of darkness. It reminds us what we can be. And it must also remind us of the terrible evil we once did. Because if we truly remembered, how could we have let this happen again? At Into the Void, we'll be paying close attention to work that criticizes the actions of our supposed leaders in the months and years to come. Elliot's comments and others can be found here . Petition Against Museum Loan of Art for Inauguration: "We object...to an implicit endorsement of the Trump presidency" When the St. Louis Art Museum announced that they were making an artwork from their collection available on loan to serve as a centerpiece of the Trump inauguration luncheon, art historian Ivy Cooper and artist Ilene Berman began an online petition calling for the cancellation of the loan. According to the petition, the 1855 painting, "Verdict of the People" by George Caleb Bingham, "depicts a small-town Missouri election, and symbolizes the democratic process in mid-19th century America." The petition goes on to say: We object to the painting's use as an inaugural backdrop and an implicit endorsement of the Trump presidency and his expressed values of hatred, misogyny, racism and xenophobia. We reject the use of the painting to suggest that Trump's election was truly the "verdict of the people," when in fact the majority of votes--by a margin of over three million--were cast for Trump's opponent. Finally, we consider the painting a representation of our community, and oppose its use as such at the inauguration. Art can be used to make powerful statements. Its withdrawal can do the same. Join us in our campaign. As of January 6, close to 2,700 people have signed the petition, which is available here . Gothamist.com on Refuse Fascism NY Times Ad: "It's a Noble Cause..." In a January article at Gothamist.com, an article by Rebecca Fishbein titled " Celebrities, Activists Publish Anti-Fascist, Anti-Trump Ad In NY Times " said, in part: Rosie O'Donnell, Debra Messing, and a handful of celebrities and activists have joined forces with RefuseFascism.org, a Cornel West and Carl Dix-helmed group dedicated to opposing the incoming Trump Administration and calling Trump's presidency "illegitimate." The group took out a full page ad in the Times yesterday calling for a month long resistance effort against Trump: [facsimile of the ad is included] Refuse Fascism is also asking for donations to help reprint the Times ad in papers across the country, as well as "to support volunteers going to D.C., to produce millions of copies of Refuse Fascism material and get them out everywhere, and to support organizers and speakers." It's a noble cause, and there's nothing wrong with celebrities speaking out. Influential people should be speaking out against Trump, and advocating activism, and fighting him at every turn.... Rafael Jesus Gonzalez, Poet and Literature Professor: "Full-fledged U.S. fascism has come" Rafael Jesus Gonzalez, poet and Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing & Literature, has taught at the University of Oregon, Western State College of Colorado, Central Washington State University, the University of Texas El Paso, and Laney College, Oakland where he founded the Mexican and Latin American Studies Dept. In a New Year's Eve blog post, Gonzalez wrote of Donald Trump: Shall I repeat the litany of his faults--his misogyny, his racism, his homophobia, his bigotry, his profound ignorance? His analysis, his description, his judgment of anything does not go beyond stock superlatives; he knows nothing of ideas, much less policy, not an iota of science. "I am a business man," he says proudly as if that justified all his conniving, his dishonesty, his thievery. Should we doubt it, he has his billions to prove it. So the empire now gets its own, homegrown Caligula. Sociopathic megalomaniac, he too may come to declare himself divine. True, we have been governed by criminals before (can one govern an empire and not be criminal?), but this is a case apart. It is the cruelty I fear, the utter heartlessness in the face of suffering, the willingness, nay, the intent to cause suffering and pain. Nor compassion nor justice is a hallmark of the 1%, the Republican Party he represents and that brought him to power. (Being a Democrat is no guarantee of decency, but it seems that a decent Republican is an oxymoron.) With Republican control of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Executive (the proposed Cabinet reads like a Hitlerian wish-list), full-fledged U. S. fascism has come, a fascism prepared to destroy the Earth itself for the sake of wealth and power. Can it be called anything but madness? He went on to write: Democracy once lost is very hard to restore. Our resistance must be immediate and overwhelming, our love fierce, our joy protected. Our homes, our neighborhoods, our cities must be made bulwarks of justice, of refuge. Our schools sanctuary of freedom of thought and inquiry, our churches voices for justice rooted in compassion. Much is demanded of us and great may be the sacrifice, but if we all share it, it will be much, much less. Let us then take to the streets and public places dressed in our most joyful colors, making music with our drums and flutes, dragging our pianos out our doors if we must, dancing, singing, chanting, turning all our art into protest and celebration--and make our spaces truly our own. Read the whole piece by Rafael Jesus Gonzalez, titled "Thoughts for the Last Day of the Year 2016," available in English and Spanish here . More Than 1,100 Law Professors Tell Senate to Reject Sessions Nomination More than 1,100 law school professors from across the country are behind a letter sent to the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, January 2, calling for the rejection of Trump's nomination of Jeff Sessions for attorney general. The letter says (in full): We are 1140 faculty members from 170 different law schools in 48 states across the country. We urge you to reject the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions for the position of Attorney General of the United States. In 1986, the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee, in a bipartisan vote, rejected President Ronald Reagan's nomination of then-U.S. Attorney Sessions for a federal judgeship, due to statements Sessions had made that reflected prejudice against African Americans. Nothing in Senator Sessions' public life since 1986 has convinced us that he is a different man than the 39-year-old attorney who was deemed too racially insensitive to be a federal district court judge. Some of us have concerns about his misguided prosecution of three civil rights activists for voter fraud in Alabama in 1985, and his consistent promotion of the myth of voter-impersonation fraud. Some of us have concerns about his support for building a wall along our country's southern border. Some of us have concerns about his robust support for regressive drug policies that have fueled mass incarceration. Some of us have concerns about his questioning of the relationship between fossil fuels and climate change. Some of us have concerns about his repeated opposition to legislative efforts to promote the rights of women and members of the LGBTQ community. Some of us share all of these concerns. All of us believe it is unacceptable for someone with Senator Sessions' record to lead the Department of Justice . The Attorney General is the top law enforcement officer in the United States, with broad jurisdiction and prosecutorial discretion, which means that, if confirmed, Jeff Sessions would be responsible for the enforcement of the nation's civil rights, voting, immigration, environmental, employment, national security, surveillance, antitrust, and housing laws. As law faculty who work every day to better understand the law and teach it to our students, we are convinced that Jeff Sessions will not fairly enforce our nation's laws and promote justice and equality in the United States. We urge you to reject his nomination. To read the statement with list of signatories go here . Outrage at Simon & Schuster's Book Deal for Pro-Trump Racist When the book publisher Simon & Schuster recently signed Milo Yiannopoulos, writer for Breitbart News Network, to a $250,000 book deal for the Threshold imprint, there was immediate outrage. Breitbart is a neo-Nazi, misogynistic, white-supremacist website whose former owner, Steve Bannon, is now Trump's chief strategist and senior counselor. As technology editor at Breitbart, Yiannopoulos promoted the vicious campaign known as "GamerGate," a flood of viciously degrading attacks and terroristic threats against the very small number of prominent women in the video-game development community. Among the despicable things he's written is: "...Donald Trump and the rest of the alpha males will continue to dominate the internet without feminist whining. It will be fun! Like a big fraternity..." And Yiannopoulos was banned from Twitter this summer after his followers mounted a racist harassment campaign against Black comedian/actor Leslie Jones. After the Simon & Schuster signing of Yiannopoulos, the Chicago Review of Books tweeted: In response to this disgusting validation of hate, we will not cover a single @simonschuster book in 2017. A bookstore in Dublin, Ireland, tweeted that it would not be carrying any Simon & Schuster titles: Sometimes it's a tough call for bookshops between respecting free speech and not promoting hate speech. Sometimes not. Byebye Writer Danielle Henderson's memoir is scheduled for publication by Simon & Schuster next year. Henderson wrote in a series of tweets: I'm looking at my @simonschuster contract, and unfortunately there's no clause for "what if we decide to publish a white nationalist" But know this: i'm well aware of what hill I am willing to die on, and my morals and values are at the top of that list. I will happily go back to slinging coffee--I'm not afraid to stand for what I believe in, and I make a MEAN cappuccino foam Comedian Sara Silverman tweeted: The guy has freedom of speech but to fund him & give him a platform tells me a LOT about @simonschuster YUCK AND BOO AND GROSS Shannon Coulter, a marketing specialist who started a campaign to boycott Ivanka Trump products, tweeted ("@Lesdoggg" is Leslie Jones' Twitter handle): @simonschuster are you concerned $250k book deal you gave Milo Yiannopoulos will read as condoning the racist harassment @Lesdoggg endured? Poet Nikky Finney: Talladega College should stand with others "protesting the inauguration of one of the most antagonistic, hatred spewing, unrepentant racists" The January 2 announcement that Talladega College, a historically Black college in Alabama, would send its marching band to be part of Trump's inauguration march was met with immediate outrage from many students and alumni. Nikky Finney, a poet whose 2011 work Head Off & Split won the National Book Award, is an alumna of Talladega and currently a chair in creative writing and Southern Studies at the University of South Carolina. Finney said of Talladega's decision: The news that Talladega College has forgotten its steady and proud 150 years of history, by making the decision to not stand in solidarity with other clear-eyed and courageous people, academic institutions, and organizations, protesting the inauguration of one of the most antagonistic, hatred-spewing, unrepentant racists, has simply and unequivocally broken my heart today. Historical Black colleges are duty bound to have and keep a moral center and be of great moral consciousness while also teaching its students lessons about life that they will need going forward, mainly, that just because a billionaire--who cares nothing about their 150 years of American existence--invites them to a fancy, gold-plated, dress-up party, they have the moral right and responsibility to say "no thank you," especially when the blood, sweat, and tears and bodies, of black, brown, and native people are stuffed in the envelope alongside the RSVP. This should have been a teachable moment for the President of Talladega College instead it has become a moment of divisiveness and shame. Bags of money and the promise of opportunity have always been waved in front of the faces and lives of struggling human beings, who have historically been relegated to the first-fired and the last-hired slots of life. It has been used to separate us before. It has now been used to separate us again. Stan Van Gundy, Detroit Pistons Coach: "We have just thrown a good part of our population under the bus" Speaking about Trump after his election victory, Stan Van Gundy, coach of the National Basketball Association (NBA) Detroit Pistons, said in part: We have just thrown a good part of our population under the bus, and I have problems with thinking that this is where we are as a country. It's tough on [the team], we noticed it coming in. Everybody was a little quiet, and I thought, "Well, maybe the game the other night." [The Pistons were badly beaten in the game that night.] And so we talked about that, but then Aron Baynes said, "I don't think that's why everybody's quiet. It's last night." It's just, we have said--and my daughters, the three of them--our society has said, "No, we think you should be second-class citizens. We want you to be second-class citizens. And we embrace a guy who is openly misogynistic as our leader." I don't know how we get past that. Martin Luther King said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but bends toward justice." I would have believed in that for a long time, but not today.... What we have done to minorities... in this election is despicable. I'm having a hard time dealing with it. This isn't your normal candidate. I don't know even know if I have political differences with him. I don't even know what are his politics. I don't know, other than to build a wall and "I hate people of color, and women are to be treated as sex objects and as servants to men." I don't know how you get past that. I don't know how you walk into the booth and vote for that. I understand problems with the economy. I understand all the problems with Hillary Clinton, I do. But certain things in our country should disqualify you. And the fact that millions and millions of Americans don't think that racism and sexism disqualifies you to be our leader, in our country.... We presume to tell other countries about human-rights abuses and everything else. We better never do that again, when our leaders talk to China or anybody else about human-rights abuses. We just elected an openly, brazen misogynist leader and we should keep our mouths shut and realize that we need to be learning maybe from the rest of the world, because we don't got anything to teach anybody... To see a YouTube of Van Gundy's remarks (along with another NBA coach, Gregg Popovich) go here. Scientist Lawrence M. Krauss on "Donald Trump's War on Science" Lawrence M. Krauss is a theoretical physicist and cosmologist who is Foundation Professor of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, and director of its Origins Project. He was one of the producers of the documentary film The Unbelievers, which promotes a scientific view of the world. An article by Krauss appeared in the December 13 issue of The New Yorker titled, "Donald Trump's War on Science." In this article Krauss says: The first sign of Trump's intention to spread lies about empirical reality, "1984"-style, was, of course, the appointment of Steve Bannon, the former executive chairman of the Breitbart News Network, as Trump's "senior counselor and strategist." This year, Breitbart hosted stories with titles such as "1001 Reasons Why Global Warming Is So Totally Over in 2016," despite the fact that 2016 is now overwhelmingly on track to be the hottest year on record, beating 2015, which beat 2014, which beat 2013. Such stories do more than spread disinformation. Their purpose is the creation of an alternative reality--one in which scientific evidence is a sham--so that hyperbole and fearmongering can divide and conquer the public. Bannon isn't the only propagandist in the new Administration: Myron Ebell, who heads the transition team at the Environmental Protection Agency, is another. In the aughts, as a director at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, he worked to kill a cap-and-trade bill proposed by Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman; in 2012, when the conservative American Enterprise Institute held a meeting about the economics of a possible carbon tax, he asked donors to defund it. It's possible, of course, to oppose cap-and-trade or carbon taxes in good faith--and yet, in recent years, Ebell's work has come to center on lies about science and scientists. Today, as the leader of the Cooler Heads Coalition, an anti-climate-science group, Ebell denies the veracity and methodology of science itself. He dismisses complex computer models that have been developed by hundreds of researchers by saying that they "don't even pass the laugh test." If Ebell's methods seem similar to those used by the tobacco industry to deny the adverse health effects of smoking in the nineteen-nineties, that's because he worked as a lobbyist for the tobacco industry. When Ebell's appointment was announced, Jeremy Symons, of the Environmental Defense Fund, said, "I got a sick feeling in my gut.... I can't believe we got to the point when someone who is as unqualified and intellectually dishonest as Myron Ebell has been put in a position of trust for the future of the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the climate we are going to leave our kids." Symons was right to be apprehensive: on Wednesday, word came that Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma's attorney general, will be named the head of the E.P.A. As Jane Mayer has written, it would be hard to find a public official in the United States who is more closely tied to the oil-and-gas industry and who has been more actively opposed to the efforts of the E.P.A. to regulate the environment. In a recent piece for National Review, Pruitt denied the veracity of climate science; he has led the effort among Republican attorneys general to work directly with the fossil-fuel industry in resisting the Clean Air Act. In 2014, a Times investigation found that letters from Pruitt's office to the E.P.A. and other government agencies had been drafted by energy lobbyists; right now, he is involved in a twenty-eight-state lawsuit against the very agency that he has been chosen to head... And the Trump Administration is on course to undermine science in another way: through education. Educators have various concerns about Betsy DeVos, Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education--they object to her efforts to shield charter schools from government regulation, for example--but one issue stands above the rest: DeVos is a fundamentalist Christian with a long history of opposition to science. If her faith shapes her policies--and there is evidence that it will--she could shape science education decisively for the worse, by systematically depriving young people, in an era where biotechnology will play a key economic and health role worldwide, of a proper understanding of the very basis of modern biology: evolution.... Taken singly, Trump's appointments are alarming. But taken as a whole they can be seen as part of a larger effort to undermine the institution of science, and to deprive it of its role in the public-policy debate. Just as Steve Bannon undermines the institution of a fact-based news media, so appointments like Ebell, Pruitt, McMorris Rodgers, Walker, and DeVos advance the false perception that science is just a politicized tool of "the elites." ...It is not only scientists who should actively fight against this dangerous trend. It is everyone who is concerned about our freedom, health, welfare, and security as a nation--and everyone who is concerned about the planetary legacy we leave for our children. To read the whole article go here . Mormon Church Members Protest Mormon Tabernacle Choir Singing at Trump's Inauguration Some members of the Mormon church are protesting the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing at Trump's inauguration. A petition saying "Mormon Tabernacle Choir Should NOT Perform at Trump Inauguration" has now been signed by close to 19,000 people. It says in part: "As members and friends of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we strongly urge the Church to stop this practice and especially for an incoming president who has demonstrated sexist, racist, misogynistic, and xenophobic behavior that does not align with the principles and teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." The online petition can be found here . Law Students Speak Out Against Trump's Attorney General Nominee: "Sessions stated that he believed the Ku Klux Klan was okay" After Trump nominated Alabama white supremacist and Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, the American Constitution Society (ACS) at Harvard Law School--one of the most prestigious law schools in the world--wrote a letter to Trump opposing the nomination and began distributing it for signatures through ACS chapters across the country. As of December 22, it was signed by 1,060 law students from many different schools. The letter points at some of Sessions's outrageous record: *"As a four-term member of the U.S. Senate, former Alabama Attorney General and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, Senator Sessions consistently opposed laws advancing civil rights, environmental protections, reproductive rights, criminal justice, voting rights, immigration and marriage equality." *"During the unsuccessful confirmation hearing [for federal judgeship in 1986], witnesses testified under oath that Sessions described a white civil rights attorney as a 'race traitor'; referred to a black attorney as 'boy'; and called the ACLU, NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, National Council of Churches and other groups 'un-American organizations.'" *"During the 1986 hearing, a former colleague also testified that Sessions stated that he believed the Ku Klux Klan was okay, until he learned its members smoked marijuana." The letter and signatories are online here . National Nurses United: Trump pick for Health and Human Services would throw "our most sick and vulnerable fellow Americans at the mercy of the healthcare industry" National Nurses United (NNU) is the largest union of registered nurses in the United States. It recently organized a national network of volunteer RNs to go to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to meet the first aid needs of thousands who were there to stop the Dakota Access oil pipeline. On December 22, the NNU sent a letter calling on the Senate to reject Trump's nominee for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Tom Price. According to a NNU press release, the letter says in part: "If confirmed, it is clear that Rep. Price will pursue policies that substantially erode our nation's health and security--eliminating health coverage, reducing access, shifting more costs to working people and their families, and throwing our most sick and vulnerable fellow Americans at the mercy of the healthcare industry." Price has played a major role in attempts by Republicans to undercut or repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Obama's healthcare law (see " Tom Price, Trump's Pick for Health and Human Services: A Slasher of Healthcare for the Poor and Women "). The NNU letter says: "Even today, four years after enactment of the Affordable Care Act, we have seen a drop in U.S. life expectancy rates for the first time in decades, millions of people who self-ration prescription medications or other critical medical treatment due to the high out-of-pocket costs, and continuing disparities in our health care system based on race, gender, age, socio-economic status, or where you live. "While our organization repeatedly voiced concerns that the ACA did not go far enough, repealing the law, especially the expansion of Medicaid which extended health care coverage to millions of low and moderate income adults, and limits on some of the most chronicled abuses in our present insurance based system, would only exacerbate a healthcare crisis many Americans continue to experience..." Read the NNU press release here . Thousands of Doctors Speak Out Against Trump's Pick to Head Health and Human Services On November 29, the American Medical Association (AMA), which represents about a quarter of doctors in the U.S., issued a statement saying that it "strongly supports" Trump's nomination to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Tom Price, and calling on the Senate to "promptly consider and confirm" him for the position. In response, three physicians from the University of Pennsylvania--Drs. Manik Chhabra, Navin Vij and Jane Zhu--posted a statement online opposing the Trump nominee. The statement has been signed by over 5,500 doctors as of December 16. Their statement, "The AMA Does Not Speak for Us," says in part: We are practicing physicians who deliver healthcare in hospitals and clinics, in cities and rural towns; we are specialists and generalists, and we care for the poor and the rich, the young and the elderly. We see firsthand the difficulties that Americans face daily in accessing affordable, quality healthcare. We believe that in issuing this statement of support for Dr. Price, the AMA has reneged on a fundamental pledge that we as physicians have taken -- to protect and advance care for our patients. We support patient choice. But Dr. Price's proposed policies threaten to harm our most vulnerable patients and limit their access to healthcare. We cannot support the dismantling of Medicaid, which has helped 15 million Americans gain health coverage since 2014. We oppose Dr. Price's proposals to reduce funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program, a critical mechanism by which poor children access preventative care. We wish to protect essential health benefits like treatment for opioid use disorder, prenatal care, and access to contraception. We see benefits in market-based solutions to some of our healthcare system's challenges. Like many others, we advocate for improvements in the way healthcare is delivered. But Dr. Price purports to care about efficiency, while opposing innovations by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid to improve value and eliminate waste in healthcare. He supports plans to privatize Medicare, a critical program which covers 44 million of our elderly patients. The AMA's vision statement includes "improving health outcomes" and "better health for all," and yet by supporting Dr. Price's candidacy -- and therefore, his views -- the AMA has not aligned itself with the well-being of patients. For the complete statement and list of signatories, go here . Merrill Miller, Associate Editor of TheHumanist.com: "Now is the time for us to stand in solidarity with those who face oppression" Merrill Miller is associate editor of TheHumanist.com and Communications Associate at the American Humanist Association. The January/February 2017 issue of the Humanist includes an article by Miller titled, "Who Will We Speak For? Humanism's Role in Defending Human Rights and Civil Liberties." The piece starts with the famous quote from Protestant pastor Martin Niemoller, who spent seven years in one of Hitler's concentration camps, about how he had not spoken out when the Nazis attacked different sections of the people until there was no one left to speak for him. Miller writes: "For many humanists and those in the progressive community at large, these past weeks have, in some ways, felt like decades. We've seen Hillary Clinton win the popular vote for president by an enormous margin and still lose the Electoral College to Donald Trump, who is now president-elect. We've seen Stephen Bannon, who fueled the fires of racism, sexism, and bigotry in his time at Breitbart News, named as a chief strategist for the Trump administration, as climate change deniers and individuals with no respect for church-state separation (Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, for one) are being nominated or considered for other top positions. We've heard talk of legislation that would chip away at our constitutional right to free, peaceable assembly, such as Washington State Senator Doug Ericksen's bill to classify street protests as a form of 'economic terrorism'... "Humanists are in a unique position to demonstrate outrage...We must harness that capacity for outrage now--not just to defend church-state separation but to protect all of our basic human rights and civil liberties. "We can start by directing that outrage at the notion that the government would profile and register people based on their race and religion, as the Muslim registry would do. While current discussions of this registry would focus on immigrants, Trump said during his campaign that he would require all Muslims to register, presumably including US citizens. Humanist groups should reach out to their local mosques and Islamic community centers and ask them what their community needs are and how to help... "Now is the time for us to stand in solidarity with those who face oppression, whether they are undocumented immigrants in danger of losing their basic human dignity or women in danger of losing their hard-won reproductive rights. We must stand up for all people of color and LGBTQ individuals, who are terrified by the bigotry unleashed by Trump's campaign and his coming presidency. We must stand up for healthcare for the elderly and for everyone in our nation or else more than 22 million people (as estimated by Vox) will be without it, even though a national, single-payer healthcare system should be considered a human right. We must stand with the labor movement to fight for economic justice for all low-wage workers, whose rights will be threatened by Republican-controlled executive, legislative, and judiciary branches of government. We must do all that we can to protect these and other vulnerable communities and individuals, because the very foundations of our democracy, our civil liberties, and our human rights are at stake. If humanists and nontheists don't speak up for these marginalized groups while we can, there is a distinct possibility that when we're specifically threatened, there will be no one left to speak for us." To read the full article go here . Andrea Bocelli Fans Raise Uproar to Stop Him from Singing at Trump Inauguration Apparently Donald Trump is a fan of the famous Italian opera tenor Andrea Bocelli. When word went out that Trump had approached Bocelli to perform at his inauguration, and there were reports that Bocelli had tentatively agreed (which, if true, is utterly shameful), there was a huge uproar of protest from Bocelli's fans. Some threatened to #BoycottBocelli if he decided to sing on January 20. Here are a few tweets, among many: "Dumped @AndreaBocelli CD's in trash, won't be buying tickets to Feb. Orlando concert after all. DONE with him. Will #boycottBocelli forever." "Please accept the inauguration offer because the Klu Klux Klan makes great fans!" "Contact @AndreaBocelli's booking agent & manager to warn of #BoycottBocelli if he sings for fascist Trump." One fan wrote on Facebook: "Mr Bocelli, please do not sing for Donald Trump. He stands for racism, misogyny, and hatred of others. Music is beautiful, sacred. Don't let this man buy you and desecrate art, hope, and beauty." In the face of the outrage from so many of his fans, Bocelli announced he would not be performing at the inauguration. Trump's people claimed that they had rescinded the invitation. Earlier, in the summer, the widow and daughters of another famous Italian tenor, Luciano Pavarotti, asked Trump to stop using his recording of Puccini's aria "Nessun Dorma" at his campaign events. They said that "the values of brotherhood and solidarity which Luciano Pavarotti expressed throughout the course of his artistic career are entirely incompatible with the worldview offered by the candidate Donald Trump." Hollywood PR Agency Cancels Parties to "defend the values we hold dear" Sunshine Sachs is a PR agency that represents stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck and Natalie Portman. Every year they usually hold a big holiday party, on both the East and West coasts. But this year they didn't feel the usual "holiday cheer." CEO Shawn Sachs said, "However I felt the morning after [Trump was elected] was nothing compared to how I felt talking to people in this office, those who felt their citizenship--in a matter of moments--was gone or had been lessened... Being the diverse workplace we are, many of us felt under assault." So Sunshine Sachs cancelled its annual bicoastal holiday celebrations, and will donate the money that would have been spent for the lavish galas to 16 different organizations, including the ACLU, the Human Rights Campaign, the Environmental Defense Fund and Planned Parenthood. The agency sent out an email saying their decision was a gesture to "defend the values we hold dear." George Takei Speaks Out Against Trump on Nuclear Weapons and Registry for Muslims Responding to Trump saying he wants to "strengthen and expand" the nuclear capabilities of the U.S., actor George Takei tweeted on Thursday, December 22: "Trump wants to expand our nuclear arsenal. I think of my aunt and baby cousin, found burnt in a ditch in Hiroshima. These weapons must go." Takei and his family spent years in one of the U.S. concentration ("internment") camps for people of Japanese descent during World War 2. In his November 18 op-ed for the Washington Post titled, " They interned my family. Don't let them do it to Muslims ," Takei wrote: "During World War II, the government argued that military authorities could not distinguish between alleged enemy elements and peaceful, patriotic Japanese Americans. It concluded, therefore, that all those of Japanese descent, including American citizens, should be presumed guilty and held without charge, trial or legal recourse, in many cases for years. The very same arguments echo today, on the assumption that a handful of presumed radical elements within the Muslim community necessitate draconian measures against the whole, all in the name of national security.... "Let us all be clear: 'National security' must never again be permitted to justify wholesale denial of constitutional rights and protections. If it is freedom and our way of life that we fight for, our first obligation is to ensure that our own government adheres to those principles. Without that, we are no better than our enemies. "Let us also agree that ethnic or religious discrimination cannot be justified by calls for greater security...." In a December 8 interview on CNN, Takei said that during World War 2, before they were sent to an internment camp, his family was placed on a registry of Japanese Americans and subjected to a curfew: "We were confined to our homes from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. in the morning, imprisoned in our homes at night. Then they froze our bank accounts. We were economically paralyzed. Then the soldiers came... I remember the two soldiers walking up our driveway, marching up our driveway, shiny bayonets on the rifle, stopping at the front porch and with their fists started banging on the front door and that sound resonated throughout the house...." Takei connected that history to what is happening today: "It is an echo of what we heard from World War II coming from Trump himself. That sweeping statement characterizing all Muslims. There are more than a billion Muslims in this world. To infer they are all terrorists with that kind of sweeping statement is outrageous, in the same way that they characterized all Japanese Americans as enemy aliens." Patti Smith's rendition of Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" at Nobel Prize ceremony resonates powerfully today At the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, singer Patti Smith performed a moving tribute to Bob Dylan, the winner of this year's laureate for literature. She chose to sing one of Dylan's songs--"A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," released in 1963, a time when the civil rights movement and anti-Vietnam War protests were a sign of the times. Check out the performance here: The final stanza, especially, resonates very powerfully today: "And what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son? And what'll you do now, my darling young one? I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin' I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest Where the people are many and their hands are all empty Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison And the executioner's face is always well hidden Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten Where black is the color, where none is the number And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin' But I'll know my song well before I start singin' And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall." Danny Glover: "We have to fight him every inch" At a December 7 rally in Washington, DC, to support striking federal workers, actor Danny Glover criticized people who say Trump should be given "a chance." Glover said, "Give him a chance what? We know who he is. We know exactly who he is. We have to accept that. But we have to fight him every inch. We have to fight him every moment." Time magazine had just come with their annual "Person of the Year" issue with Trump on the cover. Glover said, "It's irresponsible to make him Person of the Year. Based on what? Based on the fact that he won the Electoral College? Based on the fact that he lied to people? Based on the fact that all the stories of all he's done to women and what he thinks about women? Based on his racism? A racist as Person of the Year? I'm appalled, I'm appalled. I'm angry now that Time magazine would name this person Person of the Year. It's incredible." He said this was a "slap in our face" and "the most disrespectful thing." Rosie O'Donnell: "Not My President" Actor and TV personality Rosie O'Donnell has been calling on people to stand up against Trump in a number of recent tweets. In response to someone who tweeted, "we need to organize an anti-Trump inauguration," O'Donnell tweeted: "no one go - film urself - periscope STANDING keep saying 'NOT MY PRESIDENT - LIFE - WITH MILLIONS OF OTHERS." She also wrote "its called STAY HOME - DO NOT WATCH IT." And she quoted from writer and journalist Norman Cousins: "There is nothing more powerful than an individual acting out of conscience." IBM Employees Denounce CEO's Collaboration with Trump On November 15, IBM Corporation CEO, Ginni Rometty, published an open letter to Donald Trump, offering the tech giant's cooperation to "advance a national agenda" and offering "ideas that I believe will help achieve the aspiration you articulated" in his Election-night acceptance speech. The following week, Elizabeth Wood, a senior content specialist in IBM Marketing, wrote her own open letter, denouncing Rometty's shameless offer to collaborate with the new fascist regime, and resigning from her position. Wood's letter said (all emphasis in original): " Your letter offered the backing of IBM's global workforce in support of his agenda that preys on marginalized people and threatens my well-being as a woman, a Latina and a concerned citizen. The company's hurry to do this was a tacit endorsement of his position. ... "The president-elect has demonstrated contempt for immigrants, veterans, people with disabilities, Black, Latinx, Jewish, Muslim and LGBTQ communities. These groups comprise a growing portion of the company you lead, Ms. Rometty. ... " When the president-elect follows through on his repeated threats to create a public database of Muslims, what will IBM do? Your letter neglects to mention. 1 Read Wood's entire letter here . Wood's action inspired others at IBM to stand up. In early December, 10 current IBM employees started a petition to Rometty insisting that IBM has "a moral and business imperative to uphold the pillars of a free society by declining any projects which undermine liberty, such as surveillance tools threatening freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure," and that "history teach[es] us that accommodating those who unleash forces of aggressive nationalism, bigotry, racism, fear, and exclusion inevitably yields devastating outcomes for millions of innocents." 2 And they specifically demand that IBM execs respect the right of individual employees to "refuse participation in any U.S. contracts that violate constitutional and civil liberties." The petition circulated privately at first, and went public on December 19. It now has at least 500 signatories--employees, former employees, IBM stockholders and others in the tech community. The petition is available online here . 1. On December 16, after Wood's letter was published, as well as a statement from at least 800 tech workers saying they would refuse to work on such a Muslim registry, IBM, as well as Google, Apple and Uber, all told BuzzFeed that they also would refuse. [ back ] 2. This history includes the fact that IBM put its precursor to the computer--the IBM punch card sorter system--at the service of Hitler's genocide of Jewish people. In IBM and the Holocaust, Edwin Black writes: "IBM Germany, using its own staff and equipment, designed, executed, and supplied the indispensable technologic assistance Hitler's Third Reich needed to accomplish what had never been done before--the automation of human destruction. More than 2,000 such multi-machine sets were dispatched throughout Germany, and thousands more throughout German-dominated Europe. Card sorting machines were established in every major concentration camp. People were moved from place to place, systematically worked to death, and their remains cataloged with icy automation." [ back ] Writers Resist NYC: Louder Together for Free Expression On January 15, writers across the U.S. and other countries are holding Writers Resist events to "focus public attention on the ideals of a free, just, and compassionate society." The "flagship" event on that day is slated for New York City and is co-sponsored by the writers' group PEN America. It is described on the PEN America website as a "literary protest" that will be held on the steps of the New York City Library at 5th Avenue and 42nd Street in Manhattan "to defend free expression, reject hate crimes and uphold truth in the face of lies and misinformation." The protest "will bring together hundreds of writers and artists and thousands of New Yorkers on the birthday of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. American poet laureates Robert Pinsky and Rita Dove will each offer hope and inspiration with original 'inaugural' poems written for the occasion." And, "After the readings and performances, a group of PEN America leaders and any who wish to join will walk the blocks to Trump Tower together to present PEN America's free expression pledge on the First Amendment signed by over 110,000 individuals to a member of the President-elect's team. We are confident the reading at the library and the subsequent march, as two distinct but powerful events to uphold free expression and human rights for all, will be powerful." According to Writers Resist organizers, in addition to NYC, January15 events are planned for "Houston, Austin, New Orleans, Seattle, Spokane, Los Angeles, London, Zurich, Boston, Omaha, Kansas City, Jacksonville, Madison, Milwaukee, Bloomington, Baltimore, Oakland, Tallahassee, Newport, Santa Fe, Salt Lake, and Portland (Oregon AND Maine) and many other cities." For more on the protest and participants, go here . 500 Women Scientists: "We reject the hateful rhetoric that was given a voice during the U.S. presidential election..." An online letter by a group of women scientists against Trump's attacks on science and on his hateful poison directed at different sections of the people has gathered over 11,000 signatures from around the world as of December 23. In an article published by Scientific American, ecologist Kelly Ramirez said that, after the Trump-Pence victory, she and a small group of scientist friends began discussing "how can we take action?" On November 17, they posted their letter with signatures of 500 women scientists. The letter begins: "Science is foundational in a progressive society, fuels innovation, and touches the lives of every person on this planet. The anti-knowledge and anti-science sentiments expressed repeatedly during the U.S. presidential election threaten the very foundations of our society. Our work as scientists and our values as human beings are under attack. We fear that the scientific progress and momentum in tackling our biggest challenges, including staving off the worst impacts of climate change, will be severely hindered under this next U.S. administration. Our planet cannot afford to lose any time. "In this new era of anti-science and misinformation, we as women scientists re-affirm our commitment to build a more inclusive society and scientific enterprise. We reject the hateful rhetoric that was given a voice during the U.S. presidential election and which targeted minority groups, women, LGBTQIA [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual], immigrants, and people with disabilities, and attempted to discredit the role of science in our society. Many of us feel personally threatened by this divisive and destructive rhetoric and have turned to each other for understanding, strength, and a path forward. We are members of racial, ethnic, and religious minority groups. We are immigrants. We are people with disabilities. We are LGBTQIA. We are scientists. We are women." The letter outlines a number of actions that the signers pledge to take "to increase diversity in science and other disciplines." The complete letter (available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Dutch, and Farsi), signatories, and other related information is available online here . Mystery Writer Elizabeth George: "I will not ever accept what's going on right now in the US as the new normal" Elizabeth George is a U.S.-based writer of mystery novels set in Great Britain. She is widely known for her series of books featuring Inspector Thomas Lynley. In a recent post titled "Mea Culpa" on her website, part of a series of essays on the 2016 elections, George wrote in part: "...what I cannot forgive is the effort being made on all sides to normalize what is going on, to say 'let's give him a chance.' To this I say that, for me, what's going on is not the new normal. So far and at the time of my writing this, Donald Trump has given cabinet positions to two of his billionaire friends, has chosen a Wall Street bigwig from Goldman Sachs to head the Treasury Department, has selected a foe not only of women's rights to choose but also of insurance supplied contraception as his head of Health and Human Services, has chosen a racist as his attorney general, has chosen a climate-change denying non-scientist to head the EPA, has chosen a woman who sank the educational system in Detroit to be the head of the Department of Education.... If at some horrible point in the future, Muslims are told that they must register, I intend to register as a Muslim and I encourage everyone else to do the same. I will not ever accept what's going on right now in the US as the new normal." She closes the essay with: "Normal is actually standing for something and drawing a line in the sand across which racial hatred, religious intolerance, sexual aggression, misogyny, fascism, Nazism, white supremacy, Hitler salutes, the Ku Klux Klan, and LGBTQ persecution dare not cross. "That's the new normal, that's the old normal, and that's the only normal that I will ever accept or support." Read the whole piece by Elizabeth George here . Playwright and Literature Professor Ariel Dorfman: "Now America Knows How Chile Felt" Ariel Dorfman is a Chilean-American playwright, novelist, human rights activist and an emeritus professor of literature at Duke University. In an op-ed titled "Now, America, You Know How Chileans Felt" that appeared in the New York Times on December 17, Dorfman describes how after Salvador Allende had won the presidential election in 1970, U.S. President Richard Nixon and the CIA worked to undermine the results, including the assassination of a general who stood in the way of the U.S. plans. When the U.S. was not able to block Allende's inauguration, "American intelligence services, at Henry A. Kissinger's behest, continued to assail our sovereignty, sabotaging our prosperity ('make the economy scream,' Nixon ordered) and fostering military unrest. Finally, on Sept. 11, 1973, Allende was ousted, replaced by a vicious dictatorship that lasted nearly 17 years. Years of torture, executions, disappearances and exile." Dorfman notes the irony of the CIA "now crying foul because its tactics have been imitated by a powerful international rival," referring to allegations of Russian interference in U.S. elections. He writes that when Donald Trump dismisses those allegations, "he is bizarrely echoing the very responses that so many Chileans got in the early '70s when we accused the C.I.A. of illegal intervention in our internal affairs." And Dorman writes, "The United States cannot in good faith decry what has been done to its citizens until it is ready to face what it did so often to the equally decent citizens of other nations. And it must resolve never to engage in such imperious activities again." Ariel Dorfman's piece is online here . Neveragain.tech: "We refuse to facilitate mass deportations of people the government believes to be undesirable" On December 13, a group of people who work in tech organizations and companies based in the U.S. issued a strong statement pledging "solidarity with Muslim Americans, immigrants, and all people whose lives and livelihoods are threatened by the incoming administration's proposed data collection policies." They said they refuse to build databases of people based on their religious beliefs and to facilitate mass deportations. Their statement was also in defiance of top execs from major tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Tesla, and Alphabet (Google), who a day earlier met with Trump, adding to the efforts to normalize fascism. The statement says: "We have educated ourselves on the history of threats like these, and on the roles that technology and technologists played in carrying them out. We see how IBM collaborated to digitize and streamline the Holocaust , contributing to the deaths of six million Jews and millions of others. We recall the internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War. We recognize that mass deportations precipitated the very atrocity the word genocide was created to describe: the murder of 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey. We acknowledge that genocides are not merely a relic of the distant past--among others, Tutsi Rwandans and Bosnian Muslims have been victims in our lifetimes. "Today we stand together to say: not on our watch, and never again." As of the evening of December 14 the statement has close to 800 signers. The statement and other resources are available here . In a piece titled "Forward Ever, Normal Never: Taking Down Donald Trump" in Monthly Review , Susie Day writes: "People often compare the ascendance of Trump and his cabinet of deplorables to the rise of the Nazis --taking momentary refuge in the fact that 1933 Germany didn't have the nuclear option. Apropos of Trump's take on flag burning, one of the first things Hitler did as chancellor was to rescind freedom of speech, assembly, the press. . . Then the arrest of political opponents, the forcing of Jews to register their property , wear Stars of David . Remember those "good" Germans, who may have lamented, but went along because they could--because they still fit in to what remained normal?' Read the entire article here Cornel West: "Goodbye, American neoliberalism. A new era is here" ...In this bleak moment, we must inspire each other driven by a democratic soulcraft of integrity, courage, empathy and a mature sense of history - even as it seems our democracy is slipping away. We must not turn away from the forgotten people of US foreign policy - such as Palestinians under Israeli occupation, Yemen's civilians killed by US-sponsored Saudi troops or Africans subject to expanding US military presence. As one whose great family and people survived and thrived through slavery, Jim Crow and lynching, Trump's neofascist rhetoric and predictable authoritarian reign is just another ugly moment that calls forth the best of who we are and what we can do. For us in these times, to even have hope is too abstract, too detached, too spectatorial. Instead we must be a hope, a participant and a force for good as we face this catastrophe. Read entire statement here Guns N' Roses Invites Mexico Fans Onstage to Destroy Trump Pinata On November 30, in the middle of a song they were performing at Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City, the band Guns N' Roses cut the music and brought a giant pinata of Donald Trump onstage. According to an online TIME magazine report, Axl Rose, the band's front man, said, "Let's bring up some people and give them a fucking stick... Express yourselves however you feel." Fans got up on the stage and began swinging at the pinata. Undocumented in Trump's America By Jose Antonio Vargas, November 20 On election night, while making my way through a crowd gathered outside the Fox News headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, a white man wearing a Mets cap patted my back and said through the noise: "Get ready to be deported." Rattled, I made it inside the green room and waited to go on the air. I am an undocumented immigrant. I outed myself in a very public way in The New York Times in 2011, and since then have appeared regularly on cable news programs, especially on Fox, to humanize the very political and polarizing issue of immigration ... What will you do when they start rounding us up? Read entire article here An abortion doctor on Trump's win: "I fear for my life. I fear for my patients." By Warren M. Hern, November 11 As I've headed to work in recent days to see abortion patients in my office, I have felt bereft: All the premises of my life, work, education, and future were gone. Something very profound in the meaning of the America I know has been destroyed with the election of Donald J. Trump as president ... Under an unrestrained Donald Trump and this Republican Congress, I fear for my life, I fear for my family, and I fear for my future. I fear for my staff and my patients. Even more, I fear for my country, and I fear for the world. Read entire article here Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: "We cannot let justice be denied by waiting. History has shown us over and over what horrors that leads to." In a December 1 article for the Washington Post online edition, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar calls for resistance against Trump. Writing from his viewpoint of protecting this country's "most sacred values," Abdul-Jabbar criticizes others and their "hide-beneath-the-bed tactic"--like Jack Rosen, president of the American Jewish Congress, who says "we should take a look-and-see approach" and Black Entertainment Television founder and Hillary Clinton supporter Bob Johnson who said African Americans should give Trump "the benefit of the doubt." He writes that the appointments Trump has been making already show that "these people and their contra-constitutional view are a clear and present danger" and calls for civil disobedience in different forms. See Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's article here . In a November 10 speech in the Irish Parliament, Senator Aodhan O Riordain made a strong speech denouncing Donald Trump as a fascist--and condemning the Irish government's conciliatory response. After the election of Trump, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny called to congratulate him and ask whether the annual White House celebration of St. Patrick's Day was still on. Irish Senator Aodhan O'Riordain, fired off this response in the Irish Seanad (Senate): Edmund Burke once said the only way evil can prosper is for good men to do nothing. American has just elected a fascist and the best thing that good people in Ireland can do is to ring him up and ask him if they can still bring the Shamrock on St. Patrick's Day. I'm embarrassed about what the Irish government has done I can't believe the reaction from the government. And I don't use the word fascist lightly. What else would you call somebody threatens to imprison his political opponents? What else would you call somebody who threatens to not allow people of a certain religious faith into their country? What would you say, or how would you describe somebody who is threatening to deport 10 million people. What would you say about somebody who says that the media is rigged, the judiciary is rigged, the political system is rigged. And then he wins the election and the best we can come out with is a call to say is it still ok to bring the shamrock...I am frightened. I am frightened for what is happening in this world and in our inability to stand up to it. I want to ask you, leader, to ask the Minister of Foreign of Affairs into this house and ask him how we are supposed to deal with this monster who has just been elected president of America because I don't think any of us in years to come should look back on this period and say we didn't do everything in our power to call it out for what it is. See the whole speech below. This Irish politician just said what many American leaders are too scared to say about Trump pic.twitter.com/Q2MeB815jz -- NowThis (@nowthisnews) November 17, 2016 Andrew Sullivan: "The Republic Repeals Itself" Andrew Sullivan is a well-known conservative writer and online commentator, currently a contributing editor to the New York magazine. We want to bring to our readers' attention a November 9 online article by Sullivan titled " The Republic Repeals Itself ." While we have differences with Sullivan overall and with this particular article in certain dimensions, we think he makes important points that are worthy of reflection. Read Andrew Sullivan's piece here .

