End of Show Mixes: Gregory Brothers (Space Force Theme Song) UKPMX - Gx2 -Oh My Bosh - Danny Loos-Secret Agent Paul-Stepford Wives-PlaceBoing- Dave Courbanou - Able Kirby - Jungle Jones - Chris Wilson - Tom Starkweather - Conan Salada - Future Trash - Phantomville Billy Bon3s
The next thing that is important to understand is the RENO v. FLORES settlement agreement from 1997, which states (among other things) that children detained by immigration authorities must be released ''without unnecessary delay'' to an acceptable recipient, with parents and legal guardians preferred. Facilities, such as those seen on the news, are other options when nothing better is available. The important takeaway here is that a minor cannot be detained while a parent is awaiting due process. When immigration enforcers find a family that is breaking the law, they legally must either separate the family, release the family, or release the family with a court date, and hope the family appears for a trial they know they will lose. Given the politically correct term for illegal immigrants I think most readers can see how a pre-trial release of ''undocumented'' immigrants who have already broken the law once, and don't have government records to help find them if they fail to appear, will be functionally equivalent to just releasing them.
Now let's look at the week's events, when pictures of the approved immigration holding facilities for children that were approved by the Flores settlement agreement made mainstream news. These pictures included detainee children from the Obama and Trump eras, and very understandably drew the public's ire. The GOP began drafting a bill to keep families that were arrested and detained together, a solution that would potentially fix this issue without undue risk to the detained children if they are kept in separate facilities from general adult populations, and with other families.
In a recent speech Chuck Schumer, who is ostensibly against separation of families, insisted that he would not vote for any bills allowing families who were arrested together to be in the same detention facility. He said this was because he would rather keep the pressure on President Trump who could make this go away with the flick of a pen. This should give a reasonable person pause. It should make a reasonable person wonder what Mr. Schumer's goals are if they aren't to stop the separation of families. The simple answer was stated plainly by Mr. Schumer, whose goal is to use this media outrage to force President Trump to end his zero-tolerance policy for illegal immigrants. But the thought of releasing all ''undocumented'' immigrants travelling with a child they claim to be their own is insane, because it invites smugglers of both drugs and humans to exploit this national security loophole.
Meanwhile, the media has been asking the more obvious question: why are families being separated in the first place? Mr. Schumer's assertion that this could be fixed with a simple executive order stoked the outrage. As a result of this lack of understanding of the Flores settlement agreement or else intentional deception, or most likely, a combination of both, the MSM and social media have called for President Trump to end the practice of pre trial separation immediately, for the sake of the children. Many average Americans believe the only reason families are separated is because President Trump wants to inhumanely punish immigrants.
President Trump spent this week under heavy fire, with many voices insisting on a solution that is ultimately illegal. Even the Republicans who understood the Flores settlement agreement could not expect the media to give a fair or reasonable explanation of the options available to the president. Backed into a corner by inaccurate media and Democrats exploiting the outrage, the President made a decision to show not tell, and sign the order. Now the armchair politicians can watch the judicial system take its course. That is why the president has signed an executive order in obvious violation of the Flores settlement agreement.
The near future is fairly obvious. Over the upcoming weeks, Democratic voters who are currently celebrating a win will turn against the executive order as they realize it did not achieve the DNC goal of ending the zero tolerance policy. Next, news will surface that, armed with SCOTUS precedents, an appeals court (almost certainly the 9th Circuit of Appeals) will strike down the executive order as illegal. Sometime later, the SCOTUS will almost certainly agree, as the legislative landscape will not change. The inevitable conclusion from these events is nearly where we are now: President Trump will square off with the DNC again, insisting that lack of legislation allowing families to be detained together is the cause of families being separated. This time, most Americans will understand that an executive order can't keep families awaiting trial together. The only question is, will the DNC be honest about their goal of using the familial separation to end zero tolerance, or will they find yet another way to obscure their true goals?
Under heavy fire from press stories telling half the truth, President Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to address family separation of illegal immigrants that will almost certainly be overruled in court. To untangle the mess of misinformation that has come out over the past few days, we must review the legal history and motivations of the people involved. At that point, the upcoming events in this debate will become somewhat predictable.
To start, there are obvious reasons why apprehended illegal immigrants are entitled to due process, including trials and appeals, prior to deportation. This can be a lengthy process and takes time. The majority of illegal immigrants will not make bail and will be detained during the process.
The next thing that is important to understand is the RENO v. FLORES settlement agreement from 1997, which states (among other things) that children detained by immigration authorities must be released ''without unnecessary delay'' to an acceptable recipient, with parents and legal guardians preferred. Facilities, such as those seen on the news, are other options when nothing better is available. The important takeaway here is that a minor cannot be detained while a parent is awaiting due process. When immigration enforcers find a family that is breaking the law, they legally must either separate the family, release the family, or release the family with a court date, and hope the family appears for a trial they know they will lose. Given the politically correct term for illegal immigrants I think most readers can see how a pre-trial release of ''undocumented'' immigrants who have already broken the law once, and don't have government records to help find them if they fail to appear, will be functionally equivalent to just releasing them.
Now let's look at the week's events, when pictures of the approved immigration holding facilities for children that were approved by the Flores settlement agreement made mainstream news. These pictures included detainee children from the Obama and Trump eras, and very understandably drew the public's ire. The GOP began drafting a bill to keep families that were arrested and detained together, a solution that would potentially fix this issue without undue risk to the detained children if they are kept in separate facilities from general adult populations, and with other families.
In a recent speech Chuck Schumer, who is ostensibly against separation of families, insisted that he would not vote for any bills allowing families who were arrested together to be in the same detention facility. He said this was because he would rather keep the pressure on President Trump who could make this go away with the flick of a pen. This should give a reasonable person pause. It should make a reasonable person wonder what Mr. Schumer's goals are if they aren't to stop the separation of families. The simple answer was stated plainly by Mr. Schumer, whose goal is to use this media outrage to force President Trump to end his zero-tolerance policy for illegal immigrants. But the thought of releasing all ''undocumented'' immigrants travelling with a child they claim to be their own is insane, because it invites smugglers of both drugs and humans to exploit this national security loophole.
Meanwhile, the media has been asking the more obvious question: why are families being separated in the first place? Mr. Schumer's assertion that this could be fixed with a simple executive order stoked the outrage. As a result of this lack of understanding of the Flores settlement agreement or else intentional deception, or most likely, a combination of both, the MSM and social media have called for President Trump to end the practice of pre trial separation immediately, for the sake of the children. Many average Americans believe the only reason families are separated is because President Trump wants to inhumanely punish immigrants.
President Trump spent this week under heavy fire, with many voices insisting on a solution that is ultimately illegal. Even the Republicans who understood the Flores settlement agreement could not expect the media to give a fair or reasonable explanation of the options available to the president. Backed into a corner by inaccurate media and Democrats exploiting the outrage, the President made a decision to show not tell, and sign the order. Now the armchair politicians can watch the judicial system take its course. That is why the president has signed an executive order in obvious violation of the Flores settlement agreement.
The near future is fairly obvious. Over the upcoming weeks, Democratic voters who are currently celebrating a win will turn against the executive order as they realize it did not achieve the DNC goal of ending the zero tolerance policy. Next, news will surface that, armed with SCOTUS precedents, an appeals court (almost certainly the 9th Circuit of Appeals) will strike down the executive order as illegal. Sometime later, the SCOTUS will almost certainly agree, as the legislative landscape will not change. The inevitable conclusion from these events is nearly where we are now: President Trump will square off with the DNC again, insisting that lack of legislation allowing families to be detained together is the cause of families being separated. This time, most Americans will understand that an executive order can't keep families awaiting trial together. The only question is, will the DNC be honest about their goal of using the familial separation to end zero tolerance, or will they find yet another way to obscure their true goals?
Rapid DNA
The rapid DNA instruments are used at the border to
verify familial relationships between adults and children that cross together.
There’s also unlimited FEMA money for these instruments
so if we get FEMA involved with the border “crisis” then they can buy as many
instruments they need to test DNA rapidly.
Rapid instrument companies (Thermofisher and ANDE) are
killing themselves to get instruments purchased because crime labs are
rejecting them.
CBP Threats
Hopefully this gets to you
before the next show 6/21/2018, if you use any of this information please make
myself and my wife ANONYMOUS. As I'm sure you and John are going to talk
about on the next show the lunatic Peter Fonda's strange rant on tweeter. This
madness has as already started to directly affect my family, because my wife
works for CCA a private company that is contracted to ICE to handle detention
otherwise known as the “evil” Otay Mesa Detention facility here in San Diego
County. In addition we have close family members in the CBP, which is pretty
common in our area for everyone. The majority illegals detained there are
awaiting trail for crimes, like rape, ID theft, murder, drugs, gangs violence,
and etc. Not some poor Joe Gonzales that was just found to be undocumented
hanging outside Home Depot and ripped away from his family. And there are NO
children house there regardless of the fake Facebook video going around.
More to the point she came
home after her shift and told me about numerous death threats they received in
post response to Mr. Fonda's call to action (some where even nice enough to
leave a call back number for the Sheriffs Anti-terrorism Unit to investigate.)
As well as a number of people waiting outside the facility taking picture of
all the officers, their personal vehicles, and the facility. Protesters are
nothing new to the facility but this kind of actions is crossing a line. The
Otay Mesa facility is owned and operated by CCA not ICE, even though the News
reports differently. Everyone who works there is a regular citizen with a
crappy job like most Americans. Their personal information are not protect
because they are not technically officers of the law. So there is nothing
legally protecting everyone that that works there for these radical threats.
On a side note our wonderful
Nancy Pelosi toured the facility a day ago with her entourage of hate who even
went so far as to talk down to the Church Chaplin saying “Where in the Bible
does it say to rip children from their mothers.” Then the next day they get Mr.
Fonda's sheep at the gates, I don't think this is just timing it all seems
slightly planned.
Office Of First Lady Calls Secret Service After Actor Peter Fonda Calls For Barron Trump To Be Kidnapped - The Daily Caller
The Office of the First Lady has notified the Secret Service after actor Peter Fonda called for kidnapping Melania and Donald Trump's son, Barron, The Daily Caller has learned exclusively.
In a tweet sent Wednesday, the actor called for Barron to be ''ripped'' from Melania's arms and put in a cage ''with pedophiles.''
''WE SHOULD RIP BARRON TRUMP FROM HIS MOTHER'S ARMS AND PUT HIM IN A CAGE WITH PEDOPHILES AND SEE IF MOTHER WILL WILL STAND UP AGAINST THE GIANT ASSHOLE SHE IS MARRIED TO,'' Fonda tweeted early Wednesday morning.
Chris Kleponis '' Pool/Getty Images
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
Spokesperson for the first lady Stephanie Grisham told The Daily Caller that the Secret Service has been ''notified'' of the threat.
''The tweet is sick and irresponsible and USSS has been notified,'' Grisham said. (RELATED: Here Are The Photos Of Obama's Illegal Immigrant Detention Facilities The Media Won't Show You)
Fonda has been on a twitter tirade against White House officials, particularly females and children, over the past few days.
He called for the public caging and rape of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielsen in a tweet Tuesday. In the vulgar tweet, Fonda said ''Kristjen Nielsen is a lying gash that should be put in a cage and poked at by passersby.'' He continued, ''The gash should be pilloried in Lafayette Square naked and whipped by passersby while being filmed for posterity.''
Fonda also proposed that Press Secretary Sarah Sanders three children get kidnapped and locked in a basement while calling her a sexist slur. ''SS (Sarah Sanders) is a lying gash, too,'' Fonda said, ''And ''gash'' is much worse than cunt. Maybe we should take her children away and deport her to Arkansas, and giving her children to Stephen Goebbels Miller for safe keeping.''
DHS and the office of Sarah Sanders has yet to respond to request for comment.
Sony Pictures is releasing a movie starring Fonda in a matter of days called 'Boundaries.'
Microsoft Distances ICE Contract From Family Separations as It Denounces Policy - WSJ
Microsoft Corp. executives joined other tech leaders in denouncing the U.S. handling of migrant families but stopped short of heeding calls from some employees to end work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the agency's role in separating children from their parents.
Chief Executive Satya Nadella described the Trump administration's border policy as ''simply cruel and abusive, and we are standing for change,'' in a letter to employees that he posted online Tuesday.
His comments were part of a wider tech industry protest against the administration's ''zero-tolerance'' policy of detaining adult immigrants at the border with Mexico, leading to the forced separation of more than 2,000 children from their parents in less than two months.
Other prominent tech CEOs speaking out about the border policy included Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet Inc.'s Google division, who tweeted ''the stories and images of families being separated at the border are gut-wrenching.'' Uber Technologies Inc. CEO Dara Khosrowshahitweeted the policy is ''just plain wrong,'' and that speaking as a father and immigrant, the stories ''break my heart.''
Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook, in an interview with the Irish Times, described the separations as ''inhumane,'' while Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk said in a series of tweets that if there was any way to help the children at the border, he would.
On Wednesday, President Trump signed an executive order ''to keep families together'' amid the firestorm, which also included rebukes from several large U.S. airlines.
The tech leaders' comments reflect the industry's volatile relationship with the Trump administration.
Tech companies have agreed with the White House in some areas, such as corporate-tax overhaul, but executives and employees have been unusually vocal critics in others'--particularly immigration policy, which is especially sensitive in an industry where many employees and leaders were born overseas.
In early 2017, employees and executives industrywide railed against the U.S. temporary travel ban placed on foreign nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
Mr. Nadella's remarks Tuesday came after more than a hundred employees signed an open letter posted on an internal message board earlier in the day demanding the company no longer provide technology to ICE in a contract that the employees in the letter said is valued at $19.4 million.
''As the people who build the technologies that Microsoft profits from, we refuse to be complicit,'' employees said in the letter, which was posted online by the New York Times. ''We are part of a growing movement, comprised of many across the industry who recognize the grave responsibility that those creating powerful technology have to ensure what they build is used for good, and not for harm.''
In responding to employees, Mr. Nadella spoke about being an immigrant and how his dream wouldn't have been possible elsewhere.
Mr. Nadella said Microsoft has no plans to end its ties with ICE, and that its work isn't related to the controversial new policy. ''I want to be clear: Microsoft is not working with the U.S. government on any projects related to separating children from their families at the border.''
Microsoft President Brad Smithpenned an extensive blog post detailing the company's stance on specific immigration policies. Neither said the company would cease its work with ICE.
Microsoft's work with the agency gained social-media attention in light of a blog post the company published in January touting its ties with ICE. In the post, Microsoft said the department ''is currently implementing transformative technologies for homeland security and public safety, and we're proud to support this work with our mission-critical cloud.''
Mr. Nadella's letter Tuesday struck a different tone. He wrote: ''Our current cloud engagement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is supporting legacy mail, calendar, messaging and document management workloads.''
America's 'Detention Centers' Added to Wikipedia List of Concentration Camps
President Donald Trump in the East Room of the White House on June 18, 2018 Photo: GettyThe United States currently has over 100 concentration camps along the U.S.-Mexico border. The facilities have become controversial due to the Trump regime's policy of separating migrant children from their parents'--a policy that health care professionals explicitly call child abuse. And now Wikipedia, the user-edited online encyclopedia, has unceremoniously added this shameful chapter of American history to its lists of concentration camps.
Wikipedia's list of concentration and internment camps is filled with history's most horrendous detentions. The list covers injustices from around the globe, including the gulags of the Soviet Union, the British military's South African camps during the Boer War, and America's internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. But the latest addition is happening in real time, a benefit of having an online encyclopedia that can be changed quickly as events unfold.
That new Wikipedia addition is America's immigrant concentration camps, an ongoing crisis created at the highest levels of American government, including President Donald Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. The Trump regime has at times denied that the policy of separating children in these camps even exists. But the camps and the Trump regime's policies of systematic child abuse are very real.
The Wikipedia entry currently reads:
In May of 2018, under the direction of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the U.S. acted in accordance with a 2016 Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision which ruled that child migrants who came to the border with parents and were held in custody must be released. However, the decision did not state parents must be released and thus the children are held in custody until they can be placed with extended family members. US officials began forcibly separating children and parents arriving at the US border. This included some seeking asylum from violence in their home countries, however, since up to 11,000 children are brought in to the U.S. each year by child sex traffickers, the identities are verified before release to extended family custody. Under this policy, nearly 2000 children were taken from their parents and placed in ''detention centers.'' [189] These centers, have been described by those in opposition to the policy as ''concentration camps'' [190]. The centers had previously been cited by Texas officials for more than 150 health violations. [191]
In light of everything that's happening, the text is a surprisingly unbiased entry that's clearly presenting information without taking sides. But history will probably be less kind as people of the future look at the kids in cages and hear the cries of children who just want their mom or dad.
Propaganda photo released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on June 18, 2018. Journalists have not been allowed to take photos or video in America's concentration camps.Photo: U.S. Department of Homeland Security''Congress and the courts created this problem, and Congress alone can fix it,'' Homeland Security secretary Kristjen Nielsen said at a press conference yesterday. ''Until then, we will enforce every law we have on the books to defend the sovereignty and security of the United States.''
But as countless people have pointed out, Congress didn't create this problem. The Trump regime created this problem with the purpose of separating children from their families as a ''deterrent'' so that people fleeing violence in Central America would not come to the U.S. to seek asylum.
Before he became President Trump's chief of staff, John Kelly was the secretary of Homeland Security. And he said very clearly back in March of 2017 that he was considering this policy of separating children from their parents.
''I am considering exactly that. They will be well cared for as we deal with their parents,'' Kelly told CNN host Wolf Blitzer on March 6, 2017. Both his intention and the reasoning behind the policy was made clear.
By April of this year, that ''zero tolerance'' policy was officially announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sessions has even used the Bible to justify his actions, something that many religious leaders have condemned him for. But Sessions almost seemed to take joy in talking about the policies, noticeably smiling and almost laughing as he quoted the Bible.
Tents to house migrant children are seen from a distance at the Tornillo-Marcelino Serna Port of Entry on June 18, 2018 in Tornillo, Texas. Photo: Getty''Noncitizens who cross our borders unlawfully, between our ports of entry, with children are not an exception,'' Sessions said last week. ''They are the ones who broke the law, they are the ones who endangered their own children on their trek. The United States, on the other hand, goes to extraordinary lengths to protect them while the parents go through a short detention period.''
But Sessions doesn't mention that asylum seekers are being turned away at America's ports of entry, something that Homeland Security secretary Nielsen denies. People seeking asylum sometimes have no choice but to cross the border to declare their intention. Seeking asylum is not a crime.
But right wing media went into overdrive last night, defending the camps in the most shocking ways possible. Fox News host Laura Ingraham even described the facilities as ''essentially summer camps.'' It'd be funny if it all wasn't so horrendous.
The question now becomes how much more expansive this Wikipedia entry will get. We're living through history and our history books are being written in real time. Will America turn this ship around and stop abusing children by separating them from their parents and keeping them in cages? We can hope. But if yesterday's combative press conference with Secretary Nielsen is any guide, that's not going to happen anytime soon.
newscentermaine.com | Video shows border patrol demanding citizenship status at Maine bus stop
NOW "Are you folks U.S. citizens?" an agent asks as passengers board the bus.
BANGOR (NEWS CENTER Maine) - A video recorded by a Concord Coach Lines passenger appears to show Customs and Border Patrol officers demanding the citizenship status of passengers before they board the bus.
The video was taken on May 28 by passenger Alec Larson as he boarded the bus at Concord Coach Lines' Bangor bus station.
"Are you folks U.S. citizens?" a border patrol agent says as he walks down the line of passengers. "I'm not answering that question, sir," Larson responds.
Moments later, passengers ask a Concord Coach Lines terminal employee if they must be U.S. Citizens to ride the bus, to which he responds, "Yes."
The company, however, says U.S. citizenship is not a requirement to ride the bus, for which tickets cost anywhere between $20 to $75.
Concord Coach Lines has no partnership with CBP and US citizenship is not a requirement to use our service. Please see attached for full statement. pic.twitter.com/7hAIqIu85D
'-- Concord Coach Lines (@concordcoach) June 16, 2018In a statement, the company says Customs and Border Protection arrives at its facilities typically "without any forewarning," and that Concord Coach employees have "very little interaction" with CBP officers.
RELATED 'º ACLU demands changes to Greyhound over custom raids
ACLU Letter to bus companies by NEWSCENTER26 on Scribd
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of both Maine and New Hampshire sent a letter to the company in April urging it to create a formal policy to refuse CBP presence on busses without a warrant, except at the border.
A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol says the department has increased its transportation checks around the country "to reinforce CBP's world-class approach to border security." She says transportation centers are often used by "alien smuggling and drug trafficking organizations to move people, narcotics, and contraband to interior destinations throughout the country."
Although most border patrol work is done close to country borders, the spokesperson says border patrol has the authority to board and search any vehicle within 100 air miles from the border.
Read U.S. Customs and Border Patrol's full statement here.
This story will be updated.
(C) NEWS CENTER Maine
Separated by law: Families torn apart by 1996 immigration measure | Center for Public Integrity
Juvenile JusticeScrutinizing controversial policies affecting young people at risk.
Stories in this seriesIn the days since President Obama's re-election victory, Republican leaders have been aggressively and publicly rethinking their party's uncompromising stance on reforming current immigration law. Suddenly, prominent new voices '-- Florida Sen. Marco Rubio among them '-- are calling for a different approach, arguing that the GOP's awkward relationship with the growing Latino electorate depends on addressing this issue. There's a lot on the table.
The big question for the GOP is whether to sign on to a bipartisan agreement allowing some of the millions of undocumented people in the country to earn legal status. But the president and Congress could also face pressure to look at penalties now enshrined in immigration law '-- the product of 1996 legislation '' that impose harsh punishments on illegal immigrants who apply for legal status based on marriage to a U.S. citizen or some other tie.
Immigration activists blame these penalties for keeping hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants in hiding. Because of mandatory penalties, citizens or legal immigrants who have who tried to legalize their undocumented spouses have seen them banned from the U.S. for 10 years, 20 years, even life, as the Center for Public Integrity recently reported, below:
In a nation built by immigrants, they thought they could pursue their American Dream '-- with loved ones at their side. Instead, they're living an American nightmare that's tearing families apart and forcing Americans into exile.
Chris Xitco, a native of Los Angeles, never imagined that after marrying his wife Delia in 2002 and trying to legalize her, she'd end up barred by U.S. officials for life, with no pardon even possible for 10 years. She now lives south of Tijuana, Mexico, alone with the couple's two small children.
T.J. Barbour, a native of San Diego, has been struggling every day to care for a 10-year-old son, since his wife Maythe was deported and then barred from the United States in 2011 for what could be 20 years.
In central North Carolina, Anita Mann Perez has been financially ruined trying to raise three small children since her husband Jorge was exiled for 10 years in 2007. Now she's moved to Mexico to join him.
Across the country, as illegal immigrants have settled into communities, they have met Americans, fallen in love, married and had children. But when Americans have voluntarily stepped up to sponsor their spouses for legal residency, believing this was the right thing to do, they've been shocked to discover their citizenship does not trump mandatory penalties the spouses must face. Far from it.
These penalties, which ''bar'' the spouses from the U.S. for years at a time, were instituted by Congress in 1996 specifically to punish immigration-related offenses.
Since then, the law governing such situations '-- and the way it's applied '--has taken a number of twists and turns. Over that time period, waivers have helped many people. And in January, President Obama announced a plan to tweak the procedure by which citizens' spouses apply for residency, a change that could eventually spare many more families from long, painful separations. But the change isn't likely to go into effect this year, and it isn't retroactive. And while thousands stand to benefit, thousands of others simply won't qualify for easier access to ''hardship waivers'' that the president proposes '-- and will be trapped by the small print of the 1996 law. (SEE SIDEBAR)
Under that law, if applicants for legal residency crossed the border once, and were ''unlawfully present'' for more than one year, they must be issued a 10-year bar from living in the United States. They can then apply for a hardship waiver to try to return sooner and take up legal residency. If applicants have a history of entering the United States multiple times illegally, they can be barred for life '-- and can only pursue pardons if they remain outside the United States for five, usually 10, sometimes 20 years. Being married to an American citizen may not help at all.
To complete their application process, people who entered the United States illegally must go to their final interview at a U.S. consulate back in their home countries. Often U.S. consular officials must simply deliver the bad news immediately. And that's that. The bar has begun, and the applicant cannot return.
Oklahoma lawyer Douglas Stump, president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said for every 100 people who approach him to try to legalize a family member, more than half involve undocumented people whose immigration violations would qualify them for the hefty penalties mandated by the 1996 law.
The penalties emerged from Republican leaders in a get-tough Congress. They argued the country had become too easy on illegal immigrants by allowing some with family ties to pay fees, show they had no disqualifying police record and adjust their status without having to leave the country. Congress increased from $650 to $1,000 the fine such immigrants would have to pay. But that wasn't enough, some members said. Such immigrants should also leave to receive the new bars on re-entering for a certain period.
By getting tougher on these undocumented people, supporters of bars reasoned, others would see that it would never be easy for them to transition from illegal to legal status, even by marriage.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican of Orange County, California, defended the tougher rules during a 2001 congressional debate over their merits '-- and whether to extend a pre-1996 statute that was allowing some immigrants to still adjust their status inside the U.S.
''Yes, there are some heart-tearing cases here,'' Rohrabacher said. ''Yes, some people who are in this country end up marrying American citizens, and the American citizens find that their loved one is going to have to go back to their home country [for the duration of a bar] in order to be here legally, because they have married an illegal alien.''
''I am sorry,'' he said. ''If someone is here illegally '... then they should go back to their home country to regularize their status.''
Thousands?Hard numbers are impossible to come by, but the Department of State's records of immigrant visa rejections suggest that thousands of bars have been handed down over the last decade.
Records don't single out which of these applicants are spouses of U.S. citizens. Some could be other sorts of relatives. Typically, though, department officials say that spouses are one of the largest groups applying for residency visas globally.
Between 2000 and 2011, visa applicants were able to overcome their disqualification due to illegal presence for more than one year '-- which carries a 10-year bar '-- about 89,000 times. However, immigrant visas were denied more than 68,000 times because applicants were unable to get their disqualification for illegal presence waived. The numbers could reflect some volume of repeat attempts by the same people.
During the same period, there were almost 19,000 disqualifications of visa applications for the offense of being ''unlawfully present after previous immigration violations.'' Only five such cases were reversed. The penalty is a lifetime bar, with the possibility of being able to seek a pardon, but, ordinarily, only after 10 years.
There have been thousands of visa rejections for other immigration-related offenses, including ''misrepresentation'' of facts during the application process.
It's also hard to know how many spouses of Americans and parents of American children could feel threatened by potential bars, and have thus decided to continue to remain undocumented. That means families are living with the risk of spouses being discovered and deported rather than trying to apply for residency.
The Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research center in Washington, D.C., estimated last year that more than 16 million people in the United States are in families with at least one undocumented member.
About 9 million of these people are in families that also include at least one U.S. citizen child. Other adults in the families could be citizens, or they could be legal immigrants. Most illegal immigrants, Pew also estimates, have been in the United States for 10 years or more '-- long enough to start a family.
''We are talking mostly about younger families with small children,'' said Randall Emery, one of the founders of American Families United, a national network of citizens whose loved ones have been barred '-- or would be.
Emery's group applauded Obama's easing of the hardship waiver rules (see "A dizzying series of legal twists and turns"), which could benefit some of its members. Eventually. But the proposed change is not bringing any relief to Americans who are already separated from husbands, wives and children.
Maythe and T.J. Barbour, married since 2002, sit for a family portrait in San Diego with their two children, Nidia and Lucas. Maythe was deported in 2011 and barred from entering the U.S. for 20 years. She lives in Tijuana with Nidia. T.J. and Lucas visit on weekends.
Annie Tsai
The Barbour familyT.J. Barbour, a software engineer in his early thirties, knows what he is doing every Wednesday night and every weekend.
The San Diego resident leaves his Rancho Bernardo neighborhood, packs his car with household supplies he can buy for less in the United States, like toilet paper, and drives over the San Diego-Tijuana border on those Wednesdays through heavy traffic to see his wife. Their son Lucas, 10, goes with him. They come back before dawn Thursday morning. And then they return on the weekends, so the boy can spend time with his mother, who lives in a small apartment just south of Tijuana.
After getting a late start one recent Saturday, T.J. pulls up to mom's place at night, with Lucas asleep in the back. Maythe reaches in and embraces him, and helps him stagger into the house while she asks him, in English, how his American grandparents are doing.
On Monday morning, before dawn, Maythe helps Lucas into the car so he can sleep a bit more '-- he has to go to school '-- and T.J. checks underneath the vehicle to make sure drug smugglers haven't attached a box to the bottom of the car, a popular way to get goods across that can later be retrieved.
Maythe drives the car close to the border crossing so son and husband can get some sleep and then she takes two buses home. It is a grueling routine. She cries bitterly in relating how '-- despite being married to T.J. '-- she was deported from the United States and told she would remain in Mexico for 20 years before being able to join her family again.
''I recognize that one commits an error by crossing [the border],'' Maythe said in Spanish. ''But sometimes necessity makes you do things.''
T.J. was just out of high school in San Diego when he met Maythe, at Burger King, about a dozen years ago. He tried out some rudimentary Spanish on his pretty co-worker, and it clicked. ''I definitely saw something special about her,'' he says.
Maythe was reluctant to get involved because she already had a young daughter to support, and was struggling to pay off medical bills in Mexico. She was also trying to get away from a threatening experience back in her home in Mexico's southern Guerrero state, a history T.J. says was so traumatic he won't discuss it.
Little by little, the two fell in love. ''I have no doubt we were meant to be together,'' T.J. said. He admired her hard work, and her devotion to her daughter, whom he adopted and is now also sponsoring for legal status '-- a process he hopes will be more forgiving since she grew up in San Diego.
T.J. knew that Maythe had tried to get over the border twice, and was caught the first time. A smuggler told her to sit in a car and not say anything if a guard asked for her papers. She and others were caught. The smuggler then put her into the trunk of a car with tiny holes in it to let in air. She made it that time, and subsequently found jobs at an Olive Garden restaurant and Burger King, among others.
''Like most people,'' T.J. said, ''I was under the impression that, well, if she gets married to me, we're set.''
They consulted with a lawyer before they married in 2002, and T.J. was shocked to learn that it wasn't that easy. The lawyer explained the complexities of the law, and what they were in for, but thought Maythe might get a waiver. The couple decided to go slow, out of fear.
Eventually, a paralegal reviewing their case told them that Maythe's previous deportation would disqualify her from a hardship waiver and they'd be better off hoping Congress made changes.
''It was basically back to living in the shadows,'' T.J. said.
Maythe gave birth to Lucas, and T.J. graduated from college and started his career as a software engineer. He began a graduate program. They owned a home and Maythe ''did all those mom things,'' taking Lucas to school, participating in his class activities and cooking tasty meals.
It all fell apart when Maythe was stopped in 2010 by a police officer in the San Diego community of Escondido who wondered why she was driving slowly. She had been looking for a friend's address. The officer called immigration agents.
T.J. said he had contacted the office of his congressman, Rep. Brian Bilbray, a Republican known for tough talk on illegal immigration. T.J says an office staffer assured him that Maythe would probably not be deported.
T.J. said an immigration agent suggested to him, informally, that the couple accept Maythe being deported, and that maybe she could come back soon with a waiver. T.J. kept thinking he had additional rights as a citizen, and refused. He decided to fight to keep Maythe, and filed a petition in a last-ditch bid to get her asylum based on trauma she'd been through in the past.
While waiting for a hearing, Maythe was confined to a detention center in San Diego County for five months. She didn't see her children once because she and T.J. agreed it would be horrible for them to see her there.
When Maythe had her asylum hearing, T.J. packed the immigration court with co-workers, family and friends. Lucas sat with him in the front.
''I always thought, 'Look, they've got to be going after criminals, after the narco-traffickers and everything,' '' T.J. said. ''What are they going to do with a little housewife?''
The judge denied Maythe's bid for asylum, which would have let her remain in the United States. The judge, T.J. said, rushed from the court with no explanation. He said lawyers told him that judges fear that if they give too many Mexicans asylum, too many more will ask for it.
Maythe was deported in early 2011. Agents left her in Tijuana, she said, with nothing but the clothes she was wearing when detained and a cell phone with a dead battery. She had to beg for people to let her call T.J.
Because of her two deportations, T.J. said he's been advised, she will be barred from trying to obtain legal residency and re-entering the United States for 20 years.
Maythe spent her first nights alone in Tijuana standing on a border bridge, she said, crying so hard a guard told her he was concerned she would kill herself.
Her health deteriorated, and the whole family began to put on pounds. Maythe got a job that paid about $10 a day to hand out fliers for business. She began to turn to her parents' Jehovah's Witness faith. She found a congregation in Tijuana, and T.J. joined as well. Now when he visits they spend part of that time dressed nicely and making rounds to spread the faith.
T.J. is concerned about the long-term impact of the separation from his mother. Both parents worry about the draining physical and psychological impact of Lucas being packed into the car and spending hours inching through traffic as they cross the border every weekend.
Lucas can't really participate in sports or weekend activities now, T.J. says, and he's so busy balancing job and home that all he can do is throw together a quick dinner for his son and keep the house from being a mess.
Maythe says it wouldn't be right to pull Lucas, who doesn't speak Spanish, out of school and move him to Mexico to be with her. He doesn't like the food in Mexico, she said. He doesn't feel comfortable. ''His life is there, everything he knows,'' she says. ''I still feel he loves me. He makes an effort to come, and he says he misses me. But I am not a part of his total life now.''
Mandatory bars, T.J. says, don't fit the crime, and they've stripped immigration judges and other officials of the discretion to consider the entirety of a person's life and family situation.
''I want people to know that, hey, we U.S. citizens are really hurting here, and our children are,'' T.J. says. ''The family ramifications of this have to be taken into account. We need to deal with the fact that people have become a part of the fabric of our society.''
Chris Xitco visits his children and wife Delia, who was barred for at least 10 years from the U.S. after the couple applied for Delia's legal residency. Daughter Elisa, 6, and son Itzamal, 1, live with Delia in Rosarito, Mexico, 30 miles south of Tijuana, and Chris drives from Los Angeles on weekends to visit.
Susan Ferriss
The Xitco familyChris Xitco, 49, says that with everything he and his wife have gone through, life feels like it's ''her and me, against the world.''
They have two kids, Elisa, 6, and Itzamal, a 1-year-old son.
Chris met Delia, now in her mid-thirties, more than a dozen years ago on the job at a produce-packing company in the Los Angeles area. Chris is not Hispanic, but he spoke some Spanish because he grew up with Mexican workers on a family farm, and he used to surf south of Tijuana as a youth.
The two began to date, Delia taking him to see Latin music concerts. He took her to see him surf.
Delia originally hailed from Nayarit, a state in western Mexico. Chris knew that she had crossed the border illegally, that she'd been caught once in the Arizona desert, detained overnight and then tried again to enter and was successful.
But he knew so many other people who had done the same thing, who were desperate to work. The border, he said, ''was a joke for so long.'' And he didn't think Delia's offense was unforgivable. He knew it was rare to impossible for Mexicans to get work visas, and she came from a poor part of Mexico where jobs were scarce and many had already blazed the familiar trail north.
When the two decided to marry in 2002, Chris was 38, and he and Delia were eager to get settled and have children. Chris said he knew he had to take care of business by legalizing Delia, but he ''thought it was a lock because I was a citizen.''
He was so na¯ve, he said, that he took Delia right into the immigration office of a Los Angeles federal building. He approached a security guard and told him the couple was there because he wanted to ''fix'' his wife's papers.
''He put his arm around my shoulder, did a U-turn,'' Chris remembered, and ushered Chris and Delia toward the door. The guard did him a big favor, Chris said he realized later. Technically, his wife could have been taken into custody right then and there. The guard gave Chris the address of a website to consult as they were walking out.
In 2003, Chris contacted an attorney, who explained how the law had changed, and suggested that Chris and Delia save their money and hope that Congress would change the laws again.
But Chris returned to the lawyer in 2004. The lawyer did a Justice Department background check on Delia and found no record of deportation. Perhaps when she was quickly turned back at the border once, the lawyer reasoned, it didn't count.
So they started the application process.
Delia was pregnant when they got word she had an interview appointment, in Juarez, Mexico. The couple didn't want to risk any chance that the baby would be born in Mexico, fearing that it might jeopardize Delia's application. They asked for a delay.
Delia and Chris finally went to Mexico for her interview in October 2007, when Elisa was 16 months old. Chris' parents were thrilled with the new grandchild; Delia's English was improving and bonds with Chris's family were growing tighter.
Chris, as spouse, wasn't allowed into the interview, which is standard procedure.
When Delia emerged and told him she'd been barred, Chris said it really hit him: there would be no special treatment simply because Chris was an American citizen. And his daughter's birth didn't change the situation.
''They don't seem to think, well, what about the daughter? She doesn't count?'' he says. ''The system doesn't have a heart. And it doesn't have a brain.''
Delia took Elisa and flew to Nayarit. Chris went to Los Angeles. In December 2007 they met in Juarez for a new interview, a hardship waiver interview with the consular office there. Chris argued that he'd be crushed to lose baby Elisa for 10 years, but couldn't fathom separating her from Delia. But that argument didn't work. Chris failed to prove that he, as the American citizen spouse, was suffering extraordinary hardship beyond the pain expected by separation.
From there, things went downhill. Delia returned to Nayarit with Elisa. Chris found himself trying to explain over and over to family and friends what the rules were. He flew to Nayarit every few months, but over time, his daughter failed to recognize him, which broke his heart. He called local congressional representatives, whose staff expressed sympathy but urged him to get a different lawyer.
The Xitcos started the whole residency application process again. This time Chris wanted to be better prepared for what he thought would be a subsequent waiver interview. He amassed letters of support from family, a psychiatrist's evaluation, copies of anti-depressant prescriptions, his Army discharge records. He paid thousands of dollars more in fees, for Delia's medical exams, vaccinations and other requisites and travel.
At 10:15 a.m. on April 7, 2010, Delia went to her appointment in Juarez. Chris waited with the baby outside. Delia emerged from the consulate and told Chris she was not eligible for a waiver and would have to ask for a pardon in November 2017.
A records check, she learned, had turned up a report that she had entered the United States after being caught once. It was the first time U.S. consular officials had said anything about her being disqualified because she had crossed more than once.
Devastated, Chris moved Delia up to Rosarito, a beach town 30 miles south of Tijuana that's developing a community of deportees and barred family members of U.S. citizens.
He has settled into a grueling routine of commuting, but seethes when he discusses what happened.
He is now ''couch surfing,'' sleeping at work or friends' places. For more than a year, he hasn't been able to afford his own home in the Los Angeles area. He's still working in the produce-distribution business. He manages to beg off work a bit early every Friday and drive down to Rosarito, which can mean brutal, three- or four-hour slogs through bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Returning to the United States at weekend's end is even worse. Chris is perpetually exhausted because on Mondays he has to sit in three hours of traffic just to get a few miles over the border, and then drive on to Los Angeles, another three hours.
Every penny he makes and nearly all his energy goes into managing this separation, Chris said. He can't get a job in Tijuana, he said, because the earnings are too low, and he feels he's too old.
Chris is paying for a private school in Rosarito for Elisa, but the instruction is in Spanish, not English. Chris tries to engage her in English, but she answers in Spanish. She can sing a version of the ABC song with a heavy Spanish accent. She can say ''see you later,'' and ''bye'' and she understands what the Fourth of July is about.
Chris is worried how she'll fare later if and when she enters school in the United States. She'll be ready for junior high by then.
He said his greatest fear, being three to four hours away, is that he won't be able to protect his family. The house Delia and the children are in has high walls, but thieves broke in once already and looted it. It's in an area with a lot of transients, people who don't know one another, and Delia feels she can no longer go out for very long periods of time.
''I don't trust the neighbors,'' she said. She has no friends nearby, nor relatives, and restricts her socializing to other mothers at school.
Still, having the family in Rosarito is better than in Nayarit, Chris said. Delia and Elisa had to hit the floor in a shopping center during a gang shootout there.
Chris said he doesn't think illegal immigrants shouldn't be penalty-free if they marry and their spouses want to legalize them. But he thinks a decade-long bar is cruel not just to Delia, but to him and his children.
''She didn't sell any drugs. She doesn't know anything about gang signs,'' he says. ''Crossing the border to look for a job isn't that much of a crime to me.''
Twins Fabiola (left) and Fatima Mann Perez, 7, sit with sister Cassandra, 1, and hold a photo of their father Jorge Perez. He was barred from the U.S. for at least 10 years, until 2017, after he and his U.S. citizen wife, Anita Mann Perez of Graham, North Carolina, applied for Jorge's legal residency.
Susan Ferriss
The Mann Perez FamilyIt took 10 minutes for the consular officer in Juarez, Mexico, to look through Jorge Perez's application packet for residency and tell him he was barred for 10 years from re-entering the United States, starting that very day in 2007.
''He said, 'Ok, that's it. You can go now,' '' Perez, reached by phone in Mexico, remembered.
When Jorge, now 42, told wife Anita what had happened, her world collapsed.
''When I tell people what I've gone through, they're shocked. They think it's crazy that an American citizen would have to live in another country for 10 years to be with their spouse,'' Anita said. She grew up in Graham, North Carolina, not far from Durham, and most of her close-knit family still lives there.
Since Jorge's barring, she's lost the home they were buying, spent all her retirement savings and had to move in with her parents.
This month, Anita, 34, quit a job she enjoyed at a local hospital as an aide in a clinic and packed up some belongings. She moved with the couple's 7-year-old twins and nearly 2-year-old daughter to join Jorge again. This will be Anita's third attempt to live in Jorge's remote town near the Guatemalan border. But she knows it will not be easy.
''At least [in Graham] I know my girls get three square meals and a snack,'' she said. Jorge has been trying to get by growing tomatoes. He built a house there with money he saved working in the States, but what he and Anita really wanted to do was build a life for themselves in Graham.
Anita met Jorge at a restaurant in Graham, where he had arrived in 2000 after getting across the border on foot, with a smuggler. Anita had studied Spanish in high school, and he was learning English. She kept going back to the restaurant and he kept talking to her.
They dated, and in 2002 they were married. It was the kind of cross-cultural union that was becoming more common in Graham, where Mexican workers have been drawn to work in roofing and in poultry-packing factories.
Jorge, who learned English quite well, blended in with the family and built a roof for her parents' house. Anita's mother still talks about what a good son-in-law he was. ''Some people can walk off and leave their children. They don't care,'' said Nancy Mann, Anita's mother. ''But their daddy does care.''
Shortly after they married, Anita hastened to file in 2003 to make Jorge legal. ''He didn't even want me to do it,'' she said. ''He didn't want anybody to think he got married to me just to get papers.''
In 2004, the couple received confirmation from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that Jorge did qualify to continue to pursue legal status based on his marriage to her. They took that acknowledgement as a good sign and thought they were on their way to Jorge getting a green card. The next step was to file paperwork with the State Department, which is tasked with issuing the visas following an interview in Mexico.
The couple's twins, Fabiola and Fatima, were born in 2005, and all seemed well. But shortly thereafter a deadly hurricane struck Central America and southern Mexico, and Jorge lost all contact with his parents. He told Anita he had to go south to check on them. So he left, for a total of three weeks, and then re-entered illegally.
Nancy Mann, Anita's mother, believes Jorge's actions were noble. ''They have to go check on their families,'' she said. Nancy was under the impression that if U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services sent a document acknowledging Jorge's eligibility, he was all but approved.
When Jorge was finally summoned to his 2007 interview in Mexico, however, he acknowledged that he had crossed the border twice. Lawyers warn applicants that if they are not honest about their history, they risk a lifetime bar. But that revelation of a second illegal crossing made him ineligible for a hardship waiver that could have reduced his penalty for living illegally in the United States for more than one year. Instead, Jorge was told he'd have to pursue a pardon in 2017.
''I believe that he was punished for being honest,'' Anita said.
From April through August of 2007, Anita took the toddler twins to Mexico to try to live there with Jorge, but returned after one of them developed a fever so bad she had a seizure. The staff at a small clinic in the Mexican town was very attentive, she said, and put her sick child on an IV and administered medicine. But the experience frightened Anita.
She wrote to congressional representatives, asking for help. They all basically said the law was the law, although some were more sympathetic and said they'd keep her case in mind, Anita said.
She visited Jorge on occasion, and in 2010 Anita tried to live in Mexico again with the twins. She and Jorge ultimately agreed she should return to North Carolina because she had a high-risk second pregnancy. She used up all her retirement savings so she could comply with doctor's orders to stay off her feet and not work.
When her third baby was born, she traveled down to the Texas-Mexico border once and crossed over just so Jorge could see the baby. Then she returned to Graham, and put the twins in church school and thought long and hard about what to do.
She scattered photos of Jorge around the room she and the girls slept in, and they talked every day with him. Last Easter Sunday, she hit a painful moment when one of the twins leaned over and whispered to her. ''All the daddies are here. Why can't my daddy be with me?''
As Anita was preparing to go to Mexico this month, the twins talked about being excited to see their father. ''He's going to paint my wall with horses,'' Fabiola said. ''He's going to make me a toy box.'' But the girls said they were anxious about having to speak Spanish and adjust to school there.
Anita is worried about how they'll survive. She hopes she can earn some money teaching English. But she knows tough times are ahead, and she understands that she might not be able to stay in Mexico.
''When they give out these bars, they're not just giving them to one person. They're giving them to a family,'' Anita said. ''It's actually worse than a prison sentence. People in prison can do a lot less time, and do a whole lot worse things.''
Text - S.3036 - 115th Congress (2017-2018): Keep Families Together Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
To limit the separation of families at or near ports of entry.
Mrs. Feinstein (for herself, Mr. Schumer , Ms. Harris , Mr. Leahy , Mrs. Murray , Mr. Wyden , Mr. Durbin , Mr. Reed , Mr. Nelson , Mr. Carper , Mr. Menendez , Mr. Sanders , Mr. Casey , Ms. Klobuchar , Mrs. Shaheen , Mr. Warner , Mr. Merkley , Mr. Bennet , Mr. Blumenthal , Mr. Schatz , Mr. Murphy , Ms. Hirono , Mr. King , Mr. Kaine , Ms. Warren , Mr. Markey , Mr. Booker , Ms. Cortez Masto , Ms. Baldwin , Mr. Heinrich , Mr. Udall , and Mrs. Gillibrand ) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
To limit the separation of families at or near ports of entry.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of theUnited States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. Short title .
This Act may be cited as the ''Keep Families Together Act''.
SEC. 2. Limitation on the separation of families .
(a) In general .'--An agent or officer of a designated agency shall be prohibited from removing a child from his or her parent or legal guardian, at or near the port of entry or within 100 miles of the border of the United States, unless one of the following has occurred:
(1) A State court, authorized under State law, terminates the rights of a parent or legal guardian, determines that it is in the best interests of the child to be removed from his or her parent or legal guardian, in accordance with the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (Public Law 105''89), or makes any similar determination that is legally authorized under State law.
(2) An official from the State or county child welfare agency with expertise in child trauma and development makes a best interests determination that it is in the best interests of the child to be removed from his or her parent or legal guardian because the child is in danger of abuse or neglect at the hands of the parent or legal guardian, or is a danger to herself or others.
(3) The Chief Patrol Agent or the Area Port Director in their official and undelegated capacity, authorizes separation upon the recommendation by an agent or officer, based on a finding that'--
(A) the child is a victim of trafficking or is at significant risk of becoming a victim of trafficking;
(B) there is a strong likelihood that the adult is not the parent or legal guardian of the child; or
(C) the child is in danger of abuse or neglect at the hands of the parent or legal guardian, or is a danger to themselves or others.
(b) Prohibition on separation .'--An agency may not remove a child from a parent or legal guardian solely for the policy goal of deterring individuals from migrating to the United States or for the policy goal of promoting compliance with civil immigration laws.