After the election of Trump, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny called to congratulate him and ask whether the annual White House celebration of St. Patrick's Day was still on.

Trent Bauer on the Ellen DeGeneres show screenshot Ellen DeGeneres had a surprise waiting when Trent Bauer showed up to a taping of her talk show. He thought he was just going to be a regular audience member, but after he cut a rug dancing before the show, Ellen used it as an opportunity to give him the gift of a lifetime . Bauer's friend wrote Ellen before he came to the taping to sing his praises, saying "He spent his entire college career fighting for gay rights and was even nominated for Homecoming King because of all the good that he does. Trent has a heart of gold. He's the definition of a true angel." During her "casual" conversation with the young student, Ellen got him to open up about his role at the school. "So I am the LGBT Student Coordinator, which is a position that I wrote to the president and asked them to create. As a student of the LGBT community, I felt that there was an under-served lack of resources," Bauer told her. "So I wrote to them and asked if I could do some research to develop a centre on campus. And we're in the process of doing that, so I'm really excited." But when Ellen responded, Bauer had every reason to be even more excited. Watch what she does below.

Trent Bauer on the Ellen DeGeneres show screenshot Ellen DeGeneres had a surprise waiting when Trent Bauer showed up to a taping of her talk show.

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Algeria's lower house of parliament approved on Monday a government plan to lift a largely ineffective ban on imports of many goods and replace it with customs duties of between 30 and 200 per cent. The OPEC member has been trying to ease pressure on state finances since 2014, when crude oil prices started falling, leading to an almost 50 per cent fall in energy earnings. Oil and gas revenues account for 95 per cent of total exports and 60 per cent of the state budget in the North African nation of 41 million people. Authorities have said the higher duties will apply to finished goods and are aimed at encouraging local firms and protecting them from foreign competition. A committee made of the ministries of trade, finance and industry will be set up to determine the list of goods to which the duties will be applied, the government said. At the start of this year, Algeria banned the import of 851 products, including mobile phones, home appliances and some foodstuffs, but the measure had little impact on imports, which have mostly continued in defiance of the ban. Some opposition figures criticised the government for turning to duties as an alternative, urging reforms to improve the performance of the non-energy sector. "There is a need for other measures to overcome the economic difficulties and increase domestic production," said deputy Smail Mimoun of the Movement of Society for Peace. Economists also say the tariffs could limit access to imported goods and cause inflation to jump. "There will be automatically an upward trend in prices," said economics professor Abderrahmane Aya. This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License . If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For permissions beyond the scope of this license, please contact us . Spotted an error on this page? Let us know

Algeria's lower house of parliament approved on Monday a government plan to lift a largely ineffective ban on imports of many goods and replace it with customs duties of between 30 and 200 per cent.

Hillary Charity Begins at Home: Hillary Clinton takes a lot of heat on this site, but when she does well it's only fair we recognize it. Turns out in the last eight years she gave fifteen million dollars to charity. On the down side Fourteen million eight hundred thousand of those dollars were given to the Clinton Foundation. In a statement, Hillary Clinton noted the family had given $15 million to charity since 2007. The tax returns show $14.8 million of that went to the Clinton Family Foundation. Hmmm, 99% of your charity to your own personal foundation, which oddly enough is the target of congressional inquires A congressional effort to force the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the Clinton Foundation is gaining momentum. According to the lawmaker leading the effort, it's because Americans can't understand who made the rules that the charitable group appears to be following. Bill Nye And His Terrible, No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Week: Life has to be a little rough, if you are making your living as a "Expert" in fields you have no particular expertise in. Slip ups and mistakes are bound to happen, and how you react will be incredibly revealing. Are you aware of your limits or are you delusional about your infallibility ? Mr. Nye a mechanical engineer by training showed he apparently knows everything about science including fields he has no training in. In his latest stunt, the former children's TV show host called out real meteorologist Joe Bastardi over an op-ed Bastardi wrote last year challenging a link between CO2 and global warming. As Bastardi explained in his piece, it's the El Nino that's responsible for "spiking global temperatures" this year, not CO2. Nye took umbrage to this and challenged Bastardi to two wagers, saying in a video posted on Huffington Post: I will bet you $10,000. I predict that the year 2016 will be among the top 10 hottest years ever recorded. [...] I'll bet you another $10,000 that the decade 2010 to 2020 will prove to be the hottest decade ever recorded. The problem, Joe Bastardi is a Meteorologist and the author of the chart Nye is using to make his points. Bill Nye stands in front of Joe Bastardi's chart Oops. Too add insult to injury Stephen Goddard got in on the action and has his own bet for the Science Guy Bill Nye wants to make bets about hottest year/decade ever. My bet for Bill Nye is that the average percentage of hot days (over 90 degrees) at all NOAA United States Historical Climatology Network stations, will be lower this year/decade than it was in the 1930's. Are you up to the bet, Bill? Or do you believe that "hot" means something other than hot? Minimum Wage Laws Still Working Their Magic If someone on the left ever try's to say they are more reality based or just believes that government should intervene to make people's lives better, just ask them where they stand on minimum wage laws. It literally isn't rocket science to see what their effect will be before they are implemented. Businesses have sales, they have costs, whats left over is profit. You increase labor costs, you haven't magically increased sales, the business has to cut someplace. Simple enough, why does anyone have a hard time understanding ? If logical reasoning weren't enough, you would think historical facts would bring home the point. Take the example of Puerto Rico. The heavily indebted island demonstrates the tragic consequences of forcing up the minimum wage out of sync with the market price for labor. Between 1974 and 1983, Puerto Rico was forced to increase its minimum wage in line with the federal figure, where it has remained since 1983. The results of imposing this standardized federal minimum wage have been "substantially reduced employment on the island," as well as swathes of unemployable low-skilled workers who decided to immigrate to the US mainland to seek work, according to research published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The Puerto Rican economy is heavily dependent on its manufacturing and tourism sectors, so low-skilled workers tend to form the backbone of the island's economy. The average hourly wage in Puerto Rico is $11.13, meaning that the current $7.25 minimum wage constitutes two-thirds of the average wage. This ratio is nearly twice as high as on the mainland. But hey that's Puerto Rico, it's economy isn't the same as say California where Governor Brown want's to raise the wage even though "It doesn't make economic sense". Except it does happen in California, well except if you work at UC Berkeley. Nicholas Dirks sent a memo to employees Monday informing them of the job reductions and said they will amount to "a modest reduction of 6 percent of our staff workforce." Well there are 500 people that will soon be enjoying the benefits of an enhanced minimum wage. Actually they may be getting the best of it. They will be collecting benefits, while the people who got the raise will now be paying more in taxes to pay for them. Hypocrisy From The Left In the ongoing North Carolina bathroom kerfuffle, both Cirque Du Solei and rock band Boston have announced they will not perform in the state in acts of solidarity. Oddly enough, Cirque Du Solei has not cancelled their shows in Dubai where homosexuality is subject to the death penalty. Boston will still tour Japan, a country which requires the sterilization of transexuals, and will deny housing, and healthcare to them. Kids say the darnedest things My easy to beat score 55% Drink up That's it for the Watercooler today. As always it's an open thread

Mr. Nye a mechanical engineer by training showed he apparently knows everything about science including fields he has no training in.

Over the course of two days, we camped out in the high school auditorium of Troy High School, in Troy, Ohio, where Mumford & Sons had brought their Gentlemen of the Road Stopover. The school was deserted, the hallways squeaky with linoleum polish, the lockers lonely as we ushered hot and sweaty musicians in the propped open side doors. The high school had no air-conditioning and temperatures were sultry and stuffy, but as these sessions took place, it's where everyone wanted to be. The Crash session had a full front two rows -- the on-lookers needing to be there to witness the Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros member's set. It was as magical of a session as we've ever recorded -- the stage filled with musical admirers who wanted to contribute. Ross Holmes and Matt Menefee of ChessBoxer, and players in Mumford & Sons extended band, were mainstays in the auditorium, toting their instruments with them every time they crossed the street to get back to the high school, roped into another taping. Gill Landry of Old Crow Medicine Show spent a lot of time in the auditorium as well and he offers some of his songs to the spirit of everything that Gentlemen of the Road is. Rubblebucket brought in the largest ensemble, following their Saturday set, to perform an epic version of one of their songs. Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett, Winston Marshall, and Ted Dwane were often joining in or watching from the wings, feeling like this is the atmosphere that they always envisioned accompanying these tours. Marcus left the stage in Troy and said to me, "It's shows like these that make me want to play music all night." He rounded up Justin Hayward-Young of The Vaccines and -- after taking a dip in the pool at the waterpark on site and driving around a car with an enormous chicken's head affixed to its hood -- they wandered over to the auditorium around 2 am to record versions of Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" and Neil Young's "Like A Hurricane." Listening to and watching everything that happened there, during those two days in September, it brings chills. Long live Gentlemen of the Road!

t was as magical of a session as we've ever recorded -- the stage filled with musical admirers who wanted to contribute. Ross Holmes and Matt Menefee of ChessBoxer, and players in Mumford & Sons extended band, were mainstays in the auditorium, toting their instruments with them every time they crossed the street to get back to the high school, roped into another taping.

Since the Trump administration announced last June its intended withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, attention -- and hope -- has turned to America's cities and states. Many local and regional governments actively voiced support for upholding the United States' pledges under the Paris Agreement. Initiatives that represented those commitments, including the U.S. Climate Alliance , the We Are Still In declaration and America's Pledge were all active participants at November's UN climate conference ( COP23 ) in Bonn, Germany. Given these pledges, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres suggested these organizations could, in the end, honour the previous U.S. commitment to the Paris Agreement. However, optimism aside, the sense remains that American cities and states are no substitute for U.S. national action on climate change. This is especially the case when it comes to the country's global financial commitments under the Paris Agreement. Trump Pullout Affects Climate Fund Even if the U.S. meets its domestic goals, the administration's policy shift leaves a gaping hole in the Green Climate Fund ( GCF ) . The fund provides grants, loans and equity financing for adaptation and mitigation efforts in developing countries. The Obama administration pledged $3 billion to the fund from the U.S., making it the single largest contributor. However, only a billion dollars was delivered by the time the Trump administration announced the pullout. It's not likely that California or New York City will pay into the GCF on the White House's behalf. However, that doesn't mean local action in the U.S. is irrelevant for global climate finance more broadly. In fact, climate policy in American cities and states can have global impacts in two key ways. Poorer Regions Can Replicate Policy First, it lowers the costs of climate action through so-called policy learning. Designing, developing and piloting new policies takes time and money. By developing policies to combat climate change, American cities and states can lower the costs of climate action for other sub-national governments. In other words, when a state like California spearheads an initiative such as its carbon-trading scheme, it generates knowledge and expertise that can lower the barriers to policy implementation for other jurisdictions seeking to do something similar. These efforts can also inspire policy action elsewhere. It's fitting that David Vogel coined the phrase "the California effect" to describe the race-to-the-top that environmental leaders can spark beyond their own borders. Cities Have Growing Impact Already, we're seeing the barriers to local policy action being lowered. For example, among member cities of the C40 -- a global network of municipalities committed to fighting climate change -- the number of climate actions that were citywide increased from 15 per cent in 2011 to 51 per cent in 2015. What this highlights is how local climate action is maturing from pilot initiatives to full-fledged policy. It also highlights how policies are increasingly ready to be replicated elsewhere. At the 2016 UN climate conference in Marrakesh, Morocco, the World Bank launched the Global Platform for Sustainable Cities. The platform will enable Chinese cities to build from California's experience in order to boost their low-carbon development. Commenting on the launch, the World Bank's vice-president for sustainable development said "We need partnerships like this if we are going to deliver on the ambitions of Paris." The reach and influence of city and regional networks can also help spread these policies beyond the industrialized Global North. For example , the city of Changwon, South Korea developed its bicycle-based public transit system, Nubija, through a collaboration with the C40 and the city of Paris. A Nubija dock in Changwon, South Korea. Creative Commons This is part of a more general trend across the network. In 2015, C40 member cities reported 30 per cent of their climate actions were delivered through collaborations with other cities, and two thirds of these collaborative efforts were facilitated by the C40 itself. Freeing up Funds In addition to lowering the costs of action, policies in U.S. states and cities can also spur interest in reforming lending practices to better support sub-national climate action. This broader shift can help make alternative funds available to local governments, and move that could benefit cities and regional governments in developing countries. In 2014, former UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon launched the Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance , a coalition of banks, governments, and governmental organizations ( NGO s) tasked with closing the investment gap in cities. More recently, the European Commission and the European Investment Bank launched Urbis , an advisory service to help cities plan investments and access funding with more ease. Ensuring the benefits of financial reform reach developing countries may require some creative thinking. One example is through non-sovereign guaranteed loans . This type of lending can help localize climate finance in the developing world by allowing sub-national governments to access financing despite low national credit ratings. These are just some examples of the indirect benefits of local and regional climate action. Of course, these benefits cannot replace the America's financial commitments to the GCF . But through the cost savings that come through policy learning and the effects sub-national action can have on global climate finance, climate action among cities and regions can help bolster the fight against climate change. Solutions should focus on filling the Trump-shaped gap in global climate finance through sharing the benefits of policy learning and financial reform with local governments in the developing world. By doing so, we can work to avoid undercutting future climate action in the poorest regions of the world. Emma Lecavalier is Research Assistant Environmental Governance Lab and PhD Student in Political Science at the University of Toronto . This article was originally published on The Conversation . Read the original article . Main image: We Are Still In, a coalition of leaders from U.S. state and local governments, universities, businesses, and faith groups, launched America's Pledge at the 2017 UN climate talks in Bonn, Germany. Credit: Ashley Braun, DeSmog

In fact, climate policy in American cities and states can have global impacts in two key ways.

CRUNCH talks to form a new government in Northern Ireland restarted today despite claims the General election result could scupper them. The DUP and Sinn Fein will attempt to form a new power-sharing executive, five months after the previous one collapsed. Getty Images 6 DUP leader Arlene Foster, pictured today with her deputy Nigel Dodds, is taking part in power-sharing talks But the talks are in danger thanks to Theresa May's bid to secure power in Westminster by cutting a deal with the DUP . The proposed tie-up has led some to suggest that the British Government can no longer be trusted as an impartial middleman. Sinn Fein and the republican SDLP say they will not accept James Brokenshire, the Northern Ireland Secretary, chairing the talks which started in Belfast today. Getty Images 6 Mrs Foster and Mr Dodds in Stormont, home of the Northern Irish government But he dismissed the suggestion that the deal between the Tories and the DUP makes it harder to be neutral in Northern Ireland. He told Radio Ulster: "We have a process already which involves, yes, the UK Government, but the Irish Government and also the head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service. "That was something that was working to bring the parties together. I think that remains absolutely the right way to approach this." Speaking after he arrived in Belfast this afternoon, he insisted that talks between the Tories and DUP are "entirely separate from our intent and desire to see devolution restored here at the earliest possible opportunity". News Group Newspapers Ltd 6 Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire, pictured in Downing Street today, will mediate in the talks Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams today accused the Government of being "partisan", adding: "We made clear at the beginning of these talks that James Brokenshire is not an acceptable chair." DUP leader Arlene Foster - who is flying to London tonight ahead of her meeting with the PM tomorrow - insisted this afternoon that the election aftermath was not affecting talks in Belfast. Her deputy Nigel Dodds said discussions with Sinn Fein were "businesslike and constructive", adding: "We want devolution up and running." And Mrs Foster refused to say what concessions she would demand from the Conservatives. She told reporters: "We've had a positive engagement with the Conservative party - those discussions continue and I'm looking forward to going over to London this evening. "We are going into these talks with the national interest at heart, the union is our guiding star." Getty Images 6 Sinn Fein say that the British government cannot be trusted in the talks The prime minister of Ireland, Enda Kenny, has warned Mrs May that the UK must take care to uphold the terms of the Good Friday agreement. The latest round of talks is scheduled to take three weeks. If the two sides cannot strike an agreement, Mr Brokenshire - who left a Cabinet meeting early to attend the talks - has threatened to rule Northern Ireland from Westminster. The previous Northern Irish executive, with Mrs Foster as First Minister and the late Martin McGuinness as her deputy, collapsed earlier this year. Sinn Fein withdrew from the government following a row over expensive energy subsidies paid out by the DUP. Talks over the new executive are likely to be overshadowed by negotiations between the Tories and the DUP aimed at keeping the Prime Minister in power. PA:Press Association 6 Theresa May is trying to strike a deal with the DUP to keep her in power Mrs Foster today defended her party over claims that it holds backwards attitudes and encourages sectarian mistrust. She wrote in the Belfast Telegraph : "For decades our party has played a full role at Westminster and increasingly in recent years our Members of Parliament have been prominent on the national stage. "Against that backdrop some of the national commentary, and analysis, about the party, and by extension its voters, has been downright inaccurate and misleading. "I have no doubt over time those responsible will look foolish in the extreme." She added: "We stood on a clear policy platform of wanting to strengthen the Union, of working for a good deal for Northern Ireland as the United Kingdom leaves the EU, and of promising to do our best to get Stormont up and running again for the benefit of all. "We will use the position we find ourselves in to do as we promised." PA:Press Association 6 Cabinet minister David Mundell called on the DUP to change their policies Mrs Foster will meet Mrs May in London tomorrow , with their summit expected to produce some sort of deal on governing. However, several Tories have expressed wariness about dealing with the Northern Irish party because of its opposition to abortion and gay marriage. Scottish Secretary David Mundell said today: "I don't subscribe to the DUP's position on these issues but the DUP will not be influencing these decisions within the rest of the United Kingdom. MOST READ IN POLITICS BOJO'S BACK Boris Johnson poses for selfie as he arrives back from hols amid burka row PUMP JUMP HUMP Cost of petrol 'will go up' if PS15bn Sainsbury's and Asda merger goes ahead WREATH OF SHAME Corbyn with wreath for Palestinian 'martyrs' near Munich terrorist's grave PM'S HALAL ROW No10 accused of trying to censor photo of PM visiting halal butcher A BIZ BREXIT Kick out EU migrants after 3 months if they can't find jobs, businesses say IDS RAPS FIRMS IDS blasts bosses not 'bothering' to find Brits for jobs given to EU workers "I would like to see the DUP change its position, and indeed Northern Ireland as a whole change its position, on LGBTI issues." There are also question marks over the DUP's past association with violent loyalist groups. The party's demands from the Tories are likely to centre around more everyday issues such as public spending and Brexit negotiations.

CRUNCH talks to form a new government in Northern Ireland restarted today despite claims the General election result could scupper them. The DUP and Sinn Fein will attempt to form a new power-sharing executive, five months after the previous one collapsed.

Billboard snagged a revealing interview with Madonna where the material queen divulged details about her upcoming album, working with other artists, dealing with word policing, her relationship with Catholicism and her thoughts on 50 Shades of Grey. Madonna talked about the production process on her 13th studio album, Rebel Heart, working with collaborators Nicki Minaj, Nas, Diplo, Avicii and Kanye West-who she described as a difficult artist to corral. Said Madonna: "Kanye, for instance, has excellent ideas, but it's hard to get him to pay attention. So my job was to keep him focused. I was the mistress walking around with the clipboard going, 'Guys, can you please -- can you guys come back in the room? Let's just finish the song. What do you mean you're going to a photo shoot? What do you mean you have to go to a red carpet event? Get off your phone! Will you stop tweeting? Wait, we haven't finished!'" Madonna went on to talk about the theme behind songs on Rebel Heart saying songs like Joan of Arc display a vulnerable side to her usually stoic persona whereas the album's title song talks about regrets and never looking back. However, Madonna asserts that she doesn't regret any of her career moves. Said Madonna: "Everyone has regrets. I have regrets for the smaller things, which ultimately are the bigger things in life. For instance, I regret not being more grateful certain times in my life. I regret not being more compassionate. I regret not saying I'm sorry. I don't have any career regrets. I have human-being regrets. "As I say in the song Joan of Arc, 'Even hearts made of steel can break down.' Even people we look up to have their moments where they are fragile, vulnerable, scared, fearful, not sure, hurt. You can't be a superhero unless you have the other side." Despite having "human-being" regrets, Madonna asserts that the word police can "F**k off," after bloggers criticized her for the pervasive use of the word "B**ch" in lyrics and song titles on the album. Madonna cites that her time spent among Londoners and their colorful use of language, including the C-word, desensitized her. Madonna also elaborated on her relationship with the Catholic church, and said that she enjoys the "Pomp and circumstance," of writing and singing about her relationship with religion, and the drama, confusion and hypocrisy of the church. She mentioned that if she had the chance, she wouldn't hesitate to sit down with the Pope for a "Chat about sex." Billboard continued the conversation regarding sex asking Madonna if she read 50 Shades of Grey and she remarked that she found it unrealistic. Said Madonna: "Yes, I have. It's pulp fiction. It's not very sexy, maybe for someone who has never had sex before. I kept waiting for something exciting and crazy to happen in that red room thing, and I was like, 'Hmm, a lot of spanking.' I also thought, 'This is so unrealistic because no guy goes down on a girl that much.' I'm sorry, but no one eats p**** as much as the guy in that book." Billboard asked if she felt young women have it easier these days with Madonna responding that it's "No-holds-barred and you can do whatever you like; On the other hand, if you're a pop star and want to get your records played and reach the masses, you have to play it very safe." Madonna was asked what she thought of her role in challenging American taboos and thoughts on pop-star Miley Cyrus. Madonna responded by incorporating Cyrus into her response about what the future holds for women. Said Madonna: "I like her. She seems like she doesn't care what people think. People are always telling her she's dirty or crazy or trashy, and she doesn't care. I love that about her. In her peer group, she stands out. "I think it's an ongoing activity in my life. I'm continuing to open doors for the women behind me. I don't know many women who have had a successful career in pop music as long as I've had. And I waited until I was older to have children. I raised children and wasn't married. And I continue to express myself -- my sexuality -- in my 50's, even though that's also considered taboo, and I get a lot of s*** for it. But in 20 years, Miley Cyrus probably won't get s*** for it. Then, it'll be like, 'Oh, yeah, that's nothing new.'" Rebel Heart releases on March 6. Madonna's promotional tactics for the album, including photoshopping portraits of famous civil rights leaders in the style of her album cover and posting it to her social media, is stirring up criticism . It also appears radio isn't a big fan of her either as the U.K.'s Radio 1 completely removed Madonna's new single Living For Love from their station playlist, with a station insider citing that "The station has a duty to meet the needs of younger listeners. I don't think the audience is losing sleep that it is not playing Madonna in the same way that it used to."

Billboard snagged a revealing interview with Madonna where the material queen divulged details about her upcoming album, working with other artists, dealing with word policing, her relationship with Catholicism and her thoughts on 50 Shades of Grey.

Organic Living Superfoods' "Raw Natural Juice-Infused Strawberries" are moist and chewy little nuggets of paradise. According to OLS, strawberries "have some of the highest antioxidant values of any fruit." In addition, they have anti-inflammatory nutrients, and they "excel in three major categories: cardiovascular support and prevention of cardiovascular diseases, improved regulation of blood sugar, and prevention of certain types of cancers." Of course they are also rich in Vitamin C, phytonutrients and fiber, and low in calories. But mainly, they are scrumptious. Gramma tip: I cut the strawberries up into bit-sized pieces and pop just a few into a snack bag to keep in my purse. Then, when my granddaughter does not want to get into her carseat, I let her know that there is a bag of these little treats to be enjoyed after buckling in, and she can hardly get in fast enough! Of course she also finds these in her Christmas stockings and Easter baskets. (And gramma loves them, too!) In addition, I love their Organic Superberry Antioxidant Smoothie Mix. I blend it with coconut milk and frozen organic raspberries. This has an exceptionally fresh taste, unlike most other smoothie mixes. Organic Superberry Antioxidant Smoothie Mix. blended with coconut milk and frozen organic raspberries ( Image by Meryl Ann Butler ) Permission Details DMCA Bruce Nameson, Organic Living Superfoods president, was formerly partner/owner of Prana Cafe - a vegan restaurant in Newton, Massachusetts. OEN asked why he got started in the business: Organic Living Superfoods President Bruce Namanson holding HowGood Award at Expo West in Anaheim, California ( Image by Organic Living Superfoods, used with permission ) Permission Details DMCA "Craig Singer and I founded Organic Living Superfoods in 2012 based upon the premise that incorporating plant-based organic superfoods into your diet, as opposed to drugs and pharmaceutical, can naturally aid in preventing, and even reversing diseases such as cancer, heart disease, depression, inflammatory diseases and a plethora of other illnesses commonly associated with the Western diet. "When I was involved with Prana Cafe, I spent hundreds of hours tirelessly searching and sourcing the best quality products for the development of recipes. I used my extensive knowledge in building the Organic Living Superfoods brand. We strive for excellence in quality and taste and continually bring our customers new and cutting edge products backed by reputable information as to the benefits of maintaining and incorporating plant-based products into your diet." eam OLS at Expo West in Anaheim, California! Pictured from left to right - Founder Craig Singer, NYC Sales & Territory Manager Lisa Brown, President Bruce Namenson, and Merchandising Specialist Andrea Rezendes ( Image by Organic Living Superfoods, used with permission ) Permission Details DMCA Independent research organization " HowGood " provides a ratings system for sustainable and socially conscious food items. They recently awarded Organic Living Superfoods with their " Best of the World" identification, reserved for companies and individuals who bring transparency to the food industry and for products that are considered some of the best, most sustainable food products on the market. Organic Living Superfoods was in the top 5% out of 170,000 food products rated. The Gillett brothers, Alexander and Arthur ( Image by HowGood ) Permission Details DMCA Alexander Gillett and his brother, Arthur, started their HowGood rating system in 2007 out of concern for the environment. They knew that consumers who wanted to choose the best quality food from ethical sources did not have all the info they needed in order to make an informed choice. Gillett said, "We incorporate factors within our ratings that are overlooked and rarely addressed by the industry, such as animal husbandry, a company's conduct over time, sourcing standards and up to 60 other indicators." An example HowGood's analysis chart ( Image by HowGood ) Permission Details DMCA In additional to nutritional factors, some of those 60 indicators which are calculated include where ingredients are sourced from, how the company treats employees and how the company deals with hazardous waste disposal. All this adds up to a rating, accessible on the internet or via ap on the Apple App store or the Android App store . Earth-Friendly, Diet-Friendly Chocolate: Your Mother (Earth) Wouldn't Lie to You! A non-gmo, naturally sugar-free, low glycemic, high fiber delicious chocolate that you can use for weight loss? Hell froze over and we all just died and went to heaven! We joke about the health benefits of chocolate, but who knew it could actually be true? And this cocoa is even sourced from a consortium of growers in compliance with ethical treatment of their workers. ChocoPerfection creator, Mary Jo Kringas, weighed 300 lbs and had struggled with her weight for over 30 years. She developed her chocolate in 2003 to help her with weight loss, and lost 75 lbs in one year without struggling: it was pain-free, guilt-free, long-term weight loss! Now she's looking super svelt after losing over 200 lbs! Mary Jo Kringas, before and after ( Image by ChocoPerfection, used with permission ) Permission Details DMCA Low Carb RN blogger Kelley Pounds, a Registered Nurse and Certified Diabetes Educator, wanted to find out what the effect of eating a full-sized ChocoPerfection bar was on blood glucose levels. So she ate one from a fasting state, and tested her levels five times over the following two hours. The results surprised her -- Mary Jo's ChocoPerfection had "zero glycemic impact." OEN visited with ChocoPerfection's Mary Jo for more of the backstory: Meryl Ann Butler: Mary Jo, thanks for visiting with us! Your amazing chocolate was recommended to me by positive music artist and fellow chocoholic, Greg Tamblyn . It's so delicious, and no yucky aftertaste like other sugarfree chocolate. Can you share with us why your chocolate is different, and what inspired you to develop it? Mary Jo Kringas: Thanks, Meryl Ann! Yes, the main sweetener in ChocoPerfection is chicory root fiber, a prebiotic fiber that helps with normalizing sugar levels and planting good bacteria in the colon and intestines. It tastes good and does not raise blood sugar. Back in 2000, I weighed over 300 pounds and I could just not find a way to lose weight. My naturopath told me I had a "raging candida yeast infection" that caused me to crave sugar. He put me on a low carb diet and I lost 6 pounds in one week... but, I could not live without chocolate. The sugar free chocolate on the market was made with maltitol, which completely stopped my weight loss. I found out about using chicory root fiber as a sweetener and developed ChocoPerfection using this sweetener. I lost 75 pounds the first year and 130 pounds within 3 years by eating about 100g to 150g of ChocoPerfection every day as part of a low carb eating plan. MAB: Music to my ears! Can you explain a little about the problems with maltitol, and other sugar alcohol sweeteners? I have never been able to tolerate them, they give me a tummy ache. And I seem to be allergic to stevia, i get bad gut reactions from it. When i researched stevia, I discovered it was related to the ragweed family (which I have known allergic reactions to). So finding sugar substitutes has always been a problem for me. And I understand some of them still raise blood sugar, right? And why do they stop weight loss? MJ: Maltitol is the most common artificial sweetener used in sugar free products. Although maltitol is classified as "sugar free," it actually has a glycemic index of 35-50 and raises blood sugar levels significantly. This will stop weight loss because when blood sugar spikes due to eating high glycemic foods or artificial sweeteners, insulin is produced. Insulin is known as the "fat-building and fat storage" hormone. It is much easier to lose and maintain weight loss by eating very low glycemic index foods so as not to produce insulin. Not all sugar alcohols have a high glycemic index like maltitol. Xylitol and erythritol, are both derived from fermented yeast and have a glycemic index of zero. MAB: This is very informative, thank you so much. And thanks for visiting with us, Mary Jo! Readers, in case you are having a craving, in addition to the website , about 500 health food stores carry ChocoPerfection, as well as Amazon. The ChocoPerfection Facebook page is here . And Organic Living Superfoods products are available here , and their Facebook page is here . Have a scrumptious Earth Day!

Organic Living Superfoods' "Raw Natural Juice-Infused Strawberries" are moist and chewy little nuggets of paradise. According to OLS, strawberries "have some of the highest antioxidant values of any fruit."

In a beautiful act of defiance, Kesha is going on tour for the first time since suing former producer Dr. Luke for sexual assault earlier this year, despite the fact that the lawsuit is not yet resolved. Appropriately, the tour is called "The Fuck the World Tour." The fiery, feminist pop star made an announcement on her Instagram on Tuesday, July 19th, saying, "The day has come that I, now, present to you, Kesha and The Creepies. This project and upcoming tour comes from my deep eternal... Tameca Jones, a soul-pop songstress, hailing from Austin, TX, has a voice that will make your heart melt. She has been creating music and performing covers across Texas for years, but now, we can thank our lucky stars because Jones released an EP, titled Naked, chock-full beautiful, mesmerizing hits. One of these moving, soul-searing songs is "Sandman." Jones talks about "Sandman" saying, "[it] is about not being able to get to sleep because I was tormented with sadness over a breakup. A lot of people don't understand the chorus... Viv Albertine of The Slits did just about the most punk thing ever and defaced a punk exhibit for not including women involved in the movement. Albertine was at the British Library in London on Friday evening (July 15), taking part in an event in celebration of punk, featuring an exhibit "Punk 1976-78." On a panel that read, "Groups such as Sex Pistols, the Clash, and Buzzcocks stimulated a nationwide wave of grassroots creativity, sparking a vital cultural legacy that endures to the present day," she... Music festival lovers, mark your calendars! Saturday, August 20th and Sunday, August 21st are the official dates of the 6th annual Full Moon Festival. Located on Governor's Island, the 2-day beachside fest is self-described as "a boutique approach to a New York City music festival." It takes place beneath August's blue moon and is framed by the glittering Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty; AKA this will be the perfect opportunity to up your Instagram game. *winks* Full Moon features not only live music, but... Billie Holiday is known to be one of the greatest jazz singers of all time. The pioneering vocalist was known for her vivaciousness, soulfulness, and her ability to improvise. Holiday was outspoken about racism and made history with her famous rendition of "Strange Fruit." Despite her struggles with addiction and her lack of formal musical training, Holiday's voice remained powerful until untimely death at age 44. Her beautiful and melancholy songs continue to have influence and power today. Here are 24 quotes and photos to... There were a million reasons as to why my last relationship was bound to fail, but the most significant, the singular comment that brought the romance all to a grinding halt, was when my ex said, "I think Carrie Brownstein is overrated." The relationship was severed immediately. I'm typically patient and understanding when it comes to most things, but this...this was unforgiveable. To combat such a ludicrous comment, I've compiled a list of reasons as to why we here at BUST adore the multi-talented mega-babe... St. Vincent has taken the theme song of our beloved TV seniors, Andrew Gold's "Thank You for Being a Friend,"and made it into an eerie dirge. Is it strange? Absolutely. Amazing? Of course. It is pure St. Vincent. I remade the "Golden Girls" theme song into a dirge. #thankyouforbeingafriend pic.twitter.com/1UaKx6oGgk -- St. Vincent (@st_vincent) July 11, 2016 The track is an ambient instrumental, complete with haunting synths, a different sound than we're used to hearing from St. Vincent. It is a far cry from the upbeat original, maybe... Missy Elliott--the one and only, Queen of hip hop, magnificent artist, and female trailblazer--received VH1's Hip-Hop Honors last night during a two-hour special titled "All Hail the Queens." To celebrate Missy Elliott, performers such as Eve, Nelly Furtado, Trina, Remy Ma and Lil' Mo sang a medley of her greatest hits, like "Work It," "Get Ur Freak On," and latest song, "WTF." Missy's speech expressed thanks to her supporters and inspirations, Queen Latifah, Lil' Kim, and Salt-n-Pepa, and she ended by dedicating the award to the late... Pop culture icon and revolutionary feminist Yoko Ono just released an eye-catching new music video for her song "Catman." Originally appearing on her 1973 album, Approximately Infinite Universe, the track has been revamped and remixed by indie artist Miike Snow, and the result is arrestingly jarring, as is the visual accompaniment. Directed by one of our favorite women, Rose McGowan, the video combats issues like ageism and sizeism by featuring dancers of various ages (many of them are over 60) and body types. The solid-color jumpsuits... Peaches has released the video for "Vaginoplasty," the latest in the series from her newest album, Rub. The video is the seventh feature video to be released from the album and has been debuted following the announcement of Peaches' North American tour dates this fall. The "Vaginoplasty" video features Peaches' video regulars Margaret Cho and Lex Vaughn, along with others including Murray Hill, Lisa McNeely, Arne Gjelten, Nadine Olmos, Ryan Spencer, Chloe Langford, Kaycee Krieg, Justine Tauriainen, Kenzie McClure, Cristine Tatomer and Lis Roche. The video...