(c) Documentation required .'--The Secretary shall ensure that a separation under subsection (a)(3) is documented in writing and includes, at a minimum, the reason for such separation, together with the stated evidence for such separation.
SEC. 3. Recommendations for separation by agents or officers .
(a) In general .'--Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, shall develop training and guidance, with an emphasis on the best interests of the child, childhood trauma, attachment, and child development, for use by the agents and officers, in order to standardize the implementation of section 2(a)(3).
(b) Annual review .'--Not less frequently than annually, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall review the guidance developed under subsection (a) and make recommendations to the Secretary to ensure such guidance is in accordance with current evidence and best practices in child welfare, child development, and childhood trauma.
(c) Requirement .'--The guidance under subsection (a) shall incorporate the presumptions described in section 4.
(d) Additional requirements .'--
(1) E VIDENCE-BASED .'--The guidance and training developed under this section shall incorporate evidence-based practices.
(2) T RAINING REQUIRED .'--
(A) All agents and officers of designated agencies, upon hire, and annually thereafter, shall complete training on adherence to the guidance under this section.
(B) All Chief Patrol Agents and Area Port Directors, upon hire, and annually thereafter, shall complete'--
(i) training on adherence to the guidance under this section; and
(ii) 90 minutes of child welfare practice training that is evidence-based and trauma-informed.
SEC. 4. Presumptions .
The presumptions described in this section are the following:
(1) F AMILY UNITY .'--There shall be a strong presumption in favor of family unity.
(2) S IBLINGS .'--To the maximum extent practicable, the Secretary shall ensure that sibling groups remain intact.
(3) D ETENTION .'--In general, there is a presumption that detention is not in the best interests of families and children.
SEC. 5. Required policy for locating separated children .
(a) In general .'--Not later than 180 days after the after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall publish final public guidance that describes, with specificity, the manner in which a parent or legal guardian may locate a child who was separated from the parent or legal guardian under section 2(a). In developing the public guidance, the Secretary shall consult with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, immigrant advocacy organizations, child welfare organizations, and State child welfare agencies.
(b) Written notification .'--The Secretary shall provide each parent or legal guardian who was separated, with written notice of the public guidance to locate a separated child.
(c) Language access .'--All guidance shall be available in English and Spanish, and at the request of the parent or legal guardian, in the language or manner that is understandable by the parent or legal guardian.
SEC. 6. Required information for separated families .
Not less frequently than once every month, the Secretary shall provide the parent or legal guardian of a child who was separated, the following information, at a minimum:
(1) A status report on the monthly activities of the child.
(2) Information about the education and health of the child, including any medical treatment provided to the child or medical treatment recommended for the child.
(3) Information about changes to the child's immigration status.
(4) Other information about the child, designed to promote and maintain family reunification, as the Secretary determines in his or her discretion.
SEC. 7. Annual report on family separation .
Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Secretary shall submit a report to the committees of jurisdiction that describes each instance in which a child was separated from a parent or legal guardian and includes, for each such instance, the following:
(1) The relationship of the adult and the child.
(2) The age and gender of the adult and child.
(3) The length of separation.
(4) Whether the adult was charged with a crime, and if the adult was charged with a crime, the type of crime.
(5) Whether the adult made a claim for asylum, expressed a fear to return, or applied for other immigration relief.
(6) Whether the adult was prosecuted if charged with a crime and the associated outcome of such charges.
(7) The stated reason for, and evidence in support of, the separation.
(8) If the child was part of a sibling group at the time of separation, whether the sibling group has had physical contact and visitation.
(9) Whether the child was rendered an unaccompanied alien child.
(10) Other information in the Secretary's discretion.
SEC. 8. Clarification of parental rights .
If a child is separated from a parent or legal guardian, and a State court has not made a determination that the parental rights have been terminated, there is a presumption that'--
(1) the parental rights remain intact; and
(2) the separation does not constitute an affirmative determination of abuse or neglect under Federal or State law.
SEC. 9. Clarification of existing law .
(a) Federal law .'--Nothing in this Act shall be interpreted to supersede or modify Federal child welfare law, where applicable, including the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (Public Law 105''89).
(b) State law .'--Nothing in this Act shall be interpreted to supersede or modify State child welfare laws where applicable.
SEC. 10. GAO report on prosecution of asylum seekers .
(a) Study .'--The Comptroller General of the United States shall conduct a study of the prosecution of asylum seekers during the period beginning on January 1, 2008 and ending on December 31, 2018, including'--
(1) the total number of persons who claimed a fear of persecution, received a favorable credible fear determination, and were referred for prosecution;
(2) an overview and analysis of the metrics used by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice to track the number of asylum seekers referred for prosecution;
(3) the total number of asylum seekers referred for prosecution, a breakdown and description of the criminal charges filed against asylum seekers during such period, and a breakdown and description of the convictions secured;
(4) the total number of asylum seekers who were separated from their children as a result of being referred for prosecution;
(5) a breakdown of the resources spent on prosecuting asylum seekers during such period, as well as any diversion of resources required to prosecute asylum seekers, and any costs imposed on States and localities;
(6) the total number of asylum seekers who were referred for prosecution and also went through immigration proceedings; and
(7) the total number of asylum seekers referred for prosecution who were deported before going through immigration proceedings.
(b) Report .'--Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General shall submit to Congress a report that describes the results of the study conducted pursuant to subsection (a).
SEC. 11. Definitions .
In this Act:
(1) A GENT; OFFICER .'--The terms ''agent'' and ''officer'' include contractors of the Federal Government.
(2) C HILD .'--The term ''child'' means an individual who'--
(A) has not reached the age of 18; and
(B) has no permanent immigration status.
(3) C OMMITTEES OF JURISDICTION .'--The term ''committees of jurisdiction'' means'--
(A) the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate; and
(B) the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives.
(4) D ANGER OF ABUSE OR NEGLECT AT THE HANDS OF THE PARENT OR LEGAL GUARDIAN .'--The term ''danger of abuse or neglect at the hands of the parent or legal guardian'' shall not mean migrating to or crossing the United States border.
(5) D ESIGNATED AGENCY .'--The term ''designated agency'' means'--
(A) the Department of Homeland Security;
(B) the Department of Justice; and
(C) the Department of Health and Human Services.
(6) F INDING .'--The term ''finding'' means an individualized written assessment or screening by the trained agent or officer that includes a consultation with a child welfare specialist, formalized as required under section 2(c) and consistent with sections 3, 4, and 8.
(7) S ECRETARY .'--Unless otherwise specified, the term ''Secretary'' means the Secretary of Homeland Security.
Fact Checking 4 Claims About Detaining Children at the Border
The Trump administration is taking heat from Democrats and Republicans for separating parents and children after they illegally crossed the southern border.
Over the six weeks from April 19 through May 31, federal officials separated about 2,000 children from their families at the U.S.-Mexican border, the Associated Press reported last week.
President Donald Trump blamed the procedure on Democrats in Congress.
''They're obstructing. They're really obstructionists and they are obstructing,'' Trump said Monday at the White House. ''The United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility. It won't be.''
''If you look at what's happening in Europe, if you look at what's happening in other places, we can't allow that to happen to the United States'--not on my watch,'' he said.
During the White House press briefing Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said: ''This is a very serious issue that has resulted after years and years of Congress not taking action.''
Here's a look at four of the more questionable claims made about the enforcement action.
1. Democrats' Law or Trump Policy?
''The Democrats forced that law upon our nation,'' Trump asserted last week.
Democrats, backed by some media commentators, counter that it's not the law but a Trump administration policy.
Actually, experts say, the situation is a combination of a bipartisan law and a Clinton administration policy.
In 1997, the Clinton administration entered into something called the Flores Settlement Agreement, which ended a class action lawsuit first brought in the 1980s.
The settlement established a policy that the federal government would release unaccompanied minors from custody to their parents, relatives, or other caretakers after no more than 20 days, or, alternatively, determine the ''least restrictive'' setting for the child.
In a separate development, in 2008 the Democrat-controlled Congress approved bipartisan legislation to combat human trafficking and President George W. Bush, a Republican, signed it into law.
Section 235 (g) in that law, the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, states that unaccompanied minors entering the United States must be transferred to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement rather than to the Department of Homeland Security.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit expanded the Flores settlement in 2016 to include children brought to the country illegally by their parents.
For consistency between the provision of the anti-trafficking law and the 9th Circuit's interpretation of the Flores agreement, children who came into the country illegally with parents had to be taken into HHS custody, said Art Arthur, former general counsel for Immigration and Naturalization Services (now known as Immigration and Customs Enforcement) as well as a former federal immigration judge.
''As soon as their parents are detained, the children are classified as unaccompanied,'' Arthur, now a resident fellow for law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, told The Daily Signal.
2. Unprecedented Action by Trump Administration?
Some media outlets have called the practice of separating children from parents at the border ''unprecedented'' or a ''new low'' for the United States.
What's different under the Trump administration, though, is a ''zero tolerance'' approach to enforcing existing immigration laws and policy.
On May 7 in Scottsdale, Arizona, Attorney General Jeff Sessions directed federal prosecutors to prosecute all adults who illegally enter the country, including those accompanied by their children, under a provision of federal law (8 U.S.C. § 1325(a)) that covers illegal entry.
''If you're smuggling a child, then we're going to prosecute you, and that child will be separated from you, probably, as required by law,'' Sessions said. ''If you don't want your child separated, then don't bring them across the border illegally. It's not our fault that somebody does that.''
Since it takes more than 20 days to adjudicate an asylum claim, the 9th Circuit's interpretation of the Flores Settlement Agreement essentially provides three options, said David Inserra, a homeland security policy analyst for The Heritage Foundation.
''The Trump administration currently faces two options: Either release every family that crosses the border and claims asylum and know that most of them will never show up at their immigration court hearing; or release the child as required by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals' interpretation of the Flores settlement while holding the parents while awaiting trial,'' Inserra told The Daily Signal.
''A third, better solution is to fix the loophole created by the 9th Circuit with regard to Flores and improve the asylum process to discourage frivolous asylum claims, while also better serving those with legitimate asylum cases,'' Inserra added.
Proposed legislation by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., would reverse the 9th Circuit's interpretation.
''This would mean only a brief period of separation while the parents are prosecuted,'' Arthur said.
Depending on the outcome, the family would be reunited and either be released or deported together.
3. 'Concentration Camps'?
Much of the criticism of separating children from parents at the border has been from Democrats.
However, former CIA Director Michael Hayden, who served under President George W. Bush, and former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who was once lieutenant governor of Maryland, both compared the practice to Nazi concentration camps.
The Department of Homeland Security rejected the comparison, noting that most children caught crossing the border illegally are not detained by federal officials.
''We have high standards,'' Nielsen said during the White House press briefing Monday. ''We give them meals and we give them education and we give them medical care. There are videos, there are TVs. I visited the detention centers myself.''
In the last fiscal year, 90 percent of apprehended children were released to a sponsor who was either a parent or close relative, according to the department.
Homeland security officials also say they work with HHS to improve and ease communication between detained parents and their children in HHS care.
Sponsors may be ''a parent, adult sibling, relative, or appropriate home that meets criteria for the safety of the child and continuation of any immigration proceedings,'' according to DHS. Also, a parent who is prosecuted and later released can be a sponsor and ask HHS to restore custody of the child.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has dedicated a facility to operate primarily as a family reunification and removal center. ICE staff who interact with parents will receive training in trauma-informed care, and the agency will assign staff trained in mental health care to detained parents who have been separated from children, according to DHS.
4. Taking Babies From Nursing Mothers?
CNN reported last week on an illegal immigrant from Honduras who claimed her nursing daughter was pulled away from her before she was handcuffed. CNN cited a lawyer from a liberal legal group called the Texas Civil Rights Project.
In a conference call with reporters last week, a senior Department of Homeland Security official said this was not the case.
''We do not separate breastfeeding children from their parents. That does not exist. That is not a policy. That is not something that DHS does,'' an official told reporters Friday. ''We believe that that is false.''
An estimated 14,500 to 17,500 individuals are smuggled into the United States each year. For perspective, that number constitutes about 5.7 percent of total apprehensions of illegal immigrants in 2017, though apprehensions don't account for all border crossings.
Attorney General Announces Zero-Tolerance Policy for Criminal Illegal Entry | OPA | Department of Justice
Attorney General Jeff Sessions today notified all U.S. Attorney's Offices along the Southwest Border of a new ''zero-tolerance policy'' for offenses under 8 U.S.C. § 1325(a), which prohibits both attempted illegal entry and illegal entry into the United States by an alien. The implementation of the Attorney General's zero-tolerance policy comes as the Department of Homeland Security reported a 203 percent increase in illegal border crossings from March 2017 to March 2018, and a 37 percent increase from February 2018 to March 2018'--the largest month-to-month increase since 2011.
''The situation at our Southwest Border is unacceptable. Congress has failed to pass effective legislation that serves the national interest'--that closes dangerous loopholes and fully funds a wall along our southern border. As a result, a crisis has erupted at our Southwest Border that necessitates an escalated effort to prosecute those who choose to illegally cross our border,'' said Attorney General Jeff Sessions. ''To those who wish to challenge the Trump Administration's commitment to public safety, national security, and the rule of law, I warn you: illegally entering this country will not be rewarded, but will instead be met with the full prosecutorial powers of the Department of Justice. To the Department's prosecutors, I urge you: promoting and enforcing the rule of law is vital to protecting a nation, its borders, and its citizens. You play a critical part in fulfilling these goals, and I thank you for your continued efforts in seeing to it that our laws'--and as a result, our nation'--are respected.''
On April 11, 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a renewed commitment to criminal immigration enforcement. As part of that announcement, the Attorney General issued a memorandum to all federal prosecutors and directed them to prioritize the prosecution of certain criminal immigration offenses.
Today's zero-tolerance policy further directs each U.S. Attorney's Office along the Southwest Border (i.e., Southern District of California, District of Arizona, District of New Mexico, Western District of Texas, and the Southern District of Texas) to adopt a policy to prosecute all Department of Homeland Security referrals of section 1325(a) violations, to the extent practicable.
8 U.S. Code § 1325 - Improper entry by alien | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute
Amendments1996'--Subsecs. (b) to (d). Pub. L. 104''208 added subsec. (b) and redesignated former subsecs. (b) and (c) as (c) and (d), respectively.
1991'--Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 102''232 substituted ''fined under title 18'' for ''fined not more than $2,000 (or, if greater, the amount provided under title 18)''.
1990'--Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 101''649, §'¯543(b)(2), inserted ''or attempts to enter'' after ''(1) enters'' and ''attempts to enter or'' after ''or (3)'', and substituted ''shall, for the first commission of any such offense, be fined not more than $2,000 (or, if greater, the amount provided under title 18) or imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, for a subsequent commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18, or imprisoned not more than 2 years'' for ''shall, for the first commission of any such offenses, be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof be punished by imprisonment for not more than six months, or by a fine of not more than $500, or by both, and for a subsequent commission of any such offenses shall be guilty of a felony and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than two years, or by a fine of not more than $1,000''.
Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 101''649, §'¯121(b)(3), added subsec. (c).
1986'--Pub. L. 99''639 designated existing provisions as subsec. (a) and added subsec. (b).
Effective Date of 1996 AmendmentPub. L. 104''208, div. C, title I, §'¯105(b), Sept. 30, 1996 , 110 Stat. 3009''556, provided that:
''The amendments made by subsection (a) [amending this section] shall apply to illegal entries or attempts to enter occurring on or after the first day of the sixth month beginning after the date of the enactment of this Act [Sept. 30, 1996 ].''
Abolition of Immigration and Naturalization Service and Transfer of FunctionsFor abolition of Immigration and Naturalization Service, transfer of functions, and treatment of related references, see note set out under section 1551 of this title.
Publications LibraryBorder SecurityCounterterrorismCybersecurityFormsImmigration StatisticsPreparedness, Response and RecoveryQuadrennial Homeland Security ReviewStrategic PlanningFeatured Publications Information provided to families who are in the custody of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for the crime of illegal entry into the United States. The information provides an overview of the custody process and ways that parents can contact their children.
AttachmentSize Next Steps for Families 104.98 KB Last Published Date: June 15, 2018
P rior to 1855, people disembarking from ships in New York did not have to go through any inspection process. They could go directly to the wharfs without even being screened for contagious diseases. From 1855 to 1890, immigrants arriving at the port of New York landed in what was called " Castle Garden ," (a former opera house) which was located at the southern tip of Manhattan. At that time, the federal government had a contract with the State of New York to inspect and process all those wanted to immigrate. In 1890, with a new wave of immigration, the federal government decided that it wanted to take control of this process, and could thus screen out all of the undesirable arrivals, e.g. those who were sick or so poor that they would be a burden on the nation. The state wouldn'¬'t let the federal government use Castle Garden, so a new center was needed. Between 1890 and 1892, while a new building was being constructed, people were screened at the Old Barge House near the U.S. Customs Office at the southeast end of Manhattan. Then, in 1892, Ellis Island was ready.
When Ellis Island was first built it was made of wood. It became the primary stop to process immigrants beginning on Jan. 2, 1892. However, there was a fire there in 1897, and it was forced to close for a period of time. All screening of new immigrants once again had to be done at the Old Barge Office until mid-December 1900. Ellis Island was rebuilt and ready to reopen, this time not made of wood but of a fireproof material, and once again began to perform its intended function.
Immigration reached its peak in 1906. Then, in 1924, with a new immigration law, those wanting to enter the U.S. had to visit the U.S. consulate in their own country to obtain a visa. There they would be screened, eliminating the necessity for Ellis Island to do so. By the time Ellis Island had stopped processing new immigrants, twelve million arrivals had passed through its doors. Eventually, in 1943, Ellis Island would be used as a detention center for enemy aliens. In 1954, Ellis Island closed until it became part of the National Park Service in 1965, and was eventually restored and reopened in 1990.
INSPECTION
For first and second-class passengers, the immigration officers would actually come on board the ship and examine the passengers on arrival. For those in third-class, or steerage, they would often have to wait for days before disembarking. At that time they would have to board a barge-like vessel, neither heated in the winter, nor cooled in summer, which would take them to the Island itself. There they would wait until groups of perhaps thirty at a time would disembark and enter into the main building to begin the inspection process.
Most of those that arrived at Ellis Island made it through the process successfully. As soon as they entered the Great Hall, they began to be inspected by a line of medical examiners. They had a certificate (a "landing card") pinned to their chest before they entered. This would act as a health certificate (they needed to be vaccinated before leaving the ship). The number of the certificate would also be used to cross-reference their names on the ship'¬'s passenger list, or manifest.
On Ellis Island, each arrival was inspected for all types of physical and mental disabilities. They were marked with chalk if it was thought that they needed closer inspection. The type of mark indicated what physical or mental condition was suspected. Some defects were easy to spot; others would be discovered on closer inspection. For instance, an arrival would have their eyelids turned inside out to determine if they had trachoma, a form of conjunctivitis that was contagious. This condition was so severe that it could cause blindness. Many of those that had emigrated from Eastern Europe had this condition, and although it could be cured, was grounds for sending the arrival back to their home country. Their scalps were also examined carefully to see if they had favus, a fungal infection of the scalp and nails.
There was a hospital built on Ellis Island in 1902, where good medical care awaited the sick arrival. Often, a person would have to stay there for days until they got better before they would finally be admitted. Many times, a child would have to be separated from their family until the ill person became well again. In 1911, a contagious disease hospital was built on Ellis Island. Of course, if the sick person did not get well, he or she had to be sent back to where they began their journey. This must have been horrible because it caused families to be separated. They might have thought this separation would last forever! Others never left the Island. From 1900 to 1954, 3500 people died on Ellis Island, 1400 of them children. However, there were over 300 babies born there!
If the immigrant successfully passed through the inspection regimen, they would then have to speak to immigration officers. They had to answer a series of twenty-nine questions to the satisfaction of the officers. These questions corresponded to the information entered for them on the ship'¬'s manifest before they left their port of origin. The inspectors wanted to be sure that the immigrant could find work, and not become a pauper and a ward and burden on the state. Of course, many arrivals already knew what questions would be asked before they got there. One had to know how to answer certain questions. It was often not a good idea, for instance, to say that a job was waiting for you, because that might mean to the officer that the immigrant might be taking a job away from an American, and there was a great fear of this already within the general populace. A person might be sent back home to Europe for this reason alone! Also, an arrival had to have a certain amount of money on them, or at least a ticket to some destination. The U.S. didn'¬'t want to let in vagrants. Sometimes, they would have to show how much money they had. A person could have started out with money when they left from their European port, but could lose it playing cards on the ship during the journey!
There were organizations that helped the arrivals along the immigration process, to make sure that they were treated fairly. First there was the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society, and then in 1883, the United Hebrew Charities took over. Their representative would be stationed there, either at Castle Garden or Ellis Island, in order to help the immigrant in whatever way they could. Unfortunately, this representative did not always speak the language that was needed to communicate with each arrival, and often only spoke German. Many of the towns back in Russian Poland that had "landsmanshaftn" societies formed by people from the immigrant'¬'s hometown, had representation in the major U.S. cities to aid the immigrant in their new life. They aided the Yiddish speaker at Ellis Island.
Those that successfully passed through the rigors of inspection could take another boat ride to New Jersey or to 42nd Street where, if they wanted to, could catch a train to a different destination. The major railroad lines ran special trains for immigrants to most major cities. For those who wished to remain in New York (seventy percent of immigrants arriving between 1895 and 1914 did so), many were greeted by their kin, or by friends, joyously waiting to embrace and to kiss them. From there, they could walk to the Jewish Quarter on the Lower East Side of Manhattan where they would settle in and prepare themselves for their new lives. At one time, this section of Manhattan, barely a mile and a half square, encompassing an area mostly east of the Bowery and south of 14th Street, held 520,000 people, and was considered the most densely populated area in the world!Also see the exhibitions:: "
A S hort History of U.S. Immigration " and "Health and Immigration."
Trump's Hard Line on Immigration Traps Republicans in a 2018 Dilemma
Party candidates caught between party base and most Americans
Polls show strong opposition to family separation policy
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President Donald Trump's policy separating families who enter the U.S. illegally has caught 2018 Republican candidates between an anti-immigration party base that favors Trump's hard line and the majority of Americans who object to a policy widely criticized as cruel.
The ''zero tolerance'' punishment imposed by the administration has delivered harrowing footage of wailing toddlers to American living rooms less than five months before voters decide which party should control Congress.
Protesters in Los Angeles.
Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty Images
"A picture is worth a thousand words, and a graphic picture is always potent on this kind of issue. For the Republicans, getting this monkey off their back is critical,'' said Tom Davis, a former Republican congressman who chaired the party's election arm. ''Especially for members in swing districts.''
Some of those swing districts, in states including New York, New Jersey, Florida and California, will determine whether Democrats take the 23 seats from Republicans that they'd need to gain control of the House. Republicans in those races will have to choose whether to defend or defy Trump on a deeply polarizing issue that could hurt them with constituencies such as suburban women, independent voters and Hispanics.
Preferred MessageThe growing furor also is drowning out the GOP's preferred campaign message about a booming economy on the week of the six-month anniversary of the Trump tax cuts.
It's not necessarily an easy choice.
''For the Republican base, if you resolve this wrongly it's really going to hurt your turnout,'' Davis said. ''They're nervous about people saying 'you sold out.'''
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky downplayed the prospect of political harm to his party. ''It's not going to tar anybody,'' the Kentucky Republican told reporters. ''We're going to fix the problem.'' But he noted that any solution has to be bipartisan to pass the Senate and it wasn't clear Tuesday after a series of meetings whether that could be achieved.
Three polls released this week said most Americans oppose the Trump policy, which requires the prosecution of all adults crossing the border outside of an official port of entry and thereby sends children to be housed elsewhere. Approval stood at just 28 percent in a CNN poll, 27 percent in a Quinnipiac poll and 27 percent in an Ipsos poll, all driven by overwhelming opposition from Democrats and independents.
Republican SupportBut Republicans supported the policy '-- by a margin of 58 percent to 34 percent in the CNN poll, by 55 percent to 35 percent in the Quinnipiac poll, and by 46 percent to 32 percent in the Ipsos poll. Immigration was a central force in Trump's rise after he catered to a hunger among core supporters for tough punishments on illegal entry and cuts to legal immigration, including among asylum-seekers.
''I run campaigns all over the country and in every poll we run -- in every district, no matter where it is -- the No. 1 issue for Republicans is immigration. It's not even close,'' said Harlan Hill, a Republican consultant and adviser to Trump's 2020 reelection campaign. ''It's critical to the president's identity. He obviously ran on this. He opened up his entire campaign on this issue. So voters are quite frankly holding his feet to the fire.''
'Fumbled' CommunicationHill urged Republicans not to "abdicate our principles" and warned that "wavering" on enforcing immigration law will demoralize supporters and hurt the GOP in the election. He said that when it comes to the border crisis, "communication around this issue has been fumbled" and that "it didn't have to be this political bomb that it turned out to be." But he said it can be an opportunity to get a broad package that conservatives like.
The issue looms large in pivotal House districts near the southern border with large Hispanic populations where immigration is a top-of-mind issue, including a half-dozen competitive races in southern and central California, two in south Florida, one seat in the area of Aurora, Colorado, and several in south Texas. It also impacts competitive Senate race in Nevada, where Republican incumbent Dean Heller is seeking to hold on to his seat, and an open seat in Arizona, as well as the reelection bid of GOP Senator Ted Cruz.
"If we don't address this issue it's going to have a massive impact on races across Harris County," said Jay Zeidman, a Republican donor based in Houston. "These images we see are horrific and we need to address this issue now in a humane way."
Partisan DivideIn an illustration of the partisan divide, all 49 Senate Democrats are united in support of legislation by California's Dianne Feinstein that prohibits agents from separating families near the border, except in extreme cases like abuse and trafficking. But it has zero Republicans supporters; Senator Susan Collins of Maine rejected it as "far too broad" in protecting illegal border-crossings. Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a Trump ally on immigration, ridiculed it as the ''Child Trafficking Encouragement Act.''
Nervousness is palpable within the GOP as many lawmakers break with the president. Cruz said he's ''horrified'' by the stories from the border. Representative Mike Coffman of Colorado expressed openness to supporting Feinstein's proposal, saying that ''tearing children from the arms of parents and then isolating them along is antithetical to the America I grew up in." Utah Senate candidate Mitt Romney, the GOP's 2012 presidential nominee, called for ''a more compassionate answer.''
Trump showed no remorse as he digs into red-meat issues like immigration and crime, with overwrought attacks on Democrats to fire up his supporters ahead of the midterm election.
''Democrats love open borders. Let the whole world come in. Let the whole world '-- MS-13, gang members from all over the place, come on in, we have open borders,'' the president said in a speech at the National Federation of Independent Business.
He called Congress to give him ''the legal authority to detain and properly remove families together as a unit. We have to be able to do this."
"This is the only solution to the border crisis," he said.
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Homeland security chief heckled at Mexican eatery over separation policy
Demonstrators interrupted Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielsen's dinner at an upscale Mexican restaurant in Washington Tuesday night to express their outrage over the separation of children from their migrant parents at the U.S. southern border.
"We call on you to end family separations," a member of the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America shouted as protesters filed in to MXDC, chanting, "Shame, shame, shame," and other slogans.
"Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is in a Mexican restaurant of all places," one of the demonstrators said, according to video of the incident. "The ... gall. Shame on you."
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen speaks on migrant children being separated from parents at the southern border during a White House daily news briefing at the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington on June 18, 2018. Alex Wong / Getty Images
At a White House briefing Monday, Nielsen defended the Trump administration's newly enforced "zero tolerance" policy for people trying to cross into the U.S. from Mexico without visas. Nielsen falsely claimed that federal law requires family separation when parents, even those legally seeking asylum, are held for prosecution. And she said family separation is not a new policy.
Meanwhile, reports of young children left crying in border processing centers and in "tender age" shelters in South Texas touched off several protests Tuesday across the country.
So far this spring, more than 2,300 child migrants have been separated from parents '-- many fleeing violence in Central America '-- and housed, at least temporarily, in the federal and nonprofit-run childcare facilities in border states.
Related
At least 13 Democratic lawmakers, citing the falsehoods and the execution of the "zero tolerance" policy that has torn toddlers and teenagers away from mothers and fathers, have called on Nielsen to resign. A number of Republicans have also called on President Donald Trump to reverse the policy.
"So we say you can't enjoy dinner until you reunite all those families," one demonstrator at the Washington Mexican restaurant told Nielsen as two men in suits stood between the secretary's table and a half-dozen or so protesters.
"End Texas concentration camps," members of the group shouted at her.
In a statement the Democratic Socialists said that police responded and tried to detain demonstrators "to no avail."
Homeland Security spokesman Tyler Q. Houlton said in a statement that the demonstrators "share [Nielsen's] concern with our current immigration laws that have created a crisis on our southern border."
He said the secretary encourages the protesters to "reach out to members of congress and seek their support to close the terrible immigration loopholes that have made our system a mess."
The secretary exited the restaurant shortly after the demonstrators were shooed out by police, according to the Democratic Socialists.
Larger demonstrations were held in other cities across the country, including in San Francisco, where hundreds of protesters outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's headquarters chanted, "Stop taking the children!" and shut down a street for two hours.
"Our country was built on immigrants, and they are denying them basic human rights and treating them inhumanly," said Algazzali Gonzalez, a mother with a 9-year-old daughter, according to NBC Bay Area.
Outrage also hit Philadelphia, where Vice President Mike Pence was dining Tuesday night at a Republican Governors Association fundraiser. At a nearby park, empty children's shoes were left to symbolize those being held in facilities without their parents.
Protesters attempted to march down the street, but were blocked off by police. One person was arrested, reported NBC Philadelphia.
In New York, hundreds did march peacefully from Union Square Park to the ICE offices in Lower Manhattan, also leaving a collection of small shoes and crying, "Let these children go!"
More protests were planned for Wednesday, including in front of the Massachusetts State House in Boston; in Springfield, Missouri, outside the office of Republican Sen. Roy Blunt; and in Pensacola, Florida.
Socialist Activist Who Harassed Homeland Security Secretary Works For The Department Of Justice - The Daily Caller
LEFT -- Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen reacts as activists chant slogans, attempting to interrupt her dinner, in a restaurant in Washington, D.C., June 19, 2018 in still image taken from a video obtained from social media. METRO DC DSA/via REUTERS. RIGHT -- Allison Hrabar (Photo: LinkedIn)
One of the activists who chased Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen out of a Mexican restaurant Tuesday night over the Trump administration's immigration policies is an employee of the Department of Justice, The Daily Caller News Foundation has confirmed.
Members of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America crashed Nielsen's meal with a demonstration full of chants and other outbursts.
One of those participants, Allison Hrabar, actually works for the Trump administration '-- as a paralegal in the DOJ.
''Kirstjen Nielsen, you're a villain, locking up immigrant children,'' activists can be heard saying in a video.
An employee within the Trump administration initially tipped TheDCNF off about Hrabar's presence at the protest.
The Washington Examiner spoke with Hrabar Wednesday and she defended her behavior as off government time and a use of her First Amendment rights. (RELATED: 'Fascist Pig!' '-- Chanting Socialists Chase DHS Secretary Nielsen Out Of Mexican Restaurant)
''If you see these people in public, you should remind them that they shouldn't have peace,'' she told The Examiner. ''We aren't the only ones who can do this. Anyone who sees Kirstjen Nielsen at dinner, anyone who sees anyone who works at DHS and ICE at dinner can confront them like this, and that's what we hope this will inspire people to do.''
Despite Hrabar's claims of keeping her personal politics outside of her time as an employee of the federal government, a look at her Twitter account, @allisongeroi, features tweets during the workday openly celebrating her behavior Tuesday night.
''Keeping families together in jail is not an acceptable solution,'' Hrabar tweeted Wednesday afternoon at 1:56 PM.
Following the protest, Hrabar tweeted that, ''No one who has ever made their living terrorizing immigrants deserves peace. If you see one in a restaurant, at a movie, or in your neighborhood, remind them of that.''
Hrabar has worked at the DOJ since July 2016. Prior to that, she was a student at the selective Swarthmore College where tuition runs over $50,000 annually. She previously attended a charter school in Arizona.
A Justice Department official, after being asked about Hrabar's conduct, told TheDCNF that she cannot comment on personnel issues.
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FIND EVENTS NEAR YOU JOIN US IN DC SIGN THE PETITION Host an event in your community or join your neighbors to stand up for immigrant families on June 30
Demand that the Trump administration stop separating children from their families
Protest the Trump administration's policy of family separation in Washington DC on June 30
The Trump administration is cruelly separating children from their families '-- but now the world is paying attention, and we won't allow this to continue. Join an upcoming event and we'll send a powerful message: Families belong together!
Use the map to find June 30 events near you
Report: Diane Feinstein's Immigration Bill Would Prevent Almost Every Federal Arrest | Breitbart
Every single Senate Democrat has backed a bill by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) that would effectively prevent authorities from arresting illegal aliens within 100 miles of the U.S. border.In the words of moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, Feinstein's ''Keep Families Together Act'' would ''essentially prevent arrest within 100 miles of the border, even if the person has committed a serious crime or is suspected of terrorist activities.''
For that reason, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has called Feinstein's bill the ''Child Trafficking Encouragement Act,'' since it would create incentives for illegal aliens to cross the border with children to evade arrest by authorities.
A new analysis by Gabriel Malor of The Federalist points out an additional problem: thanks, he says, to sloppy drafting, the bill would effectively prevent federal law enforcement from arresting anyone in most of the U.S.
Malor writes:
Every Senate Democrat has now signed on to cosponsor a bill written so carelessly that it does not distinguish between migrant children at the border and U.S. citizen children already within the United States. The bill further does not distinguish between federal officers handling the border crisis and federal law enforcement pursuing the ordinary course of their duties.
'...
The scope of the bill is not limited to those portions of these departments involved with the border crisis, and there is no other limiting factor in the bill that would cabin the prohibition on family separation to immigration-related matters. In other words, this bill is going to regulate conduct across a great many federal offices that have nothing to do with separating children from families arriving unlawfully in the United States.
'...
Two hundred million people live within 100 miles of the border. '... All major U.S. metropolitan areas fall within either 100 miles of the border or are near a port of entry or both.
Feinstein's bill is largely symbolic: Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) said Tuesday that he was not interested in any legislative fix, but wanted the president to bear responsibility for any policy chance. As leader of the minority party in the Senate, Schumer can block any legislation by using the filibuster rule to prevent a vote.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named to Forward's 50 ''most influential'' Jews in 2017. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
Hoyer: Trump's Executive Order Does Not Resolve The Family Separation Crisis Of His Own Making | The Office of Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer
WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released the following statement today on the executive order President Trump signed today, which does not solve the family separation crisis created by his Administration:"For the past two weeks, President Trump has said over and over again that his hands were tied and that only Congress could end the separation of families seeking asylum at our borders. Today's executive order is an admission both that he purposefully lied to the American people and that his brazen attempt to hold innocent children hostage has failed because of the American people's outrage. Moreover, the order he signed does not address this crisis of his own making. It essentially switches from a system of separate detention camps for parents and children to one where families are inhumanely and immorally detained together indefinitely, in conditions unsuitable for the physical health and mental well-being of children. The order effectively mirrors provisions dealing with family separation in Speaker Ryan's bill that he is pushing his conference to vote for tomorrow. Both the order and the Speaker's legislation are recipes for the long-term jailing of families with children.
''America is a nation that values families, not a country where we detain families with children behind bars and wire fences or in stifling tent cities, and we must not abide these practices within our borders or in our name. We must reject this latest effort by the President to use migrant children as bargaining chips. I continue to urge House Republican leaders to take real action to end this crisis. They can do so by bringing Ranking Member Nadler's Keep Families Together Act to the Floor now.''
Full text: Trump's executive order ending family separations - POLITICO
President Donald Trump's executive order: Affording Congress an Opportunity to Address Family Separation
Issued on: June 20, 2018
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By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq., it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy. It is the policy of this Administration to rigorously enforce our immigration laws. Under our laws, the only legal way for an alien to enter this country is at a designated port of entry at an appropriate time. When an alien enters or attempts to enter the country anywhere else, that alien has committed at least the crime of improper entry and is subject to a fine or imprisonment under section 1325(a) of title 8, United States Code. This Administration will initiate proceedings to enforce this and other criminal provisions of the INA until and unless Congress directs otherwise. It is also the policy of this Administration to maintain family unity, including by detaining alien families together where appropriate and consistent with law and available resources. It is unfortunate that Congress's failure to act and court orders have put the Administration in the position of separating alien families to effectively enforce the law.
Sec. 2. Definitions. For purposes of this order, the following definitions apply:
(a) ''Alien family'' means
(i) any person not a citizen or national of the United States who has not been admitted into, or is not authorized to enter or remain in, the United States, who entered this country with an alien child or alien children at or between designated ports of entry and who was detained; and
(ii) that person's alien child or alien children.
(b) ''Alien child'' means any person not a citizen or national of the United States who
(i) has not been admitted into, or is not authorized to enter or remain in, the United States;
(ii) is under the age of 18; and
(iii) has a legal parent-child relationship to an alien who entered the United States with the alien child at or between designated ports of entry and who was detained.
Sec. 3. Temporary Detention Policy for Families Entering this Country Illegally.
(a) The Secretary of Homeland Security (Secretary), shall, to the extent permitted by law and subject to the availability of appropriations, maintain custody of alien families during the pendency of any criminal improper entry or immigration proceedings involving their members.
(b) The Secretary shall not, however, detain an alien family together when there is a concern that detention of an alien child with the child's alien parent would pose a risk to the child's welfare.
(c) The Secretary of Defense shall take all legally available measures to provide to the Secretary, upon request, any existing facilities available for the housing and care of alien families, and shall construct such facilities if necessary and consistent with law. The Secretary, to the extent permitted by law, shall be responsible for reimbursement for the use of these facilities.
(d) Heads of executive departments and agencies shall, to the extent consistent with law, make available to the Secretary, for the housing and care of alien families pending court proceedings for improper entry, any facilities that are appropriate for such purposes. The Secretary, to the extent permitted by law, shall be responsible for reimbursement for the use of these facilities.
(e) The Attorney General shall promptly file a request with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California to modify the Settlement Agreement in Flores v. Sessions, CV 85-4544 (''Flores settlement''), in a manner that would permit the Secretary, under present resource constraints, to detain alien families together throughout the pendency of criminal proceedings for improper entry or any removal or other immigration proceedings.
Sec. 4. Prioritization of Immigration Proceedings Involving Alien Families. The Attorney General shall, to the extent practicable, prioritize the adjudication of cases involving detained families.
Sec. 5. General Provisions.
(a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented in a manner consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
DONALD J. TRUMPTHE WHITE HOUSE,June 20, 2018
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Trump Retreats on Separating Families, Signing Order to Detain Them Together - The New York Times
President Trump has faced immense political pressure to end the separation of migrant families at the border. His executive order will seek to find ways to hold parents and children together. Published On June 20, 2018 Credit Image by Al Drago for The New York Times President Trump caved to enormous political pressure on Wednesday and signed an executive order that ends the separation of families by indefinitely detaining parents and children together at the border.
''We're going to have strong, very strong borders but we are going to keep the families together,'' Mr. Trump said as he signed the order at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. ''I didn't like the sight or the feeling of families being separated.''
The order said that officials will continue to criminally prosecute everyone who crosses the border illegally, but will seek to find or build facilities that can hold families '-- parents and children together '-- instead of separating them while their legal cases are considered by the courts.
Mr. Trump's executive order directed the government's lawyers to ask for a modification of an existing 1997 consent decree, known as the Flores settlement, that currently prohibits the federal government from keeping children in immigration detention '-- even if they are with their parents '-- for more than 20 days.
But it is unclear whether the court will agree to that request. If not, the president is likely to face an immediate legal challenge from immigration activists on behalf of families that are detained in makeshift facilities.
Stories of children being taken from their parents and images of teenagers in cage-like detention facilities have exploded into a full-blown political crisis for Mr. Trump and Republican lawmakers, who are desperate for a response to critics who have called the practice ''inhumane'' and ''evil.''
Mr. Trump has for weeks refused to simply end his government's ''zero tolerance'' policy that led to the separation of more than 2,300 children from their parents, saying that the alternative would be to fling open the nation's borders and allow immigrants who cross the border illegally to remain in the country.
But the president, furious about the pummeling he has taken in recent days, has been casting about for an escape from the crisis, people familiar with his thinking said. Officials at the Department of Homeland Security are preparing the executive order that is designed to end the family separations.
Flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of homeland security, Mr. Trump vowed not to relent in his administration's prosecution of people trying to enter the United States illegally.
''We are keeping a very powerful border and it continues to be a zero tolerance,'' Mr. Trump said. ''We have zero tolerance for people that enter our country illegally.''
But he added: ''The border's just as tough, but we do want to keep families together.''
The order would keep families together, though it is unclear how Mr. Trump intends to claim the legal authority to get around what have been legal constraints on the proper treatment of children in government custody, which prevented former President Barack Obama from detaining families together during a similar flood of illegal immigration two years ago.
And the president could quickly find himself the subject of another legal challenge to his executive authority, much the way he attacked Mr. Obama for abusing the power of his office with an immigration executive order in 2014.
While Mr. Trump's actions appear to stop short of calls for an end to the ''zero tolerance'' policy, it would be a remarkable retreat for a president who has steadfastly refused to apologize in almost any other context. And it would be a testament to the political power of the images of the immigrant children to move public opinion.
People close to the president said he remains convinced that his immigration policies are appropriate and necessary. But Mr. Trump is said to be increasingly frustrated by the criticism he is getting, and aware that he is boxed in by the legal argument his administration has made.
Aides said that Mr. Trump is aware that his actions could once again be tied up in lengthy court battles. But the president and his allies believe that taking action would put pressure on Democrats by eliminating the criticism that Mr. Trump is separating children from their parents.
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Flores agreement: the problem with Trump's executive order to end family separation - Vox
The solution to the crisis of family separation at the US-Mexico border, the Trump administration has decided, is to get rid of a 1997 federal court decision that strictly limits the government's ability to keep children in immigration detention.
The administration has fingered Flores v. Reno, or the ''Flores settlement,'' as the reason it is ''forced'' to separate parents from their children to prosecute them. It claims that because it cannot keep parents and children in immigration detention together, it has no choice but to detain parents in immigration detention (after they've been criminally prosecuted for illegal entry) and send the children to the Department of Health and Human Services as ''unaccompanied alien children.''
The Flores settlement requires the federal government to do two things: to place children with a close relative or family friend ''without unnecessary delay,'' rather than keeping them in custody; and to keep immigrant children who are in custody in the ''least restrictive conditions'' possible.
Republicans in Congress have proposed legislation that would overrule Flores and allow children to be kept with their parents in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody while they are put through criminal prosecution and deportation proceedings '-- which many migrant families fight by claiming asylum in the US, a process that can stretch out for months or years.
Trump can't overrule the Flores settlement with the stroke of a pen. But getting rid of the court agreement has been in his administration's sights for months. While Republicans frame Flores as the obstacle to keeping families together, many of the people outraged over family separation might not be too happy with a world without Flores, either.
The Flores settlement dates back to mistreatment of unaccompanied minors in the 1980sThe Flores settlement now at the center of the family separation crisis has a 30-year history. In the 1980s, several lawsuits were filed over the treatment of unaccompanied minors who were in the care of the US government. One was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in 1985 on behalf of Jenny Lisette Flores, a 15-year-old from El Salvador. She had fled her home country to find an aunt who was living in the United States, but she was detained by federal authorities at the US border.
Flores and other minors in federal custody sometimes had to share sleeping quarters and bathrooms with unrelated adult men and women. Flores was strip-searched regularly, and she was told she could only be released to her parents, not her aunt. The ACLU asserted in its lawsuit that Flores and other unaccompanied children had a constitutional right to be released to ''responsible'' adults, as the Marquette Law Review documented in a review of the Flores settlement's history.
The case went through several federal courts before reaching the Supreme Court in 1993, and the high court mostly sided with the government. But the real consequence was a consent decree agreed to by the Clinton administration and the plaintiffs in the litigation in 1997. The decree, known as the Flores settlement, set standards for unaccompanied minors who were in the custody of federal authorities.
Janet Reno in 1993. She was President Bill Clinton's attorney general at the time of the Flores settlement.Wally McNamee/Corbis via Getty Images The agreement required that children be released as soon as possible to either their parents, a legal guardian, another relative, or a vetted entity willing to take legal custody of the child. According to a summary from the Congressional Research Service, the order also required those minors who would be kept in federal custody be placed in the least restrictive conditions possible and be provided with some basic necessities, like food and water, access to medical treatment, access to running water, and that they be separated from adults to whom they had no relation.
But over the years, immigration authorities were not fully complying with the Flores settlement. Congress passed laws in the 2000s that would eventually require the Department of Homeland Security put unaccompanied children in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, within the Health and Human Services Department.
Under current Flores rules, children ''accompanied'' by parents have to be released within 20 daysOver the past couple of decades, the principles undergirding Flores evolved into specific rules about exactly how long and under what conditions children can be held. But they generally applied only to children who had entered the US as unaccompanied minors '-- not those who arrived with their parents.
In 2014, however, the Obama administration attempted to tamp down the number of Central American families seeking asylum in the US by keeping families in detention and processing and deporting them as quickly as possible.
Immigration advocates challenged the policy of family detention under Flores. And judges agreed with them '-- in large part because it said the Obama administration was out of bounds in detaining migrant families for the purpose of ''deterrence.'' (As NBC's Benjy Sarlin has pointed out, that's why certain Trump administration officials have been careful not to say that family separation is a deterrent, or even a policy, now.)
Ultimately, the Ninth Circuit ruled that the Flores settlement covered not just unaccompanied alien children but ''accompanied'' ones as well. It set a general standard that the government couldn't hold them in custody for more than 20 days.
The Ninth Circuit stopped short of saying that parents could be released under Flores. But the federal government hasn't responded to Flores by keeping families together for a few weeks and then splitting them apart.
Instead, it's made a practice, for the most part, of releasing the whole family after 20 days. Since the current family detention facilities '-- two in Texas created under Obama, and an older one on Pennsylvania '-- are mostly full, they don't have a ton of space to detain families anyway.
This is one example of what the Trump administration calls ''catch and release.''
The Trump administration has always seen ending Flores as a ''solution'' To the administration, the extra legal protections against indefinite detention of asylum seekers, and much stricter protections under the Flores settlement against indefinite detention of children and families, are nothing but legal ''loopholes.'' It would prefer to be able to detain all immigrants who enter the US without papers until their cases are resolved (and, preferably, resolve those cases as quickly as possible with deportation orders).
Keeping families together in immigration detention really would suit the government's interests. It's more expensive to keep parents in detention while children are under HHS care (or placed with sponsors or fosters) than to keep both in one detention facility. And legally, the government would be allowed to treat the family as only one case, with one shot to enter the US, rather than as two separate cases as parent and child.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions's efforts to change asylum policy are intended to keep many immigrants fleeing gang violence from passing their initial asylum screenings '-- thus allowing the government to deport the whole family together quickly rather than allowing the child to enter the US to pursue a full court case. (However, the implementation of Sessions's changes, at least for the moment, doesn't appear to be as radical as was initially feared.)
Attorney General Jeff Sessions.Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call The question is how to do it.
In theory, Flores could be superseded at any time by DHS regulations '-- it wasn't supposed to be a de facto law, just a framework to keep in place while the government came up with permanent rules to ensure migrant kids were adequately protected. (Of course, what counted as ''adequately'' would be up to the court.) Or Congress could pass a bill that made it clear that children are allowed to be kept in Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities just like adults are, wiping away the Flores settlement.
At first, Trump's DHS was reportedly considering trying to go the regulatory route.
According to the Washington Post (in an April article), the proposed regulations would codify the government's ability to separate families, but would also open the door to longer stays for families detained together:
The proposal also attempts to address a restriction on how long migrant children and their parents can be held at the family residential facilities. Judges have ruled that their stays must be limited to 20 days or less, in part because the centers are not state-licensed.
The proposed regulations would allow federal licensing of such facilities, which could open the door for longer stays. The draft says the administration currently holds families for an average of 14 days and is examining cost estimates that would expand that to an average of 45 days.
But issuing regulations is a months-long process, and President Trump doesn't have time for these things. Instead, he plunged ahead with the ''zero tolerance'' prosecution policy, making the separation of families a widespread occurrence '-- and prompting a groundswell of opposition that appears to be getting stronger by the day.
Getting rid of Flores means indefinite family detentionIt's not at all clear that Trump can, legally, issue an executive order that would override the Flores settlement. That's why analysts are assuming that any order Trump issues to keep families together in DHS custody will be challenged by a lawsuit and may get thwarted.
If DHS somehow manages to craft an executive order that evades that issue, or if Congress passes any of the suite of Republican bills that purport to end family separation by expanding family detention, it will mean one of two things.
Either the Trump administration will start keeping families in detention for as long as it takes to fully adjudicate their asylum cases '-- which can take months or years '-- or it will need to ram them through an ''expedited'' legal process to minimize their time in detention.
President Obama tried the latter in 2014. It went horrifically. Pro bono lawyers who went to family detention facilities (which were flung together in a matter of weeks) reported that it was all but impossible for families to get due process for their asylum claims.
The former is what families are still going through at the Pennsylvania facility. The long-term detention of immigrant children raises some of the same concerns that keeping them in custody without their parents does, in terms of long-term trauma. Bright lights in the Burks facility reportedly keep children from sleeping well, for example '-- and they can be disciplined if they try to climb into a parent's bed for comfort.
Furthermore, getting rid of the Flores settlement entirely wouldn't just get rid of the mandate to release children; it would also get rid of the requirements for what conditions children must be held in. In other words, the legal standards that undergird the Office of Refugee Resettlement facilities '-- standards that Trump administration officials brag are among the highest in the world '-- would be wiped away.
Depending on what replaced Flores, it's possible that ICE could simply use existing adult detention facilities to herd children into as well.
The Trump administration could hold itself to higher standards. But for that matter, it could also find an alternative to detaining immigrant families that still allowed the government to ensure they showed up in court. It does not appear inclined to do so.
Federal Agencies Lost Track of Nearly 1,500 Migrant Children Placed With Sponsors - The New York Times
Central American children at an immigrant respite center in McAllen, Tex., after their families were released by United States immigration officials in February. Credit John Moore/Getty Images WASHINGTON '-- A top official with the Department of Health and Human Services told members of Congress on Thursday that the agency had lost track of nearly 1,500 migrant children it placed with sponsors in the United States, raising concerns they could end up in the hands of human traffickers or be used as laborers by people posing as relatives.
The official, Steven Wagner, the acting assistant secretary of the agency's Administration for Children and Families, disclosed during testimony before a Senate homeland security subcommittee that the agency had learned of the missing children after placing calls to the people who took responsibility for them when they were released from government custody.
The children were taken into government care after they showed up alone at the Southwest border. Most of the children are from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, and were fleeing drug cartels, gang violence and domestic abuse, government data shows.
From last October to the end of the year, officials at the agency's Office of Refugee Resettlement tried to reach 7,635 children and their sponsors, Mr. Wagner testified. From these calls, officials learned that 6,075 children remained with their sponsors. Twenty-eight had run away, five had been removed from the United States and 52 had relocated to live with a nonsponsor.
But officials at the agency were unable to determine with certainty the whereabouts of 1,475 children, Mr. Wagner said.
The new details come as Congress is examining safeguards put in place by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security to make sure children who show up alone at the border are turned over to relatives, and not human traffickers.
Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio and the chairman of the subcommittee, said he was shocked that government officials did not know the whereabouts of hundreds of migrant children released from their care.
''H.H.S. has a responsibility to better track these children so they aren't trafficked or abused, and so they show up to their court hearings,'' he said.
Two years ago the subcommittee released a report detailing how health and human services officials placed eight children with human traffickers who forced the minors to work on an egg farm in Marion, Ohio. The report found that department officials had failed to establish procedures to protect the unaccompanied minors, such as conducting sufficient background checks on potential sponsors and following up with sponsors. As a result, the children were turned over to the people who contracted them out to the egg farm.
To prevent similar episodes, the Homeland Security and Health and Human Services Departments signed a memorandum of understanding in 2016, and agreed to establish joint procedures within one year for dealing with unaccompanied migrant children.
More than a year after the new guidelines were due, the two agencies have not completed them, Mr. Portman said.
Children who show up at the border by themselves are usually apprehended by Border Patrol agents or turn themselves in to customs officers at the Department of Homeland Security. Once they are processed, they are turned over to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services' refugee office. The office runs more than 100 shelters around the country where it houses children and provides care until they can be turned over to a sponsor while awaiting their immigration hearings.
The sponsors are usually parents or family members already residing in the United States. The sponsors are supposed to undergo a detailed background check.
After the children have been placed with sponsors, workers at the department follow up with calls to ensure that the minors continue to live with the sponsors, are enrolled in school and are aware of their court dates.
But several immigration advocates who work with unaccompanied children said the department did little follow-up. Allison E. Herre, a lawyer with Catholic Charities of Southwestern Ohio, said she had seen sponsors who forced the children to work instead of attending school and who failed to ensure that the children attended their court proceedings.
Since 2016, health and human services officials said they have started calling sponsors to check on children 30 days after placement. But the agency said it was not legally responsible for children after they had been released from its refugee office.
Mr. Wagner said the agency was re-examining its interpretation of existing laws to make sure that migrant children were not turned over to smugglers or human traffickers.
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Agency Says It Lost Track Of Nearly 1,500 Child Migrants
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Did the Trump Administration Lose Immigrant Children? | Time
The outrage over the dual news stories was unsurprising. Reports spread that migrant children were being separated from their families at the U.S. border and that Donald Trump's Administration had lost track of nearly 1,500 kids. That led many on social media to use hashtags like #WhereAreTheChildren and #MissingChildren to demand action. But amid the viral news, confusion also spread and led many to conflate the stories.
Recent attention to the issue began at a Senate subcommittee hearing in April, when Steven Wagner, an official at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), testified that his agency had checked up on 7,635 migrant children who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border on their own and were then placed with adult sponsors in the U.S. The agency found that 6,075 children were still living with their sponsor, 28 had run away, five had been deported and 52 were living with someone else. The rest''the 1,475 lost children''were unaccounted for.
The children in that tally arrived in the U.S. without their parents, so they were not separated from their families by federal officials. That doesn't mean there aren't real concerns about their safety; abusive homes and human traffickers are just two of the worries. It's also possible that sponsors may choose not to answer calls from federal officials to avoid deportation''for the children or themselves. Either way, HHS has argued it is not legally responsible for what happens to the children after they leave its custody. But Senators from both parties have called on the agency to improve its monitoring. ''These kids, regardless of their immigration status, deserve to be treated properly, not abused or trafficked,'' Republican Senator Rob Portman told the subcommittee in April.
The issue of children being taken from their parents as they cross the border into the U.S. is also real, but separate. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new ''zero tolerance'' policy on May 7 that includes attempting to prosecute every single person who enters the country illegally. This means children who cross the border with their parents are separated from their families as the adults are charged with a crime. ''If you don't want your child to be separated, then don't bring them across the border illegally,'' Sessions said when announcing the policy.
This is likely where some of the confusion originated, as hundreds of children have been separated from their parents at the border. President Trump made things more heated when he tweeted May 26 asking supporters to pressure Democrats to ''end the horrible law that separates children from there [sic] parents once they cross the Border into the U.S.'' There is no law requiring separation, and the zero-tolerance policy came from his own Administration. But if HHS can't keep track of children it was already responsible for, some fear the new policy will make things worse.
This appears in the June 11, 2018 issue of TIME.
This Lawsuit Claims Migrant Kids Were Drugged In Government Shelters & The Details Are Awful
According to affidavits filed on April 23 in the United States District Court in California, one lawsuit claims migrant kids were drugged in government centers, specifically at the Shiloh Residential Treatment Center in Houston, Texas. According to the suit, there have allegedly been multiple instances of children being forcibly injected with medication as a way to control their behavior. Bustle reached out to the Shiloh Treatment Center, as well as the Department of Justice for comment, as Jeff Sessions is listed as a defendant in the lawsuit.
These children, some of which are in these facilities because of Trump's zero-tolerance policy, were allegedly told a variety of lies about the medication. For example, children were supposedly told that the pills were only vitamins, and that they would not be released to see their parents unless they yielded to the treatment.
These medications allegedly led to heavy sedation, dizziness, and even incapacitation in some cases. The drugs that were allegedly given were a wide array of anti-psychotic and psychotropic medications; psychotropic medications in particular are incredibly dangerous when administered to children, the filing reported, and can have longterm effects.
There are over 25 affidavits from children and parents in the court filing, as well as patient profiles, emails, and case reviews.
One such affidavit by a child revealed several alleged horrific details about her time spent at the Shiloh Residential Treatment Center:
I took nine pills in the morning and seven in the evening. I don't know what medications I was taking; no one ever told me that. I don't know what my diagnosis or illness is... Some of the staff at Shiloh would provoke the children there and make us angry intentionally. They made us act violently so then we had to be given shots...When [someone] called the medical staff, they would come and give me a shot to tranquillize me. It happened many times. They would give me the shot and then I would start to feel sleep and heavy, and like I didn't have any strength...I wanted to stop taking all the medications they were giving me at Shiloh but when I told the doctors that they told me that I had to continue because it calmed me. According to Reveal, other instances included kids being unable to walk, wanting to sleep constantly, and even injuring themselves by falling and hitting their heads due to their sudden dizziness. This doesn't even begin to cover the flagrant violence and the physical and verbal abuse that is also recorded in the affidavits, from the supervisors to the children they were supposed to be taking care of.
According to psychiatrist Mark. J. Mills, who acquired all 420 pages of the filing and spoke to Reveal, the alleged use of medication was a clear strategy to "control agitation and aggressive behavior," behavior which, the affidavits suggest, was encouraged by the supervisors.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images News/Getty ImagesDr. Mills continued, ''You don't need to administer these kinds of drugs unless someone is plucking out their eyeball or some such. The facility should not use these drugs to control behavior," he said. "That's not what antipsychotics should be used for. That's like the old Soviet Union used to do.''
Trump might have finally signaled the end of his controversial family separation policy, but that doesn't give a clear answer as to what the plan is for reuniting detained children with their parents. In many instances, parents have already been deported, or are waiting in detention facilities themselves.
Ultimately, these allegations of misconduct aren't unique to the Shiloh Residential Treatment Center. Holly Cooper, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the case, emphasized to the Huffington Post that the children's claims are much more far-reaching. The hearing for the lawsuit is set for June 29.
Any Collusion?
FBI Lovebirds Emojis-needs to be fixed!
EXCLUSIVE: FBI Leaked Classified Flight Plan of AG Loretta Lynch to Set Up Bill Clinton's Tarmac Ambush '' True PunditTrue Pundit
Featured PoliticsEXCLUSIVE: FBI Leaked Classified Flight Plan of AG Loretta Lynch to Set Up Bill Clinton's Tarmac AmbushFBI agents are pointing their collective finger at Bureau brass for leaking sensitive intelligence to Bill Clinton to set up and stalk former Attorney General Loretta Lynch on a Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport tarmac in June 2016.
Lynch was taken aback and reportedly physically shaken by Clinton's seemingly impromptu June 27, 2016 visit just one week before a scheduled FBI interrogation of his wife Hillary Clinton. While the meeting between President Clinton and Lynch is now widely known, questions about how Clinton knew exactly where and when the Attorney General would be have been grossly overlooked by the media.
Until now.
The question is who in the FBI breached and leaked the classified information to the Clintons? Was it fired former director James Comey? Deputy Director Andew McCabe? Or FBI General Counsel James Baker who is believed to be under investigation for leaks. McCabe's wife received almost $700,000 to run for office in Virginia from Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a well known Clinton family consigliere who is also under FBI investigation. McCabe is currently the target of departmental inquiries for misconduct linked to Hillary Clinton as well.
The troubling revelations the FBI leaked the classified flight plan of Lynch serves as a double blow for the embattled Bureau, especially since an elite unit of the FBI is tasked with the security detail of the Attorney General. Therefore, senior FBI officials are privy to the Attorney General's travel itinerary at all times. The Attorney General flies on a chartered, unmarked jet. Very few in the Bureau have access to the Attorney General's classified flight plans, sources confirmed. While the Secret Service was on board Clinton's chartered jet in June protecting the former president, Lynch's security detail was elite FBI agents trained in executive protection. The same unit also protects and travels with the FBI director. FBI sources said Clinton's Secret Service detail knew the exact tail number of Lynch's private jet, another tell-tale sign of a high-placed breach in the FBI.
The official Clinton-generated narrative to date has been that Bill's charted jet just happened to be on the same tarmac in Phoenix AZ when Lynch's jet was landing. But federal law enforcement sources now say that Clinton was in Phoenix to stalk Lynch. Clinton claimed he was in Phoenix on a scheduled stop to meet with Latino leaders to stump for his wife who was a Democratic presidential candidate and FBI target at the time. But federal law enforcement sources said they believed Bill Clinton's jet was chartered from Teterboro Airport in northern New Jersey the morning of the infamous tarmac sit down. That information clearly contradicts all the varying narratives offered by the Clintons to date.
Lynch's original travel plans had also been scrubbed, federal law enforcement sources said. She was first scheduled to arrive in Phoenix the morning of July 28 to give a speech but those plans were changed to arrive in the evening of July 27th instead. So, how did Clinton know about the schedule change or did the FBI brass also change the schedule to accommodate the Clinton campaign and literally send Lynch into an ambush?
The encounter happened a week before Hillary Clinton was interviewed by FBI agents for her roles in losing classified emails, sending classified emails over non-government computer networks among other security breaches.
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Obama cyber chief confirms 'stand down' order against Russian cyberattacks in summer 2016
Former White House cybersecurity coordinator Michael Daniel, right, looks on as former Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, left, is greeted by committee vice chairman Mark Warner, D-Va. (Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP)
WASHINGTON '-- The Obama White House's chief cyber official testified Wednesday that proposals he was developing to counter Russia's attack on the U.S. presidential election were put on a ''back burner'' after he was ordered to ''stand down'' his efforts in the summer of 2016.
The comments by Michael Daniel, who served as White House ''cyber security coordinator'' between 2012 and January of last year, provided his first public confirmation of a much-discussed passage in the book, ''Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump,'' co-written by this reporter and David Corn, that detailed his thwarted efforts to respond to the Russian attack.
They came during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing into how the Obama administration dealt with Russian cyber and information warfare attacks in 2016, an issue that has become one of the more politically sensitive subjects in the panel's ongoing investigation into Russia's interference in the U.S. election and any links to the Trump campaign.
The view that the Obama administration failed to adequately piece together intelligence about the Russian campaign and develop a forceful response has clearly gained traction with the intelligence committee. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the ranking Democrat on the panel, said in an opening statement that ''we were caught flat-footed at the outset and our collective response was inadequate to meet Russia's escalation.''
That conclusion was reinforced Wednesday by another witness, Victoria Nuland, who served as assistant secretary of state for Europe during the Obama administration. She told the panel that she had been briefed as early as December 2015 about the hacking of the Democratic National Committee '-- long before senior DNC officials were aware of it '-- and that the intrusion had all the hallmarks of a Russian operation.
Victoria Nuland appears before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. (Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP)
As she and other State Department officials became ''more alarmed'' about what the Russians were up to in the spring of 2016, they were authorized by then Secretary of State John Kerry to develop proposals for ways to deter the Russians. But most of those steps were never taken '-- in part because officials assumed they would be taken up by the next administration.
''I believe there were deterrence measures we could have taken and should have taken,'' Nuland testified.
As intelligence came in during the late spring and early summer of that year about the Russian attack, Daniel instructed his staff on the National Security Council to begin developing options for aggressive countermeasures to deter the Kremlin's efforts, including mounting U.S. ''denial of service'' attacks on Russian news sites and other actions targeting Russian cyber actors.
Daniel declined to discuss the details of those options during Wednesday's open hearing, saying he would share them with the panel during a classified session later in the day. But he described his proposals as ''the full range of potential actions'' that the U.S. government could use in the cyber arena ''to impose costs on the Russians '-- both openly to demonstrate that we could do it as a deterrent and also clandestinely to disrupt their operations as well.''
Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, asked about a ''Russian Roulette'' passage in which one of Daniel's staff members, Daniel Prieto, recounted a staff meeting shortly after the cyber coordinator was ordered by Susan Rice, President Obama's national security adviser, to stop his efforts and ''stand down.'' This order was in part because Rice feared the options would leak and ''box the president in.''
''I was incredulous and in disbelief,'' Prieto is quoted as saying in the book. ''It took me a moment to process. In my head, I was like, did I hear that correctly?'' Prieto told the authors he then spoke up, asking Daniel: ''Why the hell are we standing down? Michael, can you help us understand?''
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, with then President Barack Obama in Hangzhou, China, summer 2016. (Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Daniel has confirmed that the account was ''an accurate rendering of what happened'' in his staff meeting. He said his bosses at the NSC '-- he did not specifically mention Rice in his testimony '-- had concerns about ''how many people were working on the options'' so the ''decision'' from his superiors at the Obama White House was to ''neck down the number of people that were involved in developing our ongoing response options.''
Daniel added that ''it's not accurate to say that all activity ceased at that point.'' He and his staff ''shifted our focus'' to assisting state governments to protect against Russian cyberattacks against state and local election systems.
But as for his work on developing cyber deterrence measures, ''those actions were put on a back burner and that was not the focus of our activity during that time period.''
Instead, Obama officials chose another course of action after becoming frustrated that Republican leaders on Capitol Hill would not endorse a bipartisan statement condemning Russian interference and fearful that any unilateral action by them would feed then candidate Donald Trump's claims that the election was rigged. They chose a private ''stern'' warning by Obama to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in China in early September 2016 to stop his country's campaign to disrupt the U.S. election.
Obama officials were also worried that a vigorous cyber response along the lines Daniel had proposed could escalate into a full scale cyber war. And, they have since argued, they believed that the president's warning had some impact, noting '-- as Daniel did in his testimony '-- that they saw some tamping down in Russian probing of state election data systems after Obama's private talk with Putin.
But Nuland testified that while the Russians were ''a little less active'' in September after the Obama warning, Russian activity picked up again in October when the Russians accelerated their social media campaign using phony Facebook ads and Twitter bots.
''We saw an increase in what they were doing in social media,'' Daniel agreed. ''They shifted their focus.''
Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a conference last November. (Photo: Jorge Silva/Pool Photo via AP)
Nuland also revealed, in response to questions by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, another previously unpublicized dimension to the Russian attack. That summer, Collins said, FBI officials advised the committee that Russian diplomats were traveling around the country in areas they were not '-- under diplomatic protocols '-- permitted to visit , apparently to collect intelligence. Asked by Collins if she believed this was part of the Russian so-called active measures attack on the election, Nuland responded, ''I do.''
After the November 2016 election, in which Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, Obama did impose new sanctions on Russia's intelligence services and expelled diplomats. But Nuland testified that most in the administration saw that as only a beginning of what needed to be done. ''It's fair to say that all of us in the process assumed what was done in December and January would be a starting point for what the incoming administration would then build on.''
The Wednesday hearing by the intelligence panel did not touch steps the Trump administration has taken '-- or in many cases, failed to take '-- to respond to the Russian election attack. But both witnesses emphasized that there is new urgency to the issue to developing proposals to do so. Daniel noted that a malicious new Russian botnet '' known as a ''VPN filter'' '-- has been discovered infecting home office routers and allowing hackers to intercept internet communications. He said this was a ''type of malware we haven't seen before'' and shows ''the intent of the Russians to continue their cyber activities.''
Nuland also noted that other nation-state actors have learned from the Russian playbook, singling out the Chinese who, she said, are now conducting influence operations and disinformation campaigns in Australia, Taiwan and other countries in the region. All this, she said, calls for new U.S. government measures, including the creation of a multiagency ''fusion center'' '-- modeled after the National Counterterrorism Center created after the Sept. 11 terror attacks '-- to collect intelligence and expose ''state-sponsored efforts to undermine our democracy'' and the appointment of an ''international coordinator'' to develop coordinated responses with U.S. allies.
Read more from Yahoo News:
Clapper: 'We had a suspect' in Kremlin-WikiLeaks transfer Ecstasy-assisted psychotherapy is bringing peace to people with PTSD Turned away by 2 countries, rescued refugees end their odyssey in Spain Racial imbalance? Admissions policies at Harvard and Stuyvesant HS under scrutiny Whatever happened to Zika? Photos: Children held under Trump administration's ''zero tolerance'' illegal immigration policy
ABC News apologizes for mistaken graphic on Manafort
NEW YORK (AP) '-- ABC News is apologizing for a graphic that incorrectly said that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort had pleaded guilty to five charges of manslaughter.
The graphic aired Wednesday during live coverage of President Trump's meeting with congressional leaders, where it was announced he would sign an executive order ending the practice of splitting up families being prosecuted for illegally crossing the border.
ABC said it is investigating to find out how such a graphic was in its system and how it was allowed to get on the air.
The network said it apologized to its viewers and Manafort.
"There simply is no excuse for this sort of mistake," the network said.
Trump pointed out the mistake on his Twitter account, linking to a picture of himself that ran on ABC above the faulty chyron.
"Look what Fake ABC News put out," Trump wrote. "I guess they had it prepared from the 13 Angry Democrats leading the Witch Hunt!"
OTG
Phone comebacks:
I got rid of it after I found it was taking upskirt videos
I'm Downsizing!
FaceBag Rental Checks
ITM,
If you read this on the show, I'd like to remain anonymous.
I am a licensed property manager here in Arizona. My wife and I also have
investment houses we rent out. Now, last year my wife found this great free
program for
managing our personal rentals. It rivals the one I pay for
that I use for my business, and she was showing me some of the cool things it
did. One thing in particular I noticed was that if an applicant for our credit
check wanted to, they had the option to log into the program with Facebook. As
soon as they do that, I can see their personal profiles. People used to laugh
at me because I've never had a Facebook, and I told friends that I used it the
same way the NSA does, and use it to screen potential renters. Well, I guess
we've come full circle now. So, now a Facebook profile can be tied to your
personal credit information, voluntarily for now, and I doubt most applicants
have considered the implications of this. I wonder how long before this becomes
bigger? Auto loans, mortgages, job applications? On No Agenda you guys have
already discussed China using a personality score, just like that Black Mirror
Episode. Scary stuff broseph! Score another one for Professor Ted.
3. Watch television for one half hour without turning it on. The time requirements in these experiments are extremely important. Iwould urge you, the reader, to undertake the experiment personally ratherthan merely going on to read the results.
Anger and Resistance: "What's theMeaning of This?!"
In examining the results of this experiment, one of the first thingsthat consistently comes up is students' anger and resentment at being madeto do such a thing -- an anger and resentment very different from whatcomes up, say, in regard to the reading load or the writing requirementsof the course. This anger, I think, is quite good and useful -- not perse, but insofar as students notice their anger and then inquire intoand examine the sources of that anger. For, in studying society, we oftenunconsciously assume we are studying "them" -- but we are not. We arestudying ourselves and we resist that, we dislike that. It makes usuncomfortable and it makes us angry. Socrates wasn't given a medal and atickertape parade after all. As the Russian existentialist philosopherShestov said, "It is not man who pursues truth, but truth man."
One expression of this anger that comes up repeatedly is "I wasted 30minutes of my time." Is it possible that this is a very valuable waste oftime? Is it possible that "wasting time" is a very valuable thing to do instudying society? Pursuing this experience puts us smack in the middle ofthe infamous Protestant Ethic in a very direct and personal way. We arealmost re-creating through verstehen Max Weber's deep intellectualperplexity and fascination with what he saw as Benjamin Franklin'scodification of the Protestant Ethic: "Remember that time is money."After some discussion it invariably turns out that all the students admitto having wasted a lot more than a half hour in front of the TV set. Sowhy this anger about watching TV for 30 minutes without turning it on?
Labor in the Mode ofRelaxation
When you turn the TV on, in effect, you turn the world off. The TV isonly two feet high or so, yet we are fooled into thinking we are watchinglife-sized things. How is it that everything on it appears real andlife-like?
Technical events produce the illusion of being natural and realistic. They produce the feeling of being non-produced (a good cut is one youdon't notice, as the editors say). In the same way, we are unaware thatthe practice of watching TV is a practice because we have neverexperienced it as a phenomenon in its own right. Doing the TechnicalEvents Test forces us to notice that watching TV is a practice, an active,ongoing achievement that we accomplish "for another first time through"each time. We see what the texture of the experience of watching TVconsists of. We are shocked into seeing what it is we've been doing allthese years.
Counting the technical events brings about what Thomas Kuhn would calla "paradigm shift." When you focus on the technical events you can't focuson the plot or storyline. You learn very quickly how difficult it is todivide your attention. Either you watch the program or you count thetechnical events. You are unable to do both at the same time. In terms ofthe phenomenology of perception, this is a little like the famousdemonstration of either seeing-the-vase or seeing-two-profiles, but notseeing both simultaneously in any sustained manner.
In doing the TET, we notice the discrete segments of independentfootage that are presented with a rapid-fire quality. As we watch, we, the"passive" viewers, apparently put together, synthesize and integrate thescenes: we link, we knit, we chain, we retain the past and anticipate thefuture. We methodically weave them all together into a coherent narrative.A high-speed filling-in-the-blanks and connecting-the-dots occurs. Ouractively synthesizing mind, our labor, goes on while we sit back, relaxand absorb. This high-speed integration of often wildly disconnectedphenomena (angles, scenes, persons, music) is experienced in the mode ofblank and passive absorption. It would seem that our minds are in highgear without our knowing. Mander addresses this pointedly:
This difference between internally generated and imposed imagery is atthe heart of whether it is accurate to say that television relaxes themind.
Relaxation implies renewal. One runs hard, then rests. While restingthe muscles first experience calm and then, as new oxygen enters them,renewal.
When you are a watching, absorbing techno-guru, your mind may be inalpha, but it is certainly not "empty mind." Images are pouring into it.Your mind is not quiet or calm or empty. It may be nearer to dead, orzombie-ized. It is occupied. No renewal can come from this condition. Forrenewal, the mind would have to be at rest, or once rested, it would haveto be seeking new kinds of stimulation, new exercise. Television offersneither rest nor stimulation.
Television inhibits your ability to think, but it does not lead tofreedom of mind, relaxation or renewal. It leads to a more exhausted mind. You may have time out from prior obsessive thought patterns, but that's asfar as television goes. The mind is never empty, the mind is filled. What's worse, it is filled with someone else's obsessive thoughts andimages.
The Technical Events Test dramatically reveals the functions of thepolitical institution of television in (a) training us to shorten ourattention span, (b) making ordinary life appear dull, (c) injecting ahypnotic quality into our ordinary awareness and (d) coercing us into itsreality.
Television is the quintessential short-term medium. Like jugglers,television lives for the split second. Its relationship to viewers ismeasured in tiny fractions. Solemn hierarchies of men and women react toovernight program ratings with something approaching nervous breakdowns,because one percentage point can mean $30 million a year. The result ofthis manic concern is to design programming that will serve attentiongetting rather than the humanistic substance that will stay with theviewer. The ratings race serves the advertisers, not the audience.
It is easier to shorten attention spans and increase distraction thanto lengthen attention spans, increase concentration, and calm, quiet andstill the mind. There is an old Zen analogy that the way to calm, clearand quiet the mind is similar to the way to clear a muddy pool -- not byaction, by doing, by stirring it up, but by stillness, by letting it be,by letting it settle itself. The function of TV is to create, maintain andconstantly reinforce what -- in the Zen tradition -- is often called"monkey-mind." The question to ask is: What is the good of a jumpy,volatile, scattered and hyper monkey-mind?
Hypnosis Unlimited
Since the emergence of long-term space flight in orbit above theearth, a new physiological phenomenon has arisen among our astronauts. They found that as a result of long-term weightlessness, some ratherdrastic physical changes began to occur in their bodies. They experienceda marked and dramatic reduction of muscle size. Even their hearts becamemarkedly smaller. The astronauts also experienced a loss of co-ordinationabilities -- such as the ability to focus on and follow moving objectswith their eyes. All of this seems to be due to taking the human organismoutside the experience of gravity. In order to preserve their earthboundphysiology in conditions of weightlessness, astronauts need to do two tothree hours of custom-designed exercises per day. Perhaps watching TVproduces the equivalent mental condition of weightlessness for the humanmind, together with the attending shrinkages and deteriorations. Thenormal, invisible, all-pervasive pressure of mental gravity, of ourordinary, active, incessantly thinking mind is suspended when we turn onthe television.
Coercing Us Into Reality
Our culture and education conspire to condition us, to create areliance on media to reinforce our actions, feelings and self-perceptions.When we seek media confirmation we acknowledge and assume that ourpersonal experiences are not qualified as reality any longer. We lose thedrive to pursue direct experience as well as the drive to participate inco-creating reality. We no longer do, we watch, and realityis someone else's creation. As Todd Gitlin has said, it's not until anevent (institution, thought, principle, movement, etc.) crosses the mediathreshold that it takes on a solid reality for us. Stretched out acrossour world is the media membrane, over the threshold of which -- and onlyover the threshold -- lies legitimate, confirmed reality, and though wedon't have to believe what the media tell us, we can't know what theydon't tell us.
TV Without Sound
Just as Charles Tart talks about us being caught up in a consensustrance, we can talk about a narrative trance, a narrative-consciousness. We have been programmed to become narrative subjects, subjected to thedevelopmental narrative mode, intertwined with the storyline. In the TETwe're suspending our narrative consciousness and hence de-stabilizing thenarrative subject. We identify not with a character, nor with theomniscient author, but with the camera. During usual viewing, however, oureyes do not see what is actually there because our narrative-trained mindoverrides our eyes. We don't see with our eyes, we see with ourprogramming, and we are programmed to see stories. TV programs are made sothat we don't notice the "technical events," the details -- so that wedon't pay attention. We are programmed to be unaware of the programming,the non-narrative structure and possibilities of that structure. To watchTV programs is to be lifeless and unresisting. This is the state thatallows the commercials to take full effect and operate our minds for us.
The Nature of the News
As a usual daily routine, only the unusually tragic or triumphant isshown -- not the ordinary routines and day-to-day reality of our lives. Itis true that the news show has fewer technical events. There is a goodreason for this. With fewer technical events the news show appearsrealistic relative to other shows in the TV environment. Further, itappears super-realistic relative to the commercial shows in thisenvironment. As earlier, we witnessed the joining of technical events in acoherent narrative. Here, we witness the reduction of worldly events intoa narrative.
The problem is not that TV presents us with entertaining subjectmatter, but that TV presents all subject matter as entertaining. Thistranscends TV and spills over into our post-TV life experiences. TV trainsus to orient toward and tune in to the entertainment quality of anyexperience, event, person. We look for that which is entertaining aboutany phenomenon rather than qualities of depth, social significance,spiritual resonance, beauty, etc. In this sense TV doesn't imitate life,but social life now aspires to imitate TV.
Further, we become greedy. Not greedy in the traditional sense inreference to material wealth, rather, we experience a greed to beentertained. It's not just a need for entertainment, but a downright greedfor entertainment, and it becomes a 24-hour obsession. In the absence ofentertainment, we usually entertain ourselves with plans for futureentertainment.
As one formula puts it, Media Power = Political Power Squared The TVhas shown us that politicians can't be trusted but TV can. That is,according to Joshua Meyrowitz in No Sense of Place, implicit inshowing us this about politicians is the message, "We who are showing youthis, the TV, can be trusted." We can trust TV, and the institution of TV,to reveal how politicians and the institution of politics can't betrusted.
Discoveries About Self
TV has become such a mechanical friend, such a substitute for socialinteraction, that one's solitude becomes acutely magnified, doublyexperienced and doubly reinforced if one is deprived of its glowing,life-like presence (as if one wouldn't still be alone if it were on). Ifone is alone in one's room and turns on the TV, one actually doesn't feelalone anymore. It's as if companionship is experienced, as ifcommunication is two-way. We have achieved a new level of isolation,solipsism and withdrawal. "It's just an object when it's turned off,"hundreds of students have bemoaned. When it is turned off it more clearlyreveals itself as an object, as an appliance -- rather than as a friend, acompanion. It is shocking after all these years to discover this. Mandercaptures the phenomenology of the situation well:
Television is watched in darkened rooms ... it is a requirement oftelevision viewing that the set be the brightest image in the environmentor it cannot be seen well. To increase the effect, background sounds aredimmed out just as the light is. An effort is made to eliminate householdnoises. The point, of course, is to further the focus on the televisionset. Awareness of the outer environment gets in the way.... Dimming outyour own body is another part of the process. People choose a positionfor viewing that allows the maximum comfort and least motion ... thinkingprocesses also dim. Overall, while we are watching television, our bodiesare in a quieter condition over a longer period of time than in any otherof life's nonsleeping experiences. This is true even for the eyes ... theeyes move less while watching television than in any other experience ofdaily life. Almost every household's living room is arranged around the televisionset. As a weight room is arranged for weight training, our living roomsare arranged for TV training. The furniture is purposely arranged for thetranscendent practice of "watching TV," rather than for the immanent,human practice of communication or interaction. The interior design of theaverage American living room with its lines of attention, hierarchy, andtranscendent TV is very similar to the interior design of the averageAmerican church with its transcendent altar, lines of homage and gesturesof genuflection.
TV and the Illusion ofKnowing
Marshall McLuhan says TV opens out onto an electronic global village.It would seem, rather, that it gives us only the illusion of being. Itreinforces security by presenting danger, ignorance by presenting news,lethargy by presenting excitement, isolation by promising participation.The media confines reality to itself. And it limits knowledge by givingthe illusion of knowledge. In the same way that the most effective way todeflect, diffuse and terminate a social movement is to announce that ithas been achieved (the feminist movement must contend with this on analmost daily basis), the most effective way to deflect inquiry is topresent it as fulfilled. TV acts in this guise as a thinking presentationdevice which offers non-experience as experience and not-knowingness asknowing.
In the words of Mat Maxwell, "Television becomes the world forpeople.... The world becomes television." The overall and cumulativeeffect of the media is to heighten our insensitivity to reality. Ratherthan breaking the chains of ignorance, political domination and illusionin our Platonic cave, something insidiously similar yet different is goingon. Instead of actually turning away from the shadows to see therealities, instead of actually leaving the darkness of the cave and goingup into the sunlight, we merely watch an image of ourselves doing this, wefantasize about doing it and think it's the same.
Copyright (C) 1998 The Media Foundation.
NWO
Worldcup-Uk Brexit final?
Dogs are People Too
House & Dog sitting in China ex-pats
Agenda 2030
Ontario Scraps Carbon-Reduction Plan as It Expands Elsewhere
Move follows campaign pledge to bring down fuel prices
California carbon markets 'stable' after Ontario decision
Ontario will scrap the province's cap-and-trade program and pull out of the carbon-trading market with Quebec and California even as pollution pricing expands in other regions of the world.
Ontario's Progressive Conservatives will follow through on a campaign promise to withdraw from the environmental program that required companies to buy credits to offset pollution blamed for global warming. Premier-designate Doug Ford also said he will challenge Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's authority to make local governments put a price on greenhouse-gas emissions.
The move comes as carbon-pricing programs are expanding in the U.S. even as President Donald Trump seeks to ease restrictions on coal companies. Europe already has a large regional cap-and-trade system while China, the world's biggest polluter, has committed to a national pollution program that could open by 2020.
''It is of significance in terms of the degree to which were seeing cap-and-trade systems increasing around the world,'' said Robert Stavins, director of Harvard University's Environmental Economics Program. ''It's a setback, but I don't think it's critical. It's certainly not existential for California or Quebec.''
U.S. ProgramsPhil Murphy, who replaced Chris Christie as New Jersey governor, has pledged to rejoin the nine-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative led by New York. Virginia has taken steps to link to the RGGI program while lawmakers in Oregon are debating a carbon-pricing program.
Ontario's election results were largely priced into California's carbon market. Despite Friday's announcement, emitters in Ontario remain obligated to manage their carbon pollution until the province formally withdraws from the system, said John Battaglia, head of carbon markets at BGC Environmental Brokerage Services LP.
''The market is stable here,'' Battaglia said in an interview. ''We expect a bit of short-term volatility, but long term, the show will go on.''
Ontario's PCs will be sworn in June 29 after defeating the Liberals in an election earlier this month. Ending what Ford called a job-killing carbon tax was one of his major commitments during the campaign. Ontario will also quit the Western Climate Initiative, Ford said Friday from Toronto.
Trudeau Plan''Eliminating the carbon tax and cap-and-trade is the right thing to do and is a key component in our plan to bring your gas prices down by 10 cents per liter,'' Ford said in a statement.
But the move may not spare Ontario from a carbon price. Trudeau's government is bringing in carbon pricing rules to cover all provinces and a ''backstop'' for local governments that don't come up with their own plans this year.
''Ontario is going to still have an obligation under the federal architecture and the cost of meeting that obligation could be higher,'' said Dallas Burtraw, a senior fellow at Resources for the Future. ''The costs of the cap-and-trade program are small on retail gasoline rates.''
(Adds comment from Harvard professor in fourth paragraph. )
Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. LEARN MORE
Every Google search results in CO2 emissions. This real-time data viz shows how much '' Quartz
Every Google search comes at a cost to the planet. In processing 3.5 billion searches a day, the world's most popular website accounts for about 40% of the internet's carbon footprint.
Despite the notion that the internet is a ''cloud,'' it actually relies on millions of physical servers in data centers around the world, which are connected with miles of undersea cables, switches, and routers, all requiring a lot of energy to run. Much of that energy comes from power sources that emit carbon dioxide into the air as they burn fossil fuels; one study from 2015 suggests internet activity results in as much CO2 emissions as the global aviation industry.
''Data is very polluting,'' says Joana Moll, an artist-researcher whose work investigates the physicality of the internet. In 2015, to illustrate the environmental consequence of Google searches, Moll created a data visualization called CO2GLE:
''CO2GLE'': Screenshot May 1, 2018 after 10 seconds
(Click here to launch ''CO2GLE'' and see a real-time counter.)
''Almost nobody recalls that the internet is made up of interconnected physical infrastructures which consume natural resources,'' Moll writes as an introduction to the project. ''How can such an evident fact become so blurred in the social imagination?''
CO2GLE uses 2015 internet traffic data, Moll says, and is based on the assumption that Google.com ''processes an approximate average of 47,000 requests every second, which represents an estimated amount of 500 kg of CO2 emissions per second.'' That would be about 0.01 kg per request. She says these numbers are approximations, though when Quartz shared CO2GLE with Google, the company didn't contest the math. In fact, in a 2009 estimate, Google said each query causes 0.2 grams of CO2 emissions.
A spokesperson also tells Quartz that providing one user with one month of Google services generates about the same amount of the greenhouse gas emissions as driving a car for one mile. (An average gasoline-powered car typically emits 8.91 kg of CO2 per gallon. In the US, cars average 24.7 miles per gallon, which would mean a car emits 360.7 grams of CO2 per mile.)
That said, scientists are still not clear on exactly how much greenhouse gases search engines emit. One estimate from British environmental consultancy Carbonfootprint puts it between 1g and 10g of CO2 per Google search. The high end of that estimate accounts for having to start up your computer before running the search, but even the low end is higher than both Google and Moll's relatively conservative estimates.
Google is mindful of its carbon footprint (pdf). It's designing more energy-efficient data centers, investing in clean energy, and has numerous carbon-offset programs. The company's spokesperson emphasizes that Google has been carbon neutral since 2007. But this doesn't erase the fact that Google's infrastructure emits a considerable volume of CO2.
Speaking at the IAM Weekend conference in Barcelona last week, Moll showed another visualization, which she calls ''DEFOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOREST,'' to drive home the point. For every second spent on Google, 23 trees have to use up their CO2-sucking abilities.
''DEFOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOREST'': Screenshot captured on May 1, 2018 after 20 seconds.
(Click here to launch ''DEFOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOREST.'')
Moll's research focused on Google because of its scale, but other websites also contribute to the internet's carbon footprint. Facebook, for instance, reported that its data centers and business operations resulted in 718,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions in 2016, which is comparable to the annual CO2 output of about 77,500 US homes running on electricity.
''What I'm really trying to do is to trigger thoughts and reflections on the materiality of data and materiality of our direct usage of the internet,'' Moll says. ''To calculate the CO2 of the internet is really complicated. It's the biggest infrastructure ever been built by humanity and it involves too many actors'.... [But they are] numbers that can serve to raise awareness.''
Scientists issue dire warning for NH coastal communities
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. '--Thousands of New Hampshire homes could be at risk of flooding every other week during high tides within the next 30 years because of sea level rise driven by climate change, according to a new report.
The Union of Concerned Scientists said Monday that accelerating sea level rise could mean that thousands of homes along New Hampshire's coast could experience flooding an average of 26 times per year or more, even without major storms causing tidal surges.
>>Link: Search for flood risk by zip code
The analysis shows that by 2045, about 2,000 of today's residential properties, home to about 3,000 people, will be at risk. By 2100, the number of at-risk properties would jump to more than 5,000 homes, affecting about 9,000 people.
The homes that could face flooding by the end of the century are currently worth about $2.4 billion, according to the report. But UCS warned that property values could drop precipitously once the risk becomes clear. Mortgages could exceed the value of the homes, and homeowners could face steeply rising flood insurance premiums.
The analysis assumes that nothing new is done to adapt to rising seas or attempt to limit climate change. It also uses the most serious sea level rise scenario in its projections, saying that it's appropriate because homes are often owners' most valuable asset.
The at-risk homes represent more than $645 million in today's values by 2045 and about $2.4 billion by the end of the century.
Hampton, New Castle, Rye and Seabrook are particularly at risk, according to the report. The analysis shows that in Hampton alone, nearly 1,500 homes, or nearly 20 percent of all the homes in the community, would be at risk by 2045.
The UCS said those communities are already taking steps to adapt to increased tidal flooding, including incorporating climate change risks into municipal plans and funding new flood studies.
The UCS said that if nations meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement and successfully limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, about 65 percent of the state's at-risk homes could avoid chronic flooding.
The group also recommended undertaking long-term strategies to make coastal areas more resilient. The researchers said development policies should be examined to avoid building in high-risk areas.
The group completed its analysis for the entire coastline of the lower 48 states and found that properties currently worth more than $1 trillion could be at risk by the end of the century.
You Cannot Monetize The Network
Snapchat Reality Show From Bunim-Murray Stars Summer Mckeen '' Variety
Snap is expanding its original programming into a new genre: soft-scripted docu-series, with the first Snapchat Show in this area from Bunim-Murray Productions starring teen YouTube creator Summer Mckeen.
''Endless Summer'' is currently in production and slated to debut in September. The coming-of-age series follows the life of 19-year-old Summer Mckeen, a beauty and fashion vlogger who has her own jewelry line, living on her own for the first time in Laguna Beach '-- next door to her boyfriend, Dylan Jordan.
With ''Endless Summer'' and other docu-series, Snap wants to build a slate of character-driven serialized narratives focused on the stories of ''compelling people around the world as they go through dramatic life moments, incredible journeys, and challenging relationships,'' said Sean Mills, Snap's senior director of content programming. The largest group of daily active Snapchatters are 18-24, and the docu-series format has huge appeal for this cohort.
The push is a half-step for Snapchat Shows toward fully scripted, serialized entertainment programming, which Snap expects to launch later in 2018. The company introduced the Snapchat Shows approach two years ago, inspired by the communication Snapchatters use to talk to their closest friends. The episodes are typically 3-5 minutes long, cut for vertical video and are designed to be ''hyper-visual,'' featuring motion graphics, split screens, quick cuts and other effects.
''Endless Summer'' will be ''soft-scripted,'' which refers to shows featuring real-life people who are put into scripted storylines '-- with one of the earliest examples being MTV's ''Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County.''
To date, Snapchat Shows mostly have been unscripted formats; ''Endless Summer'' marks the first Snapchat Show that will have a serialized story arc. The series will comprise 12 episodes, each 4-5 minutes long, and Snap is planning to release new episodes daily when the show runs in the fall ''so it feels like an event series,'' Mills said.
Bunim-Murray Productions, the reality-TV pioneer behind such shows as ''The Real World,'' ''Project Runway'' and ''Keeping Up With the Kardashians,'' brought the concept for ''Endless Summer'' to Snap.
''Bunim-Murray is always exploring new methods of storytelling, so Snapchat was a natural fit to help tell Summer's story with us,'' said Julie Pizzi, Bunim-Murray's president of entertainment and development. ''They've been an incredibly creative and collaborative partner throughout our production and filming process and have been very open to experimenting in this genre and format.''
Snapchat's reality shows won't be quite like reality TV, though. Snap is applying practices it's learned from producing unscripted shows to the ''soft-scripted'' slate. ''It's a lot more intimate '-- you will see characters speaking directly to camera more frequently,'' Mills said. ''A lot of action happens in five minutes, and you get dramatic build-up to drive you into the next episode.''
Snap has other docu-dramas in development, but Mills declined to provide details on partners or formats. ''There's going to be a breadth of content as part of this,'' Mills said. ''We'll have a variety of different shows, and the styles will be widely different '-- some shot with smartphones, others more cinematic.''
To drive awareness and engagement, ''Endless Summer'' and other forthcoming Snapchat docu-series will launch with several new interactive features. Those will include being able to Snap into Watch Parties and after-shows, where users will be able to interact with other fans as well as cast members. Snapchat also plans to roll out lenses that Snapchatters can use when they open the app into the camera, allowing viewers to put themselves into the shows' settings and share that content. The new docu-series also are expected to incorporate augmented-reality ''portals,'' to let viewers use the Snapchat camera to insert themselves into key scenes.
''Endless Summer'' follows Summer Mckeen and Dylan Jordan in their new life together in Laguna Beach, showing the ups and downs of moving away from home and navigating the online digital space as a couple. Friends featured in the show include Summer's BFFs Olivia Rouyre and McKenzie Luskey, who both have careers as digital influencers, and Dylan's friends Sam Shryoc, Sidney Bowen, Zach Knell, and Matthew McFate.
Executive producers of ''Endless Summer'' from Bunim-Murray Productions are Gil Goldschein, Julie Pizzi, Farnaz Farjam-Chazan and Andrea Metz. Summer Mckeen, Clayton Santillo and Kyle Santillo will also serve as executive producers, and Andrea Metz is set as showrunner and will also executive produce. Mckeen and Jordan are repped by Scale Management and Ashley Silver of Bloom Hergott.
Snap's foray into docu-series programming comes as part of its ongoing effort to expand lineup of original entertainment for its 191 million global daily active users. Since first launching original Snapchat Shows in 2016, Snap has partnered with several TV networks, production companies and studios. To date, those partners have developed and produced more than 50 series for Snapchat's Discover platform.
In the next few months, Snap is gearing up to debut new scripted Snapchat Shows, including productions from partners and the joint-venture studio with NBCUniversal that's developing short-form comedies and dramas. The Snap-NBCU studio's creative partners include indie filmmakers Mark and Jay Duplass.
Snapchat has already run a few scripted programs. Those include murder-mystery show ''Solve,'' from Elisabeth Murdoch's Vertical Networks, which encourages viewers play detective and vote on who they think the killer is before the real culprit is revealed.
Pictured above: Dylan Jordan and Summer McKeen
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Ellen Pao on the Perverse Incentives Helping Incels Thrive at Tech Companies | WIRED
The world has recently become more terrifyingly aware of incels, which, if you don't already know, stands for ''involuntary celibate.'' It's an underground coalition of mainly men who complain about how society actively and unfairly deprives them of sex, often, they say, because they are too ugly or too fat.