"Punk 1976-78." On a panel that read, "Groups such as Sex Pistols, the Clash, and Buzzcocks stimulated a nationwide wave of grassroots creativity, sparking a vital cultural legacy that endures to the present day," she

Anyone who respects personal freedom and equality will surely be impressed by the gay rights movement. Recent years have brought much to celebrate; the introduction of same-sex marriage legislation , improvements in public attitudes towards homosexuality within the UK, and gay pride events being held in countries where campaigning had previously been unthinkable. Although there is much work still to do, these are notable successes, achieved after a plethora of debates fought by brave and outspoken LGBT campaigners across the world. Yet one of the arguments used in these debates is tenuous at best and harmful at worst; the idea that LGBT equality should be justified on the grounds that being gay is natural. The "born this way" argument suggests that those who previously opposed gay rights can be "won over" by the assertion that homosexuality is naturally determined from birth. This is problematic for two reasons. Firstly, it very probably isn't true that homosexuality is entirely naturally determined. Secondly it's a sign of archaic, traditionalist ideology corrupting LGBT campaign efforts. The science of sexual orientation is far from conclusive. While a study last year lead to sensationalist newspaper headlines declaring the discovery of a "gay gene" , later research revealed that genetics only accounts for around 40 per cent of variation in sexual orientation. Similarly, the common claim that over 400 species of animals exhibit homosexual behaviour is often exaggerated - very few of these species show a long-term preference for the same sex. The findings of a 1991 study showing differences in the brain structure of homosexual and heterosexual men was similarly commandeered by those hoping to prove homosexuality resulted from natural genetic causes. Yet the researcher later confirmed that this was not the logical conclusion to be drawn from his evidence. These cases aren't uncommon. Scientific research on sexual orientation is consistently hijacked, exaggerated and then renounced; to such an extent that any claim that homosexuality is entirely "natural" and genetically determined seems dubious. This isn't to question whether homosexuality exists. The sexual or romantic attraction to members of the same sex is part of the human condition that exists as soon as somebody experiences it. Nor does this evidence suggest homosexuality is a choice - but that sexual orientation is determined by a complex, subconscious socialisation process rather than any inherent "natural" genetic cause. Perhaps surprisingly, there is persuasive evidence for such theories, found in non-Western societies that harbour different beliefs about sexual orientation to our own.The Papua New Guinean Sambia tribe, for instance, believe that all men transition through an age of homosexuality before becoming heterosexual later in life. And it appears that individuals in these cultures aren't just conforming to peer pressure - a study by the researcher Gilbert Herdt used the famous Kinsey Scale to analyse their sexual orientation on a seven point rating system. Astonishingly, the results showed that these individuals' sexual orientation did consistently change with age. Although any socialisation process is unlikely to be as simplistic as this case suggests, such examples demonstrate the influence that society's beliefs and customs can have on an individual's personal sexual preferences. It would be unreasonable to make any wide-reaching conclusions based on such divided evidence. Nonetheless, it's clear that more research needs to be conducted if we're to discover the more subtle and nuanced factors that determine sexual orientation. Hence, while it's undoubtedly true that many people have been convinced to support equality campaigns because of the "gay is natural" argument, justifying equality with such tenuous, superficial evidence is risky. If, as is very possible, it transpires that homosexuality is partially determined by socialisation, then a backlash could result for LGBT rights. Only in 2005 were we reminded of the dangers of basing our social outlook on primitive scientific evidence. A study which had failed to find evidence for the existence of male bisexuality (later countered by other studies ) led to newspaper headlines suggesting bisexuals were either "Straight, Gay or Lying". It is remarkable at how quickly so-called scientific "breakthroughs" translate into discrimination and prejudice towards the LGBT community. Considering this, it's not unreasonable to suggest that LGBT campaigners might grow to regret justifying basic, ethical arguments using scientific evidence. After all, science is based on an apolitical pursuit of truth - it cannot be tailored to suit an argument, nor should it need to be. But to argue for social change on the back of scientific evidence isn't just irresponsible, it's wholly irrational. Using the "gay is natural" argument suggests there is something inherently good about nature, and that the primitive world exemplifies a respectable code of ethics. This is a barbaric belief at best, and one that uniquely plagues sexual ethics. You only need to imagine what a naturalistic society would look like to demonstrate how inconsistently these beliefs are applied. Embracing social Darwinism, and encouraging violence, aggression and alcoholism (genetic causes have been discovered for all of these characteristics), such a society would presumably reject some of our most humane (unnatural) achievements; modern medicine, the eradication of diseases such as smallpox, and international aid projects. The flaws of such a "naturalistic fallacy" are obvious - so why do gay rights campaigners attempt to achieve equality on the grounds of homosexuality being natural? Given the array of reasoned, rational arguments in support of gay rights, why resort to such naturalistic moralising? Of course, the "born this way" argument is often used to protect the welfare of gay people. Indeed, the assertion that there is no choice involved in sexual orientation often triggers empathy and pity towards those in the LGBT community. But this belief is born from a fundamentally homophobic understanding; that people need to be excused for being gay, and more insidiously that they have to seek society's approval for their sexual behaviour. It's an argument entrenched in a fear of any kind of sexual experimentation or diversity. This is the problem with arguing for gay rights on the grounds that homosexuality is natural. Such an apologist, naturalistic attitude isn't about having pride in your sexual identity. It's not even about equality. It frames homosexuality as a second preference, justifiable only in the eventuality that nature has prevented an individual from pursuing a heterosexual relationship. Yet most damaging is that the naturalistic argument doesn't change anybody's attitudes towards homosexuality, but instead merely excuses individual homosexuals from blame. The "born this way" argument is part of a wider trend of socially conservative LGBT campaigning. Exemplified by David Cameron's approach towards same-sex marriage ("I don't support gay marriage despite being a Conservative, I support gay marriage because I'm a Conservative"), it aims to use modern social advances to promote the so-called "traditional moral values" that were once used to justify the introduction of Section 28 . Having drained out any ambition of sexual liberation or personal freedoms, such beliefs aim to essentially "normalise" the gay community under an imitation of "traditional", heteronormative society. In fact, the celebrated campaigns of gay rights have almost all fallen into the trend of mimicking "traditional" relationships; with discussion of marriage, commitment and family. While this is a great achievement for those who aspire towards a traditional model of life, the gay rights movement must be careful not to neglect the wider LGBT community. Indeed, although polls show that public attitudes towards homosexuals have improved, this is not true for everyone; statistics reveal that bisexuals and trans people still receive a greater level of discrimination and abuse compared to lesbians and gay men. The consequences of this are severe, with bisexual people disproportionately suffering from higher rates of suicide and mental health problems . Likewise, it is routine and commonplace for the media to treat polyamory as a bizarre spectacle rather than a legitimate lifestyle choice. These effects are likely a result of society's demonisation of those who don't conform to supposedly "traditional" identities. Considering this, it seems that recent campaigning efforts haven't necessarily increased society's tolerance, but have been restricted to achieving the acceptance of a specific type of gay person. We should be wary of this new wave of socially conservative LGBT campaigning, which feigns as liberation while entrapping a new community in its draconian attitudes and social dogma surrounding sex. The LGBT movement's proud history of tolerance and diversity was born out of welcoming those who shared a common experience of being rejected by society's "traditional" and moralising values. To become a force that conforms to, and even promotes, these values, would be enormously harmful to individuals outside of the monogamous, homosexual brand. To argue for LGBT equality by resorting to naturalistic reasoning and traditionalist values might seem like a quick fix. But it's a grossly irrational, irresponsible and exclusionary mistake to make. It endorses the notion that society has a right to judge, or accredit, private relationships between consenting adults. It backs a belief that we should be ashamed of difference and wary of tolerance. But most importantly, it rejects freedom in favour of acceptance. The LGBT movement should strive for more. > Lisa Nandy: "The forces in British politics at the moment are all on the right"

Anyone who respects personal freedom and equality will surely be impressed by the gay rights movement.

Queer people raised Christian grapple with that background in myriad ways. Some of us become atheists, and some of us become pastors. Some queer Christians go to church twice a week, and others stick our rosaries in the bottom of our sock drawer. When faith, spirituality, and cultural practice feel complicated and contradictory, it can help to have a physical object to hold onto and reflect upon. These items can root us to our histories of faith -- or they may simply be a symbol of old memories. In an A-Camp panel on queer Christianity called Thank You Lesbian Jesus, we talked about some of the items that connect us to our faith and spiritual journeys. Share yours in the comments! Audrey -- My Dad's Bible My dad's death in 2001 sparked my first major faith crisis. It was the first time I seriously questioned the nature of God and interrogated Them beyond what I had learned in Sunday School. So it's fitting, or perhaps ironic, that my favorite Bible is his, the one my mother snagged from his house to keep for me. His mother, for whom I have my middle name, gave it to him in 1972. I know this from the inscription on the inside cover. It is a very early copy of The Living Bible, which is paraphrase of the American Standard Version. A paraphrase! Because of that, it is pleasant to read and not very useful for actual theological study. The book is also gorgeous -- the cover is a deep green embossed with gold, and the pages are lightly worn and smell like the 70s. It's the Bible I read when I don't want to stare at the pages and pray rather than think too hard. And it's the Bible I read when I want to connect to my dad. Our faith was something we shared and connected over when I was too little to understand it. My ongoing practice is one way that I connect with him and celebrate our relationship. Carolyn W -- Prayer Hands Tambourine In theory the tambourine is not a piece of religious imagery. There is nothing sacred or holy about it. HOWEVER, if you were raised in a black church it is very sacred. One does not just play a tambourine. You beat that tambourine. Notice this tambourine has a percussion middle. This is important! Don't you dare roll up in church with one of those rock & roll tambourines with no middle! What are you gonna do with that besides bruise your entire hand trying to play fast enough to keep the beat. Don't you dare pick up a tambourine if you are not good at playing it. You don't know you are good at playing a tambourine until you hear someone say "she sho can beat that tambourine." If no one has ever said that to you then you better be very confident in your playing skills or you will receive the side-eye of death. There is always that one person that can't play the tambourine who no one ever passes a tambourine to when the spirit gets high. One day they show up with their own tambourine that they bought and no one can take away from them and they ruin service for everybody with their sorry tambourine playing. And the tambourine battles? They are legendary. If someone challenges your tambourine skills, you better be ready for war! All of this is funny but I do have a point in bringing up the tambourine. It represents the important cultural things that black folks attach to church. I once heard a black atheist friend say "I don't believe in church but I will fight you if you try and take Jesus away from my granny and aunties that have been in church all of their lives." Church is not always the religious or sacred imagery. For some it is an innate part of their cultural that they love. Mey -- Santa Muerte Statue I've written many times before about how my faith is rooted in Mexican Catholicism and traditional witchcraft, and this is a perfect example of that. When I pray and when I do spells, I often go to La Virgen, but other times, I go to Santa Muerte, the Holy Death. She watches over and protects queer people, homeless people, sex workers, and everyone else. Just as everyone, no matter who or what they are, will die, everyone can come to Santa Muerte for protection and healing and help. When so many faiths and religions reject people like me, I find a lot of comfort in knowing that The Bony Lady will never abandon me. My Santa Muerte statue at the front of my altar. Furthermore, she helps me connect to my Mexican roots. When I'm praying at my altar or doing candle magic or giving offerings to La Santa Muerte after she's helped me, I can feel myself drawing closer to my family and my ancestors and my people. I feel affirmed as a trans woman, as a lesbian and as a Chicana. La Santa Muerte is a great protector, an understanding saint and a reminder that I'm never alone, and this statue helps me to remember and feel all of that no matter where I am. Heather -- Research Journals I loved the Bible and I loved the singing. That's why I stayed in church so long. And when I say I loved the Bible, I mean I loved to study it. Has there ever been a more fascinating book in the history of the world? The way it was written, compiled, translated, censored, distributed, interpreted, reinterpreted, misinterpreted. Long before the Bible even existed as the Bible, the Apostle Paul called it a sword, and he was right. It's been used as a weapon of destruction all over the world, for centuries now. I studied the Bible like it was my job, hours a day, every day. The Greek, the Hebrew, the Arabic, the translation of passages through time and the deep theology holding it all together. I left my Southern Baptist church and never looked back when it became clear to me that Evangelical Christianity had become a Fox News outpost, an unwitting herd of Republican party pawns. (My former Pastor is an Republican Congressman now; last time I was home in Georgia, I heard a dozen radio ads of him blasting President Obama's godless liberal values.) I've since parted ways with most of my faith, and nearly every physical thing that connected me to it. I have, however, kept my research journals. 27 full Moleskines in all. I'll probably never know as much about anything (even lesbians on TV!) as I do about the Bible. But I also know I'll never stop molding my life around the very first thing Jesus read out loud in the temple, the words of the Prophet Isaiah: The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners ... to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion--to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. I don't believe in church anymore, but I do believe in my purpose on this earth. Alaina -- Icons Like a good lifelong protestant Christian, I don't have many icons or physical things that connect me to my religion. But part of my journey in queering Christianity has been incorporating small things into my personal daily worship. I finally have an altar where I sit every morning to read my daily devotional, meditate, pull a tarot card, and write a bit. My favorite part of this morning ritual has been lighting sage to cleanse the air. Smell has already been powerful for me. The smell of sage quiets my mind and ushers me toward a more contemplative way of being. It puts a fresh start on each morning and helps me hone in on how I want my religion to guide each day. When I find myself straying from living intentionally as a Christian, I remember the smell of burning sage and am able to refocus my energy back towards living more Christlike.

Queer people raised Christian grapple with that background in myriad ways.

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Download the full report , Future Choices (pdf) "For most of human history...'being a father was a matter of conjecture, and being a mother was a matter of fact.' Now nothing can be known for sure." 1 The new reproductive technologies are so emotional and contentious precisely because they challenge our basic understanding of what it means to be a parent. Throughout history, each child has had two, and only two, biological parents. As a result, U.S. family law is built around the concept that a child will have, at most, two legal parents. Until recently, those parents were either biological or adoptive. And it is a zero sum game--in order to adopt a child, birth parents must first relinquish their rights or have them terminated. Now, due to the wonders of "collaborative reproduction" (the phrase used when intended parents recruit others to help them bring a child into existence), a child can have up to three biological parents--the man who provides the sperm, the woman who provides the egg, and the woman who carries the pregnancy and gives birth. Up to three more people also may be viewed under the law (and in their own eyes) as a parent of a child--the "intended" or "contracting" parent(s) who sought to create a child through assisted reproduction, and the husband of a gestational surrogate who has elected tokeep the child or children to whom she gave birth. Which of these adults, and how many of them, should qualify as the legal parents? In Pennsylvania, the answer may now be three. In April 2007, an appellate state court panel ruled that two lesbian co-parents and their sperm donor friend all are the legal parents of and financially responsible for the children they had created. So far, no other appellate court in the United States has assigned more than two legal parents to a child. In fact in a well-known surrogacy case in which the genetic/intended father, the genetic/intended mother, and the gestational surrogate all had claims as legal parents, the California Supreme Court expressly declined to expand the number of legal parents beyond two. But additional courts are likely to face this question in the coming years. And the possible parentage combinations they could encounter seem almost endless. A child could have three women vying to be its mother--the egg provider, the gestational carrier, and an intended mother--or no mother at all. Recently, a Maryland man and the surrogate he hired to carry twins created with his sperm and a donor's eggs won a court case to have no mother listed on the birth certificate. One day, technology may allow for two genetic mothers: a technique known as ooplasmic transfer involves injecting ooplasm (the material outside the cell's nucleus) from one woman's egg into another woman's egg. It was used in a handful of cases where it was thought that a woman's infertility was caused by her ooplasm. Because DNA exists in both the nucleus and the ooplasm, a child born from this process would have two genetic mothers. The Food and Drug Administration, however, currently has a moratorium on clinical trials using this procedure. All states have parentage acts that provide statutory guidelines for determining the paternity of a child when it is uncertain, but those laws are not sufficient to address the complicated circumstances that result from the use of new reproductive technologies. Slowly but surely, the states are beginning to recognize the need for legislation that explicitly governs the determination of paternity and maternity when a child has been created with assisted reproduction. Nevertheless, the states that have moved in this direction have provided a patchwork response. The latest version of a model law known as the Uniform Parentage Act was approved by the National Conference of Commissioners of Uniform State Laws in 2002 and includes several provisions that address assisted reproduction and gestational agreements. But only seven states had enacted it by 2006, and none passed it verbatim. Other states have crafted their own solutions. The topics they cover and the limitations they impose vary immensely. It will be quite a while before there is any true uniformity or consensus regarding the legal presumptions that control how parentage disputes should be determined. [1] Liza Mundy, Everything Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction is Changing Men, Women, and the World (New York: Knopf, 2007), p. 101 (quoting an adoption lawyer). Download this section (pdf)

n Pennsylvania, the answer may now be three. In April 2007, an appellate state court panel ruled that two lesbian co-parents and their sperm donor friend all are the legal parents of and financially responsible for the children they had created.

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Union Sq. Park, New York. #ShutDownA14 #sos #saconscene @mtsacjour Cornel West addressing the crowd at Union Square in New York City. Instagram/jailsactioncoalition Setting out from Union Square. @JamesFTinternet Starting on the march in NYC, A14 Here in NYC with @Carl_Dix & @CornelWest at #ShutDownA14 march against police murder pic.twitter.com/0FAiE27XQ1 -- Residente C13/ RC13 (@Calle13Oficial) April 14, 2015 A packed Union Sq. Park. New York. #ShutDownA14 #sos #saconscene #sosnyc @mtsacjour New York: Cornel West & Carl Dix with arms around parents of victims. Photo: @JailsAction #BLKSocialJ: RT @BorisRorer: SHUTTING SHIT DOWN! Keep Your Eyes On The Prize Brooklyn #ShutDownA14 #BlackLivesMatter. Photo: @BorisRorer #ShutDownA14 on the Brooklyn Bridge! Credit: James FromTheInternet Chicago, Illinois Hundreds of people take the streets of #Chicago in #protest of police violence #ShutDownA14 #stopPolicebrutality. Photo: @kelly_wenzel At the rally at the Richard J Daley Center, Chicago. Photo: Instagram Die in on Chicago's Michigan Ave in front of the Marriott. Photo: @StopMassIncChi Chicago Metra Train Station 8AM A14 Freedom Song This video is of this morning's disruption of "business as usual" at the Ogilvie Metra commuter station. The singer gave beautiful voice to the "I Cant' Breathe" song. Commuters looked stunned out of their morning drill, and people were doubling back to get leaflets. Even the security guard who told us we had to leave from inside the station said that she personally has lost friends to police brutality and she felt our cause. Greensboro, North Carolina Rally in Greensboro, North Carolina on A14. Photo: smin_nc@twitter Greensboro, North Carolina on A14. Photo: North Carolina SMIN Atlanta: protest for #ShutDownA14 blocked off an on-ramp by Georgia State University. Photo: @daltonm17 Los Angeles, California Nearly a thousand people joined the protest, here at the site where Afrika was murdered by the police. #ShutDownA14 NO MORE! IT STOPS TODAY! WE REFUSE 2 LIVE THIS WAY! Photo: @revclub_la At LAPD Headquarters in Los Angeles. Photo: @revclub_la Dozens of protesters determined to keep shutting it down on A14 to STOP police murder stayed in the LA Downtown area through rush hour. Twenty of them sat down in a very busy intersection downtown stopping the blue line metro train, backing up street and freeway traffic for over an hour. The LAPD has threatened them with felony charges, high bail and keeping them locked up through Thursday. This is intolerable! Call to demand their immediate release and for all charges to be dropped! Call LA Central Division 213.486.6606. In addition, four UCLA students stopped traffic on the 405 Freeway offramp earlier today. Call Century Regional Detention Center at 323.568.4000 and West Hollywood Sherriff's at 310.855.8850 to demand their immediate release with all charges dropped. Photo: Los Angeles--blocking the train. @Jayron26 Oakland, California Shit got shut down in Oakland on April 14! The day began with a speak-out at Oscar Grant Corner in the heart of downtown and ended with a major disruption of traffic on a key Bay Area freeway. April 14 protesters pushed through a line of police and took over the lobby area of Oakland City Hall for a half hour chanting "Indict, convict, send the killer cops to jail, whole damn system is guilty as hell," names of victims of police murder, with "presente!" They carried posters of Stolen Lives. At the same time a number of people from Black Lives Matter took over the rotunda area of city hall for 15 minutes. Houston, Texas Houston on A14. Photo: Special to revcom.us Houston on A14. Photo: Special to revcom.us San Francisco Bay Area #BlackLivesMatter protesters here to "shut down" SF City Hall over @SFPD racist text messages and more. Photo: @FitzTheReporter #bart #BlackLivesMatter @24th st and Mission, San Francisco. Photo: @StarkKev Cleveland, police used horses against demonstrators "We are no longer going to sit back and watch our black and brown children get killed" Several dozen activists took to the streets of Springfield, MA to protest on April 14, blocking traffic. Signs included "Prisons are slavery, police are the slave trade" and "Black Lives Matter - Shut It Down." Over a dozen were arrested. Over a dozen protesters were arrested. From mainstream news coverage of the protest: "One protester explains, 'The mayor needs to be here, see this, be arm-in-arm with us and standing up with this to let the system know we are no longer going to sit back and watch our black and brown children get killed.'" [Interviewer:] "You saw a lot of people with you that got arrested, what did that mean?" [Protester:] "That's why we did it, that's how much it means to us, that's why put our lives on the line. This means so much to us, we're fighting to survive." Photo: Michael S. Gordon | mgordon@repub.com Stockton, California Beautiful # ppl getting outof cars & joining us! #ShutDownA14 #Stockton - we r the people w/the power. Photo: @alyssa011968 Seattle, Washington Crowd of around 75 anti-police brutality protesters blocking intersection near Seattle's Westlake. Photo: BrandiKruse@Twitter If you like this article, subscribe, donate to and sustain Revolution newspaper.

@daltonm17 Los Angeles, California Nearly a thousand people joined the protest, here at the site where Afrika was murdered by the police. #ShutDownA14 NO MORE! IT STOPS TODAY! WE REFUSE 2 LIVE THIS WAY!

This week in history: April 11-April 17 11 April 2011 25 years ago: US bombs Libya Reagan White House meeting at launch of attack on Libya On April 15, 1986, the US launched an aerial blitz on Libya in supposed retaliation for terrorist attacks on US civilians in Europe over the preceding two weeks. Over 100 Libyans were killed in the bombing raids on Tripoli and Benghazi, among them perhaps two dozens civilians, including Gaddafi's adopted infant daughter. Hundreds of civilians were wounded. Two US pilots died after their F-111 was shot down by Libyan air defenses. Meant to undermine the regime of Muammar Gaddafi and perhaps kill him, the operation also demonstrated the isolation of the US. Italy refused the use of its military bases or airspace, and it was later documented that Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi had alerted Gaddafi of the attack two days before it took place. France--which had itself bombed a Libyan airport in Chad months earlier--refused US aircraft permission to use its airspace, forcing a considerable extension of the route for jets flying from the UK. (The French embassy in Tripoli was "accidentally" bombed in the campaign, dubbed Operation El Dorado Canyon.) The United Nations later condemned the attack by a vote of 79 in favor and 28 against with 33 abstentions, as a "a violation of the Charter of the United Nations and of international law." The Soviet Union, while formally condemning the attack, had behind the scenes signaled its toleration as a means of currying favor in arms negotiations with the Reagan administration. Reagan justified the attack on Libya as retaliation for the bombing of a West Berlin disco in which two US soldiers were killed, making the operation the first US attack on an Arab country justified explicitly as a response to terrorism. "When our citizens are attacked or abused anywhere in the world on the direct orders of hostile regimes, we will respond so long as I'm in this office," Reagan said in a nationally televised address hours after the patently illegal attack took place. Simultaneously, 3,000 miles away in Afghanistan, Washington was arming and training Islamist terrorists fighting against the Soviet-backed regime. These would later produce Al Qaeda. 50 years ago: Bay of Pigs invasion A force of right-wing Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs on Cuba's southern coast on April 17, 1961. The Bay of Pigs invasion, a US attempt to topple the nationalist regime of Fidel Castro, ended in fiasco and international embarrassment for the Kennedy administration. About 1,500 exiles, armed and trained by the CIA, took part in the abortive mission at Bahia de Cohcinos (Bay of Pigs), about 100 miles from Havana. Responding quickly, Castro's tiny air force was able to destroy two ships, and forced the rest of the US-backed flotilla out to sea, effectively stranding the invading force under the guns of much larger Cuban army and militia forces. Within three days the 1,202 Cuban exiles surrendered and were taken prisoner. Cuba lost 176 soldiers in the fighting, the invading force 118. The invasion was the culmination of a broader plan authorized by Kennedy's predecessor, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, which also involved figures from American organized crime who would attempt to assassinate Castro. After his inauguration, Kennedy assumed control of the operation, supplying the exiles with bombers altered so as not to appear to be of US origin, and authorizing their use against Cuban airfields on April 15. The Bay of Pigs had the effect of ending any immediate chance for rapprochement between Cuba and the US. It strengthened Castro's nationalist and anti-imperialist credentials and increased Cuban dependence on the Soviet Union. After the invasion for the first time Castro declared that the revolution had been "socialist" and "Marxist-Leninist," although the working class had played no role in the establishment of his regime and each step of Castro's program of nationalization had been necessitated by hostile economic acts from the US. In the US, powerful and reactionary elements in the military and intelligence apparatus, as well as among the Cuban exiles and the Mafia, blamed Kennedy for refusing to send in US forces when it was clear the invasion had failed. 75 years ago: Workers on the offensive in Spain Workers in Barcelona in 1937 Workers in Spain this week in 1936 intensified their offensive against both the Republican regime and far-right forces, routing fascists in street battles and carrying out major strikes. On April 15, general strikes took place in Pamplona and Jerez, taxi cab drivers struck in Madrid, and construction workers struck in Bilbao. In Jerez, a conservative newspaper plant was burnt to the ground and churches and convents were sacked. On April 16 in Madrid, a funeral procession for a Civil Guard killed the day before, attended by prominent right-wing politicians, was attacked as it passed below working class apartment buildings. Workers opened fire on the procession from sidewalks, windows, and rooftops. Among those killed was the cousin of jailed fascist leader Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera. Bloodshed also took place in Seville and again in Jerez. Jose Gil Maria Robles, of the monarchist-clerical Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right, threatened civil war in response to the working class offensive. He charged the liberal premier, Manuel Azana, with enabling communists. Azana, who ruled with the backing of the Stalinist-led Popular Front, responded by promising to crack down on the working class and by declaring his opposition to communism. "Bolshevism would be as fatal for me as it would for you," Azana told the Cortes before winning a vote of confidence April 16. "It is useless to say I am a Communist, for I will do all I can to prevent the establishment of communism in Spain." 100 years ago: Threat of foreign intervention in Mexican Revolution Mexican peasant fighters As revolutionary forces loyal to opposition leader Francisco Madero continued to make gains against the Porfirio Diaz regime in Mexico, the US and other powers threatened to intervene more directly. Fighting spilled over from the Mexican city of Agua Prieta to the US town of Douglas, Arizona, killing and injuring a handful of Americans. Voices in the US media demanded intervention, and the Taft administration warned the Mexican foreign ministry that a repeat would be considered a "national affront." The US warning was a tactical advantage to the "insurrectos," who used the border towns as an entry for men and arms. In the state of Guanajuato, the American superintendent overseeing 21 mines, Joseph McDonald, announced that he had begun to put in place fortifications and could place 1,000 Americans under arms to defend US mineral interests. The region was rich in gold, silver, lead, and copper. Perhaps with such considerations in mind, a Canadian member of parliament, Col. Sam Hughes, charged that the US had strirred up the trouble in Mexico as part of an annexation plot. The British landed a force of some 30 Marines and a Maxim gun at the Baja California town of San Quentin, and rumors swirled in the US media that Japan was advancing its own interests in the crisis. This incited public discussion of the recent Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, which admitted the right of foreign powers to intervene militarily in Latin America in order to force payment of debts. The "Roosevelt Doctrine" was assailed by powerful Republican senators Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts and Shelby Cullom of Illinois. In addition to gaining control of Agua Prieta, the insurrectionary forces reportedly moved with impunity in Guerrero and Morelos south of Mexico City. Cotton mill workers in Atlixtac, Guerrero struck during the week and joined the insurrection. Google is blocking the World Socialist Web Site from search results. Share this article with friends and coworkers Facebook Twitter E-Mail Reddit

In addition to gaining control of Agua Prieta, the insurrectionary forces reportedly moved with impunity in Guerrero and Morelos south of Mexico City. Cotton mill workers in Atlixtac, Guerrero struck during the week and joined the insurrection.

EDF, the power company, has been denounced for attacking the right to protest, after it launched a damages claim for PS5 million against 21 activists. Here one of them explains what No Dash For Gas is aiming at EDF, the power company, was denounced last week for attacking the right to protest, after it launched a damages claim for PS5 million against 21 activists. The claim followed a sit-in at its West Burton power station, organised by No Dash For Gas , that forced it to shut down for a week in October-November last year. The campaigners hope not only that people will pile pressure on EDF to drop the claim, but also that their action will help create a broad movement against the "dash for gas" specifically and fossil-fuel-driven energy policy generally. The context is that energy needs to be reclaimed as a common good, Ewa Jasiewicz, one of the activists who has been sued, says in this interview. Gabriel Levy. For people wish to support the campaign demanding that EDF drop the civil case, there is a list of very do-able things, such as signing petitions and tweeting, on the No Dash for Gas web site. But what more might people do? How would you hope the campaign might elevate? Ewa Jasiewicz. People can get involved in organising action. They can also take direct action at various facilities and target various companies that are part of the big six [EDF, British Gas, Eon, Npower, Scottish Power and Southern & Scottish Energy, who dominate the UK power market]. They can take the initiative in doing that, as other activists have done already and did do even before our occupation and shutdown at West Burton. There is the 1st May action , which people should all go to. It will be really pivotal, a subversion of EDF's event, which is designed to bring energy into a corporate, private sphere and eliminate public participation and public decision making - at a time when public opinion is overwhelmingly in support of renewables over fossil fuels. The event has been renamed "Let's talk about people power", to bring it back to questions of public interest and public democratic participation on energy policy. We don't have that participation in this country. 1st May is going to be a really bold way of kicking off that debate, to put it on the map. Another important type of engagement is to get fossil fuel companies out of sponsorship of the arts and education. Students and artists and people with an interest in the cultural life of this country have a role to play in stopping "greenwash" by companies like EDF, that are active in sponsoring things in universities. There was an action on Monday in Oxford, for example, where a recruitment event organised by EDF was disrupted by activists. Other bigger oil and gas companies, such as BP and Shell, are also very active in sponsorship, and organisations such as Platform challenging them. GL. You are talking about the 1st May event kicking off a debate. Presumably this debate will look at finding a way from slogans to broader perspectives. "No dash for gas" is a very clear slogan, but we need to say more ... providing people with energy is a complicated business. EJ. Yes, providing people with energy is complicated. And we are not scientists or engineers - or rather, we are not all scientists and engineers, although some of us are! - and the question is, we need to meet the two degrees target, to limit global warming to below two degrees [i.e. to limit carbon dioxide emissions, in the way that scientists advocate, so that the increase in global average temperature does not exceed 2deg centigrade]. We need to stop global warming from going past that point. Can that be done by burning more fossil fuels? No, it can not. And this isn't a problem or challenge that can be fixed by technology alone, this is a social and political issue, just like every economic issue is social and political. So the point of departure has to be: bringing down those [carbon dioxide] emissions and making the transition to alternatives - which require imagination, require investment, require political decisions. Our role is to expose that potential, that possibility. There are others better placed than me to talk about exactly how that can be done. GL. Let me play devil's advocate, and ask you: why get after EdF? This is a political, government issue. It's the government that sets the framework for investment, and then capitalist companies come along and do what capitalists do, i.e. try to make money. EJ. EDF and other energy companies have staff seconded into the Department of Energy and Climate Change. So they are actually involved in writing government policy on energy and climate. So it is very important that that disproportionate lobbying power is exposed and challenged. We are limited in how we can challenge the government in a physical way, in a political way. How often can people occupy a government department or stand outside with placards and banners? These companies are part and parcel of government policy-making. It's not a revolving door, it's an open two-way street. That's why we're targeting them. They are responsible. GL. What about the constituencies to whom you are appealing? What about the labour movement? Is there a parallel here with the Taff Vale judgment of 1901, that made trade unions liable for civil damages cases from companies where their members had gone on strike? That decision led to the formation of the Labour Party. [Trade unions saw parliamentary representation as a way to change the law on strikes, to change the law, starting with strikers' immunity from such civil damages cases.] EJ. I don't think that analogy works. There is no ambition to create a political party out of this movement. GL. I wasn't really thinking of that: I don't want a Labour Party #2 either! I was thinking about how it looks from the other side's viewpoint. In 1901 they felt threatened by industrial action; they responded with civil damages claims, and the labour movement pushed back against that. Is there not an analogy in the way that they now feel threatened by a wider range of social protest, of which your action was part? EJ. There is definitely a crackdown on protest in this country, that's for sure: increasing use of injunctions and civil actions by corporations to prevent people from gathering and protesting and taking action at particular sites or directed at particular companies. There are restraining orders used to prevent activists coming anywhere near these culprits - who need to be challenged. The law is not on our side - and it's about to get even worse, with the cuts to legal aid, including legal aid for industrial tribunals. In terms of class power, of workers taking action, that's definitely part of this. Workers at these sites, working for these companies, should have a voice, a role in steering these companies in a more sustainable direction, and engaging with the idea of community-controlled energy generation - that is, much more decentralised forms of energy generation, as well as the centralised forms. And it's not just about workers helping to determine policy in a democratic way. It's also about how they are treated, how they are placed in, and how they take part in, the process of energy generation. We are asking: can this happen in a non-hierarchical way, can this happen in a cooperative, decentralised participatory way, where people are not exploited, where they are treated fairly and earn good wages? It is not only about workers getting good wages. It is about: can they, and all of us, actually own cooperatively the sources and means of energy production and infrastructure? GL. Another constituency is people who consume energy. No Dash for Gas is talking about a movement that involves not only energy industry workers but also the people who consume energy - who, at the moment, pay very high prices for it. EJ. Yes! We are talking about that - about people starting to take "ownership", that is, to reclaim energy as a commons; to start to think of energy, of the climate and the atmosphere, and the land, as a commons. We shouldn't normalise the situation where big companies have a monopoly over what is a shared interest, a shared need - something that should be considered a right. In some countries, there are struggles on these issues that have been successful, around water privatisation and land privatisation, for example. So there are examples - and also examples of the energy industry being socialised, such as in Venezuela. So there are alternative ways of making things happen. GL. You are talking about the commons, about big questions and big changes that we aspire to. But we are starting with small things. Your action at West Burton was much bigger and more impressive than the actions that many people are involved in, but still, in the big scheme of things, it was only one step. So what if somebody who wants to change the world, and is trying to work out how, comes to you and says: "how the hell are we going to get from these first steps to where we want to go?" EJ. Well, you have to stick a flag in the ground and point, and say: "Here's a problem, and there are solutions and there are alternatives and we all have a role in making them happen. We need to stop the expansion of gas-fired power generation in this country." You do that by taking a dramatic and high-profile action - to intervene, to expose what's happening and start a discussion about it. No amount of lobbying, petitioning or email writing could possibly have got the amount of attention that we finally did get with this action ... although in fact it was EdF that brought us that attention by suing us. We didn't actually get that much attention at the actual time of the action itself! Our action, by itself, was by no means the way to achieve the goal of stopping gas - but it was a way of showing what needs doing. And we do want future actions to be much more participatory, much more collective, less hierarchical in the way they are executed. Our action was necessarily secret in the way it was planned. A friend said to me, using the metaphor of how it all looked when we were up the chimneys at West Burton: "You just want to be a hero, sitting at the top of that chimney, with everyone below you. What are you going to do to bring those people up to that level of consciousness?!" I agreed with him - not that I want to be a hero, but that the way to go is to find ways to make people conscious of things. And, in order to do that, sometimes you have to climb up and point and say "look, this is a problem" - and then you will bring people with you, because then people will start to tune in and think about it. We are only at the beginning of defeating gas in this country. We wanted to controversialise it, and I think we have done. This article is from the People & Nature web site

EDF, the power company, has been denounced for attacking the right to protest, after it launched a damages claim for PS5 million against 21 activists.

One of the great voices for personal liberty was that of the British economist and political philosopher, John Stuart Mill. His essay, "On Liberty," though penned well over 150 years ago, is a classic statement that the individual should be respected in his right of freedom of thought, speech and action. But John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was also one of the most important economists of the nineteenth century. His Principles of Political Economy , originally published in 1848, became the leading textbook for at least two generations of students from which they learned the nature of a market economy and its alternatives. J . S. Mill's Sympathies for Socialism and "Distributive Justice" Mill has been a highly controversial figure among friends of freedom because while strongly endorsing the autonomy of the individual in thought and deed, he believed (and even hoped) that someday in the future human nature might have changed enough to be compatible with elements of the socialist idea of an altruistic good society. He also argued that while the physical laws of production (the technological requirements of producing goods from resources and raw materials) are beyond man's control to arbitrarily change, the "laws of distribution" were open to human choice and manipulation, given any social values people may have. That is, after the output of goods has been produced, it is a matter of "society's" preference to decide how to distribute it among the members of any community. This led the Austrian economist, F. A. Hayek, to argue that Mill's "advocacy of distributive justice and a general sympathetic attitude towards socialist aspirations in some of his other writings, prepared the gradual transition of a large part of the liberal intellectuals to a moderate socialism." And it is certainly the case that in his Principles of Political Economy , Mill argued for numerous exceptions to the laissez-faire principle of governments being limited to the protection of life, liberty and peacefully acquired property. Most current-day classical liberals find many, if not most, of these exceptions unpersuasive in the light of more than a century with the experience of government intervention in education, business regulation, the labor market, and welfare state "social safety nets." Self-Interest and the Consequences of Government Intervention But it would be unfair to Mill to assert that he had lapsed into a fully utopian la-la-land of malleable human nature in which social reality could be whatever the dreamer of a "better world" might desire. He may have been open and even sympathetic to the idea that maybe someday human nature in the normal societal work environment might become more like a monastic brotherhood of collective sharing and selflessness. But in the world in which Mill lived he had no illusions about any such transformation in a reasonable horizon of time. He worked under the clear and evident assumption that individuals are guided by self-interest, that they attempt to improve their own circumstances as they define betterment, and they respond to the incentive structures within the institutional settings in which they find themselves. Given the reality of human nature in the social world, Mill was insistent that, "though governments or nations have the power of deciding what institutions shall exist, they cannot arbitrarily determine how those institutions shall work." The effects from changing how wealth was distributed in society were not under man's unlimited control through government edict, legislation or command. Or as he put it, "We have here to consider, not the causes, but the consequences, of the rules according to which wealth may be distributed . . . Human beings can control their own acts, but not the consequences of their acts either to themselves or to others. Society can subject the distribution of wealth to whatever rules it thinks best; but what practical results will flow from the operation of those rules must be discovered, like any other physical or mental truths, by observation and reasoning." He understood that the link between work and reward was strongest when the gains from effort were the property of the producer of wealth, and the resulting output might be negatively affected under prevailing human circumstances with a break in this linkage. Individuals Know Their Own Interests Better Than Government Mill also believed that individuals have a far greater understanding of their own surroundings in terms of enterprise decisions than any government agents and bureaucrats could ever possess. Even if one were to imagine that they possessed the same knowledge as the actors in the different corners of the division of labor, those representatives of the government would never have the same incentive to use that knowledge as productively and profitably as the separate individuals in the market arena. However, in fact, there is more knowledge in the minds of all the members of a society combined than any one or group of government officials could ever know or master, Mill pointed out. Thus, it was better to leave the use of such dispersed and personal knowledge to those who possessed it, rather than the government taking on commercial and enterprising tasks for which it was not competent. In addition, given the reality of self-interest on the part of all members of society, whether in the market or in government, Mill warned the presumption needed to be the constant danger of misuse and abuse of political power and governmental position. Government the Greatest Threat to Person and Property Essential for individual and social prosperity was security of person and property, Mill insisted. But there is always the eternal problem: who guards the people from the guardians meant to protect people's lives and possessions? Or as Mill expressed it: "By security I mean the completeness of the protection which society affords to its members. This consists of protection by the government and protection against the government. The latter is the most important. "Where a person known to possess anything worth taking away, can expect nothing but to have it torn from him, by every circumstance of tyrannical violence, by the agents of a rapacious government, it is not likely that many will exert themselves to produce much more than necessaries . . . The only insecurity which is altogether paralyzing to the entire energies of producers, is that arising from the government, or from persons invested with its authority . . . "It is sufficient to remark, that the efficiency of industry may be expected to be great, in proportion as the fruits of industry are insured to the person exerting it; and that all social arrangements are conducive to useful exertion, according as they provide that the reward of every one for his labor shall be proportioned as much as possible to the benefit which it produces. "All laws and usages which . . . chain up the efforts of any part of the community in pursuit of their own good, or stand between efforts and their natural fruits . . . [tend] to make the aggregate productive powers of the community productive in a less degree than they would otherwise be." Government Services Should Not be Monopolized Though Mill may have concluded that government in a liberal society should extend its responsibilities beyond the narrower confines of a more strict laissez-faire policy, he nonetheless remained suspicious and indeed critical of any monopolization of such tasks. For instance, he believed that state involvement in education was essential to assure the development of a generally literate, intelligent, and informed citizenry. But while he argued government funding and supplying of schools were desirable for a functioning and free society of reasoning and reasonable individuals, he was forcefully against the exclusion of educational competition. Nothing was more to be feared that total government control over any facet of life that would threaten to stifle the creative, innovative and uniquely original ideas that only emerge from diverse and free minds able to think and experiment: "One thing must be strenuously insisted on: that the government must claim no monopoly for its education, either in the lower or in the higher branches . . . It is not endurable that a government should either de jure or de facto, have a complete control over the education of the people. To possess such a control, and to actually exert it, is to be despotic. A government that can mold the opinions and sentiments of the people from their youth onwards can do with them whatever it pleases. "Though a government, therefore, may, and in many cases ought to, establish schools and colleges, it must neither compel nor bribe any person to come to them; nor ought the power of individuals to set up rival establishments depend in any degree upon its authorization." Dangers from Democracy and the Need to Limit the Franchise In his famous essay "On Liberty," Mill had warned about both the political tyranny of the minority and, now, in his "democratic" age the growing danger of a tyranny of the majority. (See my article, "John Stuart Mill and the Dangers to Liberty." ) In the Principles , he emphasized the same point, arguing that, "Experience, however, proves that the depositories of power who are mere delegates of the people, that is of a majority, are quite as ready (when they think they can count on popular support) as any organs of oligarchy to assume arbitrary power, and encroach unduly on the liberty of private life." Indeed, Mill suggested that a tyranny of the majority was potentially more dangerous than the monarchies or oligarchies of the past, since when "the people" assert their sovereignty there remain few if any of the intermediary institutions of society to protect and support the threatened individual from the abuse of the "masses." This danger of an unbridled voting majority taking advantage of their numbers to plunder others in society was an especial problem in democratic society, Mill warned. Therefore, in his 1861 book, Reflections on Representative Government , Mill argued that those who received "public assistance" (government welfare) should be denied the voting franchise for as long as they receive such tax-based financial support and livelihood. Simply put, Mill reasoned that this creates an inescapable conflict of interest, in the ability of some to vote for the very government funds that are taxed away from others for their own benefit. Or as Mill expressed it: "It is important, that the assembly which votes the taxes, either general or local, should be elected exclusively by those who pay something towards the taxes imposed. Those who pay no taxes, disposing by their votes of other people's money, have every motive to be lavish and none to economize. "As far as money matters are concerned, any power of voting possessed by them is a violation of the fundamental principle of free government . . . It amounts to allowing them to put their hands into other people's pockets for any purpose which they think fit to call a public one." Mill went on to explain why he considered this to be especially true for those relying upon tax-based, redistributed welfare dependency, which in nineteenth century Great Britain was dispersed by the local parishes of the Church of England. Said Mill: "I regard it as required by first principles, that the receipt of parish relief should be a peremptory disqualification for the [voting] franchise. He who cannot by his labor suffice for his own support has no claim to the privilege of helping himself to the money of others . . . "Those to whom he is indebted for the continuance of his very existence may justly claim the exclusive management of those common concerns, to which he now brings nothing, or less than he takes away. "As a condition of the franchise, a term should be fixed, say five years previous to the registry, during which the applicant's name has not been on the parish books as a recipient of relief." I would suggest that the same argument could be extended, today, to all those who work for the government, for as long as they are employed by the government they are directly living off the taxed income and wealth of others. If it is said that government employees pay taxes, too, the reply should be that if you receive a $100 salary from the government and pay in taxes, say, $30, you remain the net recipient of $70 of other people's money and are not a contributor to the costs of government. Extending Mill's logic a little further, I think that the same case could be made that all those who live off government expenditures in the form of government contracts or subsidies, should likewise be excluded from voting for the same conflict of interest reasons. Such individuals and their private enterprises may not be totally dependent upon government expenditures for their livelihood. A rule might be implemented that to be eligible for the right to vote: no individual or the private enterprise from which he draws an income should receive (just for purpose of example), say, more than 10 percent of his or her gross income from government spending of any sort. If a form of Mill's voting restriction rule had been in affect 100 year ago, it is difficult to see how the government could ever have grown to the size and cost that it now has in society. In turn, if there were any way to implement such a vote-restricting rule, it is equally hard to see how the current, gigantic interventionist-welfare state could long remain in existence. Government, no doubt, would soon be cut down to a far more limited and less intrusive size. Mill's Illusion of Calculating "Social Utility" Finally, what was the source of how someone like John Stuart Mill could, on the one hand, argue so persuasively on the dangers of unlimited government, especially in its modern democratic form, speak so eloquently on behave of the liberty of the individual against the tyrannies of minorities or majorities, yet, make the case that the "laws of distribution" were a matter of "society's" choice, and government should intrude in various and sundry ways into the market and related aspects of people's lives for the "good of all"? The basic reason is the philosophical premise from which John Stuart Mill grounded his arguments concerning freedom, society and the government. Though he changed his views over the years, he fundamentally remained a "utilitarian." The goal of public (that is, government) policy is to maximize the happiness of "society," and therefore "goodness" of every social arrangement - the "rights" of individuals to any liberty, the ownership of property, and the distribution of any material wealth produced - was a matter of estimating whether they generated more collective "pleasure" than "pain," more "happiness" than "harm" to the society as a whole. The individual was allowed to keep or have redistributed to him from others what the "social collective" decided was to be his out of the total of "society's" material wealth. The individual, in other words, is made a material slave to the community of which he is a member. One of Mill's contemporaries, the social philosopher, Herbert Spencer, pointed out, in Social Statics (1851), the insolubility of this train of reasoning saying that if we argue, "a man is not at liberty . . . to do what may give unhappiness [negative social utility] to his neighbors, we find ourselves involved in complicated estimates of pleasures and pains, to the obvious peril of our conclusions." Such notions as "pleasure" and "pain," or "happiness" and "unhappiness" are certainly real feelings that individuals experience and which influence and guide both the goals they set for themselves looking to the future and their judgments after the fact as to they evaluate how things have turned out. But there is no way to quantify, measure, or sum up such inner feelings that an individual experiences, and there is certainly no way to, then, add them up over a community of individuals to determine whether one set of social institutions or government policies can be "objectively" said to make "society" as a whole better or worse off, more "happy" or "unhappy." Such a purely utilitarian approach to governmental decision-making is a swamp of subjective judgments, pseudo- scientific calculations based upon arbitrary assumptions assigned by the policy-maker, and a battlefield of competing conceptions of the "social good" that easily plays into the hands of those desiring political power and those wishing to rationalize the use of that power to coercively manipulate markets and wealth redistributions to benefit some at the expense of others. "Natural Rights" and the Purpose of Government What John Stuart Mill rejected in attempting to redesign society according to this shaky premise of "social utility" was the older tradition upon which the great achievements of winning liberty was based in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the tradition of "natural rights." It had taken on its early "modern" form in the writings the British philosopher, John Locke, in his Second Treatise on Government (1689), had said that individual rights did not come from government, but were derivable from reasoned reflection on the nature of man, the requirements for his survival and betterment, and the social arrangements most likely to be conducive to the improvement of each individual's life while assuring the exclusion of force or fraud from human relationships. Government, in this tradition, has a rationale for its existence in the need and usefulness of an enforcement institution to secure each individual in his right to his life, liberty and peacefully produced or acquired property from the plundering and murdering hands of others. In the tradition of a reasoned conception of individual rights prior to and independent of government, the delineation of "just" associative relationships between human beings is their basis in mutual agreement and voluntary exchange. In such a social setting, the role and delimitation of the duties and functions of government is to use coercive power to protect each individual's liberty and not to apply its authorized use of force to, itself, abridge one person's life, liberty or property to benefit another - and most certainly not on the basis of some arbitrary measure of people's "pleasures" and "pains" to maximize some imaginary "total" of "happiness" for the entire society. It is this natural rights tradition that was the basis for the principles expressed in the American Declaration of Independence, and it is the political philosophical tradition that needs to be restated, refined and persuasively articulated in our own times if liberty is to be restored and real social peace and mutual prosperity are to be effectively assured.