It is, of course, nonsense. Incels are usually conspiracy theorists, not victims, who believe the world is purposely denying them their fundamental right to sex on demand'--and who share many values and tactics with white supremacist, men's rights, and alt-right groups. Self-declared incels encourage violent acts, including the ''incel rebellion'' in Toronto that killed 10 people and injured 20 more.
What hasn't been discussed much is their presence in our everyday lives, including our workplaces. Like many groups of young men whose misogynistic beliefs gestate online, incels often work in the tech industry and in engineering'--and because of tech's long-standing, well-quantified lack of women and other underrepresented groups, it's a natural fit.
Technology plays a central role for these hate groups, as a career and as a weapon. On incel forums, they pride themselves on their tech contributions; they joke that the world would collapse without them to maintain network infrastructures, and that their companies would fail without them. They move seamlessly among online hate group forums where racism and misogyny feed on one another.
Like many groups of young men whose misogynistic beliefs gestateonline, incels often work in the tech industry.
Many large tech companies have unwittingly encouraged these groups in the name of unconstrained debate and ''free speech.'' Misguided advocates quote Brandeis'--''Sunlight is the best disinfectant'''--to argue that open platforms will expose and show the wrongness of hate and terrorism. Instead, though, what we've learned from platforms ranging from Reddit and Twitter to GoDaddy and Cloudflare is that public exposure consistently normalizes, encourages, and amplifies these beliefs.
I hear every day from tech employees and executives, and many tell me in painstaking detail about how hate groups are using tech platforms and workplace communities to spread their ideas, onboard new recruits, and train them on how to execute these ideas in their companies. In an industry with predominately white men as employees and leaders, and a hands-off approach to monitoring speech and behavior, hate groups have a huge advantage. They weaponize communications and interactions, setting traps to use as fodder for complaints, trolling, and, in some cases, litigation.
Many large tech companies have unwittingly encouraged these groups inthe name of unconstrained debate and ''free speech.''
All this means it's highly probable that a tech company of significant size employs men who identify with these forms of hate, if not with the actual movements. They organize on company Slack channels, creating private discussions to denigrate their coworkers. They defend themselves with arguments on diversity of thought and free speech. They may even leak information to dox coworkers, intending to incite real-life, offline harassment.
So if you're the leader of a company, what do you do?
'--
Right now, it seems, not much. I've heard some leaders say that they'll be perceived as making a value judgment about somebody's politics if they confront these toxic groups. But incel culture isn't a political belief; it's an ideology of hate. We don't accept open misogyny in our workplaces, and make no mistake: That's what incels promote.
In an industry with predominately white men as employees and leaders,and a hands-off approach to monitoring speech, hategroups have a huge advantage.
Others expressed concerns about thought policing. After all, whatever goes on in somebody's head is their own business. And that's true'--until they act on it. Consider how these ideas are directed at weaponizing interactions between incels and others targeted by gender. And how the group intends to spread the behavior and push boundaries as far as they can. Sometimes their misogyny can be hard to spot'--like a microaggression inflicted on a coworker. Other times it manifests itself very clearly. We're not talking about ideas here; we're talking about employee safety. We don't allow groups of employees to congregate in person to hurt others; why would we allow it online? Why is it that, when hate takes shape online, people automatically allow it as freedom of expression? Shouldn't we respond to behavior that is intended to harm others, regardless of where and how it happens?
Incels can be vicious, and dealing with them head-on can be intimidating. When I tweeted a simple question'--''CEOs of big tech companies: You almost certainly have incels as employees. What are you going to do about it?'''--I got almost 3,000 replies, and many were insults and threats from incels. I also received more than 2,000 likes. And I heard from others who worked with incels at tech companies who were afraid to speak publicly, but expressed support'--and a need for action.
One woman told me about an incel at her tech company, and she described a horrifying situation: He started stalking coworkers, going so far as to hide his mobile phone in the bathroom to video female employees using the toilet. He later used the captured video to intimidate, threaten, and harass his colleagues.
The modern workplace'--especially in tech'--isn't prepared to deal with these kinds of interactions. When inappropriate behavior is reported to managers or HR, bad actors rarely face serious consequences. In this case, I heard that complaints to HR went unheeded, and the situation escalated, making HR and the company look increasingly foolish for ignoring warning signs.
The modern workplace'--especially in tech'--isn't prepared to deal withthese kinds of interactions.
The tech environment's star system is a big part of the problem. We hear time and time again about stars getting second, third, or more chances after complaints about their behavior. Instead of addressing the core problem, CEOs delegate to HR, which usually tries to address short-term symptoms by pushing out the person who speaks up. As a result, they compound the core problem, as fewer people see value in speaking up, bad actors feel even more empowered to harass coworkers, and others follow their example.
What should we do? As leaders or managers, our job is to create a productive environment for employees with, at a minimum, physical and emotional security. Aspirationally we want our culture to allow everyone to contribute their best, most meaningful work. In both cases, that absolutely entails creating a diverse and inclusive culture'--and that means rooting out and banning incel beliefs.
Ultimately leaders need to lead, even if it's uncomfortable.
In 2015, as Reddit's CEO, I was able to start changing the culture both internally and externally. We had just come out of a painful period in which we enabled the widespread viewing of unauthorized nude photos of celebrities on the site. In the office, we prided ourselves on an open culture that reflected our product, exemplified most memorably for me in a 45-minute-long, company-wide discussion comparing the aesthetics of penises and breasts.
Changing Reddit's culture was an ongoing, multistep process. I invited outside speakers to talk to our team about diversity and inclusion. CEOs like YC's Michael Seibel, Coinbase's Brian Armstrong, and Stellar's Joyce Kim described their successes through the lens of diversity and inclusion. We held an all-hands focused on change; Freada Kapor Klein and Mitch Kapor led a session on culture and anti-harassment and anti-discrimination, including dos and don'ts of behavior and interactions. Afterward, several women reported having been harassed by coworkers; we tried to address each situation individually through conversations and warnings, and the problem in aggregate through ongoing monitoring and values reinforcement. And it seemed to work: No one sued us, and, six months later, the same women said they were satisfied with changes in behavior and interactions.
At the same time, I enforced our values, especially around privacy, on the Reddit website. We were the first major site to ban unauthorized nude photos and revenge porn. A few months later, we banned the five most harassing subreddits'--and a study showed we were effective in reducing hate speech.
What I learned was pretty simple, but effective internally and externally: 1. Make your company values and codes of conduct (internal and external) clear. Write them down and share them. 2. Build multiple paths for raising concerns and reporting violations, and make them easy to understand and easy to take. 3. Learn about violations as early as possible, especially ones that can escalate. You should focus on solving the actual problem, not trying to hide its symptoms.
Back then, pre-#MeToo and pre-Susan Fowler, I felt like my efforts were not valued by many, especially when I was fired. But I have no regrets. If we don't lead and address these problems proactively, they won't go away. Any conversation that values one group of people less than others is inappropriate for the workplace, because it almost certainly conflicts with company values. Conversations encouraging unwanted, misogynistic actions on others should also be banned. Using our company's workspaces'--physical ones, virtual ones, tools, and platforms'--to spread this kind of thinking should be a fireable offense. We cannot allow employees to mobilize identity-based intolerance, much less against their own coworkers.
We cannot allow employees to mobilize identity-based intolerance, muchless against their own coworkers.
Tech workers know incels and the like expertly wield our companies' innovations to attack the vulnerable. Employees also know those toxic beliefs are shared by more coworkers than many of us realize'--and they're willing to push to end them. When a group of Google employees teamed with investors this month to put inclusion on the Google shareholder ballot, they stated that workers were ''feeling unsafe and unable to do our work.'' Their initiative wasn't particularly controversial except for its format, which forced management to confront these issues publicly and reactively.
Now, what actions do you plan to take to address the incels in your workforce and to protect your employees and culture'--before you don't have a choice anymore?
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The Growing Number of Men Who Carry Around Bottle Bidets
It's neither filthy nor uncivilized. In fact, it's the only sensible thing to do.Earlier this week, my colleague John McDermott wrote about ''polished anus syndrome,'' or how the process most Americans (and Brits) use to clean their butts using rough, dry toilet paper wasn't just useless at cleaning poop, it was also damaging the skin around the anus and making it more more sensitive and prone to bleeding. As an alternative (imperative?), the article suggests people should invest in bidets, a sink-like fixture designed to wash genitalia, that tend to be used across mainland Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. (Failing that, they should try wiping with a damp paper towel.)
The piece, however, spoke to a much wider problem inherent in Western masculinity, best highlighted last year when film producer Keith Calder tweeted: ''A weird part of toxic masculinity is not knowing how to poop properly.'' It was inspired by a number of Reddit posts from wives and girlfriends complaining about their partners' skid marks, their inability to use a toilet seat when pooping and the guy who told his wife, ''A real man doesn't go in between his cheeks or spread them for anything.''
The correct way to clean your ass might seem like a mundane subject, but for me''--'someone growing up in a predominantly white area, with a South Asian Muslim background''--'cultural and identity crises were inevitably linked to the practice of anal cleanliness. At home, we used an lota, a vessel that was more often than not, a watering can, always located next to the toilet. The majority of Islamic traditions follow Qadaa' al-Haajah, a religious code around physical purification, in which you would hold the lota with your right hand, while washing with your left. But at school, where lotas weren't around, I'd have to make due with the rough, sharp bright blue paper that was the standard of the British education system. Meanwhile, when friends came over to my house, I'd hide our lota in case anyone asked why a watering can was in our bathroom''--'a conversation, I worried could be misinterpreted as a ''culturally backward'' means of wiping directly with my hands.
Yet more than a decade on from those fears, conversations around how one should correctly clean their ass still rage on, particularly on the internet. The question frequently pops up on sites like Quora, devolving into fights over which method is cleaner, or indeed, more ''civilized.'' Over on YouTube, the act of switching from toilet paper to water-based cleaning methods has become embraced by the platforms' ''minimalist'' community, often consisting of white YouTubers who believe the key to self-fulfillment is to give up their possessions while documenting it for their channels.
More largely, there's a growing number of people across the U.S. who are becoming more conscious about the way they wipe and the state of their anuses. ''I started using a bottle of water to wash myself a few months ago,'' Mike, a 34-year-old sales manager from Pittsburgh, tells me over Facebook Messenger. ''I always had problems cleaning myself because I'd use a lot of toilet paper, and it would irritate me the whole day. Basically, it would itch and hurt until I got home and showered.''
He started washing himself using a bottle of water after watching YouTube tutorials on preventing irritation''--'when, of course, his girlfriend was asleep. Even today, Mike hasn't told any of his friends or coworkers about his new bathroom routine. In fact, he usually hides his bottle of water when going to the bathroom. ''I almost got caught once,'' he says. ''One of my coworkers bumped into me as I was going to the men's room and looked at the bottle in a weird way''--'only for a few seconds, but I guess he thought I was planning to drink from it while I was on the can, which is actually much weirder.''
Peter, 29, from New York, doesn't just use water to clean himself, but also Aveeno, a gentle oatmeal-based soap, during the washing process. Like many Western guys, he was only taught how to wipe using toilet paper. But a low-paying job forced him to buy ''cheap toilet paper.'' It was, as you'd imagine, rough, with the texture of newspaper. ''It hurt when I wiped, and I ended up getting these bumps on the inside of my buttcheeks that made it hard to walk, too.''
He found the soap recommendation when looking for a way to lessen the pain. Like Mike, though, he keeps his new knowledge private. He insists he's not embarrassed by it, but rather, that there's still taboos around men talking about genital cleanliness. ''I'd always grown up assuming that as long as there weren't any weird bumps or green marks then it'd be fine,'' he explains. ''You're taught to deal with it quietly if there's any itching or small pain''--'to just tolerate it. But that's unhealthy and also means that men don't think about their hygiene until it's too late.''
''I don't know if any of my friends are doing it,'' he adds with a laugh. ''I'm sure if they are, though, they definitely wouldn't tell me. I mean guys are just getting around to talking about skin care. Just wait until they find out what's happening to areas of their body they've paid no attention to.''
Hussein Kesvani is MEL's U.K./Europe editor. He last wrote about the men who watch porn all day for the British government.
More Hussein:
Net Neutrality
Europe takes another step towards copyright pre-filters for user generated content '' TechCrunch
In a key vote this morning the European Parliament's legal affairs committee has backed the two most controversial elements of a digital copyright reform package '-- which critics warn could have a chilling effect on Internet norms like memes and also damage freedom of expression online.
In the draft copyright directive, Article 11; ''Protection of press publications concerning online uses'' '-- which targets news aggregator business models by setting out a neighboring right for snippets of journalistic content that requires a license from the publisher to use this type of content (aka 'the link tax', as critics dub it) '-- was adopted by a 13:12 majority of the legal committee.
While, Article 13; ''Use of protected content by online content sharing service providers'', which makes platforms directly liable for copyright infringements by their users '-- thereby pushing them towards creating filters that monitor all content uploads with all the associated potential chilling affects (aka 'censorship machines') '-- was adopted by a 15:10 majority.
MEPs critical of the proposals have vowed to continue to oppose the measures, and the EU parliament will eventually need to vote as a whole.
EU Member State representatives in the EU Council will also need to vote on the reforms before the directive can become law. Though, as it stands, a majority of European governments appear to back the proposals.
European digital rights group EDRi, a long-standing critic of Article 13, has a breakdown of the next steps for the copyright directive here.
Derailing the proposals now essentially rests on whether enough MEPs can be convinced its politically expedient to do so '-- factoring in a timeline that includes the next EU parliament elections, in May 2019.
Last week, a coalition of original Internet architects, computer scientists, academics and supporters '-- including Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Vint Cerf, Bruce Schneier, Jimmy Wales and Mitch Kapor '-- penned an open letter to the European Parliament's president to oppose Article 13, warning that while ''well-intended'' the requirement that Internet platforms perform automatic filtering of all content uploaded by users ''takes an unprecedented step towards the transformation of the Internet from an open platform for sharing and innovation, into a tool for the automated surveillance and control of its users''.
''As creators ourselves, we share the concern that there should be a fair distribution of revenues from the online use of copyright works, that benefits creators, publishers, and platforms alike. But Article 13 is not the right way to achieve this,'' they write in the letter.
''By inverting this liability model and essentially making platforms directly responsible for ensuring the legality of content in the first instance, the business models and investments of platforms large and small will be impacted. The damage that this may do to the free and open Internet as we know it is hard to predict, but in our opinions could be substantial.''
The Wikimedia Foundational also blogged separately, setting out some specific concerns about the impact that mandatory upload filters could have on Wikipedia.
''[A]ny sort of law which mandates the deployment of automatic filters to screen all uploaded content using AI or related technologies does not leave room for the types of community processes which have been so effective on the Wikimedia projects,'' it warned last week. ''As previously mentioned, upload filters as they exist today view content through a broad lens, that can miss a lot of the nuances which are crucial for the review of content and assessments of legality or veracity.''
More generally critics warn that expressive and creative remix formats like memes and GIFs '-- which have come to form an integral part of the rich communication currency of the Internet '-- will be at risk if the proposals become law'...
Regarding Article 11, Europe already has experience experimenting with a neighboring right for news, after an ancillary copyright law was enacted in Germany in 2013. But local publishers ended up offering Google free consent to display their snippets after they saw traffic fall substantially when Google stopped showing their content rather than pay for using them.
Spain also enacted a similar law for publishers in 2014, but its implementation required publishers to charge for using their snippets '-- leading Google to permanently close its news aggregation service in the country.
Critics of this component of the digital copyright reform package also warn it's unclear what kinds of news content will constitute a snippet, and thus fall under the proposal '-- even suggesting a URL including the headline of an article could fall foul of the copyright extension; ergo that the hyperlink itself could be in danger.
They also argue that an amendment giving Member States the flexibility to decide whether or not a snippet should be considered ''insubstantial'' (and thus freely shared) or not, does not clear up problems '-- saying it just risks causing fresh fragmentation across the bloc, at a time when the Commission is keenly pushing a so-called 'Digital Single Market' strategy.
''Instead of one Europe-wide law, we'd have 28,'' warns Reda on that. ''With the most extreme becoming the de-facto standard: To avoid being sued, international internet platforms would be motivated to comply with the strictest version implemented by any member state.''
However several European news and magazine publisher groups have welcomed the committee's backing for Article 11. In a joint statement on behalf of publishing groups EMMA, ENPA, EPC and NME a spokesperson said: ''The Internet is only as useful as the content that populates it. This Publisher's neighbouring Right will be key to encouraging further investment in professional, diverse, fact-checked content for the enrichment and enjoyment of everyone, everywhere.''
Returning to Article 13, the EU's executive, the Commission '-- the body responsible for drafting the copyright reforms '-- has also been pushing online platforms towards pre-filtering content as a mechanism for combating terrorist content, setting out a ''one hour rule'' for takedowns of this type of content earlier this year, for example.
But again critics of the copyright reforms argue it's outrageously disproportionate to seek to apply the same measures that are being applied to try to clamp down on terrorist propaganda and serious criminal offenses like child exploitation to police copyright.
''For copyrighted content these automated tools simply undermine copyright exceptions. And they are not proportionate,'' Reda told us last year. ''We are not talking about violent crimes here in the way that terrorism or child abuse are. We're talking about something that is a really widespread phenomenon and that's dealt with by providing attractive legal offers to people. And not by treating them as criminals.''
In a statement reacting to the committee vote today, Monique Goyens, director general of European consumer rights group BEUC, warned: ''The internet as we know it will change when platforms will need to systematically filter content that users want to upload. The internet will change from a place where consumers can enjoy sharing creations and ideas to an environment that is restricted and controlled.
''Fair remuneration for creators is important, but consumers should not be at the losing end.''
Goyens blamed the ''pressure of the copyright industry'' for scuppering ''even modest attempts to modernise copyright law''.
''Today's rules are outdated and patchy. It is high time that copyright laws take into account that consumers share and create videos, music and photos on a daily basis. The majority of MEPs failed to find a solution that would have benefitted consumers and creators,'' she added.
European parliament committee approves vote on 'disastrous' copyright bill
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The changes could put an end to user-generated content, warn critics A committee of MEPs has voted to accept major changes to European copyright law, which experts say could change the nature of the internet.
They voted to approve the controversial Article 13, which critics warn could put an end to memes, remixes and other user-generated content.
Article 11, requiring online platforms to pay publishers a fee if they link to their news content, was also approved.
One organisation opposed to the changes called it a "dark day".
The European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs voted by 15 votes to 10 to adopt Article 13 and by 13 votes to 12 to adopt Article 11.
It will now go to the wider European Parliament to vote on in July.
'Censorship'Last week, 70 influential tech leaders, including Vint Cerf and Tim Berners-Lee, signed a letter opposing Article 13, which they called "an imminent threat to the future" of the internet.
Article 13 puts more onus on websites to enforce copyright and could mean that every online platform that allows users to post text, sounds, code or images will need some form of content-recognition system to review all material that users upload.
Activist Cory Doctorow has called it a "foolish, terrible idea".
Writing on online news website BoingBoing, he said: "No filter exists that can even approximate this. And the closest equivalents are mostly run by American companies, meaning that US big tech is going to get to spy on everything Europeans post and decide what gets censored and what doesn't."
Article 11 has been called the "link tax" by opponents.
Designed to limit the power over news publishers that tech giants such as Facebook and Google have, it requires online platforms to pay publishers a fee if they link to their news content.
The theory is that this would help support smaller news publishers and drive users to their homepages rather than directly to their news stories.
But critics say it fails to clearly define what constitutes a link and could be manipulated by governments to curb freedom of speech.
After the vote, US not-for-profit organisation Creative Commons, which aims to make more content free for others to share, called it a "dark day for the open web".
Another Twitter user tweeted: "15 MEPs voted for upload filtering. They understand the internet better than the people who invented it, apparently."
Open Rights executive director Jim Killock told the BBC: "Article 13 must go. The EU parliament will have another chance to remove this dreadful law.
"The EU parliament's duty is to defend citizens from unfair and unjust laws.
"MEPs must reject this law, which would create a robo-copyright regime intended to zap any image, text, meme or video that appears to include copyright material, even when it is entirely legal material."
But publishers, including the Independent Music Companies Association (Impala) welcomed the vote.
"This is a strong and unambiguous message sent by the European Parliament," said executive chair Helen Smith.
"It clarifies what the music sector has been saying for years: if you are in the business of distributing music or other creative works, you need a licence, clear and simple. It's time for the digital market to catch up with progress."
Ministry of Truthiness
After the SPLC Settled Maajid Nawaz's Lawsuit For $3M, About 60 Organizations Are Considering a Lawsuit Against the SPLC, Liberty Counsel President Mat Staver Told PJ Media
No fewer than 60 organizations branded "hate groups" or otherwise attacked by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) are considering legal action against the left-wing smear factory, a Christian legal nonprofit leader confirmed to PJ Media on Tuesday. He suggested that the $3 million settlement and apology the SPLC gave to Maajid Nawaz and his Quilliam Foundation on Monday would encourage further legal action.
"We haven't filed anything against the SPLC, but I think a number of organizations have been considering filing lawsuits against the SPLC, because they have been doing to a lot of organizations exactly what they did to Maajid Nawaz," Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, told PJ Media on Tuesday.
Liberty Counsel filed a lawsuit against the charity navigation organization GuideStar for defamation after GuideStar adopted the SPLC's "hate group" list. That lawsuit is ongoing.
In 2016, the SPLC published its "Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists," listing Muslim reformer Maajid Nawaz, a practicing Muslim, as one such extremist. The left-wing group listed various reasons for including him, changing the reasons every so often, and even at one point mentioning that he had gone to a strip club for his bachelor party.
On Monday, SPLC President Richard Cohen extended his group's "sincerest apologies to Mr. Nawaz, Quilliam, and our readers for the error, and we wish Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam all the best." In settling the suit, the SPLC paid Nawaz's organization $3.375 million.
"This is a significant settlement," Staver told PJ Media. "3.375 million dollars, and it did not even go to litigation; it was a result of a demand letter."
Importantly, "the allegations that were at issue here were very similar to the allegations against the other groups," the Liberty Counsel chairman explained. "The SPLC promotes false propaganda, demonizes and labels groups they disagree with, and that labeling has economic as well as physical consequences."
The SPLC started as a group to oppose racist terrorism, and its first legal action targeted the Ku Klux Klan. In recent decades, the organization has begun marking mainstream organizations as "hate groups" on par with the KKK. Last year, 47 nonprofit leaders denounced the SPLC's "hate list" in an open letter to the media. The SPLC has admitted that its "hate group" list is based on "opinion."
Staver insisted that the settlement with Nawaz "will encourage further legal action." He suggested that the settlement "helps our lawsuit against GuideStar" and may encourage organizations that were considering suing the SPLC to actually file the paperwork.
"There are probably about 60 organizations that we're talking to '-- there's at least 60," Staver told PJ Media. He mentioned the group of 47 nonprofit leaders who denounced the SPLC last year, and said "that group has grown since then."
Bay Area Proud Boys on Twitter: "Hey @splcenter we are next. We are currently getting lawyered up. We will not roll-over and let you lie about us like you did about @MaajidNawaz and many other innocent people. Remove us from your list or you are going to
BERLIN'--When the U.S. ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, returns to Washington for consultation with the administration Wednesday, he will be carrying a peace offering for President Donald Trump from Germany's leading auto makers.
Their proposal, people familiar with the situation say, is simple: Abandon all import tariffs for cars between the European Union and the U.S.
That would mean scrapping the EU's 10% tax on auto imports from the U.S. and other countries and the 2.5% duty on auto imports in the U.S. As a prerequisite, the Europeans want Mr. Trump's threat of imposing a 25% border tax on European auto imports off the table.
Over the past few weeks, Mr. Grenell has held closed-door meetings with the chiefs of all major German automotive companies, including bilateral meetings with the CEOs of Daimler AG , BMW AG and Volkswagen AG , which operate plants in the U.S. Overall, Germany's auto makers and suppliers provide 116,500 jobs in the U.S., according to the Association of German Automotive Manufacturers.
During these talks, which the ambassador initiated, the managers said they would back the scrapping of all import tariffs on trans-Atlantic trade in automotive products as the keystone of a broader deal covering industrial goods. The German government is on board and Mr. Grenell promised to support the idea, according to U.S. and German officials.
The car makers' approach is unusual, but German officials said any approach could be worthwhile to try to sway a president whose actions have left his allies perplexed at best.
''Germany has the right approach to resolving this trade disagreement among friends,'' said U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. ''If the EU were to reduce its 10% tariff on U.S. cars and trucks, that would be a positive first step toward trade that was more fair and reciprocal.''
One catch is that the Europeans also want a 25% U.S. tax on imports of light trucks'--pickup trucks, sport-utility vehicles, and big vans'--scrapped. Abolishing this relic of the Johnson administration could alienate U.S. auto workers, a core constituency for Mr. Trump in the midterms this fall.
Mr. Ross didn't comment on whether the U.S. would be willing to cut tariffs on trucks.
Government officials in Berlin are cautious about the car makers' initiative. While they endorse the idea, they say the government already approached the Trump administration with similar proposals weeks ago without eliciting much interest. They also say no talks are currently taking place on trade between Europe and the U.S. as the EU finalizes its response to Mr. Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs.
Mr. Grenell, a rare U.S. ambassador seen as having a direct line to the president, told The Wall Street Journal that hurting German car makers wouldn't be in the interest of the U.S.
''It is important to stay focused on American jobs, and the German auto industry employs tens of thousands of U.S. workers,'' Mr. Grenell said.
German car makers' efforts face other hurdles. Berlin has no power to hammer out trade deals'--a prerogative of the European Commission, the EU's executive body in Brussels'--and would have to persuade fellow EU member states, starting with France, to back a radical free-trade approach many have shown little interest in.
A European Commission spokesman didn't comment directly on the German car makers' offer, but underlined it has a united stance against the aluminum and steel tariffs.
''We made the case for dialogue with the U.S. to address any bilateral trade grievances,'' the commission said. ''We also made clear that this could only happen once the EU was granted a permanent exemption on the tariffs on steel and aluminum products.''
Getting France on board may be almost as difficult as convincing Mr. Trump to play ball.
Unlike Germany, French car makers Renault SA and Peugeot SA don't export cars to the U.S., and so any free trade deal would be of little value to them. In fact, a deal could open the French market to unwanted competition.
"We are absolutely in favor of reducing tariffs in certain areas like car imports, but we have to support a common EU position. Paris is still holding a hard line on this,'' said a German official familiar with the negotiations.
A French official said Paris was unaware of the proposal, and it wasn't discussed during a recent summit between French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Meseberg, Germany. Mr. Trump's repeated threats to raise tariffs on imported cars could put $54 billion in annual revenue from European passenger car exports to the U.S. at risk, according to data from the European statistics office. Germany's auto association says German auto makers and suppliers export '¬29.4 billion ($34 billion) worth of goods to the U.S. each year, while Germany imports just '¬6.5 billion ($7.5 billion) worth of American goods.
For the U.S., that is a huge trade imbalance that Mr. Trump wants to eradicate. The Germans say that figure is skewed and the trend is already moving toward more investment in the U.S. German auto production in the U.S. has quadrupled since 2009. And the U.S. doesn't export many cars to Germany because auto makers Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. have instead built them in Europe.
Daimler and BMW each generated around 10% of their global unit sales in the first five months of the year through exports to the U.S., according to Wall Street Journal calculations.
''If these tariffs are imposed my BMW, Audi and Porsche dealerships will become warehouses and cease to exist. The math just doesn't work,'' says Steve Kalafer, a founding chairman of the New Jersey-based dealer network Flemington Car & Truck Country Family of Brands.
The Commerce Department is preparing a study to determine if tariffs could be imposed on national security grounds. Stormy-Annika Mildner, a foreign trade expert at the Federation of German Industries, said German industry groups would submit comment to Commerce this week to object to the notion that Germany poses a security threat.
She said German auto companies support thousands of jobs in the U.S., and that exports from German auto factories contribute positively to the U.S. trade balance, and German companies have been active in training American workers.
''Any deal has to be reciprocal,'' Ms. Mildner said. ''Europe lowering car tariffs on a unilateral basis would not be a clever thing to do.''
During the auto summit meeting, Mr. Grenell implored the German auto executives to ''deliver the numbers'' that prove Germany's contribution to the U.S. economy.
''We have to keep talking to the U.S.,'' said a German industry official who attended the meeting between Mr. Grenell and auto industry chiefs in Berlin on June 7. ''Grenell said he wants to help us. Whether he really can is uncertain, but it's a positive sign.''
Write to William Boston at william.boston@wsj.com
HAG
FBI Agent, Who Exposed Hillary Clinton's Cover-up, Found Dead | Neon Nettle
FBI Special Agent David Raynor murdered with his own gun
on 18th June 2018 @ 2.45pm
(C) press Special Agent David Raynor was due to testify against Hillary Clinton when he diedAn FBI Special Agent, who was anticipated to expose the extent of Clinton and Obama malpractice and corruption in the "Operation Fast and Furious" cover-up before a US Federal Grand Jury, has been found dead at his home.
The FBI official's wife was also found dead at the scene with the couple both being murdered using the 52-year-old agent's own gun.
Special Agent David Raynor was ''stabbed multiple times'' and ''shot twice with his own weapon,'' according to local media reports.
Raynor's tragic death comes just one day before he was due to testify before a US Federal Grand Jury.
He was widely expected to testify that Hillary Clinton acted illegally to protect Obama administration crimes while covering up the Fast and Furious scandal.
(C) Facebook Special Agent David Raynor and his wife were both found deadRaynor's wife, Donna Fisher, was also found dead at the scene. An autopsy will be completed to determine the exact cause of death, according to police.
According to the Baltimore Sun:
Authorities, who are offering a $215,000 reward for tips in Suiter's killing, have struggled to understand what happened. The detective was shot with his own gun, which was found at the scene. Two other shots were fired from the gun, and Davis said there were signs of a brief struggle.
Special Agent Raynor's suspicious death is the latest in a sequence of disturbing deaths in Baltimore connected to the Clinton/Obama cover-up of Operation Fast and Furious.
When President Trump took power, the US Justice Department opened another investigation into Operation Fast and Furious as it pertained to the Baltimore Police Department and impaneled a US Federal Grand Jury.
(C) Facebook Special Agent David Raynor was due to testify against Hillary ClintonOne of the main witnesses was Detective Sean Suiter, an 18-year veteran of the FBI.
However, Detective Suiter was gunned down in November, in eerily similar circumstances to Special Agent Raynor, also one day before he could testify.
(C) press The couple was found murdered outside their homeSpecial Agent Raynor was leading US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's and FBI Director Christopher Wray's investigation into the murder of Detective Sean Suiter, who he believed was silenced before he could testify that the Obama administration was criminally complicit in allowing guns to flow into the hands of criminals on the Mexican border.
(C) press The was was killed using Special Agent David Raynor's own gunThese guns were involved in the murder of a US Federal Officer, among others, and is seen by investigators as the ''Achilles heel of the Obama regime,'' because the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry is one of but a very few Obama administration crimes that have no statute of limitations as it involved the killing of a US Federal Officer.
Leaked Wikileaks emails also prove Hillary Clinton was fully knowledgeable about the crime'--thus making her liable to criminal charges.
(C) press Police close off the area around the couple's home where their bodies were foundLast's week's bombshell Inspector General's reports have exposed yet more Hillary Clinton and Obama Administration crimes.
The report, that was released last Thursday, revealed that the FBI had discovered evidence that Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation had committed "sexual crimes against children."
READ MORE: IG Report: Hillary Clinton Has Committed 'Sexual Crimes Against Children'The report also shows that Obama lied to cover-up parts of these investigations that exposed child trafficking.
However, the IG report proves that the evidence of these crimes has been covered-up and swept under the carpet by those acting at the highest levels.
FBI agent David Raynor killed estranged wife in apparent murder-suicide, police say - CBS News
An FBI agent and a woman were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide outside a home in Crownsville, Maryland, on Wednesday. The Anne Arundel County Police department said officers arrived at the scene after 8 a.m. in response to a 911 call about a domestic assault. The caller said a woman was being threatened by her recently estranged husband, police say.
Upon arrival, police found David Raynor, 52, with multiple stab wounds and an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Donna Fisher, 54, was found with apparent stab wounds. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
Raynor joined the FBI in 1996 and had worked at the bureau's Baltimore field office since 2003, law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation tell CBS News. These officials say this was a domestic situation, and not related to any case Raynor was working on.
An autopsy will be completed to determine the exact cause of death, according to police.
Officials urge anyone with more information to call the Baltimore FBI office at 410-277-6689.
CBS News' Andy Triay contributed to this report.
(C) 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Homelessness
Austin sees rise in homelessness; city officials to look for solutions
Chronic homelessness in Austin and Travis County this year rose by about 5 percent from the total in 2017, according to an annual count released Thursday.
The point-in-time count, which is a requirement from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for communities receiving HUD funds, found a total of 2,147 people experiencing homelessness. During the same period in 2017, the count tallied 2,036 people.
The census shows that downtown Austin has 393 homeless residents, the highest number in any part of the city. District 3, which includes parts of East, Southeast and South Austin, has the second-highest homeless population and the highest increase compared with last year. In 2017, the census counted 101 homeless residents in that area. Now, the census reports 212.
RELATED: Homeless population in 2017 dropped in Austin, Travis County
In January, the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition recruited 550 volunteers to count homeless residents sleeping in cars, tents, parks, under bridges and on the streets. People sleeping in shelters and transitional housing programs were counted on the same night by a homeless management information system.
Despite recent campaigns aimed at tackling homeless youths, the point-in-time count recorded 93 unaccompanied youth compared with 86 counted in 2017. Preventing and ending youth homelessness has been a priority for Austin during recent years.
Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo has asked that Mayor Steve Adler and council members Ann Kitchen and Sabino ''Pio'' Renteria sponsor a resolution to endorse an action plan aimed at ending homelessness.
''The plan is a rallying point for government, business, and philanthropy to join forces to end homelessness in this community,'' Tovo said in a statement.
Other Texas cities also saw increases in their point-in-time counts including Fort Worth and Dallas. Last year's annual count showed a 28 percent drop in the city and county's chronic homeless population compared with 2016.
''The increase in homelessness confirms what I saw when I participated in the point in time count: Homelessness is up in Austin. What hasn't changed is our commitment to ending homelessness in Austin,'' Mayor Adler said in a statement. ''This 5 percent increase underscores the need for Austin to create dedicated revenue sources for housing and support services to get those experiencing homelessness into homes and to help them succeed.''
"Terrified" San Francisco Tourists Shocked By Aggressive Vagrants, Discarded Needles, Dead Bodies | Zero Hedge
Syringes were visible, people were staggering, others had wide aggressive eyes.
San Francisco - a Democratic stronghold known for cable cars, quaint architecture and its diverse culture, has become a bastion of squalor and crime as city dwellers and visitors alike dodge aggressive, drug-addled vagrants. And it's beginning to scare the tourists...
An Australian couple visiting the city were shocked by what they saw after deciding to walk back to their hotel:
"Is this normal or am I in a 'bad part of town?' Just walked past numerous homeless off their faces, screaming and running all over the sidewalk near Twitter HQ and then a murder scene. Wife is scared to leave hotel now," reads a Wednesday posting by Reddit user /u/nashtendo.
When another Redditor said "put on your big boy pants... scared to leave the hotel?"...
The Aussie replied:
It was my wife that was scared and it was partly the mass of concentrated, drug affected homeless mixed with a guy being rolled into an ambulance dead. -/u/nashtendo
"We did La and Nyc on this trip too. Both felt safer," he said later in the thread, adding "Syringes were visible, people were staggering, others had wide aggressive eyes. 'Off their faces' might be an Australian thing (sorry) but I meant just visibly drug affected."
Another Reddit user replied:
It's pretty normal. I'm honestly hoping tourists will realize how shitty this city has become and stop coming. Maybe the loss of income will finally push the city to stop allowing the rampant drug dealing and homeless people treating the entire city like their toilet. You would think a city that deoends so heavily on tourism and conventions for the bulk of their income would put more effort into maintaining a certain standard, but there is rampant drug dealing out in the open in some of the most heavily tourist areas. The city know about it, they just don't care. -/u/SgtPeanutbutter
"You see things on the streets that are just not humane," Kevin Carroll, executive director of the Hotel Council of San Francisco told The Chronicle's Heather Knight in April. "People come into hotels saying, 'What is going on out there?' They're just shocked. ... People say, 'I love your city, I love your restaurants, but I'll never come back.'"
In a completely seperate thread, another Reddit user posted in the San Francisco subreddit "Why is this city so terrifying?"
I've wanted to visit SF my entire life and I finally make it here and my goddddd it's terrifying. Anyone have any advice for a tourist aside from ''don't be such a pussy.'' -u/xnmb1
"The streets are filthy. There's trash everywhere. It's disgusting," Joe D'Alessandro, president of S.F. Travel told the Chronicle's Heather Knight in April. "I've never seen any other city like this '-- the homelessness, dirty streets, drug use on the streets, smash-and-grabs."
The city, which hands out up to 4.8 million syringes each year, has struggled to figure out how to keep streets clean and safe for residents, while accommodating a growing homeless population and longstanding HIV and Hepatitis C epidemics. There are roughly 16,000 residents in San Francisco with HIV, and 13,000 with Hep C.
City Health Director Barbara Garcia estimated in 2016 that there were 22,000 intravenous drug users in San Francisco - around one for every 38.9 residents, while the city hands out roughly 400,000 needles per month.
Of the 400,000 needles distributed monthly, San Francisco receives around 246,000 back - meaning that there are roughly 150,000 discarded needles floating around each month - or nearly 2 million per year, according to Curbed.
Mayor Mark Farrell has said, repeatedly, in recent weeks that the problem of discarded syringes on city streets has become a sticking point for him, and the city promised millions of dollars to curb the problem of hazardous waste on sidewalks and streets.
Meanwhile, San Francisco Chronicle's Matier and Ross chimed in Wednesday with an uncomfortable observation: Most of the needles littering streets in downtown neighborhoods came by way of the city itself, as part of the Department of Public Health's 25-year-old needle exchange program. -Curbed
While certainly nowhere near the top of the list, crime is also a problem in San Francisco - which is higher than 92.7% of the United States according to city-data.com.
The Outer Space Treaty, formally the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, is a treaty that forms the basis of international space law. The treaty was opened for signature in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union on 27 January 1967, and entered into force on 10 October 1967. As of April 2018, 107 countries are parties to the treaty, while another 23 have signed the treaty but have not completed ratification.[1] In addition, the Republic of China (Taiwan), which is currently only recognized by 17 UN member states, ratified the treaty prior to the United Nations General Assembly's vote to transfer China's seat to the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1971.[5]
The Outer Space Treaty represents the basic legal framework of international space law. Among its principles, it bars states party to the treaty from placing weapons of mass destruction in Earth orbit, installing them on the Moon or any other celestial body, or otherwise stationing them in outer space. It exclusively limits the use of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes and expressly prohibits their use for testing weapons of any kind, conducting military maneuvers, or establishing military bases, installations, and fortifications (Article IV). However, the Treaty does not prohibit the placement of conventional weapons in orbit and thus some highly destructive attack strategies such as kinetic bombardment are still potentially allowable.[6] The treaty also states that the exploration of outer space shall be done to benefit all countries and that space shall be free for exploration and use by all the States.
The treaty explicitly forbids any government to claim a celestial resource such as the Moon or a planet.[7] Article II of the Treaty states that "outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means". However, the State that launches a space object retains jurisdiction and control over that object.[8] The State is also liable for damages caused by their space object.[9]
Article VI of the Outer Space Treaty deals with international responsibility, stating that "the activities of non-governmental entities in outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, shall require authorization and continuing supervision by the appropriate State Party to the Treaty" and that States Parties shall bear international responsibility for national space activities whether carried out by governmental or non-governmental entities.
As a result of discussions arising from Project West Ford in 1963, a consultation clause was included in Article IX of the Outer Space Treaty: "A State Party to the Treaty which has reason to believe that an activity or experiment planned by another State Party in outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, would cause potentially harmful interference with activities in the peaceful exploration and use of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, may request consultation concerning the activity or experiment."[10][11]
The Outer Space Treaty was opened for signature in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union on 27 January 1967, and entered into force on 10 October 1967. As of July 2017, 107 countries are parties to the treaty, while another 23 have signed the treaty but have not completed ratification.[1]
Multiple dates indicate the different days in which states submitted their signature or deposition, which varied by location. This location is noted by: (L) for London, (M) for Moscow, and (W) for Washington, DC. Also indicated is whether the state became a party by way of signing the treaty and subsequent ratification, or by accession to the treaty after it had closed for signature.
State[1][2][3][4]SignedDepositedMethod Afghanistan 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) 000000001967-01-30-0000 Jan 30, 1967 (M) 000000001988-03-17-0000 Mar 17, 1988 (L, M) 000000001988-03-21-0000 Mar 21, 1988 (W)Ratification Algeria 000000001992-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1992 (W)Accession Antigua and Barbuda 000000001988-11-16-0000 Nov 16, 1988 (W) 000000001988-12-26-0000 Dec 26, 1988 (M) 000000001989-01-26-0000 Jan 26, 1989 (L)Succession from United Kingdom Argentina 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) 000000001967-04-18-0000 Apr 18, 1967 (M) 000000001969-03-26-0000 Mar 26, 1969 (M, W)Ratification Australia 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) 000000001967-10-10-0000 Oct 10, 1967 (L, M, W)Ratification Austria 000000001967-02-20-0000 Feb 20, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001968-02-26-0000 Feb 26, 1968 (L, M, W)Ratification Azerbaijan 000000002015-09-09-0000 Sep 9, 2015 (L)Accession Bahamas 000000001976-08-11-0000 Aug 11, 1976 (L) 000000001976-08-13-0000 Aug 13, 1976 (W) 000000001976-08-30-0000 Aug 30, 1976 (M)Succession from United Kingdom Bangladesh 000000001986-01-14-0000 Jan 14, 1986 (L) 000000001986-01-17-0000 Jan 17, 1986 (W) 000000001986-01-24-0000 Jan 24, 1986 (M)Accession Barbados 000000001968-09-12-0000 Sep 12, 1968 (W)Accession Belarus 000000001967-02-10-0000 Feb 10, 1967 (M) 000000001967-10-31-0000 Oct 31, 1967 (M)Ratification Belgium 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, M) 000000001967-02-02-0000 Feb 2, 1967 (W) 000000001973-03-30-0000 Mar 30, 1973 (W) 000000001973-03-31-0000 Mar 31, 1973 (L, M)Ratification Benin 000000001986-06-19-0000 Jun 19, 1986 (M) 000000001986-07-02-0000 Jul 2, 1986 (L) 000000001986-07-07-0000 Jul 7, 1986 (W)Accession Brazil 000000001967-01-30-0000 Jan 30, 1967 (M) 000000001967-02-02-0000 Feb 2, 1967 (L, W) 000000001969-03-05-0000 Mar 5, 1969 (L, M, W)Ratification Bulgaria 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001967-03-28-0000 Mar 28, 1967 (M) 000000001967-04-11-0000 Apr 11, 1967 (W) 000000001967-04-19-0000 Apr 19, 1967 (L)Ratification Burkina Faso 000000001967-03-03-0000 Mar 3, 1967 (W) 000000001968-06-18-0000 Jun 18, 1968 (W)Ratification Canada 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001967-10-10-0000 Oct 10, 1967 (L, M, W)Ratification Chile 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) 000000001967-02-03-0000 Feb 3, 1967 (L) 000000001967-02-20-0000 Feb 20, 1967 (M) 000000001981-10-08-0000 Oct 8, 1981 (W)Ratification China 000000001983-12-30-0000 Dec 30, 1983 (W) 000000001984-01-06-0000 Jan 6, 1984 (M) 000000001984-01-12-0000 Jan 12, 1984 (L)Accession Cuba 000000001977-06-03-0000 Jun 3, 1977 (M)Accession Cyprus 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) 000000001967-02-15-0000 Feb 15, 1967 (M) 000000001967-02-16-0000 Feb 16, 1967 (L) 000000001972-07-05-0000 Jul 5, 1972 (L, W) 000000001972-09-20-0000 Sep 20, 1972 (M)Ratification Czech Republic 000000001993-01-01-0000 Jan 1, 1993 (M, W) 000000001993-09-29-0000 Sep 29, 1993 (L)Succession from Czechoslovakia Denmark 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001967-10-10-0000 Oct 10, 1967 (L, M, W)Ratification Dominican Republic 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) 000000001968-11-21-0000 Nov 21, 1968 (W)Ratification Ecuador 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) 000000001967-05-16-0000 May 16, 1967 (L) 000000001967-06-07-0000 Jun 7, 1967 (M) 000000001969-03-07-0000 Mar 7, 1969 (W)Ratification Egypt 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (M, W) 000000001967-10-10-0000 Oct 10, 1967 (W) 000000001968-01-23-0000 Jan 23, 1968 (M)Ratification El Salvador 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) 000000001969-01-15-0000 Jan 15, 1969 (W)Ratification Equatorial Guinea 000000001989-01-16-0000 Jan 16, 1989 (M)Accession Estonia 000000002010-04-19-0000 Apr 19, 2010 (M)Accession Fiji 000000001972-07-18-0000 Jul 18, 1972 (W) 000000001972-08-14-0000 Aug 14, 1972 (L) 000000001972-08-29-0000 Aug 29, 1972 (M)Succession from United Kingdom Finland 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001967-07-12-0000 Jul 12, 1967 (L, M, W)Ratification France 000000001967-09-25-0000 Sep 25, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001970-08-05-0000 Aug 5, 1970 (L, M, W)Ratification Germany 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001971-02-10-0000 Feb 10, 1971 (L, W)Ratification Greece 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) 000000001971-01-19-0000 Jan 19, 1971 (L)Ratification Guinea-Bissau 000000001976-08-20-0000 Aug 20, 1976 (M)Accession Hungary 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001967-06-26-0000 Jun 26, 1967 (L, M, W)Ratification Iceland 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001968-02-05-0000 Feb 5, 1968 (L, M, W)Ratification India 000000001967-03-03-0000 Mar 3, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001982-01-18-0000 Jan 18, 1982 (L, M, W)Ratification Indonesia 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) 000000001967-01-30-0000 Jan 30, 1967 (M) 000000001967-02-14-0000 Feb 14, 1967 (L) 000000002002-06-25-0000 Jun 25, 2002 (L)Ratification Iraq 000000001967-02-27-0000 Feb 27, 1967 (L, W) 000000001967-03-09-0000 Mar 9, 1967 (M) 000000001968-12-04-0000 Dec 4, 1968 (M) 000000001969-09-23-0000 Sep 23, 1969 (L)Ratification Ireland 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, W) 000000001968-07-17-0000 Jul 17, 1968 (W) 000000001968-07-19-0000 Jul 19, 1968 (L)Ratification Israel 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001977-02-18-0000 Feb 18, 1977 (W) 000000001977-03-01-0000 Mar 1, 1977 (L) 000000001977-04-04-0000 Apr 4, 1977 (M)Ratification Italy 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001972-05-04-0000 May 4, 1972 (L, M, W)Ratification Jamaica 000000001967-06-29-0000 Jun 29, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001970-08-06-0000 Aug 6, 1970 (W) 000000001970-08-10-0000 Aug 10, 1970 (L) 000000001970-08-21-0000 Aug 21, 1970 (M)Ratification Japan 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001967-10-10-0000 Oct 10, 1967 (L, M, W)Ratification Kazakhstan 000000001998-06-11-0000 Jun 11, 1998 (M)Accession Kenya 000000001984-01-19-0000 Jan 19, 1984 (L)Accession North Korea 000000002009-03-05-0000 Mar 5, 2009 (M)Accession South Korea 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) 000000001967-10-13-0000 Oct 13, 1967 (W)Ratification Kuwait 000000001972-06-07-0000 Jun 7, 1972 (W) 000000001972-06-20-0000 Jun 20, 1972 (L) 000000001972-07-04-0000 Jul 4, 1972 (M)Accession Laos 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) 000000001967-01-30-0000 Jan 30, 1967 (L) 000000001967-02-02-0000 Feb 2, 1967 (M) 000000001972-11-27-0000 Nov 27, 1972 (M) 000000001972-11-29-0000 Nov 29, 1972 (W) 000000001973-01-15-0000 Jan 15, 1973 (L)Ratification Lebanon 000000001967-02-23-0000 Feb 23, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001969-03-31-0000 Mar 31, 1969 (L, M) 000000001969-06-30-0000 Jun 30, 1969 (W)Ratification Libya 000000001968-07-03-0000 Jul 3, 1968 (W)Accession Lithuania 000000002013-03-25-0000 Mar 25, 2013 (W)Accession Luxembourg 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (M, W) 000000001967-01-31-0000 Jan 31, 1967 (L) 000000002006-01-17-0000 Jan 17, 2006 (L, M, W)Ratification Madagascar 000000001968-08-22-0000 Aug 22, 1968 (W)Accession Mali 000000001968-06-11-0000 Jun 11, 1968 (M)Accession Malta 000000002017-05-22-0000 May 22, 2017 (L)Accession Mauritius 000000001969-04-07-0000 Apr 7, 1969 (W) 000000001969-04-21-0000 Apr 21, 1969 (L) 000000001969-05-13-0000 May 13, 1969 (M)Succession from United Kingdom Mexico 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001968-01-31-0000 Jan 31, 1968 (L, M, W)Ratification Mongolia 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (M) 000000001967-10-10-0000 Oct 10, 1967 (M)Ratification Morocco 000000001967-12-21-0000 Dec 21, 1967 (L, M) 000000001967-12-22-0000 Dec 22, 1967 (W)Accession Myanmar 000000001967-05-22-0000 May 22, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001970-03-18-0000 Mar 18, 1970 (L, M, W)Ratification Nepal 000000001967-02-03-0000 Feb 3, 1967 (M, W) 000000001967-02-06-0000 Feb 6, 1967 (L) 000000001967-10-10-0000 Oct 10, 1967 (L) 000000001967-10-16-0000 Oct 16, 1967 (M) 000000001967-11-22-0000 Nov 22, 1967 (W)Ratification Netherlands 000000001967-02-10-0000 Feb 10, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001969-10-10-0000 Oct 10, 1969 (L, M, W)Ratification New Zealand 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001968-05-31-0000 May 31, 1968 (L, M, W)Ratification Nicaragua 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) 000000001967-02-13-0000 Feb 13, 1967 (L) 000000002017-06-30-0000 Jun 30, 2017 (W) 000000002017-08-14-0000 Aug 14, 2017 (L)Ratification Niger 000000001967-02-01-0000 Feb 1, 1967 (W) 000000001967-04-17-0000 Apr 17, 1967 (L) 000000001967-05-03-0000 May 3, 1967 (W)Ratification Nigeria 000000001967-11-14-0000 Nov 14, 1967 (L)Accession Norway 000000001967-02-03-0000 Feb 3, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001969-07-01-0000 Jul 1, 1969 (L, M, W)Ratification Pakistan 000000001967-09-12-0000 Sep 12, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001968-04-08-0000 Apr 8, 1968 (L, M, W)Ratification Papua New Guinea 000000001980-10-27-0000 Oct 27, 1980 (L) 000000001980-11-13-0000 Nov 13, 1980 (M) 000000001981-03-16-0000 Mar 16, 1981 (W)Succession from Australia Paraguay 000000002016-12-22-0000 Dec 22, 2016 (L)Accession Peru 000000001967-06-30-0000 Jun 30, 1967 (W) 000000001979-02-28-0000 Feb 28, 1979 (M) 000000001979-03-01-0000 Mar 1, 1979 (L) 000000001979-03-21-0000 Mar 21, 1979 (W)Ratification Poland 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001968-01-30-0000 Jan 30, 1968 (L, M, W)Ratification Portugal 000000001996-05-29-0000 May 29, 1996 (L)Accession Qatar 000000002012-03-13-0000 Mar 13, 2012 (W)Accession Romania 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001968-04-09-0000 Apr 9, 1968 (L, M, W)Ratification Russia 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001967-10-10-0000 Oct 10, 1967 (L, M, W)Ratification Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 000000001999-05-13-0000 May 13, 1999 (L)Succession from United Kingdom San Marino 000000001967-04-21-0000 Apr 21, 1967 (W) 000000001967-04-24-0000 Apr 24, 1967 (L) 000000001967-06-06-0000 Jun 6, 1967 (M) 000000001968-10-29-0000 Oct 29, 1968 (W) 000000001968-11-21-0000 Nov 21, 1968 (M) 000000001969-02-03-0000 Feb 3, 1969 (L)Ratification Saudi Arabia 000000001976-12-17-0000 Dec 17, 1976 (W)Accession Seychelles 000000001978-01-05-0000 Jan 5, 1978 (L)Accession Sierra Leone 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, M) 000000001967-05-16-0000 May 16, 1967 (W) 000000001967-07-13-0000 Jul 13, 1967 (M) 000000001967-07-14-0000 Jul 14, 1967 (W) 000000001967-10-25-0000 Oct 25, 1967 (L)Ratification Singapore 000000001976-09-10-0000 Sep 10, 1976 (L, M, W)Accession Slovakia 000000001993-01-01-0000 Jan 1, 1993 (M, W) 000000001993-05-17-0000 May 17, 1993 (L)Succession from Czechoslovakia South Africa 000000001967-03-01-0000 Mar 1, 1967 (W) 000000001968-09-30-0000 Sep 30, 1968 (W) 000000001968-10-08-0000 Oct 8, 1968 (L) 000000001968-11-14-0000 Nov 14, 1968 (M)Ratification Spain 000000001968-11-27-0000 Nov 27, 1968 (L) 000000001968-12-07-0000 Dec 7, 1968 (W)Accession Sri Lanka 000000001967-03-10-0000 Mar 10, 1967 (L) 000000001986-11-18-0000 Nov 18, 1986 (L, M, W)Ratification Sweden 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001967-10-11-0000 Oct 11, 1967 (L, M, W)Ratification Switzerland 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, W) 000000001967-01-30-0000 Jan 30, 1967 (M) 000000001969-12-18-0000 Dec 18, 1969 (L, M, W)Ratification Syria 000000001968-11-19-0000 Nov 19, 1968 (M)Accession Thailand 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001968-09-05-0000 Sep 5, 1968 (L) 000000001968-09-09-0000 Sep 9, 1968 (M) 000000001968-09-10-0000 Sep 10, 1968 (W)Ratification Togo 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) 000000001989-06-26-0000 Jun 26, 1989 (W)Ratification Tonga 000000001971-06-22-0000 Jun 22, 1971 (M) 000000001971-07-07-0000 Jul 7, 1971 (L, W)Succession from United Kingdom Tunisia 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, W) 000000001967-02-15-0000 Feb 15, 1967 (M) 000000001968-03-28-0000 Mar 28, 1968 (L) 000000001968-04-04-0000 Apr 4, 1968 (M) 000000001968-04-17-0000 Apr 17, 1968 (W)Ratification Turkey 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001968-03-27-0000 Mar 27, 1968 (L, M, W)Ratification Uganda 000000001968-04-24-0000 Apr 24, 1968 (W)Accession Ukraine 000000001967-02-10-0000 Feb 10, 1967 (M) 000000001967-10-31-0000 Oct 31, 1967 (M)Ratification United Arab Emirates 000000002000-10-04-0000 Oct 4, 2000 (W)Accession United Kingdom 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001967-10-10-0000 Oct 10, 1967 (L, M, W)Ratification United States 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, M, W) 000000001967-10-10-0000 Oct 10, 1967 (L, M, W)Ratification Uruguay 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) 000000001967-01-30-0000 Jan 30, 1967 (M) 000000001970-08-31-0000 Aug 31, 1970 (W)Ratification Venezuela 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) 000000001970-03-03-0000 Mar 3, 1970 (W)Ratification Vietnam 000000001980-06-20-0000 Jun 20, 1980 (M)Accession Yemen 000000001979-06-01-0000 Jun 1, 1979 (M)Accession Zambia 000000001973-08-20-0000 Aug 20, 1973 (W) 000000001973-08-21-0000 Aug 21, 1973 (M) 000000001973-08-28-0000 Aug 28, 1973 (L)AccessionThe Republic of China (Taiwan), which is currently only recognized by 17 UN member states, ratified the treaty prior to the United Nations General Assembly's vote to transfer China's seat to the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1971. When the PRC subsequently ratified the treaty, they described the Republic of China's (ROC) ratification as "illegal." The ROC has committed itself to continue to adhere to the requirements of the treaty, and the United States has declared that they still consider them to be "bound by its obligations".[5]
23 states have signed but not ratified the treaty.
StateSigned Bolivia 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) Botswana 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) Burundi 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) Cameroon 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) Central African Republic 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) Colombia 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) Democratic Republic of the Congo 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) 000000001967-04-29-0000 Apr 29, 1967 (M) 000000001967-05-04-0000 May 4, 1967 (L) Ethiopia 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, W) 000000001967-02-10-0000 Feb 10, 1967 (M) Gambia 000000001967-06-02-0000 Jun 2, 1967 (L) Ghana 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) 000000001967-02-15-0000 Feb 15, 1967 (M) 000000001967-03-03-0000 Mar 3, 1967 (L) Guyana 000000001967-02-03-0000 Feb 3, 1967 (W) Haiti 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) Holy See 000000001967-04-05-0000 Apr 5, 1967 (L) Honduras 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) Iran 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L) Jordan 000000001967-02-02-0000 Feb 2, 1967 (W) Lesotho 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) Malaysia 000000001967-02-20-0000 Feb 20, 1967 (W) 000000001967-02-21-0000 Feb 21, 1967 (L) 000000001967-05-03-0000 May 3, 1967 (M) Panama 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) Philippines 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (L, W) 000000001967-04-29-0000 Apr 29, 1967 (M) Rwanda 000000001967-01-27-0000 Jan 27, 1967 (W) Somalia 000000001967-02-02-0000 Feb 2, 1967 (W) Trinidad and Tobago 000000001967-07-24-0000 Jul 24, 1967 (L) 000000001967-08-17-0000 Aug 17, 1967 (M) 000000001967-09-28-0000 Sep 28, 1967 (W)
Space reforms coming: 2018 NDAA drops legislative bombshells on U.S. Air Force - SpaceNews.com
by Sandra Erwin '-- November 9, 2017 Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Alabama), chairman of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee. (C-SPAN)The National Defense Authorization Act blasts the Air Force for a ''broken national security space enterprise.''
WASHINGTON '-- For the military space world, the big headline from Capitol Hill Wednesday was that the final version of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act does not, at least for now, require the Pentagon to create a new ''space corps.''
This might seem like a victory for the Air Force. Senior leaders had fought back the House space corps provision that would have effectively taken away from the Air Force its ownership of military space.
It's a hollow victory, however. The 2018 NDAA is big on Pentagon reforms, across the board, but it hammered the Air Force especially hard.
The NDAA conference report blasts the Air Force for a ''broken national security space enterprise,'' strips key authorities from the service and shifts much of the management of military space to the deputy secretary of defense.
The leaders of the defense committees said in a statement they are ''proud of the bipartisan process that led to this conference report, which took hard work and thoughtful collaboration from members on both sides of the aisle.''
The full text of the bill should be released Thursday. The House will consider the measure next week and the Senate said in plans to take it up before the Thanksgiving recess.
The House called the legislation a step toward ''fundamental reform of national security space.'' The NDAA language bears the heavy footprint of Strategic Forces Subcommittee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and Ranking Member Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.).
The report specifically calls for ''streamlining Air Force acquisition authorities, eliminating burdensome red tape, empowering a single accountable organization for space forces within the Air Force, placing renewed emphasis on the organization and management of space in the DoD, and holding the deputy secretary of defense responsible for the full and faithful execution of these improvements.''
New role for Space Command
The NDAA empowers Air Force Space Command as the sole authority for organizing, training, and equipping all U.S. Air Force space forces. Air Force Space Command is made the focal point for a ''space service'' within the Air Force responsible for acquisition, resources and requirements.'' This cadre of space ''war fighters'' would be tasked to fix the ''systemic problems Congress identified in the national security space enterprise.''
The Air Force Space Command would be modeled after the Office of Naval Reactors, stressing deep technical expertise. The bill gives the commander of Air Force Space Command a six-year term.
The NDAA delivers a direct blow to Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson by stripping her of the role of top space adviser to the secretary of defense and diminishing her power to set budget priorities. The report characterizes the secretary's office as ''burdensome and ineffective bureaucracy.''
The legislation eliminates the principal defense space adviser, the Defense Space Council and the deputy chief of staff of the Air Force for space operations '-- a newly created office the NDAA report derides as a ''hastily developed half-measure that at best only added a box on the organizational chart.''
Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan would assign a manager to oversee space budget priorities, ''but such official cannot be the secretary of the Air Force.''
The space corps is being put on hold, but Rogers is not giving up on the idea. Shanahan is being directed to hire a federally funded research-and-development corporation '-- one that is not affiliated with the Air Force '-- to provide Congress with a ''roadmap to establish a separate military department responsible for national security space activities of the DoD.''
The Senate Armed Services Committee's report is just as critical of the current space organization.
''Decision making with respect to space is currently fragmented across more than 60 offices in DoD,'' said the conference report. It points out research-and-development funding for space programs is at a 30-year low, while the ''threats in and our reliance on space are at their highest and growing.'' Space programs are ''programmatically unsynchronized across systems in orbit, ground stations, and terminals.''
The NDAA renames the operationally responsive space program office as the Space Rapid Capabilities Office, the head of which reports to Air Force Space Command.
On future space launch investments, the NDAA, as it has in previous years, states that funds for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program should focus on the development of a domestic rocket propulsion system to replace the Russian RD-180 engine that United Launch Alliance currently uses to power the Atlas 5, the Air Force's workhorse rocket.
The House Armed Services Committee said it ''continues to view the nation's assured access to space as a national security priority. This includes a continued focus on the development of a new U.S. rocket engine to replace the Russian RD-180 engine.'' The committee also cautioned it will monitor how the Air Force spends EELV dollars to ''ensure that DoD funds authorized for the development of existing and planned commercial launch vehicles are spent primarily for national security space missions to meet the assured access to space requirements.''
What's Next
Industry consultant Mike Tierney, of Jacques & Associates, said these reforms are likely to become law although the Air Force and DoD as a last recourse could approach the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee (SAC-D) and request help delaying implementation.
However, Tierney said, ''given that the NDAA is a conferenced policy position of the House and Senate, the SAC-D would be very hesitant to wade into what is strictly policy changes with no appropriations implications. Our assessment is that the changes directed in the NDAA conference will have to be implemented by the DoD and the Air Force.''
Aerospace industry analyst Todd Harrison, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, commented that the NDAA ''doesn't simply reject the space corps. It slaps the Air Force pretty hard and appears to lay the groundwork for creating a separate department for national security space in the future.''
He called the NDAA a ''clear rebuke of the current space organization within DoD and a lack of confidence in the Air Force leadership.''
On the removal of space oversight and budget functions from the secretary of the Air Force, Harrison tweeted: ''Ouch.''
Vegas Massacre
Mandalay Bay hotel water main bursts sending thousands of gallons of water through the ceiling
By Jessica Finn For Dailymail.com 15:50 20 Jun 2018, updated 16:31 20 Jun 2018
Thousands of gallons of water poured onto the first floor of the convention center at the Mandalay Bay on Tuesday after a pipe burstThe water rushed onto the floor causing damage to the first floor ceiling Officials believed the water was coming from the Shark Reef Aquarium, but thankfully that was not the case and marine life was unaffectedJust eight months ago, a gunman opened fire from inside the hotel killing 58 people gathered at a country music festival A water main broke on Tuesday creating massive flooding in the convention center at the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas leaving the venue's floor completely covered in water.
The Clark County Fire Department said the flooding was reported around 4.30pm after the broken water main dumped thousands of gallons of water onto the first floor of the convention center.
About 1,000 people, who were attending a conference on fraud, had to be moved from the second floor of the center to a different area of the resort.
Some people were also moved outside onto the Vegas strip.
Scroll for more video
First floor of the Mandalay Bay convention center is seen completely doused in thousands of gallons of water after a water main burst between the first and second floorsWater was completely covering the first floor off the escalator at the Mandalay Bay Tuesday A maintenance person surveys the damage after the water main burst caused massive floodingThe water rushing onto the floor was originally thought to have come from inside the Shark Reef Aquarium attraction (pictured)Shark Reef AquariumThe leak was stopped and secured, before electrical power was returned to the area.
No one was injured in the incident, and fire officials said there was no structural damage to the building, however the first floor ceiling did sustain damage.
The break occurred between the first and second floor in the area of the center's loading dock.
The leak was thought to have originated at the Shark Reef Aquarium attraction after officials found water pouring from near the shark's aquarium tank, but thankfully that was not the case and the marine life was unaffected.
Brian Ahern, an MGM Resorts International spokesman told the Las Vegas Review Journal that the leak did not disrupt operations.
The Clark County Fire Department responded to the water main break in the loading dock area of the convention center The water main burst comes just eight months after a gunman killed 58 people by firing from inside the hotel onto a crowd at a concert belowMandalay Bay Resort tweeted a statement about the incident Tuesday night: 'A water leak at Mandalay Bay has affected a portion of the South Convention Center.
'Crews are working to clean up the leak as soon as possible.'
The burst comes eight months after gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire from the Mandalay Bay hotel into a crowd below at an outdoor concert, killing 58 people.
See more top stories from DailyMail
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NOKO
No sign of North Korea dismantling nuclear weapons programme, Mattis admits | World news | The Guardian
The US defence secretary, James Mattis, has said he is unaware of any steps taken by North Korea towards dismantling its nuclear weapons programme since the Singapore summit and does not expect any in the immediate future.
Mattis was speaking to reporters amid confusion over the diplomatic follow-up to last week's summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un.
Immediately after the meeting Trump claimed that North Korea had begun the destruction of a missile engine testing site or would begin as soon as Kim returned from the summit. In return Trump ordered the suspension of military exercises with South Korea, a longstanding demand of the Pyongyang regime. This week the Pentagon confirmed that planning for the next scheduled exercises in August had halted.
However, asked on Wednesday if he could ''put his finger on'' any steps North Korea had taken to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme, Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon: ''No, I'm not aware of that.''
He added: ''The detailed negotiations have not begun. I wouldn't expect that at this point.''
After the Singapore meeting Trump said that his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and national security adviser, John Bolton, would take part in follow-up meetings with North Korean officials this week to ''go into the details'' of the denuclearisation agreement the president believed he had struck with Kim.
Both Trump and Pompeo predicted that follow-on talks with North Korean officials would take place in the week after the 12 June summit.
''We're getting together next week to go into the details,'' Trump told a post-summit press conference in Singapore.
''Next week, with John Bolton and our entire team, to go over the details and to get this stuff done.''
The next day Pompeo confirmed: ''I will be the person who takes the role of driving this process forward.
''I don't know exactly what the timing will be for our next conversation with North Korea,'' the secretary of state said. ''I would anticipate it will be fairly quickly after we return to our home countries. I don't know exactly what form that will take but I'm very confident that by some time in the next week or so we will begin the engagement.''
That engagement has not, so far, occurred. The state department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Tuesday that although the US had been in touch with Pyongyang there was nothing to announce on Pompeo's travel plans.
Bolton said on Wednesday that ''Pompeo and others'' would be meeting North Korean counterparts, adding ''we'll find out soon enough whether they've made this strategic decision''.
''They've said they want complete denuclearisation and now we'll have to talk about how to achieve that and I think you will see diplomatic engagement proceed very quickly,'' Bolton told Fox News, but gave no details on timing.
''I think there is a mad scramble right now,'' said Victor Cha, former director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council.
He said US officials had tried and failed to persuade the North Koreans to include language in the joint statement in Singapore committing to ''complete, verifiable and irreversible'' disarmament with a timetable for carrying it out by 2020.
''They did not get those but Trump went along with the meeting anyway, which means he cared more about the meeting than about the substance,'' Cha said.
''Even though there is no timeline, there is a de facto one now. Pompeo has to get something before August to justify suspending the [military] exercises.''
Another element of the Singapore joint statement was a North Korean promise to hand over remains of US soldiers, marines and airmen still unaccounted for since the 1950-53 Korean war. It said that those remains that Pyongyang has already identified as US servicemen, thought be number about 200, would be repatriated at once.
''They're giving a commitment, they're starting it immediately, to recover their remains,'' Trump said.
Recovery and repatriation has been happening on and off for decades. So far the remains of 334 servicemen have been identified from the bones and personal effects handed over by Pyongyang, and about 5,000 more are thought to be scattered around North Korean territory.
US military officials said on Wednesday that the UN Command, the US-led coalition that fought the war, was planning to oversee the repatriation of more remains which could happen in the next few days.
Mattis said the details had yet to be agreed. ''Those discussions are also ongoing right now, but I don't have any updates for you,'' he told reporters. ''I know that we're engaged on it.''
Diesel Gate
Audi CEO Arrested As Diesel-Emissions Scandal Spreads | Zero Hedge
Munich prosecutors have arrested Audi CEO Rupert Stadler, also a member of parent company Volkswagen's board, on concerns he might try to suppress evidence, in what is the highest-profile arrest of a Volkswagen executive since the diesel emissions scandal exploded into public view nearly three years ago.
The arrest comes a month after Audi admitted that another 60,000 A6 and A7 models with diesel engines could have "software emissions issues," and more than two months after Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller stepped down and was replaced by Herbert Diess, formerly the CEO of the company's core VW unit, according to the BBC.
While former VW Group CEO Martin Winterkorn has been charged by US authorities, Stadler is the first executive to be taken into custody, and perhaps it's about time: the emissions scandal provided ample evidence that Volkswagen had probably the worst executive oversight in Europe, and that a real criminal conspiracy had unfolded in the highest ranks of the company. The only real surprise is that it's taken this long: US authorities blew the lid off the company's emissions test-defeating software in September 2015 - nearly three years ago. Since then, the scandal has spread from the VW unit to other Volkswagen subsidiaries, and beyond: BMW and Daimler have also faced allegations of emissions cheating, as has American car maker General Motors.
Audi CEO Rupert StadlerMore surprising still has been Volkswagen's steadfast support of Stadler, who retained the backing of his fellow board members, including the influential Porsche-Piech families that own majority voting rights in Volkswagen, according to the Financial Times. The arrest was first reported in Germany's Der Spiegel.
The company issued a statement on Stadler's arrest to Reuters.
"We confirm that Mr Stadler was arrested this morning. The hearing to determine whether he will be remanded is ongoing," the spokesman said, adding that the presumption of innocence applied to Stadler's case.
The CEO has previously survived calls by minority shareholders to step down, and yet in the face of threats the company not only defended Stadler, it extended his contract and promoted him to the head of a new "premium" cars division. The new role gave him sales responsibilities group-wide. The company will likely continue to stand by him as lawyers haggle for his release.
The company maintains that there's no evidence to suggest Stadler knew of the cheating, though after Munich prosecutors raided Stadler's apartment (and one other Audi boardmember) they named Stadler as a suspect. They've also said they're investigating 20 suspects whom prosecutors believe were aware of Audi's diesel engine scheme.
In light of today's development, expect more imminent arrests as it is unlikely, given the number of Audi employees currently under investigation, that this will be the last shoe to drop.
Migrants
Merkel zet druk achter Europees vluchtelingenbeleid, maar timing had niet slechter kunnen zijn | De Volkskrant
Bondskanselier Angela Merkel en minister Seehofer. Foto ANPAngela Merkel wil in een bestek van dagen organiseren wat haar de afgelopen drie jaar niet lukte: een Europees vluchtelingenbeleid waaraan alle partijen zich houden. Merkels woordvoerder zegt dat Merkel met verschillende Europese regeringen in gesprek is over het thema. Premier Rutte liet zaterdag weten 'desnoods de komende twee weken zijn agenda schoon te poetsen', om Merkel aan een Europese oplossing te helpen, 'al ziet het er op het moment niet goed uit'.
Inderdaad kon voor Merkel de timing niet slechter zijn: niet alleen in Duitsland, in heel Europa wordt geruzied over vluchtelingen. Een EU-diplomaat sprak van een 'giftige sfeer'. Maar de bondskanselier moet wel: een doorbraak in het vluchtelingenbeleid is gekoppeld aan het voortbestaan van haar regering en haar kanselierschap.
Seehofers stokjeOndertussen is Merkels coalitiepartner en rivaal Seehofer nog steeds van plan maandag toestemming van het CSU-bestuur te vragen om asielzoekers die elders geregistreerd zijn aan de Duitse grens met onmiddellijke ingang terug te kunnen sturen.
De CSU liet het conflict bewust escaleren. Fractievoorzitter Alexander Dobrindt zei zaterdag in Bild niet meer te willen wachten op een Europese oplossing. Seehofer zou in partijkring nog veel directer zijn geweest: 'Met die vrouw kan ik niet meer samenwerken', heeft hij volgens Welt am Sonntag in CSU-kring gezegd.
De verhouding tussen Merkel en Seehofer wordt al jaren gekenmerkt door een afwisseling van diepe en minder diepe dalen. In de minder diepe lijkt hun samenwerking op een vreugdeloos huwelijk, in diepe zijn de politieke en persoonlijke antipathie van hun gezichten af te lezen.
Toch kon Merkel in haar vorige regeerperiode de dreigementen en beledigingen van Seehofer met een korrel zout nemen. Ze wist dat de CSU het meest te verliezen had bij een val van haar kabinet. In Beieren regeert de partij met een absolute meerderheid, landelijk gemeten hangt de CSU met krap 6 procent van de stemmen net aan de goede kant van de kiesdrempel.
Dat de CSU de kanselier nu toch eensgezind en met bravoure richting het ravijn duwt, is te verklaren door de brede steun die de partij ervaart voor haar nationalistische koers, zowel nationaal als internationaal.
Conservatieve stroming De Oostenrijkse kanselier Kurz, regerend met de rechts-populistische FP, sprak van een 'as van de bereidwilligen' die van Berlijn via Wenen naar Rome loopt, waar Lega-politicus Salvini het departement Binnenlandse Zaken bestiert. Maar ook in Merkels eigen CDU-gelederen is, drijvend op de onvrede over haar vluchtelingenbeleid, een sterke conservatieve stroming ontstaan, waarvan Gezondheidsminister Jens Spahn het bekendste gezicht is. En ook FDP-leider Christian Lindner, een goede vriend van Spahn, benadrukte zaterdag dat zijn partij op de lijn van de CSU zit.
Merkel weet dus dat ze in Europa op zoek moet naar een compromis waarmee deze politici kunnen leven. Vermoedelijk zal ze aandringen op een regeling die Seehofers wens in Europees beleid verandert, zodat Duitsland, Oostenrijk en andere bovenmatig populaire bestemmingslanden eerder geregistreerde vluchtelingen terug kunnen sturen naar Zuid-Europa, al dan niet in ruil voor een (financile) tegenprestatie.
Maar ze heeft het niet in eigen hand. Mocht Seehofer zijn plan deze week echt ten uitvoer brengen, dan zal Merkel zich gedwongen zien hem te ontslaan wegens het breken van de coalitieafspraken, waarna de CSU-fractie uit het kabinet zal stappen en de regering zijn meerderheid verliest.
Als dat gebeurt, heeft Merkel twee opties. Ze kan afwachten tot de Bondsdag een constructieve motie van wantrouwen tegen haar indient '' dat kan volgens de Duitse grondwet pas als een meerderheid van de Bondsdag zich achter een opvolger schaart, van welke partij dan ook. Merkel kan ook de eer aan zichzelf houden en de vertrouwensvraag stellen aan het parlement, om te onderzoeken of ze nog een meerderheid heeft.
War on Weed
Trump's personal attorney loaned $26 million to taxi mogul in weed biz, according to documents '' The Denver Post
NEW YORK '-- President Donald Trump's personal attorney, whose business dealings are being investigated by the FBI, and the lawyer's father-in-law have lent $26 million in recent years to a taxi mogul who is shifting into the legalized marijuana industry, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
Semyon ''Sam'' Shtayner, a longtime business associate of Michael Cohen's father-in-law, created Nevada-based Cannaboss LLC the day before the 2016 election. A few months later, he took a majority position in a company that is provisionally licensed to cultivate medicinal marijuana and produce edibles, the records show.
''He personally manages over 500 taxi medallions, but he is looking to transition from the medallion business to the cannibas (sic),'' according to the personal narrative Shtayner submitted last October to city officials in Henderson, Nevada, that was obtained by the AP under the state's public records law.
It's not clear whether Shtayner used any of the loans '-- $6 million of which have come directly from Cohen since 2014 '-- to finance his grow operation.
Earlier this month, FBI agents searched Cohen's hotel, office and home seeking banking records, as well as records related to his dealings in the taxi industry, people familiar with the probe told the AP, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Public records show the Ukraine-born Shtayner, 63, his wife and companies they control have used their properties in Chicago and Sunny Isles, Florida, as collateral for the loans from Cohen and his father-in-law, Fima Shusterman.
Neither Cohen nor his attorney responded to phone messages or an email seeking comment about the loans.
An attorney representing Shtayner in his Nevada marijuana ventures told the AP his client had no comment.
Reached on his cellphone, Shusterman declined to discuss his loans or Shtayner.
News of Shtayner's ties to the medical marijuana industry comes as the Trump administration finds itself somewhat split on marijuana policy.
Trump recently indicated he will support a law protecting states that already have legalized the drug '-- a position counter to that of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who stridently opposes any such effort and in January lifted restrictions that had kept federal prosecutors from pursuing cases against those complying with state marijuana laws.
Marijuana use is fully legal in Nevada, seven other states and Washington, D.C., and 38 states allow medicinal or other limited uses.
It was not clear why Shtayner has decided to move out of taxis and into the grow business. But the rapid rise of ride-hailing apps such as Uber and Lyft has disrupted the taxi industry, and Shtayner is among a handful of prominent taxi owners who face lawsuits from creditors who once lent liberally to medallion owners.
The value of medallions '-- the physical plates affixed to cabs that owners are required to display '-- have dropped precipitously in recent years from highs of over $1 million apiece in New York just a few years ago to nearly half that amount today.
The subsequent drop has left many taxi medallion owners overleveraged.
One former Cohen business partner, who managed Cohen's taxis for years, is accused in a lawsuit by creditors of hiding his assets in financial disclosures to his bank '-- including a luxury apartment in a Trump skyscraper.
Another former cab manager of Cohen's has declared bankruptcy and is facing criminal charges from state prosecutors in New York, who accuse him of pocketing nearly $5 million in taxes.
The business relationship among Cohen, Shusterman and Shtayner stretches back years. Property records in New York show that Shtayner and Shusterman were among the investors in an upper Manhattan taxi garage and auto repair shop in the 1990s.
Last August, Shusterman lent at least $12 million against properties owned by Shtayner, his wife or their companies, Chicago real estate records show. In a second series of four transactions in March, Shusterman lent the Shtayners or their companies an additional $8 million.
Four of the loans were made to Shtayner's wife, Yasya, and four others were directed to two Chicago taxi companies she manages, according to corporate documents. The Chicago Sun-Times first reported those transactions.
Cohen has been involved in the New York City yellow cab industry since the 1990s. He has a fleet of 22 cabs in Chicago and, along with his wife and father-in-law, has owned some 30 medallions in New York after initially going into business with his father-in-law, records show.
Shusterman '-- who, like Shtayner, started as a cab driver after emigrating from Ukraine '-- pleaded guilty in 1993 to federal money-laundering charges in a tax-evasion case involving cab drivers and a Brooklyn accountant.
Shtayner's Chicago cab empire has grown rapidly, though records show that 99 of his medallions are in foreclosure and 15 have some sort of violation. Forty-nine have already been taken over by the city for failure to pay taxes and fees.
Although Shtayner has been sued by creditors, operates a taxi business in a harrowing time for his industry and is borrowing heavily in nontraditional loans, the city of Henderson concluded that he is adequately liquid financially. The city's business operation division found that Shtayner and his business partner, a Las Vegas-based steel and aluminum provider, each had liquid assets that exceed the state's requirement that they be able to free up to $250,000 within 30 days if needed, according to the records obtained by the AP.
Pipeline$
Security nightmare in the making? How the Rohingya crisis has caught the fancy of terror groups | Catch News
Since August, the headlines emerging from Rakhine State in Myanmar have been beyond alarming as hundreds and thousands of Rohingyas have fled alleging state-sponsored violence.
The minority community has drawn global attention.
But the outpouring of sympathy could be temporary, says Major General (retd) ANM Muniruzzaman, who heads the Dhaka-based Bangladesh Institute for Peace and Security Studies.
''It is a big challenge for Bangladesh,'' he says. According to him, more than six lakh Rohingyas have entered the country since August and around 3,00,000 more are still in Rakhine. ''They will also probably be pushed out, so it will be completely ethnically cleansed this time,'' says Muniruzzaman.
According to him, Myanmar's offer of repatriation might be simply to ward off international attention. ''Once the cameras disappear, nothing much will happen on the ground,'' he says.
Bangladesh itself was forced to change its stance after initially saying it would drive all Rohingyas back. The retired armyman has his take on that: ''One, the humanitarian angle for the level of suffering was extremely high. Second, there was a wave of domestic sympathy and the domestic constituency wanted the government to do something about this.''In the absence of a rapid solution, he adds, the issue could have far-reaching security implications not just for Bangladesh, but for the wider region.
Excerpts from a conversation with Catch:
Myanmar says repatriation will happen along the lines of how it did in the 1990s.
Even then, a very small token number of Rohingyas were taken back. The problem has not been resolved in principle. This time also if they agree to take back some it will be still a cosmetic exercise just to keep the international pressure off for sometime. But in absence of any real solutions, any promise of legal recognition as citizens, what will they go back to? This is what needs to be talked about.
Why are the Rohingyas being driven out in the first place?
There is a general perception that these are not their people. Second, the tremendous rise of Buddhist militants in Myanmar in general and Rakhine in particular who do not accept this population. Third, Rakhine is becoming economically and strategically attractive and lucrative. So many interested quarters wants the lingering problem of ethnic tensions to be solved once and for all.
Who are these interested quarters?
There are strategically vital energy interests which are coming to play. There are new refineries coming up in Rakhine, which will be built by the Saudis and the Qataris. The Chinese too have tremendous interest, including the dedicated pipeline to Kunming, the deep sea port, the Saudis are building a refinery which will refine the crude which will be transported to Kunming. The Qataris are building a methane port. It will also have an LNG (liquefied natural gas) port. So it is a multimodal energy hub for the Chinese who have always been insecure about the Malacca Strait route. This enables them to bypass the vulnerability of dependence just on the Malacca Strait.
What kind of challenges does it pose for Bangladesh?
The five lakh people already there are of a different category for they have some organisational mechanisms to be housed, other social arrangements. The new population has nothing in terms of organised support. Their conditions are dire. They are food-insecure, leading to malnutrition among children. Many of the women who are coming in are sick and pregnant. They have no adequate access to safe drinking water, which increases the possibility of an outbreak of water-borne diseases such as cholera as happened in Haiti and Yemen.
There is also a grave danger of human trafficking for many of the families who have crossed over, especially women and children. International and local trafficking rings are already active in the area.
Then there is a tremendous amount of environmental damage which has happened because of their arrival because they have cut trees in the hills for shelter. More so, Rohingyas are getting involved with local criminals and are being used as couriers for drugs and small arms.
The warm hospitality which the locals had extended is wearing thin. The Rohingyas are prepared to work for cheap, which is leading to a resentment among the local workforce.
Is radicalisation a worry?
That is a bigger worry. Any marginalised community is vulnerable to radicalisation and terrorism-recruitment. That possibility exists in an active and large manner.
Was this worry existent for the last Rohingya population too? Is there evidence of terror recruitment among the last lot of refugees?
There is no empirical evidence of active members and groups but there has been some recruitment. This population is very different from the last inflow.
When we talk about recruitment by terror groups, which groups do we look at?
In our analysis, we found that al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) has placed their support; Daesh in Syria and Iraq as well as Chechen groups have come out in support. Indonesian groups have also put out a video of training camps and claim that they are building a 1,200-men strong battalion to send to Rakhine to fight. Many Islamist groups around the world have called it the new Palestine.
Is Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) also a result of similar recruitment by transnational jihadists?
No, ARSA is a local group that enjoys a fair amount of sympathy among the local population. But we know that ARSA's leader was based in Saudi Arabia and it is also found that probably the seed money came from Saudi Arabia. ARSA's tactical leaders are know to have contacts and received training in the region in Malaysia, Pakistan and other places. ARSA has a fair amount of international links. But it is a local group.
But the fact that there is such great outpouring of sympathy from the Islamist world it is quite possible that some of them may pick up the cause and join the Rohingya struggle. It is also happening at a time when Daesh has lost ground in Syria and Iraq and many of the foreign fighters don't want to go back to their own homes and are looking for a new battle ground to fight a new battle. To them, this cause can be sold easily.
If we have foreign fighters coming in, then this will become an international terror hub and that will have security implications for the whole region.When the Government of India says the Rohingya population constitutes a security threat, would you agree that it is a correct assessment?
I don't know about the empirical evidence of Rohingyas in India if there is any proof of any involvement. I am talking about Rohingyas who have just come to Bangladesh who are rootless and extremely vulnerable.
In Bangladesh, we always expect that India will use its good offices to make the Myanmar side understand the problem needs a rapid solution.
What do you make of assertions that rapid development of Rakhine, infrastructure development et al could be a solution?
It is not a question of infrastructure development. It is about understanding issues of ethnic identity. The ground has shifted when it comes to Rohingyas. And we have seen the Myanmar leadership not taking a stand. Military which controls key ministries has given out its stand clearly. Despite pressure they have maintained that these are not our people, calling them bengalis or bengali terrorists. Given this reality a solution looks rather complex and farfetched.
Do you think international sanctions could force a solution?
There have been some embargo by the Americans and the European Union. Pressure from United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is impractical for the Chinese and the Russians have articulated their policy. I am not very sure if the sanctions will bite because they have been under sanctions for years and it seems they did not bite. But I have been wondering if what is happening in Rakhine a classical case for invoking R2P (responsibility to protect) for all the conditions are available. But I don't think it is a possibility in light of a divided UNSC.
Soros and Hydrocarbons: What's Really Behind the Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar - Sputnik International
The Rohingya conflict in Myanmar, which had caught its second wind in August 2017, appears to be a multidimensional crisis with major geopolitical players involved, experts say, referring to both internal and external reasons behind the recent upsurge in violence in the country.
The Rohingya conflict, which erupted between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar's western Rakhine state in late August, was apparently fanned by external global players, Dmitry Mosyakov, director of the Centre for Southeast Asia, Australia and Oceania at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told RT.
According to the academic, the conflict has at least three dimensions.
"First, this is a game against China, as China has very large investments in Arakan [Rakhine]," Mosyakov told RT. "Second, it is aimed at fuelling Muslim extremism in Southeast Asia'.... Third, it's the attempt to sow discord within ASEAN [between Myanmar and Muslim-dominated Indonesia and Malaysia]."
According to Mosyakov, the century-long conflict is used by external players to undermine Southeast Asian stability, especially given the fact that what is at stake are vast reserves of hydrocarbons located offshore of the Rakhine state.
"There's a huge gas field named Than Shwe after the general who had long ruled Burma," Mosyakov said. "Additionally, the coastal zone of Arakan [Rakhine] almost certainly contains oil hydrocarbons."
After the massive Rakhine energy reserves were discovered in 2004 they attracted China's attention. By 2013 China completed oil and natural gas pipelines, which connect Myanmar's port of Kyaukphyu with the Chinese city of Kunming in Yunnan province.
The oil pipeline allows Beijing to deliver Middle Eastern and African crude bypassing the Malacca Straits, while the gas pipeline is transporting hydrocarbons from Myanmar's offshore fields to China.
The development of the Sino-Myanmar energy project coincided with the intensification of the Rohingya conflict in 2011-2012 when 120,000 asylum seekers left the country escaping the bloodshed.
(C) AP Photo / Petr David Josek
According to Dmitry Egorchenkov, deputy director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Prognosis at the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, it is hardly a coincidence. Although there are certain internal causes behind the Rohingya crisis, it could also be fueled by external players, most notably, the United States.
Myanmar's destabilization may affect China's energy projects and create a pocket of instability at Beijing's doorstep. Given the ongoing crisis between the US and North Korea, another Chinese neighbor, Beijing may soon find itself caught in the crossfires.
Meanwhile, the Burma Task Force, which comprises a number of organizations funded by George Soros, has been actively operating in Myanmar since 2013 calling upon the international community to stop what they call "the genocide of the Rohingya Muslim minority group." However, Soros's interference in Myanmar's domestic affairs goes deeper into the country's history.
In 2003, George Soros joined a US Task Force group aimed at increasing "US cooperation with other countries to bring about a long overdue political, economic and social transformation in Burma [Myanmar]."
(C) Sputnik / Evgeny Odinokov
The Council of Foreign Relation's (CFR) 2003
document entitled "Burma: Time For Change," which announced the establishment of the group insisted that "democracy'... cannot survive in Burma without the help of the United States and the international community."
"When George Soros comes to this or that country'... he looks for religious, ethnic or social contradictions, chooses the model of action for one of these options or their combination and tries to 'warm they up,'" Egorchenkov explained, speaking with RT.
On the other hand, according to Mosyakov, it appears that some established global economies are seeking to contain the rapid economic development of ASEA nations, by instigating inner strife within the bloc.
The academic opined that the globalist management policy envisages sowing discord in stable regional formations. By fuelling regional conflicts external players jump at the opportunity to gain control over sovereign states and exert considerable pressure on them.
The recent Rohingya crisis started on August 25 when Muslim insurgents of Rohingya origin attacked security posts in Myanmar's Rakhine state. The tough response of the country's authorities triggered violent clashes, which claimed the lives of at least 402 people. However, according to some estimates, up to 3,000 Muslims were killed during the recent conflict.
The conflict that started about a century ago has gradually escalated since 2011, hitting its peak in 2012 when thousands of Muslim families sought asylum in the special refugee camps on the country's territory or fled to Bangladesh. Yet another escalation started in 2016.
Clips
VIDEO - Tucker Carlson Tonight, Richard Painter - Dumpster Fire Ad - YouTube
BY: Jack Heretik Follow@JackHeretikJune 21, 2018 9:29 am
The crowd at President Donald Trump's rally in Duluth, Minnesota, Wednesday night erupted into a chant of "Space Force."
The rally and chant came just two days after Trump directed the Pentagon to begin the creation of a Space Force as a new branch of the military.
"Our beautiful ancestors won two world wars, defeated fascism and communism and put a man on the face of the moon," Trump said. "And I think you saw the other day we're reopening NASA. We're going to be going to space."
"Space Force, Space Force, Space Force, Space Force!" the crowd chanted.
"Space Force! So we have the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Marines, the Coast Guard, but we have the Air Force. Now we're going to have the Space Force because it's a whole'--we need it. We need it," Trump said.
"As long as we are proud of who we are and what we are fighting for, we will never, ever fail. There is no place like our place," Trump said.
Trump has made a point of saying that there would be a difference and separation of the Air Force and Space Force. A reason for its development is to ensure future dominance as rivals such as China continue to develop new technologies to further their capabilities in space, which has largely been dominated by the United States and Russia.
The Space Force would also presumably be separate from NASA, a government agency that works with the military and is responsible for the civilian space program.
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VIDEO - Sexual harassment pervasive in science, National Academies study says
Credit: National Academies of Science, Engineering & Medicine
A video by the National Academies summarizing its findings on sexual harassment.
A widespread culture of sexual harassment drives women away from science careers and perpetuates a gender gap, according to a new report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, & Medicine.
Science and sexual harassment The National Academies of Science, Engineering & Medicine released a wide reaching report on sexual harassment in science. Here is what it says about why science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields are particularly vulnerable to harassment and what university should do about it.
Why STEM disciplines are particularly ripe for harassment:- The dependence on advisors and mentors for career advancement- The system of meritocracy that does not account for the declines in productivity and morale as a result of sexual harassment- The ''macho'' culture in some fields- The informal communication network, in which rumors and accusations are spread within and across specialized programs and fields
Key changes needed to stop sexual harassment:- Integrate values into the system- Change the power dynamic- Support targets of sexual harassment- Improve transparency and accountability.
Large percentages of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields report being harassed. That includes 50% of female faculty and staff and 20 to 50% of students, the report says.
''The cumulative effect of sexual harassment is a significant and costly loss of talent in science, engineering, and medicine,'' says committee member Lilia Cortina, a University of Michigan psychology professor who has studied harassment for 25 years.
Targets of harassment report lower job satisfaction and often withdraw from or quit their jobs, the report says. Others report depression or posttraumatic stress.
STEM fields, including chemistry, are particularly vulnerable to sexual harassment because men still far outnumber women in faculty and leadership positions, and students usually rely on a single advisor to guide their research and promote their careers, the report adds.
Chemist Mary Boyd, provost of Berry College, says she is glad the National Academies took on this important issue. ''They offer the findings, conclusions, and recommendations in a spirit of optimism: that addressing sexual harassment is everybody's responsibility,'' she says. ''It is going to take all of us to really combat sexual harassment.''
A complete culture change is needed to address sexual harassment in universities, the report says. Too often, universities have just done what is required by law, but that isn't enough to change how people behave. ''Sexual harassment is primarily a problem of organizational culture,'' Cortina says. ''Academic institutions need to move away from a culture of compliance and toward a culture of respect.''
Sexual harassment doesn't have to involve sexual propositioning, touching, or assault to cause problems. If pervasive, behaviors often brushed off as unimportant'--such as offhand comments about someone's appearance or capabilities and other actions labeled as gender harassment'--can do just as much damage to a student or faculty member's prospects, the report points out. And harassment is especially widespread for minorities and people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer, who can face multiple forms of derogatory and discriminatory behavior.
The cumulative effect of sexual harassment is a significant and costly loss of talent in science, engineering, and medicine.''
Changing academic culture has to start at the top, with leaders who make it clear there is no tolerance for sexual harassment at their institutions, the report says. Universities need to lay out clear, escalating consequences for harassing behaviors and focus their training on what someone should do if they are harassed or witness harassment.
Academic institutions should also increase diversity at all levels, provide more support for targets of harassment, decrease tolerance for gender harassment, reduce the power faculty have over students, and publicize harassment reports and consequences.
The National Academies report also calls on scientific societies to help change the culture of sexual harassment. For example, the report recommends that societies help support people who are harassed.
David Smorodin, assistant general counsel for the American Chemical Society, says he appreciates that the report recognizes that societies can play an important role in making that change. The report ''really does present a challenge to all professional scientific societies,'' he says.
The challenge now is going to be getting universities to adopt the recommendations, Boyd says. ''Sometimes there needs to be an incentive [to change], and so far there has not been a great incentive.''
Chemical & Engineering News
ISSN 0009-2347
Copyright (C) 2018 American Chemical Society
VIDEO - 'Papa! Papa!' Audio of children stokes rage over Trump's family separation policy
Central American asylum seekers wait as U.S. Border Patrol agents take them into custody on June 12, 2018 near McAllen, Texas.
An audio recording that appears to capture the heartbreaking voices of small Spanish-speaking children crying out for their parents at a U.S. immigration facility took center stage Monday in the growing uproar over the Trump administration's policy of separating immigrant children from their parents.
"Papa! Papa!" one child is heard weeping in the audio file that was first reported by the nonprofit ProPublica and later provided to The Associated Press.
Human rights attorney Jennifer Harbury said she received the tape from a whistleblower and told ProPublica it was recorded in the last week. She did not provide details about where exactly it was recorded.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said she had not heard the audio but said children taken into custody by the government are being treated humanely. She said the government has high standards for detention centers and the children are well cared for, stressing that Congress needs to plug loopholes in the law so families can stay together.
The audio surfaced as politicians and advocates flocked to the U.S.-Mexico border to visit U.S. immigration detention centers and turn up the pressure on the Trump administration.