One of the great voices for personal liberty was that of the British economist and political philosopher, John Stuart Mill. His essay, "On Liberty," though penned well over 150 years ago, is a classic statement that the individual should be respected in his right of freedom of thought, speech and action.

This article was first published at www.forbes.com. by Ted R. Bromund Ten Dumbest Things I Heard About Guns At The United Nations USA - -(Ammoland.com)- For the past two weeks, I've been attending the Third U.N. Conference to Review Progress Made in the Implementation of the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects -- mercifully abbreviated as RevCon 3 for the PoA. In theory, the purpose of the PoA -- which is a political instrument, not a treaty -- is to encourage cooperation on the illicit international trade in small arms. If the PoA stuck to this, it might be modestly useful. It can only be modestly useful because far too many nations at the U.N. don't right now have the ability, or the desire, to do the basic things they have repeatedly committed to doing. Unfortunately, the PoA doesn't stick to the illicit international trade in small arms. And in the process of not allowing it to stick to its job, its supporters say a lot of stupid things. And yes, they do like to talk about gun control. Here are the ten dumbest things I've heard about guns at the United Nations over the past two weeks. Mexico's proposal to include IEDs. Make no mistake, IEDs are a problem. But they're not one the PoA can usefully address. Many types of IED are already illegal. Many of them are not trafficked internationally. And above all, they're used almost exclusively by terrorists. Putting IEDs into the PoA amounts to implying that Al Qaeda should sign up to it. Europe's invention of new kinds of guns . You'd think there would be just two kinds of guns: ones that can fire, and ones that can't. If you want to make a gun that can fire into one that can't, use a torch to cut the frame (or receiver) in half. Not so, according to Europe, which for some reason doesn't like to cut guns in half. As a result, it doesn't have a reliable way to deactivate guns, and so now recognizes five different kinds of guns: manufactured, downgraded, converted, deactivated, and reactivated firearms. And of course, it wants new rules for all of these, with numbers put in all the parts of every firearm. In theory, this will prevent terrorist attacks like the one in Paris in 2015, which used weapons that were supposedly deactivated. In practice, it will just create confusion. The simplest thing to do is to define and number a gun by its frame (or receiver), state that the way to deactivate a gun is to cut it in half, and move on. The worship of the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals . The Goals, known as the SDGs, are a tedious laundry list of 169 separate targets, most of which are in reality merely pious aspirations or politicized goals. One of these targets is "by 2030 [to] significantly reduce illicit financial and arms flows." The PoA isn't likely to make a major contribution to this target, but the fact that the target mentions illicit arms flows has become an excuse on the part of the Europeans and the Africans to lard the PoA with loads of references to the SDGs. The point of this is to turn the PoA into a human rights and development agreement, and, by the by, to transform it into politicized mush with no relevance to actually reducing the illicit arms trade. Mexico's proposal to regulate "the end user." For years, Mexico has argued that the PoA shouldn't simply concern itself with the international illicit arms trade, but should reach inside national borders and regulate "end users." In the U.S., that means individual purchasers of firearms, which is precisely why Mexico wants what it wants: it's trying to use the PoA to mandate gun control in the U.S. Mexico's proposal is part of the PoA's curious tendency to forget that it's supposed to be focusing solely on the international trade, and to wade off into regulating the "end user." The highlight of this tendency is the proposal, made in 2016 by the U.N. Secretary-General and included in a PoA draft this year, to use RFID chips to "track and document which individual has used a specific weapon, when and for how long." The demand to include ammunition . A lot of countries want the PoA to include ammunition. Right now, it doesn't, and there's a good reason for this: guns are durable, relatively easy to mark and trace, and don't work without ammunition, whereas ammunition is consumable and is produced in enormous quantities that are impossibly burdensome to trace. The number of delegations here that can't grasp this simple point is incredible. For the sake of the political thrill of including ammunition, they want to add an unworkable commitment to the PoA when most of the nations in the room aren't fulfilling the much simpler ones they've failed to uphold for the past 17 years. Worrying about 3-D printing and modular or polymer firearms . Apart from including ammunition, this is the big demand of a lot of nations here. They argue that 3-D printed firearms and modular or plastic firearms are scary new problems, and so the PoA needs to be updated to mention them. As the U.S. has pointed out, there is no recorded instance of a crime being committed anywhere in the world with a 3-D printed gun, and in any case, it doesn't matter how a firearm is made or what it's made of. As long as there's a proper legal definition of what a firearm is, it doesn't matter if it's made from metal or plastic, or if -- as with modular firearms -- parts of it can be replaced. But too many countries here can't bring themselves to simply define a firearm by its frame (or receiver), and fall prey to the sentiment that not including new things (such as 3-D printing) every time the PoA meets means it's failing. In reality, the best way to ensure the PoA keeps on failing is to bloat it up like a beached whale. Proclaiming the existence of unspecified synergies . One of the favorite talking points here is that the PoA has what are called "synergies" with a wide range of other international instruments, including the U.N. Firearms Protocol, the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the so-called International Small Arms Control Standards, and above all the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). The point of referring to these "synergies" is, first, to cram a lot of things into the PoA that the U.S. doesn't like and then, second, to cram so many references to the ATT into the PoA that the PoA becomes the agreed way to implement the legally binding ATT. In other words, it's an effort to put all the U.N.'s small arms instruments into a pot, give them a big stir, and make them all legally binding and inseparable from each other. Misusing ATF statistics . One of the favorite talking points of the activists -- embodied by the Center for American Progress -- is that an enormous percentage of crime guns recovered and traced in Mexico (70 percent) and Canada (98.5 percent) are traced back to the U.S. On its face, this is ridiculous: the idea that 985 out of every 1000 crime guns in Canada come from the U.S. is too high to be plausible. The activists get these numbers because, though they correctly cite the relevant ATF reports, they use them to imply something that's untrue. The figure of 98.5 percent, for example, refers only to guns sent to the U.S. for tracing. In other words, the Canadian police are 98.5 percent accurate in sending probable U.S.-origin guns to the U.S. to be traced, whereas their Mexican colleagues are only 70 percent accurate. These numbers say nothing about the overall share of U.S. guns in Canadian or Mexican crime. Whining about gender . Gender has absolutely no relevance whatsoever to the control of the illicit international trade in small arms . Nor do women have any special expertise in this area simply because they are women. Nor is it true that women are uniquely burdened by the results of this illicit trade -- on the contrary, most of the victims are men. (Jamaica's figures , for example, show that in 2017 male victims outnumbered female ones by over 6 to 1.) But yet the PoA has become a vehicle for talking about gender. There has been a lengthy debate over whether the PoA should promote the "full" or the "equal" (the latter mandating one woman for every man, regardless of their expertise) involvement of women. The highlight of the gender panic was probably a speech by a left-wing NGO on Tuesday which argued that "militarised masculinity is . . . the main impediment to disarmament, peace, and gender equality." In other words, in order to address the illicit international trade in small arms, we need to rewrite all history, society, and culture from the perspective of the progressive left. A word of advice to people who think like this: the more you say stuff like this, the more anyone who doesn't agree with you is likely to write off all the U.N. programs you say you support as a Trojan Horse for your own radicalism. Promoting gun control. Well, you knew it would come to this. In theory, the PoA is tightly limited to the international illicit trade. But the people who back it make no secret of their support for gun control. On Thursday, 17 nations, including Mexico, proposed including civilian possession in the PoA. Last Friday, we had a visit from Wear Orange, of Everytown for Gun Safety, financed by Michael Bloomberg. They clearly see the PoA as relevant to domestic gun control. The best illustration of why came on Wednesday, when in a side event on domestic gun control laws an Australian representative stated that "every gun shop that disappeared was a point from which guns could no longer be diverted." In other words, according to the gun controllers, the way to control the illicit arms trade is to make sure there are no legal places to buy guns, which will ensure that no legal guns exist to become illegal. The Australian representative went on to point out that the most important source of crime guns in Australia is thefts from legal gun owners. That sums up their point of view nicely: legal gun owners should be deprived of their right to buy a gun so that, when a thief invades their house, they will not have a gun that can be stolen. Also, they will be defenseless. The problem, by this way of thinking, is not the thief: it is the law-abiding gun owner, who should be punished accordingly. All of this isn't just dumb. It's pathetic. Illicit trafficking in small arms is an actual problem -- not as big a problem as many problems out there, but a problem nonetheless. And there are sensible things that could be done about it, things that wouldn't cure the problem, but which would make it better. If the PoA would just focus on these things, it might actually make a modest, but positive, contribution. The illicit international trade in small arms basically comes down to two issues. First, there's border control: if you don't control your borders, it's inevitable that a lot of guns are going to cross it. But here's what CAP has to say about the Trump administration's border policies in the gun control context: The Trump administration's protectionist, isolationist, nativist, and racist immigration policy is founded on the scurrilous notion that the United States needs to close the borders . . . Well, if the borders are not going to be closed to illegal immigration going north, they are going to be open to illegal firearms moving south. It really is as simple as that. But try to find a progressive gun controller who admits it. Indeed, when I asked Amb. Juan Sandoval, Deputy Permanent Representative of Mexico, whether he supported tight borders, he simply repeated that he was unhappy about Mexico's murder rate. I'd be unhappy about it too, but blaming it all on the U.S. without expressing any willingness to control your own borders is totally unhelpful. In fact, it's unfriendly. Of course, no matter how good your border controls are, some arms are going to flow across your border illicitly. The second issue, therefore, is the need to mark firearms (both domestically-produced and imports), to maintain records of those markings, and to trace crime and other illicit weapons. This is a commitment that all nations participating in the PoA have already accepted. But most of them don't do it. Ted R. Bromund, Ph.D. About Ted R. Bromund Ted R. Bromund, PhD, is Senior Research Fellow in Anglo-American Relations in the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, at The Heritage Foundation.

Ten Dumbest Things I Heard About Guns At The United Nations USA -

Chain Migration Nets More Than 9 Million New Immigrants in 10 Years - by Brian Thomas According to newly released data from the Department of Homeland Security, every seven out of ten new immigrant arrivals come to the U.S. purely due to having a family member who immigrated here. Chain migration allows for family members of immigrants who legally entered the country for reasons such as employment to settle in the U.S. simply for family reunification. President Trump has repeatedly stood against chain migration, on the basis that it offers a legal point of entry based solely on sponsorship of families without consideration for employment intent. CHAIN MIGRATION cannot be allowed to be part of any legislation on Immigration! -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 15, 2017 Legal immigrants are permitted entry into the U.S. based on what the foreign national can offer in our national interest. Chain migration, however, allows "sponsorship" of many family members, including adult sons and daughters, and their children. Unbelievably, 70% of immigrants aren't admitted into the U.S. based on legitimate reasons for entry such as employment, but because they're related to somebody who immigrated here. More than nine million relatives of immigrants came to the country based on family ties alone in the past ten years, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Breitbart reports: Previously unreleased DHS information on the number of foreign relatives who enter the U.S. simply because their family member is an immigrant sheds light on the massive scale of this process that is known as "chain migration." According to the data, about 9.3 million foreign nationals have come to the U.S. as chain migrants between 2005 and 2016. In that same time period, a total of 13.06 million foreign nationals have entered the U.S. through the legal immigration system, as every seven out of ten new arrivals come to the country for nothing other than family reunification. This makes chain migration the largest driver of immigration to the U.S. -- making up more than 70 percent -- with every two new immigrants bringing seven foreign relatives with them. The implications here are astounding. Working immigrants who've become US citizens can, without consideration of employability, sponsor their nieces and nephews, their adult children and grandchildren, and their adult brothers and sisters. Even with just a green card, adult children can be given entry just so long as they aren't married. All this, without consideration of employment. In fact, chain migration has become such a problem that only one out of 15 immigrants admitted entry to the US came based on employment purposes. Breitbart continues: Currently, only one in 15 foreign nationals admitted to the U.S. come to the country based on skills and employment purposes. Though roughly 150,000 employment-based Green Cards are allotted every year, half of those Green Cards actually go to the foreign relatives of employees. The DHS data is the first time the agency has ever released chain migration statistics broken down into the country of origin from which foreign nationals arrive to the U.S. In the last decade, 1.7 million chain migrants have entered the country from Mexico, with the average Mexican immigrant bringing roughly six foreign relatives with them to the U.S. Mexico sends more chain migrants to the U.S. than any other country. Over the past ten years, these countries have sent the following number of chain migrants to the U.S.: 600,000 from India 600,000 from the Phillippines 500,000 from China 177,000 from Pakistan 80,252 from Iran [...] President Trump has repeatedly called for the GOP-led Congress to end chain migration, calling it a "disaster" for the country. Trump has also long backed Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Sen. David Perdue's (R-GA) RAISE Act, which would end chain migration and cut legal immigration in half in order to raise wages for American workers. Somehow, simply being related to a person with skills and employment purposes exempts an adult foreign national from having to demonstrate those to enter the country. Numbers USA explains how it works: It is the primary mechanism that has caused legal immigration in the U.S. to quadruple from about 250,000 per year in the 1950s and 1960s to more than 1 million annually since 1990 . As such, it is one of the chief culprits in America's current record-breaking population boom and all the attendant sprawl, congestion, and school overcrowding that damage Americans' quality of life. Chain Migration starts with a foreign citizen chosen by our government to be admitted on the basis of what he/she is supposed to offer in our national interest. The Original Immigrant is allowed to bring in his/her nuclear family consisting of a spouse and minor children. After that, the chain begins. Once the Original Immigrant and his/her spouse becomes a U.S. citizen, they can petition for their parents, adult sons/daughters and their spouses and children, and their adult siblings. 1 st Preference: Unmarried sons/daughters of U.S. citizens and their children (capped at 23,400/year) 2 nd Preference: Spouses, children, and unmarried sons/daughters of green card holders (capped at 114,000/year) 3 rd Preference: Married sons/daughters of U.S. citizens and their spouses and children (capped at 23,400/year) 4 th Preference: Brothers/sisters of U.S. citizens (at least 21 years of age) and their spouses and children (capped at (65,000/year) If you think this is getting crazy, just remember that many Democrats want to make things even worse by providing amnesty for illegal immigrants, without restricting chain migration.

Chain migration allows for family members of immigrants who legally entered the country for reasons such as employment to settle in the U.S. simply for family reunification. President Trump has repeatedly stood against chain migration, on the basis that it offers a legal point of entry based solely on sponsorship of families without consideration for employment intent.

PARIS (AP) -- French President Emmanuel Macron is bringing an environmentally friendly gift to the White House when he visits President Donald Trump this week: a tree sapling. The young oak also has historical significance -- it sprouted at a World War I battle site that became part of U.S. Marine Corps legend. Macron's office said Sunday he hopes it will be planted in the White House gardens. The oak sapling grew up near what's known by the Marines as the Devil Dog fountain, in Belleau Wood. About 2,000 American troops died in the June 1918 Battle of Belleau Wood fighting the German spring offensive. Macron arrives Monday in Washington for the Trump presidency's first state visit. The two men have an unlikely friendship, despite strong differences on areas such as climate change.

PARIS (AP) -- French President Emmanuel Macron is bringing an environmentally friendly gift to the White House when he visits President Donald Trump this week: a tree sapling. The young oak also has historical significance -- it sprouted at a World War I battle site that became part of U.S. Marine Corps legend.

A Planned Parenthood facility in Louisville, Kentucky, is illegally performing abortions without a license, according to Gov. Matt Bevin (R-Ky.). Today we learned that Planned Parenthood of Louisville is providing abortions without a license. -- Governor Matt Bevin (@GovMattBevin) January 29, 2016 According to KRS 216B.990, it is against Kentucky law for any unlicensed abortion facility to perform these horrific procedures. -- Governor Matt Bevin (@GovMattBevin) January 29, 2016 We will use the full force of the law to end this and hold them accountable. -- Governor Matt Bevin (@GovMattBevin) January 29, 2016 "I've always been a very strongly unapologetic pro-life individual," Bevin told reporters Thursday evening, according to WDRB-TV . "To that end, that has not changed. What I tell you is interesting, and this is just breaking news even today, is that Planned Parenthood is illegally performing abortions in Kentucky." "It's that brazen disregard for the law that is going to be hammered down," Bevin continued. "There is no tolerance whatsoever for people in the Commonwealth of Kentucky disregarding the law. They are unlicensed. They are doing it knowingly, and they are going to brought to justice on this front." Kentucky Republican Gov. Matt Bevin (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley) Maureen Manier, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, the affiliate that operates the facility, told WDRB that the organization has "applied for an abortion facility license": Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky applied for an abortion facility license and commenced services under the guidance of the Office of the Inspector General, the state office that is responsible for licensing health facilities. According to WDRB, Planned Parenthood announced Thursday that their new facility in Louisville has opened, but "it actually opened on Dec. 11, 2015." The Louisville Planned Parenthood facility recently changed locations. Not every Planned Parenthood facility is equipped to perform surgical or medical abortions, but since Jan. 21, 2016, both types have been performed at the new facility. Follow Kate Scanlon ( @kgscanlon ) on Twitter

A Planned Parenthood facility in Louisville, Kentucky, is illegally performing abortions without a license, according to Gov. Matt Bevin (R-Ky.). Today we learned that Planned Parenthood of Louisville is providing abortions without a license.

U.S. War Crimes in Yemen October 15, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us On Saturday, October 8, hundreds of people gathered in Yemen's capital Sana'a to mourn the death of the father of an official in the government backed by the Houthi movement and elements of the former regime. These are forces which have been under assault by Saudi Arabia and its allies, including the U.S., for the last 18 months. Aftermath of the Saudi bombing of the funeral hall, Sana'a, October 8. (AP photo) Suddenly, Saudi warplanes struck--bombing the funeral reception hall multiple times. Over 140 mourners were massacred. Another 600 were wounded, including leading Houthi figures and other officials. "There were over 800 people in the hall, including the elderly and children," one survivor told journalists. "Suddenly we heard the sound of airplanes, and then the bombing took place. The first bomb ripped through the ceiling and exploded, with the basement destroyed as well. I was injured and was at a loss. The heat made me feel I was burning. I got up and ran toward the door, where people came in to rescue us. Just then, the second bomb came and hit those people coming to rescue us." (Salim Saleh Rowaishan, quoted by Democracy Now! , October 10) "When I got there, there were more than 50 burned bodies," one witness cited by Human Rights Watch stated, "many where you can still tell the features, but half of their body was gone, half of their head was gone, but the others, it was very, very hard to tell who they were." This wasn't a military base or an airfield. These weren't troops engaged in combat. This was a funeral. Bombing it was a war crime! The Saudis initially claimed they knew nothing of the attack, but soon said they'd conduct an investigation into "reports about the regrettable and painful bombing." "Regrettable"? "Painful"? The funeral massacre in Sana'a wasn't an exception; it was a damning concentration of how the Saudis have waged the reactionary, U.S.-backed war they launched in March 2015. Reactionary War in Yemen Yemen is in the hellish grip of a reactionary civil war, fueled by reactionary regional and global powers. Map: revcom.us Yemen is an impoverished, relatively small country, which is largely rural. It is a society still characterized to a large degree by feudal relations. Yet its history and location make Yemen strategically important to both U.S. imperialism, and to the Islamic fundamentalist Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Yemen is at the mouth of the Red Sea, which leads to the Suez Canal, through which enormous amounts of oil and global trade flow; it sits along Saudi Arabia's southern border and is close to northeast Africa. For 33 years, until 2011, Yemen was ruled by the pro-U.S., pro-Saudi despot Ali Abdullah Saleh. In 2011, hatred of Saleh's regime erupted in massive nationwide protests, when the "Arab Spring" upheavals rocked the region. The U.S. decided Saleh had become a liability and forced him out. But the Yemeni state, in particular the military, remained in place. Major General Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who was backed by the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf states, was installed as the head of state in early 2012. Hadi was no different or better than Saleh, and Yemen's upheaval continued. In August 2014 a combination of Houthi fighters and elements of Yemen's military still loyal to Saleh seized control of Sana'a, the country's capital city. Most Houthis (named after the leader of their 2004 uprising against the Saleh regime) live in the north and are members of the Zaidi branch of Shia Islam. Zaidis make up about a third of Yemen's population. Zaidi religious authorities--imams--ruled North Yemen for centuries until the early 1960s. The Houthis are fighting under the reactionary Islamist banner of Ansar Allah (Partisans of God) and have been accused of massacres and indiscriminate killings themselves. They're politically supported by and have some ties to the reactionary Islamic Republic of Iran. In February 2015, the Houthi-Saleh forces took over the central government, and President Hadi was driven into exile in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia felt this turn of events was a serious threat to its interests, including its contention with Iran. With U.S. backing, the Saudis pulled together a military alliance with other regional states and, on March 26, 2015, this alliance launched a savage bombing campaign against the Houthi-Saleh forces with the goal of restoring their puppet Hadi to power. The Saudi War of Terror The Saudis have been waging a war of terror through the air, and a war of starvation by naval and air blockade. Throughout this barbaric campaign, they've repeatedly hit civilian targets--hospitals, potato chip factories, neighborhoods, and schools. The UN reports that 4,125 civilians have been killed and 7,207 wounded since the Saudi air campaign began, mostly by the Saudis, dropping mostly U.S.-made bombs. One Yemeni parent wrote of his children saying, "we sleep afraid, we wake up afraid." ( New York Times , October 11). And now they try and wash away all this blood and these monstrous crimes with words like "painful" and "regret." The U.S.--Neck Deep in Yemeni Blood After the October 8 funeral massacre, the U.S. government acted like an innocent bystander, upset with the behavior of one of its friends. A White House spokesperson said the U.S. was "deeply disturbed" by the bombing, and the Saudi's "troubling" attacks on Yemeni civilians. He pledged the Obama administration would review U.S. support for Saudi's war and was "prepared to adjust our support so as to better align with U.S. principles, values and interests." He insisted the U.S. wasn't giving the Saudis a "blank check." In reality, the U.S. has been neck-deep in this war from the start, and neck-deep in Yemeni blood. Whatever its differences with the Saudi regime--and there are real differences and sharp tensions--it remains a key cog in the U.S. global empire. The rulers of the U.S. are compelled to back Saudi Arabia. And back Saudi Arabia they have. The interests, objectives, and grand designs of the imperialists are not our interests--they are not the interests of the great majority of people in the U.S. nor of the overwhelming majority of people in the world as a whole. And the difficulties the imperialists have gotten themselves into in pursuit of these interests must be seen, and responded to, not from the point of view of the imperialists and their interests, but from the point of view of the great majority of humanity and the basic and urgent need of humanity for a different and better world, for another way. Bob Avakian, BAsics 3:8 The U.S. has sold Saudi Arabia $110 billion in arms under the "antiwar" President Barack Obama. It's been arming and supporting Saudi Arabia's vicious, criminal bombing war against the Houthis for the last 18 months. The Saudis are flying U.S.-built planes, dropping U.S.-built bombs, getting refueled by U.S. air tankers (over 5,700 times at last count) and getting U.S. technical and intelligence support, including from a team of military personnel sent by the Pentagon to Saudi Arabia to help plan its air war. This is why fragments from a U.S.-made bomb were found at the scene of the October 8 Sana'a funeral massacre! The U.S. has kept up this support, including recently selling the Saudis an additional $1.15 billion in additional arms, even after repeated, well publicized Saudi massacres of civilians. And they did this after the Obama administration was warned by government lawyers it could be considered a co-belligerent in the war under international law and implicated in war crimes. These are the "principles, values, and interests" the U.S. pursues out all over the world. U.S. Cruise Missiles: Not Enforcing "Freedom of Navigation," but Enforcing a Blockade Starving Millions The U.S. rulers have been acting in the shadows during Saudi Arabia's savage war. Until now. Early on Thursday, October 13, five days after the funeral massacre, a U.S. destroyer, operating off Yemen's coast, fired three cruise missiles. They destroyed what the U.S. says were Houthi-controlled radar stations. The U.S. Navy claimed this was "self-defense" in retaliation for the firing of several missiles at another U.S. warship sailing off Yemen in the days before. The ship was not hit, the Houthis deny they fired any missiles at U.S. ships, and the U.S. produced no evidence that they had. Afterward Pentagon officials acted as if this attack, which was approved by President Obama, had nothing to do with the 18-month war between Saudi Arabia and Houthi-led factions in Yemen. They insisted that the U.S. was not seeking "a wider role in the conflict," and that the missile attack on Yemen was simply a matter of protecting the "our personnel, our ships, and our freedom of navigation in this important maritime passageway," as if the ships were on routine patrols. But these weren't routine patrols. The week before the attacks, the U.S. had dispatched these warships to Yemen's coast because someone--reportedly Houthi forces--hit and nearly sank a ship from the United Arab Emirates. What was a ship from the UAE doing in the area? It was part of an air and sea blockade the Saudi-led coalition has imposed on Yemen since the beginning of the war. Yemen is a country that imports 70 percent of its fuel, 90 percent of its food, and 100 percent of its medicines! The Saudi-led coalition, including Egypt and other Gulf states, has been strangling and starving this already impoverished, vulnerable population with a blockade that, according to the UN, has cut off 85 percent of the country's imports--including medicine, water, fuel, and, yes, food. The Saudis have even bombed major airfields and bridges to prevent supplies from entering Yemen, especially Houthi-controlled areas. Some 80% of the people in Yemen are in desperate need of basic necessities due to long-term extreme poverty drastically worsened by Saudi Arabian attacks and fighting among other reactionary forces. The girl above is one of nine million children across Yemen struggling to get access to safe water. (Photo: @UNICEF/Twitter) This blockade has had horrendous consequences for Yemen's people: half the population--some 14 million people--are now suffering hunger or malnutrition. Of Yemen's roughly 28 million people, 80 percent--more than 22 million Yemenis--are in desperate need of humanitarian aid. There are dire warnings that Yemen is on the brink of famine and collapse. Starving and punishing a whole population is a towering war crime! The "innocent bystander" America has backed this from the start. The U.S. Navy, which claims to merely be upholding "freedom of navigation," hasn't been insisting that food and medical aid, arriving by ship, should be able to penetrate the Saudi naval blockade and deliver needed aid! Just the opposite. In fact, early in the war, the U.S. stopped an Iranian ship from sailing to Yemen, claiming it carried arms. In other words, the U.S. hasn't been protecting everyone's "freedom of navigation"--it's been supporting and enforcing the Saudi-led blockade of Yemen. Now the U.S. is deploying warships to Yemen's coast to protect the ships carrying out this criminal blockade. And the U.S. attacked Houthi installations. This constitutes direct military support for--and for the first time, direct military involvement--in the criminal Saudi blockade and its war. (And these U.S. cruise missiles also sent a broader message: no one threatens America's naval enforcers with impunity.) What the Fuck Is the U.S. Navy Doing in the Red Sea Anyway? Imperialism--Not "Self Defense" The U.S. is directly enabling Saudi Arabia's air massacres and mass starvation of Yemen's people--and now directly firing cruise missiles in support of the Saudi war effort for their reactionary interests. Why? Watch the Launch of this Pathbreaking New Book from Bob Avakian Featuring: Cornel West/Carl Dix, Moderated by: Andy Zee ABOUT THE BOOK, WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING AND MORE HERE Get Into BA HERE The reactionary rulers of Saudi Arabia are desperately fighting to maintain their extremely oppressive, Islamic fundamentalist, absolute monarchy. They have been shaken by shifts in the world economy and the global petroleum market, as well as by the 2011 "Arab Spring" upheavals. They are locked in a range of conflicts with the reactionary Islamic Republic of Iran and the growth of Iranian influence in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine. They're concerned that rapidly shifting sands of regional alliances will leave their regime in a more precarious situation. Everywhere they've sought to fund, arm, and restore tyrants they can deal with. With U.S. backing, they organized an Arab League initiative--supported by Egypt, Jordan, and the Gulf States--to form a 40,000-man military response force to combat Iranian influence in the region. The Saudis are increasingly nervous about the erosion of U.S. power in the region in the wake of the failure of the U.S. rulers to restructure and strengthen the U.S.-dominated regional order, including in Afghanistan and Iraq. The U.S.-Iran nuclear deal, which was bitterly opposed by the Saudis, as well as the prospect of a Russian-Assad victory in the Syrian war, as well as the ongoing fragmentation of Iraq, have heightened Saudi fears and intensified its fierce regional rivalry with the Islamic Republic of Iran. And Saudi Arabia has long considered Yemen, which is on its southern border, important to its stability and security. For all these reasons, the Saudis have been determined to crush the Houthi-Saleh uprising. This uprising could give Iran further influence in the region (even as it does not appear Iran is providing the Houthis with much, if any, military support). These tensions and concerns were reflected in the 2015 "shake-up" within the Saudi monarchy and royal family, which reportedly has put proponents of more aggressive Saudi action in charge. ( New York Times, April 30, 2015) For their part, the U.S. imperialists are desperately maneuvering and fighting to maintain their overall regional and global dominance over a world of exploitation and oppression (and there are very sharp arguments in their own ranks over how to do that, including over exactly how to deal with Saudi Arabia). Saudi Arabia--the world's leading oil exporter with the largest petroleum reserves on the planet and enormous cash reserves--has been a crucial pillar of the U.S. empire since the 1940s. So the U.S. is determined to maintain its stability, including by reassuring the Saudis that in the wake of its nuclear deal with Iran, and ongoing conflicts and tensions over other issues, the U.S. will continue to stand by the Saudi kingdom. This also means making clear to Iran that the U.S. is determined to remain the region's dominant power--including by combating Iranian moves that could erode that. One of those interests is global--maintaining the U.S. status of military guarantor (dominator) of trade and navigation, in this case through the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, and the Suez Canal, which are major arteries of world trade. For instance, some 30 percent of world maritime oil shipments flow through the Persian Gulf and more than eight percent through the Suez Canal. In addition, Russia's growing military involvement and assertiveness in the region--particularly in Syria--looms very large for the U.S., and heightens the importance of its alliance with Saudi Arabia. (For background see: " Obama & U.S. Imperialism: Pushing Yemen Deeper into Hell ," Revolution /revcom.us, May 4, 2015.) The rulers of the U.S. are behind horrific and ongoing crimes against humanity in Yemen. They are backing and enabling the Saudi massacre in Yemen, and now directly, militarily, enforcing a barbaric blockade aimed at starving the civilian population. STOP WARS OF EMPIRE, ARMIES OF OCCUPATION, AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY! If you like this article, subscribe, donate to and sustain Revolution newspaper.

U.S. War Crimes in Yemen October 15, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us On Saturday, October 8, hundreds of people gathered in Yemen's capital Sana'a to mourn the death of the father of an official in the government backed by the Houthi movement and elements of the former regime.

As one of the leaders in a global anti-Islam network, Geert Wilders represents a danger to Australian social cohesion due to his intolerant and undemocratic views regarding Muslims and Islam. His beliefs include that Muslims should be paid to leave their countries of birth if they are born in Western countries, that Muslims should be banned from emigrating to Western countries and that women who exercise their democratic right to wear a headscarf should be taxed. In a hypocritical attack on free speech he has advocated prohibition of the Koran by a comparison with Hitler's Mein Kampf. Geert Wilders' xenophobia is not limited to Muslims, the website of his party, The PVV, includes news clippings with bold headlines blaming foreigners for petty crime, noise nuisance - and taking jobs from the Dutch. "Are immigrants from Central and Eastern countries bothering you? We'd like to hear from you," it says. A Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, publicly condemned Wilders's remarks and behaviour, she claimed that "he incites discord among people in a distasteful manner.... he damages the interests of the Dutch population and the reputation of the Netherlands in the world." Hate speech by Geert Wilders is a very real threat to society. He preys on the vulnerable, naive and uneducated who don't question the nonsensical statistics and inaccurate claims he feeds them. Geert Wilders and his acolytes at the Q-Society pose a severe threat to Australian society with their intolerance and bigotry. Allowing him to preach hatred against Muslims will increase the sense of alienation that is driving a small number of young Muslims towards extremism. Because of this, Geert Wilders should be denied a Visa on the grounds of not meeting character requirements. On the Department of Immigrations website it clearly states that those "who want to enter or stay in Australia must satisfy the character requirement as set out in Section 501 of the Migration Act 1958 (the Act). This includes all non-citizens, sponsors of visa applicants and non-migrating family members seeking to enter or stay in Australia." ( http://www.immi.gov.au/About/Pages/media/fact-sheets/fact-sheet-79.aspx ) It is evident that Wilders does not meet the following requirements as him visiting Australia and speaking at the Liberty Alliance launch would: incite discord in the Australian community or in a part of it be a danger to the Australian community or a part of it. He is also otherwise not of good character. Signing this petition will help stop the spread of intolerance towards Muslims and other minorities. FREEDOM OF SPEECH ISSUES Can the right to freedom of opinion and expression be limited? In addition, under article 19(3) freedom of expression may be limited as provided for by law and when necessary to protect the rights or reputations of others, national security, public order, or public health or morals. Limitations must be prescribed by legislation necessary to achieve the desired purpose and proportionate to the need on which the limitation is predicated. - ( http://www.ag.gov.au/RightsAndProtections/HumanRights/PublicSectorGuidanceSheets/Pages/Righttofreedomofopinionandexpression.aspx ) This is not a freedom of speech issue. No one is stopping him from preaching hatred and intolerance. However, we are not obligated to provide him a platform here when his views are so profoundly unAustralian.

As one of the leaders in a global anti-Islam network, Geert Wilders represents a danger to Australian social cohesion due to his intolerant and undemocratic views regarding Muslims and Islam.