And the backlash over the policy widened. The Mormon church said it is "deeply troubled" by the separation of families at the border and urged national leaders to find compassionate solutions. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, reversed a decision to send a National Guard helicopter from his state to the Mexican border to assist in a deployment, citing the administration's "cruel and inhumane" policy.
At the border, an estimated 80 people pleaded guilty Monday to immigration charges, including some who asked the judge questions such as "What's going to happen to my daughter?" and "What will happen to my son?"
Attorneys at the hearings said the immigrants had brought two dozen boys and girls with them to the U.S., and the judge replied that he didn't know what would happen to their children.
Several groups of lawmakers toured a nearby facility in Brownsville, Texas, that houses hundreds of immigrant children.
Democratic Rep. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico said the location was a former hospital converted into living quarters for children, with rooms divided by age group. There was even a small room for infants, complete with two high chairs, where two baby boys wore matching rugby style shirts with orange and white stripes.
Another group of lawmakers on Sunday visited an old warehouse in McAllen, Texas, where hundreds of children are being held in cages created by metal fencing. One cage held 20 youngsters.
More than 1,100 people were inside the large, dark facility, which is divided into separate wings for unaccompanied children, adults on their own, and mothers and fathers with children.
In Texas' Rio Grande Valley, the busiest corridor for people trying to enter the U.S., Border Patrol officials say they must crack down on migrants and separate adults from children as a deterrent to others trying to get into the U.S. illegally.
"When you exempt a group of people from the law ... that creates a draw," said Manuel Padilla, the Border Patrol's chief agent there.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, speaking to reporters during a tour of San Diego immigration detention facilities with Rep. Juan Vargas and other House Democrats, said family separation is a "heartbreaking, barbarian issue that could be changed in a moment by the president of the United States rescinding his action."
"It so challenges the conscience of our country that it must be changed and must be changed immediately," she said during a news conference at a San Diego terminal that is connected to the airport in Tijuana, Mexico, by a bridge.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas announced late Monday that he was introducing emergency legislation intended to keep immigrant families together.
"All Americans are rightly horrified by the images we are seeing on the news, children in tears pulled away from their mothers and fathers," Cruz said. "This must stop."
President Donald Trump emphatically defended his administration's policy Monday, again falsely blaming Democrats.
"The United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility," he declared. "Not on my watch."
VIDEO - Rachel Maddow Cries about Migrant Babies Detained By Trump DHS || MSNBC - YouTube
CNN brought on Chris Cabrera, a spokesperson for the National Border Patrol Council, Tuesday to discuss the Trump administration enforcing America's border laws.
The Trump administration has enacted a policy of zero tolerance when enforcing America's border laws. The laws result in separating some families if they cross the border illegally at non-checkpoint locations.
CNN's Brooke Baldwin brought on Cabrera to grill him over the enforcement of the policy. However, it was Baldwin who got the grilling when Cabrera fact-checked her over the status of immigrants at the border.
WATCH:
''There's so much being thrown at people who don't know as much about immigration certainly as you do as a border patrol agent, but there a a couple of ways to come into this country if you're an undocumented immigrant and you come out on the Rio Grande river, that's illegal,'' Baldwin said.
Cabrera countered, '' Even if you're a U.S. citizen, it's illegal.''
Baldwin then asked specifically about delays for asylum seekers.
Cabrera said bluntly, ''We've had this situation going on for four years now. I don't think you can necessarily blame it on one administration or another. It started under one and is continuing under another. It hasn't been fixed and it needs to be fixed.''
He continued, ''Right now we have this beacon of, 'We'll leave the light on for you and let you come illegally into the country.' If you've seen some of the stuff we've seen, you'd understand how important it is to have a tough stance to divert people from coming here.''
Cabrera then bluntly told Baldwin some of the horrors he has seen.
''When you see a 12-year-old girl with a plan B pill, her parents put her on birth control because they know getting violated is part of the journey, that's a terrible way to live. When you see a 4-year-old girl traveling alone with just her parents phone number written across her shirt. We had a 9-year-old boy have heat stroke in front of us and die with no family around. That's because we're allowing people to take advantage of this system.''
The retelling of the child horror stories elicited an audible gasp from Baldwin.
Cabrera went on to say that it's up to Congress to change the law, but until then his agents will continue to enforce the laws on the books.
''Most of our agents are parents. I've seen guys and I've done it myself, you give your last bottle of water to a kid, you'll take a toy out of your car to give to one of these kids because you know the situation they're in.'' Caberera said. ''Agents are very sympathetic. We're human, we're fathers, we have families. We do a lot for the communities here, whether or not a camera is involved. Our agents are very involved. And nobody saves more lives along the southwestern border than the U.S. Border patrol.''
VIDEO - 6/18/18: White House Press Briefing - YouTube
Ryan Saavedra at the Daily Wire captured an instructional moment on CNN on Wednesday afternoon. Anchor Brooke Baldwin was interviewing Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis., no relation) on the separation of illegal-immigrant families at the border. The Senator from Wisconsin was on a tear, that the Trump zero-tolerance policy was "something that I think violated all American values. It was an un-American activity." Then the CNN host asked her if she felt that way four years ago under Obama. The senator just tap-danced around the question.
BROOKE BALDWIN: But here's a question for Democrats. You hear the president now on a lot of topics, and this one included, you know, looking back to previous administrations. They should have done more, right? And so as so many people in this country are certainly outraged by the cages, and the thermal blankets, and the facilities housing these kids, you know, they were all there in 2014 under President Obama. And my question to you, Senator Baldwin, is did you speak up against them then?
Senator Baldwin bumbled and dodged: "You know, on the, on this issue that we get into a moment where we're making progress and then when it, uh, when it stalls, we turn around. I think we all need to continue to be focused on it and press it through. The American people need confidence that we can solve problems. Nobody believes that we have an immigration system that works. It is broken. It needs fixing. And we've just got to resolve to do that."
CNN's Baldwin returned to the original question: "But were you worried about it then? Did you raise your voice under the Obama Administration?"
Maybe in personal communication, the senator suggested (not in the press). "You know, in numbers of cases, usually, I remember a constituent who was in detention at the border, arguably very inappropriately," Sen. Baldwin replied. "And, we, you know, we raised our voice in that instance and many others. But that's, we've got to do this now in unison. It's not enough to do it case by case for a Senator or a House member by House member. We've got to resolve to fix this issue."
Democrats are not going to sing"in unison" with Donald Trump, any more than CNN would. But whatever diverts the viewer's attention from what the Democrats did or said on immigration in 2014 will do.
Sharyl Attkisson is a New York Times bestselling author and host of the weekly Sunday public affairs program, Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson. An investigative journalist, Sharyl has worked for CBS News and also as a foreign correspondent for CNN. She is a multi-award winning writer.
In 2017, she published The Smear: How Shady Political Operatives and Fake News Control What You See, What You Think, and How You Vote. Which dissected the origins of the now infamous fake news term. In an exclusive interview she explains how fake news is a propaganda phrase invented by the left that was eventually co''opted by Donald Trump.
Listen to the full interview in our weekly Newsvoice Think podcast.
According to Attkisson, the research that she carried out for her book to source the provenance of the term fake news led her to a non''profit organisation funded by Google whose parent company; Alphabet, was at the time chaired by Eric Schmidt. Schmidt was one of Hillary Clinton's top campaign strategists and donors during Clinton's 2016 presidential run.
''A smear artist told me that nearly every image that crosses your path on a daily basis whether it's on the news, on a billboard or on a late night comedy show. All of it was put there for a reason, often by someone who paid a lot of money for it to be there.''
Attkisson is scathing of PR and law firms for ''forwarding one narrative or one idea'' which are rooted in political causes and often undisclosed.
She told Newsvoice that ''the smear industry'' is a multi-billion industry, that looks to target personalities or those with dissenting voices that the establishment wishes to shut down.
Journalists globally have been facing attack from their own governments and officials for just doing their job. Almost on a daily basis we hear of the jailing of journalists in countries like Turkey and China with a total of 262 imprisoned globally in 2017.
Sharyl Attkisson told Newsvoice that she too has been subjected to privacy violations at the hands of the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice. She explains the forensic evidence uncovered in the case, and her ongoing battle for justice.
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You can read more about Sharyl's work at https://sharylattkisson.com/
With Newsvoice, you can be a part of the media. Our mission is to democratize the news, and move the power over to our readers. Get involved by downloading the app, or visit us at Newsvoice.com.
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Here is the full color from Atkisson et al. of how the left invented "Fake News"...
In a recent Tedx talk at the University of Nevada, investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson revealed some of the earliest efforts to seed the phrase "fake news" into the public lexicon by a little nonprofit group funded in part by George Soros' Open Society Foundation and Google.
The group, "First Draft," announced a partnership on September 13, 2016 "to tackle malicious hoaxes and fake news reports," said Attkisson. "The goal was supposedly to separate wheat from chaff, to prevent unproven conspiracy talk from figuring prominently in internet searches. To relegate today's version of the alien baby story to a special internet oblivion."
First Draft '' a project of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government '' uses research-based methods to fight mis- and disinformation online. Additionally, it provides practical and ethical guidance in how to find, verify and publish content sourced from the social web.
Claire Wardle, Research Fellow at the Center, leads the work of First Draft under the auspices of the Shorenstein Center and its faculty director, Nicco Mele. Grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Open Society Foundation and the Ford Foundation support our work. -First Draft
A month after First Draft began its September campaign against "Fake News," President Obama opined on the topic.
"He insisted in a speech that he too thought somebody needed to step in and curate information of this wild, wild west media environment," said Attkisson, noting that "nobody in the public had been clamoring for any such thing."
Attkisson was suspicious that Obama's decree served as marching orders to the MSM - suggesting that "few themes arise in our environment organically," and to "follow the money."
"What if the whole anti-fake news campaign was an effort on somebody's part to keep us from seeing or believing certain websites and stories by controversializing them or labeling them as fake news?" suggested Attkisson.
Meanwhile, another major donor behind First Draft's "fake news" push was none other than Google parent company CEO Eric Schmidt - a giant Hillary Clinton supporter who "offered himself up as a campaign advisor and became a top multi-million donor to it," said Attkisson, adding "His company funded First Draft around the start of the election cycle."
And almost as if choreographed, Hillary Clinton jumped on the Fake News bandwagon while her "surrogate David Brock of Media Matters privately told donors he was the one who convinced Facebook to join the effort."
"The whole thing smacked of the roll-out of a propaganda campaign," said Attkisson.
All of the sudden, "Fake News" was everywhere:
Hostile Takeover
It wouldn't be long before the left lost control of their new pet phrase they worked so hard to promote:
"But something happened that nobody expected. The anti-fake news campaign backfired. Each time advocates cried fake news, Donald Trump called them 'fake news' until he'd co-opted the term so completely that even those who [were] originally promoting it started running from it -- including the Washington Post," which she noted later backed away from using the term. -PJ Media
Indeed, the Washington Post grew so frustrated with the fact that "Fake News" had been co-opted by conservatives that they called for its retirement in January 2017!
'...though the term hasn't been around long, its meaning already is lost. Faster than you could say ''Pizzagate,'' the label has been co-opted to mean any number of completely different things: Liberal claptrap. Or opinion from left-of-center. Or simply anything in the realm of news that the observer doesn't like to hear. ''WaPo
Which is ironic, considering that the Washington Post was instrumental in propagating the phrase as early as April, 2016 - even before First Draft's September campaign.
Timeline of "Fake News" before it went hyperbolic in October, 2016 (in other words, the "seeding" campaign).
April 2nd, 2016: A search for ''Fake News'' sorted by relevance (Google's default) for results prior to 10/29/0216 reveals the earliest instance of the phrase coming from a Washington Post Expos(C) about a pro-Trump website.
Searching for ''Fake News'' by date vs. relevance:
April 11th, Buzzfeed stokes the fire by following up on Facebook's 2015 commitment to eliminate hoaxes. Interestingly, Facebook doesn't use the phrase "fake news" in their 2015 campaign, yet BuzzFeed applies it in April - long before its mainstream application.
September 2nd, less than two weeks after First Draft's campaign, factcheck.org uses the phrase ''Fake News'' to refer to a false story about President Obama banning the pledge of allegiance in public schools.
October 5th, The Guardian reports that Buzzfeed was allegedly hacked on October 5th by a Saudi teen named Ahmad Makki, who defaced the Buzzfeed website with a message that read ''Don't share fake news about us.'' Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg was hacked by the same ''Fake News'' hackers.
In fact, a whole bunch of tech CEO's and celebrities were apparently hacked by ''fake news'' Ahmad Makki, who conspicuously shares the same name as a famous Pro-Assad blogger who was [nsfw] murdered brought to justice by the Free Syrian Army (the rebels Hillary planned to support in toppling Assad).
October 7th, two days after The Guardian story, buzzfeed turns around and posts a story about a ''Fake Hillary Clinton Speech Transcript'' emanating from a ''fake news'' website.
October 8th, Snopes gets in on the Fake News action:
October 13th, liberal Vanity Fair rehashes the Facebook ''Fake News'' story, which Facebook later put together a new and improved ''task force'' to deal with:
October 19th, our old friends at the Washington Post jump into the fray once again:
Closer to the election '' Facebook Fact Checker Politifact uses the phrase ''FAKE NEWS'' in an October 23rd piece, while after the election, Facebook and Google (re?) declare WAR on Fake News.
November 17th, WaPo publishes a story from a ''Facebook fake-news writer'' who thinks he got Trump elected by spreading fake news.
December 9th, Hillary Clinton gives her ''Fake News'' speech in her most victimy purple pantsuit - the same day propaganda seed-planting Buzzfeed was caught citing fake data in their fake news story.
So there you have it '' the carefully woven phrase ''Fake News'' was simply propaganda trotted out by Hillary Clinton supporters and the MSM to try and discredit non-approved sources of information, only to collapse under the weight of their inability to effectively message, and the fact that Donald Trump - a master at public opinion, co-opted the phrase and made it his own.
VIDEO - Fox News on Twitter: "Cybersecurity coordinator under Obama confirms 'stand down' order https://t.co/EDRxP1XPRq"
@101ARBNVET @FoxNews Obama gave his two terms . Great two terms !
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@FoxNews Yeah...known Trump network tactic...throw in some blame Obama rhetoric to divert attention to the fact this whole administration are just a bunch of racist religious bigots with no respect for any human life and are only interested in money and power...
@imaroland @FoxNews This was testimony at a hearing...how does Fox covering it mean/make a difference. Or did CNN/MSNBC not mention it and therefore you think this must have never taken place. Im confused.
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VIDEO - Global warming, now brought to you by your local TV weathercaster
''It's just scientific fact. And the more it gets talked about, the more it's normalized,'' LaPointe said. ''It gets into people's heads and it's not this political albatross that it could be.''
LaPointe's journey has been repeated by many of his peers across America. The friendly neighborhood meteorologist '-- found in a 2010 poll to be more skeptical than the general public about global warming '-- has rapidly evolved to not only accept climate change but to share the news with audiences in hundreds of U.S. television markets.
Key to the shift has been Climate Central, the nonprofit that helped school LaPointe. The Princeton, New Jersey-based organization sponsors classes and webinars for meteorologists and also shares real-time data and graphics with TV stations. The group has reached more than 500 local TV weathercasters '-- about a quarter of those working in the U.S. '-- since it started its ''Climate Matters'' education program in 2012, and it is expanding this week to a wider group of journalists.
So far, the efforts have paid off. The number of stories on global warming by television weather people has increased 15-fold over five years, according to data from the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University. If the trend continues this year, there will be more than a thousand stories that touch on climate delivered during local TV weathercasts, up from just 55 such climate stories in 2012.
The inroads with meteorologists are particularly significant because local TV news remains the top source of news for most Americans. And George Mason surveys have shown that when it comes to climate issues, the public trusts their familiar local TV personalities more than anyone, other than scientists and family members.
Most Americans don't know a scientist, and their loved ones probably don't know much about long-term climate dynamics, said Ed Maibach, the climate change center's director. ''So we immediately saw the potential with weather people,'' he said, ''and helping them to do the job of putting extreme weather in context.''
Why weather forecasters are an important part of climate messagingWhile 70 percent of Americans now accept that global warming is occurring, and 58 percent agree that it is mostly caused by human activities, most people still don't express urgency about the problem. It's not listed as a pressing issue by most voters and just 39 percent believe that climate change is causing harm right now, according to a March George Mason survey of 1,278 adults.
''To most people this is distant in time, distant in space, distant in species,'' said Susan Hassol, who has been working in climate communications for three decades. ''We say, 'No, it's about us, and it's local, and it's happening right now.'''
The researchers at George Mason and communications experts at Climate Central believe the big changes needed to slow global warming will happen only when citizens sense the urgency of the threat and the opportunity to make things better. Under a National Science Foundation grant, with research support from NASA and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, George Mason and Climate Central have collaborated on the Climate Matters project to get weathercasters to report on global warming.
''There are still not enough people telling that story, of what climate change means to me and what it means to the community,'' said Bernadette Woods Placky, Climate Central's director and a former TV weathercaster. ''It's time to move beyond the question of 'Is climate change happening?' to the question 'What does climate change mean to me?'''
Bernadette Woods Placky, executive director of Climate Central, helps TV weathercasters report on global warming. Courtesy Climate CentralIt was just eight years ago that the George Mason climate group surveyed 571 weathercasters and found that only about half believed in global warming, while one-quarter said it was ''a scam.'' The dim view of climate science, coming from some of the people most likely to talk to the public about it, made the front page of The New York Times.
The divide between TV meteorologists and climate scientists may have been exacerbated by differences in education, some experts believed. Meteorologists generally hold bachelor's degrees and work with short-term data to project weather over a week or two. Research scientists, usually Ph.D.s, chart trends over decades and even centuries.
By 2017, a new survey of broadcast meteorologists by George Mason found that views had shifted rapidly, with an overwhelming 95 percent saying they believed that the climate was changing. Still, some expressed misgivings about discussing the issue on the air. Roughly one quarter worried that if they raised the subject, ''the feedback from management is or would be predominantly negative,'' the survey found. Placky said TV meteorologists also tend to feel that their hands are already full, between predicting the weather and producing on-air reports, while also filing online updates and posting on social media.
Related
Many TV weather people leave discussion of climate issues for news anchors and reporters.
''It's been strictly seven-day forecasts. We talk about the weather '-- that's what people want,'' said Greg Pollak, who has worked at five stations in North Dakota, Massachusetts and New York in his eight years in the business. He said he has never been asked to tackle climate issues in any of those jobs.
''I think management probably felt it was too much of a sensitive subject to touch on,'' Pollak said of why his bosses didn't push for climate coverage, ''and maybe we would get thrown under the bus, somehow.''
How Climate Matters works with weather forecastersThe Climate Matters campaign to integrate climate information with weather reporting started with a 2010 pilot program, featuring South Carolina meteorologist Jim Gandy. ''I told them: 'I don't live in a red state. I live in a dark red state,''' Gandy recalled. ''And I said, 'If you can talk climate change here, you can talk it anywhere.'''
Contrary to fears that viewers in the conservative state might be turned off by Gandy's reports, a review found that viewers knew more about climate change after seeing his stories. And ratings for the overall newscasts on his station, CBS affiliate WLTX in Columbia, increased, though it is impossible to know if the jump was connected to Gandy's reporting.
''But in my mind it smashed the idea you can't talk about climate change because you will turn people off,'' said Gandy, 65, who has been on the air for more than 40 years.
Climate Central now routinely provides local climate information for 244 cities in the U.S., said Placky, the group's director. Meteorologists can plug their city into a Climate Matters search page and find analysis of local climate impacts '-- often backed by NOAA and NASA experts, along with ready-for-air charts and graphics.
The results of the pre-packaged material can be seen across the country. LaPointe recently stood in front of a Climate Central chart showing how average temperatures in upstate New York had jumped 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit, on average, over the last three decades. An NBC affiliate in Connecticut displayed a Climate Central chart depicting a 20-day increase in frost-free weather annually and, thus, in the length of allergy season. And multiple stations used the organization's data on how higher temperatures and humidity had lengthened the mosquito season.
"It's time to move beyond the question of 'Is climate change happening?'"
Climate Central has gotten creative in providing fodder for climate talk. On St. Patrick's Day, 18 stations used the group's research for reports on how warming temperatures might affect the beer industry. The reports suggested barley costs could go up because of more frequent droughts, while hops could taste different if farmers shift away from scarcer surface water to supplies pumped from underground. (The report acknowledged these changes have not yet occurred.)
Anthony Yanez, a meteorologist at KNBC in Los Angeles, said he saw the wave of stations across the country offering reports on the potential climate-beer connection, and he credited Climate Central. ''They have information that's easy to get, easy to use and that gets right into the local market,'' said Yanez, who recently produced a segment on the increased wildfire threat, tying it to global warming.
The logistical help is particularly welcome in an era when local TV news operations have sustained staff reductions, said Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute, a think tank on sustainable journalism practices.
Rosenstiel said there's no problem with news organizations using data and graphics from groups like Climate Central, as long as outlets know the source of the information and report it clearly to viewers. ''The stations still need to be gatekeepers, assuring that the information is good and that their audience knows where it's coming from,'' Rosenstiel said.
Related
The Climate Matters program has been successful enough with forecasters that organizers are expanding it this week to workshops for other journalists. The first training is being held for print and radio reporters at the University of South Carolina, with four more sessions planned around the country through November.
LaPointe said he has run into no opposition as he has increasingly folded climate reporting into his weather forecasts, including from the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the conservative-leaning company that owns his upstate New York station. ''There is zero pushback. Nobody has said 'You can't do this.' Nobody has said 'You cannot say this,''' LaPointe said.
''This is all based on science and on fact,'' LaPointe added, ''and on the idea that it can help us to make better decisions and elect better people and implement the policy changes we need to turn this thing around.''
VIDEO - Sen. James Lankford on Twitter: "From today's Intel hearing on Russian interference: ' Russia will probably try again ' Other nations learned from their success ' Fake trolls & bots are still active ' Fed gov't, states & indust
pic.twitter.com/ZTbE1lRcJn View conversation · grab them by the midterms @ JenniferArrow
7h Replying to
@SenatorLankford I didn't like you at first, Senator, but because of your work protecting our country from Putin you've really grown on me. Thank you, sir.
View conversation · Emily A. @ emzorbit
6h Replying to
@SenatorLankford Also, the person Russia helped elect in the last election is still in office, traumatizing babies and toddlers.
pic.twitter.com/baZgtNK1bh View conversation · Nick Luca @ nickluca12
6h Replying to
@SenatorLankford Russia is not "trying" they are doing and I mean right now as we speak.Bots and trolls are heavily active.Going to have to move quick to fight against this. I don't see fed gov, states, industry doing much, frankly. Sadly, HRC knew what to do. *sigh*
View conversation · lizless @ lizlessner
5h Replying to
@SenatorLankford Thank you, Senator
View conversation · Carol Forden @ CarolForden
5h Replying to
@SenatorLankford You piece of sh*t.You ripped kids from parents and now WILL NOT RETURN THEM TO THEIR PARENTS
twitter.com/JaxAlemany/sta'... View conversation · Chris ''Cal'' Carnahan @ xtrixcyclex
4h Replying to
@SenatorLankford No guarantee for the GOP that they will be the beneficiaries of future espionage. This was a one off. It is in everyone's interest to stop interference on social media, in journalism, with voter data etc
View conversation · Connie C. Keys @ hotelkeys
3h Replying to
@SenatorLankford Have you met your president? He doesn't believe any of that.
View conversation · Maud Gonne @ AnnaEngelbrech5
3h Replying to
@SenatorLankford religion and environment and the absecence of to STEPPING UP AGAINST AT WHAT IS HAPPENING TO OUR COUNTRY. HC, the gap, no raises, and knowing what is eventually to come regarding our economy. Our Allies. All of this Putin, Koch, Mercers bidding.
View conversation · Maud Gonne @ AnnaEngelbrech5
3h Replying to
@SenatorLankford STAND UP TO RUSSIA and FOR AMERICA.
View conversation · Secret Derp State Society ðð½ðºð¸ @ TurtlesgaloreMR
3h Replying to
@SenatorLankford @Vanadia Fake trolls and Russian bots, a.k.a., accounts that are impossible to discern from actual trump voters. smh
@SenatorLankford Senator lankford how do you deal with the right wing media led by the president trying to convince 40% of the country that this is a hoax. Isn't that a violation of his oath of office making your job harder?
@SenatorLankford And since you know it IS a violation of his oath of office, why are you and your fellows in the house not bringing impeachment?
View conversation · ''ð¾ A Rod ''ð¾ @ virtualhispanic
3h Replying to
@SenatorLankford @WhiteHouse @realDonaldTrump And that the
@WhiteHouse /
@realDonaldTrump did nothing about it and plan on doing nothing?
View conversation · Eric @ EricInAdelaide
3h Replying to
@SenatorLankford @jaketapper But'... but'... NO COLLUSION!:)
View conversation · Chris Lee @ Chris_Lee_Cal
3h Replying to
@SenatorLankford Thanks for having a hearing. What are you going to do about it? Also, are you going to stand against purging registered voters from voter rolls?
View conversation · Andrey Davydov @ FarEasterner
3h Replying to
@SenatorLankford @dburbach Victoria Nuland supported literally Nazis who still rampaging sacking Gypsy camps
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VIDEO - 'Fascist Pig!' '-- Chanting Socialists Chase DHS Secretary Nielsen Out Of Mexican Restaurant | The Daily Caller
Members of the local DC Democratic Socialists of America group confronted Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen at a Mexican restaurant Tuesday evening.
''We're in downtown DC disrupting DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen's dinner at MXDC,'' the group wrote below the video on its Facebook page. ''The irony isn't lost on us that this is a Mexican restaurant. Nielsen has led the program to tell her to put an end to separating families, to step down as head of the department, and that ICE and CBP must be abolished #abolishICE #abolishCBP''
The video shows members of the group standing and shouting various slogans at Nielsen and a companion while security stands at her table. Here's a run down of several of the most popular:
''Shame! Shame! '... ''
''If kids don't eat in peace, you don't eat in peace.''
''Not in the U.S., not in D.C.'' (RELATED: DHS Sec Nielsen Defends Trump Administration's Migrant Policies From 'Irresponsible And Unproductive' Press)
''In a Mexican restaurant, of all places,'' one woman said. ''The f*ing gall. Shame on you. Shame Shame Shame Fascist pig!''
''No human being is illegal.''
''Abolish ICE.''
''Kirstjen Nielsen you're a villain. Locking up innocent children.''
''Shame on Nielsen. Shame on Trump.''
''Sanctuary for all. No borders no walls.''
''End Texas concentration camps.''
''We're here tonight because DSH Secretary Nielsen is sitting right over there trying to enjoy dinner as over 10,000 children have been ripped away from their parent's arms,'' a man said. ''So we say you can't enjoy your dinner until you reunite all those families and abolish ICE.'' (RELATED: Tucker Exposes 'Ruling Class' Behind Border Policy Uproar: 'Their Goal Is To Change Your Country Forever')
Nielsen eventually left with a companion and security. Slate's Osita Nwanevu reported that she was ''driven out'' by ''activists.''
DHS Secretary Nielsen just got driven out of a Mexican restaurant here on 14th Street by activists. DSA, I believe. pic.twitter.com/lTKutryXBO
'-- Osita Nwanevu (@OsitaNwanevu) June 20, 2018
Metro DC released a statement following the incident on Tuesday night:
Statement on tonight's protest.https://t.co/TUH8JyImBG#AbolishICE #AbolishCBP #FamiliesBelongTogether pic.twitter.com/v8XmjeP9Rt
'-- Metro DC DSA (@mdc_dsa) June 20, 2018
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VIDEO - IN THE NOW on Twitter: "Hillary Clinton weighs in on this summer's hottest hot-button issue. It's officialy flip-flop season!'... "
Log in Sign up TODAY @ TODAYshow Pope Francis has spoken out about migrant family separation. @stephruhle has the latest.
pic.twitter.com/Cdujv7HSJE 4:58 AM - 20 Jun 2018 Twitter by: TODAY @TODAYshow Josh.Sazer @ majorsazer
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@TODAYshow Good thing!
View conversation · Kathy A Masiello @ KAMasiello
22m Replying to
@TODAYshow Families have been separated for years in this country when their PARENTS Break the Law. Some go home an others go into the system for years. This is nothing new!! The Media has whipped up this emotional frenzy!
View conversation · John Five @ myteledeluxe
22m Replying to
@TODAYshow pic.twitter.com/1ARpLrDdvP View conversation · Mark Larkin @ RefandUmpTravel
20m Replying to
@TODAYshow Did you ask them/him their opinion on abortion?
View conversation · Glenda Ely @ glendabelle_11
17m Replying to
@TODAYshow Why can't CONGRESS DO THEIR JOB! It is CONGRESS NOT THE PRESIDENT that makes the laws! The President will enforce the laws!
View conversation · Diana Prince @ lovinglife0725
10m Replying to
@TODAYshow To recap: goes with narrative, Christianity is good; goes against our narrative, Christianity bad. These pesky news cycles!
View conversation · Modern Activism @ modernactivism
27s Replying to
@TODAYshow Pope Francis' Dark Past As Agent of U.S.-Backed Argentine Military Junta
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VIDEO - TODAY on Twitter: "''I don't believe it. I think it's all a big lie'... I don't think that the people who are so-called being separated are what the news is portraying them to be.'' Evangelicals talk to @SRuhle about the immigration crisis
Log in Sign up TODAY @ TODAYshow ''I don't believe it. I think it's all a big lie'... I don't think that the people who are so-called being separated are what the news is portraying them to be.'' Evangelicals talk to
@SRuhle about the immigration crisis
pic.twitter.com/OUuTdT3ht6 4:48 AM - 20 Jun 2018 Twitter by: TODAY @TODAYshow I Am NikkiFree @ iamnikkifree
23m Replying to
@TODAYshow @SRuhle This is disgusting and white supremacy at its finest. Evangelical preachers justified slavery too.
@TODAYshow @SRuhle Unbelievable!! Is this really what Jesus would do??
View conversation · Matthew Gellert @ MatthewGellert
6m Replying to
@TODAYshow @SRuhle @realDonaldTrump You think this way of thinking has anything to do with the entire
@realDonaldTrump administration telkbg Americans to not believe the press?
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VIDEO - TODAY on Twitter: "''As of this morning, 2,600 flights have been canceled since last Thursday stemming from two computer glitches.'' One angry passenger reportedly smashed a window in frustration, @tomcostellonbc reports https://t.co/DUGnEgCeNf"
''As of this morning, 2,600 flights have been canceled since last Thursday stemming from two computer glitches.'' One angry passenger reportedly smashed a window in frustration,
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow just couldn't bear to read the words in front of her on Tuesday's show.
The words were from an AP story on the separation of children from their families at the nation's border.
The story reads, in part:
Trump administration officials have been sending babies and other young children forcibly separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border to at least three ''tender age'' shelters in South Texas, The Associated Press has learned.Lawyers and medical providers who have visited the Rio Grande Valley shelters described play rooms of crying preschool-age children in crisis. The government also plans to open a fourth shelter to house hundreds of young migrant children in Houston, where city leaders denounced the move Tuesday.Since the White House announced its zero tolerance policy in early May, more than 2,300 children have been taken from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, resulting in a new influx of young children requiring government care. The government has faced withering critiques over images of some of the children in cages inside U.S. Border Patrol processing stations.
Maddow understandably couldn't keep it together and eventually asked for a graphic so that it could be shown to their readers so they could read it themselves.
When that didn't work, she attempted to soldier on, with tears in her eyes and a waver in her voice.
Afterward, she took to Twitter to apologize for showing emotion.
''Ugh, I'm sorry. If nothing else, it is my job to actually be able to speak while I'm on TV,'' she wrote. Then, after concluding what she was trying to say, she added: ''Again, I apologize for losing it there for a moment. Not the way I intended that to go, not by a mile.''
Watch above, via MSNBC.
[image via screengrab]
VIDEO - NBC News on Twitter: "UN Human Rights commissioner: "In the United States, I'm deeply concerned by recently adopted policies which punish children for their parents' actions ... The thought that any State would seek to deter parents by inflictin
Jun 18 Dear UN. Please help us eliminate our dictator now. We are heading toward 1930s Germany against all brown and black people in our case. Russia is pushing our separation as a nation as well. The world must stand against the US. I'm a US Army veteran.
Jun 18 Help us! American citizens do not know what to do! We can vote, sure. Months from now. We can protest, we can complain online but we need real action by those who are put in place to make sure these sorts of inhumane atrocities do not happen!
View conversation · Enter a topic, @name, or fullname
The online shopping giant revealed that it will soon put Echo smart speakers equipped with the virtual assistant Alexa in thousands of hotel rooms. The participating chains include Marriott, Westin, St. Regis and Aloft Hotels. NBC's Jo Ling Kent reports on the potential privacy concerns some have, as well as Amazon's response.
VIDEO - 5 ways Kirstjen Nielsen's press conference on family separation policy was a total disaster - CNNPolitics
(CNN)Faced with a burgeoning political, policy and human rights crisis on the country's southern border, the White House turned to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to quiet the firestorm.
It didn't work. At all.
Nielsen, a protege of White House chief of staff John Kelly and a hardliner on immigration along the lines of President Donald Trump, tried and failed -- badly -- to explain why the forced separation of families trying to enter the country illegally was, well, not the Trump administration's fault.
There was a lot wrong with what Nielsen said -- and how she said it. Here are five things (and you can see the full transcript
here):
1. She offered a technical response to a deeply emotional issue
From the start, Nielsen was all facts and figures -- all aimed at making the case that family unit arrivals, particularly from Central America, have soared in recent years. (She's right;
they have.) But this is not a purely numbers issue. It's an emotional one too. It's about seeing little kids taken from their parents and wondering how your son or daughter would react in that situation. Hearing the cries of small children desperate to find someone -- anyone -- who can take them to a relative. This issue isn't just about dry policy-making. It's about people too. And Nielsen never even nodded to that fact.
2. She kept saying only Congress could fix it
Nope! To be clear: If Trump wanted to stop the
"zero-tolerance" policy that had led to the rapid increase in children being separated from their families, he could. He could simply make clear to DHS officials that they should not refer every single person who tries to enter the country illegally for prosecution.
What is Nielsen talking about then? She is using the current family separation crisis as a way to argue that Democrats need to give Trump what he wants on funding for the border wall. So yes, Congress could address the issue of family separation as part of a broader bill dealing with financing for border security measures.
But, Trump could also simply call off the "zero-tolerance" policy.
3. She kept talking about how the administration had no choice but to enforce the law
On its face, this argument makes perfect sense. How can we have a country if we don't have laws and if we don't enforce those laws? "Our policy at DHS is to do what we're sworn to do, which is to enforce the law," Nielsen said.
But discretion in how laws are enforced is essential in all sorts of areas. If you are going 57 miles an hour in a 55 mile per hour zone, you are technically breaking the law and should be penalized. But very few cops pull people over for going two miles an hour over the speed limit. There are a million other examples where the law says one thing but it is enforced in a way that doesn't follow the letter of the law.
The idea that Nielsen, DHS and the broader Trump administration has no choice but to separate these families is ludicrous.
4. She feigned ignorance about the photos of children in cages
Here's Nielsen's full response when asked about the pictures:
"I have -- I have not seen something that came out today but I have been to detention centers and, again, I would reference you to our standards and I would reference you to the care provided not just by the Department of Homeland Security, but by the Department of Health and Human Services when they get to H.H.S."
I mean, come on. She hasn't seen any of those photos? Has she spent the last 96 hours on a neighboring planet?
5. She blamed the families for creating a false narrative
After Nielsen claimed, repeatedly, that she had not seen the widely circulated photos of children being kept in cages, she then said that the photos were being selectively chosen to tell only one side of the story.
Here's her quote:
"I think that they reflect the focus of those who post such pictures and narratives. The narratives we don't see are the narratives of the crime, of the opioids, of the smugglers, of who are people killed by gang members, of American children who are recruited and then when they lose the drugs they're tased and beaten."
I don't think that's why people are posting photos, Secretary Nielsen.
VIDEO - USA NEWS on Twitter: "EVERYTHING ONE NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT OBAMA FBI/DOJ FALSELY EXONERATING CLINTON WHILE TARGETING TRUMPð Lindsey Graham sir, we are so proud of you! This was one of the most courageous, common sense statements seen on behalf of
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VIDEO - Kyle Griffin on Twitter: "Jeff Sessions says that Trump's family separation policies are not like Nazi Germany because Nazis "were keeping the Jews from leaving." (via Fox) https://t.co/KDkd3xMPBw"
WHO Recognizes Gaming Disorder As A Mental Health Condition Gaming disorder, as in video games, is now an official mental health condition, according to the World Health Organization. But the idea of technology addiction is still controversial.
WHO Recognizes Gaming Disorder As A Mental Health Condition Download Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/621269712/621269713" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Gaming disorder, as in video games, is now an official mental health condition, according to the World Health Organization. But the idea of technology addiction is still controversial.
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The city of Austin, Austin police and many community groups will launch their second phase of major changes to address homelessness downtown Monday.
After the first phase ended on Friday, Austin is starting a second 30-day trial in an effort to make sure that the people who need resources in downtown Austin are the ones actually being connected with services.
The first phase of this effort started on Aug. 15 as a 30-day pilot program to cut down on crime, eliminate overcrowding and help bring homeless individuals there to long-term housing.
Ann Howard, executive director for the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO) in Austin, explained that there are hundreds of homeless individuals staying in Austin and Travis County and roughly 50-75 people who sleep outside Austin's Resource Center of the Homeless (ARCH) every night. Howard and the coalition now know more than ever about who these people are and what they need thanks to the data they've been tracking over the last month.
Using that data, they've identified by name, 75 people who regularly stay in the area near the ARCH. More than half of those people are men, 22 have housing plans, 20 sleep at shelters, and 45 of them use services at the ARCH during the day. On average, 166 people sleep at the ARCH every night, all of them men. The Salvation Army houses around 250 people each night including men, women and children.
During the first trial period, the coalition was able to transition two of those 75 people into leases with permanent supportive housing.
Starting Monday, free meal services will change downtown. During the first month, meal services at Caritas of Austin were streamlined into the ARCH and made only available to people who were actively receiving services at the ARCH. On Monday, those free lunches will be moved back to Caritas across the street and made available to anyone who needs it. The ARCH will provide a light breakfast and an evening meal for clients there. Salvation Army will continue their new effort to offer three meals per day.
Howard said people staying around the ARCH told service providers that they were overwhelmingly happy with the new police presence there. The coalition also plans to continue the cleaning efforts in the area and maintain the new port-a-potties there. The streets near the ARCH are visibly cleaner and less crowded than they were a month ago.
Howard explained that most of the long-term housing programs are already full, meaning that Austin will need more funds to transition everyone living on the streets to long-term housing. She would like to see the type of public and private sector support given to Harvey evacuees in Austin extended to the homeless community as well.
"Within days we have temporary shelter, it's got staffing, it's funded, there's food, there's air conditioning, there's brand new cots," she said of the shelter provided for evacuees in Austin. "So we are challenged as a community, how do we every day deal with the crisis of homelessness as if it is a crisis in a natural disaster? For the people experiencing homelessness, it is a disaster."
During the first pilot, two Austin police officers were staffed outside the ARCH at all hours.
"Unfortunately the police will need to scale back their presence there because it's been funded through over time but it's proven to be quite costly," explained Mayor Pro tem Kathie Tovo. "That was a disappointment but they are committed to trying to keep as much presence there for as many hours as possible."
To her understanding, APD will have a regular post near the ARCH, but officers there may be diverted to other calls if they're needed.
Tovo noted that APD has helped Austin's homeless to get more resources in the past month by targeting drug dealers who have increasingly traveled into downtown to prey on the homeless.
Overall, Tovo believes the program has been enormously successful so far. In order to move forward, Tovo said these efforts need more funding.
"We do have a lot of individuals in this community who have sought out searches who have done what they needed to do to complete the process of providing their information, but we simply don't have enough funding to provide those case management services to those individuals," she said.
Adrian Westmoreland, who is now staying at the Salvation Army with his 11-year-old son, said the changes downtown are obvious.
"It's changed a lot, they've cleaned up a lot of the area where drugs were at -- which is a good thing," Westmoreland noted.
Westmoreland first spoke with KXAN in early August, at that time he and his son had been homeless since December when his wife died.
"We just went downhill, it was like everyone was against us, it seemed like we were going nowhere fast," he said.
In early August he couldn't find a job, his son was not enrolled in school, and they were sleeping on the streets.
Since the program has been in place, Westmoreland found a job, he and his son have a place to stay and eat, and his son is happily enrolled in sixth grade.
He agrees with the city's efforts to focus more on long-term housing for the people near the ARCH, but also adds that other services will have to come with the housing
"I think the long-term housing is great, but a lot of [the people near the ARCH] have problems, drug problems and mental problems," he said. "Before they can receive longer-term housing. I believe that they need help getting over whatever that addiction is or whatever problem they are having mentally."
Machine guns in space Adam Curry Chelsea divorce Has No Agenda watching Everybody. Guess what? I found my torrents torrent C Dvorak one of those things that it's just not that easy to misplace. You would think the thing weighs a ton. That's what I'm saying. It's it's a turntable or is it clothing piled on top of it now, it was stuffed in an obscure closet does never use someone cleaning up one day on one.
Yeah, she Who Shall Not Be Named but it's definitely a she and there was that because I've got I've been collecting not to an extreme. I'm not like nuts, but I've been collecting for the archives some of those $78 if I see Pop sample know, I'd like to collect his albums. I'd like to 78 albums which are a big giant kind of lights out of box, but it's just kind of this weird using has about eight records, maybe more inside and there for Broadway show tunes.
Oh, no interest you get to collect from the twenties and thirties that never got released. They just do the show again. And that that's the album that comes out so you don't get to hear the original stuff from the thirties, especially but I had couldn't I can't play any of these things because I haven't gathered they can do it seventy-eight. So the storage does but that's always also has four speeds.
What's what's oh is 16. Yes. Yeah. Yeah half the day have a bunch of I collected 16 RPM hypnosis record you realize there's a whole bunch of people who are listening to this program. Now what I'm saying?
1678 what? What are these esoteric numbers? Let's people don't know what I'm talkin about as originally records came out at 78 RPM and then of course we've developed or the 33 is 30 45 or mess which dominate now they don't dominate at all cuz everything's to CD but where they seventy-eight RPM and why weren't I mean it's not like the technology to slow it down was that hard but why do they start with such a high RPM to start with they get they couldn't get to Fidelity up high enough? Okay. Okay see I mean, it's just the nature of like a new mechanical record has their hand with issue. Basically. Yeah. Yeah and go ahead 16 is is more or less than $96 or $48, you know the real low. No, no, no. No, it's the Flack. It's the Flack of the in-laws were like the black because it's not is very law see. Oh, okay. What were the Village Voice? It's only voice. Will you have these I've never heard.
These records are now. I know I know it's the gp3.
Remember that that format the cell phone or not? Yeah, I think I don't like GSM something. Anyways this very
Compressed so they have a yeah. I have one. I have one experience with 78 records, which briefly my parents had a whole stack of whom not in jackets just stacked on top of each other and I think I've talked about that old furniture piece. We had where the turntable was in the middle down a little bit and you lifted up the lid and you put the record on and I look at all. Yeah, I pick up the stack of 78s. Not really. I don't have six or seven years old and you know because of course they were they weren't aligned perfectly all the edges broke off. Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly the sound of my parents made to
I record tackling. Well, there was quite a lot of stuff to look at the the past few days. I was watching a lot of C-SPAN.
Initially the hearings about about the o i d o o g o m g or with Jerry Norway has the Horwitz hearings, which is really just a spot for everybody to you know, as always just, you know, can't under and posture and Signal virtue. Yeah. It wasn't really anything great to get out of it, you know, cuz at one foot from the whole thing you got one. Yeah. There's a douchebag named Raskin. It was I think it's the Democrats, you know, the things were able to get to the bottom of the conclusions and to kind of bring out some of the details that they may have did not have had service. So the Democrats weren't interested in this because as far as they're concerned, this was supposed to be about the Hillary nothing Burger.
about the Hillary invest investigations and so you end up with a
A bunch of disinterested Democrats in here. I'll say it has to do with the Russian. But but do the other one went into what about the Russians the other ones that Rask and had to say that you don't forget. This was a hearing on the Hillary email them inspired the gentleman from Maryland Professor risk Mister Sherman. Thank you very much committee seems lost in the forest today. A lot of my constituents are baffled. Why the moment when the US government is separating thousands of children and parents at the Border in a way that threatens to make us an international Pariah the Judiciary Committee and oversight committee are doing nothing about this Scandal as policy but rather seems stuck in a time-warp doing another investigation into an investigation into an investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails just before the I think the first hearing started they were there are protesters of the kids in cages with their kids, you know, it was crying kids, you know.
It's like this is this one's Children sound like Signs and they had to be removed before they could start and it has some other douchebag honey around kids as they were making ourselves International Pariah. Hello. Give me a right to know what's going on in Europe with all this guy's dropping dead in the water on boats overturning and all the rest of it. Details. Nobody cares what I might take away from just two days of testimony was here's what I think happened with Comey, you know call me was clearly complicit in in trying to make sure that there was no friction for Hillary Clinton to win. And so we have the first statement, you know, the the change from gross negligence to man that was careless and as time progressed than we had about a week before the election only sees the writing on the wall. Holy crap Trump is going to win. I'm going to jail.
And that's why he's oh yeah some more emails. We're still doing some stuff. It was cover your ass time. That's the way I see it. Well, the other interpretation would be just the opposite. Okay, and I'll it could have been this way. I still say was cover your ass, but it could have been like he could have been thinking like this because I don't know anybody at that point a couple of weeks before the election that's felt that Trump was going to win it would look more and more clear that Hillary was going to win. So he said well I should do this because it's not going to make any difference. She's going to win. She's going to kick ass. She's going to everyone says she's going to win so she's going to his so I can do this without anybody worrying about it. And then if anyone brings it up afterwards cuz we did reopen it then I'm clear. I'm covered so he's covering his ass. You got that part, right? I think the other person wrong.
I'm not quite sure then what was the use that you saw Dido? God Trump's going to win? There's no doubt about it. I don't think that's true. There was no evidence that Trump was going to win to anybody especially somebody in government like Call Me Maybe he knew something. We didn't know, you know anything there on the sounds of it either explanation, but still cover your ass is no doubt about that a couple of other things. Oh, I learned from one of our producers that you know bitching about the the full disclosure of the text. I said, there's no Emoji. So you really don't have context around it. If you he point it out to me. If you look at the the printed versions of the emails emojis are actually there in unicode.
So it would take any you can I guess you can bring the Unicode codes and then the Emoji will show up, you know, which one it was but someone needs to do that. We need to have you know, like with all we all need them most wanted to know if there was an eggplant Emoji use it and I want to know if he every time he said trumpy but the little turd on it what the Emojis were. I think it's important to you know for the American player, you know, and it should have been put in as evidence. I mean it seems to me you don't take the emojis that's got that's part of the message. And then what else did I learn about this? I did learn that it was apparently the FBI that leaked Loretta Lynch's flight plan to Bill Clinton so he could conveniently be at the same g a terminal. She was the same time that apparently came from
From from the FBI who talked to everybody all the time. Apparently, they really don't care. That's funny that you bring that up because I never I mean The Coincidence was The Coincidence, but I never thought that the coincidence.
I never know. I probably thought it was a set of expensive. I never thought about how how it was set up and damn. I didn't even give that any thought that's very interesting. It's terrible. Actually, they would do that. Yeah. Well the FBI well, as I said on the last show every organization today all shit, you know, the government's no different. It's just bigger and less efficient than your company. We have we have a two-man Opera three Mahan. Let's say three and a half man operation even worse shit.