Gaspar Noe is responsible for some of the most uncomfortable cinematic images in recent years. (Spoiler alert on Noe's oeuvre ahead.) Watch Irreversible and its graphic rape scene will linger in your mind for months. I Stand Alone features a girl shot dead in the face by her father. The nausea-inducing Enter the Void might leave you dreaming of fetuses -- and of a young man going fetal in a public restroom. In contrast, Noe's new film Love -- presented in 3D -- centers around Murphy (Karl Glusman), an American film student in Paris who wants to make movies about "blood, semen and tears" -- the elements of life that matter, by his reckoning. We learn of Murphy's regret and obsession with his lost love -- the mistakes he has made in his relationship with former girlfriend Electra (Aomi Muyock), how his decisions have taken him away from the love of his life, and his current existence wallowing with another woman, Omi (Klara Kristin), who is the mother of his child, Gaspar. Noe also makes an appearance in the film in the role of Electra's ex-boyfriend, a smug gallery owner. Oh, he didn't? First up, let's look at the Vanguard section. When I didn't get to go to Cannes this year, there was one title that made that unbearable. I think Gaspar Noe is a beautiful terrorist, a filmmaker who takes a nearly-giddy delight in grabbing his audience by the face and shaking them. His 3D film "Love," full of graphic sex, got mixed reviews from the festival, but I remain manic about getting a chance to see it. And now, thankfully, I will. I am equally excited about seeing new films from Alex de la Iglesia and Anders Thomas Jensen, whose last film as a director was in 2005. As usual, Colin Geddes has put together an eclectic and dangerous list of ten titles for the Midnight Madness program, and I remain deeply impressed by the way he balances returning Midnight Madness alumni and brand new voices that need the platform, and by just how broad his definition of a midnight title is. I have heard just enough about Jeremy Saulnier's "Green Room" to make me crazy. I thought "Blue Ruin" was a truly beautiful small-scale hand grenade of a revenge movie, and whatever he's done with his new film, I'm excited to check it out. Sean Byrne's "The Loved Ones" is a delightfully horrifying film that never quite captured the audience it deserved, and I'm thrilled that he's bringing "The Devil's Candy" to the festival. Joe Begos rocked the fest a few years back with "Almost Human," and he'll return with his lead actor Graham Skipper and his own personal Chewbacca Josh Ethier to premiere "The Mind's Eye," which sounds like Begos is as big a an of "Scanners" as I am. Congratulations to all the filmmakers who were included in today's announcements for these sections, and here's hoping I find a way to clone myself so I can see everything I'm curious about. Here's the full list of Vanguard titles, and then afterwards, the full list of Midnight Madness titles. VANGUARD 2015 "Collective Invention" (South Korea) dir. Kwon Oh-kwang Young and unemployed Gu is desperate to make some money and participates in a clinical trial for a pharmaceutical company"s new drug. As an unknown side effect, he slowly transforms into a fish. This bizarre situation becomes Korea"s hottest news and fish man Gu is catapulted into the spotlight and becomes a superstar, only to fall from grace just as quickly. "Demon" (Poland/Israel) dir. Marcin Woran Peter is a stranger in the hometown of his future wife Janet. As a wedding gift from the bride's grandfather, he receives a piece of land where the two can build a house and raise a happy family. While preparing the land for construction, Peter finds hidden bones of human bodies in the ground beneath his new property. Then very strange things begin to happen. "Der Nachtmahr" (Germany) dir. AKIZ When 17-year-old Tina passes out at a party, she assumes it was just the side-effect of her wild lifestyle on the decadent Berlin-party scene. Soon she becomes unsettled and nervously manic as a mysterious ugly creature starts to haunt her, in both her dreams and waking hours, and nobody believes her. "Evolution" (France) dir. Lucille Hadzihalilovi? A 10-year-old boy discovers a dead body in the sea just before he is brought to the hospital for a mysterious injection. Before long, something appears to be growing inside of him. "February" (USA/Canada) dir. Osgood Perkins In "February," beautiful and haunted Joan makes a bloody and determined pilgrimage across a frozen landscape toward a prestigious all girls prep school, where Rose and Kat find themselves stranded after their parents mysteriously fail to retrieve them for winter break. As Joan gets closer, terrifying visions begin plaguing Kat while Rose watches in horror as she becomes possessed by an unseen evil force. "Lace Crater" (USA) dir. Harrison Atkins On a weekend trip to the Hamptons with friends, Ruth (Lindsay Burdge) encounters a mysterious ghost (Peter Vack) haunting the guest house. One thing leads to another and they find themselves in the throes of an unexpected one-night stand. Soon, Ruth begins suffering from a bizarre sexually-transmitted disease that leaves doctors and friends confused and frightened. As her body and social connections begin to disintegrate, she must find a way to reconcile her condition with the world around her, or risk losing herself to a void from which she may never emerge. "Love" (France) dir. Gaspard Noe January 1, early morning. The telephone rings. Murphy wakes up next to his young wife and two-year-old child. He listens to his voicemail: Electra"s mother, sick with worry, wants to know whether he has heard from her daughter. Electra"s been missing for a long time. She's afraid something really bad has happened to her. Over the course of a long rainy day, Murphy finds himself alone in his apartment, reminiscing about the greatest love affair of his life: his two years with Electra. A burning passion full of promises, games, excess and mistakes. "Men & Chicken" (Denmark) dir. Anders Thomas Jensen "Men & Chicken" revolves around two special-natured brothers, Elias and Gabriel (Mads Mikkelsen and David Dencik). Upon their father"s passing, they find out through their father"s will that they are adopted. Elias and Gabriel decide to seek out their natural father and set out for the island Ork, where their biological father lives. Here they discover a most paralyzing, yet liberating truth about themselves and their family. "My Big Night" (Spain) dir. Alex de la Iglesia The story unfolds amidst a frenzied and lavish New Year's Eve television special, taped during a sweltering hot August in Madrid. An unemployed Jose is sent to join hundreds of extras cooped up on set, day and night, as they hysterically celebrate the fake coming of the New Year - over and over again. The star of the show, Alphonso, is a charismatic ratings-chasing diva; and Adan, a young Latino singer, is being hounded by fans that are trying to blackmail him. "The Missing Girl" (USA) dir. A.D. Calvo "The Missing Girl" tells the story of Mort, the lonely and disillusioned owner of a comic book shop, and Ellen, the emotionally disruptive, aspiring graphic novelist he's hired. The story involves the search for a girl who isn"t missing and the discovery that it's never too late for late bloomers. "Veteran" (South Korea) dir. Rio Seung-wan A tough cop targets the tyrannical heir to a mega-corporation in this hard-hitting thriller from South Korean cult auteur Ryoo Seung-wan (Crying Fist, City of Violence). Previously announced Canadian titles in the Vanguard programme include Andre Turpin"s "Endorphine," Bruce McDonald"s "Hellions," and Mark Sawers" "No Men Beyond This Point." MIDNIGHT MADNESS 2015 "Baskin" (Turkey) dir. Can Evrenol A squad of unsuspecting cops goes through a trapdoor to Hell when they stumble upon a Black Mass in an abandoned building. The nightmarish feature debut "Baskin" is the first-ever Midnight Madness film from Turkey. "The Devil's Candy" (USA) dir. Sean Byrne The director of the 2009 Midnight Madness People"s Choice Award winner "The Loved Ones" is back with an equally fresh twist on the supernatural genre. A struggling artist (Ethan Embry) and his family buy the house of their dreams only to discover the property's mysterious dark past and a former tenant who wants more than to simply come back home. From the producers of Midnight Madness hits "You"re Next" and "The Guest." "The Final Girls" (USA) dir. Todd Strauss-Schulson Max ("American Horror Story""s Taissa Farmiga) is a high school senior whose mom (Malin Akerman) was a celebrated "80s scream queen. At a screening, Max and her friends are mysteriously transported inside her mom"s most infamous movie, where they must fend off the camp counselors" raging hormones, battle a deranged machete-wielding killer and find a way to escape the movie and get back home. "The Girl In The Photographs" (USA) dir. Nick Simon Big-city glamour clashes with small-town values and a killer"s knife, in this bloody cocktail of terror from director Nick Simon and executive producer Wes Craven. Colleen"s life in the sleepy town of Spearfish is disrupted when she starts receiving photographs of brutally murdered women. Things get even crazier for Colleen when L.A. based celeb-photographer Peter Hemmings (Kal Penn) returns to his hometown of Spearfish to investigate. "Green Room" (USA) dir. Jeremy Saunier Broke, tired and at each other"s throats after a cancelled gig, a young punk rock band accepts a sketchy matinee show to get themselves home. When they stumble upon something they weren"t supposed to witness, the quartet is trapped in a terrifying siege. Directed by Jeremy Saulnier (of 2013 Cannes Film Festival FIPRESCI Prize winner "Blue Ruin"), the film stars Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat, and Patrick Stewart. "Green Room" is preceded by the previously announced short film "The Chickening" from directors Nick DenBoer and Davy Force. "Hardcore" (Russia/USA) dir. Ilya Naishuller Resurrected with no recollection of his past, a cyborg named Henry (the audience"s POV) and his ally, Jimmy (Sharlto Copley, "District 9") must fight through the streets of Moscow in pursuit of Henry"s kidnapped wife in the world"s first action-adventure film to be entirely shot from the first person perspective. "The Mind's Eye" (USA) dir. Joe Begoss Joe Begos returns with a psychokinetic thriller about Zack Connors (Graham Skipper), whose abilities have kept him off the grid for years until he"s recruited by the mysterious Dr. Slovak. The snowy New England landscape turns into a whirlwind of psychic rage, flying axes, and brutal revenge as Zack does everything in his power to stop Dr. Slovak's deadly descent into synthetically engineered telekinetic madness. "Southbound" (USA) dir. Roxanne Benjamin, David Bruckner, Patrick Horvath and Radio Silence Five intertwining tales of terror unfold along an endless desert highway. On a desolate stretch of road, weary travellers - two men on the run from their past, a band on their way to the next gig, a man struggling to get home, a brother in search of his long-lost sister and a family on vacation - are forced to confront their worst fears and darkest secrets in these interwoven tales of terror and remorse on the open road. "SPL 2 - A Time For Consequences" (Hong Kong) dir. Soi Cheang The anticipated follow-up to the bone-cracking martial arts brawler "SPL" (also known as "Sha Po Lung" and "Kill Zone") that debuted in the programme in 2005 stars Midnight Madness discovery Tony Jaa ("Ong Bak"). When an undercover cop (Wu Jing) has his cover blown and is thrown into a prison in Thailand run by a crime syndicate, he must team up with a prison guard (Jaa) to bust out and get revenge on those who wronged him. Filled with gun battles, prison riots and frenetic fight choreography, "SPL 2" might knock the wind out of you - and possibly a few teeth. "Yakuza Apocalypse" (Japan) dir. Takashi Milke Japanese cinematic extremist Takashi Miike returns to his gonzo roots with this mind-melter that finds room for vampires, gangsters, monsters, martial arts and even a yakuza knitting circle. A true master and MVP of the programme, Miike wowed previous Midnight Madness audiences with such hits as "Fudoh: The New Generation," "Audition," "The City of Lost Souls," "Ichi the Killer", "Zebraman," "The Great Yokai War," and "Sukiyaki Western Django." He returns with a film too wild to be described and too fun to be missed! The 40th Toronto International Film Festival runs September 10 to 20, 2015. ]]> https://uproxx.com/hitfix/toronto-unleashes-3d-porn-and-turkish-nightmares-with-vanguard-and-midnights/feed/ 0 toronto-unleashes-3d-porn-and-turkish-nightmares-with-vanguard-and-midnights uproxx An early look at the Best and Worst of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival https://uproxx.com/hitfix/an-early-look-at-the-best-and-worst-of-the-2015-cannes-film-festival/ https://uproxx.com/hitfix/an-early-look-at-the-best-and-worst-of-the-2015-cannes-film-festival/#respond Fri, 22 May 2015 11:36:00 +0000 http://hitfix.com/?p=300031950

Gaspar Noe is responsible for some of the most uncomfortable cinematic images in recent years.

Kellyanne Conway just became the most influential woman in Washington and no one is talking about it. And it's probably because she is a Republican. No, it's most certainly because she is a Republican. Conway was the first woman in history to successfully manage and win a presidential campaign in America. She was promoted from Trump's senior advisor and pollster to campaign manager, and successfully did what no one believed was possible. And when it became clear that Hillary Clinton's defeat was imminent, the overwhelming media response was that America had missed its opportunity to elect its first female president. And with that, Democrats didn't shatter the glass ceiling. But the one woman who did make history that night has less name recognition than a third-string quarterback at a high school you didn't even attend. Conway is a lawyer, a successful business owner, a mother of four. A woman who rose to the top and ran a political campaign in a party that the left has labelled as misogynistic be a household name and an idol to young women striving for gender equality but she is not. Not even close. That is because feminism has become a brand of the left wing and Kellyanne Conway is not part of that brand. If you don't subscribe to a certain set of ideas you're not allowed to participate in the fight for gender equality or equal pay. You are not allowed to participate in condemning sexual violence against women. You are no allowed to call yourself a feminist. And tearing down women who believe something other than what you believe is somehow OK. It is never okay. Many women voted for Trump and for conservatives in every election in recent history. It's not because they hate women. It's not because they support rape culture. It's because they agree with conservatives on jobs, on taxes and on the very fact that their country was not the place in which they wanted to raise their young sons and daughters. None of these affect their views on women's rights, on equal pay or on gender equality. Conservatives who are also feminists have been silenced by the left. They have been excluded. And for that the movement has suffered. Kellyanne Conway has exposed the hypocrisy of a crusade more concerned with political ideology than with supporting strong women in positions of influence. And if that wasn't true, everyone would know who she is and what she has accomplished. There should be nothing partisan about feminism; it's about women having equal power and influence. The Kellyanne Conways of the world should always be lifted up, and not torn down by a movement who needs more voices, not fewer. -Melissa Lantsman was a senior political advisor to the previous Conservative government. She currently lives, works and casually observes politics in Toronto

Kellyanne Conway just became the most influential woman in Washington and no one is talking about it.

Nashua could increase housing assistance for residents on welfare By KIMBERLY HOUGHTON Union Leader Correspondent May 08. 2018 9:32PM NASHUA -- An aldermanic panel is recommending that the city increase its housing subsidies for welfare recipients because of high housing costs. If approved by the full Board of Aldermen, the financial assistance will increase an average of 2.5 percent, according to the proposal that would be implemented on July 1. Welfare Officer Robert Mack approached the Personnel and Administrative Affairs Committee on Monday asking that the housing subsidies be updated to keep pace with current market values in the city. "Some of the rental amounts have increased; some of them have actually not," said Mack. "The one- and two-bedroom units have gone up." But the rental costs for larger units with more bedrooms have remained relatively steady, he said. He suggested increasing the financial assistance by an average of 2.5 percent. Currently, the rental costs in the city average about $1,500 a month for a three-bedroom unit, which includes all utilities, and about $1,310 in rent per month for a two-bedroom apartment. A one-bedroom unit currently costs about $1,053 a month. Under the new proposal, Mack is recommending that the subsidy be increased for three-bedroom apartments renting at $1,522, two-bedroom units renting at $1,559 and one-bedroom apartments at $1,195. Shelter allowances for welfare are determined using current Housing and Urban Development and New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority fair market rents. Currently, shared household allowance with landlord consent is $67.60 per week until alternative shelter is acquired. The new guidelines are proposing $70 per week. In addition, food allowances are also being adjusted. They will range from $192 a month to $1,153 a month depending on the number of household members, and are based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Health and Human Services food allotment standards, according to Mack. Maintenance allowances, which are based on cost-of-living increases, are also being amended slightly under the proposal. Alderman Tom Lopez, Ward 4, said market values seem to be going through the roof. Still, he asked what would happen if the housing stock increases, market values decline and landlords need to lower rent prices in order to be competitive. "We can adjust them in either direction according to the market," Mack told city officials, explaining the financial standards may be reviewed once every year or once every two years; the last adjustment took place in 2016. The new financial standards were approved by the committee, however the full Board of Aldermen must still vote on the change. khoughton@newstote.com

An aldermanic panel is recommending that the city increase its housing subsidies for welfare recipients because of high housing costs. If approved by the full Board of Aldermen, the financial assistance will increase an average of 2.5 percent, according to the proposal that would be implemented on July 1.

Facebook has revealed the lying Brexit ads targeted at British voters by Vote Leave and delivered by a Canadian firm funded by right-wing American billionaires. The adverts, many with racist ... A document leaked in Brussels accuses Britain of stealing security information from the EU's Schengen Information System. The Home Office is said to be allowing privatised contractors to circulate dangerously ... Donald Trump was driven by embarrassment to order largest expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in US history, according to White House sources. The President joined his European allies in expelling ... Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has signalled he would back a ring-fenced tax solely for the NHS and social care. He said Britain's ageing population meant more cash was needed for ... Owen Smith insisted he "stood by his principles" in calling for a second EU referendum, even though it led to his sacking as Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary. Scotland Yard has admitted Special Branch officers passed information to a business network that blacklisted construction workers. The admission followed follows a six-year battle to find out if the Metropolitan ... The Italian restaurant business Prezzo is planning to close 92 UK outlets - about a third of the chain - putting up to 1,800 jobs at risk. The chain, which ... Unemployment posted a second increase in as many months. The number of unemployed people in the UK increased by 24,000 to 1.45 million in the three-month period ending January 2018 ... Russia is supplying arms to the Taliban, according to the head of US forces in Afghanistan. General John Nicholson (pictured) told the BBC he had seen "destabilising activity by the ... Donald Trump has replaced US National Security Adviser HR McMaster with former United Nations ambassador John Bolton (pictured). Bolton, a Bush-era hawk who has backed attacking North Korea and Iran, ... The Conservative Party turned down an approach from Cambridge Analytica, the firm accused of illegally harvesting personal data to win elections both sides of the Atlantic. Campaigners and victims of political policing withdrew en masse from the Mitting Inquiry yesterday, frustrated at the judge's insistence on protecting the identity of police officers involved in deceptive relationships ... Eight out of ten Academy Schools are now in deficit say accountants Kreston UK, unlike council-run schools which are being managed better. Since staff make up 72% of the costs ... The lifting of the pay cap on NHS staff is insufficient in compensating for eight years of real-terms pay cuts, according to health trade unions. The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt ... The Facebook data scandal has deepened in the wake of an admission by an academic that he was responsible for collecting information on an unknowing public that could have swayed ...

Facebook has revealed the lying Brexit ads targeted at British voters by Vote Leave and delivered by a Canadian firm funded by right-wing American billionaires.

More and more members of Hollywood royalty are speaking out against the proposed boycott of the Oscars. Best Actress nominee Charlotte Rampling was among the first to speak out, calling the Oscars boycott "racist against whites" -- but she is not alone. Michael Caine , a two-time Academy Award winner, said he doesn't believe race played a role in the Oscar selections, and that it would be ridiculous to vote for someone based on race. Michael Caine as Alfred in "The Dark Knight Rises" via Ace Showbiz . "You can't vote for an actor because he's black," Caine told BBC. "You can't just say, 'I'm going to vote for him. He's not very good, but he's black. I'll vote for him.' You have to give a good performance." Perhaps the most outspoken of all, is Oscar-winning producer of 'Schindler's List' Gerald Molen, who called those boycotting the Oscars "spoiled brats" on Monday. "There is no racism except for those who create an issue. That is the worst kind. Using such an ugly way of complaining," he told entertainment website The Hollywood Reporter. Gerald R. Molen as Dr. Bruner in "Rain Man" via Movie Fone . "The idea of a boycott is ridiculous," Molen, a Hollywood veteran, said. "Are their noses bent out of shape by the award nominations? Of course. That is normal in a town of egos and red-carpet desires. While there were many performances of note, not all my choices for 'best' in the various categories have been realized." Jada Pinkett Smith , Will Smith , Spike Lee and Michael Moore are among the first to announce that they would be boycotting the awards ceremony. Molen, also an Academy voter, said Will Smith did have an Oscar-worthy performance in "Concussion," but added that sometimes, that just isn't enough. "It is not like he has been ignored or overlooked in the past. I understand his disappointment but see no prejudice or racism in his not making it. Who knows, maybe he lost by one vote," Molen told the Reporter. "I say to all my co-members: Stop acting like spoiled brats. Look to the next awards show for recognition -- if you deserve it." "The only comment that might have some legitimate substance is the one from Jada Pinkett. I understand her disappointment for her husband, but that doesn't mean she is correct in her analysis." His words were not as kind for Moore and Lee. "As far as Michael Moore is concerned, he is a socialist always looking to insert his brand of racist hatred. Spike Lee -- haven't I heard this from him before?" he asked. Molen also said he found it to be a "stupid assumption" that black actors weren't nominated because of their skin color. "In a liberal town like Hollywood, that makes about as much sense as saying all members of the Academy vote Republican," he said. We know first-hand that censorship against conservative news is real. Please share stories and encourage your friends to sign up for our daily email blast so they are not getting shut out of seeing conservative news. Carmine Sabia Jr started his own professional wrestling business at age 18 and went on to become a real estate investor. Currently he is a pundit who covers political news and current events. Latest posts by Carmine Sabia ( see all )

More and more members of Hollywood royalty are speaking out against the proposed boycott of the Oscars. Best Actress nominee Charlotte Rampling was among the first to speak out, calling the Oscars boycott "racist against whites" -- but she is not alone.

If there's one good thing coming out of the chaos on campus, it's the bipartisanship. No longer is it simply conservative professors who believe that the university has lost all common sense. Liberal professors are recognizing the same thing and sounding the alarm. One of these individuals is Columbia University professor John McWhorter. McWhorter describes himself as a "cranky liberal Democrat," supported Barack Obama as president, and embraces many common liberal orthodoxies. His viewpoints, however, are not preventing him from expressing some strong opinions on the problems underlying today's campus disarray, a course which he pursued recently in a speech at The Aspen Institute. The following list is taken from his remarks, transcribed by The Atlantic, and gives the highlights of his thoughts on these issues: 1. Social Media is a Big Problem "Social media, especially when you have it in your pocket in the form of the iPhone, allows bubbles of consensus to come together such that you can whip people up in a way that was not possible a generation before, or even ten years before." 2. We've Become an Image Based Society "[Pictures are] more viscerally stirring than pamphlets or that thing called the physical newspaper in the past." 3. Campuses are Breeding Grounds for Theatrics "[C]ollege campuses are perhaps the least racist spots on earth. And the idea that any student is undergoing a constant litany of constant racist abuse is theater, it's theatrical--you hate to say that to somebody 19 years old, but it's not true." 4. There's a Decline in Sense "[T]his new movement takes the idea that you're supposed to show you're not a racist or be sniffing out incidents of racism to give yourself a sense of legitimacy in society, into a place where language is being abused. And then when a speaker gets to campus, the idea is not that you protest the speaker, which was the idea when I was in college in the 80s, but that the speaker is not allowed to pollute the space with their words. ... And it needs to be called out, I think. And that's tough! Because we're talking about the behavior of people who are under 22. But it serves no purpose, as I think we've been able to see. It starts with sense." 5. Rational Discourse Doesn't Exist Any More "I remember living in a hall at one point and there were Republicans down at the end. And you were supposed to think of them as some sort of vermin. ... And I couldn't help noticing that they were also some of the nicest people on the hallway. Over the years I learned that I was not a Republican, but I could see how you could be one and have a coherent worldview. And it happened from listening to them and eating lunch with them." 6. Guilt, Not Understanding, is the Goal "The idea is to understand that a lot of what the person sees is that people start out at different places--and that whiteness is a privilege. However, our problem once again these days is that it is being taken in a direction that is less constructive. The idea is not people can learn that there is white privilege and be considered to have learned it, and learn some other things. The idea is you are to learn that you're a privileged white person; you are to learn it over and over; really what you're supposed to learn is to feel guilty about it; and to express that on a regular basis, understanding that at no point in your lifetime will you ever be a morally legitimate person, because you have this privilege." Do you think McWhorter is right? And is it even possible to return to a calm, non-dramatized approach to life and education? Image Credit: Jasy jatere, Public Domain Get thought-provoking content delivered to your inbox every day! Subscribe to IT's newsletter.

If there's one good thing coming out of the chaos on campus, it's the bipartisanship. No longer is it simply conservative professors who believe that the university has lost all common sense.

George Osborne unveils his White Paper (Picture by: Matt Cardy / PA Wire/Press Association Images) Noble lies have been part of political activity since the time of Plato. In the debate ahead of the European Union referendum, it may have been inevitable that the pro-EU Cameron government would issue statements claiming that leaving the EU would make people worse-off. It may even have been inevitable that such statements would include high numbers for the alleged cost of Brexit. After all, the higher the numbers, the more likely it is that under-informed and undecided voters will become frightened, and that Project Fear will work by terrifying people so that they opt to stay in. Perhaps no surprise should have greeted the publication of alarmist numbers in the Treasury White Paper on The long-term economic impact of EU membership and the alternatives . At the related press conference on April 18, Osborne quoted from the command paper to claim that, on purportedly plausible assumptions, Brexit would cost the average British household PS4,300 a year by 2030. But what is surprising -- and was not inevitable -- is that Osborne and the Treasury should have done the job so ineptly. Plato may have been right that governments must sometimes be mendacious, to maintain unity in wartime, to increase alertness ahead of possible terrorism or whatever. But lies need to have some nobility, with enough slickness in presentation and credibility in substance, if they are to mould the public debate. The White Paper was soon trashed in quality Conservative-inclined publications, exactly those organs of opinion that a Tory Chancellor ought to be able to influence. Fraser Nelson, editor of the Spectator , described himself as a Europhile, but said that Osborne's dishonesty was "simply breathtaking" and was such that he might vote "out". Allister Heath in the Daily Telegraph was even more damning. He recalled the deception and trickery that took Britain into the Iraq War, and said that the Treasury's "dodgy dossier" was "beneath contempt". The sheer badness of the document raises questions about the role of the civil service in the government of modern Britain, specifically about the ability of a permanent and supposedly non-partisan civil service to produce trustworthy documents in a politically-charged environment. Britain does not have an explicit written constitution, but it certainly has a number of implicit constitutional understandings. In the past one of these was that command papers (presented to Parliament by Her Majesty's command, don't forget) met certain standards of factual objectivity and reliability. Quite simply, this command paper is not up to those standards. Arrangements need to be put in place to ensure that they are restored. The paper does not have a consecutive and easy-to-follow argument that connects the facts of the real world, and the Treasury's interpretation of those facts, with Osborne's PS4,300 figure. Much of the material is so impenetrable that many readers might think the Treasury is deliberately trying to put them off. Nevertheless, the White Paper does have a logical argument running through all the padding and obfuscation. An obvious truth is that since the Industrial Revolution living standards have improved as regions have become more interconnected within nations, and as nations have become more interconnected with each other through global trade and capital flows. Living standards depend on how much each person produces or "output per head", also known as "productivity". By implication, productivity is related to "openness", the degree to which regions and nations are interconnected with each other. Further, a fair conjecture is that trade agreements between nations increase openness. Such agreements include the World Trade Organisation and also, more fundamentally in the Treasury's view, the European Union.

In the debate ahead of the European Union referendum, it may have been inevitable that the pro-EU Cameron government would issue statements claiming that leaving the EU would make people worse-off.

There isn't much time to decide. I am clasping a tree trunk nearly 20ft tall and 150lb in weight. The only thing keeping it upright is me - and it is starting to sway in the wind. Scroll down for more ... At this point, the idea is that I should somehow lift it off the ground, run with it and flip it over on itself. If I was built like that tartan titan on the Scott's Porage Oats packet, I probably would. But I am an urban softie with office hands and a long-abandoned gym membership. My luggage has wheels on it, for Heaven's sake. I can no more lift this thing than play the bagpipes. And if I did get it off the ground, it would only topple over and squash me. I have a better idea. I shout: "Look out!" Then I let go and run away very fast. The tree trunk teeters on its bottom end before crashing to the ground with a basso profondo 'THUNK!' Scottish-national pride is assured. This Englishman is never going to win the prize for tossing the caber and everyone has a jolly good laugh. Braveheart 1, Sassenach Faintheart 0. Soon afterwards, a chap built like a rugby scrum walks up and chucks the caber through the air like a drum majorette with a baton. I bet he ate all his porridge as a child. This is the Highland games season. Other parts of the world may stage carnivals, fiestas or humble village fetes. But, at this time of year, in towns and villages from the Borders to Cape Wrath, communities are gathering for their annual celebration of Caledonian culture and sporting prowess. And, at the centre of all the piping and dancing will be the big challenges for the big men known as the "Heavyweight" tournament - hammerthrowing, weight-chucking and, of course, caber-tossing. The most famous games will take place next Saturday, just up the A93 from Balmoral. Every year, the Queen and the Royal Family join the thousands cheering on the athletes at the Braemar Gathering. The royal party usually includes the Prime Minister who, by tradition, comes to stay for the weekend. At such an emphatically Scottish occasion, all eyes will be on Gordon Brown's legs. Will he abandon his suit to become the first PM in a kilt since Sir Alec Douglas-Home? But for all their fame around the globe, Highland games are crying out for more athletes, especially local ones. Any adult man can take part, within reason. The prize money is good - up to PS1,000 in a day. And yet the number of up and coming Scottish "heavies" is stalling. At this summer's Inveraray Highland Games not a single one of the 11 "heavies" was Scottish (the top athletes were three Americans and a Kiwi). The current leader in the league table is a Californian fitness fanatic called Ryan Vierra. The Scottish Games Association (SGA), the ruling body for cabertossing and the rest, is seeking more competitors at every level, be they Scottish or not. Really? Even a weedy Englishman? I decide to give it a go. The enchanting little village of Helmsdale could not be more welcoming. Wedged between the North Sea and the Sutherland hills just 50 miles from John o'Groats, it is best known for its fishing. But the Helmsdale games are expected to draw in visitors from miles around, doubling the normal population of 900, and the organisers have kindly agreed to accommodate me in the "heavy" events. I arrive a day in advance for a training session in front of Charlie Miller, secretary of the SGA. The first rule of all games turns out to be a sartorial one: you can compete only in a kilt. I don't own one so I strap a borrowed Clan Fraser kilt over my shorts (I know this is in grave breach of the etiquette regarding kilts and underwear - apologies to Frasers all - but it is windy and rather cold). We start with the caber. No one is entirely sure how caber-tossing became a sport - some say it was foresters showing off - but the challenge is not merely physical. The athlete has to lift a log the size of a telegraph pole vertically, run forwards and make it somersault. The winner is not the man who throws it furthest, though, but the one who lands it closest to 12 o'clock on an imaginary clockface. Charlie starts me off with a decent-sized 15ft tent pole which I eventually manage to land at around 10 o'clock. But it is a toothpick compared to the real caber here at Helmsdale. This is a 20ft length of larch tree and it is like lifting a sofa. To make it worse, it has been raining so the bark is quite slippery. I can just about push one end above my head and walk forwards to try to get it vertical but I run out of strength when it is 45 degrees off the ground. This is really embarrassing. It is one thing not to be able to toss the caber. It is worse if you cannot actually lift it. But if you cannot even get the thing upright, then what sort of a man are you? The games committee have been watching me with gentle amusement as they erect their marquees and fences. Duncan McKay, last year's local champion, steps forward to give me a hand. He is only 20 but he helps me "walk up" the caber to the vertical in no time. "It's all about technique. You just squat down and clasp the caber with both hands," he explains. "Lift it up quickly and get your hands underneath the bottom. And then you run with it." Except, I don't. I run away without it. Charlie diplomatically suggests I try throwing the light hammer instead. "Light" is a relative term. It is a 16lb cannon ball on the end of a wooden handle. You must grab the handle with both hands, fix your feet in one spot and whirl the thing around your head a few times before flinging it over your shoulder. No wonder they put a safety net here. I feel as if I am about to dislocate my shoulder but I do, at least, manage to get it a few yards through the air without hurting anyone else - or myself. Come the big day, the rain is relentless but it does little to deter the crowds. A small army of pipers - who include a "professor of piping" from Pittsburgh, USA - have gathered outside the Bridge Inn to serenade the honorary chieftain of the games through the village. This year's chieftain, local joiner and undertaker George Murray, has been helping to organise these games for 26 years. "We like to call them the friendly games," he tells me. And so they are. I am obviously not from these parts but the seven local "heavies" gladly welcome me into their competition with an overall pot of PS180 in prize money. The opposition ranges from Les Oliphant, 53, a BT engineer from Wick to Alexander Macleod, 19, a local forester who actually cut this caber. Unlike most sports, where youth is all, the optimum age for a "heavy" is deemed to be the mid-30s. After the first few events, this tournament becomes a duel between Les and John Macleod, 23, an engineer from Lochinver. I am coming a healthy last. Next up is the "weight for height" which involves hurling a 35lb weight over a bar 14ft above the ground. At more senior events, the weight is 56lb. "It's like throwing a seven-year-old child over a double decker bus," says Charlie. I cannot chuck it over my own head. By the time we get to the caber, the rain is so bad that no one can get a grip and it is too unwieldy. The commentator puts out a loudspeaker appeal for a chainsaw and, a few minutes later, a local man appears and chops a couple of feet off the end. I still cannot begin to lift it but Les and John have no problem tossing it and reach a draw. This has been a gruelling but thoroughly sporting contest with no swearing and no arguing. The crowds enjoy the spectacle and everyone shakes hands with the judge before a dram in the beer tent. Today has been a reminder of the problem facing the Heavyweight sports - the under-18 competition has been cancelled because there has not been not a single entry - but no one can fault the spirit of the occasion. Helmsdale parties long into the night while I head 200 miles south to Perthshire in time for tomorrow's big contest at the other end of the scale. The Crieff games are among Scotland's oldest and the crowd is over 5,000 - a bigger attendance than that at most Scottish football clubs. With big sponsors and prizes, most of the top athletes are here (although the Americans have returned home for a U.S. event with serious money). The winner of each of today's heavy events will get PS50, the overall winner will get another PS350 and if anyone can toss a special challenge caber in the 12 o'clock position, he will get a bonus of PS1,000. The heavies' include England's top Highland athlete, David Dowson, 27, a gas analyst from Middlesbrough who has no Scottish blood and bought his tartan in a souvenir shop. David was competing in local athletics until 2000 when a Scottish friend persuaded him to have a go at a Highland games. He has never looked back, winning the Glenfiddich under-25 championship in 2005. "In amateur athletics, you compete in front of ten people if you're lucky. Up here, you compete in front of up to 15,000 people and the Queen," he says. "I just love the real passion of these events, the whole Scottish thing - even if you get the odd anti-English remark and you go home with pipes ringing in your ears." He doesn't do it for the money, but admits that the "few thousand" he will make this year will be a big help towards his forthcoming wedding preparations. Today is not to be his day. A torn muscle forces him out of the competition which is won by Glasgow's Gregor Edmunds, 30, the reigning Scottish Champion, World Champion and regular winner of "strongest man" competitions all over Europe. Gregor is all in favour of beefing up the competition, wherever it comes from. "We've got to sex up the Highland games and get more children involved," he says, in between bursts of weight-chucking. "We need to remind people that these sports were originally about preparing for battle." You would certainly never lose if your troops were all like this tankonlegs. So, does Gregor mind that so many foreigners are grabbing prizes? "There may be a lot of bitching and moaning about it but if the Scots won't look after their games, then others are welcome to do so." And, with that, he turns his attention to the mighty caber. It is 20ft long, seven inches in diameter and has been soaked in a water trough for the previous four days to make it as heavy as possible. I can barely lift one end. Gregor trots off down the pitch with it and tosses it like a pancake. The crowd roar their approval. It's a scene to swell any Scottish heart with pride. Oh well. I bet he's rubbish at Morris Dancing.

Will he abandon his suit to become the first PM in a kilt since Sir Alec Douglas-Home?

STOCKHOLM (AP) -- One brutal attack by a man who drove a stolen truck into shoppers in Stockholm has brought Sweden's open-door immigration policies under increased scrutiny -- and raised the question if Swedish society, considered democratic and egalitarian, has failed to integrate its newcomers. The suspect in Friday's attack, a 39-year-old native of Uzbekistan who has been arrested by police, had been on authorities' radar previously but they dismissed him as a "marginal character." It was unclear whether he was also a Swedish citizen or resident or even how long he'd been in the country. The attack killed four people and wounded 15. In response, hundreds gathered Saturday at the site of the crash in the Swedish capital, building a heartbreaking wall of flowers on the aluminum fence put up to keep them away from the site's broken glass and twisted metal. Some hugged police officers nearby. "We have been too liberal to take in people who perhaps we thought would have good minds. But we are too good-hearted," said Stockholm resident Ulov Ekdahl, a 67-year-old commercial broker who went to the memorial. Joachim Kemiri, who was born in Sweden to a Tunisian father and a Swedish mother, says migrants and refugees had been arriving in too large numbers. "Too many of them have been coming in too fast," the 29-year-old railway worker said. "It's too much." Sweden has long been known for its open-door policy toward migrants and refugees. But after the Scandinavian country of 10 million took in a record 163,000 refugees in 2015 -- the highest per-capita rate in Europe -- Prime Minister Stefan Lofven conceded it could no longer cope with the influx. At a press conference in late 2015, deputy prime minister of the small Greens Party -- a junior government partner -- Asa Romson, broke into tears as she announced measures to deter asylum-seekers in a reversal of Sweden's welcoming policy toward people fleeing war and persecution. She described it as "a terrible decision," admitting the proposals would make life even more precarious for refugees. On Saturday, Lofven laid flowers at the truck crash site, declaring Monday a national day of mourning, with a minute of silence at noon. He urged citizens to "get through this" and strolled through the streets of the capital to chat with them. No one has claimed responsibility for Friday's attack but Sweden's police chief said Saturday that authorities were confident they had detained the man who carried it out. Uzbekistan and other former Soviet Central Asian republics have long been a fertile recruiting ground for Islamic militant groups, notably the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which formed in 1998. Originally allied with al-Qaeda, many of the group's fighters have switched to Islamic State group affiliation. Russian officials say the suicide bomber who attacked the St. Petersburg subway on April 3 was a native of Kyrgyzstan. Sweden's police chief Dan Eliason said officers found something in the stolen beer truck that "could be a bomb" or an incendiary device, but said they were still investigating. Although it was not clear how long the suspect had been in Sweden, the Scandinavian country prides itself on welcoming newcomers. Still, its open-door immigration policy and comparatively heterogeneous culture has led to frictions, sometimes urban unrest, especially in areas where many long-time immigrants feel disempowered. The populist, right-wing Sweden Democrats have tapped into a growing anti-immigrant sentiment. Mattias Karlsson, the party's parliamentary group leader, said Saturday that he feels "anger and sorrow but not shock" over Friday's attack. "Unfortunately, there have been clear signs that it was just a question of time before the next attack would hit Sweden," he said. "It will have far-reaching implications for society and politics." Steve Eklund, an office worker a few blocks away from where the accident occurred, said Sweden's immigration policy had gone wrong. "Sweden has made some mistakes, and something needs to be done to assimilate the immigrants better," Eklund said. "But it takes two to tango -- the immigrants living here need to reach out to ethnic Swedes too." Not everyone agreed. Visiting the crash site, Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria laid roses on the ground Saturday and wiped away a tear. Beth Baumann "We must show a huge force, we must go against this," she told reporters. "Swedish society is built on huge confidence, a sense of community." Joachim Lindstrom said he wasn't surprised by the attack. "I don't think that Sweden has really failed in its efforts to assimilate newcomers," he told The Associated Press. "We have had long experience with them, but much depends on the people themselves." In February, U.S. President Donald Trump shocked Swedes when he suggested that Sweden could be the next European country to suffer the kind of extremist attacks that have hit France, Belgium and Germany. Friday's attack was the latest in which drivers have used vehicles as weapons. In an attack last month claimed by the Islamic State group, a man drove a rented SUV into a crowd in London, killing four people and injuring many others before stabbing a policeman to death. He was killed by police. The IS also claimed responsibility for a truck attack that killed 86 people in Nice, France, in July 2016 during a Bastille Day festival, as well as another truck attack that killed 12 people at a Christmas market last year in Berlin. Friday's truck attack on Stockholm's pedestrian shopping street of Drottninggatan was also near the site of a December 2010 attack in which Taimour Abdulwahab, a Swedish citizen, detonated a suicide bomb, killing himself and injuring two others. The prime minister made a point Saturday of walking around Stockholm, including along Drottninggatan, chatting with people having coffee outside a cafe. He said the aim of terrorism is to undermine democracy. "But such a goal will never be achieved in Sweden," Lofven said. Others feared the deadly attacks could continue. "Things like this will always happen in an open society. Sweden is not a totalitarian society," Eklund said. "Maniacs can't be stopped." Pietro DeCristofaro in Stockholm and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed.

STOCKHOLM (AP) -- One brutal attack by a man who drove a stolen truck into shoppers in Stockholm has brought Sweden's open-door immigration policies under increased scrutiny -- and raised the question if Swedish society, considered democratic and egalitarian, has failed to integrate its newcomers.

( Via Breitbart ) [...] According to Fox News , de Blasio's proposed plan to increase the minimum wage is getting as negative a reception as the plan to fund universal pre-K. Author Barnini Chakraborty notes that the latter has run into significant problems as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed a state-wide universal pre-K plan that would make de Blasio's tax hike unnecessary-something de Blasio flatly rejected. Fox News notes that Cuomo called the idea of making rich neighborhoods fund themselves separately from the rest of the state "repugnant." The minimum wage plan might meet a similar fate in Albany. In his State of the City address , de Blasio's minimum wage increase plan featured prominently along the universal pre-K idea and new proposition to give government identification to illegal immigrants, which would allow them to open bank accounts and access other resources in the city. Mayor de Blasio's plan, he explained , would be to urge Albany to allow New York City to raise its own minimum wage without touching the rest of the state. The plan would let de Blasio govern New York as more of a city-state than a mere city. It would necessarily require lawmakers in Albany to give away power to de Blasio , something to which they have already proven resistant. Governor Cuomo put it frankly: " We don't want to cannibalize ourselves ." Mayor de Blasio's tenure, short as it is, already has a defining trait: the push to increasingly distance the city from the rest of the state. He wants to be New York City's Pericles in an era where no American city can be allowed to be its own ancient Athens. (Ancient Athens, for one, had an army.) This is most particularly reflected in how specific de Blasio's demands for the city seem to be next to what lawmakers in Albany seem prepared to yield. Even with a legislature and an executive run by the same party, he appears less interested in achieving things than in the specific method he wants employed to achieve them. ( read more )

According to Fox News , de Blasio's proposed plan to increase the minimum wage is getting as negative a reception as the plan to fund universal pre-K.

Event Name: Miami Home Design and Remodeling Show Date: Aug 31, 2018 Start Time: 04:00 pm End Time: 09:30 pm Event Type: Arts & Entertainment Cost: $10.00 adults; $1.00 children 11 and under Contact Phone: (305) 667-9299 Address: Mana Wynwood Convention Center 318 NW 23rd St, Miami, FL 33127 Event Website: https://www.homeshows.net/ Contact Email: [email protected] Details: August 31 - September 3, 2018 (Labor Day Weekend) Friday 4:00pm-9:30pm Saturday 12:00pm-9:30pm Sunday 12:00pm-9:30pm Monday 12:00pm-7:30pm The Miami Home Design and Remodeling Show is moving to Wynwood! South Florida's largest residential improvement expo offers thousands of home and garden products and services. Find the latest trends, compare and find special offers exclusive to the show. Speak with the experts; find inspiration at the Designer Rooms for the Stars; enjoy lifestyle and professional development seminars, plus family day activities; and much more! Learn design tips and meet celebrity designer and architect, John Gidding of TLC's "Trading Spaces" and HGTV's "Curb Appeal," at the Ygrene Home Improvement Stage. For information and updates, visit www.homeshows.net and follow on social media for updates @FLHomeShows #FLHomeShows. Purchase tickets online by Thursday, August 30th and SAVE $3.00.

he Miami Home Design and Remodeling Show is moving to Wynwood! South Florida's largest residential improvement expo offers thousands of home and garden products and services.

Love your wifi and your Bluetooth? If so, you might have this Hollywood silver screen starlet to thank for it. A new documentary about her life, her contributions to film and more says that she co-founded the invention that led to our modern technology. Hedy Lamarr, one of the biggest stars in Hollywood from the 1930's to the 1950's, thought she was cursed by her beauty. Because of her stunning face and raven tresses, people didn't take her seriously. "Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid," she said in 1962 in an interview. But there was much more to the Austrian-born beauty than just looks. If you didn't know that, you might want to check out the documentary, "Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story." Actress Susan Sarandon was executive producer of the film, which is appearing as part of the Jewish Film Festival in London this month, and which will hit select theaters in New York City later this month. The documentary takes a look at Lamarr's 35 films, including the infamous film she made at just 17 years old in which she depicts the first female orgasm - at least, the first that was not in a porn flick. The scene may seem extremely tame by today's standards. A woman being kissed and cuddled by her lover throws her head back in ecstasy and drops her pearls. There's no groaning, no grinding or groping, and no nudity, but it's pretty clear by her face what's happening. In 1933, it was positively scandalous. Another key focus of the documentary is not just Lamarr's film contributions, but her contribution to science and technology. Lamarr was a co-developer of a radio frequency for scrambling military messages. It seems Lamarr's favorite pastime when she wasn't filming her latest movie was creating weapons communications systems for the U.S. Navy. The technology she helped develop was what she called 'frequency hopping' technology. It helped prevent Germans from jamming radio signals. That technology was the basis for later technologies, which eventually became the wifi that is part of our daily lives. She developed the technology with composer George Antheil, and the two came up with a scrambling system based on the idea behind 88 keys on the piano. The two had their invention patented in 1942, though it wasn't implemented until the 1960s. The story of this technological breakthrough is told through never before heard interview tapes. The actress did an interview with Forbes Magazine in 1990, and she revealed her big contribution to society that has otherwise gone unnoticed. "Inventions are easy for me to do. I suppose I just came from a different planet," Lamarr said. Lamarr continued to be an inventor until the end of her life. She passed away in 2000 at the age of 85, and one of the last inventions she came up with was a pocket on the side of tissue boxes so that you could stuff the used tissues in there. Clearly, the woman was a genius. Source: New York Post Photo: YouTube

Love your wifi and your Bluetooth? If so, you might have this Hollywood silver screen starlet to thank for it.

The final part of Hussam's story, set at the intersection of European immigration policy and the Syrian war. By Emily Gowdey-Backus . Members of the Turkish coast guards hold a baby of a Syrian migrant on the shore in Cesme, near the Aegean port city of Izmir, Turkey, August 11, 2015. by Freedom House A refugee's price tag This is Part 3 of Hussam's story. Read Part 1 and Part 2 here. Rescues from the mass crossing of the Mediterranean went largely unnoticed in the wider world until 19 April, when more than 800 migrants drowned off the coast of Libya when their boat capsized . More than 200,000 refugees and migrants travelled to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea in 2014, more than triple the number in 2013; 30% of those were Syrian. Italy alone received 160,000 of those 200,000 refugees and migrants, at the rate of 480 each day. The Italian-operated Mare Nostrum maritime search and rescue programme, with a price tag of $10.5 million a month, was cut for budgetary reasons in October 2014. Britain, in particular, argued the programme encouraged trafficking because vessels were very likely to be intercepted, ensuring passengers would reach Europe safely. Lady Joyce Anelay, the current Minister of State of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office , called this an 'unintended pull factor'. Instead, she explained, Britain would support increased border and coastal control of countries of origin and transit. Daniel Shepherd, spokesperson for Sea Watch, a private German organization that patrols the Mediterranean for illegal boats in distress, believes Europe could be doing much more for Syrian refugees. 'Sea Watch is sending a strong political message to northern Europe, using the vessel itself as a symbol of what can be achieved and what Europe should be doing,' he says. Grassroots organizations like Sea Watch exist because civilians disagree with the inaction of Western governments. As 2015 passes, the sea claims more lives, while those who can save the lives of others refuse to do so. 'Even when northern Europe does take it upon itself to become involved, it sees [the situation] through a border-security lens and not one of search and rescue or humanitarian assistance,' says Shepherd. The one exception, he explains, is Germany, which has donated 2 vessels to Triton, a new European Commission-sponsored maritime search-and-rescue operation. Border control can no longer be categorized as a neutral process of documentation. Over the past decade, dozens of nations have built physical barriers; the position of 'Fortress Europe' has been actively to deter refugees. Hussam and Shadi were relatively fortunate. The cruiser carrying them docked outside Salerno and everyone aboard was taken to a camp in Potenza, a small village. After diagnosing an emergency appendicitis, Hussam was asked to volunteer with the camp's Red Cross contingent. It was the first time he felt equal to those helping him. 'The Red Cross did not call me a refugee. They said "our friend, the doctor from Syria." That was meaningful for me,' he said. When he left, they gave Hussam a letter of recommendation. The rest of the brothers' journey was relatively simple. They acquired fake passports in Rome, took the train to Munich and flew to Gatwick on 14 August 2014. At UK Border Control, the brothers were asked about the details of their journey. They told the authorities they had put their lives in the hands of smugglers in order to get there. The only other question asked of them was which airline flew them from Munich. Border Control wanted to know where to send the fine. A refugee's price tag Hussam and Shadi, like so many others, have risked their lives, paid a fortune to smugglers and broken countless international laws, in pursuit of asylum to which they are already entitled. Professor Bridget Anderson, of the Migration Observatory at Oxford University, believes a more equal system should exist. 'There needs to be some way of enabling people to come to Europe and claim asylum without having to pay a fortune or get in a dangerous rickety boat,' she says. As refugees must first reach Europe in order to claim asylum, 'states are trying to turn back people on their way. You see that most dramatically on these boats, in order to prevent them from making that initial claim,' adds Anderson. In the hope of persuading Western nations to resettle Syrian refugees, the European Commission (EC) devised a very simple reward scheme: cold, hard cash. For every Syrian refugee resettled, each life saved, the accepting government receives $6,600. On 13 May 2015, the European Agenda on Migration was presented as part of a quota policy designed by the EC to resettle Syrian refugees in European countries. The initial agenda asked governments to provide 20,000 spaces. Currently, there are 4,015,065 registered Syrian refugees living outside Syria. For more on Syria, take a look at our September magazine on ' Syria's good guys '. In proportion to population size, GDP, number of spontaneous asylum applications and unemployment rate, the EC has calculated a refugee quota for each Member State. Of the requested 20,000 places, Britain would be responsible for 11.54 %, or 2,309 Syrian refugees. Calling Britain a country of 'extraordinary passion', Prime Minister David Cameron announced on 7 September that the nation would relocate up to 20,000 refugees from camps along the Syrian border. This process will take 5 years to complete and during this time those relocated will be given humanitarian status in the UK. Only in 2020, after the proposed 5 years, will the refugees be able to apply for asylum. On 27 May, the EC activated the Relocation Emergency Response Commission for the first time in the organization's existence. Over the next 2 years, 40,000 Syrian and Eritrean refugees and asylum-seekers arriving and residing in Italy and Greece after 15 April 2015 will be relocated to other Member States. Even with the new European agenda, nations bordering Syria continue to bear the lion's share of this crisis, with relatively little support from the international community. Less than 6 per cent of Syrian refugees who have fled their homes have reached Europe. According to UNHCR, 278,551 asylum applications have been issued to European states. There were 138,016 in 2014 alone. More continue to pour in, but this number still only accounts for a fraction of the people whose lives are left in tatters. UNHCR initially requested nations to resettle a total of 30,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2014. That goal was never reached. Britain has donated $1.6 billion in humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees, 39% of all donations, second only to the United States. However, even though Britain receives a mere 2.8% of the Syrian refugee asylum applications, it has only resettled 216 under the Syria Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme and up to 750 annually through the Gateway Protection Programme - despite the new financial incentives. France receives a comparable number of asylum applications to Britain and has resettled 503 persons, while providing $69 million in humanitarian aid. On the other hand, Germany receives 8 times as many asylum applications from Syrian refugees as Britain and alone has pledged 35,000 places for those fleeing the region. Sweden receives one quarter of all European asylum applications from Syrian refugees. Of the 2,250 pledged places Sweden has contributed, it has so far resettled 1,000 people. Zoe Gardner of the London-based charity Asylum Aid says the suffering will only increase, and that now is the time for all of Europe to step in: 'The argument put forward is we shouldn't have to resettle people because we're paying money towards their wellbeing in the region,' she notes. However, after cancelling Mare Nostrum and other patrol programmes for budgetary reasons, Gardner believes the little action that is taken is over-costly and contradictory: '[Britain] is not participating in search and rescue, not saving lives in the Mediterranean and our inaction is leading to families drowning every single day. We're spending more money on keeping people away and the priority is on our spending. It's not a realistic way of approaching the subject.' Fortress Europe must abandon the ideals of state sovereignty, she argues: 'This idea of state sovereignty and "we have control over our sovereign borders" is something that has been completely ingrained and is taken as wholly political truth.' Naomi Westland, spokesperson for Amnesty International UK, agrees with Gardner. According to UNHCR calculations, Britain can afford to resettle 10,000 of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees in need of assistance, she says. 'The response of the EU in terms of resettling Syrian refugees has been pitiful, particularly in Britain, and so far, despite having promised to take hundreds of refugees in February last year, the government has only resettled 187.' Read Part 1 and Part 2 here. Help us keep this site free for all New Internationalist is a lifeline for activists, campaigners and readers who value independent journalism. Please support us with a small recurring donation so we can keep it free to read online.

The final part of Hussam's story, set at the intersection of European immigration policy and the Syrian war. By Emily Gowdey-Backus . Members of the Turkish coast guards hold a baby of a Syrian migrant on the shore in Cesme, near the Aegean port city of Izmir, Turkey, August 11, 2015.

Normally, I don't buy into "lesser-of-two-evils" politics. If Democrats nominate a corrupt reactionary Blue Dog I'm at least as incensed as I am over a Republican. That's not going to change either. And, I'm still saying that "normally" no longer applies, not with Trump and his Congressful of enablers and rubber stamps. I'm telling friends and relatives-- my sister lives in Jeff Van Drew's district-- to just hold their noses and vote for anyone with a "D" next to their name. As Digby has been saying since he moved into the White House, we're in existential territory here. Boxing in Trump is more important than anything . That said, there's no need to stop reminding the establishment Democratic Party that we need them to stop turning off the base with their Blue Dog/New Dem agenda and their uncontrollable hatred for the Democratic grassroots, for progressives and for the kind of reform that will cut off the spigots of money and power that motivates the careerism of the Hoyers, Wasserman Schultzes, Crowleys (buh bye) and the mirror images the DCCC keeps recruiting as candidates. The DCCC is now whining how progressives have to get on board the unity train and pull together to elect a Democratic Congress to stop the boogie man in the White House. They're correct. What they're not correct about is that that's a one-way street. Let me give you an example. The DCCC drew up a list of the most crucial districts that they absolutely had to prioritize to flip in November. They call it their "Red to Blue" list. One is the Omaha swing district, NE-02. The DCCC went out and recruited a Blue Dog, Ben Ashford, who the voters in the district had rejected in 2016 after he served a term in Congress and voted pretty consistently with the GOP. Democrats refused to reelect him and now there's a Republican, Don Bacon, in the seat. The DCCC's strategy, which is regularly proven wrong, is that if a conservative Democrat votes with the GOP, "moderate" Republicans will eschew their own candidate and vote for the conservative Democrat. When will the DCCC learn that just doesn't work and all they do is turn off base Democratic voters? In Omaha, a progressive Democrat, Kara Eastman, ran a grassroots campaign on issues that voters wanted to hear about. And she won, despite massive DCCC fingers-on-the-scale help for Ashford. The voters picked her-- 20,239 (51.43%) to 19,113 (43.57%). So how did the DCCC respond? They wrote NE-02-- their "must win" district-- out of their 2018 strategy and refused to back Kara. No institutional money is flowing in her direction. They flat out refused to add her to their Red-to-Blue page. The same thing is happening with progressive primary winners all over the country-- including in must-win swing districts! Blue America has a page for that: Abandoned By The DCCC . There are men and women-- mostly women-- on this list who won their primary races and who the DCCC is refusing to recognize while they're asking progressives to support wretched Blue Dogs and New Dems because... "TRUMP!" I spoke to one of those candidates this morning, J.D. Scholten. He was in a 3-way primary race to see which Democrat would take on the odious Steve King. J.D. out-raised King in each of the last two FEC reporting quarters. Each time, he called the DCCC to tell them and urge them to work with him to beat King. And each time, the DCCC refused to take his call or to call him back. Then came the primary. Scholten beat the establishment fave, an ex-lobbyist with a Blue Dog agenda, Leann Jacobsen, and another candidate, John Paschen-- and it wasn't close. * J.D. Scholten- 14,514 (51.27%) * Leann Jacobsen- 9,055 (31.99%) * John Paschen- 4,741 (16.75%) So, J.D. called the DCCC to tell them and ask for their help. Do you want to guess what happened? That's right... no return call. J.D. is campaigning full-time , not by sitting and calling donors and PACs and corporations, although he's still raising enough grassroots money to be ahead of King-- $195,348 cash on hand for J.D. and $87,250 cash on hand for King-- but by driving his RV into every town and hamlet in the sprawling 4th district and meeting the voters. The DCCC doesn't recognize that as valuable. Please consider contributing to the candidates who have won their primaries -- up against Republicans while the DCCC ignores them. These are important races, not the "easy" ones the DCCC regularly screws up. Maybe these candidates are lucky not to have DCCC interference in their campaigns. But they do need some money to compete effectively. Thanks for always doing what you can to make this a better world, Howie , for the entire Blue America team enlarge "And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: Repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed." -- John Steinbeck, 'The Grapes of Wrath' (Based on last week's election results, it's working!) Normally, Democrats win districts where the PVI is D+something and Republicans win districts where the PVI is R+something. The higher the "something," the more likely that party will win. But it's not always the case. Allison Ikley-Freeman's successful campaign for a state Senate seat in Oklahoma last week-- a seat where Trump beat Hillary 61.4-32.7%-- was in a very red district southwest of Tulsa. No one thought she had any chance at all. It's the kind of area where the DCCC always says-- and always wrongly-- that only a rich Republican-lite Blue Dog could win. But Allison is a young progressive who was outspent 3-1, campaigning on a Bernie-like platform. And she's a proud lesbian, married to an African-American. She doesn't fit the DCCC model at all. There are 5 Blue America-endorsed candidates we're always always being told are in "impossible" races. None of them are as "impossible" as Allison's race was. And all 5 are being run by exceptionally good candidates : James Thompson (KS) R+15 Jenny Marshall (NC) R+10 Tom Guild (OK) R+10 Derrick Crowe (TX) R+10 Dan Canon (IN) R+13 Since Tom Guild was the first person to tell me to watch Allison's race in Tulsa, about a week before the election, I spoke with him about what her victory meant to his race on the other side of the state. He hit the nail on the head: "We have knocked doors for more than 5 months and visited with thousands of good, hard working, incredible people in our district. They want to earn enough money to pay their bills and provide for their families. They want affordable health care and peace of mind when they or someone they love get sick and need medical care. They want dignity and security in their golden years. They want the heavy burden of college student debt lifted from their shoulders after scrimping for years and burning the candle at both ends to attain their educational goals. Government should lighten our burdens and help us on our journey. Many times today, government frightens decent and honest people by threatening to take away their health care or jobs or affordable loans or programs like Social Security or Medicare that they have paid into for decades. We need to elect people to public office who want to help people and not hurt them. Public servants should make people's American Dreams attainable instead of throwing roadblocks in their way. I'm willing to do everything in my power to make each person's dreams a reality. I'm willing to provide a hand up not a cold slap in my fellow Americans faces. Together, we can create positive change in America. To go fast, go alone. To go far, we need to take our journey together and support one another. We must help each person arrive at their unreachable star and celebrate with them as they achieve this miraculous victory." Derrick Crowe is running in an Austin/San Antonio district due south of Tom's. "The establishment," he told us, "does not like to be proven wrong about past failures, and when you sign up to run in an ostensibly 'red' district,' the groups in D.C. will tell you that you're crazy. "Too red. Too conservative. Too long since the Democrats held the seat. Too much money on the other side" Well, we just saw a socialist beat the former speaker of the Virginia statehouse, and a progressive member of the LGBTQIA community win in a solidly #MAGA district. It reminds me of the saying, 'People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.' Well, we're doing it. The progressive moment is here, the wave is barreling to shore, and people who want to run for office as progressive populists should step forward right now. There will never be another time like this, and you'll never be able to do more good. And when people tell you it can't be done, tell them it's rude to interrupt." Jenny Marshall is also running in an "impossible" district in the South, held by an entrenched multimillionaire incumbent. The DCCC won't figure it out until the day after election day, but the way things have been going lately, maybe "entrenched multimillionaire incumbent" isn't what voters are looking for right now. Jenny: "People wish me luck when I tell them that I am running for Congress against Virginia Foxx. I tell them there is no luck about it, just hard work and a message that people believe in. The people in the 5th are struggling to make ends meet and they want someone who will fight for them. They want someone with the courage to stand up for regular folks and take on out of control corporate greed and Washington lobbyists. As I have traveled the district I have listened to story after story of medical care that is too expensive and jobs that pay too little. I have listened to veterans who can't get the help they need and college graduates saddled with enormous debt. I sit and listen as they pour their life stories out and I can relate. I know what it is like to have more month than money, to worry about health care costs and student loan debt. As we trade stories, I talk about the changes I want to see in Congress and by the end I have another supporter. Over the past 11 months I have met thousands and thousands of people at all kinds of events. The overwhelming message back to our campaign is "run, Jenny run!" So, I am running, but I am not alone. We are building a top notch campaign team with more volunteers and donations coming in daily so that we can knock every last door in the district to get our message out. I believe that with hard work and our grassroots organizing we will win in 2018." Dan Canon is an exceptionally accomplished candidate running in Indiana, a state the DCCC fears and, when they even try-- always run a Blue Dog. Dan is far from a Blue Dog. "We are seeing on the ground," he told us, "genuine excitement for real progressive politics, not just with Democrats and Independents but also with Republicans and those who have never been involved or even voted before. With Indiana's abysmal voter turnout we know that if we get more people to vote, we win. Talking to over 40,000 voters already and registering over 4,500 new voters, we know that one-on-one conversations about progressive policies are what will win this race." James Thompson was ignored by the DCCC and the Beltway elites when he ran in a special election this year. But he came incredibly close to flipping one of those "impossible" districts, this one in the Wichita area. He's running again and the DCCC is ignoring him again. (Fine... it's an opportunity to elect a real progressive instead of the kind of retrograde Blue Dog that Luhan and Pelosi would prefer.) James told us that "Something is only impossible so long as people believe it is so. As long as you believe in your cause and are willing to work, nothing is out of reach. No state is too red. No precinct too Republican. As Nina Turner recently told me, we need to be "hard on issues and soft on people." "This battle is not between Republican and Democrat; that is their narrative. The battle for our country's soul is between the privileged princes of Wall Street/corporate class and the working people of this country. Working people exist in both parties and we need to come together as one to take back the power the billionaire boys club siphoned from us for decades with tax breaks and loopholes. When We the People stand together nothing is impossible." These kinds of seats, in a cycle like this, is exactly where the DCCC should be making big plays. They're not. But we can. Want to help? Every donation absolutely makes a difference .

Normally, I don't buy into "lesser-of-two-evils" politics. If Democrats nominate a corrupt reactionary Blue Dog I'm at least as incensed as I am over a Republican.

Think racism is dead in America? Think once we elected a black man as POTUS (twice!) we had all joined hands, sang "Kumbaya," and decided we'd no longer judge people on the color of their skin, but by the content of their character? Think again. Ashton Brooks of Midland, Michigan, knows this all too well. She's a star kicker for the Dow football team, rivals to Midland, and second-ranked team in the league at 8-1 . She came out for football for the first time this year, and was assigned as placekicker -- where she's only missed two kicks in Saginaw League games, coming up at 29 of 31 extra points so far this year. This is more than anyone else in the league. The high school senior is the first girl to play varsity football in town -- for either Dow or rival Midland. Both her older and younger brothers played football for the Chargers, and she says she just has "this drive to try new things and dare to be different." Her coach is quoted as saying that she's "the best kicker in the program. And she's one of the best kickers we've had in a long time." ourmidland.com Ashton not only plays football, she also anchors two traveling soccer teams . She has soccer practice Monday and Tuesday, football on Wednesday and Thursday, Friday night football games, and then Saturday and Sunday soccer games. This is a girl with a serious athletic schedule that leaves her with zero days off. She's driven to succeed -- there's no doubt about it. And her drive has paid off; she earned a partial soccer scholarship to Northwood University, where she'll also receive a scholarship based on her academic merit. Basically, with her 3.2 GPA , she's your high school overachiever with a serious football talent. But Ashton isn't immune to racism . This week, at the Midland-Dow football game, Instagram user mollymuuck posted a photo of herself with a boy in a gorilla suit, with the caption, "got a pic with dows kicker ;)" The boy wears Midland-blue shorts over his suit; it's not clear if he wore the suit explicitly to mock Ashton, or if he was just a teenage boy in a gorilla suit at a football game. As of the time the screenshot taken by Shaun King , who first brought the event to media attention, eight people had liked the photo. The photo has since been removed, and no disciplinary action has yet been taken. Ashton is a student who deserves nothing but accolades, for her academics and athleticism. But even still, racists attempt to drag her down into the mud with the old gorilla association -- the idea that black people are physically stronger than whites, but less intelligent. Complete and utter hateful bullshit. When Ashton joined the football team, she was welcomed as one of the team. Her coach agrees that she's not "Ashton, the girl kicker, she's Ashton, a member of the team." Brooks said, "I've gotten to know the guys -- and a lot of them I've know since I was little -- they're really accepting of me now and the community supports me." It's easier for a girl to be accepted as a member of an all-male football team than it is for a successful Black girl to avoid virulent racism. Racism is alive and well in America. It lives and breathes and has its being in small towns (and cities too, of course) all across this great country. And if you don't believe me, think of Ashton Brooks. Get the best of Scary Mommy & "The Mom Club" (e-book), free!

Ashton Brooks of Midland, Michigan, knows this all too well. She's a star kicker for the Dow football team, rivals to Midland, and second-ranked team in the league at 8-1 . She came out for football for the first time this year, and was assigned as placekicker -- where she's only missed two kicks in Saginaw League

It was only three weeks ago that the secretary of state committed a perfect Washington gaffe, complaining that media coverage of terrorism is making life difficult for him and the administration he serves: "Perhaps the media would do us all a service if they didn't cover it quite as much. People wouldn't know what's going on." The Obama administration's pact with Russia to strengthen military cooperation in Syria has prompted a widening rift between Secretary of State John Kerry and top Pentagon officials, who warn against sharing intelligence with Russian forces.

1 HappyWarrior May 12, 2016 * 7:10:09pm down 4 up report He's nowhere funny nor as clever as he thinks he is. 2 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge May 12, 2016 * 7:12:03pm down 20 up report 3 Reality Based Steve May 12, 2016 *

I do actually see his point I think in part you're agreeing since he was speaking in such broad strokes with the, "we see people being degraded, we see people doing all sorts of things that we should be horrified at as a culture... but we live in a world where one word could destroy your life but it's OK to, if you're a social-justice warrior, spit in somebody's face." And interpreted really, really generously it could be true in some parts. But in the context of the rest of what he was saying it's hard to want to interpret it generously, and it's also riddled with dubious/false things. One of his examples of a person whose career was ruined was Paula Deen, but, well, that didn't happen. She got some pressure for a while but is now back on the screen cooking terrible food, selling books, etc. The N-word's thrown down on Twitter/Facebook/Youtube/etc. comments many thousands of times a day and it isn't some mass life destruction event. If you're a celeb. making a career that depends on your reputation, these days you can potentially damage that rep. with open racism, but I don't see that as anything but the status quo of the way things have always been with people whose livelihoods are built on reputations, and it's probably not as life-destroying as he says. The Kramer guy has been doing films and carrying on. I'm going to say that if you are a "SJW" type (however you define that) and you go spitting in people's face, you really aren't going to get a pass. I can't prove it, but I really can't see it being widely tolerated. There are people being degraded and people doing terrible things we shouldn't tolerate, though, of course, since he said "people" you get to fill in the blanks. For Billy, who recently called SJWs the new KKK, calls Sanders supporters Maoists, and worries about chemtrails and vaccines causing autism, is a climate change denialist, and believes white people are terribly oppressed by minorities and have no free speech, I'd imagine the people he's filling in the blanks in his head, aren't who you're filling in.

I do actually see his point I think in part you're agreeing since he was speaking in such broad strokes with the, "we see people being degraded, we see people doing all sorts of things that we should be horrified at as a culture...

Thanks for the memories, Sunshine State. We can't wait to see how you top yourself next year. 10. Gator Block This was definitely not a great year to be a Florida Gator. With Jameis Winston and Florida State shittin' on 'em and unranked Georgia Southern slaying their entire mothereffing lives, two Florida players just had to go and embarrass the team further by blocking EACH OTHER during a game. And while this shameful display is painful for those who bleed orange and blue, it provided a great laugh for the rest of us Internet trolls. Looking towards 2014, they should have Tim Tebow say a little prayer on their behalf. We hear his calendar is pretty empty these days. 9. Prancercise Goodbye CrossFit, hello Prancercise. Created by Floridian Joanna Rohrback, Prancercise joyfully galloped into our lives in 2013, forever changing how we looked at fitness. It isn't all about high-intensity cardio and lifting anymore. Now, sashaying your hips and trotting along like a majestic horse is the way to burn those pastelito-induced calories. Taking a page from the fitness videos of yesteryear, Rohrback added her own flair for the spectacular and brought the sexy back to 2013, Justin Timberlake style. 8. I Will Murder Your Whole Effing Family While this meme didn't necessarily originate in Florida, the Miami Dolphins definitely helped take it to the next level in 2013. After being accused of harassing teammate Jonathan Martin, starting guard Richie Incognito claimed that Martin sent him threatening texts, including one with the notorious "I Will Murder Your Whole Fucking Family" meme. According to Martin's camp, it was all in good fun and meant as a joke. Sigh, leave it to us to not even know how to use memes properly. This is why we can't have nice things. 7. Florida Man It was only a matter of time before someone put Florida on blast for being so effing ridiculous, and the @_FloridaMan Twitter feed does just that and then some. Featuring news headlines that contain the words "Florida man," each tweet is designed to be read as if a single individual (a.k.a Florida Man) is perpetrating each crime. The world's worst superhero, Florida Man was busy as all hell in 2013. He was caught peeping up a woman's skirt with a camera taped to his shoe; arrested for posting threatening tweets; and released from jail after stealing from Wal-Mart, only to be arrested again at the same store within hours. C'mon dude, get it together! 6. Chris Bosh Boshasaurus Rex pretty much dominated the Internet in 2013. Yes, the whole goddamned thing. With his epic photobombs and personal battles with stray pieces of confetti, BAWSH was born to be a meme. Along with Ray Allen, he came in clutch to secure a Heat victory in this year's NBA Championship, but we prefer to remember him for his gif-worthy talents instead. 5. In the Way Guy Talk about timing. The minute this lovely gentleman gets down on one knee in Walt Disney World to ask for his boo's hand in marriage, In the Way Guy steals his proposal thunder and inadvertently gives us one of the year's best photobombs. The Internet took this gift from the meme Gods and ran with it , Photoshopping In The Way Guy into everything from The Beatles' Abbey Road album cover to a scene from Batman. We're sure In The Way Guy is real sorry about what he did, but we're not. This gave us something to LOL at for months. 4. Bro Witness Bro Witness may be a New Zealander by origin, but he's truly a Floridian at heart. Just look at him! Shirtless, nonsensical and repping the Dolphins with the pride of a true ride-or-die fan. His claim to fame was witnessing the Capitol Hill shooting, so of course we had to adopt him as one of our own. We embraced his quirks, his smooth pecs, his bulging biceps. He was the epitome of a true Miami bro. He was our everything for those fleeting 15 minutes of fame. We'll always remember you fondly, Bro Witness. 3. Rick Ross Totally Looks Like... Leave it to Rick Ross to perform at the BET Hip-Hop Awards wearing a blue velour tracksuit, tetas blazing and gold chains hanging low. Because of course he would. After the Internet picked its jaw up off the floor, it got to work creating the "Rick Ross Totally Looks Like" meme. Rozay was likened to everyone from Tobias Funke to a big ol' Smurf. These days, he thinks he's Big Meech, Larry Hoover, Cookie Monster, hallelujah. 2. Marco Rubio Water Flub Marco, Marco, Marco, Marco. The Republican Party had such high hopes for you. You were their golden unicorn, their saving grace in the next election, but you went ahead and messed it all up by being thirstier than a bottle girl serving Lil' Wayne at Liv. You can't just get your Poland Spring chug on while rebutting the State of the Union Address. You just can't! Otherwise, the Internet will make a mockery of you and all that you choose to be. And you, my friend, chose to be one parched motherfucker. 1. Heat Harlem Shake There came a point in 2013 where the entire nation had reached Harlem Shake fatigue. One more awful parody video would've sent us on a rampage of Miami zombie proportions. Then, something beautiful happened. The skies parted, the angels sang and The Miami Heat blessed us with a glorious Harlem Shake video to wash away all of our pain and suffering. If you like this story, consider signing up for our email newsletters. You have successfully signed up for your selected newsletter(s) - please keep an eye on your mailbox, we're movin' in! Featuring King James donning his best royal attire, a GQ teddy bear named Dwyane Wade, and a boom box-toting Chris Bosh, it was the video that ended the trend once and for all. Obviously, no one could top the best team in the NBA twerking it in perfect unison. Nearly 50 million views later, Florida could finally claim it was responsible for one of the best viral videos of all time (of all time), and not just another "I cut off my husband's penis by accident" type of news story. --Lourdes Duarte Send your story tips to Cultist at cultist@miaminewtimes.com .

It isn't all about high-intensity cardio and lifting anymore.

Ugh... every year I swear I won't get hammered on New Year's Eve... I've been going over the major astrological events of 2014 , and boy... what a powerhouse of potential and peril. And furthermore, the first warning shot is fired on New Year's Day. January 1st features a New Moon in Capricorn. New Moons are often a good time to plan out what you're doing and what you want to achieve for the next month, and Capricorn has a reputation for being solid and dependable. This year, with the proper timing and effort, you might be able to extend that spirit throughout the year. The exact New Moon happens at 6:14 AM on the East Coast/3:14 AM Pacific, so unless you're partying pretty hard, I'm going to assume you will commence your resolution sometime later in the day. One of the main features of this New Moon is a square between The Sun, Moon, Mercury and Pluto conjunct in Capricorn to the Mars in Libra-Uranus in Aries opposition. Normally it's the Full Moon that has the reputation for causing edginess and discord, but this New Moon could rival that for many of you. A lot of people have a Designated Driver on New Year's: you might want to consider getting one for your mouth and your temper too. Alcohol, as you may have noticed, doesn't always help with such things. Of course, an "edge" can also be a good thing. New Year's Resolutions can be the sort of thing where one merely pays lip service to the big changes that are needed but never really get addressed. Provided you don't blow up, this New Moon's energy could be just what you need to blast through your personal obstacles. Just as every person has a birth chart based on the moment of birth, in theory so does every action. Picking out the right time and day to start a business or initiate a project is called Electional Astrology. Every time you start something new you can cast a birth chart for it, but it's probably a good thing you don't... in theory you could spend half the day in bed waiting for the right moment to commence things, then wait until the next day because the Moon is Void Of Course and thus something could go terribly wrong with breakfast. Nonetheless, for important projects, it's often worthwhile to wait until the right time to start things. Since we're approaching New Year's Day, and that's traditionally the day when we all swear to start ____ more or to stop ____, picking the right time to start can improve you chances of success. I'll be having a look at your best timing for various common resolutions in a minute, but first, some general conditions: -None of these are set to commence on exactly January 1st at midnight. Midnight on any day seems like a bad time to start any new venture, but on a day when everyone's drinking and/or partying, and no one expects to show up the next day for work? Forget that. Starting a new project or breaking a habit is hard enough without having to start in the middle of the night when you're in the middle of a party. -To be precise about these things, ideally you should have a look at the transits to your individual birth chart as well as current conditions in their own right. Although I am basing my suggestions on House Placements for my location in New York City, these should apply to you in your local time. When in doubt, go with your gut for the exact timing. -All of these resolutions are based on the list at USA.gov . Few people realize that one of the primary roles of the US Government is to help you stick to your New Year's resolutions. Also, please note none of the following resolutions are listed on the USA.gov web site: making Congress work, stopping all the spying on civilians and allies, ending secret drone attacks, fixing the minimum wage, or arresting the crooks who tanked the economy a few years ago. Thanks for all the help, USA.gov! So, keeping all that in mind, here are some optimum times for you to start your new habit, new activity, or new life, based on your local time: SUNRISE - ONE HOUR AFTER SUNRISE: Weight gain, changes to make your work routine happier, or changes to make yourself look better. Jupiter will be strongly aspected in the local 6th House, and Venus will be rising. And yes, I said weight gain. TWO-FOUR HOURS AFTER SUNRISE: More sex and/or romance in your life. Jupiter moves into your local 5th House, which rules romance. Mars in the local 8th House at that time is usually pretty good for sex. In either case, you may want to recruit someone ahead of time to help with these things, ideally. MID-DAY: Excellent for making long-term changes to your career and/or the whole issue of "what you're doing with your life." Also, not bad for making changes to a long-term relationship... specifically, getting out of one that has outlived its usefulness. TWO - FOUR HOURS AFTER MID-DAY: Setting educational goals and/or making progress with the daily routines in your life, such as exercise or organization. SUNSET: Improving a long-term relationship, or finding one. THREE-FOUR HOURS AFTER SUNSET: Matters related to children or to just "having more fun" in general. Also, getting a grip on either emotional habits or addictions. There you have it: your New Year's Day is taken care of, and the rest of your year ought to be just fine. Well, at least that would be the case if it weren't for the following 364 days...

Ugh... every year I swear I won't get hammered on New Year's Eve... I've been going over the major astrological events of 2014 , and boy... what a powerhouse of potential and peril.

Kathryn Moody : Investors, Are You Ready for the Next Global Crisis? Manuel Schiffres Mutual Fund Rankings, 2014 Meghan Streit : Pitching In When Caregivers Need Help Janet Bond Brill, Ph.D., R.D.N., F.A.N.D : How to prevent a second (and first) heart attack thru diet The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington : Caprese is a light, fresh salad; the perfect quick and easy accompaniment to any summer meal Mark Steyn : You Want Nazis? Jonathan Tobin : Care about the Jewish state's future? Obama, in interview, reveals even more reasons to worry Alan M. Dershowitz : Confirmed: Needless death and destruction in Gaza Katie Nielsen : As a mother, I'm all I need to be Cameron Huddleston : 18 Retailers That Offer Price Adjustments Nellie S. Huang : The Best Health Mutual Funds to Buy Now Brierly Wright, M.S., R.D. : Try these 'secret-weapon' foods to boost your changes of losing weight The Kosher Gourmet by Jessica Yadegaran : Take some relish in pickled goodies (5 recipes!) Kimberly Lankford : 50 Ways to Cut Your Health Care Costs James K. Glassman : Investors, Are You Ready for the Next Global Crisis? The Kosher Gourmet by Nick Malgieri : Chocolate molten delight with creme anglaise is a simple yet elegant make-ahead dessert Save for fashion, cuisine and dating guidelines (no partner younger than half one's age, plus seven years), it's not often that America is in the business of mimicking the French. But as our republic approaches its 242 nd birthday, perhaps it's time we borrowed one more trait from the European power that enabled our liberty. The French like to take a break during July and August --- and that wouldn't be the worst thing to happen to American politics. Or perhaps you'd like another two months of arguing the moral equivalence of a White House press secretary denied restaurant service versus a gay couple denied a wedding cake. Or more debate over the genuineness of Roseanne Barr and Rachel Maddow's tears, the hidden messages behind First Lady Melania Trump's wardrobe selections and California Rep. Maxine Waters' belief that harassing Trump officials is nothing less than divine providence. This doesn't mean that government itself should go on a break. With wildfire season in full effect, Californians are more dependent than usual upon emergency services. Rather, all bloviators -- left, right and center - need to take a collective timeout from the Fourth of July through Labor Day. Think of it as a "spare the air" day times 61, or a cease-fire and cool-down before the final two months of an election that's bound to test our patience. What to do with that hiatus? For California's political class, I'd suggest a little summertime reading: a March 1994 "briefing on California immigration issues" by the state Senate's Office of Research. An uplifting tale it's not, as it recounts a series of would-be solutions to the nation's immigration conundrum: Then-President Bill Clinton proposed more stringent asylum procedures, Sen. Dianne Feinstein suggested a $1 fee on border crossings to help pay for Border Patrol operations and then-Gov. Pete Wilson beseeched Washington for $1.5 billion to cover California's costs for illegal immigration (he ended up getting about 20 percent). Kathleen Brown, the state treasurer and Wilson's opponent for governor in 1994, came out in support of employer sanctions and a tamper-proof Social Security Card. In all, the Legislature toyed with some 70 immigration-related measures. One that survived the gauntlet denying driver's licenses for undocumented applicants was undone by Gov. Jerry Brown five years ago. You don't need to finish reading the report to know how this story turns out. America remains paralyzed over fundamental issues on control of the border with Mexico, asylum seekers and public services available to the undocumented. You can blame partisanship for this gridlock venturing to the middle on immigration reform is no-man's land, with the strong likelihood of drawing fire from both trenches. But you can also blame civility. As this summer has shown, politicians seem more interested in cheap stunts snarky tweets, playing recordings on the House floor than engaging in a dignified debate on immigration reform. That's another benefit of a timeout from political grandstanding: it gives us a chance to reflect on priorities. A congressional candidate in South Carolina is hospitalized after a near-fatal automobile crash not long after she claimed the political life of a Republican incumbent with the help of a Trump tweet zinging the incumbent's past marital infidelity. Trump could have taken the high road and visited the injured. Instead, he held a campaign rally where he savaged the defeated congressman. This White House doesn't believe in climate change. Sadly, that includes civil discourse.

it's not often that America is in the business of mimicking the French. But as our republic approaches its 242 nd birthday, perhaps it's time we borrowed one more trait from the European power that enabled our liberty.