So it was saying about the I don't think we're that bad know now your ad but figure operations the bigger operations cuz I work for the government, you know, you you have a situation is harder to get rid of people so they stay there longer and there's a lot of people there's a lot of job padding but there are positions where there's not that much work to do, right which is kind of with anything that's going on here in California where the guy running for you have a new some running for governor. They caught him saying yeah only going once so we attended Governor now going once a week, there's really not that much to do cuz there's not that much to do in some of these positions. And so these guys I knew this for a fact of the air pollution District those guys that would just scheme against other employees and make them miserable. Yeah, and they had a lot of time to do it and I always tell people you weren't MRI Valerie off cuz there's people with time on their hands.
Yes, very dangerous. Yeah, and they have time to make your life horrible if they want to. Yeah, because they got nothing else to do.
All right. So I think the most entertaining place to be in the past few days was Twitter with a background of any news channel did matter which one because the the acting was Supreme. I saw real method acting which was very effective worked extremely. Well, I'm bought her you want to tell me that Cummings is not a method actor coming to the method actor man. That guy is good that he started he was I don't remember exactly you were joined by the legislature Cummings. Yeah, and this one this one he from South Carolina. I think he was a man. He walked across the bridge, bro.
Across the band he was run over on the bridge. I think in Selma. I think that's his claim probably happened though. He's least he started it's not that yeah. He started his I think it's before the the war which trial actually this was what he had to say about the kids in cages and I thought you know, I liked his facial expressions. I thought I had to take out some of the pauses just so we could play this and have it, you know any normal length and he was really really rapid it up and then he messes it up at the end and hasn't it now as an Entertainer. I can tell you this very very very shit. When you when you plug the punchline we sent a letter after letter letter after letter asking these committees to investigate the Trump administration's policy.
Which is now resulting in child internment camps. That's what I said child internment camps, but we've got no response look even if you believe people in it our country illegally, even if you believe they have no merit Asylum claims in their own country, even if you believe immigration should be halted entirely we all should be able to agree that in the United States of America. We will not intentionally separate children from their parents. We will not do that. We are better than that, Yeah. He's getting there. He's in he's got all this little memes in there. And of course we never separated Sharon's from children children for parents and Markham never missing we never do that. We are so much better. Yes, they should be able to agree.
We will not keep kids into internment camp what exactly is the difference between what you know, I should have looked this up internment camp must be a definition now, I don't think so. No, I think it's a permanent installation where you move people you you keep there for a long time. I mean like building a on any reason or other kind of depend or I know what he's what he's referring to. I'm just reading anxiety. Yeah. So he making it sound like the Japanese internment camps. Who by the way we're Americans who were in The camps they weren't different. They were not illegal aliens indefinitely and hidden away from public view. What country is that the United States of America we have had reports of parents being deported preach, but the trumpet ministration. Is he being their children here 2018
We do not need legislation is a Paula we don't need legislation see and understand this. This was a policy in visit implemented and executed by President Donald Trump another great use of a word they're executed and so in conclusion Mister chairman, we need you those children need you. I'm talkin directly to my Republican colleagues. We need you to stand up to president Club phone damn. So close. So he goes all the way because you got handed the president Clump. Oh my God directly to my Republican colleagues. We need you to send up the president Club. Trust me so fast it was right at the end too. And it was good. You know, he had the performance yet.
Preaching going on in a clump man. So we we had there were so many television events but the the back and forth and Twitter just the the hatred is something about how come back to show. I caught a clip on a as they were you all the networks are just covering this for at least the first 15 or more minutes of their newscast. They really didn't have anything new to bring you the table. So they started digging up dredging up stories and other things so I got this trip or something. There's an anomaly in here that I want to see if you can spot and when I heard it I this is about the Guatemalan. This is the interesting ABC Spotlight on the guac kid.
Leaving us with last night here. We were young boys nearly 5 in the morning and seen with his family.
immigration officials immediately separating them its father
Did it have to be honest I didn't catch it. I know I don't think anybody did this was eight months ago. Why was where was the biggest eight months ago? Well, they made it sound like this just happened to this what's going on, but this was eight. Yeah. So in other words they were doing the separation thing eight months ago. We know in a mom. Yeah, we know it was over the nerves that last show this is started years ago and it's been going on and this is a good point yet story from eight months ago and now everybody's making it only been making a fuss or what a week. Also somebody bringing it to the for him because it was well-planned I think and cultures right when she said it was it was rigged. It was a setup and that's pretty much it. It's pretty apparent. I mean, there's a lot of things planned. We have a big March taking place on the 30th. That's still going to go ahead as planned just as a background of the way. I explained it on the last
Episode cuz we don't really need to go all the way into if there's a law or a consent decree or you know, what was happening is way back when we're talking to start at eighty-seven. It was Revisited 97 again in 2016 is that kids were being put into jail cells or holding cells or internment camps, whatever you want to call it with their parents after cross the illegally and it was in in California that the District Court of Southern California. I mean, it started up this this process which eventually became the florist agreement and that said, you know, this is dangerous for the kids. You have to separate the kids from problem that from the dangers if they're in you know, they can't be in a holding cell. And so the idea was to make sure kids were safe. So kids then got separated and this has been ongoing for a long time, of course with certainly with your bomb Administration. I haven't really looked at Bush, but maybe he wasn't doing that much.
It wasn't as much as the Trump administration because as he promised zero tolerance, and then you could have seen it coming and then of course actions announced it and so then you know, there was a reason I'm sure more more kids were separated from their parents no doubt about it. And what everyone wants is what we have to we can't separate the children from the parents. That's a bad thing. So now Trump is signed an executive order which is in itself interesting because it looks like you know the first of all space where we going to put kids or anybody, you know, we're going to use army bases. It looks like but he also specifically in that executive order addresses the floor s agreement and needs permission from the southern district of California the ninth circuit, whatever it is, do you adjust or change the floors agreement and what I can tell you what's going to happen next? It will be will wait a minute now kids are with their parents. It's a dangerous situation there this this criminals it's going to be it's it's like a loop.
Which created an infinite Loop a permanent Loop so but of course, this is not really well. It's just about you know finding more way. I used to get people to go come out and vote. And in fact is starting to show up. The only way we can stop. This is the vote. That's bring out the vote vote. Oh, yes. Oh, yes, but but what was done to effectively and what it's interesting to me, and of course, you know, I have feelings, you know, I'd feel bad for the kids. You know what I can also rationalize it, you know, the one of the main things, you know, here's how my brain is trained, you know, the most dangerous part of flying is driving to the airport. So, you know, really risk and numbers and you know, what's happening meant with the kids at the border or you know, the kids underneath I thirty-five here in Austin. Yeah. There's there's a whole bunch of ways. You can look at stuff if you want to take it to an extreme. I got another one, okay.
Detroit Diesel short clips if you want to take it to the extreme and moaning and groaning about these kids, even though they by the way, the Guatemala kid age months ago was put into apparently a very nice foster home that he enjoyed it. Even you know, survive learn English in any way was he was kind of a very strange story but let's play this this is this is not really the Off the Mark if you want to talk about being sympathetic and the heartfelt play this yeah, man update. Oh, I got you pro-government forces and say they've scored a new game in the battle for the Red Sea port of how data they say, they captured the southern Runway at the city the airport today. Meanwhile workers with the World Health Organization issued a new warning about the consequences of the fighting the increasing you now
And we see if we can send it to me that this has for the port 70% of people in Yemen rely on the food and medicines also today the Associated Press reported. They're hundreds of detainees in southern Yemen were tortured and sexually abused one Marge. It happened at a secret facility run by the United Arab Emirates. No, I don't hear anybody complaining about this you're trying to buy separating a child from his parents is one thing but having them, you know blowed up and tortured and sexually abused and in a systematic way that's been going on for months and months and months in the United States is behind it, but you haven't doesn't vote in the midterms. Well, they don't vote Democrat. That's know some of the truth did slip out even on CNN Brooke.
Baldwin I think now that I'm Brooke Baldwin. Yeah, maybe it is she was with yes Democratic senator Tammy Baldwin no relation from Wisconsin and she asked his question about this about the long-term about this happening long-term. Even the Obama Administration, which I thought was good. But the senator was caught off guard. So I have a question for dinner. Could you hear the president now, you know a lot and a lot of topics and this one included, you know, looking back to previous administrations. Will they they should have done more right? And so as so many people in this country are certainly outraged by the cages and the thermal blankets and the facilities housing these kids, you know, they were all there in 2014 under President Obama and my questions in Houston it or Baldwin, it's did you speak up against them then?
You know on this issue mean to moment. We're we're making progress and then when it when it saw Brooks is please address the question we turn around. I think we all need to continue to be focused on it and press it through American people need confidence so we can solve problems. Nobody believes that we have an immigration system. That works. It is broken. It needs fixing so we just got to resolve to do that. But were you worried about it then did you raise your voice under the Obama Administration look up numbers of cases. Usually, I remember a constituent who was in detention at the border arguably very inappropriately. And we you know, we raised our voice in that instance and many others, but that's
We've got to do this now in unison. It's not enough to do it Case by case for Senator or house number my house number we've got to resolve to fix this issue, but I thought that I give you I'm giving you a board length of the day. I was I want you to be Brooke Baldwin. I'll be there the Baldwin and I'll be I'm going to answer the correct the same course, I'm going to do adoration Senator. What Senator where are you at vocal during the Obama Administration when the same thing was happening with vocal Vin. Were you standing up for the children then Senator? Well, I'll tell you the problem.
The answer to that to be honest about it is no and there's a good reason for that.
No reason is just because we were not made as aware of it and we we we're dead no idea about these cages and I'm appalled by what happened during the Obama Administration now, it's just gotten worse, but but but but you'll never be invited to another Obama thing.
I want you could have done that instead of trying to love it out by being you know in a bammed but yeah, she could have just good taking the offense and that you know, it was very easy to do and she didn't do it. So she lose her fan V. The constituents of Wisconsin will be happy to have you John C Dvorak as their Senator. I'm sure I'd be much better now this whole what really ratcheted this up? And and so so now we're in a position the beginning of this week where we you know the stage you said now, it's a it's a it's a game of chicken and one of the things I was until the executive order came out yesterday. I was initially going to say isn't it interesting how lawmakers are you know, you heard Cummings, you know, people are crying on TV. This is just crazy stuff. And and and by the way, we get, you know, all these things are happening people are freaking out about it. There's incredible things being said and this just to
To to cover but if these if these Democrats truly cuz it really was and the Republicans who also the same solid they hate Trump Republican. Yeah, they never really truly felt that bad then wouldn't you just say, okay. Let's just do a law, you know. It's like why didn't you just do that you could talkin and talkin and make it sound worse, but no one seemed to be actually very much devote. Okay, that's established. We don't need to say it every single time. I'm going to say it a lot it got ratchet it up now stay just set so now groups come in. We've got the fascism for America guys. It got the Democratic mayor who is the fascism for America go. That's what I call them. You know, it's it's that is no fascism. Org whatever it is is the Democrats against fascism. What is the Democratic socialists of America and propublica?
Who also have their funders and their their agenda they come up with I mean, this was a great a great thing to throw into the machine and the Machine loves this anonymously sourced Audio Only video of the children. We're going to listen to listen to a little bit of it here. Where is it here? And this is not what this music this is not reporting. By the way. This is setting the stage for what you're about a year.
Let me tell you what sound that you're hearing is like nails on a chalkboard, too.
Certainly every mother and probably every father as well. And when you hear when you hear that kind of wailing from a child and you and of course, it's some Papa Papa don't report me Spanish speaking, I guess dogs were saying we got a real Orchestra here don't come on, but that really was a genius move that that really set people off and emotions ran extremely high and and this is not this is real. This is not acting this is I mean, it's method acting to an extreme I guess in some bizarre way. But Rachel Maddow receiving a breaking news just before the end of her show where it became apparent that now they
Have facilities for quote tender age children. And you know, wow, whoever came up with a name and I think it's an official name and it's probably in the legal category would at work doing his best. Some of it says oh good and and it worked. I mean yes Hollywood doing its best work and Rachel. I mean it just got through. This is just before hand off to I guess Larry O'Donnell. This is just come out from the Associated Press.
Trump Administration officials have been spending babies and other young children.
Sorry that does the first night. We'll see you again tomorrow notice times the last word Lawrence O'Donnell where he's live in Brownsville, Texas. Thank you very much Rachel. We just got word of that very very difficult story to process.
So that was real. I mean Rachel was really very emotional very this is not acting you got to remember that Rachel was in tears when Trump won to begin with and this is just all reminders it is correct as well. Yeah. Well, it wasn't her alone. I mean it was all come with this I have from the Lawrence O'Donnell show where are they were on this logic went to play logic right now and but when to such an extreme then I took the now this is nine minutes that I chopped down to just a couple and I think we should just listen and comment a lot of familiar things come back into this particular piece of audio.
The emotions got so high and of course at this point, you know, the gangs are in left and right. He was all kinds of organizations all gearing up for this and they decide to publicly shame Department Homeland Security director Kirsten Nielsen and she's in a restaurant in Washington DC. And so everyone probably saw the news story issue shamed out of the restaurant. There's a picture of her video of her walking out of the restaurant with at this point as security detail, but this went on inside the restaurant for 9 minutes.
And I was surprised I don't care what's going on. If you're in my restaurant and you're disturbing that for nine minutes, unless you're complicit you're going to be kicking people out. I mean after maybe 30 seconds. It's a excuse me, you know, they're other people eating here, you know, just take your stuff outside. So it seems fairly well coordinated. But once you kind of hear what was being said and the chance, it becomes apparent where these people are coming from. But also how they're driven from Pure raw emotion. Yeah before you play the clip and I'm only saying this because of what you mentioned earlier in the show, which was the FBI setting up the Loretta Lynch Bill Clinton meet up at the tarmac is that this had to be planned in advance cuz you can't get that many people to show up out of the blue. So I would say complicity was probably part of the restaurant. It was a rough.
Restaurant ownership it was cuz I'm sure somebody's just not following her around all the time. But they knew that she ate there they reported back to somebody that she's a regular customer at this restaurant and then somebody talked him into keeping an eye on calling us a hotline number and that hotline number results in these guys coming over immediately creating this disturbance as the only thing that makes sense. Well, I seized aren't you don't I've been Berkeley. I I know how these things work. You don't get this kind of thing contemporaneously could use of the word contemporaneous. I didn't want to use it but I like it. I like you're pressing the big boy now. If I you said to me make a sound track of Twitter during this episode, this would be it. This would be the soundtrack. In fact, we could probably remix this and really make it sound cool. But this is this is a soundtrack of Twitter. So whenever you want to disturb the peace and do that under virtue signaling, how do we start that?
John
the chant and what is the chant? Yes. No, we won't go. Yeah, it's something I'm going to be simply dumped. How about
So we start with Mike check and your complicity with nine people makes no sense, but it's because it's programming it's the same people. That's the point the same people. So let's just hear what they're saying. You're complicit in the incarceration of ten thousand children.
Hey polish ice. That's probably going to work out. Well, isn't it to get rid of beliefs and family separation? I cut all these down, of course, you know because they were really little shame went on for five four.
At least two minutes kids don't eat in. Peace. You don't eat in peace High Mexican restaurant. I'm on my face.
That is the doj employee by the way, who who was the ringleader that she is the J Will Department of Justice and she is the one thing, you know, Paul the fucking doll to have dinner at a Mexican restaurant while you're it was locking Mexican. Children. Okay, say what did most instances mostly cost to rekey? I'm up at thank you for pointing. I'll be obvious. But this this is this is not unhinged. This is psychotic. We're getting to the New World Order crowd, finally.
No child is illegal. There you go. No walls. No borders. No DHS ripping away children.
So now they're playing the audio of the children crying so they got to be a Boombox. Maybe they will organize. Oh, oh, yeah, it sounds I mean it's like I think it's nuts and onions you're right, but it's extremely well-organized you ever professionally done correct? And they had signs printed signs every day and the Texas concentration camps. Yeah, how do I get into one second? I might as well point this out this again, by the way, I think there's going to
May backfire the electorate but it's just too annoying again. We have the Democrats with their can you focus on one thing? It's not even be right. Even Democrats John. These are people who were riled up so they just got bad instruct. Well, I'm in assumed I'm going to assume they're at that purpose again is to get the people to vote Democrat. But again, it's unfocused. It's like all these things they have against Trump. There's not one or two things. You can just right right home on. It's just they they go from one topic to another. I mean, what's the point why now talk about the Texas concentration camp. So is this there are any it's just a whole it just completely it's very professionally done, but they must have too many meetings with too many people and they all want to get their their one complaint it is well and that's what you see then again. This is why I said it was just like Twitter. This is exactly what it was like on Twitter everything from Peter Fonda calling males.
Yeah, just using crazy language like Baron should be kidnapped. You know, Christian Nielsen should be you know, poked and and and slapped and and you know tied to the new put in The Stockade payment out of the blue next week. That's why he came out of the came out out of the blue and punch line is the title of the movie is boundaries.
Okay punch line of it all but this is exactly what was going on on Twitter. It could be of course. You don't have the counter argument was his just as vile and loud and annoying.
Did she say in the earlier the same creature? Oh is that that she's the secretary of state? Oh, I don't know. Did she say that DHS? I thought you would say before that. Yeah, I should have stopped it earlier, says DHS.
Children from their families every day. They want me to take one of those silver blanket cuz I can't marijuana were you riding with their parents? Don't necessarily like it when they're here in Gallup. Arizona kids are alone there and Pages. They're human peanut butter Associates or given Frozen sandwiches and she'll have I eaten that much. That's the kind of environment. You would want your kid to the end. That was a very interesting comment. I thought that the idea of giving these children tortillas with peanut butter and some of them were out of the fridge. They still had ice on them is just despicable to this woman. It's just the whole idea. I mean why I don't know if she has kids but she's probably feeding a mac and cheese.
Yeah, it's very much better. What what what is this the doj woman? Yeah, it's the same one. She's allowed us. She's the best. She said the O J woman is really just a troublemaker. Yes. Now what how is he going around is the O J deal with this. Did they fire her? I don't I don't know but see if that gets I mean, I think she's setting herself up to be fired. So she make a bigger fuss so she could get on TV with that. Yeah. Yeah. You're right it take the place of Michael avenatti who I think is as I promised you the media has exactly the games that guys like how you somebody knew that you can put on all the shows back into it or CCNA and see would be the perfect one if she gets fired. So they have you're right. They have to hear what I would do X bureaucrat. I'd bring her in a discipline. You know, this is really bad what you were doing. We're transferring you to the justice department Outpost in Bangor, Maine.
And genius mover moving so she's no yeah. Yeah, but you're asking but you're right Twitter is now the the farm team for the news networks.
So Michael avenatti back to Turner you go you're back over there. Hey you loud chick. Maybe you'll do.
Now, this is one of my favorite coming from the Democratic socialists of America. What's your salary?
Remember what her face looks like when she comes we our children?
Fantastic to say one thing that was kind of slightly annoying just to me personally. We never find what she was eating. Oh God, you're so right about that that she was just sitting there in the corner with her with our husband or I don't know and it was very uncomfortable or three guards. They're not in the beginning. They didn't on the beginning. No, no. No, it took a little while. She got she she texted someone and then they they showed up and those guys just kind of stood in front of her but it's not just Christine Nielson. It's one of our producers. He wants to be anonymous as I'm sure you and Johnny going to talk about this next show. This madness is already started to directly affect my family because my wife works for c c a private company that has contracted to ice to handle the tension otherwise known as the evil Otay Mesa Detention Facility here in San Diego County. In addition. We have close family members in the CBP, you know, a customs border patrol, which is pretty common in our area for everyone the majority of illegals detained there are away.
Trial for crimes like rape ID theft murder drugs gang violence, et cetera, not some poor Joe Gonzalez. That was just found to be undocumented hanging outside Home Depot and ripped away from his family, and there are no children house there regardless of the fake face bag video going around more to the point. She came home after shift and told me about numerous death threats. They received in post response to mister Fonda's call-to-action somewhere even nice enough to leave a callback number for the sheriff's anti-terrorism unit to investigate.
As well as a number of people waiting outside the facility taking pictures of all the officers their personal vehicles and the facility protesters are nothing new to the facility. But this kind of action is crossing a line the Otay Mesa facility is owned and operated by CCA not ice even though the news reports differently can everyone who works there as a regular citizen with the crappy job like most Americans their personal information is not protected because they're not technically officers of the law. So there's nothing legally protecting anyone that works there from these radical threats on a side-note are wonderful Nancy Pelosi tour the facility a day ago with their Entourage of hate who even went so far as to talk down the church chapel and saying oh, yeah, where in the Bible does it say to rip children from their mothers?
Nice. I wish we had audio of that that would have been great. So yeah, yeah, keep a recorder around by the way. If you have an Android phone is called and recorder a very good product. You can turn it on as you kiss an app. You can turn it on and then when you when you go to an Android when you go back to the home screen where you do anyting else the thing doesn't show back up so it doesn't look like you have a recorder going somebody smart the new what this would look like when they have was running in the runs in the background fine. So you can just get it going and then you can put in your pocket with the microphone up or any number of ways and you were in court. I recorded conversations all the time negotiating and really so you can tell me the only reason why we started recording this as a show is because you just
You can get this as a very free and and then when you're done with your recording you you can go you have to ask do you have to go to that little where you show the different window switch all the apps running you find it click on it open it up and then you have to stop it manual. The other was a record for days. It doesn't use up a lot of room. I have recorded a lot of long things with it for Miami Sound guy. So I like I recorded a tire Bart trip in a BART train from Oakland just through all the way through San Francisco to post at one of the books could sound effect collection operations by all right. I'm going to stop you there because we get it record. I'm done. Now. This is not over by a long shot despite the executive order which really is, you know, really underestimated what was going on initially. I thought man did he really start this himself to put some kind of pressure on getting a bill that includes the border wall cuz that ultimately
Is what he wants. That's all he one that's all he wants and and at this point, he should be given that because that is kind of what the election was about. But okay ma'am, but we can always hold on a second. That's not true. The election was about build a wall that Mexico pay for it. I'm not the taxpayers. Got you.
Gotcha. So if Mexico came along and said here's the money then it would be a cool. You really think so, it wasn't going to happen. No, let's say it happened in the world of crazy. You think that everyone be like, oh, okay. Well since they're paying for it Go build it really you think that would happen. No, of course. Well not you don't know it's personal this point, but this will continue and there will be new new things that are rotten and crappy about the president and Republicans and I have a couple of Clips. Well, hold on I was going to say this is going this is going to manifest itself, June 30th, if you go to families Belong Together. Org,
They have a huge amount of March is plan. There's going to be a march on DC listing of they've got petitions. Of course, it's you know, there's no idea who was behind this because it's the domain registration is probably answer one of those ugly hours of operation. They've got you know, they got signs you can print out and I'll just read you the headline here families Belong Together. The Trump Administration is cruelly separating children from their families, but now the world is paying attention and we won't allow this to continue join upcoming event will send a powerful message families belong together. So it's not as if you read the newsletter Peter Fonda Fonda kid thinks that they're going to ninety million people approaches on this thing.
There is a couple of things that I had caught my attention for one thing by the way Trump signing executive order to ending it is really taking it is not over but I think the wind has been taken out of their sails especially for big but what are you protesting? I just I disagree. I think that the outrage is going to be a new thing that people latch onto and the outrage will just continue and you won't even know that he signed an executive order within three weeks. Okay. Well, we'll put that in the bin. I disagree. I want to play a clip person. I want to play the kind of the zero tolerance kind of Roundup. That was the part of the Roundup that was done on PBS, which I thought was a little more reasonable than the network news, which talked about this issue. Does PBS on Trump Zero Tolerance one?
Yeah, sorry about that Democrats. We're here to call in the present to resend it Zero Tolerance policy. This is not about attacking the president. This is about humanity and front protesters and who did some shouting at Homeland Security. Secretary Kirsten Nielsen she ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant last night president Trump announce the about-face around lunch time. We are starting an executive order in a little while. The president's executive order would detain family together instead of separately the administration insists. The change does not mean it is backing down from zero tolerance policy nor Mister Trump announce the change to a table full of Republican lawmakers conflicted on the week.
Which some people would like you to be you're really really pathetically the country's going to be overrun with millions of people kind of you draw. Then you don't have any hard. I said, no, perhaps I'd rather be strong super day. The public has seen these images provided by the administration some of the shelters for the more than 2,300 kids now separated from their parents that figure it's for the first month alone on the president's the zero tolerance policy. It's still not clear how many are toddlers or infants and how long it will take to reunite them all with parent?
Hello. Yeah, your clip the ended. Yeah. Oh nothing is more on their. Hey, mister that was Canada run done now. So I have this one clip very short clip and there's only part of what his field was but this is Jon heilmann who is supposed to be a neutral reporter in he's gotten he was like the mat and this is your friend Janice your business your buddy. I know how many yeah was not my but he's not one of my you know, my one of my my my what are we come live something? I forget their names the nicknames. I haven't seen it for years, but he was you know, the partner with Mark helprin the gal got rousted because it was sexual improprieties. So now he's kind of on his own handy, right? They were doing a lot of work lived lived Jose there Jose. Thank you for remembering. I was racking my brain to and then the troll you had to lift your friend of mine, but he's but you know, but he pressed himself as his newt.
But he obviously got caught up in the emotions of the whole thing. And then he realized that he's been screwed by Trump signing this order and he gets all worked up about it. And then he says we remember which I find it always be a huge blunder when you're so you're so involved. But listen to the way he be he says it's an endless the way this this wraps on the Fisher and to make sure that she can't be both you can't just do this thing and then stand up and say oh, hey, I'm now to hear her laugh compassion. You can't go around talkin about people like they're Vermin. You can't inflect this kind of policy on Americans and not pay a political price. We have a great chance to inflict one on Amanda's party in November. We I mean the Democratic party does people who object to this policy which I think is a lot of people beyond the Democratic party had a chance to make the president as party price. They should and the press needs hold them accountable and not let him just kind of slide away from this over the course the next few days in like it did.
I've never seen you like this before giving me I want to make sure with that a little bit. I don't do it often, but I had to get in a little bit of a Twitter fight with Jen Briney from the Congressional dish podcast. Yeah and wasn't really a fight but you know, I really appreciate and respect for ability to research legislation and she had just for filters had not allowed her to really look really look deeper into you know, if there's a law or not and as I explained on the preview show, there's a consent decree and how that can or cannot be changed and what his law without a doubt the 100% Zero Tolerance. Wow, that's a great way to say it one hundred percent Zero Tolerance policy, of course increase the problem and it was it was any ratchet it up and there's no doubt about it, but it's not like this.
Polish that you could be changed with just the stroke of a pen and that is proven by the executive order which it still takes action from government bodies to get this done. So I debated the fax with her back and forth a little bit, you know, it was very civil cuz I you know, I think we like each other. I like Jen I think she's good cuz like I said, I respect what she does but I just thought you lived though. She don't live Joe and and her her judgement was clouded and so I point out a few things and and she publicly received it and said, oh, okay cuz you like Walmart. Is that his Walmart. It's not a license for some you know, I said, okay, here's the article where it shows that it's a is a license facility and I'm just doing a voice the way I imagined it at the time in my head and my voice is yeah. It was okay, but then approximately and she made a mistake and she said I'm surprised that you are defending this.
This is your problem. No point looking my tweets that I defend anyting. I just said here's what I think is the is the law and he is counting your argument. But that is the problem immediately. If you just want to discuss something you're immediately presumed to be defending or you know it depending depending the policy difficult. They're not even Trump just defending hurting children. Like yeah, that would be surprising. I think you know me a little better than that. I really don't think I would be so would actually be defending children being traumatized. So why did I even bring this up? I don't know. What other Clips do you are? Yeah, it was it was disappointing just had never seen you like this before. I was really disappointed why that was a call back to the heilmann clip. That's well. There you go. There's another live Joe and I just it's the emotions are getting the
Better of people and they they don't know and and hopefully in the second, you know second half we're after the first block or be blocked. I Can Shed a little light on it, but it's kind of funny to think when did we start our parallel universe alternate universe two years ago. It was right after the election two years ago. And yeah and watch this we were talking about what we certainly I didn't think it was going to get worse here. You are people are truly living in two different movies with the same script, but the movie just plays out differently. That's why I'm going to talk about later. All right, you have any other any other stuff on this particular topic? Well, let's see because you know, and and by the way, you know, what we're not going to do. I just don't we're very early on a lot of these things. No one had her the floor s agreement now, it shows up in an executive order. So sorry, we actually do the research and we came up with I think what are the correct answers?
What you don't need is a whole bunch of us going off debating. Like, you know, like you've seen incessantly what you need is a Guiding Light to take you through the insanity so you don't get cut by either side of the shark infested waters, and I'm just talkin about your own family.
Let alone where you work. Yeah, this is this is and he's pretty pretty good about this. They not all I have tons of emails from people. Yeah, we get donation notes from people say my family. This is my family that is very hard to come. This stuff is breaking up families and friends you idea. We're trying to destroy the country. Okay borders, no walls, no friends. No borders. No walls. No friends.
exactly
Let me go send that. She's really hanging in there. I wonder how long she's going to put up with this just not the way I do have the one clip of her and I was impressed. I always like how she handles things. I think she could easily be a candidate very regular Foundation or is it just me?
She's at that age where you go to these phases of of more makeup less makeup. I can say that from experience. I think I've seen this know, I mean, she's also under lights so she pretty much she overcompensates a little bit probably anyways here is her just explaining the law. I just want to make sure the most precise way to describe how even-keeled and given the flow back by number of Republicans as well as Democrats. Are you considering taking this based on feedback or is it the administration position going forward. Paragraph? The laws prohibit us from detaining families while they go through prosecution for illegally entering the border and while they go through prosecution's for immigration proceedings, if we close the loopholes, we can keep the families together, which is what they did in the last Administration.
I'm still a Court rule that we can no longer do that after twenty days. We have to release both unaccompanied children and accompany children, which means that we cannot detain families together. The only option is to not enforce the law at all going back to two questions and pistons and more. You said that one, was supposed to be told that you also said that you want to make the court now Harvey to seeing you this pain for many people ask you then Democrats saying this is your discretion in there is no law that says if it's White House two separate parents and the kids are being used by Pond by the Smugglers and the traffickers again. Let's just pause to think about this to assist 314% increase in adult showing up with kids that are not a family unit. Those are traffickers. Those are Smugglers that is Ms. There.
They're criminals doesn't reviews you call. I'm trying to say is the closing that loophole will enable us to detain families together throughout the proceeding as they've done in previous administrations. I just like I just like how calm and collected she is that her speech is a little Annoying, Carver but I like her too. I think she's she's she's an old-school bureaucrat. She's been in the working for G work for Bush to be around that she has European influences. That's nice and can she deliver a line though? I don't know if she can if you can't joke cuz I haven't heard her crack one joke ever. I don't think she's funny. Well, then then she's no good as president. You got you got to be using it now. She can't make president. She she doesn't she's not presentable in the right manner or she doesn't and she doesn't have that. You got a nice smile, but she doesn't have the Joker's the smile of someone who
Who makes who knows how to smile cuz they got to one-liner coming. Right? Right? No, she did not you're right. She's disqualified. That's sad. I liked her a lot. Anyway, when you're ready to wrap this up, I thought it was an interesting try. I actually had a quick hang out with the Forum in New York Banker. Who was
He was like this guy is unhinged and off the rails that I sent him a little bit straight on the on the topic at hand. But I totally agree that when Trump first responded to you know, the outrage that was taking place and you know, he did an impromptu little less stand up there in the the White House. It was it was this I think it's in some I don't know if he was planting the seed it was a feeble attempt to trying to change the narrative by throwing something crazy out there. Although for No Agenda producers not crazy completely known nothing that we don't know about since the reading of the most recent National Defense authorization act. That's right space force. He just threw that out there. Yeah. I have the clip if you want to play it. I got a couple of things but yeah, what's your clip? I said, that's kind of the is it not very long. This is new space Troopers announced. Yes president outlined a plan today to ensure America's dominance in space. He said he has directed The
I began to establish a new branch of the military space for Steven Martinez more on this.
This quarter billion dollar GPS satellite is indispensable to the way the American Military fights and the rest of us live from cell phones to ATMs.
The cost another quarter billion to launch it into orbit after that. It is controlled by a small team of Airmen from a base in Colorado for Air Force uniforms. But today president Trump decreed in the future. They will become members of us separate space for me. I'm here by directing the Department of Defense and Pentagon to immediately begin the process necessary to establish a space force as the 6th branch of the Armed Forces. That's a big statement. You know, when I were watching that and this is Tina, which is level-headed you met Tina.
Yeah, she's level head regular round head. But okay go on. She now you got to bring that into the now. I'm going to have to spend like, you know an hour telling her that her for the shape of her head is fine. Stop that it is it's fine. That's what I feel like a basketball. Just bear with me. I'm sorry and and and she hears this she says, oh, that's just fine.
That's it. A lian's are going to invade this is it and I got to tell you there was a note of seriousness in her voice that I had not detected on topics like this in the past college. I'm very compatible with her. I felt the same way, you know, and and you know, I'm thinking the internet interdimensional beings now the possibility exists going to go in this direction, which I can I think it's funny cuz I was over at the Corso book people should read that thing. Yes. Yeah. It's possible. We've been having this been going on for some time and it just hasn't been formula rise. Yeah, then, you know, it's a secret division different. Well, the thing is, you know, it's like I've seen all the disclosure videos, you know, nothing surprises me. I am convenience. Of course, we have already have Israeli moon bases not we replaced fine fine. Okay, you can laugh at me sad lights bumping other bumping other side lights out of orbit. There's definitely we follow
Space wars four years maybe the entire length of the show. So for me, you know, when all of a sudden there's you know, US Air Force video of tic tac looking spaceships flying around I'm like and somewhat, you know fine. I went to meet an alien one time disappointing trip, but you know to think that they were alone be that they're not already Among Us it's foolish but you know somehow the combo of trump and just the words space force and the way he says it, you know, it's like a space race or did she Traders Point? That's it. They're coming or it would be the first new branch of the armed services since the created in 1947.
Less than a year ago. Secretary matters told Congress. I do not wish to add a separate service that would bring with it a whole new bureaucracy. This is what's so interesting is that this was in the National Defense authorization act excited by name the space forces. Not not knew it was on you money. We read that as money appropriated for it. They've been all kinds of two years ago. I think it was four years ago. There was talk of off offworld soldiers and it was in the NBA a as far as I can have a call. This is my in fact in March of this year Trump was at the
Marine Cadets, I guess. Yeah, they were graduating Marine Cadets in San Diego. And here's what he said my new National strategy for March. Okay, Mark Chase recognizes. That space is a war-fighting domain.
Just like the land air and sea we may even have a space force won't develop another one space for the Air Force. Well the space course we have the Army the Navy, you know, I was saying it the other day cuz we're doing a tremendous amount of work in space. I said maybe we need a new force will go with the space force and I was really serious. I'm in genius. Maybe we need him for some space will call it space for space for we need a new force will go with the space force and that was really serious. And then it said what a great idea. Maybe we'll have to do then I could happen. So I think of that space for very beginning many of our astronauts have been Soldiers and Sailors Airmen Coast Guard and Marines and our service members will be vital.
To ensuring America continues to lead the way into the Stars we're going to leave the way in space will way way behind and we're catching up fast so fast that nobody even believes it we're catching up fast. Here's here's a problem though. We're actually it caught on here's his rally. Where was he yesterday in Minnesota? I think and then I remember how beautiful is one two, world wars defeated fascism and communism and put a man or the pace of the Moon. We going to make you saw the other day. We're reopening that's going to space force.
So we have the Army the Navy there for similarly for the Coast Guard but we have the Airforce now we're going to have the space for the problem is okay. The name is caught on and it's perfect but technically shouldn't they be called The Springs?
That would have been better. Well, I have a couple of thoughts on Mattis because I think that the armed forces have let's assume that we have aliens and then we captured these guys that we found the Flying Saucer and everything that was in the day after Roswell book. Yes. It was just written by a guy who is not insane know by any means know is he still alive? They have to say half of his is he still alive? Yeah. Well, I don't know. That's how I wasn't killed. I mean he was floating around giving lectures and he he talks about the people who took charge of this whole operation the whole alien thing.
Right, not the Air Force know the Army the Army buy wine. That's why I'm at us is pissed then well Madison's Marine, but I think he has more in common with the army guys. And that one army guy would goes out giving these lectures of smart Army head of the chief of staff of the army. I think they did want to relinquish it. Oh, no, I'm asking about another bureaucracy. We got enough trouble with the Army having these, you know doing all this work, but now we're going to have some new guys are all going to be have to be read in or we going to move the army guys over to that doesn't make a lot of sense Bill going to be asking the questions why army guys going over there and you watch they'll be army guys going over there to the form of your bank or he's like those crazy. The guy's office rocker Robinson broke. This was already approved by your Congress. I'd say bro was approved by your Congress and the National Defense authorization act as money appropriated for it. You know, this is not like a new thing you just unhinge
And he says but his login that I said, well that's not entirely true. There is something called the outer space treaty and everyone's on board with it. It is a legal framework, but it is only it only bars parties to the treaty from placing weapons of mass destruction in Earth orbit. You can't install them on the moon or any other Celestial body, but you can or at least the tree does not prohibit the placement of Conventional Weapons. So kinetic bombardment would be allowable. Technically. I think a machine gun in space machine guns in space. All right, 1:17. Perfect. Okay. Good. We have an opening for the show of your buddy. Yes. It's beautiful cages are for kids Dvorak in the morning to you. Mr. And also in the morning all Egyptian symbols.
The ground near Subs in the water machine guns in the space and all the games and it's in the morning to the troll room No Agenda stream.com good to have you all here. Thank you've been very helpful this morning. It's appreciated No Agenda stream.com. And in the morning to Mark G. We have not seen Margie on the No Agenda our generator for a while, but he came in with a beaut. He such a recognizable style it is. All right, bro. He's a pro. Yes, and he had one of his I would hang it if this should even with the writing on it, I mean, this is a poster and you could hang this on your wall. It's so pretty and it's a picture of his his version of a rendering of North Korea with the beautiful round, you know the half moon beach with the palm trees on it and it says North Korea come for the beaches stay for the human rights violations.
We should probably find some way that some of these artists hardly get in touch with can give make a high res big version. So people can print out or take it to a Reprographics shop or some place and print out large large poster size copies their square, but you could say I would say maybe two feet by two feet would be a nice by 3 feet and 9 mm Dynamite collectible.
Told my total collectible know Dynamite collectible. Okay Dynamite. Well today we got a lousy showing cuz there was no gimmick allow the showing I can I get your partner nice. So did I say what I say because there was no deal now. I'm not even that way and I complained about like criticizing myself. Oh, okay, Richard unterberger $200. That's it. That's our associate executive producer and he becomes executive producer by default. He actually gave $200 to $222.22. But this one here it's 200 because the other thing came in later so I can get a note in. Okay, it says is my second donation is totally worth it everyone who listed should support the show. He needs the D douching.
Oops. Sorry didn't even have it ready. It was like who needs anything for the segment you shot out to my amazing wife Lori today, June 14th Flag Day is their birthday came in that with you know, if you can add her to the birthday list and look her up with a MILF jingle and some karma for our new house and second human resource on the way. That would be great. Happy birthday Lori that she listens to the show on Sundays with me when we are working on the house hanging out. It really spur some great discussions about the news and current culture. Thank you very much for the all the hard work. You guys do putting where you put into the show. That's one mother. I'd like to
You've got, let me get your first choice loan executive producer. For sure. 1044. All right. Well, thank you very much. We appreciate that. And sorry that there was the value net worth. Let us down a bit on the old one big time. Yes detractors Rejoice. We're going broke. Yeah detractors Rejoice. Yes. Good work everybody. Well, we got we got those guys. We finally got it. We finally did it and you did we will return on another show and the next show will be on Sunday. Remember us at vollrath org slash and we have you to go out there today.
Yeah, you said I need some I need some comebacks when I wear my Nokia E71 is on the table and someone goes what do you have that you know, we came up with you know, it's a lease number. Yeah some writers out there to give you some we got you know, it's a burner. I'm a I'm a drug dealer kind of like that one. Yeah, I got rid of it after I found out it was taking upskirt videos, you know? Okay, that's kind of okay, and I think the winner for today and I'm open to more is I'm downsizing.
I think that one works the best right now. Thank yeah, cuz all the kids are downsizing these days.
All the kids are downstairs, but now I just want to get one for you.
It's none of your business creep. Yeah, that's great. It makes for great dinner conversation. Yeah, that's nice in a restaurant. When you do that to the help who then spit in your food they did they will do that in. Yes. I got a I know TG for those you don't know is Off the Grid because anti-tracking and profanity notes from Sir. The morning. I'm a licensed property manager here in Arizona. My wife and I also have investment houses that we rent out. Now last year my wife found this great free program for managing our personal rentals it Rivals the one I pay for that I use for my business and she was showing me some of the cool things. It did one thing in particular I noticed was that if an applicant for our credit check wanted to they had the option to log into the program with Facebook as soon as they do that I can see their profiles people used to laugh at me because I never had a Facebook and I told friends that I guess it's the same way the NSA does it and to screen potential renters and I've come full
So now Facebook profile can be tied to your personal credit information voluntarily. I doubt most applicants of considered the implication of this.
Well, I tell you something I've seen this kind of thing. And of course not being a Facebook user. I get very annoyed by which is you go to some websites as we have to be a member to get a special features. They would you like to sign in or get a new accounts. I'll take an account there cuz I want to see something it's just sign in with your Facebook. Just signing with my Facebook. I don't have a Facebook. So I just go leave this I never get to do anything there. I find it extremely annoying that they did somebody offers this and it and the fact that people actually do it as as our our producer says they're idiots. I think most people do that. And this was always the Holy Grail of Silicon Valley about ten years ago, cuz I can we be the universal login, you know, they called it Universal status. I guess was the status or presents presents. That's what it was presents. So, you know someone's presence if you logged in your logged in all the time and faced I pretty much got that I have made that mistake.
Taking the past for sure. No, like I just clicked that and then but now, you know, you're sending all these details off and that's kind of the deal. That's why people put these lawyer Weinstein. Yeah, they can screw you.
So let's go to since you got this issue into Austin. I got this Pacific Lee for you. Okay, so you could take it to the city council mixed with other people. So, you know, what other people are doing in other areas. This is this scooter update in the Bay Area any transportation crisis parking new government oversight. San Francisco recently removed all rented motorized scooters until lawmakers approved the permitting process that was followed and she was just in Gary has our report
EBay in San Jose the pedestrians using the new way to get from here to there writing motorized scooters fun. So that never sat in for that and they're not in my town stuff past want to give it a try one more phone unlocked in. The user is charge by the mile end amount of time and the ever-increasing to avoid vehicular seem like in and out.
And the scooters are being left in places. Some of them's blocked building entrances and KDA ramps in the such complaints must be regulated.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well that's going to happen here in Austin and it was interesting. I know you saw the email thread with one of our producers who was a bike safety officer and he got really bent out of shape when I was talking about the bird bike which is actually a scooter and he thought I was calling for people to die on bicycles and I'm I'm Pro bicycle, but I'm anti the way it's being implemented cuz you can't just throw in a bunch of bike paths. Now it works cuz I was been I grew up in a country took a century of of biking it really to work in traffic. It takes a lot more than just the bike path and you know say you're done these the other bike pass a joke. It's all can you have all kinds of educational things. I mean you need a lot. It takes hundreds of millions of dollar United States is a joke. Yeah, which screws up everything is fully implemented. Nobody uses them especially around here me they got a lot of bicycle guys, but they're not there's not that many. Of course. I saw that letter to he couldn't damn to me. Yes, and when
Did you read anything I had to say which all this negative stuff which is you know, you go in a liar how much the other day how much ran into some guy going? I don't know. Well, maybe let me just move beyond that because the bike argument is, you know, the people are for or against doesn't matter more importantly you made a call out on the show.
how to steal these scooters and I got some information
Yeah from one of our plan is really one of our yes from one of our producers who is very knowledgeable on the subject. He is a a a bird bike collector. So he gets the midnight and he charges them and repairs them and he probably knows more about bird bikes than anybody at this point.
So here are your options, do you have I think the the fun way to go? Cuz you know when you pick up the bird bike and you haven't and the QR code, it starts meeting a beeping tone as light start flashing in a way if pathetic I'll go going I'm being stolen I'm being stolen which one gives a crap. No one cares. What you doing on the street. What you need is one of those little battery-powered electric drills. I'm not talking about, you know, the Big Black & Decker, but you know one of those hand job, he's basically just staff a tube with a drill at the drill bit at the end. You know what I'm talkin about. I know yeah place that right in the middle of the Box on the top of the bird bike drill down you will disable the whole thing.
And when I say the whole thing, but you're only disabling is the GPS the warning and of course and yet right in the middle just and it will die. That's that's his Achilles heel. You get a $50 board which I'll put it in the show notes with a link. You can buy it being a bite off of eBay for sure $50 board. You just open the unit up plug that end bypasses all of the bird brain guts and you got yourself a $50 scooter electric scooter paint job, and you're good to go.
Dynamite great now we're not supposed to be encouraging this sort of normal. I don't know if you can legal to do so, we always not just telling people not to do this is how you would if you if you if you had to yes, if you were still enjoy don't do not do this.
Not do it. But if you had but if you for some reason brother could be a revolution what happens if the society collapses and there's all these stupid bikes around you need to be able to grab one. You need to be able to grab those things a little more. It's order some boards upfront people order some boards. Okay. Couple more OTG thing. This is actually I'm going to skip the the World Health Organization popped up again on on NPR the World Health Organization is recognizing gaming disorders and mental health condition. This is a new version of the story. Okay? I have a clip. Okay, let's play your clip. Then where is the background or click? This is a message for pcbs. Yeah, see they can be addictive.
For seven years, but he can't remember how young he was when he started playing video games. Really what games do you have to be taking a break or or getting up from the video game? It is difficult sometimes. Yeah.
Gaming addiction saying if people have impaired control over gaming give it priority over other activities and there is a continuation or escalation of gaming despite negative consequences. They could have a mental health condition Oreos are just as addictive as cocaine just gaming is just as addictive as Oreo The Logical mathematical calculation there.
And every report that I saw her and mental disorder Mentos would give them drugs. Oh, by the way, just I wrote this down and I forgot to bring it up cuz I said, I believe that the the kids in cages thing will continue. I know what the next topic will be. They're drugging these kids. That's what that's what the next outrage will be their drug in case they aren't they I hope so. No, I think I think it was a report that the time saying this but this is going to be the report. Of course, I'm joking about it helps out, but this is going to go here's know. I hope so, here's the problem with the I like the thesis but I tell you what the problem is.
Pharmacies only a strength I had for you to test article industry. Yeah, they can't they can't it's gotten the pharmaceutical and and you're right. You're right. You're right. I'm stupid. You're right back to the addiction every report that I read or saw or heard had the and this kind of had it in there like these guys. They're so into the gaming. They don't even get up to go to the bathroom. That's kind of what they alluded to in that report. But that was a big that's the big the lead if you will or the sub lead, it's like, oh they won't even get up to go to the bathroom. It's just a horrible. But the addiction I'm going to try and do a real long call back and I didn't write much of this down. So you going to have to help me out but you're familiar with the topic, but first we get into Jaron Lanier one year model on your linear linear who do some female journalist in Silicon Valley is they worship Him.
He got on his serve you do. You have two clips know I don't have the view. I have him on Channel 4 in the UK, which I thought was better. Okay and just three short clips and it is about addiction and social networks and smartphones. He's the reason why I should delete my social media and if so, what is you know, I'm sorry. We should probably explain who Jared linear linear thought you said. Yeah Jared Lanier. Do you want to explain who he is? Cuz your favorite around here the bay areas of local and he is the guy who popularized himself by inventing some some business 78. He's probably some some enhance some robotic like hands where you can stick your your van into these gloves his Fame as a VR gloves and then you can now do VR you could do little thing you can do fancy stuff with the with the our program virtual reality, bro.