Cost of hookworm treatment beyond reach of many Alabama residents By Warren Duzak 17 January 2018 The prevention as well as the treatment of parasitic disease is beyond what working-class and poor residents in Alabama can afford to pay. In the richest country in the world, citizens in this southern US state suffer from parasite-borne scourges previously thought common only in the poorest regions of the globe. In Butler and Lowndes counties, in the southern part of the state, it can cost half a year's income to install a home sewage septic system to help eliminate the breeding grounds for hookworm and other intestinal parasites. As a result of poverty many residents lack adequate indoor plumbing and basic sanitation. Once a person is infected their treatment can require thousands of dollars in over-priced, branded drugs that once sold as generics for a fraction of current costs, according to Consumer Reports magazine. The WSWS reported last month on the visit of UN Special Rapporteur Phillip Alston to Alabama, including to Lowndes County, the home county of US Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Alston described seeing pits of raw sewage with disease-causing parasites that a majority of Americans might have associated with Sub-Saharan Africa. Creeping eruption of hookworm "I think it's very uncommon in the First World," Alston said, "This is not a sight that one normally sees. I'd have to say that I haven't seen this." As the WSWS reported, "The loamy soil and hot, humid weather that made cotton farming such a profitable endeavor in the Deep South provides a perfect breeding environment for Necator americanus , a species of hookworm that lays its eggs in the intestines of those it infects. In a place like Lowndes or Butler County, where raw sewage seeps into poorly draining soil, the eggs deposited through sewage have a warm and hospitable locale to incubate, hatch and reproduce. A person unwittingly walking through a soil where hookworms have incubated can become infected when one or more worms enters their body, usually through bare feet and exposed ankles." The parasite can cause stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea. "As infection progresses, severe anemia frequently leads to fatigue and cognitive disabilities; in some cases, particularly among the very young, the very old, and the immune-compromised, it leads to death." Both sanitary technology and effective drugs have long existed to eliminate hookworms and similar parasites, including pinworms. Hookworm lifecycle "The incidence of hookworm is clearly tied both to poverty and to blatant malfeasance on the part of local, state and federal governments," the WSWS reported. "In Lowndes County, the annual median household makes a mere $30,225 yearly. According to the 2010 US Census, over 25 percent of county residents live below the poverty line. For a family that earns less than $2,000 a month, the cost of a new septic system--which can cost up to $15,000 to install--is prohibitively high." The low wages plus price-gouging pharmaceutical companies have prevented treatment relief when prevention is out of reach. First, there are drugs available to treat hookworm. They have been around for some time and are quite effective, with cure rates of 96 percent, according to www.drugs.com. The Centers for Disease Control recommends two drugs that were once generic and far less expensive. "Anthelminthic medications (drugs that rid the body of parasitic worms), such as albendazole and mebendazole, are the drugs of choice for treatment of hookworm infections. Infections are generally treated for 1-3 days. The recommended medications are effective and appear to have few side effects," the CDC recommended. But in the hands of the capitalist owners of the pharmaceutical giants, medicine becomes a tool only for increasing profit by, like the hookworm, sucking the life's blood from the working class. "Albendazole was relatively inexpensive until 2010, when the manufacturer stopped making it. Amedra Pharmaceuticals later acquired marketing rights to the drug in 2013 and started raising its price from $6 per pill. Amedra was subsequently acquired by Impax Laboratories in 2015," a Consumer Reports story last year explained. "Mebendazole, meanwhile, was an inexpensive generic drug for decades, then went off the market in 2011." By purchasing the rights to that drug, Amedra owned the only two prescription pinworm treatments available, which were also the recommended drugs by the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) for hookworm treatment, Consumer Reports noted. Pinworm is a less dangerous and more easily treatable worm parasite, but affects millions of Americans, mostly children between 5 and 10 years of age. "The company was acquired by Impax Laboratories in 2015, and by January 2016 it launched a chewable version called Emverm, pricing it around $400 per pill. The inexpensive version of mebendazole is no longer available," the magazine reported The recommended dosage to treat hookworms with Emverm is one pill in the morning and one in the evening for three days. A Costco pharmacy listed the price at $1,868.31 for six pills, while Rite Way showed a cost of $2,332.20 for six, according to a recent internet search. According to www.drugs.com, the recommended treatment with Albenza (a brand name for Albendazole) can require 28 days, depending on body weight. A 28-day regimen would cost almost $3,000 for the multiple pills. A single 200-mg pill at nine major pharmacies, including Safeway, Costco, Walgreens and Walmart , ranged in price from $382 to $399. As the WSWS reported in 2015, the price tag on drugs can be 10 times higher in the United States than other countries. "The price variations bear no relation to health outcomes," Tom Sackville, chief executive with the International Federation of Health Plans (IFHP), said at that time. "They merely demonstrate the relative ability of providers to profiteer at the expense of patients, and in some cases, reflect a damaging degree of market failure. "In the case of albendazole, the answer is very simple: Most doctors have no idea that an older, off-patent drug like albendazole could cost $200 per dose," Jeremy A. Greene, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine and the history of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told Consumer Reports . "That is, until a patient comes back from the pharmacy in shock over the high price." The drugs have been around a long time, so "the average prescribing physician is conditioned to think that it must be very cheap," Greene explained. "And they know also that it's a drug that's almost free in other countries. The concept that it could cost $200 per pill is unfathomable." Fight Google's censorship! Google is blocking the World Socialist Web Site from search results. To fight this blacklisting: Share this article with friends and coworkers Facebook Twitter E-Mail Reddit

Cost of hookworm treatment beyond reach of many Alabama residents By Warren Duzak 17 January 2018 The prevention as well as the treatment of parasitic disease is beyond what working-class and poor residents in Alabama can afford to pay.

'Euro Rises On Optimism Over Greece' Stop laughing - this is apparently not a joke. We were waiting for a headline of this sort to soon turn up. Given that the Greek government has been softened up for several weeks by way of numerous threats and apocalyptic predictions emanating from the IMF, the ECB and the EU's council of ministers, it is high time for the 'good cop' to show up and promise that more good money will be thrown after bad to keep protecting the country's creditors - even if only in the shape of a rumor. The official decision on the disbursement of the next tranche of loans by IMF/EFSF to Greece is only expected later this week, and the bigger decision regarding what to do about the fact that the Greek government is unlikely to be able to tap markets by 2012 is expected to be handed down in late June, but obviously something needed to be done to avoid markets getting bent completely out of shape until then. Therefore Bloomberg reports ... " The euro climbed against most of its major peers, while Asian stocks and U.S. equity-index futures advanced amid speculation European nations will pledge more funds to repair Greece 's finances . Wheat sank the most in three weeks after Russia said it will allow grain shipments to resume. Europe 's 17-nation currency strengthened 0.6 percent to $1.4369 and rose 0.5 percent to 116.13 yen as of 9:35 a.m. in Tokyo. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 0.6 percent, paring its steepest monthly slump in a year. Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures added 0.4 percent. Wheat tumbled as much as 4.4 percent. Oil erased earlier losses, while copper snapped a four- day advance in New York. European Union leaders will decide on a new aid package for Greece by the end of next month, said Luxembourg's Jean-Claude Juncker , who leads the group of euro-area finance ministers. Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said on May 27 he'll press ahead with new austerity measures after failing to win backing from the main opposition parties. "There's a degree of confidence that cooler heads will prevail and the next round of assistance will be forthcoming" for Greece, said Robert Rennie, chief currency strategist in Sydney at Westpac Banking Corp . The euro appreciated against 14 of its 16 most-actively traded counterparts. It slid against all but two yesterday after Antonis Samaras, leader of Greece's biggest opposition party, New Democracy , rejected Papandreou's plan. EU officials have ruled out a "total restructuring" of the nation's debt, Juncker said yesterday. Germany may stop demanding an early rescheduling of bonds for Greece so the debt- strapped nation can get a new package of loans, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified people . European Union officials have called for consensus on the package, which includes an additional 6 billion euros ($8.6 billion) of budget cuts and a plan to speed 50 billion euros of state-asset sales, before approving more aid that Greece needs to avoid default . (our emphasis) This was reported at 2:46 a.m. CET, i.e., well before the markets opened for trading in Europe. Look at the points we highlighted above. Suddenly there's 'speculation' that 'more funds will be pledged' (did that drop from the sky? Not exactly). A steep monthly slump in Asian stock markets is thereby arrested. The Greek prime minister will 'press ahead' with more austerity measures, the opposition's lack of support can be safely ignored (we would note that the opposition actually makes an interesting point, see further below). We get a currency strategist from an Australian bank who tells us 'cooler heads will prevail' (an expert weighs in - everything is fine!). JC ' we lie because nobody believes us anyway ' Juncker, who recently mooted a 'reprofiling' of Greece's government debt informs us there will be no 'total restructuring' of Greek debt (presumably a 'less than total' restructuring will still be possible, although one is left guessing what that is supposed to exactly entail). Germany is backing down from demands for debt rescheduling. This is not really news of course, since the German climbdown began at least a week or two ago already. Anyway, it's always good to know that the paymaster's stern mien was really just adopted for show. Or so 'unidentified people' are telling us. Lastly, there's a reminder to Greece's government that certain demands must be met, or else. As the chart below shows, calming the markets has become a matter of urgency: The Athens General Index (ATG) plunges to a new crisis low, down 29% from the interim high reached in February. Spain's IBEX (solid black line) has previously tracked the ATG closely, but has begun to diverge since mid March. One way or the other the gap is likely to narrow again, and it would be impolitic if it narrowed by means of a decline of the IBEX - click for higher resolution. There are also government bond auctions in Spain and Italy this week (see further below), the bond yields of which have for several months traded in a tight, but elevated range. An upside breakout from that range would be very bad news indeed, hence more soothing noises should be expected to be forthcoming in coming days. As the Irish Independent notes , the Greek government is likely to be pushed into ceding a good chunk of its fiscal and economic policy sovereignty this week. It has little choice in the matter, as it is about to run out of money. "Greece is coming under increasingly intense pressure from her international creditors and bond markets, with a decision expected later this week on whether Athens will receive the latest tranche of aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a EUR12bn (PS10bn) credit due within weeks. A "troika" of officials from the IMF, the EU Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB), the three bodies overseeing the continuing rescue, are now in Athens reviewing the options. They are expected to make their recommendations later this week. If these fail to gain support internationally or in the Greek cabinet, a disorderly default may become inevitable. The latest injection of cash, agreed last May as part of a EUR110bn rescue, is said to be under threat as IMF officials are dissatisfied with the progress Greece is making to fixing her public finances. In particular, Fund officials are unhappy about the speed and ambition of a proposed privatisation programme. They are also worried about the reliability of the country's economic data. One way out for Greece is apparently to grant the IMF, the EU Commission and the ECB unprecedented powers over the nation's economy. " (our emphasis) Unfortunately no details have apparently emerged as to what exactly the 'unprecedented powers' the IMF and EU commission are said to be granted will consist of. We doubt this is going to be met with hearty approval by Greece's hard-pressed tax cows, but they have obviously no say in these proceedings. The good news is that some sort of debt restructuring is apparently seen as inevitable - alas, evidently 'not yet'. Extend and pretend must be given another lease of life for now, lest the wheels come off the euro-area wagon: "Crucially, however, the plan would also require private bond holders to accept a "rescheduling" of the bonds they hold, arguably a technical default as it would impose a cost on the holders of Greek debt. Such a "credit event" is also unprecedented in the history of the European Union and the single currency area, but seen as necessary in order to carry increasingly hostile public opinion in the nations that usually have to foot the bill - Germany, Finland and the Netherlands. Chancellor Angela Merkel has made little secret of her desire that private investors should "share the pain" in any restructuring or "reprofiling". Last week the chair of the eurozone group of finance ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker, suggested that a "soft restructuring" of Greek debt could form part of a new deal. However, such a move could still prove highly destabilising to Greece's partners in the eurozone. It would require a further bailout of the Greek banks; it could trigger a credit crunch across the continent, as many banks have significant exposure to Greek debt and banks; and it would hit the ECB with a loss of around EUR35bn on its holdings of EUR200bn of Greek bonds. These are collateral for loans to Greek private banks, and, in turn for the Greek government who borrowed money from those banks because they were all locked out of private capital markets and the ECB could not lend directly to Greece. Worse still, there is also the fear of another round of "contagion" to Portugal, Ireland, Spain and even Italy. The latter two face government bond auctions this week." Greece And The 'Scandinavian Model' Initially, little detail was reported in the media regarding the stance of the Greek opposition, the conservative New Democrat Party (NDP) led by Antonis Samaras. It was merely reported as 'not supporting' the new austerity package. This could actually be of considerable moment, given that the NDP lately leads prime minister Papandreou's PASOK (Pan-Hellenist Socialist Movement) in the polls - as we have previously mentioned, economic and social mood downturns are never kind to political incumbents. The 'troika' (IMF, EU commission and ECB) is therefore eager to obtain such opposition backing of its latest austerity package. This is what Samaras actually had to say regarding his party's objections: "You want to raise taxes and reach consensus with us, who have set reducing taxes as a priority? Don't even think about it," said Antonis Samaras, leader of the conservative New Democracy party. "Lower tax rates are the key to starting the engine of the Greek economy. If you raise taxes, there will be no room for consensus or for renegotiation," he added. "If we do everything else but don't lower taxes, we won't be able to give the economy the needed jump-start. This memorandum is like Sisyphus's punishment: no matter how much you push the boulder up the hill, it will roll back down." While we don't believe an economy can be 'jump-started' as though it were a stalled engine, we certainly have sympathy for Samaras' point about taxes on general principle. The scrounging for more tax revenue by raising taxes in the middle of a strong economic downturn may well prove self-defeating and end up raising less revenue than would be raised if taxes were instead lowered. After all, the most important goal must be to give the Greek economy the opportunity to revive. It makes little sense to relieve the economy of the burden of government spending on the one hand while concurrently increasing the burden of taxation on the other. One of the things the Greek government has attempted to get under control is widespread tax evasion, and it has been quite unsuccessful in this endeavor so far. Higher taxes will likely only serve to spur even more tax evasion. As Papandreou himself admitted in a recent speech, ' an unfair taxation system created the culture of tax evasion in Greece '. He also appears to believe that the 'Scandinavian model' will provide relief, which seems doubtful since it will probably be difficult to transplant the cultural traits that come with it. It is not quite clear if he thinks of the 'old' Scandinavian model that was so admired by the left, or the new one. As a reminder, the Scandinavian countries were once so overtaxed and over-regulated, that all entrepreneurial motivation died off in them. Sweden at one point sported a top marginal tax rate of 102% - which proved to be a great recipe for economic stagnation and forced considerable reforms in the 1980's and 1990's, with more in train. Today the Scandinavian nations are still highly taxed, but offsetting this is the fact that they have been deregulated to such an extent that they all score very highly on the overall 'economic freedom' index (for more on this read Markus Bergstrom's article here ). In Sweden's case, tax rates continue to be on the decline as well and socialism's popularity has clearly waned. As noted in an article posted at the Peterson Institute last year: "Arguably, the Scandinavian countries are better managed and wealthier than ever. So is the new Scandinavian model something to boast about? I asked Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt. He responded emphatically: No! "Last time Sweden was perceived as a model led to a complacency we could not afford. We have to continue reforming our society in an ever more competitive world. If we accept it as a model, we shall only lean back, doing too little to improve it." On September 19, the Swedish center-right government led by Fredrik Reinfeldt faced elections. It was reelected in spite of the financial crisis. This was all the greater a sensation since Sweden has been ruled by social democrats for 62 of the last 78 years. But this victory was well deserved. This government had cut taxes four times and abolished wealth taxes--the preceding social democratic government had actually eliminated inheritance and gift taxes, but even so achieving a budget surplus and reducing the public debt. Seldom has a government carried out so many small deregulatory reforms on a broad front . With the social democrats obtaining only 30 percent of the vote even in their "homeland" Sweden, their statist model seems history. Populism is no longer popular in Scandinavia ." (our emphasis) Given that Papandreou is a socialist we're not sure if this is what he has in mind when he refers to the 'Scandinavian model'. However, since he mentions in his speech that he is aware of a study comparing Greece to Chile, there is reason to be hopeful - as Chile currently scores as number 10 in the world in terms of economic freedom. The Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom - green is good, blue is even better - click for higher resolution. Perhaps the Greek opposition and the government are not as far apart on the tax issue as appears on the surface. It should be kept in mind in this context that Ireland has rightly remained steadfast on the corporate tax issue and not given in to the demands of the 'tax harmonizers' in the EU. Alas, Ireland had and continues to have a better negotiating position than Greece, since the main issue it is grappling with is its bankrupt banking system, the creditors of which the eurocracy wants to keep protected. The trouble the Irish banks find themselves in meanwhile is mainly a function of the collapse of the real estate bubble in Ireland. Greece's banks are of course also in the soup, but in their case this is largely due to the fact that the collapse of the market value of Greek government bonds is redounding on them. Near Term Outlook For 'Risk Assets' In the short term, a calming down of fears over the Greek debt crisis could lend support to stocks and commodities. We note that a short term positive divergence between the SPX and copper has occurred, while stock market sentiment has lost a lot of its previous exuberance. The emphasis is on 'short term' - we don't expect the market to make any great strides and think the medium to longer term outlook is likely to be far less enticing - as there is in our opinion nothing that would argue that the secular bear market is over. Speaking of SPX-copper divergences, a temporally more widely spaced negative divergence was put in prior to the recent short term positive divergence, and unless it is negated again in the next rebound this argues for medium to longer term weakness. The SPX-gold ratio meanwhile seems on the verge of breaking lower again - so in terms of 'real money', the stock market's bearish trend remains clearly in force. Nevertheless, if one looks at the overlapping waves in the recent flag-like decline the SPX, it looks like the stock market isn't yet ready to give in. There could be some meandering in the vicinity of the highs over the summer, in a trading range that could continue to test the patience of both bulls and bears. The SPX vs. copper - a tale of two divergences. A medium term negative divergence has been followed by a short term positive one. Our best guess is this means short term strength is likely, and will be followed by medium to longer term weakness unless the previous negative divergence is negated again (which seems unlikely at present) - click for higher resolution. The SPX - gold ratio over the past three years. It remains in the trading range it has inhabited for the past year, but there has been a series of lower highs and lower lows recently - at some point we expect a break to new lows - click for higher resolution. A brief observation on sentiment data: during the rally phase from the August 2010 to February 2011, sentiment data developed numerous extremes (we are referring to all types of data here, options positioning, various polls, Rydex ratios, futures positioning, etc.). Much of this over-confidence in the short term sentiment indicators was then relinquished in the pullback into March, was revived again in the subsequent rally and now has been given back again. In short, many sentiment data exhibit far more volatility than the stock market itself. This is however not the case for data points with longer term significance, such as the mutual fund cash-to-assets ratio, hedge fund net exposure, margin debt and NYSE free customer credits. When looked at in toto , the message from the sentiment data seems to indicate something very much similar to the message from the two SPX-copper divergences discussed above: they look short term positive, but longer term negative. Our idea is that any future market pullback that fails to dampen bullish sentiment quickly will likely mark the beginning of a much deeper correction. This must be tempered a bit by the fact that there is growing awareness of the sovereign debt crisis in the euro area. As long as the 'extend and pretend' policy continues more or less successfully, the crisis may serve as a 'wall of worry' backdrop, but obviously this would no longer be the case should it get out of control. Recall in this context that in 2007/8, the mortgage credit crisis initially failed to put a dent into stocks and commodities as well - the markets at first chose to instead focus on the easier monetary policy it promised to spark and only later became gradually more worried that it may not remain 'well contained' after all. So one must carefully weigh the data points mentioned above with the market's propensity to either ignore negative fundamental developments or to begin focusing on them. The latter would no doubt go hand in hand with a noticeable character change. Interventionist policies such as those now undertaken by the EU and IMF in the case of the euro area debt crisis tend to lengthen market cycles, but they also tend to increase their amplitude. Or putting it differently: the denouement may arrive later than most people expect, but once it does, it will bring about a marked increase in short term volatility. Since it is impossible to tell with certainty when that will happen, it will no doubt prove prudent to have an actionable plan for the eventuality beforehand. Charts by: StockCharts.com, Heritage Foundation Dear Readers! You may have noticed that our so-called "semiannual" funding drive, which started sometime in the summer if memory serves, has seamlessly segued into the winter. In fact, the year is almost over! We assure you this is not merely evidence of our chutzpa; rather, it is indicative of the fact that ad income still needs to be supplemented in order to support upkeep of the site. Naturally, the traditional benefits that can be spontaneously triggered by donations to this site remain operative regardless of the season - ranging from a boost to general well-being/happiness (inter alia featuring improved sleep & appetite), children including you in their songs, up to the likely allotment of privileges in the afterlife, etc., etc., but the Christmas season is probably an especially propitious time to cross our palms with silver. A special thank you to all readers who have already chipped in, your generosity is greatly appreciated. Regardless of that, we are honored by everybody's readership and hope we have managed to add a little value to your life. Bitcoin address: 12vB2LeWQNjWh59tyfWw23ySqJ9kTfJifA

When looked at in toto , the message from the sentiment data seems to indicate something very much similar to the message from the two SPX-copper divergences discussed above: they look short term positive, but longer term negative.

Gerald R. Ford died a year ago December, at age 93. To honor the 38th president, his White House photographer, David Hume Kennerly, has compiled Extraordinary Circumstances, a photo homage to his former boss. In sifting through his picture archive to produce the book, Kennerly discovered this previously unpublished study of a 1974 encounter between Ford and then governor Ronald Reagan, taken in a hotel room after an L.A. fund-raiser. Today, the image conveys a touch of Rat Pack swagger, an architectural elegance, and a hint of the California glamour that Reagan would eventually import to Washington. At the time, however, Kennerly, who had won a Pulitzer for his work in Vietnam, considered the picture too dark and brooding; he almost overlooked the frame on his contact sheet. But that darkness captured something of the spirit of the time: less than three months before, Watergate had forced Richard Nixon from office; inflation, unemployment, and gas prices were on the rise; and the U.S. was facing defeat in Vietnam. A David Hume Kennerly slide show. The picture also caught the sometimes frosty relationship between the two leaders. Both Reagan and Ford, after all, would nix the 1980 "dream ticket" idea, floated by some Republican mandarins, to draft Ford as Reagan's vice president. And Ford, during his unsuccessful 1976 campaign against Jimmy Carter, resented Reagan's political infighting. "Truthfully," Ford confessed to Kennerly years later, "I was upset when he challenged me [for the '76 Republican nomination]. I thought it was unwise for a Republican to challenge a sitting Republican president. We had a pretty bitter contest. It was a head-to-head, knock-down, drag-out affair." "I study this picture now," says Kennerly, "and it looks like a scene from The Godfather "--which had won the best-picture Oscar the year before. Visit kennerly.com to find out more about Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer David Hume Kennerly and to purchase Extraordinary Circumstances, to be published in December by the Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin. David Friend is *Vanity Fair'*s editor of creative development.

Gerald R. Ford died a year ago December, at age 93. To honor the 38th president, his White House photographer, David Hume Kennerly, has compiled Extraordinary Circumstances, a photo homage to his former boss. In sifting through his picture archive to produce the book, Kennerly discovered this previously unpublished study of a 1974 encounter between Ford and then governor Ronald Reagan, taken in a hotel room after an L.A. fund-raiser.

In Puerto Rico, more than 90 percent of the island still does not have electricity from the power grid, and half the island does not have drinking water, now more than two weeks after Hurricane Maria. On Wednesday, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, contradicted President Trump's comments about wiping out Puerto Rico's billions-dollar debt amid the catastrophic aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Mick Mulvaney : "Dealing with the challenges that Puerto Rico had--the island is at least $72 billion in debt, $120 [billion] if you go by other counts, before the storm. We are going to focus our attention right now on rebuilding the island, repairing the island, making sure everybody is safe and that we get through this difficult times. We are not going to deal right now with those fundamental difficulties that Puerto Rico had before the storm. By the way--and that not--many folks have not talked about this yet--a lot of those issues are already dealt with through previous legislation called PROMESA ." Mulvaney was walking back comments Trump made on Tuesday, when Trump told Geraldo Rivera of Fox News that he would move to eliminate the island's debt. Meanwhile, federal officials are now concerned that the damage from Hurricane Maria will lead to nationwide shortages of critical medicine and other supplies, since Puerto Rico is one of the world's biggest centers of pharmaceutical manufacturing. We'll have more on Puerto Rico with Congressmember Nydia Velazquez of New York, who is originally from Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, where Hurricane Maria made landfall just over two weeks ago.

In Puerto Rico, more than 90 percent of the island still does not have electricity from the power grid, and half the island does not have drinking water, now more than two weeks after Hurricane Maria. On Wednesday, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, contradicted President Trump's comments about wiping out Puerto Rico's billions-dollar debt amid the catastrophic aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Mick Mulvaney :

From vaccinating children in India by torchlight to adjudicating the Model United Nations in Russia, Monica Saville has done it all. Her two decades of volunteer work around the globe has now been recognised with an OAM. A member of the Rotary Club of Epping for 22 years, Mrs Saville has held various positions within the organisation including president, regional coordinator for the Australian Rotary Foundation, as well as her current role as trustee and treasury of the foundation's trust, looking after the money donated to Rotary. "It's amazing how far an Australian dollar goes," she said. "It (costs) 60 cents a day to vaccinate a child." Mrs Saville was "delighted to join" Rotary in 1993. "It's my greatest passion in life," she said. Mrs Saville, of West Pennant Hills, has helped run the Rotary's school debating competitions since 1998 including a role as adjudicator for the Model United Nations, which is held around the world. She has also been the manager of Rotary's Youth Driver Awareness Program since 2003. "That was something that started in the Hills area in 2000 when a carload of young people in the area were killed," she said. "And the Rotary thought something should be done in the area to promote driver awareness." Monica Saville at her West Pennant Hills home. Picture: Troy Snook Mrs Saville has travelled the world promoting and implementing Rotary's various projects, including providing polio vaccines to children in India - using the light of torches and mobile phones once the sun set. "Rotary's biggest project since 1985 has been the eradication of polio in the world," she said. "As a young girl I got polio and I'm a polio survivor so it has been of particular importance to me." Mrs Saville also travelled to India to oversee the construction of toilet blocks in 10 schools. "A lot of girls education finish at 12, 13, which is a shame," she said. "...So by putting toilet blocks in we can continue their education. "I really enjoy whatever I can do, whether it is locally with school students and their public speaking skills or overseas with students helping build toilet blocks." Education has always been important to Mrs Saville, a former teacher and principal. After growing up in Junee in the Riverina, Mrs Saville taught at various schools around the Murray River and Sydney districts including at Jasper Road Public School in Baulkham Hills. In the 1970s, she moved to the United States with her young family so her husband could complete his PhD at Michigan State University. Monica Saville has been awarded an OAM for service to the community. Picture: Troy Snook Never one to sit still, Mrs Saville decided to study as well - graduating from a Bachelor of Science with honours in 1975. "We were living on campus and I thought, 'Wow there are so many great courses here'," she said. "So I thought I may as well do something. "And by the time my husband finished his masters, I had completed my degree." Studying while caring for her two young daughters was no easy feat, but Mrs Saville said she was supported by the close-knit university community. "There were lots of women on campus who were studying and we all used to babysit for each other," she said. "It was very stimulating and you felt you were very much at the cutting edge of knowledge there." Mrs Saville went on to complete her Masters of Education at Macquarie University in 1985. The mother of two and grandmother of two said she was "amazed and delighted" to learn she would receive an OAM for service to the community. "I hardly have words to describe it," she said. "I felt very, very honoured because when you do all these things you don't do them for the rewards they bring, you do them to make the world a better place. "To be recognised by the Australian Government is really quite special." Mrs Saville said she has enjoyed the journey Rotary has taken her on. "I have to say it's been a great thrill, a wonderful thrill," she said. "I'm having a wonderfully stimulating life."

A member of the Rotary Club of Epping for 22 years, Mrs Saville has held various positions within the organisation including president, regional coordinator for the Australian Rotary Foundation,

We all want an education system that delivers a high-quality education to all children. Ensuring quality requires holding schools accountable for results, but that raises a crucial question: accountable to whom? A few years ago, as the Arizona Legislature was considering expanding its pioneering education savings account (ESA) program, the mother of a child with special needs who benefited from an ESA listened in disbelief as critics described the program as "unaccountable." With an ESA, parents can customize their child's education. Instead of enrolling their child at his or her assigned school, they can use a portion of the funds allocated for their child to pay for private school tuition, tutoring, textbooks, educational therapy, online courses and more. However, because ESA parents are not subject to the same top-down regulations as district schools, opponents frequently claim that they "lack accountability." When it was finally her turn to speak, the mother corrected the critics : "The accountability is with me," she explained, "I am responsible for my child. I am responsible for my child's education. The accountability lies with me." As Texas is now considering similar ESA legislation, similar misconceptions abound. For far too long, we have confused government regulations for accountability -- but they are not the same. The best form of accountability is when schools or other education providers are directly answerable to parents. ESAs empower parents to choose the learning environment that works best for their child, so if a school isn't meeting its child's learning needs, they can go elsewhere. However, most low- and middle-income families have no viable alternative to their assigned district school. Because these schools are not directly accountable to parents, school boards and bureaucrats at the state capital attempt to approximate real accountability through top-down regulations, similar to public utilities and other monopolies that aren't directly accountable to consumers. Yet decades of attempts to regulate district schools into quality have had little effect. Government-imposed "accountability" regulations like No Child Left Behind and the Common Core have failed to significantly improve quality, let alone spur innovation. Unfortunately, too many policymakers continue to labor under the false notion that such mandates are synonymous with "accountability" rather than an inferior alternative to direct accountability to parents. It's time for a new direction. Texas should adopt an ESA policy that will hold all schools directly accountable to parents. Giving parents 90 percent of the state's approximately $9,000 maintenance and operations funding per pupil would put the average Texas private school's tuition -- approximately $8,500 -- within reach. The state would still set certain health and safety standards and ensure that ESA funds are spent only on qualifying educational products and services, but the accountability for results would lie with the people who are in the best position to evaluate those results: parents. Once district schools know that dissatisfied parents can use their ESAs to take their children and their money elsewhere, there will be no further need for the layers upon layers of centralized mandates. Of course, parents need information to help them make good decisions about their child's education. Fortunately, a system of choice also creates incentives for third parties to help parents acquire that information. In the K-12 sector, websites like GreatSchools.org and Niche.com already provide expert ratings based on available data and give parents and students a platform to review their schools based on their personal experience. As K-12 educational options expand, we should expect to see even more expert reviewers and platforms for user reviews to fill the growing parental demand for information. There is no perfect system, but educational choice policies build on strengths and correct errors far more effectively than regulatory fiat. In a choice-based system, high-quality education providers that attract families have a strong incentive to expand while less-effective providers must either go out of business or imitate their more successful competitors. For this process to work, educators must have the freedom to innovate and parents the freedom to choose the providers that work best for their children. By enacting an ESA policy, Texas can lead the way toward a system that delivers a high-quality education for all children.

We all want an education system that delivers a high-quality education to all children.

13 November 2015 adolescent sexuality , sexting 13 November 2015 natural law , philosophy We no longer use the rack, but we are as merciless as ever. What The Martian can teach us about American health care It can be based on optimistic but unreasonable expectations. Same-sex adoption bill could leave birth mothers with emotional scars The Australian state of Victoria's proposed law could repeat the sad mistakes of the past. How Warren Buffett's philanthropy secretly funded contraception The billionaire has funded cheap, effective and safe IUDs. Invasion of the body snatchers: transgenderism on Halloween The powerful military and persecution of a Muslim minority are major stumbling-blocks. From Newton to Einstein: the origins of general relativity 10 November 2015 consumerism , lifestyle , money

13 November 2015 adolescent sexuality , sexting 13 November 2015 natural law , philosophy We no longer use the rack, but we are as merciless as ever.

John Felton, a black man, was driving to his mother's house in Dayton, Ohio to celebrate her birthday when he was pulled over by a white police officer. Felton recorded the interaction on his phone: Felton: No disrespect, I don't have nothing against police officers, but all the shit that's going on, that's some scary shit. To have a police officer just trail you.. Officer: Well... Felton: And then you just pull me to re-, because you said I didn't signal? What? Do you know how it looks? Officer: I.. Felton: You drive without being in a cop car, right? You know how it is when a police pull you over. It's like "I'm not doing nothing, why is he? Every move I make, why is he making it? I'm not doing nothing." Because I have a Michigan plate? Other than that, why was you trailing me? Officer: Because you made direct eye contact with me and held onto it while I was passing you on Salem. Listening to the recording, I was impressed by Felton's refusal to be cowed by the officer, and for standing up for what it right. Fusion reports: After expressing incredulousness, the officer tells Felton that they can keep arguing and the officer can give Felton a citation and take it to court--or Felton can have his license back and have a safe day. After remaining silent for a day, the Dayton Police department issued the following statement: From August 14-16, Dayton Police Department along with Montgomery County Sheriff's Office and the Ohio State Highway Patrol conducted Safe Communities Through Aggressive Traffic Enforcement or (SCATE) an initiative that is aimed at decreasing OVI related fatalities and injuries in the city of Dayton. Read the rest In July 2014 the St. Clair County Drug Task Force raided medical marijuana patient Ginnifer Hency's home and "took everything," including a car, TV sets, a ladder, her children's cellphones and iPads, and even her vibrator. The charges were dropped against Hency (who uses weed to relieve pain from multiple sclerosis) because she was complying with Michigan's medical marijuana laws, but county prosecutors decided to keep her family's property because they claimed civil forfeiture laws allowed them to. Hency said a prosecutor told her, "I can still beat you in civil court. I can still take your stuff." But a recent Michigan Supreme Court ruling on medical marijuana means Hency's case is "no longer viable," said St. Clair County Prosecutor Michael Wendling, and they will return Hency's property. From Detroit Free Press: The Supreme Court ruling last week clarified when caregivers and users can use their medical marijuana certification as a defense or immunity if charged with a marijuana-related crime. It was the court's ninth medical marijuana ruling since voters approved the Michigan Medical Marijuana Marihuana Act in 2008. "We would have to have specific evidence on those items in order to overcome that burden now that we did not have to show before," Wendling said. Hency's lawyer, Michael Komorn, told the Free Press the decision "does not eliminate the horror of what they've had to deal with the last year." Mark Frauenfelder / 11:11 am Mon, Aug 10, 2015 A Houston deputy who pulled over Charnesia Corley, a 21-year-old black woman on her way to the store to pick up medicine for her sick mother, thought he smelled weed in Corley's car. He searched the car and couldn't find any. He called for a female officer to come to the gas station where Corley was being held so she could have her vagina searched. They arrested Corley because she objected to having her vagina examined in a gas station parking lot. From KRTK : "She tells me to pull my pants down. I said, 'Ma'am, I don't have any underwear on.' She says, 'Well, that doesn't matter. Pull your pants down,'" Corley said. She admits hesitating. Deputies say she resisted. "I bend over and she proceeds to try to force her hand inside of me. I tell her, 'Ma'am, No. You cannot do this,'" Corley told us candidly. She insists at no time did she give consent for any such search. She's retained an attorney, Sam Cammack, who argues that a search like this in a public parking lot is a violation of her civil rights. From Houston Chron : When the female deputy arrived, she told Corley to pull her pants down, but Corley protested because she was cuffed and had no underwear on. The deputy ordered Corley to bend over, pulled down her pants and began to search her. Then, according to [Corley's attorney, Sam] Cammack, Corley stood up and protested, so the deputy threw her to the ground and restrained her while another female was called in to assist. Read the rest

John Felton, a black man, was driving to his mother's house in Dayton, Ohio to celebrate her birthday when he was pulled over by a white police officer.

The vigilant citizens among us have sought to warn of the civilizational collapse that will ensue as soon as the Millennials take over. They are all basically correct, obviously, but you may still be wondering: Is it really that bad? No. It's even worse. Here are the seven most disturbing things about Millennials and how they think. (Seriously, though, we're all doomed.) They're all going to be rich some day. Millennials represent the most decorated generation in history--shelves overflowing with "participant" medals and "effort" awards and "sportsmanship" sashes. It's no surprise that, despite the fact that about one in two Millennials still live with their parents, almost a third of them expect to be millionaires in their lifetime . They lie about giving to charity. Millennials may be broke and living at home, but some of them have jobs, and a huge percentage of employed Millennials are embarrassed to lie about not giving any money to charity when asked to fill out a survey . No one actually believes that 87 percent of Millennial workers have donated to charity, much less that 47 percent have volunteered somewhere within the last month. But who cares? Voting for Obama is basically the same thing. Plus, think of all the money they'll be able to give when they all become millionaires. They're not sold on this whole "free speech" anachronism. As we all know, the "Constitution" is pretty confusing because, in the words of internet icon Ezra Klein , it was "written 100 years ago," some time in the early 20 th century; no one knows for sure. That was (probably) before smart phones and social media, when shouting your opinions at anonymous strangers meant literally shouting them, or at least holding up large flash cards in a crowded park or bus station. The First Amendment can't possibly be relevant today, which is why a whopping 40 percent of Millennials think the government should have the power to ban speech that some people find offensive, and seem to be coming around to the idea that photographers should have to ask permission to take pictures at a public university . -\_( tsu )_/- Human language began with pictograms, and so on Millennials' watch it shall return. More than a third of Millennials think it's perfectly acceptable to use emojis in their professional correspondence. It makes sense that they would want to streamline communication since, thanks to a crippling fear of loneliness, Millennials are constantly texting. For example, almost 60 percent admit to texting while driving, which ought to make you feel safe next time you get behind the wheel in the vicinity of a college campus. And 14 percent said they've broken up with a significant other via text, which, perhaps relatedly, is the same percentage of Nigerians who have a favorable opinion of ISIS . They think politicians are interesting, but don't know who they are. Millennials were ask to pick any public figure or celebrity they would most like to have dinner with. At 11 percent, President Obama was the most popular choice, far ahead of the second place selection (Oprah, at 3 percent). Another 6 percent chose a politician of some kind, such as Hillary Clinton or (no joke) Mitt Romney. That's way more embarrassing than the 7 percent who answered "none"--to an open-ended question. However, it's not entirely clear that any of these Millennials know what Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton actually do for a living. Only 23 percent could correctly name one U.S. Senator from their home state. They think "hoverboard" is an appropriate term for a sideways scooter that literally has wheels that roll on the ground. This is not a hover board. It does not hover. And Millennials definitely aren't giving anything away to charity after shelling out a cool $600 for a front facing skateboard that provides the human race with the long-awaited luxury of being able to head down to the "free speech isn't free" rally and break up with your girlfriend via emoji, all without ever having to move your legs. Man buns/glitter beards These are man buns. These are glitter beards. (Click at your own peril.) That sound you hear is the fabric of civilization, unraveling like so many stray locks fleeing the tenuous grip of a flaccid man scrunchie.

The vigilant citizens among us have sought to warn of the civilizational collapse that will ensue as soon as the Millennials take over.

Bruce Willis Comedy Central Roast: All you need to know The Comedy Central Roast is returning with the roast of famed actor Bruce Willis The first ever Comedy Central Roast aired August 2003 with roastee Denis Leary Donald Trump, Roseanne Barr, James Franco and many more have been roasted There hasn't been a Comedy Central Roast since the roast of Rob Lowe in 2016 The Comedy Central Roast is back with an unexpected roastee. Bruce Willis will be sitting in the hot seat while those closest to him make jokes at his expense during The Comedy Central Roast of Bruce Willis, announced on Tuesday. In a statement about the show, obtained by Entertainment Weekly , Willis said: 'This ain't the first time I'll be tied to a chair and held hostage by a group of humorless a**holes for a couple hours.' Bruce Willis will be the subject of the first Comedy Central Roast since 2016 Willis is known for being an on-screen action star. He's appeared in well-known films like Die Hard, Pulp Fiction, The Sixth Sense, Moonrise Kingdom and, most recently, the remake of Death Wish. Little else is known about the Comedy Central Roast of Bruce Willis at this time. The Comedy Central roast of Bruce Willis is a thing that is actually happening pic.twitter.com/MHqNoTK4t6 -- Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) April 10, 2018 Comedy Central released a preview which confirms only that Willis, 63, will be the subject of the latest roast. It also revealed the show will air in summer 2018, but did not specify a date. This is the first Comedy Central Roast since 2016's Comedy Central Roast of Rob Lowe. Comedy Central is going to do a roast on Bruce Willis !! -- ROSKE (@Brose141) April 10, 2018 David Spade served as the roast master and was joined by Comedy Central Roast veteran Jeff Ross and Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson, as well as other comedians. Before Rob Lowe, Justin Bieber agreed to be roasted in an attempt to change his reputation following an onslaught of bad press. His Comedy Central Roast was attended by Snoop Dogg, Jeff Ross, Pete Davidson, Martha Stewart, Natasha Leggero and more. Roseanne Barr, Donald Trump , Pamela Anderson and more have been the subject of Comedy Central roasts in the past. A post shared by Comedy Central (@comedycentral) on Apr 10, 2018 at 8:15am PDT Share or comment on this article: Bruce Willis Comedy Central Roast: All you need to know

Bruce Willis Comedy Central Roast: All you need to know The Comedy Central Roast is returning with the roast of famed actor Bruce Willis The first ever Comedy Central Roast aired August 2003 with roastee Denis Leary Donald Trump, Roseanne Barr, James Franco and many more have been roasted There hasn't been a Comedy Central Roast since the roast of Rob Lowe in 2016 The Comedy Central Roast is back with an unexpected roastee.