Gram in the gloves and then he so be it was the Nintendo glove at the time that we all were hacking. We must have do you have a Nintendo game? I don't remember what if he was doing that or not, but what I do know that he became the VR Guru and he was it would be running to him quite a cost and I see him every so often right and but he is a he's like stallman. He's like a little bit anti-social he wears his hair and long Rastafarians dreads cultural appropriation.
Cultural appropriation. I always was just kind of like generally speaking. I have never seen it without a green t-shirt and some just read a big man. He's like Java big Bruiser. He's he's line backer sized guy. Probably a little more than that. I don't know now. I don't know 250-260 Cayman Islands and any chance to to not pay the lot right now and it's quite noticeable. Okay. So here he is sitting down talking about the topic of social networks. And I phones and smartphones the reasons why I should delete my social media and if so, what is it fair to when is the name is for your own good and the other is for society's good for your own good. It's because you're being stuck.
You got to back it up. And you start over. I I didn't realize the one that dated in that key does sound.
And I find very jealous of this. He does sound a lot like Comic Book Guy when he talks for bloggers. I know Comic Book Guy. Oh, grew up from The Simpsons. Yes, so he smells like comic book that so it looks kind of he looks like I've got a little bit I didn't have the he's he's got to go along and red pony jail. He got the long dreads. He said he smells and and a natural man and ladies. He's available or two when is him is for your own good and the other is for society's good for your own good. It's because you're being sickly manipulated by algorithms that are watching everything you do constantly and then sending you changes in your media feet in your diet that are calculated to adjust. He's likely to the liking of some unseen Advertiser. And so if you get off that you can have a chance to
Experience a clear view of yourself in your life. But then the reason for society might be even more important Society has been gradually darkened by the scheme and which everyone is under surveillance all the time and everyone is under this mild version of behavior modification all the time. It's made people jittery and cranky. It's made teams especially depressed which can be quite severe but it's made our politics kind of unreal and strange where we're not sure if elections are real anymore. We're not sure how much the Russians affected brexit. We do know that it was a crank your Affair that it might have been. Otherwise, I like what I like about him as opposed to stallman if you speaks very coherently and I'd like that. He adopted his Spiel for the location where he was we can Russians and brexit. So the guy is thinking, you know, he's he's smart and he says this more I've always thought he was a very
More guy, I just like what he has to say now, let's talk about how will it should be. What he does. Is that saying anything gives me well we said I don't know. No, but it's only has the ability does make it succinct and he has the style of authority that is very nice for television. Yes, he does and even if he's interesting to look at for sure. He's like wow because he doesn't come across his nutty and just cool calm and collected. Yeah. Yeah all the authoritative.
The aura you know, so how about it being bad for society you say it's not for me. It's an individual. Is it down for me? Because I'm addicted why become chemically hooks. You have the founders of the great Silicon Valley spine Empires. Like this book is published with the founders of the great Silicon Valley spine Empire empire. Yeah. That's a good line. I like that the grade Silicon Valley spine Empires, like Facebook have publicly declared that they intentionally included addictive schemes in in their designs. Now we have to say this is what I would call almost a selfie addiction. It's a statistical addiction what it says is
We will get the broad population to use the services a lot will get them hooked through as scheme of rewards and Punishment and the Rewards or when you're retweeted. The punishment is when you're treated badly by others online and then within that will very gradually start to leverage that to change them. So it's it's a it's a very kind of filthy manipulation of the population. So it's not as dramatic as a heroin addict or gambling addict but it is the same principle. Okay, again, very calm cool rational makes a lot of sense and the obvious follow-up question is okay who's manipulating who and what's going on, but who's policing? I mean, there is some sort of Wizard of Oz $15 and well, this is the peculiarity of the situation the people who run the tech companies like Google and Facebook are not doing the manipulating they're doing the addicting but the manipulating which
On the back of the addicting is the paying customer of of such a company. So and and many of those customers are not at all bad influences. They might simply be trying to promote their cars or their perfumes or whatever and indeed. I have sympathy for them because they're concerned that if they don't put money into the system. Nobody will know about them any difference just television advertising a little bit of time. Is there anyting else the difference is the constant feedback loop? So when you watch the television the television isn't watching you when you see the billboard the billboard isn't seeing you and vast numbers of people see the same thing on television and see the same billboard when you use these new designs social media search YouTube when you see these things you're being observed constantly and algorithms are taking that information and changing what you see next and they're searching and searching and searching and they're just blind robots. There's no Evil Genius here until they find those patterns those
Those little tricks that get you and make you change your behavior. So it was this interview and I think probably in particular the part earlier where he spoke about the reward and Punishment system of social media and smartphones in general the interaction do what is he doing this tour for? Oh, you know, I don't even know what it was in conjunction in conjunction with a producer who reminded me of something we used to talk about. It's an experiment there was done in the classroom. Sadly the author of this paper, which I put in the shown up yet again. I used to do it once a year and it's been several years since we brought this up. It was written in 1998. So you have to take that into mine, but I'm going to bring it into a 2018 version. I'm going to try it was called the Zen TV experiment. You work all this John.
I vaguely remember we talked about it for right? Well, it's even and it really you have to read the entire paper to really appreciate what went into it but it was a a teacher who in his class did an experiment with his kids with television at the time, you know, the real internet was coming and we had the.com bubble, but it was still TV was really really prevalent the delivery method for entertainment and commercialism. I didn't interrupt for a quick second.
The book is all the arguments that you should delete all your social media accounts by now by Jared linear just came out hence. The first question of the interview makes nothing besides. Thank you. I got to get that. I don't want to read what he has to say. I don't think it'll be anything new but I'm interested.
So the teacher did the experiment with this class and he wanted them to create a a paper which would be four Arguments for the elimination of television. And he said you need to do these three experiments and then we'll talk about it the next class and the first experiment was watch any TV show for 15 minutes with the sound off. The second one was watch any news program for 15 minutes with the sound off and then the third and and he and he implored he said you really have to do all these experiments and the timing is important. So we had 15 minutes of just a TV show with the sound off 15 minutes with a news program with the sound off and then he asked him to watch the television for thirty minutes with it being the entire television being off.
And a couple of things became apparent in the discussion that ensued the children were outraged obvious for obvious reasons. They were made to sit in front of a black screen a box essentially for 30 minutes without anything coming out. They they they thought it was stupid that you wasted my time with this. This is nuts. Of course after some discussion. They all realize that they could probably waste their time 30 minutes is wasted all all all kinds of places in the day, but the conclusion is that if this thing does not entertain you
Then you get pissed off at it. So without the sound on it's annoying on a TV show without the sound on a news program. It's annoying but man is really annoying when it's just the Box because we are transformed into and this is not new. We are transformed into an alpha State when we were watching television. And that was the second part of his conclusion is but he made all the kids and part of the experiment. He made all the kids count the technical events during any television program in any news program and Technical events are a zoomed that's a technical event is not something that your eyes don't zoom in and real life their eyes. You don't also jump from one side of the person to the other while you're listening to them speak that is all technical event. Something is being built and and you are creating the bridge in your mind. You think you're calmly watching television, but you're not your mind is racing and is creating all the images. You need between those shots between the zoom
Between the interior them or exterior were at the airport when a different country your mind is building that story and we've been trained older people more than young but they have different issues. We've been trained to go into this Alpha State too. And we are a cold where people are storytellers. You know, we love a story and stories are these how everything is communicated these look how the kids in cages you build a story you promote the story and people fill in all the blanks. So this is a fantastic state for you to be in before advertising particularly if it's a little bit coordinated with whatever you're watching almost as an aside. What is interesting about television news. If you're talking about the talking heads on the news channel, they're very few technical events sure, they go to a videotape and then there's someone standing up there and then they switch to a package but it's intentionally done that way because then it feels
More real oh, this is reality. This is this is not some show that I'm watching where I'm bouncing around. This is a this is a reality taking place. I better pay attention and you're putting the world is in essence condensed down to almost no technical events, but you're still building these stories. So that's the essence of of that experiment but what I've been noticing and with women in particular Instagram and it started with Tina and she you know, she she Scrolls through her Instagram on her iPad and I said was that we haven't seen like some dude like who is that due to the following on Instagram? Who's that hottie your fault girl, you're following on Instagram so know this guy his family and they've got a kid and the kid is he's doing this and you know, she has this entire story Bill she follows
These people's lives based upon pictures which we all know, of course, you know that she knows it too. I mean on the intellectual level these these picture I'm not singling her out. I think this is really what's how why Instagram is. So incredibly popular just based upon pictures which are you know, ginned-up owes filtered. It looks fantastic. Her mind is creating the story. Now the guy who is has, you know the kid and it's great and they just got a puppy and everything and he may be beating his wife behind the scenes. We don't know just going to seriously she's building a story and it's not celebrities. It really isn't it's, you know, someone who does yoga someone who cooks in a certain way, you know, they follow the hashtags, but they build these stories in their mind and that's where we are today. We're and we're very feeble. We're we're not really all that great at adjust yet, but the alpha state that this experiment in the
TV experiment you're in when you're watching television. That is the same state you're in when you're looking at your phone your smartphone and that is why people look like zombies just when you're watching TV with the family your friends. No borders. No Nations, no friends. If you have any left look to the left and the right while you're watching something on television. It is the same look people have when they're looking at their phones, but the story's the gaps could video really it works, but it's really not working as well as the singular pictures and we are building these narratives in our mind in between all of the pictures. So when you get these little elements kids crying, it's not even a pictures just audio kids crying. You see cage. You see all these different things the narrative that is built in your mind when you're not Alpha state that is what's being manipulated and it's being done very sometimes not even that ugly, but we are shit added. We don't know how to control our thoughts.
It is so easy to manipulate people in that moment. And that is what I think. We're in a very dangerous place cuz we're not aware of what's Happening. We are literally in a trance when we are on social media and interacting in a social context on our smartphones. So we need to come up with a new version of then, you know, the Zenfone experiment or something so we can help people understand exactly what's going on. It's also great, you know, if we were smart enough we could figure out how to really manipulate people into listening the show, but I think that's the direction. We should go. You're talking about like to use this kind know not a lot of difference between the baby's crying and that value of clip and the old time radio where there was a theater of the mind and you do the same thing. It's not a new phenomenon. I no, no, no, no, no but moment before.
Yeah, they're what's new. He's our remember if it's not entertaining you you're pissed off. So when you're looking at this phone and where's my fucking entertainment? I'm in my in my Alpha State and ready to be entertained. There's a funny meme. Oh entertain what someone saying something? I don't like you get pissed off and this is where the binge culture comes from to John like cereal there's a perfect example. We want to hear a story. We've been trained into listening and believing stories with the same words. You build two different movies in your head.
Well again cereal is a throwback to the 30 sure audio storytelling. It's just modernized but it's the same thing as the theater of the mind. I don't again. I think this is something that we've been doing for a while and people do like stories that it's a known fact among sales folk that you really your best way to selling. Someone has to do it through storytelling our own our own show you come for the deconstruction you stay for the stories. I'm sure.
To me and I'm only pointing this out for the good for the mental health of our own producers are not you know, trying to say I'm not trying to save the world know again. They do have these phones they do watch television and they do go into whatever state Alan office State. Of course, they don't get mad when I'm watching something that's not entertaining. I understand the difference between the radio plays and television which have been going on forever. He's now everyone the stories are rampant. There's many more stories and people this is why I'm still feeling you all these mergers content that people are creating for television. Of course, there's always going to be a demand for that. But the real fun is people looking into these black mirrors, I'll just use it and creating the story and it's it's a modern phenomenon it is it is different than anything we've seen before when
In serialized fashion, actually, I should say and it's not celebrities. It's not going to come from from Hollywood. I don't think long-term. There's not tomorrow but long-term I disagree. Okay, because I think celebrities are designed for this to maximize this and to exploit it more than normal people and I think the celebrities will always be if you just look at the numbers on Instagram you look at the followers for any borderline. I've seen celebrities I get yours if something herbs me, I'm on Twitter. I'm going through. You know, I'm seeing somebody saying something's I check them out and I never heard of this person. I don't know what she or he doesn't usually it's as often as she she's all dolled up in her little photo there and I look over she's got five million followers.
So I look what is she doing? She said since she has something she does, you know, she's the aerobic instructor or something and it's what is just saying. I see every once in a while like I go and check around I see another Nouveau celebrity.
They're celebrities. They're exploiting it. They're doing it on purpose because there are people that could be actual celebrity. I should have been processed as you know, mainstream celebrities Hollywood celebrities the just you're making my point for me. It's the yoga instructor that has not just say yoga, Georgia. She's on YouTube. Yeah, but that's not a Hollywood celebrity.
It's I don't see the difference. Okay, it doesn't matter. I just want to get that out and then I will close out the OTG segment with a native ad about not for us but a native ad that I'm sure ran everywhere across the country sneakers like Google home and morning giant revealing it will soon put Echo smart speakers in thousands of hotel rooms right next to your bed Amazon is partnering with Marriott Weston St. We just hotels which did you don't think that's an odd together have more than 1 million hotel rooms around the world Today show. I might point out. It's called Alexa for Hospitality Alexa.
What can I do around here? Yes. Can I ask the smart speaker to order room service call housekeeping and make restaurant reservations without picking up a car.
Oh those little thing that I'll take notes and they'll be late go-ahead, bitch.
It's like wait a minute. So instead of me dialing 42s room-service. Hello saying I'd like to get a burger with and what can I bring you? I want to tell you where are well done. They ask me questions cuz they want to get it a little right instead. I use the same wordage to Alexa and then leave it up to the what the gods have chance that I get the right burger. What idiot will do that when you can just do it. You still have to say the words. I'd like to order a burger and a glass of wine and some french fries and I need to do some this and that you have to tell it. Like I said, why don't you just tell the cut out the middle man? That's kind. Well, it's an ad, you know, but there's there's more creepy next to it than that. Of course interesting. I get one less complain. I'll housekeeping and make restaurant reservations without picking up the phone kind of shows that we are willing to solving but any idea
What I do, I think it's kind of weird in hotels have somebody listening watching. It could be a little concerning responds to customer worries. Amazon says Hotel Gaskill choose whether they'll share a room with Alexa guess can ask for the go to be taken out of the room. The company also says hotels cannot access your voice recording and no personal information needs to be shared with the echo in order to use it. What should families know take any precautions to protect their privacy. If they want the device to be listening to them. There is a button on it can use, you know, just by with it and then to make sure it's not listening to you the world order and these devices going to follow up for a little over. This is the New World Order and these devices are going to follow us wherever we go. That's right. And there is a spot and honest if they can use, you know, just violence and then to make sure it's not listening to you just as in the world order and these devices are going to follow us wherever we go now.
For on vacation or maybe at the office or the certainly at home you saw at the Bilderberg Group was dead Joe a lot of us have one of these already in our house. Is it kind of keeping a record of all the things we ask for my vehicle? That's right the at those record your commands and questions even in a hotel room, but Amazon is telling us that it will actually delete those at the end of every single day. Even if you're saying multiple life, but we've got Alexa on here, but I want to show you a little bit more of what she can do. We're going to meet the button social start listening here Alexa.
When is the pool open the swimming pool is open from 6 a.m. To 11 p.m. All right, so they have a
all right. Well here I got a story so I decided I'm going to get an Alexis.
So I get it shipped. It comes to the house. I put it up by hook it up and do everything. I need to get it all set up and I say Alexa turn on the lights right now thing happened.
I said Jew Alexa turn on the lights turn on anything good as just bull crap. You can't tell the turn on the lights cuz I can't do it. You need to have all the white gear what into funny man your funny. Anyway, before we go into our shortened break. I did want to tell you that I'm reaching Singularity, bro.
Oh, well then play Grandma's house myself. Okay, both the trip to grandma's house. That ain't going. No. I'm reaching Singularity. Yeah, it involves a chip to Grandma's house. I I forgot to mention on the last show that I went to Costco member we're talking about that. I would go to Costco. Yeah. Yeah Costco you well. You hated Costco to an extreme for you.
The reason because they wouldn't take your money. Yes, and I went to Costco. I had a very enjoyable experience with the crew there and it was mainly enjoy Tina Dancing Through the aisles. She's always wanted to go to Costco. She used to be a big Costco member and I was there for the hearing aids. You need to hearing gate. Yeah. Well, I I didn't know if I did and I went to the everyone that emailed me. I got a couple of years saying do you really need to have a professional audiologist? Look at your ears or check you out which I show provides that obviously but everyone's at Costco is the place to go Costco Hearing Aids are the best of the cheapest is the way to go but when I said, okay, I'd love to make an appointment to see what we don't have one till the end of July actually. Yeah, like 26th of July. It's okay. I'll take whatever you got but you know, I can certainly get an audiologist report from somewhere else.
No, no. No, we don't accept that. So flag number one, which will come back to you later. I despise that you know, so it's like Opticians they always trying to trick you into take the glaucoma test. You don't need that like all you really need that. No, I don't there's no law that says you got to do that. Just give me some I glasses. I really don't like the rip-off but you know not on just for the show but for myself as well, I made an appointment with the Texas hearing center and I went to have my ears tested with the with the audiologist and the way the I've learned a lot about this industry Audiology. Did you talk to the audiologist about this Costco thing where they you know, man that yeah it going well about the industry itself. This audiologist are mainly women and Doctor Amanda I said, you know, why do I see women everywhere who Audiology? So well, it's actually the perfect combination of you know, you're not a medical doctor is like an optician do you do have
To get it certified for it. You take a test. You can diploma to hang on the wall, but it's it's working with people very flexible hours and you make decent money like, okay and a lot of women fit into that category. She says is that interesting I talked about the Costco saying said, yeah, you know, you'll learn a lot about you know, the prices and your people charging $567,000 for newfangled devices totally crap and then we went into the little booth for my test. And you know, I go through the whole thing with the war bulls and can get these conversations and and cetera et cetera. And I'd spoken with the doctor before I said, my main thing is my headphones are super loud that they go to 11. I have an amplifier after the output just to crank it up even more. I have problem hearing I'm always saying what all I was saying. Hey, you know what? Excuse me? Pardon me. Could you say that again? I'm sorry. I didn't hear you and I'm annoyed by myself.
Also now I hate to be in a situation a certain point where I'm like I didn't hear it. But I'll just ignore it and the next thing, you know, you'll be wearing a puffy shirt on some television show the frilly shirt. So it is and it's not uncommon for people who have hearing issues to fall into isolation depression at cetera and she said, oh, let me guess problem hearing female voices and children. I said how my children which female voice? Yeah, my girlfriend am having a hard time hearing her. She bought that's the frequency ranges after so we do the test.
And then you know we sit down after the test. Here's what you do not want to hear your audiologist say that's a tough loss.
I'm like what? Yeah, that's a tough one. What are you talking about? Well, you have a genetic issue.
Oh say genetic issues to look at your chart and I'm looking at it right now. It goes from $250 to eight killer hurts and she says what as fast in it, so it's really a half moon tip from the 250 which is at the healthy level for a man of twenty nice gifts all the way down into the unjust all I mean it's falls down immediately into this curve sounds like a bad microphone curve its the inverse of what of what you'd want. Actually it's it's it's kind of how my EQ settings would be when I'm listening to the radio where you have the highs up a little bit yet boost in the middle all the time. I'm always with a cancer the good sound you create. Yes. Yes. And yes also the high-end a kilohertz perfect twenty-year-olds. I don't know cuz I explained it look when I was in the eighties. I started Andrade.
And I was working for the government station and they had everyone's ears tested that was part of the government regulation for on-air presenters and they said to me bro. You keep this up. Then you're going to be deaf. You're going to promise later on and then here I am and this is why I'm in your office and I fully expect that's what happened. She said no, it's very interesting this something in your genetic disposition that has protected the areas where most people run into trouble the Lowe's in the highest. So if you had exactly the opposite where the Lowe's in the highs are fine, but you're mids everything from I mean right after 300 hurts boom. It goes down the it's $1,500 flat lines than 2,000 is a little up little dip Reitman right in the middle of the spectrum and then 3K it's flatlined again and then starts to go up to the $8,000 and that's where it's perfect. He said and what happened now is in general people's hearing.
Close down with age and the stuff that was already cuz you would expect you normally have kind of a flattish line, you know, all these frequencies register, but because they were already so low to begin with now they have dipped below where you can hear things properly said you haven't basically hearing lows and highs and you're losing the rest of the spectrum and the reason why you have your headphones cranked so loud is because you then get those Lowe's those meds. They they hit a level where you're registering them again. What I enjoyed so much about this is an audiologist is someone who understands sound I can I can talk to you about this. This is great. But this is tough loss because hearing aids are not made for this particular issue. We're going to have to customize. Yeah. Yeah, but now this charging no no, no, no. No, I will have to go to a multi. In fact, I've had a demo unit since I since I did this
You have to go to a multi-channel and and she sets it up. So this has 15 channels. Then these are all frequency ranges. Not only can you you know boost or or decrease each individual Channel. You can also set the compression.
On each frequency compression my middle name Adams see Curry the C stands for compression. So we start tweaking this and I I am blown away. I don't want to take them off when I go to bed. It's like wearing my podcast rig 24 hours a day. It is phenomenal. It's also, you know a guy who is kind of hearing everything for the first time but and of course now I want to go in and tweak everything and you know the whole we have a nap. It's like, oh yeah base made trouble. Thanks. That's not going to help I need to get into the guts of this thing. And I mean it is fantastic, but I need to tweak stuff for instance.
Hi. Loud, at least in my ears. It's like it's like Niagara waterfall. You know, it's just crazy. I hear you know, there's certain tones that just slam out on me, but man.
Even if you don't have a hearing problem the idea that you can customize your this is where the singularity comment comes from. You can customize it is is an experience that I hope everyone. I don't want I don't wish you hearing loss but to be able to tweak this not so then I go looking around and like I need a program so I have the the ones that hook over your ear. They're quite small. Actually the widex is the the ones that I'm testing out widex. So there's a little unit goes behind the ear and then there's a wire and then the actual speaker unit is in your ear canal and it's virtually invisible, especially the way my hair is over the it's just the top of the year so you don't see it.
But I want to be able to customize it and of course that software then you have to have an induction Loop when there's all kinds of crazy ways to do it that is only for audiologist. So I'm looking around I'm experimenting by the way. They also have Bluetooth. So if you play something this Bluetooth connected and the iPhone, which I don't want to carry around has a whole hearing aids section. And so, you know, if your iPhone was in isn't Within Reach and you press play all of a sudden You Hear What I Hear The Sound deep embedded in your ear you never put headphones on your earphones on and get you can still hear the the room sound. It's very bizarre effect like a looking for how to program these things and these these devices
They don't cost more than $20 to make Ali Baba is filled with them 3048 channels all kind. I mean crazy, of course, you have to order 10,000 of them, but they're looking at three to five dollars a huge order numbers. This is a scam of Epic Proportions. She's looking at a $2,800 for it, you know, which is much cheaper than multi channels. I've seen but then I look at Costco. They've got Forty-Eight channels for $1,700, but they making super Bank on this and I think it's just fascinating how you know, the DSP is now I've been putting your ears and you can really I mean you can control each microphone individually has a little mini mini Ray on it. And so you could be sitting in a restaurant you could I just want to tune into what's happening. I want bionic hearing is what I want and I can tell you it is fantastic. I should have done this much much earlier.
And I am I am damaged though. I'm a damaged individual. I should start a patreon because I have a genetic disposition.
Not that I think that the idea of getting of just laymen not too bad hearing what you suggest which is getting you set of these putting in your ear cuz this the kids love this. So I remember when I was a kid, they used to have shotgun mics and big they're the ones that use on the sports channels where you have the football games as a game of this big huge warranty with the mic in the middle and they can hear the quarterback, you know grunting and
But the idea of having these things in a restaurant and you are like a spook. I bet you they use these things and your and you got a conversation to two tables down and you want to just tune into that you tune in soon everything else out. You could probably do it. And now the last night
It's like we turn the TV up just a little bit. I mean, why did we go from one end of the spectrum to the other people like it's really loud Adam. Could you turn the TV down just a little bit, you know release is banging on the walls like it's too loud and now they can't hear then I'm sitting at just perfect I hear perfectly, please. Can we turn it up just a little bit. It's it's really a phenomenal experience. So how long has it been having these things in your year? I went Tuesday.
And yeah, I've forgotten that they're on and you know has a cool little voice. If you if you long press the button behind you ehre goes party mode, which is my favorite, you know party mode. It has music mode little little Google a woman talking to you can also configure different voice but it's all it's all one ship. It's all based on one ship or you know, there was different versions of the Chip And that's just miniaturisation specific ship but we talkin about you maybe it's an investment opportunity, you know, DSP chips are a dime-a-dozen. There's so many of them. I when I was doing the podcaster pro I learned all about this stuff. I know how to program them to and you can basically program them with Arduino code, but you got to have the interfaces and all that stuff and I've only just started researching but I'd love to be able to find something that is not thousands of dollars that gives me complete control over especially the compression in each individual channel is just it's fascinating.
Okay. Well, that's the end of our show today. Imagine. Yeah, we have no donors. Oh, no, we do have some donors actually our top donors Alexandra Tristan and sincere in Seattle under $41.42. Then we have our buddy sir Donald Borowski in Spokane Valley 138 38th. And you need of course as a member of the United Federation of planets, or at least you must think so says, he has letterhead and you write the note. Here's my belated double vote for the show to continue May the sanity continue cheers and beers for Donald of the Fireballs bearing of Spokane Valley, WA 600 Mi 7373.
Dimitri's Dimitri's service Drive in North Attleboro, Massachusetts 13333
Jamie Scott, yes. He says kind of night get some just send your cash, for our Ico and jobs jobs jobs, for a friend. Yeah, we'll put that at the end for sure.
Jamie Scott and Plano, Texas a hundred $11.11 Brian wife sells 140 know Jingles Julie Gregory in Albany, New York 999. She sent a note in and it's right here. She can tell.
Because the glasses I dropped on the floor. All right, she she's got a card I believe.
Yes, I give you money. I have a request years ago. You are two very funny vocal fry jingle. Please play it for me. Also. She needs a d do she do you do sing? I don't remember that. Let me see vocal fry. I don't remember jingle. Oh, well. Yes, maybe was this one in the morning. This is Sir Jeff Smith saying for say no to vocal fry, you know in the morning and another one in the morning. This is Sir Jeff Smith. Okay, that's without the music and we have the podcast warning.
We got we have a lot of description is it I have never heard that we do we have the best producers. I don't remember that logo. Okay, I think we've succeeded in must have covered them all pretty much Frank Pew in Tallahassee, Florida. $75 guys thing Jonathan Richman and Maplewood message our Missouri. 7333. 73730 Echo zero India hotel Tango.
He is K. Like I said just did that. You know, it's trying to break G80. Okay, Chris Engler 7306. He's got a birthday. I should be on the birthday and Allen cavedo the third in Midlothian, Virginia 6789.
Shoot, I think it's kutemeier. It's like print out a set of kutemeier 5973 in Elk Grove Village. He actually sent something in if you were Dutch, that's pretty funny name.
K u t e m e i e r n e hard to explain its vile nevermind violated. Also a member of the it sounds like c word horror.
Okay. Got it. He's not a member of the Starfleet but he did sit a letterhead which I think means we have to read it from the Holiday Inn Rolling Meadows prom and burn area. Boom. Chicago's ultimate holodome. But is that me? I don't know. It sounds good visit. Thanks for the great podcast just started listening just started listening went back to October 2016 podcast for great infotainment. I need a d douching got some request. You can take her leave later in the show missile. Launch m a t and a little girl. Yay. 7373 another it was called.
Cal I think it's cute am I okay? So this will sound the fact yeah little girly a okay and m a t which I don't know if we have one of course we have you want him. Maybe I'll give you any hearing for a man. Hold on 1 Sale. We're at my Dean Roker 5510 double nickels on the dime from the Great Britain sir, Aubrey of the Lower Arkansas and Texarkana, Arkansas. That one that goes on the dime Janetta Jansen in st. Cloud, Minnesota. 5220 Chris Sundberg in Mercer Island, Washington. There's a nice on the night when he did he's a new night agendas all the documentation and approve it and he said the long typewritten note and I just worked comes to $1,030. I thought it was worth reading some of it.
This is Area 51 + $0.38 donation completes my path and I heard which is not a joke a destination earliest stop on RV for the journey blockchain accounting for Knighthood enclosed njnk. No need for a d douching. I've been grateful and faithful supporter of the V4 V Model. E for Value every month since being hit in the mouth after seeing Adam on RT Keiser report. How cool I'm about that. It did work. It worked. Thank you very much Chris. That's cool. I look forward to the ceremony coming right up to say that my stumbling onto No, Agenda has been a blessing would be an understatement.
Yorkie no-nonsense approach to understanding would probably what is popularly to call the news has been a tonic for my mental health. I no longer give a rip what goes on the M5 in collusion or not know to douchebags donate now as we need to build a war chest to cover the attic cause when Adam and John are doing the show from Assisted Living, what do you mean when?
As a helicopter pilot, I'd like to be known as Sir Chris night of the vortex ring beautiful. Not that you ever want to be in that but yes good one.
Vortex ring also known as he could have been settling with power but he wants Vortex ring. That's good.
So that's Chris sure VM the baronet of the valley in Van Nuys, California came in with a
50-38 and he says his dad was cool. He didn't get to wish him a happy Father's Day. So DH Slammer 5038, Donald Ripple. We have Dame Bang Bang on the list, Idaho.
Game bang bang list for what? Oh, yes. He's on this birthday list. Yeah, we got it.
Which is I don't know if there's all this details on there. So you just say it. Oh, all I have is happy birthday to baroness his name Bang Bang from sturdy Slammers for Andrew lady Simona and master and I will do that again the birthdays in the minute Donald Ripple in Dresden, Ohio. 5038 Andrew binns in Imperial, Missouri 5005 Scott Lavender in Montgomery, Texas $50. These are $50 donors name and location for the few. There are.
download Daniel a boy and Bath, Michigan Valerie Steve, excuse me steensland.
Ryan Alexander diamond in Abbotsford BC other brother Norman, Oklahoma Andrew gusic in Greensboro, North Carolina, George Bush Bush a whoosh, whoosh wash it, I guess Universal City, Texas and last Thomas Dillon in Lavergne, California. He's got a Happy Father's Day up there for we do have a happy Father's Day call from Brian Cruz Happy Father's Day to our borderline father of the year Tom Cruise for now. It's like the act on cruise pronounced like the actor from Ryan Angeles and Aubrey.
I also another Father's Day call that first from other brother wishing you both us to a happy birthday and Happy Father's Day and people to great work. She doing I depend on it. Okay, that should do it.
That's it. And remember, no, but I have an acoustic. Yeah.
If I don't have an Andrew, who's all right, Andrew Greensboro North Carolina and $50. I have Georgette. Oh, no, I ran these guys. Oh, I'm sorry. I was packed up my mistake. I was doing the birthdays getting everything ready. Someone has arrived. I got Dylan I got to wish it and I was driving the train. I'm sorry answer happens and I'm sorry about these donations. Are we doing something wrong as my question to you quick meeting? Oh quick meeting. Well, let's have this have to ask people.
We happy with. Oh, really? I don't I do not no, no. No because it's really you want to make my email box now horrible. I don't want that and McCreary. Com. I think we do it people asked us to do.
Well, I think so too, but apparently they don't maybe it's the I know it could be off the grid.
They hate it. They hate Off the Grid so much even though it's useful information. They're so clinging to their devices like a like the Charlton Heston was clinging to his guns. So they're conflicted.
I may be and they can't and they cleaned so hard if they go to write a check say their hand is like can't be done can't type it. So as usual, it's my fault is yes. Okay so early because of that stupid Nokia phone. It's okay. Well stop the Off the Grid the segments he right now you keep it going. I think it's a bit important that people just have to go they just have to listen to it and especially the responses you get for the Millennials. That's what you count filming the show, bro.
If the shows going down is going down off the grid. Well, we do have other things to do but not many.
All right meetups No Agenda Toronto meet up just before the Jordan B Peterson event in Toronto. Five, July 19th at Biff's Bistro right across from St. Century. Hey, the No Agenda show we should listen to at least once. Yeah, Jordan Peterson thing. I always listen to the new agenda show.
And having to deal with the British accent to that'll be very funny. We also I believe this may be one of the first I could be wrong. We have an Israel meet up planned very good. I'm happy you guys are taking the loss connections advice and getting to Ryan. I'm sorry charge you that Brian Yasser Brian of London Tuesday the 26th of June that's coming up 6 p.m. At and this is one of my fave whenever whenever I'm in Tel Aviv, I go to the dancing camel that damn camel. It says that Mossad headquarters just strip club. I don't know the dancing camel in Tel Aviv, Tuesday, June 26th 6 p.m. Free Speech event.
And he says he will be talkin as so Brian will be talking about Tommy Robinson, but he says it'll be worth of knowing it. So I guess he's already there talking about Tommy Robinson and he wants people to come to he's promoting his event now I get it mean if it's good if he can do that too. Yeah, but he's he's promoting his free speech of it. That's okay. He will time here. It's Tommy Robbie. We don't cover it much in the show because there's been blacked out. Well, it's something very fishy about it. Yeah, there's a lot of fishing is but actually sir Brian of London does regular YouTube updates about Tommy Robinson. He's got a lot of inside scoop is very interesting. You can follow I would defer to the night from Israel.
The night finality for that that's right another show. We hope coming up on Sunday. And I know a lot of people want to send blankets or water gets into Cash.
Jobs jobs and job, that's both for God. You suck, No glory belated birthday today and bang bang. And of course we do as well in bang bang and everybody.
We have one night in you wanted to say something. Yeah, I was thinking about this. What why was the donations often and probably not the old day. I know what it is. Okay, what's changed? It's not the OTG. I've been doing that forever.
It's either my recorder playing which I have not done recently.
Or just a number of sound effects and noises that we make during the show is it's not as much we don't do hear the in the morning is often to do what once did. Oh, that's an interesting point. Then we do need to do more play some recorder. Okay. Let me look. This will fix. Here we go.
Okay. Well, that's a good cast like a blues hit. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we'll see how that it does and donations for Sunday genius again to go way up the Bruins and musical stylings of John C Dvorak. Yes, the troll room says some of them are saying they're uncontrollably donating at the moment paying off in Spades. All right, grab your grab your blade man. We got to get Chris taken care of in in the house and
I'm very proud to pronounce the cage you Chris Knight. May you never be in the vortex ring State? Welcome to the round table for you. My friend. We have hookers and blow we got rent boys. Go to No, Agenda nation.com strings and I can show we'll hook you up for sure and thank you very much for your courage and supporting us in our value for Value model Tailwind.
Now here's another thing for the social justice Warriors want to get these clips out of the way.
Okay, both the trip Grandma's house. I need to look into locating a porta potty or a part of our house for the shower and the bass. I can't really do anything unless I have a main water line since I have a septic service and all of that but like I said, I can't get that do a long waiting list getting connected to the main water line could take up to 15 years and it will cost more than $12,000. Although the sending Works full-time piped-in water is a luxury she cannot afford for a long time. We told those people just wait infrastructure will catch up with you. Well infrastructures not coming.
Where was this? Well, that's the question what third world country while we're all concerned about babies being taken away from their mothers what third world country is this taking place in? Oh, that's easy, New Jersey.
we'll play the rest of it when the backhoe is active needs to have a hard hat on if you can include in the Navajo Nation wasn't quite New Jersey, but
Now who cares who cares you don't care about that. There's no votes there. Yeah, there's no votes there already know folks. It's nothing extra. No Benny's gives a crap.
Oh, you know I saw this that had landed I saw that it was like I would clickbait headline about a total claim. I've never yeah quickly and I never clickbaited. I was often I was still researching something and I forgot all about it until now you mentioned. All right. I'll click click bacon. I'm going to pay it off right here. This is Meghan Markle Markle. Our conversation was I was complaining. I didn't like Donald Trump. He said give Donald Trump a chance. I sort of disagreed with that but I still like Harry is going to have that was his politics. I have my policy sounds like a rift in the family. And of course that is spun by dementia as the trucks parties in my God.
Here's the Trump report. The only one I have isn't that big done this Trump this Trump guy. We talk about them too much. Here's the Trump, California Hungary report.
And in the days other news the Trump Administration or federal judge in Sacramento to block three California law the protect undocumented immigrants and one other things the laws were bar police from giving out information on people in jail and ban immigration officials from entering work sites without a warrant. The immigration issue is roiling the European Union as well. And today hungry intensified his Crackdown. Well makers there to say what they call alien population cannot be settled in hunting is everything is it that's great get to Clooney Clips ready? Cuz I'd like to know as as we talked about this water needs navajos need water. There's all these issues going on in the country. No, one of these social justice Warriors care much about they'd rather be harassing that poor Christian woman. The restaurant
And what about Clooney? Yeah, really? Yeah, once you got married it was all over with him. It was just done. Well, how about this one drunk drunk or not? Here's the way let's play the South Sudan. Oh, oh you have a sound clip. I'm sorry. I didn't realize you have it's a Civil War in Sudan has created Africa's Refugee crisis and a quarter Century the president and the leader of the opposition met for the first time in nearly two years the talks to place in nearby Ethiopia an international efforts to negotiate in Into The Five-Year conflict.
I just found that to be distressing not even to mention that Yemen's stuff. Yeah. Well, let's see. I had something here's my European clip for today.
Juncker, Jean-Claude juncker junker, the drunker was the drunk or not drunk. Yeah. I'm not going to do the jingle cuz he's drunk but he goes to Irish Parliament government. I guess it's Parliament and he has some speech. I'm sure some Zero vs and he's drunk, but he plays it off as if he's not drunk best ever.
Mister speaker. Can you see he kind of wobbled onto the stage, you know, they had to get up on the podium. And so it was like kind of wobbling a little bit cuz you drunk.
I have sciatica. I'm not drunk. I would prefer to be drunk. Perfect. Cuz he would he was he was he likes to be drunk. It's just the way he is. Yeah, that's okay. As long as you don't run you crazy drunk or just don't try to run anything--but. Okay you doing that and the national academies are all on board with you John National academies. What are the National academies are they? They're a big deal, aren't they? Are they government National academies? Yes. Yeah. They're a big dealer the National Academy. So what are they who runs them? What is the National Academy? They run by Boards of directors? Okay, the government thing.
I don't know. I'm going to make me look it up. Oh, I'm sorry. Well, okay. I need to I should know that you're right. It's just you're making me it was like a moron and I'm going to I'm not making you look like a moron your your flute playing doing a fine job on your own mess it up. I'm sorry while you're looking that up. This is a report. It's their own video from the national academies hashtag science to the country. We have woken up to the ways women's lives are impacted by sexual harassment. The time has come to focus on academic institutions, especially in male-dominated field, like science engineering and Medicine together. We can do better by creating a climate that discourages all forms of sexual harassment including sexual coercion.
research shows that we must do more than attend occasional training sessions and review vague policies and procedures here is what we need to do once in a great values into the system policies and procedures must embody the institutional values of diversity inclusion respect especially for hiring promotion and tenure decision making to change the power dynamics with funding research focus and professional reputation wrapped up in a single advisor training relationship. The potential for abuse is too high institutions need to defuse these dependencies by encouraging advisor networks and provide independent Monday. So students and trainees have options three supportive sexual harassment many women don't report sexual harassment because they fear it will hurt them in their careers and it does institutions must do more towards Target by providing alternative ways can access
Food Services recorded information about an incident without fear of retaliation
for improved transparency and accountability while still respecting people's privacy institutions need to make their communities where the consequences sexual harassers will face and demonstrate that the institution investigates incidents and holds people accountable now is the time for institutions to take action. We can prevent sexual harassment.
Hang up Adam. He's and the National Academy of Science in particular is the first one was established in 1863 by an act of Congress signed by President Lincoln as a private non governmental institution to advise the nation on issues related to science and technology members are elected by their peers or outstanding contributions to research Marcia McNutt who I believe is a Democrat is the president and then the other National Academy of Engineering in Nashville can be medicine all together. They formed the national academies. Oh, okay dealing with her. Well, they had in Geo. That's a government-approved ngoi like a propaganda operator going after science science and
akademiks
it was just going after them. Well going after the men. Oh, oh, yeah, they're going after the million either going on here. Yeah, especially war on men war on man. I'm looking at engineering and medicine. I thought it was going to be stem, you know science engineering. That's not a good one. How about science engineering medicine electronics and networking. That would be a better acronym but I don't know. Who am I I have two more clips.
Well, let's see what we got. I got a lot of Clips. Also, I should mention two things one European Parliament has approved to go to vote on the copyright bill. So that's moving forward where everything has to be pre filtered. You can't use anything that you know, there's a a link tax for news organizations and they had like good one. These people are so dumb. They are out of control is completely unenforceable and stupid and it's just dumb and it looks like hag struck again.
Be Hillary assassination group. Who would they kill FBI agent David Rainer in a apparent murder-suicide my favorite upon arrival police found David Rainer with multiple stab wounds and the parents self-inflicted gunshot wound on a Fisher was found with the parents stab wounds. Both were pronounced dead at the scene. That is an obvious murder-suicide to do is Clinton. Oh because you didn't let me finish to it. He was expected to testify about Hillary Clinton's dealings in the Obama Administration helping to cover up the Fast and Furious scandal.
So just before you testifies now, I don't have one hundred percent verifiable proof that's people like to write that guy in Haiti about the testify about the children being abused by the clintons died suicide, but I don't know but regardless an FBI agent in that type of violent murder suicide is noteworthy and we haven't seen much about it. You know, of course not if anything Mandalay Bay
The hotel where Stephen Paddock was the shooter the Vegas Massacre.
Water main burst in thousands of gallons of water rushing through the ceiling into the lobby. Yeah, sounds good way to cover up some evidence. If something if there was anything that needed covering up. Yeah, that would do it definitely an issue and I had a question. I don't really have World Cup fever because it's just too much stuff going on and grilled chap fever is the UK still in
I think they I think they are. I think they want some match. It weren't expected to win.
I'm looking at the trail room if they're still in because from a geopolitical standpoint, it would be very interesting to have a brexit final.
Right. Yeah, so we could have her onto the UK now. I was thinking initially UK rush you but that's just ridiculous. It's not that's not brexit. No, it's not it's not but that's what I schedule get kicked out. It will be you could well Germany's not eliminate. Yeah, so it could be UK Germany UK fans. I mean England Germany. Are you kidding me that I would have the fever for that. That would be the quintessential brexit match. Yeah, and you know, who'd win Germany, of course, of course, of course, we know how well they're much softer not to be a force to be reckoned with but still that would be beautiful. I would if I was programming this thing and someone is
I got one more clip that I can play. I got a couple of Clips, but I can be moved but I do want to play this one. I can have to let's play the two clips. I got mine, which is the electrification of Norway's very interesting clip is like it's like they're really thinking that we can have passenger flights passenger plane holding tank of your battery operated fantastic taking to the skies Avenue do they report on this one the battery power plane that just crashed and killed his two occupants know. Oh gee course of the nation's to tackle climate change and air pollution environment and exposure Harvin has been to Norway to find out more.
The worst thing, you know, I can't you do for the climate pull those CO2 emissions he's decent on sail away the pollution-free playing Howard. My battery's getting cigarette explains it coming as technology improves with living jewels.
I used to have all these shows on flights battery powered by 2014.
No weight bearing electric too is part of the battle against climate change. This battery powered boat is faster than a normal sex with two big advantages know exhausts. No, no noise isn't hitting below decks.
In the future all No Way series will look like this.
New Razor subsidizing electric cars cheaper to buy to run and to maintain and good for environment.
Unconventional cars will be sold in the country After Twenty twenty-five. That's way too that's in the 2043 proposed by countries like France and the UK.
Forcible new regions environmental same and when they fly long hold for the time and they're rich from oil and gas.
Believe no way setting on electric transport. He's creating a real bus. Haven't seen you. I don't know if it's really that interesting and they're they're a couple things, you know, you probably better to watch it couple of things this woman. She just want to let you crush. They're cheaper to buy to run into maintain, but just the Sentinel senses before that said that there was subsidized by the government recording them for free.
The whole thing is a scam, you know? Okay. Well this this is this is interesting. This is the drinking in cancer clip and then I'm done.
How what my ears are shot. My eyes are shot going to get cancer.
You drink barely barely barely. You don't have the collections of the drink and I don't have it's true if whenever I collect stuff and I drink it all. All right, you're confused. I have a kind of funny Obama Obama Cliff or a Tucker Carlson being a douchebag or someone was saying interesting clip.
I was just goes to Obama. Okay, this is from Discovery. It's a podcast which is always our favorite and discard who owns Discovery. I remember the well back they were buying up a lot of stuff. They bought a brand new, J as in trade in stock. So it's not as far as public company. Yeah, unless you're with somebody else so it could be possible to wait a minute. Oh, yes. I remember now and Discovery they have a big they do a lot of reports and stuff for the government. It's not pertinent to this clip, but they have a podcast. I think they bought a podcast, do they by what's his face is podcast company. I have no idea and Discovery or so and bought it.
This is the podcast Discovery Science and there was an interesting experiment that was done. And for this to be Discovery was what made it that much funnier to me with sheep and President Obama just a couple of months ago results were announced from a facial recognition study. Involving Barak Obama good evening everybody and some sheet. By the way. I didn't have that. They that's the way the podcast is put together, which I'm assuming you didn't sweeten it snappy though. I like I need a couple of months ago results were announced from a facial recognition study involving Barak Obama leaving everybody and some sheet and this is the nearest neuroscientists Francisco from the University of Cambridge. What about received would be called in and it would then enter a car door that leads to two screens and on those two screens two pictures would be coming up. So for example, Barrack Obama
Oh look great. This is a completely unfamiliar and repeated face and the she would have to make a decision whether to go to the left screen door to the right screen the sheet made that choice by touching screen with their nose. And if they tell you the celebrities such as Barack Obama the clever she would be rewarded with a tasty treat. Yes, we can at the time when we were designing the study's about I was always in the news and we really liked them and we really hope that our she would be clever enough to take him and they were yeah they were so we were very pleased with them quick where the seat to recognize Barack Obama against this someone else they were really quick actually so they landed within four days of training. He's come as a bit of a surprise. Did you expect it to be this good to that? Yes, we were definitely surprised that they would pick it up that quickly although this.
Great, the sheet that we used is it highly trained group of sheep, and we've done quite a lot of coffee to test with them already. So we actually knew that they are really smart and they're really Keen to learn new things and honestly speaking they're really greedy and they just want to get the food and that's why I think the responding in such large numbers. Hold on a minute highly trained like sheep ninjas. Yes, like sheep ninjas known. Oh my gods knowing me now. I just thought I thought it was interesting that the Sheep would go to Obama. It. Just there was something poetic about it.
Well, she can't do facial recognition like most animals. Of course, they can and the ones that are really annoying are the Crow's you U-turn you you get a price on our animals are very few it on the bad side of a crow a crow, you know, like a crow. You don't like in the backyard some crows hanging around and they tell all their buddies and then the next thing you know, all the crows hate you for Sunday show. I'm going to move it. Once again. We do have the edutainment feedback more of the Google taking over schools. And there's a lot of stuff left over from today and who knows what will happen. It's it's a crazy time just make sure that if you're an alpha State try to drive to be aware of what you're doing is play the jingle. Hold on a second.
She's not that ugly poodle. Well, he's pissed was just called fire station and they want to do it. That way. I got to go. I catch a plane got it. Go got to go. Got to go.
An exception today, I'm playing one makes those not from one of our own Gregory Brothers. I put their their mix in the show notes that good but it could have been a No Agenda producer who did it. So thank you for that and April Kirby as well and Wilson, we return on Sunday with another Edition another episode of the best podcast in the universe just build the pictures in between each show. You'll be fine here to give you helpful tips life saving tips for your sanity. And I'm coming to you from downtown Austin, Texas Capitol the Drone star state in the five by 9000 in the common law condo in the morning everybody. I'm Adam Curry and from northern Silicon Valley where I've found my thoren's turntable. I'm John C Dvorak until Sunday. Remember I said dvorak.org/na until then audio smoke. I need a cab.