Courtney B. Vance stars in FX's flagship season of American Crime Story as the late O.J. Simpson defense attorney Johnnie Cochran, a central figure in the discussion about what the O.J. trial meant for race relations in America. According to Vance, the discussion that started with the trial never should have ended with the verdict. By Joshua Rivera March 23, 2016 View More Sterling K. Brown, who plays prosecutor Chris Darden in American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson , talks about empathizing with a much-maligned historical figure, the real-life will-they-won't-they sexual tension with Marcia Clark, and how the show "furthers the conversation about how people experience law enforcement." By Joshua Rivera March 17, 2016 View More

Courtney B. Vance stars in FX's flagship season of American Crime Story as the late O.J. Simpson defense attorney Johnnie Cochran, a central figure in the discussion about what the O.J.

When Snap Map was released last month, it was instantly condemned. The new Snapchat feature allows users to see one another's location on a cartoon world map. Whether you're in your car, at home, or hanging out with friends, the map will display your Actionmoji (a little avatar, also called Bitmoji) of your exact location, down to the street address. Via @CaitlinHood98 Snap Map has been called " creepy " " stalky " and " dangerous " in headlines since its June 2017 release, and parents, schools, and the police have voiced concerns about children's safety when using the app. It seems like a grim inevitability that Snap Map will eventually hit the headlines when a stalker uses it against a victim, and privacy concerns about the feature are exceptionally valid. But for now, the map is causing different problems. "My friend was actually in the mall and his ex was there," says Chris Baer, 21, from Virginia. When Snap Map users are in the same location, their Bitmoji are displayed near each other or in a circle. This means you can tell - or think you can tell - which people are hanging out together. "His girlfriend saw it on the map and accused him of cheating," explains Chris. When it comes to Snap Map, young people aren't scared about stalkers or strangers - their biggest worry is each other. The map can jeopardise relationships in a number of ways. People can see when their friends are hanging out without them, they can tell when someone has lied about setting off but is still at home, and - when checking at night - they can figure out who's sleeping with whom. The feature even allows you to see the last time someone sent a Snap, meaning you can tell if they've been ignoring your messages. Snap map really out here ruining friendships btw pic.twitter.com/WyL7fuc3D5 -- ryan (@katyswetdream) July 16, 2017 Yet the map is also being used in unpredictably great ways. After nights out, girls are using it to check whether their friends got home safely. People also use it as a navigational tool, to find their way to events where their friends are. Many teens believe the feature has improved their geography skills, as well as their knowledge of the world map. Sometimes, it's just fun. When Chris first updated Snapchat and drove to the American fast food restaurant Hardee's, his phone pinged with a message. "You don't need any Hardee's," said his friend from Florida, 800 miles away. we got lost bike riding so I told my mom to set up her snap map so we could just ride towards her lmao pic.twitter.com/arO5ElEpkt -- alexa (@alexarxse) July 10, 2017 Aleah Wendels is an 18-year-old from Wisconsin who uses the map to find out when her friends are working at their respective restaurants, and goes to visit them when she wants to get food. "I think it's a fun thing to just check out where all your friends are," she says. She also uses the app to find out if there are parties happening nearby. "My friend called me out for spending time with a boy" Yet Brooke Bartelt, 21, from Arkansas, uses the feature for more anti-social reasons. Before she goes to the gym, she checks if there's someone there that she doesn't want to bump into. "I definitely love the fact that I can use it to avoid people I don't want to see," she says, although she admits she was "caught" by the map when her friend saw that she was spending time with a boy. "I have a friend who is constantly asking me to hang out, and because I work full-time I always tell her I am too tired to do anything," explains Brooke. "One night she texted me going: 'Hmm, looks like you're not as busy as you said'. I had no idea she even knew the guy, much less had him as a friend on Snapchat." Despite this, neither Brooke nor Aleah are too worried about privacy, as both use Snap Map's "Ghost Mode" when they don't want to be seen. This setting means your Snapchat friends can no longer see your Bitmoji on the map, although you can still see theirs. People might use it if they've lied to a friend or if they're going to visit someone in secret. But Becky Merzlyakov, a 20-year-old from New York, turned it on after a friend called her a "nerd". "I felt like such a loser" "One day a friend texted me saying how I'm such a nerd because all I do is sit at home all day... how did he know that?" says Becky. "I remembered Snap Map a few moments later and felt like such a loser. He knew I was home all the time because Snap Map showed him I never left my house. "So just to keep myself from feeling like a friendless loser I went on Ghost... Not only do I feel like my privacy was invaded I feel embarrassed." Dr Dawn Branley, a cyberpsychologist specialising in the risks and benefits of online life, believes Snap Map can be good and bad for young people. "There are some potential positives to the technology - for example it can encourage users to be more socially active," says Branley. "Any features which encourage app users to become more active in the offline world have the potential for health benefits, both physically and mentally. The Snap Map feature may make users more aware of events around their neighbourhood or make them more likely to meet up with friends in the real world." the true purpose of bitmoji and snapmap pic.twitter.com/fvzjsqGErO -- kennedy (@chemicalkiiler) July 9, 2017 Yet Branley believes this is potentially a "double-edged sword". Isolated young people may find themselves watching others socialising and become jealous and upset, she explains. "In other words, there is a concern that the technology may make 'the socially rich richer, and the socially poor poorer'." Branley, like many experts, is also worried about privacy, and hopes Snap Map will incorporate a privacy feature like the one used by the fitness tracking app, Strava. This app allows users to create a privacy shield around a radius of a specific address - for example, their homes - meaning that while in this area, their location is hidden from others. "It's a messy story but it's a lesson learned for sure" None of the people I speak to are excessively worried about privacy, though most seem savvy about how and when to use Ghost Mode. When Snap Map first launched, Chris went through his Snapchat friends and deleted anyone that he didn't personally know. Becky, who was stalked by a stranger on Facebook when she was 18, keeps all her social media on private and makes sure she only adds people she knows on Snapchat. "It's a messy story but it's a lesson learned for sure," she says. In fact, Snap Map actually might be beneficial for adults who are worried about their teens. Search the words "Snap Map, aunt" on Twitter and in the last few weeks there are stories of aunts finding out where their nieces are, picking up their family from parties, and asking their relatives why they're out so late. Mums and dads can check exactly where their children are if they miss curfew, saving a lot of potential worry. It is evident that Snap Map has the potenital to be a dangerous invasion of privacy. For now, however, the reality of the map's use is much more banal. Snap Map is revolutionising the way teenagers act and interact - both online and off. > Most Leave voters back free movement - you just have to explain it

When Snap Map was released last month, it was instantly condemned. The new Snapchat feature allows users to see one another's location on a cartoon world map.

JERK: THREE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY with BAMBII , BIRTHDAY BOY and YOUNG TEESH at 461 King West, Friday (July 29), 10 pm. $10. facebook.com/bambiilovesyou ; and Time Festival at Fort York Garrison Common (250 Fort York), August 6, doors at noon. $30-$50. See listing . Three years ago, Toronto DJ/producer Kirsten Azan , aka Bambii , started JERK as a way to improve her developing DJ skills and give eclectic music fans a place to hear diverse sounds. The dance party turns three this weekend, with a celebration that falls during Caribana. What was the motivation behind starting JERK? I found that the music scene was really stratified in Toronto, and you would have to go to very different places to hear particular types of music. I love house, electronic, R&B and hip-hop, but also dancehall and global. It was hard to find a space to hear that diversity, and more importantly a space with a real diverse audience. JERK is an ode to my Caribbean heritage but also a product of all my exposure to the indie, Black, brown and queer arts scenes. It pushes subversive new sounds and gives some serious nostalgic moments. You can do anything you want there, and it'll always be inexpensive, queer-friendly and safe. Oh yeah, and the chicken will always be free! How has the event grown and/or changed since year one? When I first started JERK I was mainly concerned with what was happening musically. Since then, I've opened for a bunch of artists I look up to, toured, played Boiler Room, plus a bunch of festivals so the spectrum of sounds has definitely gotten much broader. It operates as a show and a party. Things like weird spaces, props, visuals and a MC keep people engaged and position the DJs as performers. The first JERK hit capacity at midnight, and the event has been growing ever since. After the first JERK, I realized I had a real responsibility to ensure representation and safety. It's a big challenge, especially if you operate in DIY venues and are aiming to make those spaces accessible. Ensuring everyone can participate has become really important for me. Hiring non-aggressive, tolerant security and incorporating gender-neutral washrooms are small things you can do to make sure everyone feels safe. The event collective Yes Yes Y'all has set good examples in that respect. Was it important to you that the anniversary celebration happen during Caribana ? Definitely. I think despite its cultural and historic importance, Caribana has some negative energy around it. It's been heavily corporatized, and the overwhelming police presence at the parade doesn't help either. I also just got really tired of the inherent association of homophobia with Caribbean people and culture. I want to create a positive space where everyone can celebrate this amazing music. I think so many "Torontoisms" are informed by Caribbean culture, from the music to the dialect. I haven't seen that acknowledged properly. Why are DIY spaces important to you? A big issue is a lack of representation. Even though it gets written about so much, the fact unfortunately remains that the people curating shows and festivals - those with power, money and access to venues - are older white males. For a lot of artists who fall outside those margins, DIY spaces are the only way to make noise in the city on their own terms. I use DIY spaces not exclusively but a lot because creative agency is really important to me. Music is intangible and yet so powerful; whatever statement you're attempting to make can easily, in the wrong context, be diluted or misappropriated. In addition to your relationship with inclusive grassroots/underground music and cultural events like Caribana, you're also unafraid to take a stand on sociopolitical issues. What issues are important to you right now? When I think about political issues and space in the media, important stories seem to compete with each other, and the energy we give seems so transient. I think being proactive rather than reactive with information is something that is, in and of itself, a valuable aspect of social justice. My first and obvious answer would be the police terrorism happening on different levels here and in the States. We're currently being inundated with those stories. However, so many narratives involving the marginalization of women, queer and trans people of colour and what affects them everyday are forgotten.Those issues are also things I think about everyday. Toronto feels like an important place to be right now. There's all the OVO/Drake stuff bringing attention to the music scene, but also Black Lives Matter's action at Pride has been a major conversation-starter, here and beyond. I DJ'ed at Pride on the central stage and at Blockorama. I didn't see the actual stalling of the parade but I was there for the BLM speech on the Blocko stage. I think that somewhere along the way, whether it's because it's somewhat publicly sanctioned or because of corporate sponsors, people forgot the very political roots of Pride. Yes, Pride is a party, a space of affirmation, a celebration, but it's also supposed to represent all of us. If queer people of colour can't use the space with agency and say something important, then Pride isn't working as it should be. There are hierarchies within hierarchies, and the queer community has a lot of work to do regarding racism. I also feel like political movements and the strategies they use are hella complicated. We don't all need to understand or fully agree with the tactics if we agree with the message. It was crazy to see people I knew who shared the same opinion on police brutality arguing about a 30-minute break at a parade. As much as I have a long list of criticism for Toronto, yes, it's my home and I like living in it. It's a huge part of who I am, all my friends are from all over the world. I wouldn't trade the exposure or freedom you get from living in Toronto, even if it's fake polite and quasi-liberal, for anything else right now. What's the ideal balance of diversity you're striving for in your DJ mixes? There's a very strong connection between music and memory. I love that feeling you get when you play something that makes the whole crowd scream. That recognition is priceless. I also get really excited to introduce people to new or left-field production. I think the balance I am looking for, especially in this city, is one that plays on nostalgia or shared reference points but really focuses on the future and on relevant music from all over the world. Everyone is really focused on this idea of a Toronto sound that's centered primarily around trap music, which is cool but people should open up to what exists beyond that aesthetic. There's just so much insane music coming from in and out of the city that people should know about. Will you be releasing original productions soon? I've been spending a lot of time in Montreal, and I think that'll be reflected in the first sounds I release. It's highly influenced by the first stuff I was into when I started out DJing, and all the global influences I've absorbed since then. Making music can be emotional - my music reflects all these different versions of me. There is so much bravado with DJ'ing and so much vulnerability when it's your own creation. It's completely different and pretty challenging but also so exciting. I'm thinking fall 2016 or winter 2017, tentatively.

August 6, doors at noon. $30-$50. See listing . Three years ago, Toronto DJ/producer Kirsten Azan , aka Bambii , started JERK as a way to improve her developing DJ skills and give eclectic music fans a place to hear diverse sounds.

London: British authorities today charged a 14-year-old boy with terrorism offenses in connection with an alleged plot to attack a war memorial ceremony in Australia. Representational image. Reuters The Crown Prosecution Service said the boy, who has not been named for legal reasons, allegedly incited another person to carry out an attack at a Veterans' Day parade in Australia with the aim of killing or causing serious injury to people. The boy is also alleged to have incited someone to carry out a beheading in Australia. The boy was charged with two offenses of inciting terrorism overseas and is due to appear in a London court tomorrow. Police said the boy was arrested on April 2 after officers discovered communications between him and a man in Australia. Five Australian teenagers were arrested on Saturday on suspicion of plotting an Islamic State group-inspired attack at an ANZAC Day ceremony in Melbourne. Police said evidence suggested that the plot involved attacking police officers. ANZAC Day is the annual April 25 commemoration of the 1915 Gallipoli landings, the first major military action fought by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during World War I.

British authorities today charged a 14-year-old boy with terrorism offenses in connection with an alleged plot to attack a war memorial ceremony in Australia.

He looked so happy. Jeff Sessions got an erection today. It had been a while. As we expected, Donald Trump dispatched the hayseed racist attorney general from the Confederate States of America to announce they will "wind down" the DACA program for undocumented children brought here illegally by their parents, giving Congress six months to fix it, and giving almost 800,000 innocent DREAMers six months to prepare to go back to their own countries, which is weird, since America is the only country most of them have ever known. Watch as Sessions pulls his white hood off to 'splain us how fucking these people over is the "compassionate" thing to do: Sessions: "We are people of compassion. And we are people of law. There's nothing compassionate about failure to enforce immigration laws." pic.twitter.com/rGpTOpzcGZ -- BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) September 5, 2017 Sessions claimed, baselessly, that the DACA program led to a surge of unaccompanied minors at the border, which is funny since DACA doesn't remotely apply to those people. Of course, Trump and Sessions are only doing this for their base of cousin-romancing white supremacists, and those people won't be swayed by simple facts like that. Sessions said DACA beneficiaries took away precious American jobs, another lie he pulled out his ass. And he said Barack Obama's executive action on DACA was "unconstitutional," which is weird, because if executive actions involving immigration are unconstitutional, then how about Trump's constant attempts to ban Muslims through executive fiat? We look forward to Trump supporters explaining how this is different because "reasons." (Racism reasons.) Want more lies from Sessions? Here's the letter he sent to Homeland Security: To be clear, DACA beneficiaries are the exact kind of immigrants the white nationalists in the White House (unconvincingly) say they want in America. 97% are either employed or in school, and a higher percentage of them have college degrees than the general American public. Buzzfeed notes that this "wind-down" of DACA is Sessions's little pig turd baby (and Stephen Miller's baby and Steve Bannon's baby ) and quotes a White House official who said Sessions had put Trump "in a box," since he was just flat dang unwillin' to defend the policy in court. The New York Times reports that Trump had been looking for "a way out" of taking this action, and adds, unbelievably, that "as late as one hour before" Sessions's statement, White House people were worried "Mr. Trump might not fully grasp the details of the steps he was about to take, and when he discovered their full impact, he would change his mind." This is what happens when you elect a barely sentient child who lives inside a flabby orange senior citizen's body as your president. To be clear, all Trump wanted was to get out of being blamed for the fallout from this fulfillment of one of his most hateful campaign promises. It had nothing to do with his "feelings" about DACA immigrants, even though he said many times that "we love the DREAMers" and that he wanted to deal with them with "heart." (Read more on that here from Josh Marshall.) What is bugfuck amazing about this, especially coming from a president who enjoys approval ratings only slightly higher than cat shit, is that literally NOBODY WANTS THIS. (Nobody who matters or contributes to the American economy in any meaningful way, anyway.) Over 75% of Americans support DACA, including TWO THIRDS OF TRUMP VOTERS, as Philip Bump reports in the Washington Post . Over 400 business leaders told Trump to keep his tiny paws off DACA, too. So let's be clear about what just happened: This was a love letter from Trump and Sessions to the Nazis and white supremacists who marched through Charlottesville with tiki torches, some of whom Trump reminded us were just lovely folks. Let's see how Breitbart's Deplorable in the White House reacted: So, where does it go from here? Well, maybe Congress will act! Our GOP-led Congress is so very good at getting things done, after all! And maybe Trump will sign a thing, if Congress sends him something! Or maybe Trump will hold it hostage if Congress fails to give him the funding for his stupid fucking ineffective ugly ass border wall. Who can say! The Washington Post has a good explainer on how this "six-month wind-down" affects DREAMers immediately, and the short version is that six months from today, March 5, 2018, most of them are screwed. So how evil was this little stunt? So fucking evil. Conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin says it's Trump's most evil act so far. Josh Marshall says this is the equivalent of Trump and Sessions kicking DREAMers out of a plane at 10,000 feet and saying they hope Paul Ryan catches them. If you want to fight back, check out the DREAM Act Toolkit, which identifies key swing votes in Congress and offers tools to get the message to them that, on top of being cruel and terrible and evil, this action will fuck the American economy right up. It even has handy images for you to tweet at them, that show exactly how much money those folks' states stand to lose if DACA goes away forever: So feel free to harass the shit out of them on Twitter! If you see your congressman or senator on the list, CALL THEM. Also, sign this petition demanding the GOP to allow a clean vote on the DREAM Act right the hell now. Whatever you do, do something . This is not about "immigration policy" or the Constitution or anything else. This is ethnic cleansing, pure and simple, and it's happening IN AMERICA. Anyway, but her emails, though. Follow Evan Hurst on Twitter RIGHT HERE. Wonkette salaries are fully paid by lovely souls like you! If you love us, click below to pay us!

He looked so happy. Jeff Sessions got an erection today. It had been a while. As we expected, Donald Trump dispatched the hayseed racist attorney general from the Confederate States of America to announce they will "wind down" the DACA program for undocumented children brought here illegally by their parents, giving Congress six months to fix it, and giving almost 800,000 innocent DREAMers six months to prepare to go back to their own countries, which is weird, since America is the only country most of them have ever known.

Anyway, that's what usually happens. Recently, a dead sperm whale washed up on a beach in Holland and the conservationists who dissected it found a huge quantity of ambergris in the animal's intestines . That news made me realize that I'd never actually seen a picture of ambergris before, so I went hunting around to see what the stuff looked like. That's a photo of a lump of ambergris, above. But it's not really indicative of what ambergris looks like all the time. In fact, as far as I can tell, the stuff comes in a wide variety of shapes and colors -- ranging from stuff that looks like small brown pebbles to yellow-green globs covered in bubbly nodules. The diversity is worth perusing. This website , for a company that buys and sells ambergris, has several nice photos. Read the rest While you were eating Thanksgiving turkey, surrounded by loving family and friends, one whale was all alone, swimming through the Pacific Ocean with no one to talk to and no one to care. Since 1989, researchers have been tracking this specific whale based on its distinct vocalizations. Baleen whales -- a category of cetaceans without teeth, separate from their toothy dolphin/beluga/orca relations -- are famous for producing eerie, underwater songs and scientists think those sounds are probably an extremely important aspect of participation in whale society. Baleen whales lack keen eyesight and sense of smell underwater, so sounds are probably how they recognize one another, help each other navigate, and even find mates. But these vocalizations happen in very specific frequency range -- between 10 and 31 hertz, depending on the species. The Christmas Whale, on the other hand, speaks at 52 hertz. Imagine brining a piccolo to a tuba party. That is analogous to the awkward position that the 52-hertz whale is in. Scientists usually pick up the call of the 52-hertz whale sometime between August and December, as it makes its way through a Cold War-era network of underwater microphones in the North Pacific. Although this whale has apparently survived for many years and seems to have grown and matured during that time (based on its voice deepening slightly), it also appears to exist outside of whale social systems. It travels alone. Nobody answers its high-pitched pleas for love. Every so often, non-scientist humans remember that it exists and write sad stories about it. Read the rest Xeni Jardin / 10:33 am Wed, Apr 4, 2012 An interesting new iOS app launched today called Whale Alert . Though it's available for anyone, the iPhone/iPad app is intended primarily for use by workers in the shipping and maritime industry. It "combines science and technology to help save critically endangered North Atlantic right whales by reducing threats of collisions with large ships along the East Coast of North America." From the launch announcement by IFAW (the International Fund for Animal Welfare): The app links the bridge of a ship to the latest data about right whale detections and informs users when their vessels enter right whale management areas. The app uses Global Positioning System (GPS), Automatic Identification System (AIS), the web and digital nautical chart technologies to alert mariners to NOAA's right whale conservation measures that are active in their immediate vicinity. A key feature of Whale Alert is a display linking a system of near real-time acoustic buoys that listen for right whale calls to an iPad on a ship's bridge showing the whale's presence to captains transiting the shipping lanes. In a matter of seconds the ships position is updated on the iPad in relation to any endangered right whales in the shipping lanes allowing the ship to safely slow down and navigate around the whale. North Atlantic right whales, which live along North America's east coast from Newfoundland to Florida, are one of the world's rarest large animals and a species on the brink of extinction. So few exist -- about 450 -- that scientists have identified and named almost all of them. Read the rest

Anyway, that's what usually happens. Recently, a dead sperm whale washed up on a beach in Holland and the conservationists who dissected it found a huge quantity of ambergris in the animal's intestines .

On Sunday night, everybody's favourite footballer Mohamed "Mo" Salah picked up the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) player of the year for the 2017-18 season. The Liverpool forward has been having a sensational season with the player well on his way to picking up this season's Golden Boot as well. He has netted 41 goals so far for The Reds and the season isn't even over yet. However his ability on the field is not the only reason why fans love Mo Salah. Every since his arrival at Liverpool, Mo Salah has been making an impact and changing the way footballers are seen. And that seemed to culminate in the latest award he has picked. (He has been picking up the awards consistently along with his goal-scoring.) The PFA Award is awarded on the basis of a vote by the fellow players and Salah was up against Kevin De Bruyne, Leroy Sane, David Silva, and Harry Kane. He became the second African player to win the award after Leicester City's Riyad Mahrez and the first Egyptian player to win the award. Shouldn't be underestimated what an achievement it is for an African player to win this vote, which can be as much an expression of cultural biases as anything else. For example, neither Yaya Toure nor Didier Drogba ever won it (though Scott Parker did ) https://t.co/XzfIDB90bv -- [?][?] is a Country (@FutbolsaCountry) April 22, 2018 While the night should have been all about Salah and his accomplishments, his actions before the event just showed why the player has become loved by most football fans. He was supposed to head to the ceremony, which took place in London by himself. However, Salah requested that the team be represented at the awards so that he could share the honour with them. Liverpool captain, Jordan Henderson accompanied Salah to the awards. Jordan Henderson attended last night's PFA Awards at the request of Mohamed Salah, who wanted to have #LFC as a team represented at the event to share the honour with them. Jurgen Klopp agreed to the request and as captain, Henderson went down on behalf on the team. pic.twitter.com/ebGpL6Q8e5 -- James Carroll (@James_Carroll84) April 23, 2018 Even upon winning the award, in an interview with LFCTV, Salah said his personal goals are to win for the team and that he doesn't think of himself. "The most important thing for me is to win something with the team," he said. . @22mosalah has his sights set on more records... pic.twitter.com/xlBML18XnT -- Liverpool FC (@LFC) April 23, 2018 He has also attributed his sensational form to the team who helped him to play this way. And that just seems to be a characteristic of the type of person and player that Mo Salah is. Salah moved to English Premier League side, Liverpool, in June 2017 and quickly made an impact in the side. He has broken the club's scoring record for a debut season beating Fernando Torres' record of 33 goals. His total of 41 goals at the moment (the season is still not over) is also the most in a single season beating the total of 36 goals by Robbie Fowler. He has become the first player to win three Premier League Player of the Month awards in the same season. Along with being name PFA Player of the Year, Salah was also named in the 2017-2018 PFA Team of the Year. Besides evidently being appreciated by his fellow players, Salah has also made a huge impact with Liverpool fans whose Mo Salah chant "Good Enough" has gone viral around the world. Salah is unapologetic in displaying his Islamic faith, often dropping down into sujood (prostration) to celebrate a goal. This is partly the reason for the Mo Salah chant where fans sing about Salah's religion and say that if he scores again, they'll be Muslim too. While the chant is problematic, it does show what an effect Salah is having on Liverpool fans and European football. Early this year, Salah helped guide his home country, Egypt to a World Cup final for the first time since 1990, making it an emotional one for all. Salah is also a real hero off the pitch. Despite making it to the big time, Salah has not forgotten his roots. Hailing from the town of Nagrig in Egypt, Salah is all about giving back. He is helping to fund the construction of a medical centre and a school for girls in his hometown. Maher Shatiyah, the manager of Mohamed Salah Charity Foundation and mayor of Nagrig said : "Salah is a refined person who, despite his popularity, has never forgotten about his town." While it is the nature of the football that players never stay at one club forever, Liverpool fans can only hope that Salah sticks around for quite a while and wins all of the trophies and accolades for the club; for his goal scoring, sunny disposition, and banter with his team mates. Featured image via Twitter

On Sunday night, everybody's favourite footballer Mohamed "Mo" Salah picked up the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) player of the year for the 2017-18 season.

(by Matthew Knee) ...that is, the fact that he or she is driving a Prius. I took this picture in the parking lot of the California Republican Assembly convention in Orange County last spring. I saw the same car at the California Republican Convention the following fall in Sacramento, although I am unaware as to the identity of the activist. EDIT: Added some close-ups for readability. Follow me on Twitter , Facebook , and YouTube Official Decree, Part 2: Everything is government property. Send to me by a reader in Columbus, Ohio, who took the photo below last summer and who writes as follows: When I asked the man if I could take a picture of his truck, he tried to give me a copy of the pocket Constitution. "Already have one, my good man - you give that to someone who needs it." Then I gave him a card for theohioproject.com - always a treat running into fellow conservatives in a blue county like mine! The small bumper sticker says "What part of Europe are you from? The part whose ass we saved, or the part whose ass we kicked?" ----------------------------- Related Posts: Bumper Stickers - The Series I had a Volvo 240 wagon for 14 years. I hated to let go of it, but the time had come. I sold it in 2003, and the person who bought it from me still has it on the road. The engine pretty much can run forever. I always thought of the 240 as a Series around which Naderite liberals and cheap-as-hell capitalists (like me) could unite. This image was taken by reader Jason in Raleigh, NC: that this person has an iPhone or iPad made at a factory in China, which she uses to read liberal blogs which object to outsourcing by big corporations. And hurries into and out of Wal-Mart really quickly so as not to be spotted, with an excuse lined up just in case she bumps into another bumper-sticker wearing friend: "I don't really shop here, I'm just gathering evidence for our upcoming protest."

...that is, the fact that he or she is driving a Prius. I took this picture in the parking lot of the California Republican Assembly convention in Orange County last spring. I saw the same car at the California Republican Convention the following fall in Sacramento, although I am unaware as to the identity of the activist. EDIT:

niyad (63,779 posts) Women seeking abortions in Arkansas now need permission from men (including the rapists) Women seeking abortions in Arkansas now need permission from men Pro-choice campaigners are fighting the law, which comes into force at the end of the month US Planned Parenthood supporters hold signs at a protest in downtown Denver Reuters A new law passed in Arkansas means women must obtain permission from the man who impregnated them before they can have an abortion. Even in the case of rape, women wishing to terminate a pregnancy would have to seek the opinion of their attacker or abusive partner who would be able to refuse and potentially block the procedure. The bill, which was signed into law in March and is set to come into force at the end of July, includes aborted foetuses in a rule stating family members must agree on what to do with the remains of their dead relatives. Parents of girls under 18 will also be able to decide whether their daughter can have an abortion. Pro-choice campaigners are fighting the law, which they say is designed to make it more difficult for women to access abortion, under the guise of legal requirements regarding the disposal of embryonic tissue. A spokesperson for the NARAL advocacy group told the Huffington Post the "plain intention and unavoidable outcome" of the new law is "to make it harder for a woman to access basic health care by placing more barriers between a woman and her doctor. Guests at a speech by former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee billed as a 'frank discussion on defending the sanctity of life from conception to natural death' (Getty Images) A legal challenge against the bill launched by civil and reproductive rights organisations will be heard on Thursday. "Every day, women in Arkansas and across the United States struggle to get the care they need as lawmakers impose new ways to shut down clinics and make abortion unavailable," said the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in a blog post announcing its legal challenge. "Arkansas women cannot afford to lose further access. They cannot afford to travel hundreds of miles to get to the nearest clinic. And they should not have to endure invasions of privacy and violations of their autonomy." ACLU is among the groups aiming to freeze this bill and a number of other new abortion laws until a decision is made on their lawsuit. This includes one signed by governor Asa Hutchinson in January prohibiting the most common abortion procedure used in the second trimester of a pregnancy.The method known as dilation and evacuation is the safest method of ending a pregnancy, say pro-choice campaigners, but has been called barbaric by those who support the law. http://www.independent.co.uk/News/world/americas/women-arkansas-abortion-men-permission-male-us-pro-choice-life-planned-parenthood-termination-a7834861.html Women seeking abortions in Arkansas now need permission from men (including the rapists) (Original post) niyad Jul 2017 OP

Women seeking abortions in Arkansas now need permission from men Pro-choice campaigners are fighting the law, which comes into force at the end of the month US Planned Parenthood supporters hold signs at a protest in downtown Denver

Music producer and executive Rick Rubin (The Loop 21) Loop 21 has compiled a list of the white Americans with the greatest impact on black American lives. It's not about those who have worked their way into black popular culture, or those we might have put on The Root' s lighthearted Blackest White Folks We Know list. Rather, these are non-celebrities who have exerted their influence either through politics or behind the scenes. Some have played key roles in altering America's laws to end legalized racial inequality, while others have helped increase the cultural imprint of black Americans through the arts and entertainment. A good handful of them aren't household names in homes of any color -- but maybe they should be. Check out a couple of the picks below, and read the rest of the list at Loop 21 . Brandon Tartikoff, Television Executive (1949-1997) During his tenure as head of Entertainment at NBC in the 1980's, Tartikoff spearheaded such landmark programming as "The Cosby Show" and "A Different World," programs that to this day are credited with forever changing the image of black Americans in mainstream culture. "The Cosby Show" is even credited with laying the groundwork for the eventual election of President Obama. Michael Schwerner (1939-1964) and Andrew Goodman (1943-1964), Civil rights activists The murder of two young, white Civil Rights workers, killed at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan (alongside a black civil rights worker) in Philadelphia, Mississippi cast a national spotlight on the brutality of the Jim Crow south and transformed the issue of civil rights from a philosophical debate viewed primarily as a "Southern problem" into a human rights issue viewed as an American problem. In 2005 Edgar Ray Killen was convicted in their deaths and in 2009, Philadelphia, Mississippi elected its first black mayor. Read more at Loop 21.

Music producer and executive Rick Rubin (The Loop 21) Loop 21 has compiled a list of the white Americans with the greatest impact on black American lives.

I ask this in all sincerity. Have I mentioned recently what a colossal dick Rick Santorum is? Have I, Rand Paul? Ted Cruz? Huck? Any of you dudes disagree with the only sensible thing that Bob Kerrey ever said in his entire public career -- that Santorum is Latin for "asshole"? Have I mentioned it recently, because, if I have, it slipped my mind. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below "Do we really want someone with this little experience?" Mr. Santorum asked, referring to Mr. Paul, Mr. Cruz and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who is also in his first term. "And the only experience they have basically - not Rubio, but Cruz and Paul because I don't think Rubio is going to go - is bomb throwing? Do we really want somebody who's a bomb thrower, with no track record of any accomplishments?...He has to talk about Common Core. I love talking about Common Core," Mr. Santorum said of the education standards that have become deeply unpopular among conservatives. "He has to talk about immigration and the Dream Act. I love talking about immigration and the Dream Act. He has to talk about taxes; I haven't voted for a tax increase. I have a 100 percent record on taxes, signed every pledge every year." Mr. Santorum then turned to an aide and asked: "What's the other one?" Reminded that Mr. Huckabee had once backed a cap-and-trade program to reduce carbon emissions, Mr. Santorum exclaimed: "Climate change. This guy was for climate change." What in the hell is this guy talking about? I don't think the Huck is "for climate change." I don't think he's cheering for dead polar bears and seafront property in Fort Wayne. And, as far as being a "bomb thrower" goes, has Santorum forgotten that he spent the 2012 primary campaign warning us that Iran was preparing to commit national suicide by launching a nuclear missile so as to bring on the return of the 12th Imam? Or that whole man-on-dog business? Or how he told a blog that the country hasn't done enough to respond to the threat to American civilization posed by...contraception? Or how about how the Crusades were in no way a war of aggression on anyone ever ? Santorum has thrown bombs from 2011 back into the 13th century. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below I don't entirely disagree with Jonathan Martin here in his assessment that there are at the moment two distinct pre-primaries going on among the Republicans. There's the fat-wallet primary between Jeb (!) and possibly Mitt Romney, and maybe Chris Christie. And then there's the one in which Santorum is embroiled. This is a solid analysis as far as it goes, as long as we accept as an obvious given that the latter primary is being conducted exclusively on the terrain of the completely insane. That this is going to happen again, after what happened in 2012, is something that ought to bother obvious anagram Reince Priebus, the emptiest suit in American politics who, I suspect, would have liked Rick Santorum to put a sock in it for a while, but realizes he cannot, because Rick Santorum is such a colossal dick, which I may have mentioned before.

I ask this in all sincerity. Have I mentioned recently what a colossal dick Rick Santorum is? Have I, Rand Paul? Ted Cruz? Huck? Any of you dudes disagree with the only sensible thing that Bob Kerrey ever said in his entire public career -- that Santorum is Latin for "asshole"?

Prescription drug abuse has been consistently rising in the United States for the last several years -- and Adderall is no exception. It's prescribed to patients who suffer from ADHD, increasing their ability to focus and pay attention in situations that would normally be distracting. For people like myself who don't have ADHD, Adderall creates a euphoria, while also increasing focus and alertness. Adderall's illicit use took off when it became a popular "study drug" on university campuses. According to a National Survey on Drug Use and Health , college students were twice as likely to illegally use Adderall as their counterparts who are not in college. College students claim the drug helps improve their academic performance and allows them to handle the high-stress demands of college life. Whether this is fully true or not, the drug certainly helps make a person feel like they are accomplishing a lot. Like most college age users, I took Addy for the first time to be able do late-night activities, like staying awake to study. A big reason Adderall use has increased is because of how accessible it is now. A 30 mg pill can produce effects that last up to six hours and cost around 10 dollars. Most of the Adderall supply comes from people with prescriptions, but it can also be found on black market websites. Some people will fake ADHD symptoms to acquire a prescription for themselves or to sell. I can attest that it is very easy to get Adderall. I've had it prescribed by a doctor at the campus health facility. I've gotten it from friends diagnosed with ADHD who didn't like it. After a while, I continued taking Addy, just generally wanting to stay awake, or even to go to parties and to have more motivation to do random other things. Therein lies the problem; Adderall is not simply a "study drug." Students who use Adderall in college are also more likely to use it in the workplace. After all, what works for a person in one scenario can be expected to work in multiple scenarios. Adderall has become so popular that it has gone beyond campus and crossed over into the workplace. Adderall gives people the ability to work longer hours without losing focus, while ignoring feelings of fatigue. Like college students, workers feel pressured to improve performance and succeed. According to AddictionCenter.com , "Although people tend to associate Adderall abuse with college students, many older people also use the drug. In fact, most people who have received treatment for an Adderall addiction started taking it when they were approximately 23." Besides work and school, Adderall is often used to do everything in life, including relaxation. Recreational effects include a heightened sense of well-being, talkative nature, and jittery behavior. Elite Daily Like most party drugs, Adderall is often taken while drinking, which causes users to misjudge their alcohol consumption. The combination of the two can result in an overdose and/or alcohol poisoning. Recreational users also have a higher probability that they will take similar stimulants like cocaine. For those who have ADHD and are under doctor's care, the dosage remains mostly consistent. There is a heavy awareness in the medical community about the addictive potential of Adderall. The euphoria Adderall produces dissipates over time, meaning that higher doses are required each time to reproduce the same effect. CBS News reports , over a six-year period "non-medical use of the drug increased by 67 percent and emergency room visits skyrocketed by 156 percent." Short-term abuse can lead to overdose, while long term abuse can cause irregular heartbeat and hypertension. My experience with Adderall is consistent with these reports and the hallmark signs. After starting in college, I took it at work, and I took it at social events. I took it to stay awake for all the things I wanted to do and just generally to be jazzed. What the professionals don't make clear is how Adderall is very similar to meth; it's just a slightly more acceptable version of meth. I discovered this when I found how hard it was to get away from Adderall. Once I finally had a family, I was taking Addy just so I could deal with being around people, such as other parents at soccer games. As I realized the toll this was taking, I found it difficult to quit. There was a distinct lack of motivation when I wasn't taking Adderall. Oddly, it was when I was not on it that I found myself trapped into many of the warning signs of drug abuse . Off the drug, I just couldn't accomplish much of anything. Eventually, I went to counseling and came to understand that the drug was responsible for more of my life achievements than I was on my own. After giving it up, it took a month or two to really feel normal in my own skin. I was exhausted a lot and went through quite a bit of depression as well, but that time really helped me understand the significance and not want to relapse. Taking a pill once to accomplish a certain objective is way different than taking many pills over eight or nine years to accomplish everything. It's a hard way to learn a lesson, but all things said and done, it was a positive experience coming to understand much of this. I ended up getting a different job that wasn't so demanding and didn't destroy my family. It turns out, I was pretty lucky. While ADHD is still widely diagnosed, we have learned enough to know that the answer is not always to write a prescription. During the last eight or nine years, awareness to Adderall and prescription drugs overall has risen. For one thing, in some places, doctors are held responsible for frivolously prescribing Adderall. Meanwhile, funding has increased for drug treatment programs across the country. Still, Adderall use is expected to increase in the next few years, placing more onus on mental health counselors to be careful about who is prescribed this potentially dangerous medication. Elite Daily If only it were as easy as just telling someone they shouldn't do something. However, it is tough to convince someone who is on a euphoric plane that someday they have to live in the real world. It is tough to convince someone that they get more out of experiencing the hardships of life in a clear state of consciousness. Unfortunately, some people have to learn these lessons the hard way. Fortunately, there is a lot of data and many personal experiences are handed down, so that college kids will hopefully get the message sooner than later.

Prescription drug abuse has been consistently rising in the United States for the last several years -- and Adderall is no exception. It's prescribed to patients who suffer from ADHD, increasing their ability to focus and pay attention in situations that would normally be distracting.

New Delhi: Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Saturday praised the government-appointed inspecting authorities, saying they have ensured "100 percent honest" execution of the minority affairs ministry's programmes. The authorities -- who comprise mainly retired IAS and IPS officials -- were appointed a year ago to monitor the implementation of the ministry's schemes. File photo of Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. News18 The schemes include Gharib Nawaz Skill Development, Learn and Earn, Nai Manzil, Begum Hazrat Mahal Girls' Scholarship, Nai Udaan, Padho Pardesh, Free Coaching, Ustaad, Prime Minister's new 15-point programme and others. "The more than 280 inspecting authorities have immensely (contributed) in the proper implementation of the schemes of the ministry, National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation and Maulana Azad Education Foundation," Naqvi was quoted as saying in an official statement. The authorities have ensured "100 percent honest" implementation of the programmes, he said during a workshop of the inspecting authorities held here. Stating that his ministry has become completely digital, "leaving no scope for middlemen", Naqvi said scholarship amounts were being credited directly into bank accounts of students. "Be it welfare and developmental schemes or Haj affairs, our ministry has ensured complete transparency," he said. Naqvi said the ministry is spending about 65 percent of its budget on educational empowerment and skill development of the minorities. He also talked about the ministry's decision to establish five "world class" institutions across India to impart modern education to minorities. The ministry's courses like 'GST Facilitator' and 'Sanitary Supervisor' are providing employment and employment opportunities to minority youths in a large number, he said. He listed the ministry's achievements over the past three years under the Multi-Sectoral Development Programme, organisation of Hunar Haat -- a platform for artisans from minority communities to showcase their talent -- and other initiatives. "Over the last three years, these schemes have succeeded in providing employment and employment opportunities to more than 50 lakh people from the communities," he claimed.